Turning as red as a tomato, she pushed herself away from Icchi. “Wh-What’d you do that for?!” she yelled. “I opened my eyes because of that! I wasn’t done yet!”
Icchi was at a loss. “Eh, b-but...”
It was only natural. I was sure that anyone would hold out their hand in an instant if somebody stumbled like that in front of them. It could’ve been me or Nisshi in front of her, or any of the girls, of course, and they would’ve done the same. In fact, I’d have a problem with someone who chose to avoid her instead of holding out a hand.
None of that seemed to matter to Tanikita-san, however...
“Wh-What is wrong with you?! You’re tall, good-looking, good at games, and even nice to girls?! You’re seriously the worst guy I’ve ever seen!” she whined.
“What’s bad about any of those things?” asked Runa.
“She’s not talking trash about him at all,” added Yamana-san.
They both looked amazed by Tanikita-san’s behavior.
“She compliments him so much and he doesn’t notice... How, Ijichi-kun...?” said Runa.
Icchi, meanwhile, looked worn out. “Well, that exorcism did nothing... I want my two hundred yen back...” he said, sounding dispirited.
I didn’t know what the result of Tanikita-san’s love-fortune-telling was in the end, but once again, the mood was dictating that we get going. I made my way over to Nisshi to let him know since he’d been standing alone some distance away.
“What’re you doing, Nisshi?”
“Whoa!”
He’d had his back turned to me, and when I spoke up to him, he almost jumped in surprise.
“Man, it’s you, Kasshi. You startled me.”
Nisshi was in front of a set of hanging ema—wooden tablets with one’s prayers—left there by visitors. He seemed to be writing on one of his own.
“You’re hanging an ema?” I asked, at which point Nisshi hid it behind him and backed away.
“Don’t look! Seriously, don’t, okay?!”
“That’s what people say when they really want you to look!”
“I really don’t!” he insisted.
“I get it, I get it.”
I figured it probably had something to do with Yamana-san, but given how serious Nisshi seemed to be about this, I decided not to press him any further on the subject.
We all went back to the bus stop after that.
***
We had lunch near Kiyomizu-dera, then got on the bus and headed to Kinkaku-ji.
“Man, it’s crazy how golden Kinkaku-ji is! Just look at it!” exclaimed Runa.
“Want me to take a pic for you?” Kurose-san asked.
“You should be in it too! Actually, why don’t we all get in it?”
“Would we even fit? Wait, didn’t Akari buy a wide-angle lens for her phone?” said Yamana-san.
“Yeah, I’m putting it on now!” Tanikita-san replied. “Okay everyone, get together!”
“U-Us too?” I asked.
“Yeah, you guys too!”
“Come here, Ren,” said Yamana-san.
“Hey! You realize how huge you are?! Why don’t you bend down or something?!” Tanikita-san yelled.
“L-Like this...?” replied Icchi.
“Hey, no pushing! Also, your knees are touching me!”
“S-Sorry...”
“You’re seriously the worst guy I’ve ever met!”
After our chaotic visit to Kinkaku-ji, we got on the bus again so it could take us to Ginkaku-ji.
“Ginkaku-ji is so plain! You’d think that since ‘silver’ is in the name, that’d mean there’s at least some silver on it!”
“We learned beforehand that Ginkaku-ji isn’t silver, Runa...”
“But it’s just sooo plain! It’s even worse after seeing Kinkaku-ji.”
“Think it’ll look better with a filter?” Yamana-san suggested.
“Good idea, Nikki! I’ll go with pink,” said Tanikita-san.
“Pinkkaku-ji, then? That’s hilarious.”
“You guys wanna join us?” Runa asked.
“N-Nah, it’s okay. We took that pic together earlier,” I replied.
“I don’t want to be pink, anyway...” said Nisshi.
“And I don’t want anyone yelling at me...” added Icchi.
Thus, the second day of our trip came to an end and the bus took us back to the hotel.
***
The third day was our last day in Kyoto. We’d be moving in groups the whole day and visiting more places we’d learned about during integrated studies periods.
The plan was to visit Fushimi Inari Shrine in the morning and then temples and shrines in Sagano.
Fushimi Inari Shrine was highly accessible—only about five minutes by train from Kyoto Station.
“Wow, this is amazing!” exclaimed Runa.
She wasn’t alone in that—everyone else sounded excited when met with this breathtaking sight as well. Just past the main hall of the shrine were the endless rows of vivid red torii gates that represented this place.
“Isn’t it crazy? It’s, like, totally rad!” she added.
“Stand over there, Nikki! You too, Mia!” said Tanikita-san.
“Okay,” replied Yamana-san.
