The Pain of an Inferior: A Blistering Love Comedy That Begins After a Broken Heart - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – The Pain of an Inferior 2

“Did you see that video of Akito singing Ark’s song?”

“Ah, I haven’t seen it yet. But I saw it posted on the group chat yesterday, though.”

“……”

On their way to school, Haruka followed the two as they were happily engaging in conversation with each other while keeping his silence.

Miyako and Shun were chatting cheerfully as usual. Shun, who had many male friends as well as female friends, seems to naturally came in contact with various topics and shared them with Miyako in an amusing manner.

Miyako, too, passed the tedious time on her way to school by discussing with Shun about her friends’ love lives and complaining about things that she usually does not even tell her friends about.

Sadly for Haruka, he could not keep up with such topics and could not join in the conversation. He could understand if the people they were talking about were in the same class as them. But the names of the people from other classes, seniors, juniors in grade school, and even people from other schools came up frequently. Miyako and Shun naturally knew which person the other was talking about. If Haruka were to say, “Who’s that?” the tempo of their conversation would slow down, and that might irritate Miyako.

In the end, Haruka, who wanted to avoid getting scorned from the girl he was interested in, had been limited to quietly listening in on their conversation in their walks to school for the past few years. To his chagrin, it was quite interesting to just listen to Shun’s stories.

In their final years of grade school, Haruka had used to recklessly interrupt between Shun and Miyako’s conversation. But now, he could no longer stand Shun’s cold stares and Miyako’s wry smiles, so as of late he had ended up holding himself back.

Whenever Haruka interrupted them, he was always scorned by the people in their surroundings. It was a constant reminder that he had to be qualified in order to talk to people in the upper caste.

In the end, when Miyako or Shun would talk to him, he could only reply with a blank, uninteresting remark with a twitchy smile on his face.

If an opportunity came up, he would try to counter Shun with an interesting response or a topic of conversation. However, he was under the pressure of thinking that he would be considered trivial, boring, or uninteresting by Miyako, so he couldn’t speak well.

Miyako was always lively and seemed to enjoy herself whenever she chatted with Shun. But when it came to Haruka, she would only give him a casual smile. Since this was going on for a long time now, Haruka was unaware that talking to Miyako had become a traumatic experience for him.

In contrast to the fresh morning air, the air around Haruka was gloomy and dark.

He could only watch from the sidelines as the woman he loved was happily engaging in conversation with another man. Still, there was nothing he could do about it.

After walking for about thirty minutes and listening to their conversation, he gradually started to notice the students donning their A-10 school uniforms.

As they got closer to the school, Haruka took a few steps away and assumed a stranger-like position that happened to be walking behind them. The two, who seemed to have no interest in Haruka, didn’t realize that he had distanced himself from them. Or perhaps they did notice, but they just chose to not point it out.

Since Haruka had a flashy and consicuous appearance, they probably thought that it would be awkward for them to stay close to him. Their current distance is probably the most comfortable for them.

As of this moment, Miyako was attracting the eyes of the students around her more than usual. The reason was obvious, since she was currently wearing her special uniform. Her uniform stood out like a sore thumb among the dark blue uniforms of the crowd.

Even if special uniforms were distributed to the most number of students possible, out of the one thousand two hundred students in the entire school, only twenty-six of them among them were qualified to wear such unique uniforms.

Because of that, it was inevitable that Miyako would be subjected to various emotions such as curiosity, awe, and jealousy.

“Miyako, Shun-kun. Good morning.”

“Morning, Reika.”

“Morning, Rei-chan.”

A small, pretty girl with long black hair came up to Shun and Miyako and greeted them.

She was a student in the same class as them. Her name was Kamizato Reika. She was a beautiful girl, with likeness of that of a Yamato Nadeshiko. She was one of the upper caste students that often hung out with Shun and the others.

“Your special uniform looks so cute!”

“Ehehe, thank you?!”

“Oissu, Shun.”

“Sup.”

A fearless-looking boy with carefully set light-colored brown hair called out to Shun. He was Fudo Akito, also from the same class. He was tall and muscular, and his face was among the good-looking ones, though he was not as good-looking as Shun.

“You are very early today, Akito.”

“Fudo-kun, you’re always late.”

“Of course, I woke up early to see you in your new uniform, Miyako-chan!”

“What do you think?”

Miyako asked Akito, tugging at the hem of her skirt and smiling.

“Oh, my god, it’s the best! Please be my lover!”

“I can’t, I already have someone I love!”

Bowing his head in adoration, Akito jokingly confessed his love to Miyako. While giggling, Miyako turned his confession down.

Overhearing Miyako’s declaration that she already had someone in her heart, Haruka felt as if his blood had frozen. To the onlookers, Haruka looked like a zombie that was walking in broad daylight.

Another girl approached Miyako from behind Akito.

“Good morning, Miyako.”

“Good morning, Juuka-chan.”[1]

Unikumo Mika, nickname Juuka, a classmate of theirs also joined them, and by the time they reached the school entrance, more and more people were gathering around Shun and the others.

Regardless of whether they had ulterior motives or not, Shun and Miyako, who are adored by many people, ended up attracting a crowd.

The number of their followers was so large that it would not be an exaggeration to say that they had reached the realm of celebrities.

Not only the acquaintance of acquaintances, but even complete strangers came to say hello to them.

The situation was the same during their time in grade school.

Many juniors, classmates, and seniors whom Haruka did not know would come up or call up to them.

It would be strange if Haruka had stayed close to them. Therefore, he kept his distance away.

Haruka sighed loudly, a habit as of late, as he gazed at their backs, which had looked so busy even though it’s still early in the morning.

TL Note:

[1] The kanji of Mika’s name can be read in two ways, the same as Shun.