COTE V10 - Prologue

Prologue: Hirata Yōsuke’s Monologue

To me, my friends in the class are very important existences.
……No, that’s a bit inaccurate.
To me, the important one is the class.
I’m personally well aware that those 2 statements contained odd contradictions.
I have to safeguard my class in order to protect my important friends. My friends will be protected, if my class was safeguarded.
A class is dozens of people called the student who assembled into 1 group.
There are as many ideas as there are number of people, and trivial matters could lead to disputes. That’s why I have to safeguard it.
Unconsciously, to me, to my existence, safeguarding my class has become my duty.
However── that’s not my true self. My existence wasn’t the center of my class in the beginning.
If I had to say then I was a person who wouldn’t stand out.
In terms of C-Class, I think I was quite similar to Ayanokōji-kun, perhaps. That’s why I sometimes saw my former self in him.
But I changed. That incident happened, and it had forced me to change……
I had a friend who had a very good relationship with me since childhood. My friend and I were always in the same class, from kindergarten to junior high school.
That friend was bullied without my knowledge, and it led him to suicide attempt.
No, it was just a coincidence that he was survived. It wasn’t surprising even if he died.
That day. From that day on, my fate began to change.
I began to think about how to stop bullying.
But I failed. I suppressed my class in the wrong way.
The disputes within my class have ended, but at the same time, the smiling faces vanished from sight.
And now, the same situation is just about to happen again right in front of my eyes. I shouldn’t repeat the same mistake.
I finally arrived at one answer this time.
The only way I can safeguard my class. That’s──
What presented in front of my eyes were my classmates who showed their shocked expression.
“Horikita…… shut up your mouth for a moment.”
That remarks was irrational. My remarks were rude and offensive.
The voice that I uttered was neither anger nor sorrow.
My classmates, including Horikita-san, turned their curious sight towards me.
It doesn’t matter. I don’t care anymore, since it has come to this.
When the worst special exam was about to end.
I, I──