Chương 165: Whispers
Author's Note: This chapter contains strong depictions of bullying and slut-shaming in a close perspective. Some readers may find this content disturbing.
Ranko steeled herself, looking at the door leading from her home skills classroom out into the hallway. Everyone else in her class had already left the room, but she still found herself searching for the courage to walk the halls. Mr. Iwato's fifth period science class was on the other end of the campus, so it was a pretty long walk. Most days, that wasn't a big deal at all.
This wasn't most days.
She took a deep breath, turned the doorknob, and pulled, stepping into the hall.
"Did you hear? Ranko and Eiji got engaged!"
"Her parents probably set the whole thing up. Eiji's family's pretty well off."
"I bet it was on Christmas Eve. How romantic…"
"There she is! Shut up, shut up, she's coming!"
"Housa said she ran out of first period because she was getting sick. That can only mean one thing."
"So soon. She really moved fast. After how hard we all tried. Wonder what she did to him?"
"The ring is tiny. I would have said no."
"Whatever it was, can she do it to me next?"
"I can't believe it! Who are we all going to crush on now?"
"Yeah, No doubt about it. There's no other explanation. She got pregnant."
"I mean, she's half his height. That puts it, like, right in her face. You figure out the rest."
"Do you think she's going to take his family name?"
"Fuck, do you think she heard me?"
"I hope they get married this spring. Spring weddings are so pretty."
"I'd never even seen her ask a guy out before. I kinda thought she might be gay."
"You think she'll finish school? Or drop out to focus on bridal training?"
"500 yen says the baby's gonna be a girl. Any takers?"
"No way, man. She's too hot to be gay. The gods aren't that cruel."
"You think she'll keep doing cheerleading? Now that she caught a stud, I mean?"
"I bet Ranko and Eiji's sister Fumiko are totally gonna be besties."
"What a slut. They've only been together what, two months?"
"No chance. By the start of baseball season, she'll be what, six, seven months along? She couldn't possibly do stunts like that."
"I heard she works in a bar. I bet she got him drunk."
"Think she'll keep it?"
"Or maybe he got her drunk? Somebody was definitely drunk."
"What if it's not even his? With girls like that, you never can tell."
"I'm going to buy her lunch every day this week. Maybe she'll name the baby after me. You think?"
"Fuckin' cheerleaders, taking all the hot guys. Save some for us!"
"Man, this sucks. I was gonna ask her out next week. She's totally into me."
"I saw them fighting in the cafeteria before break. I bet she got knocked up just to force him not to dump her."
"You think they'll do a western style wedding? I bet Ranko could really rock a kimono."
"Oh, no question. He barely even spoke to her most days. Guess her brain wasn't really what he wanted, huh?"
"Do you think she cried? Do you think he did?"
"I mean, I doubt it. But that ass? That's worth the headache."
"Do you think her parents know? Does she even have parents? They didn't come to parents' night. Maybe they were just embarrassed."
"Do you know if she has a sister?"
"Typical. The jock and the ditzy, stuck-up bitch. Had to see this coming."
"He's so much bigger than her. How does that even work? She's lucky it didn't come out her mouth."
"So much for a singing career. No way she can tour with a baby."
"Who knows, maybe it did!"
"It happened on Christmas? I guess Santa really did bring Eiji a ho, ho, ho."
"I guess she made something Rise…"
"I told you she was easy. I slept with her twice before the school year started. Now do you believe me?"
"I mean, of course he moved fast to put a ring on her. Have you not seen her in her cheerleading uniform, man?"
"Fucking whore."
"Eiji's so lucky. Those cookies she made in home skills last week? Oh my gods."
"It's not fair! Eiji and I were going to be together any day, I was sure of it. But then some new girl with perfect tits shows up and… eugh!"
"Figures. Spreads her legs and she gets whatever she wants."
"Yeah, I'm sure it's her cooking he's interested in."
"The cheerleading squad is so screwed. She'll be trying to do flips and puking everywhere."
"Seriously, how little must a girl respect herself to let a guy do that to her so soon in a relationship?"
"...tramp…"
"... slut …"
"... gold-digger …"
"... knocked-up…"
"... easy …"
"... whore …"
"... her life is over…"
Ranko slammed and locked the door of the ladies' bathroom, slumping her back against it to shut the world out and sliding down until her backside reached the floor. She crammed her fingers in her ears and began to sob. She hadn't even made it halfway to Mr. Iwata's classroom yet.
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
AnneOminous
AnneOminous Sorry for the goofy formatting here - WebNovel apparently doesn't support text alignment, and the idea that the words are coming from everywhere at once and with several conversations happening all around here were pretty vital to the presentation of this chapter.
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