"Okay~! A trial will now commence~!" Usaida was having a lot of fun with this because it's at the expense of someone else's humiliation. "This is a trial with none of the kids involved- thankfully! Usaida looked to his right, "The accused, Ryuu-chan, do you admit your guilt?"
"I can't admit to something I haven't done, Usaida-san!" Poor Ryuuichi was accused! What could he had done to be accused! And why Ryuuichi of all people when he's the kindest boy in school?!
"Prosecution, what do you have to say?" Usaida looked to his left to look at Kamitani.
"Huh? Obviously I think he's guilty."
"Kamitani?!"
"I'm sorry, Kashima. I will usually take your side but...I can't un-see what I've seen."
Usaida looked at the center, "Victim, do you have any comment?"
The victim in question was rather ironic because usually it's her who will turn people into victims. "Honestly, I still think this is blown out of proportion." The victim in question was none other than Ranfa, "And don't tell Dad a thing. He really will kill Ryuuichi for this."
So what happened exactly? It all started with Ryuuichi's smartphone. There's nothing wrong with Ryuuichi owning and using a smartphone- nearly all teenagers have one nowadays. However, the problem was the fact in his phone's photo library, there's a photo in there that shouldn't be in there let alone have a heart on it and make it appear in the favorites album and that photo was the cause of this mini trial within the babysitter's club right now.
Why was the photo bad enough to get a negative reaction from Kamitani? Because it's a clean shot of Ranfa's panties taken from below. To make matters worse, the photo was in the favorite album!
Kamitani happened to see it by chance; Ryuuichi said to him Kotarou had been taking a lot of pictures with his phone to the point the storage was about to go bust because of the many photos that were badly taken. Kamitani got curious what pictures Kotarou had been taking and he went through Ryuuichi's phone. At first Kamitani thought it was funny how Kotarou's small but chubby fingers kept getting in the way of the lens but when he saw a clean shot of Ranfa's panties taken from a low angle. "And don't say it's Kotarou because his fingers were not in the way. That there is a clean shot." It also did not help the photo was taken months ago! If Kamitani did not notice it then and there, it would have been there without anyone knowing!
"I'm telling you, it's not me!" Even though he's being accused by Kamitani, his best friend, he didn't blame Kamitani at all because Ryuuichi know if the roles were reversed, he'd be angry if Kamitani had a favorited photo of his girlfriend in his photo library.
"You better explain how you took that photo then because I don't want to look at you the way I am looking at you right now." Kamitani got up and he made his way out. "Ranfa, we're leaving."
"Right. Trial is postponed for another day." She said after clapping her hands twice.
"Ranfa-san!" Ryuuichi called out her name, "You believe me, right?"
"I believe you. The problem is you need Hayato to believe you to resolve this. I need to catch up with him so see you!"
Ryuuichi stood there in confusion; the victim in question believe him but the prosecution won't believe him!
Ranfa caught up with Kamitani, "Wait up, will you? You're not really mad at Ryuuichi, are you?"
He didn't say anything.
"Hayato, if it makes you feel better, do you want to see my panties?" Kamitani stared at her for a good few seconds because he was genuinely surprised she suggested that but when he got back to his senses again he hit her on the head. "Ah." She rubbed the spot he just hit and she continued to follow him. "Hey, did you want him to send you the photo."
"Huh?"
"I mean- isn't that why you're mad? He's basically keeping goods to himself without sharing with you."
"You think I am annoyed because he didn't share that photo with me? You, who just offered to show me your panties."
"It's worth a shot and it doesn't hurt to try and understand where you are trying to go with this." Ranfa said while shrugging her shoulders. "I believe Ryuuichi. He's not the type to do such a thing."
Kamitani glanced at her and then he continued to walk on in silence. Truth was, he wanted to believe it's just an accident but the photo's shot was too perfect to be taken by Kotarou. If it really was Kotarou, Kamitani could forgive and forget about the whole situation but he couldn't until he had a valid explanation he could believe in. It also didn't help Kamitani knew Ryuuichi also liked Ranfa in a romantic light. Kamitani believe all the other rivals had given up but he always had this gnawing feeling Ryuuichi never forgot.
"Hm?" She felt Kamitani hold her hand. "If there is a valid reason, will you believe it?"
