“Aoi, just to check, but…”
“I’ve never heard anything about Tomiya being bad with girls.”
“…Yeah, right.”
Souma murmurs softly, nodding to himself as if convinced.
Despite all the talk, whining in this study room isn’t going to change anything.
Yamabuki probably knows that too. Calming down from her earlier frenzy, she gazes blankly at the sky by the window.
“Come to think of it, Aoi, you’ve got a childhood friend too, right?”
“…If you’re gonna say that, so do you, Souma.”
They’ve never talked about what kind of person that friend is.
The reason is that both of them feel a wall between themselves and their childhood friends.
They used to think it was rare to have a close opposite-sex friend from childhood, but the world is surprisingly small.
Or perhaps, as the convenient saying goes, like attracts like…
Would it be okay to ask now?
“Souma, what’s your childhood friend like?”
“I was gonna ask you first, you know…”
Souma gives a wry smile but soon lets out a sigh.
“Apparently, she was in a car accident when she was little and doesn’t have any memories from before she was ten. So I have no idea what kind of kid she was.”
“That’s… I heard about that before. Her one eye’s got some nerve damage, so she can’t see, right?”
“Yeah, light gets in, so she can vaguely make out outlines, though.”
Souma’s athletic ability is above average, but he doesn’t join any clubs.
The reason is the visual impairment he’s dealing with.
Even if it’s not a handicap for his excellence, he once mentioned that it doesn’t motivate him, or so I recall hearing.
“Her name’s Chino Misora, a girl. She goes to a different high school but lives in this town.”
“Chino… Chino?”
“Oh, she’s studying music, apparently.”
I’ve never heard of that girl’s name.
But actually, I know someone named Chino Naomi, a gagaku musician who plays the sō—you know, the koto, the traditional Japanese zither.
And I heard her daughter is also practicing the koto. I have a clear memory of seeing her, tucked away in the corner of my mind. She was at the New Year’s shrine visit this year, I’m pretty sure.
“If I remember right, she’s got long hair down to her waist, kinda tall…”
“What… you know her?”
Souma narrows his eyes suspiciously, so I shake my head.
“No, I know her mom through some connection… I don’t know the girl at all, but she was stunning, so I remember her face.”
At first glance, she had a mature vibe, like a college girl, but now that I think about it, her fox-like face was similar to Kiritsuki’s.
Though her features seemed a bit more youthful than Kiritsuki’s, that kind of beauty, I think.
“You’ve got a thing for that, don’t you?”
“Hm?”
“Nothing. I mean, if someone’s good-looking, they naturally catch your eye and stick in your memory, right?”
“Not really. I forget plenty of pretty faces. I just remembered her because she’s my type.”
Also because Naomi-san is beautiful and looks a lot like her, but yeah, it’s true that good looks leave an impression.
“…Figured as much.”
Sure, I thought she was beautiful, but as a dancer, I could hardly approach her, and since I’m just looking, that’s why I can casually say, “She was a pretty girl.”
“…So, how much do you still hang out with her after she lost her memories?”
“Not at all. For some reason, there was a three-year gap before we met again after her memory loss… but apparently, my personality’s different from how it used to be, and it threw her off. We’ve been distant ever since.”
“See that, Yamabuki?”
“What…?”
“If you reunited with a childhood friend who got into an accident, forgot you, and even had a different personality… how would you feel?”
The odds of facing a situation like that in life are probably slim to none. But right in front of us is a friend who’s lived it.
And both Yamabuki and I have childhood friends.
It’s not something we can just brush off as someone else’s problem.
Yamabuki thinks for a moment, then shrugs and answers.
“I’d try to act cool when we reunited. Then… when I got back to my room, I might pull out my kindergarten album and flip through it. Probably end up crying alone. That’s me, anyway. Back in elementary school, I already liked Rikuto.”
I can’t even imagine how Chino-san felt when they reunited. I mean, I’m not a girl…
Besides, if Kaori forgot me, the emotional damage would hit my parents and little sister harder than me. If that happened, I’d probably be too busy supporting my family to think about much else.
Going by Yamabuki’s imagination, it’d require the premise of being in love with your childhood friend.
“…I just don’t get what it’s like to fall for your childhood friend…”
“By the way, who’s your childhood friend, Aoi?”
“Nanami Kaori.”
When I say her name, Souma’s narrowed eyes slowly widen.
“For real?”
Yamabuki speaks up first.
“…I wish it was a lie, too.”
“No, I don’t think you’re lying or anything. I mean, we can confirm it with her directly.”
“Nanami-san… huh. I can’t picture it at all…”
“What was the old Nanami-san like?”
