Another Like Me - Part I (CoTE x OC) ?

Chapter 11 - Hearing

"Hey, you're not the owner of the camera, are you? She is!", the clerk started complaining.

"Is it necessary for the owner to write down their details on this bill? It does not say so anywhere. I don't see what the problem is if I write down my room number and contact information. I want you to initiate contact on this number once the camera has been fixed."

The clerk was taken aback at my words, but did not say anything unnecessary. He reluctantly agreed to contact us once the camera was fixed, and we left the store.

Kushida excused herself to use the restroom, which left me and Sakura left waiting on the bench. The tension in the air was thick; you could probably cut it with a knife. Sakura was being fidgety, and had intertwined her fingers, and I could not possibly comprehend what she was planning to do with them.

There were several things about Sakura that I found out after our short outing. One was that she wore fake glasses. In normal power spectacles, there is a slight curvature of the lens for adjusting the focal length depending on how bad someone's eyesight is. However, her lens was straight, without any curvature. Her glasses were fake. Maybe she wore them to intentionally hide herself during conversations? That seemed to be the most probable outcome.

Another was Kushida staring hard at Sakura when we were on the way to the store. I had attributed it to the fact that she was watching out for her, but the incident on the rooftop flooded into my memory, and I immediately discounted that possibility. Did Kushida seem to recognize Sakura from somewhere? Her face bore the expression of recognition, but she could not recognize Sakura from anywhere. Neither could I, though. Were the fake glasses a disguise in that case? But who was she hiding her persona from? No one in the class had said anything about recognizing Sakura from before. Maybe it was the store clerk? He did seem to know her, after all.

My thoughts turned to the reason I was currently in this situation, Takeyama. He was most probably present during my confrontation with Kushida on the rooftop. I had noticed him looking in my direction when I was searching for Kushida that fateful night, to return her cellphone to her. I had sensed a presence behind the ajar door when Kushida had pinned me to the wall. I must say, he was extremely sneaky and shrewd. I wouldn't have noticed his presence if I hadn't seen him slowly follow me to the rooftop. Kushida almost had no chance of noticing him. It was almost as if he were trained to be stealthy and spy-like.

However, I was sure someone of the caliber of Takeyama would not just stand outside the door listening in to the conversation. Well, that was what I did as well, but our positions were drastically different. I could not have recorded the conversation even if I wanted to, and I was a bit careless to not turn on the recorder before I kicked open the door. He must have recorded the conversation, otherwise there would have been no point of him staying to listen in.

In other words, Takeyama has conclusive evidence of Kushida's double edged personality, and could use it any way he wants to manipulate her. Kushida was someone who valued social status, and the prospect of this recording leaking to the rest of the school would absolutely crush her position.

However, I knew Takeyama would not do that. There would be no point in taking unnecessary risks when there was a better way to handle the situation. Instead of openly defaming Kushida, Takeyama was using her.

I had already contacted Kushida at that point and asked for her help in gathering question papers from a senior student. I had asked her to let out the question paper exactly one day before the Midterms, since Sudo and the others were still lagging a bit in Horikita's study group. But Kushida distributed the papers 2 days before the test, clearly and brazenly against my intentions. She was being manipulated by Takeyama behind the scenes, being threatened by the recording that he possessed. Sudo might have passed without the need to spend points if Kushida had followed my schedule instead. I cannot blame Takeyama for that, though. He was not aware of the progress in Horikita's study group. Kushida also knew that out of me and Takeyama, she would listen to him, since he had the recording with him.