“Uh… wait, huh? Why’s Kiritsuki-san here with us?”
“What? Is that a problem?”
“I don’t mind, but will you really have fun hanging out with three guys?”
“Tomiya, check out the study room.”
I walked down the hall with Kiritsuki and Tomiya, heading to the study room where I was supposed to meet Souma.
Originally, I’d planned to spend lunch break with just Souma and Tomiya, but this time, Kiritsuki tagged along.
And when we entered the study room—
“Oh, Kaname’s here too, huh?”
“Wait, Sakuna’s here as well?”
“…That’s an unusual group.”
At Souma’s murmur, Tomiya and I exchanged wry smiles in agreement.
Thanks to Kiritsuki dragging me out for a change of pace yesterday, my heart felt calmer, but I still hadn’t talked to Kaori.
I’d already planned to spend this lunch break in the study room with Tomiya and Souma, but for some reason, Kiritsuki came along, and Yamabuki was already waiting there.
“Well, isn’t it nice to mix things up once in a while?”
When Tomiya said that with a refreshing smile, the other three seemed to agree, and they all started eating lunch casually in the study room.
For a while, the atmosphere was peaceful, and it felt like one of those ordinary, everyday moments—until…
“…By the way, my childhood friend confessed to me.”
“Pfft!?”
“Guh, cough cough…!”
“Huh?”
Souma’s sudden murmur completely changed the air in the study room.
“…What are you guys doing?”
Caught off guard by his words, Tomiya, who was sitting on the windowsill drinking a sports drink, sprayed it everywhere, while I choked spectacularly.
Kiritsuki looked genuinely surprised, glancing between me and Souma, while Yamabuki, who knew nothing, stared at our flustered reactions with exasperation.
I almost blurted out to Souma, “How do you know about that?” but before I could, Tomiya, with a look of shock, pressed him.
“Didn’t Chino-san already have a boyfriend!?”
“No way, really? But that vibe between them…”
“Wait, who are we talking about?”
Why does it feel like things are spiraling into chaos?
The “Chino” Tomiya mentioned was that college-aged, beautiful girl we met at the sports festival. Her name was Chino Misora, if I recall correctly.
She’s someone I’m vaguely connected to, but I barely know her.
Apparently, Chino Misora is Souma’s childhood friend, and she confessed to him, but when I talked to her, she mentioned having a boyfriend.
That’s why Tomiya was so shocked—he knew about it.
Yamabuki had seen Chino Misora at the sports festival but probably didn’t know she had a boyfriend.
As for Kiritsuki, she seemed to think I’d told Souma about Kaori confessing to me.
Sorting through the mess in my head, I turned to Souma.
“So, what happened?”
“…Nothing really came of it. Honestly, I don’t know much about her anymore.”
Chino-san—she was trying to rebuild her relationship with a childhood friend who’d lost their memories.
I wouldn’t say she was desperate, but I remember she seemed determined to do something about it.
“Hey, Himura-kun, what’s going on here?”
Suddenly, Kiritsuki leaned closer to me.
Since she didn’t know Souma’s situation, I explained the whole thing: what happened at the sports festival, the connection between Chino Misora and Souma, and what I’d heard from Tomiya.
After listening, Kiritsuki put a hand to her chin, lost in thought, before muttering softly.
“…It’s kind of like your situation… isn’t it?”
She dropped a bombshell of her own.
It feels like a stretch, but in the sense of being hurt physically or emotionally because of a childhood friend, I guess you could say there’s a similarity.
If anything, it’s more like the relationship Kaori has with me, or the one Yamabuki has with Tomiya’s childhood friend.
“Hm? Did something happen with you, Himura?”
Yamabuki suddenly asked, catching my attention.
“Oh, that’s—”
“Huh?”
Wait, is she really going to talk about that? Before I could stop her, Kiritsuki quickly summarized what I’d told her on the rooftop.
How Hino Hana confessed her feelings to me after the sports festival.
