Amamiya Shiori left the school gate and walked on the path along the river. The trees beside the road sprouted new branches and sprouted green buds. The sound of gurgling water and fresh air are refreshing.
"What's your name?" Amamiya Shiori stepped on the stone steps with one foot and looked back.
A dozen steps behind her followed another timid girl with fair skin and long brown hair.
"Ah! Hi~ I'm sorry o(╥﹏╥)o." The girl pursed her lips and almost cried.
"I'm just asking for your name, I'm not trying to eat you." Amamiya Shiori put his hands in the pockets of his coat and walked to the girl, "My name is Amamiya Shiori. I used to live in Chiba. I just transferred here to attend junior high school this year. Grade. Judging from your tie, you must be a second-grade student! Are those who bullied you third-grade students? "
"Shirai, Shiraishi Mai..." Shiraishi replied weakly, his voice as low as a mosquito.
"I can't hear you! Make your voice louder!" Amamiya Shiori put her hands around her ears like a trumpet and faced Mai Shiraishi.
"Shiraishi Mai..."
"The voice is too low, there is no energy! Do it again." Amamiya Shiori pretended to be deaf.
"Shiraishi Mai—" Shiraishi shouted with all her strength. Luckily there was no one nearby, otherwise she would have run home in shame.
"I can't hear you! It's not exciting! The voice is so small, maybe you haven't eaten!"
"But, obviously..." Shiraishi Mai wanted to argue, but even a hard-of-hearing old lady should hear it clearly.
"I said I couldn't hear it, but I just couldn't hear it!" Amamiya Souri, who had a bad taste, had a straight face, but in fact, he was already happy in his heart.
Shiraishi Mai was speechless for a moment, but Amamiya Shiori obviously did this on purpose.
She grimaced, clenched her fists, took a deep breath, "Shiraishi—Mai—" and tried her best.
"Very good, very energetic!" Amamiya Shiori nodded, patted Shiraishi Mai's shoulder, and said in a big brother-like tone. It doesn't matter whether you heard or not, she was just playing tricks.
"Ahem~" Shiraishi roared so hard that his voice felt a little uncomfortable. He couldn't help but cough up after being slapped by Amamiya.
"So Mai...senpai? Can I call you Mai-senpai?"
"You, you can call me Shiraishi or Mai." Instead, Mai Shiraishi used honorifics to Amamiya Sugawara, who was younger than her.
"Then Mai-senpai," Amamiya Sōri chose a title she liked, "So, why are they bullying you?"
"Well..." Shiraishi Mai lowered her head sadly.
"I'm just curious. If you don't want to say it, I won't." Amamiya Soi saw that she had a hard time hiding something.
"No, there's nothing hard to say. In fact, I don't know why they targeted me." Shiraishi Mai raised her head and was finally able to speak calmly.
To her, it was simple. She just said a few nice words to a female classmate who often made mistakes and was criticized by her seniors during the tennis club activities, and she was angered for no reason. In the past few days, they have been called out to lecture me for various reasons.
"The only good thing may be that they no longer cause trouble for Takahashi-san." Takahashi was the girl who was bullied in the first place. At this time, Mai Shiraishi was still thinking about others.
Amamiya Shiori didn't know whether she was stupid or too soft-hearted.
"A few days?"
"It's been almost a week." Shiraishi Mai lowered her head. "Maybe it will be fine after a while, right?"
"Are you stupid? It can't end so easily. This has obviously been planned for a long time." Amamiya Shiori smiled. It seems that this child is really stupid.
"Has it been planned for a long time?" Shiraishi Mai stood there blankly.
"In other words, there have been grievances for a long time."
"But I haven't offended them?" Shiraishi Mai was puzzled.
"Just because you haven't offended them doesn't mean they don't hate you." Amamiya Sugawara explained that maybe in the novel, the plot where the protagonist is hated because he is too good is very cliché, but in Japan, where school bullying is very serious, this This kind of thing does happen occasionally.
Generally speaking, the targets of bullying may be withdrawn students with poor grades, but they may also be students with good grades and good looks. It all depends on the choice of the initiator. Once the bullying starts, the surrounding students will either remain silent or follow the crowd and join in. It is useless to tell the teacher, especially the teachers in public schools. Most of them are cowards. They are afraid that after they take charge, the students will go home and tell their parents to complain to the PTA, which will cause them to lose their jobs.
The bullying Shiraishi Mai received was only in the early stages. Later, she might have pranks such as scribbling on the desk and hiding indoor shoes.
"Maybe it's because you're much prettier than them. Didn't the fat guy just say, 'I'm going to catch Kaizi with a pretty face' or something like that. I'm afraid that's what they want." Amemiya said. A stone was kicked into the river and splashed.
"Is that the reason?!" Shiraishi Mai opened her eyes in surprise.
"Of course it's just my guess, but the possibility is not small. You can ask well-informed friends and investigate."
"Friend..." Shiraishi Mai smiled bitterly. The boy she thought was a friend, a boy she had played with in elementary school, didn't even dare to stand up and say a word for her.
"Oh, it seems no one dares to help you, right?" Amamiya Sugaru sighed, "Tsk, tsk, tsk, it's my bad nature~" He pretended to shake his head, as if he was a social critic.
Shiraishi Mai was silent, she couldn't figure out whether Amamiya was a bad girl or not.
"Okay, let's forget about this. It's time to eat." The two walked in tandem, chatting, and arrived at a ramen shop at the foot of the mountain.
"Boss! Do you have any signature ramen? Oh, udon, right? Let me have two bowls." Amamiya Soi opened the door curtain.
This is a small store, with a few office workers sitting in twos and threes having lunch.
Two JCs, Amamiya Souri and Shiraishi Mai, came in and attracted a lot of attention.
"Actually, I'm not hungry. I brought a bento from home this morning." Mai Shiraishi said weakly, looking at the two large bowls of steaming udon noodles in front of her.
"Just eat it. It's your money anyway, so it's not a loss if you don't eat it?" Amamiya Shiori had already started.
"It's not like I want to eat..." Shiraishi Mai muttered softly.
"What?" Amamiya Shiori turned his head.
"I'm starting." Mai Shiraishi held the chopsticks and clasped her hands together.
"This matter is definitely not over today. They will still make trouble for you then." Amamiya Soi said while eating ramen.
"Then, what should we do?" Shiraishi Mai had no appetite at all.
"If they dare to bully you, you just bully them in return. Who is afraid of whom?"
"But there are many of them, and isn't it bad to do this?"
"There are so many people, most of them are just yes-men. As long as we kill the leader and make her afraid and make a fool of herself, those yes-men may in turn bully her!" Amamiya Sugawara talked like an expert.
"No, I, it's impossible, I can't do it." Mai Shiraishi was originally quite lively and cheerful, but because of this incident, her courage became much weaker.
"It's okay if you can't do it."
"Eh?"
"You can ask me for help. You can help with stuffing thumbtacks in shoes indoors, throwing dead mice in desks, etc. But if you want to get paid, you have to at least treat me to a meal."
Shiraishi Mai suddenly felt that the girl in front of her was scarier than the seniors who bullied her. In what environment did she grow up?
In the end, she declined Amamiya Shiori's kindness. But after lunch, on the way back to school with Amamiya Shiori, I talked to her a lot and my mood became more comfortable. She had been wronged for a week but did not dare to tell her parents and teachers. She was already depressed. The two also became familiar with each other while chatting.
