"KTV... Ayaka... Anjou Takaya... harassment... drinking..."
As the scenes from a short while ago resurfaced one by one in her mind, Haruno Kasui gradually recovered her senses and slowly remembered everything that had happened before she lost consciousness.
"Ayaka... actually drugged me?"
She recalled her former best friend Ayaka grinning as she counted money before Kasui passed out, along with the conversation between her and Anjou Takaya.
Although she hadn't heard all of it, after thinking it over for a moment, she understood.
Ayaka, who had once been her best friend, had helped Anjou Takaya drug her and completely sold her out.
'That means...'
'I am no longer... pure...'
'Have I already been defiled by a scumbag like Anjou Takaya?'
"Wah... sob!"
The thought overwhelmed Haruno Kasui with grief, and she covered her face as she burst into tears.
"You... bastard... Anjou Takaya, you bastard... I hate you... I hope you die..."
She could feel the soreness and numbness in her legs beneath her skirt after repeatedly cramping.
She could also feel the intense strangeness in certain parts of her body.
Then she noticed the man's figure standing by the sink not far away.
All the grievance and anger in her heart burst out like a flood through her hoarse voice.
The innocent girl, who was usually gentle and never even cursed, now kept hurling one insult after another.
"Anjou Takaya?"
Hearing Haruno Kasui suddenly cursing at him from behind, Hikari immediately turned around.
"Anjou Takaya, you bas—Huh? Wh-Why is it... you? Hik... Hikari-kun?"
Haruno Kasui had been about to continue cursing, but when she saw that the one turning around was a handsome young man, she froze.
Thanks to his striking appearance, and because they had met earlier that day, leaving a deep impression, she quickly recognized Hikari.
He was the incredibly handsome but notoriously womanizing guy who was dating more than a dozen girls at once.
Even after recognizing him, though, Haruno Kasui couldn't understand why Hikari, someone she barely knew, would suddenly be here.
Hadn't she been betrayed by her best friend and fallen into Anjou Takaya's trap in the KTV room?
So why was the first person she saw after waking up Hikari?
'Could it be...'
'Am I dreaming?'
"You're not dreaming."
Hikari could tell exactly what she was thinking.
He gave her a brief explanation.
"Anjou Takaya really was planning to assault you. But before he could do anything, I happened to run into him and stopped him."
"By then you'd already been drugged and were in bad shape. To keep your brain from being damaged, I helped get the effects of the drug out of your system. How do you feel now?"
"I... is that what happened?"
After hearing Hikari's explanation, Haruno Kasui slowly recalled the hazy memories from after she had been drugged.
She remembered that not long after the drug took effect and her consciousness began to blur, she realized something was wrong and tried to ask Ayaka for help.
But her ex best friend had already joined forces with Anjou Takaya. She took his money and left the private room, leaving only the barely conscious Kasui alone with that scumbag.
At the time, she wanted to resist but couldn't.
Anjou Takaya muttered something to himself as he prepared to violate her.
It seemed that someone had suddenly appeared and knocked Anjou Takaya down.
'That must have been Hikari.'
'But if Anjou Takaya didn't...'
'Why does my body still feel so strange?'
'Is it just an aftereffect of the drug?'
Her arms and legs were sore and numb, and her throat felt hot and raw...
Haruno Kasui frowned and thought more carefully.
More fragments slowly came back.
While under the influence of the drug and barely conscious, she seemed to have done many irrational things.
At the time, she had been drawn toward something, like a fish to water or an ant to honey.
Without thinking, she had pressed herself against it and clung tightly to it.
Now that she thought about it, that was Hikari.
Just remembering that made her pretty face flush.
But what came next was even more embarrassing.
After the drug took effect, she hadn't just clung tightly to Hikari.
She had also kept asking him for something.
Considering the kind of drug Anjou Takaya had given her... It was obvious what she had been begging Hikari for.
'Under those circumstances...'
'Even if something really happened...'
'I can't blame anyone else.'
After all, Hikari had already rescued her from Anjou Takaya.
Yet despite the impression she'd had of him as a playboy, he hadn't taken advantage of her. Instead, he had brought her into the restroom and tried to wake her up with cold water.
Even after briefly regaining a little awareness, she had thrown herself at him again.
As for what happened after that, she couldn't remember the details.
She only retained a vague impression.
It felt as though she had been trapped inside a huge pot filled with boiling water, surrounded on all sides, scalding her until she felt like she couldn't bear it anymore.
Then someone had kept striking the pot with a chisel, opening a hole so the boiling water could gush out, allowing her to survive.
Putting together those hazy memories with what Hikari had just told her... Haruno Kasui had a rough understanding of everything.
She really had been betrayed by her best friend and had almost fallen victim to Anjou Takaya's scheme.
Fortunately, Hikari had arrived in time and saved her before Anjou Takaya could harm her.
Although the rescue process had been difficult to talk about and even somewhat excessive... those actions had all been things her irrational self had actively asked for.
