Outsider Syndrome | ✓

Hachiko Ending - "It's You"

These next two endings are written a bit differently from the main endings in the respect that obviously neither Hachi nor Leon actually confessed to Shiina. So there is a bit of developing their relationships first. In terms of Leon's ending which is just after this (cuz I double updated, again), I doubt any of you particularly care about his character but I at least wanted to flesh him out more. I originally had the idea to include him in the main harem but that didn't work out, so I'm just putting these ideas to use now lol.

They are written entirely in Shiina's POV and are in essence an extension of Chapter 40. They're also decently lengthy.

Let me know what you think! <3

(PS: I'll be publishing the last ending - Toru's - hopefully tomorrow ^^)

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~Eight Months Later~

Shiina Kisaragi's POV:

"The truth is, I. . . have somebody I already like. I'm touched you all feel this way about me, but I can't go out with any of you. I'm sorry."

Several months had passed since that fateful day.

Seasons passed in the blink of an eye.

And unfortunately for me, my love meter with him still sat at zero.

"Hachi!"

"I don't understand this. Can you help me?"

"Me next!"

He was a people person, a popular class figure. That I knew. Nevertheless, here I was being pettily jealous.

Hachi once told me I was special to him. That it was different from everyone else—I was different. I wanted to trust that. But, the insecure girl in love part of me honestly wished he wasn't so well-received.

Dissimilar to Naru who had piles of girls fawning over his existence, boys and girls alike naturally found it easy to socialize with Hachi. His outgoing personality broke boundaries in no time. I wasn't sure there was anybody who didn't hit it off with him in some way. Though, all of it was friendly—unromantic.

Therefore, rationally speaking, this jealousy was rootless. I knew that. I knew it, but. . .

"Shiina, you're gritting your teeth," Kiharu so kindly pointed out.

"Your forehead is wrinkled up, too," Tsumugi added.

Shoulders drooping I removed myself from the wall. My two best friends poked their heads into the hall I was intently surveying. Primarily, the crowd bombarding Hachi right by the exit of our classroom. They tossed question after question at him, to which he delightfully grinned and answered. One girl even had her hand wrapped way too intimately around his shoulder while she requested his undivided attention.

Tsumugi flickered her attention between a fuming me then him. "If you like him so much, why not confess?"

"Don't you think I've tried?" I whined. "It's not easy. He's unbelievably straightforward. So—so even when I told him I liked him last month, he just smiled and told me he likes me too."