Hayashi Megumi and Friends
I was skimming through the page that Akari had found and shared with me.
The rough flow of the speech, as I gathered from reading the article, was…
First, introduce yourself. Then, praise the other person with an anecdote. Finally, celebrate their new beginning. All of it should be wrapped up concisely in about three to five minutes, something like that.
The two chatting over the computer were completely caught up in their own excitement.
Meanwhile, Akari and I were holding our heads in our hands, just the two of us.
“The self-introduction and the celebratory words are fine, I guess. But an anecdote, huh…”
Even though I understood the general flow, that didn’t mean everything would magically fall into place.
What kind of anecdote was I supposed to recall, anyway?
An anecdote about Hikari.
…What came to mind was…
Like, how she helped me with my studies.
Or how she gave me advice about love.
And then, recently, learning about Hikari’s feelings for Yamamoto.
“Meg, got any good anecdotes in mind?”
“Maybe the time she helped me with my studies?”
“That kinda makes Hikari sound like a total bookworm, don’t you think?”
“She wasn’t really that kind of bookworm, though, was she?”
Hikari always scored high on tests, but it’s not like she was the type to study all the time during class, breaks, or after school—not at all.
If anything, even right before a test, if we invited her to hang out, she’d always show up. She was probably just good at managing her time, which is why she did so well on tests.
“Should I talk about how Hikari’s super good at managing her time?”
“That’s… well, I kinda wanna see how that’d land with the crowd.”
Akari gave a wry smile.
I’d suggested it myself, but honestly, I was on the same page as Akari.
In other words, it sounded a little interesting, but we both knew it was a total no-go.
But that left us with… surprisingly few anecdotes about Hikari coming to mind.
We’d been friends since our first year, and our third year too. Plus, in our second year, we were in neighboring classes and hung out together quite a bit.
So, with over two years’ worth of memories, how was it that I couldn’t come up with a single good idea?
“Did I… maybe not think of Hikari as a real friend?”
Tears welled up slowly.
I felt guilty for not being able to come up with a good idea for Hikari’s speech, despite how kind she’d always been to me. I felt guilty for not being able to recall any decent memories.
“It’s okay, you know. It’s your first time doing something like this.”
Akari gently reassured me.
“But…”
“It’s fine. Meg, don’t you get why Hikari asked you to give the speech?”
I nodded silently.
“You’re hopeless, Meg.”
“…What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Because she loves you, silly.”
Akari gently patted my head.
“That’s why Hikari asked you to give the friend’s speech.”
“…Come on, really?”
“I don’t think Hikari asked you to give the speech just to make you cry, you know?”
I didn’t believe everything Akari was saying was exactly Hikari’s true feelings.
But some of it did make sense.
Hikari probably didn’t ask me to give the speech just to make me cry. I think that part’s true.
I wiped away my tears.
That’s when I noticed the two who’d been noisily chatting over the computer staring at me, startled.
Come to think of it, this might’ve been the first time I’d shown them my crying face.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to let you see me like this.”
“N-No, it’s not… right?”
“Yeah, if anything, we’re the ones who should apologize. We’ve just been chatting and not taking this seriously.”
“No, it’s okay… but, um, sorry. I know it’s a hassle, but I’d really appreciate your help.”
“Of course!”
“Yup, yup!”
From then on, we got serious about working on the speech.
