“Librarian, is something wrong?” Hina Mizuno stepped out and asked cautiously.

“Are these two your classmates?”

Hina heard the anger in his voice and worried she might lose her job.

“They… are indeed my classmates, but I didn’t tell them to do this.”

Though reluctant to admit it, the fact that Yohei Takagi and Tatsuya Inoue were truly her classmates made her explanation sound hollow. All Hina could do was hope the librarian would believe her.

“Since they’re your classmates, ask them to leave.”

The librarian seemed to hear only her first words, ignoring her plea. He turned and walked away, leaving Hina standing helplessly before Yohei and Tatsuya.

“Mizuno, are you really kicking us out?” Yohei asked, feigning innocence.

“Takagi, Inoue… could you please leave?” Hina summoned every ounce of courage—for the sake of her part-time job. The outcome was obvious: they’d never obey her.

“Mizuno, you know what we want. Agree, and we leave immediately.”

Yohei and Tatsuya dropped their masks again, revealing their true intent.

Hina suddenly felt exhausted. She’d always been unlucky. No one ever helped her. She even wondered if this suffering was her fate—something she was never meant to resist.

“Let’s talk outside.”

Just saying that proved she’d already relented. They followed without protest; their business wasn’t meant for public ears.

“If… if I give each of you… 5,000 yen… will you leave me alone?”

After speaking, Hina felt a strange sense of relief. Yohei and Tatsuya burst into mocking laughter.

“If you’d agreed the first time, 10,000 yen would’ve been enough,” Tatsuya said, sidestepping her question. “But you let Genno stick his nose in. You should’ve known it’d get messy.”

Hina wasn’t naive—she knew they wouldn’t let her go easily. Yet she had no room to refuse. Giving in now meant endless demands. She’d become their ATM, living for others again.

She’d barely escaped that place that wasn’t a “home,” determined to live for herself. Four hours of work after school each day just to scrape by… yet reality kept crushing her.

Her labor wasn’t just survival—it was for her dreams. But now, those dreams felt foolish. All effort futile. All hope shattered.

She was tired. Truly, deeply tired. No longer willing to endure.

Sometimes… giving up was a choice.

“I won’t give you any money!”

Yes. This was Hina’s choice. Refusing them meant abandoning school life and her job—but better than becoming a puppet. She’d run far away.

She’d once wanted to graduate, to keep those memories. But recent days weighed on her like a mountain. If anything held her back from leaving Saitama Sakae School—or this city—it was a boy she’d only just met. That fragile, uneasy feeling would stay buried deep forever.

“Mizuno, have you lost your mind?” Tatsuya was baffled. Why refuse them… and with relief on her face?

“I’m serious. I won’t give you money!”

With nothing left to lose, Hina no longer feared them. It felt surreal—refusing these delinquents. Maybe… thanks to a certain former delinquent’s influence.

But refusal meant losing her final year of school. And possibly never seeing him again.

“Then don’t blame us for—”

“You’re wasting your breath,” Hina cut in. “I’ll quit both jobs and leave school. Give up.”

Her resolve stunned them. They couldn’t accept their sure thing slipping away.

“Mizuno, you don’t need to drop out,” Yohei said gently, forcing a smile—too fake to soothe. Tatsuya mimicked him, trying to placate her.

“If 5,000 yen each is too much, we can discount it.”

Hina knew they just didn’t want to leave empty-handed. If she quit, they gained nothing. But she was done.

“I won’t give you money!”

She turned and walked back into the library, done listening. If they followed to cause trouble, she’d resign on the spot.

What Hina didn’t know was this: her resolve had also steeled theirs.