Why wasn't I the one who got the male lead's script?

There's no doubt that the Futaba Line is leading, so the Futaba Line starts today? (?ω?)?

[Futaba Line] Destiny: Chapter 1: Reappearance of the Past (Part 2)

"...That was originally Ishikawa and the others' duty."

A familiar voice came from the other side of the door. Xingjian once again confirmed that he was sitting on the other side of the wall as he was a few years ago.

"But Ishikawa and the others have asked you to do it, so it's okay for you to do it for them~"

There seemed to be a hint of dangerous and subtle ridicule in Matsumoto's nonchalant tone, but it was a pity that Xingjian didn't notice this at the time.

"...That's what you promised me."

"We're on speaking terms. If I agree, doesn't that mean you agree too?"

"—This conversation is so familiar it's almost etched into my brain."

Although he was not a participant in the conversation, Xingjian, who was sitting outside the classroom and listening carefully to everything, still clenched his fists lightly.

Memories of the past came flooding back to him. He wanted to get rid of the bad emotions from his brain, but it seemed that the discomfort could not be dispelled for the time being.

Ultimately, it's bullying.

I had more or less no idea about this before, but now Xingmi already understands the nature of Matsumoto's behavior.

"Look at you, you're always sullen and unhappy, and you don't seem to have much of a presence. How can anyone like you? I'm trying to get everyone to know you. Maybe I can even introduce you to a girlfriend in the future."

"........."

It goes without saying that my younger self on the other side of the wall must also be clenching his fists.

Because Xingjian remembered clearly, today——

That was the day he ignored their past friendship and beat Matsumoto severely.

"But Xingjian, you're so ordinary and introverted, not many girls would be interested in you. Don't blame me for being harsh, this is the truth. Speaking of which, there's a girl in the next class with big breasts. Although she looks gloomy, her figure is really top-notch... I didn't succeed in pursuing her last time, and then I tried to be a little more assertive, but she still didn't accept me. She really has no taste. I guess next time I have to try to get a few people to block her in the alley, and then I'll pretend to be a righteous partner and rush to the scene to save her -"

"Are you done yet, Sabi?!"

Boom——

Boom! ! !

"puff--?!"

From the classroom came the dull sounds of tables and chairs being pushed over and bodies colliding.

"You—how dare you do that?!"

Then, the sound of clothes rubbing violently on the ground and the sound of two people struggling became more and more intense, and it was particularly harsh in this empty teaching building where there were not many students left.

Just at this moment, a group of people appeared across the corridor. They seemed to have heard the scuffle in the classroom and rushed over quickly. Xingjian also hid back in the corner before they discovered him, watching the situation develop.

"Hey! What are you two doing?"

"stop fighting!"

"Why are you touching Matsumoto—"

Although those were things I had experienced, but now as an observer, if I were to observe the development of the situation from another perspective——

"........."

There is always an illusion that I am just an outsider who has nothing to do with it.

Xingjian straightened up slightly and stuck his head out to take a look at the situation in the classroom.

"... Turns out I was pretty good at fighting back then."

I remembered.

After Hoshimi and Matsumoto had a physical conflict, members of Matsumoto's club, who were also classmates, rushed to the scene and started to mediate.

Then Xingjian knocked out the front teeth of three people while being beaten even more badly, and even kicked one person into the hospital.

Even a rabbit will bite when it is cornered, but Xingjian now thinks about it carefully and realizes that his fighting ability is not that low.

"Could it be that I'm actually surprisingly physically fit... huh?"

While he was trying to hide his whereabouts, leaning against the window and staring at the people playing together in the classroom, and secretly sighing in his heart, "I guess the security guard will be here in a few minutes" -

Xingjian's eyes inadvertently glanced at a figure that appeared at the door at some point.

Then, his gaze suddenly froze.

She was a girl with grey curly hair, a high ponytail, and glasses. She looked a little childish, but her beauty and elegance could be seen at a glance.

For some reason, the junior high school uniform, which was looser than that of her peers, could not hide her proud figure. If it were not for her face still looking a little childish, many people would probably think that she was a high school or college student who came back to visit her alma mater in a junior high school uniform.

But for Xingjian, it was a completely different feeling.

He could say that face was very familiar to him.

——It was obvious that she was his best friend, Futaba Rio.

But it is also obvious that the current Futaba Rio is somewhat different from the Futaba that he has always known.

She was less composed and more childishly bewildered. She was less relaxed and inattentive to anything other than her studies, and more energetic and spirited than a middle school girl.

In other words.

"...Is this the old Futaba?"

That's not right. Did he and Futaba go to the same junior high school? Why didn't he know about it at all, and why didn't Futaba ever mention it?

Even though many difficult questions suddenly flooded into his mind, Xingjian subconsciously hid his body behind the wall and escaped from the sight of the gray-haired girl who was standing at the door before she could notice his presence.

She seemed to have accidentally come across a group of people fighting each other in the classroom (mainly Xingjian being beaten and fighting one-on-one), and she took a step or two back in panic.

Even hiding in the corner, Xingjian could accurately capture the shock and——

Guilt… ?

She only stayed there for a few dozen seconds before fleeing in panic, as if she would feel extremely uncomfortable if she stayed there for another second.

Then, the security guard rushed over after hearing the news - or perhaps he was called by the gray-haired girl who had just left in a hurry. In any case, he was able to stop the fight from escalating in time.

In a hidden corner, Hoshimi was looking at the middle school boy with many scars on his face but still stubbornly standing up on his own, wondering why the past Futaba appeared here.

Furthermore, her expression didn't look like the expression of a girl who just happened to encounter a fight.

Is it possible...

Xingjian frowned after sorting out the whole story again. He found related clues between the conversation and past memories, and came up with a guess that was somewhat unbelievable to him.