“L-Like this?” asked Kurose-san.
“Okay, good!”
The girls were already eager to take photos again.
The Senbon Torii—or the thousand shrine gates—were located at the base of a mountain. Going through them felt like you were getting closer and closer to the mountain.
While the weather this morning was clear, the blue sky was hidden behind the trees, making our surroundings a bit dark. There was a chill in the air too. The place felt sacred in an odd way, as though it were cut off from the rest of the world. We didn’t feel like making noise, so I kept my conversations with Icchi and Nisshi to a minimum and mostly stayed silent as I followed the mountain path.
Our visibility improved a bit when we reached the so-called “inner shrine” meant for worship. With the Senbon Torii coming to an end behind us, this area was located on a flat clearing and was rather spacious.
We were to climb farther up from here to reach the Yotsutsuji intersection where one could rest and then go back down.
It was still morning, but there were more and more tourists coming up through the Senbon Torii, creating a crowd where we already were.
“‘Omokaru stone’? What’s this?” Runa asked.
“You make a wish and lift it up. Apparently, if it’s lighter than you expected, your wish will come true, but if it’s heavier, it won’t,” Yamana-san explained.
“For real? Try it, Nikki,” Tanikita-san suggested.
“Eh, I don’t wanna. It’s scary.”
We could see the girls were making a fuss near an old stone next to the inner shrine.
“Girls sure like fortune-telling and stuff...” said Nisshi.
“When I see a place that’s a mess, I feel like blowing it all up with TNT, like in Yourcraft.”
“You think some dangerous things, Icchi...” I said.
And as we guys held a conversation of our own...
“Ah, senpai?!” All of a sudden, Yamana-san spoke up with excitement, holding her phone to her ear.
Senpai... That meant she was talking to Sekiya-san.
Since he was calling her after having told her that he wouldn’t, it must’ve meant his exam results had come in.
I checked my own phone, but I hadn’t gotten anything from him yet. I supposed it was only natural that he’d let his girlfriend know first.
“Huh? Nikki, your boyfriend called?!” exclaimed Tanikita-san.
“I’m happy for you, Nicole!” added Runa.
With the two of them looking at her, Yamana-san kept talking with a happy expression on her face.
I looked at Nisshi, but his eyes were directed elsewhere.
We couldn’t really go any farther until Yamana-san’s call was over, so I chatted with Icchi in the meantime. But after a while, I looked at the girls again and noticed that something was off.
Yamana-san stood alone, away from everyone. She was facing the mountain and had her back toward us. While she was holding the phone to her ear, she was hanging her head.
As I looked on with curiosity, Yamana-san suddenly crouched down and hugged her knees. Her back quivered as though she was having a crying fit.
“Nicole...?” Runa was nervously watching her as well, but she couldn’t go any closer because of how serious things seemed to be.
Yamana-san then got up and headed behind the inner shrine, as if to flee from our eyes. Runa chased after her out of concern, but soon came back and shook her head.
We waited for five minutes. Then five more.
Runa went to check on her again. This time, she returned with distress on her face.
“Oh no!” she cried. “Nicole’s gone!”
“What?!”
The guys and I went over to the girls too.
“What do you mean she’s gone?”
“She was on the phone behind that building until a few minutes ago. But I just looked and she’s not there anymore... I tried calling her, but no dice—her battery’s dead.”
“Is that because she talked to Sekiya-san for so long?”
“No way, right? It’s still morning, so a fifteen-minute call shouldn’t be enough...”
“Maybe she went to the bathroom?”
“Why would a dead battery make her have to go?”
As we discussed the situation with Runa, I got a call on my phone.
“It’s Sekiya-san,” I said.
Holding the phone in my sweaty hands, I tapped the button to answer the call and brought my phone to my ear.
“Ah, Ryuto? Is Yamana there?” It sounded like the usual Sekiya-san, but I could sense some impatience in his voice.
“No... She disappeared a few minutes ago...”
Sekiya-san went silent for a moment. I could tell my response had taken his breath away.
“Thing is, I just told her the results of my exams...”
I could already imagine what those were from how depressed his tone suddenly became.
“It didn’t work out this year,” he said.
“I see...”
“I’ll be a ronin for another year. Dad wished me luck.”
“What will you do about your relationship with Yamana-san?” I asked.
The girls were holding their breath as they looked on. There was tension in my voice too.
“I told her she can decide if she’d rather go on like this or break up.”
“What did she say?”
“That she didn’t want to make that decision...” he said. “Then, she started crying and cut the call. I kept trying to call her after that, but no luck.”
So that was why he’d called me.
“We’ll look for her—she might still be around. I’ll let you know if we find her,” I told him.