"I will. Kashima is my friend after all. If it's someone else trying to frame him up as the bad guy, I will personally use them as batting practice."
"Don't worry, after you're done with them, I'll kick their ass so hard the grim reaper will have to come and stop me."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ryuuichi didn't know what to do! He couldn't prove why and how the photo was taken! He sighed heavily; he didn't want to lose Kamitani as a friend...
"Ryuuichi, I hope this teaches you a lesson limiting who can touch your phone and who can't." Ranfa suggested to him.
"Ranfa-san, you're not making it any better." Ryuuichi sighed again. He needed to prove his innocence or his friendship will be in trouble.
"Nee-chan~!" Michiyo waved at Ranfa as she petted a rather grumpy looking cat along with Kotarou.
"I can see you~." Ranfa waved back. "If it makes you feel any better, Ryuuichi, Hayato does want to believe you but he's finding it hard to believe you just like that."
"I know where he's coming from but it's really not me. Ohh..." He sighed again.
"If you keep sighing like that, it will worry your brother." She looked ahead again and she noticed only Michiyo was there. "Eh? Where's Kotarou?"
"O-oi, why are you looking all sulky?" Inui asked Ryuuichi since he's sighing on the school bench.
"Senpai!" Ryuuichi was surprised he was here!
"Little guy came over to fetch me. Don't make your little brother worry. You're the big brother after all."
Ryuuichi smiled a little, "You're right. Sorry, Senpai." He then looked at Kotarou, "Sorry for worrying you, Kotarou."
"Ooh."
While Kotarou watched the ants take crumbs from a dropped cookie and taking it back in a single file line, Ryuuichi thought Inui was the best person to confide in.
"What?! You have such an incriminating photo in your phone?! And it sat there for months! You little-! I always rooted for you as best brother in the whole wide world!" But was it a good idea to confide in someone who tend to blow things out of proportion?!
"Ryuuichi, another word of advice: Choose your seniors carefully." Ranfa gave Ryuuichi another life lesson!
"Don't say it like that!"
"And if it makes you feel happy, Ryuuichi, the photo doesn't bother me one bit and I am not using it to extort you."
"Well it should bother you!" Inui shouted at her! "And don't say thing like using such photo to extort money!" Inui facepalmed himself! His juniors...! He couldn't leave them alone like this. He hope to give Ryuuichi a hand in this. "L-listen...every picture taken in a smartphone have things like dates and time stamps. I doubt you know how to change that so maybe the date and the time could shed you some light what happened there?"
"How do I do that?!" Ryuuichi asked immediately!
"You need to go to the photo-" Wait. THAT WILL MEAN LOOKING AT RANFA'S PANTY SHOT! Inui's face turned red immediately! Smoke was literally leaving his ears because of it!
"Idiot." Ranfa grabbed Ryuuichi's phone and she scrolled through the many photos taken by not-so-pro photographer Kotarou. "There's a lot of photos. Heh, most of them are of you. Your brother's got a huge brother complex for you."
"Please don't tease me when I am in the middle of suffering, Ranfa-san."
"Ah, time stamp. I got it."
When Ryuuichi was told of the timestamp, he finally remembered what happened that day!
Kotarou wanted to take pictures of his favorite people.
"Waii~ I want a picture too. Hee~." Michiyo stood in front of the lens of the phone Kotarou was holding. She poked at her cheeks and smiled like the happiest girl in the world.
"Ooh! Michi!" But because of the way he was holding the Ryuuichi's phone, Kotarou ended up taking only a partial picture of Michiyo.
Michiyo looked at the photo and she looked at Kotarou with an indifferent look before she picked up a ball and lost interest right away.
"Ooh?!" Kotarou was shocked Michiyo looked uninterested! "Ooh..."
At the same time, Kirin's father, Kumatsuka Satoru, came in and he put his oh so beloved daughter down onto the floor although he's reluctant to let her go. He was chatting with Usaida for a bit before he noticed Kotarou looking a little miserable as he scrolled through the pictures he had taken.
"Wow, those really are terrible. Listen, kiddo, your fingers are in the way. You can't cover the lens with your fingers. I'll teach you how to properly hold a phone if you're going to take pictures with it."
Ryuuichi watched Kirin's father, who was a photographer, patiently teach Kotarou. Ryuuichi smiled at the scene because even if they no longer have a father, the adults around them will teach them.
