Prologue (chapter 1)

It takes time to build trust, but it only takes a moment to break it.

It’s a common saying, but I’ve never believed it. I had a group of childhood friends that I had been close to since kindergarten. There were two boys and two girls, including me, and we were always together until we were in elementary school.

When we became junior high school students and joined club activities, we were not always together, but on days off from club activities, we were still together. I thought our friendship would last forever.

However, the friendship that we had nurtured for more than 10 years was only moments away from falling apart.

One day on my way home from club activities, I happened to be riding the train alone. It was rush hour, and the train was crowded.

As I was thinking that I should have moved the time, a junior high school girl in front of me suddenly grabbed my hand and said.

“This man is a molester.”

I promise you, I was not the molester. When I got off the train and was seized and taken to the police station, I was optimistic that it was just a misunderstanding and that I would soon find out that it was all a misunderstanding.

But that was not the case. No matter how much I said I didn’t do it, the police, my family, friends, and club mates didn’t believe me.

I was labeled as a perpetrator and became the most hated person in school.

Only my childhood friends were on my side, but one day I heard that they suspected me too. I was so stunned that I ran home.

When I got home, I collapsed on the couch. I was watching TV when I heard a news story that caught my attention. It was about a famous athlete who had an affair.

Until then, I didn’t think anything of it when I saw similar news, but when I saw athletes being criticized as if they had never achieved anything before, I realized something. The trust I had built over the years was only moments away from being destroyed.

Cheating is bad, yes. The athlete denies it, but no one seems to believe him. And not long ago, I wouldn’t have believed it either. Then I remembered my current situation and smiled.

I used to wonder why no one believed in me, but you can’t understand how painful this is until you are a part of it.

Before this happened to me, I would have blamed them as a matter of course, and I wouldn’t have believed them either.

When I thought about it, I could forgive those who didn’t believe in me. Because I wouldn’t have believed it either until I was involved.

Will this athlete ever be able to regain their trust? No matter how much he accomplishes in the future, I have a feeling that this incident will haunt him for a long time.

It makes me wonder if it is necessary to regain his trust. It’s obviously not worth the effort.

No matter how long it takes to build trust, it only takes a split second for it to break down, and it takes even longer to regain it. So why build trust in the first place?

I don’t resent the people who didn’t believe in me anymore. I just need to build a relationship with them that is not too blunt. Then I won’t get hurt.

I don’t want to build trust anymore.

A while later, one day, a female student whom I had allegedly molested was falsely accused of molestation.

Many people came to apologize, and I forgave them all. So that was the end of it.

I’ve stopped building trust, and no matter what they say now, it won’t touch my heart.