“Thanks. I’m really sorry.” He sounded unusually meek. “You’re on a school trip, right? Where’re you now?”
“Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto.”
“I knew you were on a trip...but I also knew Yamana must’ve had this on her mind all this time. I felt bad about keeping her in the dark for so long—I got the last of my results two days ago, so I already knew what I’d be doing next...”
I could understand that, so I didn’t blame him.
After ending the call, I explained things to everyone else. We split up into smaller groups to search for Yamana-san.
“I’ll check the lower areas. I think she would’ve had to pass by us if she went up instead,” said Runa.
“I’ll come too!” said Tanikita-san.
“Me too,” added Kurose-san.
The three of them headed back to the Senbon Torii.
“I’ll go check higher. Maybe she went up when nobody was looking,” suggested Nisshi, taking the ascending path.
That left just me and Icchi. We checked around the inner shrine again and then went the same way Nisshi had.
The path got more and more precipitous from there. We started seeing some unpaved parts too. It had previously felt chilly, but before I knew it, my back was covered in sweat and I was starting to run out of breath.
“You really think the demon gyaru went this way?” Icchi asked, looking somewhat exhausted. “Would a heartbroken girl climb a mountain path alone?”
“Well... If she was that shocked, she might’ve done something even if she herself didn’t understand why she was doing it...”
And that was why we were worried and were looking for her. Not that I thought it was such a big deal if a high schooler with a smartphone and some cash on hand were to get lost somewhere here in Japan.
“The demon gyaru’s such an idiot. Why’s she gotta be like this over love?” Icchi said quietly. Instead of disdain, there was something akin to jealousy in his eyes. “And Nisshi too. What’s the point in chasing after a girl who’s so shocked to hear that her boyfriend’s going for a second ronin lap that she disappears on a school trip?” He gazed off at the distant parts of the path ahead of us.
“Yeah...”
I did think they were stupid. But I was too, getting happy or shaken up from every little thing Runa said or did. I was sure that this was what it meant to be in love.
We were inexperienced, and each of us surely had a long mountain to climb in our love lives. The greenery along the way extended far and wide. The climb was painful, and it made us worry if we could make it at all. But because we wanted to know what lay ahead—what we could see up there from the top—we kept at it.
This pain, too, was part of being in love.
***
About two hours later, we got in touch with each other again and met up at the Yotsutsuji intersection.
That intersection was located on a plateau halfway up the mountain. There was a teahouse there too where you could get a meal or some sweets. The benches in front of it were filled with tourists taking breaks.
“Nicole wasn’t in the lower areas...” said Runa.
“We split up and searched the main shrine, the crossroads, the teahouse... We even went to the train station...” Kurose-san explained.
They’d just arrived here, so they’d yet to catch their breaths.
“She wasn’t up the mountain either... I went all the way to the fountain, but couldn’t find her anywhere,” said Nisshi. He looked exhausted too.
“And we checked the Mitsutsuji crossroads...” I said.
But just like everyone else, it had been to no avail.
“Where’d you go, Nikki...?” Tanikita-san said dejectedly.
Runa took out her phone, seeming to have thought of something. “We should let our teacher know, right? Though she might get angry at us later...”
“Yeah, I guess. Better do it now before it’s too late,” I said.
With that, Runa took out the trip guidebook. She probably wanted to find the teacher’s phone number written on the last page.
“Okay, I’ll try calling Nikki again,” said Tanikita-san, pulling out her phone. “Oh wait, I don’t have any service here! Man, these bargain-bin phones are so trash!” She ground her teeth with force after looking at the screen.
“Do you want to use mine?”
“Thanks, Mia... Wait, I guess that won’t work. We’ve used LINE all this time, so I don’t know Nikki’s number.” Tanikita-san just couldn’t catch a break.
“090-XXXX-XXXX.” Nisshi rattled off some number all of a sudden.
Runa had been turning the pages of the guidebook, but she looked up in surprise. “Wow, that’s amazing, Nishina-kun. That sure is Nicole’s number.”
“You’re kidding! Wait, Runy, you remember Nikki’s number too?” asked Tanikita-san.
“Heh, yeah. I called Nicole every evening from my great-grandma’s home phone when I was at her place last summer.”
“Ah, when your phone was broken.”
It wasn’t really the time for it, but I felt nostalgic thinking about those days I’d spent at Sayo-san’s house in Chiba and worked at Mao-san’s beach hut together with Runa.
“Do you call the demon gyaru from your home phone too, Nisshi?” asked Icchi in curiosity.
Nisshi shrugged as if sulking. “Every night, I look at the number she gave me, thinking that maybe it’s time I finally call her.”