How, right after that, Kiritsuki subtly showed her own affection.
How Kaori, seeing Hino Hana’s bold moves and Kiritsuki’s casual approaches, couldn’t hold back her own feelings and confessed, opening up about our past.
How Kaori revealed that I’d been bullied.
How the bullying started because of Kaori’s presence, which became a huge complex for me.
She didn’t mention how I broke down crying on the rooftop or our conversation at the beach yesterday, though…
“Hey, Kaname, hold on!”
Everyone listened with complicated expressions, but as soon as Kiritsuki finished, Tomiya immediately rushed over.
“What’s wrong? It’s not that…”
“Was there, like, a ‘ringleader’ among the people who bullied you?”
“Huh? Well, it’s not like there wasn’t one, but…”
“What was your impression of them?”
“Impression? Uh, let’s see…”
“““—An honest-looking guy with glasses.”“”
The three of us—me, Tomiya, and Souma—said it in perfect unison.
Tomiya brought it up, but why Souma too? When I glanced at him—
“That guy… he was Chino’s boyfriend.”
No way, that can’t be true. But the fact is, we all described the same traits.
That’s how strong an impression those characteristics left on us.
Thinking of that guy’s face, someone I hadn’t seen in ages, suddenly made me feel sick.
“…Himura-kun… you look pale.”
“Kamase Toru, right?”
Just hearing his name made me instinctively cover my mouth, feeling like I might throw up what I’d just eaten.
Swallowing the rising bile, my throat burned with a prickling pain.
No way. I never imagined I’d hear that name in a place like this.
“The reason Chino broke up with him…”
Souma suddenly picked up the earlier conversation.
“She said she saw him run into some old friends while they were on a date, and they got excited talking about a classmate they used to bully…”
Oh, that’s probably… about me.
“Ugh, what? That guy’s a total jerk. She was dating someone like that? Unbelievable.”
“…And he’s the reason Souma quit baseball, isn’t he?”
Tomiya added, revealing something Yamabuki didn’t know.
When I looked up, starting to calm down, Tomiya had a wicked grin I’d never seen before, like he was plotting something.
“Rikuto, you’re not thinking of doing something weird, are you?”
Souma, clearly thinking the same as me, warned him.
“…Not really? Just wondering when we’ll face him at next month’s prefectural tournament. He was on the bench last year… This summer’s tournament should be fun.”
“…Do whatever you want, but how did you figure it out?”
“Their methods are similar. I have a friend from my Little League days who goes to the same high school as Kamase…”
As he spoke, Rikuto pulled out his smartphone and started looking something up.
“Apparently, he used to mess with guys who had cute girlfriends by isolating them. Kamase is popular, smart, good at sports like baseball, and great at rallying people to his side… or so I’ve heard.”
“He was always crazy athletic back then… and yeah, everyone always took his side.”
“Look, this is him, right?”
He showed us footage from last summer’s high school baseball prefectural championship.
A first-year pitcher on the mound for some high school team.
Fairly tall, handsome with sports glasses, giving off a kind vibe—definitely the type who’d be popular with girls.
“He hasn’t changed much from back then…”
I muttered without thinking, and Kiritsuki, who was supporting my shoulder, let out a small gasp.
“Oh! I know him…! He was hitting on Kaori at last summer’s festival!”
With his good looks, it seems even Kiritsuki remembered him.
“Kaori brushed him off coldly, which I thought was unusual for an old acquaintance, but… now it makes sense.”
Since we all live in the same general area, it’s not surprising we’d run into him somewhere. His striking looks make him memorable.
“Rikuto, the tournament’s next month, right?”
“Yeah, mid-July or so.”
“…Don’t you dare lose. Don’t even let that guy get on base.”
“Got it. I won’t bean him or anything.”
That scheming grin from earlier makes me doubt him, but surely he’ll prioritize winning at the tournament.
With that, the conversation about Kamase ended for now. Yamabuki, who’d been listening quietly, suddenly turned to me with a question.
