so i know we bunal nerds like to joke about ssc being the Mean Girls™ of the bungou world but like. you can't tell me that that much shade and backstabbing didn't have actually negative effects on the people involved

i get it. they were all a bunch of dumb simps. it's hilarious. but just like popular high school clique culture is mentally harmful to people, these people took every chance they could to ruin each other's personal, social, and academic lives

just look at kume. humiliated in front of not only his mentor, but also his mentor's whole family. even now scholars look at his life and his works and say that he can hardly be considered a writer at all compared to the others in the group

i'm not saying kume is entirely innocent either, naturally he did his own fair share of mean-girl-ism
but that's what this kind of friend setup does. everyone is oh so nice to each other's faces while secretly planning each other's demise.

ending this thread before i get jumped by people sick of hearing about this