Shinju rushed from behind me and quickly got in front of her boyfriend, extending her arms outwards as if to make her body seem bigger.
She didn't really need to do all that.
She was already "big" enough.
'If I really had intentions of beating this loser up... does she really think acting like a shield would stop me?'
I wanted to sigh and complain that it was unfair that my actions were being doubted, but once again, I understood how this misunderstanding could be made.
"I knew you were lying. I... I can't believe I even thought for a split second that you could change," she said with eyes that were quaking in fear, nervousness, but also anger.
"Shinju..." her boyfriend called her name in this quivering voice.
He looked like he was grateful and loving that he was being defended by his girlfriend, but at the same time, he was scared of the repercussions.
She turned around and said, "Put your money away. I'll deal with this."
'How?'
"H-how?" he verbalized what I was thinking.
She gave him this smile that seemed fake and had a tinge of guilt in it. "Don't worry. Just... just trust me."
Before I could react, she grabbed my wrist and began dragging me.
Obviously, with the size difference, if I wanted to resist, I could plant myself on the spot and not move a single inch, but I didn't do that.
Pulling me to the back of the building, she repeated this action of looking like she wanted to say something but stopped at the last second as if the courage she needed to express it wasn't there.
"Could you let go of my wrist now?" I asked her.
"Oh. Oh! Oh yeah. S-sorry," she said as she released it.
I was about to explain that she had misunderstood that I hadn't knocked over her weak boyfriend on purpose and that I was going to help him up, but for some reason, the words wouldn't come out of my mouth.
It was like me going out of my way to explain a misunderstanding that painted me as a good person was so out of character that my tongues tied on their own.
'Interesting,' I thought to myself. 'Does that mean I can't do things like donate to charity? Or could I perhaps do it if I justify it with some evil reason like tax evasion...'
I already knew that there were influences from the previous owner of this body, but I didn't realize that I was also soft-locked into certain things.
"Does your boyfriend have no balls? Why do you have to defend him? Is he even a man at this point?" I asked her, and the words flowed out so naturally, and my chest felt lighter than ever, as if I had finally let out a breath of air I'd been holding in for a long time.
"D-don't talk about him like that," she retorted. "I knew you were a liar. I'm... I'm tired of you bullying him."
She nervously gulped, and I could visibly see her mustering up this gust of courage she needed to say these next words:
"You're a big man, right? Aren't you ashamed of picking on people smaller than you? What? A-are you too scared to pick on someone your own size?"
'She looks like a kitten desperately trying to act like a lion,' I laughed inside my head while keeping a straight face externally.
Shaking my head, I said, "I wasn't bullying him, but even if I was... nah. I'm not ashamed of it."
In my response, I was able to get out the words informing her that it was a misunderstanding without coming out too goody-two-shoes, so the restrictions didn't apply.
My theory seemed to be correct.
"I... I see," she muttered to herself.
There was a hesitation in her body behavior, as if she didn't know whether it was the right thing to proceed or to retreat.
"If that's all, then I'm going to go. I got better shit to do than entertain you," I said as I began turning around.
But before I could leave, the sleeve of my jacket was pulled.
"Don't bother my boyfriend anymore. Just leave him alone and act like he doesn't exist," she said.
"I already said what I said. I'm not going to repeat myself over and over," I rolled my eyes as I was about to continue walking.
However, her hand grasped on my sleeve pulled me in the opposite direction I was heading in.
And the pulling didn't stop. She continued pulling, leading me somewhere.
I had a feeling where this was going, and although I didn't particularly want to take advantage of her (especially considering the fact that I had zero plans of bullying her boyfriend), my feet didn't stop following the direction I was being led in.
She brought me all the way to the bus stop.
I asked her, "What are we doing here?"
"I... I'm taking you to my apartment," she responded in a voice as quiet as a mouse.