He really loves her, huh.
I could tell, and it was painful for me.
“Yeah, it didn’t work,” said Tanikita-san. She’d tried calling from Kurose-san’s phone, but it seemed like Yamana-san’s phone was still off.
At that point, I got a call once again—it was Sekiya-san.
“Did you find Yamana?” he asked.
“No... Not yet.”
Having made sure that Runa had finished talking to our teacher, I put my phone on speaker mode. I figured it was best to let Sekiya-san directly hear that we couldn’t find her from everyone.
He seemed to be on a moving train—I could hear the sound of it from the other end. He must’ve been really worried if he was calling in that situation, since being on the phone on the train was typically seen as rude.
“I see... What are your plans for today’s free time?” he asked after hearing us out.
“Umm, after Fushimi Inari, we’re going to Sagano, have lunch, visit different temples...”
The clock at the top of my phone screen said it was 12:03. I hadn’t realized it was already this late.
“Then Yamana is probably in Sagano already,” Sekiya-san said. “She’s serious, deep down. She just wanted some time alone—she’s not the type to skip all of today’s plans.”
“Eh, but...”
“Oh, come to think of it...” began Nisshi, interrupting me. “Nicole said she was looking forward to seeing the Happo Nirami no Ryu in Sagano.” He spoke clearly so that it could be heard on the other end of the line too. “She said that glaring in every direction was pretty much what she did in middle school and smiled.”
“Oh yeah, she did say that! Nicole was really looking forward to seeing Sagano,” Runa added, bringing her hands together as if having found a ray of hope.
“Okay, let’s go to Sagano for now! Strike while the iron is hot and all that,” said Tanikita-san.
I ended the call with Sekiya-san.
“Well then...” I began.
But as we were about to descend the mountain together, I got another call from Sekiya-san.
This time, I didn’t put it on speaker mode and brought it to my ear. “Hello?”
“Who was that?” There was suspicion in Sekiya-san’s voice.
“Huh?”
“The guy who talked about the Ryu or whatever.”
“Ah, it’s Nisshi... Nishina Ren. A friend of mine.”
“Is he close with Yamana?” he asked in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Huh? Well, kind of... Though it’s more like he wants to get close to her...”
I knew how Nisshi felt and couldn’t lie here, so I ended up beating around the bush.
“Does he know Yamana has a boyfriend?” Sekiya-san asked.
“Y-Yeah...”
“Huh...” His tone wasn’t all that different from usual, but I figured he wasn’t exactly happy to hear that. It made me dispirited.
“I-I’m sorry, I guess... That my friend does that...”
“You’re going to Sagano, right?” he asked. “Let me know where she is if you find her.”
“O-Okay, got it.”
He didn’t seem to be angry or anything, but it was awkward for me, so I kept my replies short and got off the phone again.
We’d already started descending the mountain.
Hearing the clear sound of running water, I looked over to the rock face and found water streaming down over it. Thanks to the midday light, it sparkled like treasure. The sight of it was heavenly.
I didn’t really believe in miracles, but the word “miraculous” did feel like an apt descriptor for this mountain.
When we returned to the path, the somewhat cold air sent chills down my spine. The leaves on the trees around us rustled like rippling water. It was unsettling.
If somebody were to go missing on such a mountain, one might think they had been spirited away.
Cautiously following the uneven downward path thick with greenery, Runa came to my side.
“I wonder if Nicole’s okay... I’m worried,” she said, looking a bit pale. “She’s not as tough on the inside as she might look. When she was in middle school and stressed over her parents’ divorce, she apparently got ten piercings on her ears all in one day. Though she says that some of those holes have closed up by now.”
“Ten...?”
By simple math, that was five per ear. Just imagining it made my earlobes hurt.
“And now her phone’s off... I hope she’s not getting any weird ideas... Ah!”
At that point, Runa stumbled on something. Perhaps she’d been so concerned about her best friend’s well-being that she hadn’t been paying enough attention to the path underfoot.
I caught her arm before I could give it any thought and then took her hand. She stiffened up a bit, but she didn’t shout or jump away.
We walked down the rest of the mountain path firmly holding hands. It had been a while since I’d last felt the warmth of her palm. It filled me with emotion, despite our current situation.
“It’ll be okay,” I said sincerely. “Yamana-san is in Sagano—her beloved Sekiya-san said so.” I came close to stumbling over my words, but I made sure to lay out my true thoughts. “So it’ll be okay.”
With that, I slightly put pressure on her hand in mine, holding it as though enveloping it.
