Outsider Syndrome | ✓

Chapter 21 - "Let Us Take Up Arms and Emerge Victorious"

I collided into a firm surface, shutting me right up. The impact wasn't enough to cost my balance, but my script managed to skid to the ground and knock against somebody's foot.

"Oh, sorry," I quickly apologized, crouching to pick it up. "I wasn't watching where I was—"

Their foot slammed onto the white pages without mercy. My voice hitched in my throat.

Multiple shoes pattered afterward, encircling my body, and leaving me trapped.

I slowly peered up. Finding Bristly Brows, and the rest of Motoko Hanai's posse, was the last thing I expected.

"First you steal the thunder from under Miss Hanai, and now you're vying to become an actor?" Bristly Brows sneered. "Who's your victim this time?"

I was surrounded. Sweeping over the scowling girls around me, in an area on campus free from lingering witnesses, my shoulders sagged. Sighing, I ascended to my feet.

"I should be asking why you're cornering a frail maiden first thing in the morning," I said squarely to her face.

Bristly Brows was far from amused. Her glare burned with fury. "You ruined Miss Hanai's life."

"She was trying to destroy Igarashi's."

"So what? Miss Hanai had that award in the bag. She was this close to reaching her dream! But you had to get involved and ruin it. Not only that, her entire reputation is finished! That midget didn't even win that award in the end, so it was pointless!"

She sounded like nothing more than a whimpering dog. However, I was strangely calm.

"We didn't do it looking to win an award," I said, honestly. "She used Igarashi for years without giving him the slightest credit. And after climbing that far, instead of thanking him, she spat all over his dream and efforts. I don't care how talented she was, she's a scumbag for that."

The girls wavered.

Bristly Brows was the only one who didn't. "So you destroyed every chance of her having a career? That midget gave his songs to her voluntarily! Even that last one—he promised it to her. You have no idea how much she struggled to even get that scout to attend the Music Festival; offer her a record deal. How many setbacks she's had to endure. She only used that underhanded method to get that song because she had no other choice! With success so close, did you expect her to back down? That midget betrayed her by refusing to give her that song, so she did what she had to!"

"Yeah!" chorused her peers.

"But because of what you did, that's all gone!" Bristly Brows screeched. "All these rumours are spreading about her being a fraud, about her stealing songs, about being two-faced. Her entire future is in ruins because of you!"

"She destroyed it herself."

They flinched.

"Look, I agree. There were probably other ways we could've resolved the situation," I tacked on. "Likewise, there were so many other ways she could've approached it. If she wanted to win that award, if she cared about her dream, she should've known better than anyone how much it hurts to not have your skills recognized, and your dreams trampled upon. Yet she did that so easily with Igarashi. I don't know her circumstances. But I do know Motoko Hanai is a fraud. She is two-faced. She is a liar. And no matter how much you dogs bark in replace of your master, those facts won't change."