His and Her Beginning Finally Comes to an End: Zero

A girl came running out from the classroom. Whether it was because of her long bangs that covered her eyes, or because of the tears streaming out of them, she wasn't looking where she was going. After she crashed into my chest, we recognized each other.

As if feeling relief from bumping into someone she trusted, she began to sob in full. "Uuuu... H-Ha-..."

She was a problematic girl in many ways, but since she was Yukino-chan's first and only friend apart from me, I had to treat her nicely. While holding her shoulders and looking into her eyes, I attempted to comfort her. "Calm down Nadeko-chan, what happened?"

"Uuuu... my... my table is..." but rather than finishing her sentence, she just increased the intensity of her sobbing.

I checked my watch. The class would begin soon. I still didn't understand what was going on, but if there was something wrong with her table, then the fastest way to find out would be to enter the classroom.

"I got it. It's okay now. Class will begin soon, so let's return to the classroom okay?"

The girl nodded slowly and then meekly followed behind me as I walked towards the classroom door. From inside, I could hear the familiar voices of my classmates shouting at one another.

"So cruel, even if you didn't like her, isn't this going too far?"

"Yeah! Can you even call yourself human when you do something like this behind people's backs?"

"I said I didn't do it!"

Wait, was that Yukino-chan's voice? That Yukino-chan who almost never spoke in class was yelling? That was extremely worrying.

The first thing I noticed when I entered the class was that a group of girls had surrounded Yukino-chan and they were shouting at each other. Off to the side, the boys were examining Nadeko-chan's table. It had been horribly vandalized, with writings like "Ugly!" and "Go kill yourself!" scribbled all over it.

Normally it should have been the class representative's job to handle these types of situations, but seeing as he was cowering in the corner, I'm guessing the quarrel had escalated out of his control.

"Everyone calm down. What happened?" The crowd turned to face the new voice, and relaxed their expressions when they saw me.

"Look at this!" one of the girls pointed at Nadeko-chan's table. "Someone wrote this on Nadeko-chan's desk, isn't that horrible?"

"The culprit is definitely Yukinoshita-san!" said another.

Another girl continued. "Yeah! Only she would do something like this! Just because she's a little pretty she thinks she can get away with stuff like this!"

"I've been telling you that it wasn't me!" Yukino-chan's normally soft and refined voice was now crude and screechy, and her face contorted in various emotions of anguish as she struggled to assert her innocence. As someone who almost never interacted with others, this sudden many-on-one situation was too much for her. She looked like she would fall apart at any moment.

I needed to resolve this problem as soon as possible.

"Stop shouting at each other. Hasn't there just been some sort of misunderstanding?"

Someone as introverted and gentle as Yukino-chan couldn't hurt a fly. To suggest that she was secretly vandalizing people's desks was ridiculous. Plus I was with her for most of yesterday, so when would she have found the time to commit the crime?

A soft voice spoke up from within the crowd. "... Actually... I saw it. Yesterday afternoon I saw Yukinoshita-san entering the classroom with a spray can..."

Yukino-chan stared at the the source of the voice in shock. "That's impossible! Why are you lying?"

"Who's the one lying here! Maiko-chan would never do such a thing. It's definitely the lying Yukinoshita-san." A friend of the witness came to her support.

Then a second witness came forth. "Actually, I saw her too. Yesterday evening I saw her leaving the classroom with a spray can."

Yukino-chan turned to face the second witness. "Why are you lying too?!"

Yet another girl joined in. "The only one lying here is you! Lying Yukinoshita-san! Usoshita-san!" [1]

Soon the crowd devolved into mindless name-calling. " "Usoshita-san! Usoshita-san!" "

"Everyone stop it! There's definitely been a misunderstanding somewhere! Weren't we all good friends yesterday? Friends would never do something like this, it must have been someone from outside the class. Besides, Yukino-chan and Nadeko-chan are friends, right Nadeko-chan?" I turned to Nadeko-chan who was still standing behind me and sobbing, hoping she would help clear up the misunderstanding.

"Uuuu... who... who would be friends with someone who would do this!" my hopes were dashed. Nadeko-chan's rejection only added more fuel to the fire.

As Yukino-chan looked at Nadeko-chan with a pained expression, the reignited crowd turned to berate her again. "As I thought! The culprit was Usoshita-san!"

"Yeah! Apologize to Nadeko-chan!"

" "Apologize! Apologize!" "

"It wasn't me!"

Then I saw it. Now at the back of the crowd, Nadeko-chan was exchanging glances with the two witnesses.

Everything clicked.

The problem was that no one would believe this conspiracy. Compared to the popular trio of Nadeko-chan, Maiko-chan and Kyouko-chan, the defendant Yukino-chan barely interacted with her class and was treated as an outsider.

In that case it was all up to me.

Perhaps she was thinking along the same lines, as Yukino-chan's eyes kept glancing in my direction, as if pleading for me to help her.

That said, it wasn't as if I could just accuse the three without any evidence. The best I could do was diffuse the situation. I spoke in a loud voice to drown out the others. "There's definitely been a misunderstanding! Just calm down for a bit everyone!"

