It wasn’t until someone gave Hayato Hayama a nudge that he finally came back to himself. His expression eased a little too. Right. Tadayana couldn’t possibly be her. And she couldn’t possibly come here in the first place.
After looking around the field, Tadayana noticed that a chubby little guy was actually walking together with that gloomy loner who’d been playing tennis by himself. It looked like the two of them were partners for P.E., and she couldn’t help but sigh in admiration—life really did find its own way. The people who didn’t fit in would just end up with other people who didn’t fit in.
…
Conflict was something that happened all the time. Even something that looked simple on the surface could still trap people in a deadlock.
That was just as true in a high school classroom.
[Yui]: Tadayana… help me think of something… Yukinon and Yumiko got into a fight in my classroom because of me, and I don’t know what to do…
Just as Tadayana was getting ready to spend another rainy lunch break lazing around as usual, and appreciating the fact that she didn’t have to go to work that afternoon, her phone suddenly buzzed.
She glanced at it. The message was from Yui Yuigahama.
[Tadayana]: What did they start fighting over?
Nothing came back after that. It looked like things were urgent.
Which meant the two girls might still be arguing.
Tadayana happened to have a hobby.
She loved watching two girls fight.
For something like that, she absolutely had to be there in person.
Without a second thought, she quickly told Iroha Isshiki, that she was going to the bathroom.
Then she immediately ran off toward Yui Yuigahama’s classroom.
Since she had explored the whole school grounds back when term first started, she knew perfectly well where that class was.
“Huff—”
Before long, after a stretch of sprinting mixed with a slower jog, she made it to the scene within two minutes.
This was outside Class 2-F. Quite a few students had already gathered in the hallway, and the moment they saw her arrive, all kinds of curious looks landed on her. Some of them were openly admiring, jealous, or smitten.
And the one standing closest to the classroom door was that dead-fish-eyed boy.
Tadayana was slightly out of breath, and the heat in her body had left her cheeks faintly flushed. The sight made the dead-fish-eyed boy sneak a few extra glances at her.
“Is it over? In the classroom, I mean…”
“Wh—… why are you here? Oh… Yuigahama-san called you, huh… This really is…”
To Hachiman Hikigaya, the classroom had already become a battlefield too full for anyone else to enter. And now, on top of that, someone else had shown up who also looked like she’d be very good in a fight… Was the world finally about to end?
As he spoke, Tadayana had already leaned onto the windowsill and started peering into the classroom.
What the hell? Weren’t there supposed to be two beautiful girls fighting? Don’t tell me I was still too late. Damn it, who was going to compensate her for the part where she got to watch the drama, feast on gossip, and cheer them on?
Her gaze shifted toward the classroom door.
And then she spotted a striking back view of long black hair. Along with the blonde girl facing her, and between the two of them, the flustered pink-haired Yui Yuigahama.
Oh, so they were over here. Looks like she hadn’t missed too much after all.
“What happened, exactly?”
“Don’t mind me…”
She wasn’t about to go in. She only planned to watch a bit from outside and leave.
“What’s going on in there right now? Do you know?”
Because she wanted to catch up on the missing context, she kept looking inside as she asked.
“…I don’t know. It has nothing to do with me. Or with you.”
“All right, then. I was thinking that if you told me, I might be able to figure out how to solve it.”
Seeing that the boy was keeping his lips sealed, Tadayana could only go along with it.
“Wh—… so you came intending to solve the problem? But… why? This doesn’t have anything to do with you. And there’s no way your relationship with Yuigahama-san progressed that fast, enough for you to do all this for her… Forget it… I get it now. I’ll tell you.”
Hachiman Hikigaya had originally been ready to object that Tadayana was obviously just the sort who loved watching trouble unfold from the sidelines. But then he suddenly thought of Yukino Yukinoshita.
Right. There really were genuinely nice people in this world willing to help even strangers they had only just met… Maybe the girl in front of him was the same.
“Actually, during lunch today, Yuigahama-san…”
“She had plans to eat lunch with me during the break, and then she didn’t show up on time. So I came to check. Then I saw that humanoid she-gorilla in there trying to control Yuigahama-san, so I took it upon myself to argue with her. This whole thing is my fault.”
Just as Hikigaya was about to explain everything from the top, the classroom door opened, and Yukino Yukinoshita stepped out.
“So it’s already over, huh?”
Tadayana let out a sigh. She was a little disappointed that she hadn’t gotten to see the most intense part live.
“I don’t know why you came all the way here, but I’ve already left this matter to Yuigahama herself to handle. She’s also a strong girl who wants to face things on her own.”
Leaning beside Tadayana, Yukino Yukinoshita spoke quietly.
Only Yukino Yukinoshita had come out from inside.
Yui Yuigahama and Yumiko Miura were still alone in there.
“I see. Then I’m going back. Goodbye, Yukinoshita-senpai. And you too, dead-fish-eyed boy.”
“…”
Yukino Yukinoshita watched Tadayana’s retreating figure in silence.
She had wanted to ask why she had come all the way here across grade levels in the first place. But thinking about it now, perhaps she too had come to help Yui Yuigahama.
Judging from her overall impression so far, Tadayana really was an out-and-out good person.
And yet…
Why did it still feel so strange? It felt as though she had overlooked something.
“Are you wondering who she came to help? If she’d seen you and Miura-san arguing, who would she have taken sides with? Is that it?”
“Mm.”
“I think there’s a pretty good chance she would’ve stood on your side…”
Hikigaya continued.
“I don’t need to survive by taking the weak approach of having other people stand with me…”
“Is that so… I doubt she’d see it that way. Back in the home economics room, you probably noticed it too, right? She’s the same kind of person—very independent, very self-reliant. So she should understand better than anyone that people like that still need companions…”
Hearing Hachiman Hikigaya’s explanation, Yukino Yukinoshita stared in the direction Tadayana had left, and for a moment, drifted into a daze.
—
T/N: awww that guy got a name tsk
This is a fan translation of 转生白毛的我开局被雪之下拒绝告白 by 暗影之中 Rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!
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