Futaba...is the girl mentioned in the conversation just now.

[Futaba Line] Destiny: Chapter 1: Reappearance of the Past (Part 3)

In order to confirm whether his guess was correct, Xingjian came to a time point a few days later than this time and space - he remembered that it was after the fight happened in the school, and he, Matsumoto and several other students who participated in the fight were persuaded to go home and rest.

He fiddled with his hairstyle a little, put on plain glasses and a mask, and waited for Futaba to appear at the school gate at the end of school.

——Of course, it’s Futaba who is a junior high school student.

For some reason, the gray-haired girl with a ponytail, who had deliberately dressed herself in a rather rustic manner, looked a little depressed. She walked out of the school gate alone, carrying her schoolbag, without saying a word.

"...?"

The moment she raised her head, she noticed someone leaning against the wall by the roadside who seemed to be waiting for her.

He was a teenager wearing a loose sweatshirt and had slightly messy short black hair.

This person, who is taller than me, wears a suspicious mask and glasses, and seems to be staring at me with strange eyes, looks to be a high school student, right?

"...Stalker?"

The girl immediately thought of this word, and her already melancholy expression became even uglier.

Just when she felt something was wrong and wanted to leave quickly, the black-haired boy in front of her seemed to see through her thoughts and quickly waved his hand to show that he had no ill intentions.

"Um—your name is Futaba Rio...right?"

"........."

The doubt and worry in the gray-haired girl's eyes deepened - if the guy from years ago was really a stalker, wouldn't it be terrible if he even knew her name?

"Wait, don't look at me like that. I'm really not a suspicious person—you know that classmate from the next class named Xing Jianqing."

Hoshimi quickly denied the possibility that she had any ill intentions, and then tried to convince Futaba with the words she had rehearsed before.

"Ahem...that's it."

He pulled down the frame of his glasses slightly, revealing his eyes that were looking directly at the gray-haired girl.

"I'm actually his family member. That guy seemed to have caused some trouble at school. It seems that someone had an argument with his friends... and then a fight broke out."

"what……"

Junior high school student Futaba was slightly stunned when she saw the strangely familiar eyes of the person in front of her.

Indeed, the eyes look very similar to those of the classmate in the next class named Xingjian.

"I'm here to clean up his mess. After all, a fight in the classroom is a pretty big deal... not to mention turning against your best friend."

The boy put on his glasses again and looked up at the sky as if confused, but in fact his eyes were always on Futaba.

The girl who was avoiding the gaze seemed particularly uncomfortable. Not to mention her conflicted look of wanting to say something but hesitating, the knuckles of her hands holding the schoolbag were slightly white.

Xing Jian, who saw all this, raised his eyebrows and spoke his prepared lines without changing his expression.

"...That guy is really out of character. He doesn't normally seem like someone who would get into trouble like this, but now he's making such a big fuss... If he keeps this up, he's going to end up in trouble."

"What will happen to that classmate named Xingjian?"

The gray-haired girl lowered her head slightly and put her hands holding the schoolbag behind her back. Although she seemed to want to pretend to be calm in front of this unknown person, her slightly evasive eyes and tentative yet worried tone still betrayed her.

"Maybe they'll deal with it according to school rules. After all, this kind of thing has serious consequences for the school's reputation and discipline. Even expulsion isn't out of the question."

"But he—well…"

Hearing this, Futaba seemed to be really anxious. She was already hesitant to speak, and now she looked even more anxious. Her face, which still had a little childish baby fat, was filled with subtle sadness.

Xingjian saw it.

It was a complex emotion intertwined with guilt and self-blame.

"That person would fight with his friends... obviously because..."

The gray-haired girl lowered her head somewhat unnaturally, as if she knew something, but was hesitant about whether she could say it out loud - and what the consequences would be if she did.

"...Futaba-san, if you're not comfortable talking, please excuse me and let me talk. You can choose the location."

Noticing that the girl in front of him was wavering between belief and doubt, and at the same time seemed to know something hidden - Xingjian, who had already received the reaction he expected, raised his head and put away the somewhat deliberate worry he had just shown.

He also didn't expect that he had known Futaba before - even if it was only a one-sided acquaintance.

It seems that there are indeed many origins in this that he himself is not aware of.

----

Futaba chose a park near the school as the location for the conversation. Although it was relatively empty, it was not sparsely populated. Occasionally, pairs of students would pass by. It seemed that Miss Futaba was still quite wary of strangers she had only met once.

"........."

Xingjian came here behind the gray curly-haired junior high school girl and stood three meters away from her, leaning against the wall. The latter was a little stiff, holding her schoolbag in both hands, trying to avoid looking at her.

"Come to think of it, was Futaba like this a few years ago?"

The girl seemed to have been able to fit into her uniform a size too large, making her skirt and sweater look particularly baggy—though anyone with a discerning eye could tell she actually had a nice figure. Her slightly rounded face actually hinted at a certain beauty, but her slightly introverted, even socially anxious demeanor overshadowed these qualities, leaving others with the impression of a rather reserved and shy girl.

Come to think of it, it seems that Futaba has never told me about her past.

As if trying to deliberately avoid talking about this topic, Futaba, who has always been knowledgeable about Hoshimi but never tells her anything, has basically never mentioned her past.

However, Xingjian could vaguely guess something from her disgust towards her former self.

At the very least, Futaba might be like herself, and have developed a certain disgust towards herself because of some experiences in the past.

The similarities between this shy and reserved girl in front of him and the funny and sharp-tongued Futaba he knew well—

It should exist.

After all, even the Futaba that Hoshimi is familiar with is not always strong and calm.

"……actually."

While he was lost in thought, the girl in front of him seemed to have finally made up her mind and hesitantly said what she had always wanted to say.