...

A moment of silence. Then a few whispers from the back of the crowd reached my ears.

"Why does he keep defending her?"

"He's just that nice, even defending someone like Usoshita-san."

"Nah, he's definitely being tricked by Usoshita-san."

Then I froze in place. I felt it. A gaze. A gaze that my father always gave me when I was younger.

It was coming from the boys.

More whispers reached my ears. "Maybe he's actually the same type of person?"

"Yeah, he probably also goes around acting all nice, while secretly doing bad stuff."

"Ha ha, so he's just sticking up for a fellow criminal."

The gazes multiplied.

Stop it.

Stop looking at me like that.

Stop giving me the look that says I haven't been living up to your expectations!

For a moment, I instinctively cringed as bad memories resurfaced in my mind. That movement wasn't missed by the people in the crowd.

"Eh? What's wrong?"

"Are you feeling unwell?"

"...maybe... Yukinoshita-san is holding some weakness of yours?"

I struggled to regain control of my facade. "No... You're wrong. Yukino-chan is..."

The gazes multiplied again. My voice weakened. I corrected myself, "... Yukinoshita-san is..."

This time a different type of gaze came. From Yukino-chan. As if she could feel my impending betrayal. "... why...? Why are you going along with their superficial lies too?!"

"No I-!" I defended myself weakly but was interrupted by the enraged crowd.

"Shut up Usoshita! The only liar here is you!"

"Who do you think you are, talking to him like that?"

The situation was out of my control. I couldn't move under the conflicting expectations. In the middle of all the abuse and insults being hurled by the crowd, I alone was frozen in place, unable to think of a solution.

No. The truth was, I already reached a decision. The answer had already been beaten into my mind since long ago. "To hell with your childish truth, justice and friendship! The only thing that matters is our family image!" Right, father?

I steeled myself and rebuilt my facade.

I picked up my own table. Startled by the sudden noise, the crowd turned to face me again. I cleared my throat. "Well... everyone makes mistakes sometimes. Don't be so harsh on her. Yukinoshita-san, just apologize to Nadeko-chan later okay?"

This was wrong. Everything was wrong. The culprit and the victim were reversed. My conscience screamed at me to destroy this farce, but I silenced my conscience instead.

Rather than the unpopular act of exposing the true culprit, I would play the popular role of supporting the superficial victim. Rather than bring the truth to light, I shall bury it. Quickly bring the case to its wrong conclusion and then redirect everyone's attention away.

"Actually, we should help Nadeko-chan first." I turned and smiled at the true culprit. "I will let you use my table okay?" Without waiting for her to respond, I placed my table down next to hers, and then picked up her vandalized table. I would use this table instead.

"Eh? Really? Th-Thank you." I could see the culprit struggling to contain her surprise and delight from having her plan succeed beyond her wildest expectations. Meanwhile, her two collaborators exchanged glances with glee.

Rather than fulfilling the wishes of Yukino-chan, I had chosen to fulfill the wishes of Nadeko-chan. Even if it was just to appease the culprits so that their attacks on Yukino-chan would stop, that was undeniably the worst betrayal.

Seeing that the alleged victim Nadeko-chan was no longer crying, most of the anger in the crowd dissipated. The abusive insults were now replaced by comments and compliments about how nice my gesture was, since I was willing to be the sacrifice who used the vandalized table. All the people were appeased. All except for the true sacrifice of this incident.

As my classmates dispersed and returned to their seats, Yukino-chan remained frozen in place. Since that was her seat in the first place, there wasn't any problem on the surface. Yet her face continued to contort with a dynamic mixture of indignation and confusion as she repeatedly muttered under her breath, "I don't understand."

In contrast, my own face had its usual nice guy facade plastered on it. All to promote my image by continuing to signal to the rest of the class that I didn't mind having to use this vandalized table. I glanced at the insults scribbled on the table. They were now truly fitting for the table's new owner.

That day, the human known as Hayato-kun ceased to exist.

Nay, maybe he never existed to begin with.

There was only the cog known as Hayato-kun, in the machinery known as the Hayama family.

Years later, I couldn't help but wonder. If my antithesis had been there at the time, wouldn't she have been saved? Wouldn't he have saved her by choosing to take all of the blame onto himself?

[1] "Uso" is Japanese for "Lies".

Author's Note: Wow this story is dark :(. I sure hope no children behave this way in real life. It's making me lose my faith in humanity. Why did I even write this?

I just wanted to understand Yukinon's and Hayama's characters better.

Why is she so obsessed with destroying the superficial to the point where she brutally tells people their flaws to their faces? Why is he convinced that he's not a nice guy? Why did he wonder if Hachiman could have changed anything about their past? Why did Haruno say Yukinon wasn't chosen?

So I put together all the clues in the LNs and my imagination filled in the blanks to give this horrible horrible conclusion ;_;.

P.S. I blame all the fluffy fanfics that have been coming out recently. I feel compelled to do something different, so that naturally leads to tragedy! V_V