"What are you looking at, brat?" Satoru did not like boys within the club. He's only okay with the girls.
"Just thought Mr Kumatsuka is like a father."
"I will NEVER be anyone's father in law!"
"Isn't that saying Kirin will never get married?" Usaida intended for it to be a joke but Satoru went ahead and throttled him!
"ARE YOU SAYING MY ADORABLE LITTLE KIRIN WILL NEVER GET MARRIED, YOU JERK?!"
Unknown to Satoru, Kotarou took a picture of Satoru throttling Usaida. This time, the picture was perfect because Kotarou's fingers did not get in the way. When Kotarou showed the picture to his brother, Ryuuichi was shocked!
"Wow! You actually did it perfectly! This is amazing, Kotarou!"
"Ooh...!" Kotarou earned a praise! In his little head, not putting his fingers in front of the lens meant he will get a praise!
Kotarou practiced and practiced because it was all for the sake of getting praised by Ryuuichi.
"Fafa, picture."
Ranfa looked at Kotarou and she smiled for the camera.
At the same time, Taka and the Mamizuka twins were running around playing tag. Taka bashed himself into Kotarou's back like a bull when seeing red! "TAG! You're it!"
Kotarou landed face first on the ground. Kotarou gasped because he let go of Ryuuichi's phone. When he picked it up, there's a picture of Ranfa's up-skirt shot which showed her pink panties...and a lightning strike-like crack going down the middle of the screen. Kotarou rubbed at the crack and he closed the photo app. "Oohh....uwaaaahhhhh...!!!" Kotarou started to cry because he thought he had broken Ryuuichi's phone.
Seeing Kotarou cry, Taka started to cry while apologizing.
Ranfa looked at the phone and she noticed the screen wasn't broken. It was the screen protector that's cracked. Not the actual screen. "I can fix this. Ryuuichi, can you calm the babies down?" It was a good thing Ranfa always have a spare screen protector with her; Ranfa lend her phone to Michiyo, it's not like she expect Michiyo to break her phone but unforeseen accidents do happen and it's better to be safe than sorry so she always had spare ones with her.
So why did Ryuuichi remember this date and the time? Because Usaida's face was funny when he's being throttled by Kirin's father!
"But...blaming Kirin-chan's father is a bit...he already doesn't like me. Won't I give him another reason to hate me?" Ryuuichi anxiously thought to himself.
"Why are you looking worried as if he is going to become your father in law?" Ranfa asked him. "Listen, just tell Hayato the truth."
"Wait- what if he won't take it?"
"He will."
"What if he plans to hit Kirin-chan's father?!"
"He won't."
"But-"
"Trust me, the person he will hit won't be Kirin's father."
"It won't?" This time Inui was confused too. "No matter how you look at it, it's her father's fault?!"
"Trust me, I know Hayato. It won't be the father he will target."
...
Kamitani came into the babysitter's club holding a baseball bat. "Taka, get over here. Now."
"Hee...!" Because he's a child and the photo was taken many months ago, Taka genuinely had no idea what naughty thing he had done to warrant a baseball bat strike from his brother! He's scared! So scared he's using Usaida as a human shield!
"See? I told you the first person he will go for won't be Kirin's father." Ranfa looked so proud of herself getting it right; her boyfriend's logic was rather simpleminded: If Taka did not bash into Kotarou like an idiotic bull, Kotarou wouldn't drop the phone. And if Kotarou did not drop the phone, the phone wouldn't slip out of his little hands, and if the phone was never dropped, the up-skirt shot would never happen.
"I don't know whether I should be happy about this or not." Usaida wasn't sure how to feel they all remember the event of the up-skirt photo because he was being attacked by Kirin's father.
"Your face is usually sleepy. Seeing it make other face is something worth remembering." Ranfa answered him.
"Did you delete the photo?"
"Obviously."
"Wait, why was it favorited?"
"Kotarou must have pressed the heart by mistake when he thought he cracked it. I remembered it because Kotarou rarely cry. I hate seeing the little guy cry."
"Nee-chan, Nee-chan!" Michiyo climbed onto Ranfa's lap, "I want a picture with you."
"Cheese~." In the background, you could see Ryuuichi accidentally lost his grip on Kamitani...