You Will Regret This Ichinose! [173]

A dimly lit dormitory. A kitchen knife. A woman. Her lifeless eyes devoid of light…

The eerily familiar scene made Uesugi Gen feel as though the spirit of an old acquaintance was haunting Advanced Nurturing High School.

Kushida Kikyo stood there, clutching a kitchen knife, staring at him blankly. Her voice murmured in an eerie monotone:

“I sent you so many messages… and you didn’t reply to a single one. What’s even worse, you went to find that b*tch Horikita first instead of me. I was first—whether it was meeting you first or becoming your friend first, it was me!”

A chilling smile crept onto her face.

“Heh… Uesugi Gen, tell me… where do you think I should take your severed head for a trip?”

Uesugi Gen: “…”

As expected of Miss Accomplice—cut you open, and your insides are pitch black.

“Ahem.”

He coughed twice and gave an awkward smile.

“Isn’t it because you’re the most important one? That’s why I saved an entire night just for you.”

“Really?”

Kushida’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“Of course. See? I made sure to set aside time just to be with you.”

Without the slightest change in his expression, Uesugi Gen delivered his response.

In an instant—

Miss Accomplice’s personality switched at lightning speed, as if performing a Sichuan opera face-change. The eerie aura vanished, replaced by the bright, ever-charming social butterfly, Kushida Kikyo.

“Aww~ How could I ever do something like that to Uesugi-kun? We’re partners through and through, after all!”

You’re saying that while still holding the knife. Could you, I don’t know, maybe put it down first?

With Kushida back to normal, Uesugi Gen was treated to a long-overdue verbal lashing. Ever since he handed her the memory card, her outbursts had become less frequent.

Now, it seemed like she had been bottling it all up—going off in a relentless, hours-long rant. She dragged the entire class through the mud… and even Uesugi Gen wasn’t spared.

“Miss Accomplice, calm down.”

Uesugi Gen quietly handed her a cup of tea.

Kushida grabbed the cup, tilted back her pale neck, and gulped it down in one go, completely ignoring any sense of propriety.

“Hey…”

After wiping her mouth, she scooted closer to him, hesitating slightly before asking:

“Are you really the heir to some yakuza family? They’re saying you’ll have to take over someday.”

Uesugi Gen’s mouth twitched slightly. His face contorted into one of exaggerated horror.

“H-h-hey, don’t slander me like that! If someone else wants to inherit, they’re welcome to it!”

But his defiant expression only lasted two seconds. Then, like a deflated pufferfish, he lowered his head in resignation.

“Maybe… possibly… I guess I might have to take over someday…”

His voice softened.

“My big brother… he’s been living way too exhausting a life…”

But in the next moment, Uesugi Gen perked up again.

“Anyway, there are still three years left. No need to stress about it now. Who knows what the future holds?”

—

The Next Day

Uesugi Gen still didn’t show up for class.

The atmosphere in the classroom was strange.

Kanazaki Ryuji sat at his desk, arms crossed, staring intently at a piece of paper filled with handwritten student names. Lines connected them like a web.

Something’s not right about this rumor.

Yesterday, he and Shibata investigated the origins of the rumor, but no matter where they looked, they couldn’t find the source. Or rather… there were too many sources. It was as if it had appeared out of thin air.

Just then, his phone buzzed loudly in his pocket. Taking it out, he unlocked the screen—and his pupils shrank.

His gaze immediately shifted toward Ichinose Honami, sitting quietly at the front of the class.

Since yesterday, she had been acting strangely. She sat there with her head down, responding to classmates with forced smiles.

Some assumed it was because of Uesugi Gen and didn’t think much of it.

But based on what Kanazaki knew about Ichinose, the normal her would have taken action to clear things up by now.

Why isn’t she doing anything?

“Kanazaki, five minutes ago, someone posted about Uesugi on the school forum.”

Shibata’s urgent voice broke his train of thought.

Kanazaki immediately pulled up the school’s forum.

At the top of the page was an anonymous post:

[Uesugi Gen was involved in a violent incident in middle school.]

The post described in vivid detail how Uesugi Gen had allegedly hospitalized three students during his first year of junior high. The event was supposedly covered up by his family’s influence.

There was no hard evidence, but the post included a group photo of Uesugi’s class—along with images of three injured students.

With this, the rumor had escalated even further.

—

Evening, After School

Most students from the other classes had already left. Only the former Class B students remained in the school building.

“Kanazaki, you called us to the activity room—do you have a plan for handling this? And why keep it from Ichinose?”

A few curious classmates followed behind Kanazaki, questioning him.

“You’ll see soon enough.”

“Hey, do you guys think Uesugi’s really the heir to some yakuza family?”

Someone suddenly blurted out.

The once-noisy crowd fell silent.

Is that even possible?

For a brief moment, their minds flashed back to memories of joking around with Uesugi Gen.

But now… somehow, that image felt strangely distant.

A low, solemn voice echoed in their hearts:

“Years from now, the close friends we once shared everything with… may end up as nothing more than strangers.”

An unspoken sigh weighed on the group.

“Maybe one day, the bond we have now will fade, lost to the passage of time…”

Shibata opened his mouth as if to protest—but in the end, the words never came.

Because deep down, they all knew.

This was reality.

One by one, their gazes dropped to the floor. Their clenched fists loosened.

“Even when we’re grown, when we have our own lives, there will always be… a trace of regret.”

A few of the more emotional girls had tears welling in their eyes.

“A tragic, impenetrable wall now stands between us and Uesugi…”

An overwhelming sense of loneliness washed over the group.

“When we see him again… we’ll have to bow and call him ‘Master Uesugi.’”

The solemn voice suddenly turned smug.

…Huh?

Something felt off.

Why does that voice sound so familiar?

“And by then, Uesugi Gen will look down on us with a cocky grin and say: ‘Shiba-bro, Ma-sis, Yuki-sis… and Kan-bro~!’”

The voice was no longer solemn—it was downright arrogant.

Everyone turned in unison, their eyes locking onto the culprit.

“Yo! Have you guys eaten yet?”

There, standing among them, was none other than Uesugi Gen, casually waving.

“…”

The entire class erupted in a furious roar:

“WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!”

—

T/N: LMAOO wheres the bow and was bro the one saying all that poetic shit the entire time

This is a fan translation of 人在实教，一之濑你会后悔的 by 作者：白良. All 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!