Late June. Finals before summer break were closing in. After homeroom I was talking with my usual three.
“Finals have more subjects than midterms — it’s worse.”
“Right? Home ec and health don’t even count for entrance exams, why bother.”
“For school-rec admissions you need points in the side subjects too, so it’s important.”
“Yuito, you’re so diligent.”
We talked finals for a while and the conversation drifted.
“By the way, Yuito — how are things with Yuki-senpai?”
“Yeah, I was wondering too.”
“Any progress?”
“Progress or otherwise — same as ever, basically.”
“What? Nothing happened? I figured you’d be dating by now.”
“Kano-san sees me as a little-brother figure. Dating is impossible.”
“I thought she was very into you.”
“Yeah, the way she acts she’s definitely into Yuito.”
They were riffing freely. Their club time was approaching, so I said goodbye and left.
As I changed into outdoor shoes to leave, a familiar figure approached.
“Hey, Yuito. Later than usual.”
“I was talking with friends.”
“Hmm, okay.”
We started walking side by side. Maybe I was imagining it but the atmosphere was a little different.
“So where are we going?”
“Surprise — you’ll see when we’re there.”
“Nowhere weird, right?”
“Not weird, I promise.”
She smiled it normally — no teasing. Different from usual. We rode her bike a while and pulled up at a sports park.
“This is where the four of us used to play when we were kids.”
“You actually remember.”
“That much I’m not forgetting.”
The kids’ playground equipment hadn’t changed at all — felt very nostalgic. We’d grown too tall to use it now.
“There’s something I want to tell you.”
”…What’s up, suddenly?”
She had an unfamiliar serious look. Did she get a boyfriend? My chest ached at the thought.
“Let’s walk and talk.”
“Okay.”
We started walking through the park. After-school time, plenty of students around.
“Remember the time we went to that café and I told you you had good points Ayato doesn’t?”
“Right, you did say that.”
“Did you ever figure out what they were?”
“No, never.”
Did I really have anything my brother didn’t? If so, I wouldn’t be called the degraded version or lower-tier compatibility behind my back.
“Sure — Ayato beats you on grades, athletic ability, looks, I’ll grant that. But the strength of your heart — yours is overwhelmingly above his.”
”…Strength of my heart?”
I didn’t follow. She went on.
“Remember when I was in sixth grade — you came storming into my classroom?”
“How could I forget? It’s one of my dark-history moments.”
When I was in fourth grade, Kano was being bullied to the brink of refusing to go to school. I’d marched alone into the sixth-grade classroom to confront her tormentors.
She had plenty of friends — maybe it hadn’t been my place. But I couldn’t let those people get away with bullying her.
It was one against many, plus the size gap, and I got soundly beaten. The one redeeming thing: making a scene contributed to the bullying ending.
“You call it dark history, but I was thrilled — you were the only one who genuinely tried to help me. You were the only one who took action.”
“Glad I made a fool of myself for a good cause, then.”
“From that moment on — that’s when I fell in love with Kujo Yuito as a person.”
”…What?”
I doubted my ears.
(Probably the like in the friendship sense.) Then she continued without missing a beat.
“And by love, I mean it in the romantic sense, of course.”
“T-then your person you’ve loved for years…”
“That’s you, obviously.”
She said it without an ounce of hesitation. Too out-of-nowhere — my comprehension couldn’t keep up.
“I know you’re in love with Suzuno. So I’m not asking you to decide right now. But I’m going to make you fall for me.”
She declared it, looking right at me.