Hikari had already shown considerable restraint.
Without him, the humiliation she would have suffered would probably have been a hundred times worse.
Compared to that terrible outcome, the impropriety that Hikari could hardly be blamed for had already been the best possible result...
"How are you feeling now, Kasui? Are you okay? Sorry for overstepping earlier."
Seeing Haruno Kasui sitting there in a daze, Hikari dried his fingers and walked over to ask.
His voice snapped her out of her thoughts.
She hurriedly shook her head.
"I'm fine! I already feel much better! And as for you overstepping... I don't blame you at all, Hikari-kun!"
"It was... my own fault. I was the one who kept clinging to you. Under the influence of that drug, I wasn't in my right mind. You didn't have any choice, so... so it's not your fault at all..."
Haruno Kasui waved both hands repeatedly, afraid her benefactor might misunderstand.
Even though she understood she had completely lost her reason at the time and couldn't blame Hikari in the slightest...
When she thought about how she'd never even dated anyone before, yet had suddenly shared that kind of intimate contact with a boy...
She couldn't help blushing in embarrassment, her voice growing quieter and quieter.
"It's good that you're okay."
Seeing how embarrassed she was, Hikari didn't say anything more.
After the awkwardness passed, Haruno Kasui's eyes suddenly reddened again.
"Thank goodness you were there, Hikari-kun. Otherwise... otherwise that bastard Anjou Takaya would have... I... my whole life would have been ruined... sob..."
"How could he be so horrible? How could he be so awful... sob..."
Just imagining that tragic future made her feel like she couldn't breathe.
"Thank you... Thank you so much for today, Hikari-kun!"
Haruno Kasui expressed her heartfelt gratitude once again.
After calming her down for a while, Hikari asked, "So what are you going to do next, Kasui?"
"W-What do you mean?"
"Anjou Takaya tried to assault you. He even drugged you to violate you. Don't you want someone like that to receive the punishment he deserves?"
Looking at the innocent-looking Haruno Kasui, Hikari asked.
"I... I do! Of course I do!"
She froze briefly before nodding immediately.
"But... I don't know what to do..."
She was just an ordinary high school girl.
Aside from being exceptionally well-endowed for her age, Haruno Kasui wasn't much different from any other girl.
So after suddenly encountering something this terrible, she was still completely overwhelmed.
"How about confiscating the tool he uses to commit crimes... or just killing him."
Hikari, speaking with the casualness of someone experienced in dealing with this sort of thing, said it lightly.
Haruno Kasui jumped in shock.
"K-Kill him?"
"I... I don't think that's a good idea..."
She had never even considered killing someone.
Seeing the panic on the innocent girl's face, Hikari understood what she was thinking.
"Then what do you want to do?"
Haruno Kasui thought for a moment before saying,
"Call the police... Right! Let's call the police!"
"Anjou Takaya drugged me and tried to assault me. The police will definitely arrest him and send him to prison!"
"I'm calling the police. I'm going to make that horrible man go to jail!"
Hikari wasn't surprised by her answer, "What exactly do you plan to do?"
After thinking it through, the usually high-achieving Haruno Kasui replied logically, "Thanks to your help, Hikari-kun, Anjou Takaya didn't actually succeed."
"So if we want to convict him, we'll probably need evidence."
"Besides the physical evidence that he put drugs in my drink, it'd be best to have a witness too."
"I'll call Ayaka first and have her testify. Then we'll all go to the police station together."
Thinking that, Haruno Kasui immediately reached into her skirt pocket, but after searching for a while, she couldn't find her phone.
"Looking for your phone? I took it out for you earlier because I was worried it'd get damaged by water."
Hikari handed her the phone that had been sitting on the sink.
Haruno Kasui touched her soaked skirt pocket, and her face immediately became red.
Remembering how Hikari had helped remove the effects of the drug, she instantly understood why he'd been worried about her phone getting wet.
"Th... thank you, Hikari-kun!"
She softly thanked him again as she took the phone from his hand.
"It's nothing."
Hikari reached out and helped Haruno Kasui, who was still sitting on the restroom floor, to her feet.
Holding Hikari's familiar yet unfamiliar fingers, her face turned red again as he pulled her up.
Perhaps because of the drug and everything that had happened afterward...
Her legs were still weak.
She had barely stood before she almost collapsed again.
"Ah!"
Fortunately, Hikari reacted quickly and wrapped an arm around her, catching her before she fell.
"Th... thank you!"
Haruno Kasui let out a sigh of relief and thanked him.
But feeling that hand around her waist, the same incredibly nimble hand from her hazy memories, made her cheeks grow warm once again.
"It's okay. Why don't you sit down for now?"
Hikari lowered the toilet lid and gestured toward it.
"Okay."
Feeling how weak her legs still were, Haruno Kasui didn't force herself. With Hikari supporting her, and with her heart inexplicably beating faster, she sat down on the closed toilet lid.
She opened her contacts, took a deep breath, and tapped the name "Ayaka."
The call began to ring...
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