At the sound of the teacher’s voice, the blond guy clicked his tongue and returned to his seat. The other five followed, throwing obvious glares my way as they did.
After that, when I tried to talk to the other classmates, they outright avoided me. Left with no choice, I ended up talking to the only exception, Adachi-san, for the rest of the day.
At first, Adachi-san was somewhat distant, but I quickly realized it wasn’t out of self-preservation, like the other classmates. She seemed more concerned about my wellbeing.
When I patiently continued engaging her in conversation, she eventually gave in and started talking about herself, the school, and other topics.
And now, the very next day, this was the situation.
It seemed I had officially joined Adachi-san in the "social outcasts" group.
“I’m really sorry…”
Adachi-san looked genuinely apologetic as she spoke.
It seemed she thought my comment about “yesterday’s incident” referred to my decision to talk to her.
I hurried to correct her misunderstanding.
“No, I wanted to talk to you—that was my decision. And my dumb comment yesterday was completely self-inflicted. You have nothing to apologize for.”
“But you just transferred here…”
“You’ve learned your lesson, haven’t you?”
The haughty voice interrupted from behind, and I reluctantly turned to see Sonoyama—Hime, as she was known—standing there with her five followers.
Hime glanced at Adachi-san’s smartphone, where the underground bulletin board post was still displayed, and smirked. She looked at me with obvious disdain and said,
“Well? If you grovel and apologize for yesterday, I might consider forgiving you.”
“Oh, Hime! Wouldn’t forgiving him for something so trivial be too lenient?”
“Totally. Oh, I know! Make him lick your shoes!”
“No, no, that might actually be a reward for him.”
“True. He totally looks like a virgin.”
“In that case, I say we make him apologize naked—full-on, bare-all groveling!”
Shut up already! You’re all so loud and annoying, like middle schoolers who can’t stop whining during exam prep.
Dealing with them felt tiresome, but since I had insulted her nickname, I decided to offer an apology.
“Well… I’ll admit it was wrong to make fun of your nickname. I didn’t know it was derived from your actual name and thought it was just something your group came up with to call you ‘princess.’ I had no intention of mocking your name. If my comment upset you, I apologize.”
I gave a light nod, though I didn’t grovel. Still, it was something of a gesture.
Sitting as I was, my apology was hardly the height of formality, and naturally, it wasn’t well received.
“Is that your idea of an apology? Are you mocking me?”
“No, that’s not what I meant…”
“Exactly! We told you to grovel!”
“Show some real sincerity! Hime is graciously offering you mercy, you pathetic little man!”
“Hey, transfer student. You’d better apologize properly while we’re still being nice about it, got it?”
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