“—So, have you talked to Nanami-san since then?”
“Not yet… I want to talk properly before thinking about the future, but—”
For some reason, my little sister’s been down, and Hino Hana hasn’t responded to my messages.
I’m supposed to see her tomorrow at kagura dance practice, but I’m not even sure she’ll show up.
Until this morning, I was determined to talk today, but this isn’t something to discuss at school.
Even if I try to talk after school, Kaori’s busy with student council stuff. Just earlier, as soon as lunch started, she was whisked away by a classmate.
“…What’s the student council even doing during lunch?”
Souma, who’d been listening intently, asked.
“Probably preparing for the school open house. Nanami-san’s only temporary, though…”
Yamabuki answered.
But Tomiya quickly added,
“No, Nanami-san’s officially joined the student council now. They’ve added a few others too, apparently. Miyajima-san mentioned it.”
I glanced at Kiritsuki, but she shook her head, clearly unaware of this.
“Then for now, I guess I’ll have to talk to Hino Hana tomorrow.”
“…Maybe I’ll try talking to Chino again tomorrow too.”
Souma said, checking the time and standing up.
“I’ve got a class to get to, so I’m heading back. Thanks for the talk today.”
“Yeah, last time we left it vague, but let’s actually hang out, just the three of us, sometime soon.”
“Oh, right, we talked about that. Both of you, keep your schedules open, okay? I want to do it before the tournament starts.”
Tomiya stood up too, and Yamabuki’s expression as she watched him leave was a bit complicated. Souma seemed to notice, shrugging as he left the study room.
“…Guess I’m the only one who’s hopeless.”
Yamabuki muttered softly, slumping her shoulders as she trudged out of the study room.
And just like that, Kiritsuki and I were left alone in the study room.
We looked at each other for a moment, and for some reason, Kiritsuki smiled.
That smile made me feel an intense pang of guilt.
“…Hey, I’m sorry. To you too, Kiritsuki… I mean, I haven’t been able to give you an answer or anything.”
Kiritsuki kept smiling and shook her head.
“It’s okay. For now, focus on your two childhood friends, alright? Kaori’s important to me too, and while I don’t know Hino Hana, she must be someone special if you admire her so much.”
It doesn’t feel quite right to call it kindness.
Maybe… acceptance is the better word.
It felt like Kiritsuki was genuinely taking in my words and feelings.
“I’m still just a friend, after all.”
Before, Kiritsuki had said she “wasn’t satisfied with just being friends.”
So what do I want my relationship with her to be?
What kind of relationship do I want with Kaori, or with Hino Hana?
The answer didn’t feel all that far away.
★Excuses──────────────────
I genuinely want to apologize, but please let me make some excuses first.
※Readers who don’t know what this is about, feel free to skip this part.
Normally, I write at night, post manually at exactly midnight when the day changes, and share it on X (formerly Twitter) too.
But for chapters 31 and 32, I was working outside in bad weather, writing during breaks and at night.
Looking back, since I post one chapter a day, I didn’t need to schedule chapter 32, but I was so exhausted and sleepy that I gave up on posting to X manually, set both chapters 31 and 32 to schedule, and went to bed.
Seriously, I was so tired that I woke up with a fever.
When I woke up, I realized chapter 31 hadn’t posted, but chapter 32 had. Confused, I checked and saw I’d set the posting dates backward.
There was absolutely no intent behind it—I just messed up spectacularly. I usually avoid scheduling posts because I rarely use X in daily life, and manual posting helps me remember to share on X. Scheduling makes me careless, leading to mistakes like this.
So, chapters 31 and 32 ended up posting on the same day.
I know this caused confusion for readers who read right after posting, and I feel terrible about it.
I’m really sorry…
If you’ve read this far, I’d be thrilled if you’d reread from around chapter 30.
And I’d be even more grateful if you could save your comments about Kamase Toru-kun for his next appearance.