It’s a bit tricky when you ask what she was like.
I don’t think she’s changed all that much from back then.
“Pretty much the same as now… but maybe a lot more clingy. When I see how close she is with Kiritsuki, it sometimes reminds me of the old days.”
And then I end up feeling a bit sour about it, every time.
“Talking about the past… doesn’t put me in a great mood. I get jealous and feel inferior, and I end up hating myself.”
I say it with an unspoken plea not to press further.
“Yeah, having someone so talented close by can make you feel all sorts of lousy. I kinda get that.”
Yamabuki mutters lightly and turns her gaze back to the window.
I don’t know what made her agree with my words.
But even though she’s surely hurting inside herself, the fact that she’s kind enough to offer support for my whiny complaints leaves Souma and me in awe of her character.
By the time I return to the classroom, the news that Tomiya Rikuto and Hachijou Yonagi have become a couple has spread like wildfire through the school.
I don’t know if it’s because of Yamabuki’s outburst, but even just minutes before lunch break ends, Tomiya, the center of the gossip, is surrounded by classmates near the lockers.
Kaori’s in that circle, but Kiritsuki and Miyajima are quietly staying at their desks.
“Oh, Himura-kun, did you hear?”
“Yeah, I heard.”
“It’s wild, right? Getting confessed to by the person you like?”
“…Now that you mention it…”
That’s probably the most likely scenario… isn’t it?
Yamabuki was so unhinged that I completely forgot, but he did say before that he had someone he liked.
I could doubt whether that was true, but there’s no end to that kind of skepticism…
And Yamabuki was furious, yelling, “Why is Rikuto just accepting it like it’s no big deal?!”
Plus, Yamabuki mentioned that Tomiya’s bad with girls.
Being bad with girls doesn’t mean you can’t fall in love.
Rejecting someone once doesn’t mean you don’t like them.
“It’s common in fiction, but in real life, it’s pretty rare for two people who both have a crush on each other to end up together.”
“…You hear about people dating on a whim or giving in after being pursued relentlessly, but yeah, the ‘we were secretly in love’ thing isn’t something you hear often.”
If that’s the case, maybe Tomiya rejected the confession of the person he liked because he was afraid his discomfort with girls might make them dislike him.
Either way, it seems Tomiya accepted Hachijou-san’s feelings after she chased him all the way to high school and confessed again.
“…Seeing stuff like that makes me think, ‘Having a partner would be nice…’”
“Then just get one. Give it a shot.”
“Eh? I don’t have anyone right now. Probably not in this school…”
Her words carry a certain implication.
Come to think of it, Kiritsuki’s got someone she fell for at first sight, I remind myself.
There are probably things she’s better off not realizing. Like the fact that the person she’s smitten with is standing right in front of her.
“Oh, by the way, Kaori was asking Tomiya-kun a bunch of stuff with this super serious look on her face.”
“And?”
“I was just thinking, maybe she’s got someone she’s interested in?”
“That could happen sometimes, I guess.”
Right now, I really couldn’t care less about Kaori.
And personally, I’m not all that interested in Tomiya or his new girlfriend, Hachijou-san, either.
What’s really important right now is Yamabuki, who’s pretty shaken up after taking a big emotional hit.
Of course, part of it is because she’s a dear friend.
But more than that, I can’t just ignore her situation—a one-sided rift in a childhood friendship—because it feels too close to home.
I bet Souma brought up our childhood friends for the same reason.
From Kaori’s perspective, there’s probably not a single issue between us.
But from my point of view, it’s no exaggeration to say there’s a massive wall separating me from Kaori.
The same thing applies to Yamabuki and Tomiya now.
For Tomiya, she’s still just his childhood friend, no different from before. But for Yamabuki, she’s become something like an unattainable, lofty existence.
That sense of déjà vu makes it impossible for me to call it someone else’s problem.
…But there’s a difference.
For Yamabuki, the rift, the wall-like barrier that formed today—she probably wants to overcome it.
But I’ve never once thought about crossing or breaking down the barrier I built between me and Kaori.
That’s why I probably can’t do much.
Still, Yamabuki will surely try to move forward. It’s more than I can handle, but I have to support her as much as I can.
That’s probably what being a friend is all about.
☆Afterword──────────────────
Nanami-san must feel like it’s not just someone else’s problem either. I wonder what she’s asking Tomiya-kun about.
We hit ☆2000 faster than I expected.
And we reached 5000 followers too. But where’s the big milestone for followers, anyway…?
With July approaching, we’re climbing the monthly rankings as well.
All I can say is thank you—I’ve got nothing else!
