“Dude, you can’t let her walk over you that easily,” he said, shaking his head as he jumped down a few stairs to get on my level. “Look, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, all right? And after what happened earlier, I really don’t think it’d be a good idea to rile the beast,” I said, trying to play it off with a joke. Shohei wasn’t having any of it. He smacked me lightly in the back with his book bag and then shook his head with a disapproving frown. “Nah, man. The more you enable her, the more she’s gonna keep taking advantage of you.” “Well, yeah, but I think you’re forgetting about her scary-ass boyfriend. I’m not trying to have her go tell him and his buddies to kick the crap out of me on my way home just because I said the wrong thing.” “That ain’t gonna happen.” “You don’t know that for sure.” “Dude, you really think a senior’s gonna risk getting expelled over something that petty during the most stressful part of his high school career? He’s probably worried enough as it is, what with entrance exams and finding a job and whatnot. Besides, we don’t even know if those two are actually dating. From what I’ve heard, no one’s ever seen ’em walking around together like a couple.” “You mean you think Kawasaki might be letting those rumors swirl around to make people more afraid of her?” “Hard to say. Maybe she’s the one who started ’em. I wouldn’t put it past her.” I certainly couldn’t disagree with that. She did love her power trips, after all. “…Nah, I can’t believe she’d play into the rumors if there weren’t some truth to it. I mean, that’d only make things worse for her when he eventually found out and set the record straight, wouldn’t it? Anyway, don’t worry about me. I don’t care enough to kick up a fuss over such a small amount of money.” I meant it too. If a few hundred yen was all it cost to keep me on Koharu’s good side, then it was a small price to pay.