Leaving it to Haruko
Truthfully, bringing Kanzaki here could be akin to torture. She was somewhat hopeful that we’d be alone somewhere and continue our talk from before. However, this was necessary. In her case, at least.
Before Haruko started, I leaned down and whispered something to Kanzaki, calming her down.
It’s a simple message.
“Don’t worry, everyone here will only listen and not judge you at all. Myself included. And if you can’t muster the courage to pull everything out in the open, just tell me. I’ll get you out of here.”
“You’re cruel, Onoda-kun…” That’s all she could reply but the shakiness of her eyes diminished to almost unnoticeable.
For sure, she’s thinking deep inside about whether this was necessary or not. There’s the option to reject her completely and be done with this. But why should I do that?