Feb 22, 2026
To:Eytha
No, it won't distract. From my perspective as a reader, I kind of want to know what exactly is Hiroshi taking the fall for, if you know what I mean. He decides to take the blame for his two friends and get expelled in their place, and it's like, "why would he do that? Just what did they do to warrant such a severe punishment?"
It lets us, the readers, understand what's at stake here and close the distance with the characters, because if we're missing these details, it feels more detached and we're more confused than emotional, if you get my meaning. Instead of thinking, "Yeah, Hiroshi is a great friend!" we'll be focusing on "hey, what the hell is he being expelled for? This does't seem fair." The missing detail distracts us more, actually.
Maybe an example will help explain this further. Say you see a soldier being commended for his bravery and awarded a medal. Yes, the point is that he's brave, but we as the readers want to know how exactly he demonstrated his bravery. "He saved his comrades." But how? You can simply dismiss it as "well, the point is to explain that he's brave and why his comrades respect him" but it doesn't really endear the readers to anything. Now, if you tell me, "he took a bullet when the enemy is shooting" you get a clearer picture. Now you know why he's brave.
Here, we know he saves them from expulsion, but if you hint at us why he's getting expelled (i.e. the girls' changing room) we get a clearer picture of Hiroshi. He's not just saving his friends, he's also ready to sacrifice his reputation for them and be branded a pervert if necessary, and that speaks a lot about his character. Those qualities aren't something you need to explicitly state - just from mentioning what he's taking the fall for alone, we can infer that. I think it adds a lot more value, not distract. Lack of detail distracts us with unwanted questions, actually.