“Ryuto...” When Runa looked up at me, there were tears in her eyes. It felt like they might spill if she lowered her head. She looked forward, keeping them in place. “Yeah. I’m gonna believe in that too.” She looked at me again and there was a faint smile on her face. “Thank you, Ryuto.” This time, she was the one to put pressure on my hand.
I was fraught with emotion. Just for a moment, I forgot all about Yamana-san and about the school trip...
As I single-mindedly went down the mountain, the only thing I felt was the warmth in my hand.
***
By the time we got to Sagano, it was already 3 p.m. We’d had onigiri for lunch that we’d bought at a station kiosk while waiting to transfer trains. This would be the last place on the day’s tour.
There were five temples in Sagano that we had to visit, but since time was running out, we split up and aimed to visit them while searching for Yamana-san.
We made three pairs: Runa and I, Kurose-san and Tanikita-san, and Icchi and Nisshi. After arranging to contact each other if anything came up, we went our separate ways.
Runa and I went to Tenryū-ji temple, which was the one with that “Happo Nirami no Ryu”—Dragon Glaring in All Directions—that Yamana-san had mentioned.
After passing through an imposing gate and walking down a wide stone road, there was a small lecture hall there. That dragon was painted on its ceiling.
“Let’s go inside,” I said.
Walking in side by side, we could immediately tell that Yamana-san wasn’t here. Everyone in this hall was looking up at the ceiling, and it wasn’t spacious enough for dozens of people to be here all at once. It wasn’t the kind of place one could hang around for a long time.
The “Happo Nirami no Ryu” was a gorgeous Japanese-style painting done in ink. It looked like the dragon was glaring at you no matter what angle you looked at it from. Sure enough, something about it was intimidating, but in a solemn way. It kind of made me recall Yamana-san’s sharp gaze back when I’d first talked to her at McDonald’s.
“Let’s go see the main hall,” Runa suggested, looking disappointed that she hadn’t found her friend yet.
Not saying much else, we left the lecture hall and headed to our next destination.
There, we found the figure we’d been after.
We entered the main hall. Built in front of a Japanese-style garden that was registered as a Special Place of Scenic Beauty of Japan, this hall was an open structure, perhaps to allow for a good view of the garden. The spacious rooms with tatami floors were mostly off-limits. Tourists were to walk on the broad veranda surrounding them instead. Feeling the touch of the wooden floor through our socks, we came to a stop after getting to the part of the veranda that faced the garden.
We sat down there, letting our legs hang off the veranda toward the garden and placing our hands on the floor behind us. As we looked at the scenery, a female Seirin High student who was also looking at the garden came into view. While she had her back toward us, I could tell from the color of her hair and the way she wore her uniform that it was Yamana-san.
In front of me was the magnificent sight of Arashiyama’s green trees, as well as a pond with a somehow tranquil feel to it, surrounded by various kinds of trees and rocks.
A Japanese-style garden, the broad veranda of a temple, and a gyaru.
The sight could hardly be any more mismatched, but the impact of having found the person we’d been looking for was so big that I almost shouted out.
“Ah!”
Runa actually did shout, though. She turned to look at me with disbelief written on her face.
“Nicole... There she is...!” she said.
Yamana-san noticed Runa running up to her and turned around. Seeing the two of us, she smiled a little, but it was the smile of someone stricken with grief.
“Seen the dragon yet?” she asked. “Hell of a glare, yeah?”
“Nicole...” Runa sat down next to her, looking exhausted. “I’m so glad, Nicole...”
With tears in her eyes, she threw her arms around Yamana-san. The latter closed her eyes and returned the embrace.
Crouching down next to them, I updated the rest of our group, as well as Sekiya-san, over LINE. As for why I didn’t call instead—it didn’t feel right to do so at a temple.
“I was really looking forward to the middle of March,” said Yamana-san once the two girls had calmed down and pulled away from each other. “I wanted to be with senpai the whole day. There were so many places I wanted to go with him on dates. All of that just got pushed back a year. The despair was just too much...”
Runa listened to her quietly with a look of worry and pain on her face.
“It’s been four months, from November until now. And that was already so hard... And now I’ll have to do it for another year. For three times as long as I’ve already done... I just couldn’t take it...” Yamana-san bit her lip and hung her head. “But I hate the thought of breaking up even more... I wanna keep being his girlfriend, but I hate not being able to see him... This is just me being selfish, so I don’t wanna force it on him... But that’s all I feel right now, so I didn’t have anything else to say to him... All I could do was hang up.”
Some time into her speech, I realized she was talking about when Sekiya-san had called her earlier.
“It was painful to hear his voice even though we can’t be together... It hurt to get messages from him too, so I turned off my phone... I didn’t know what to do, so I wanted to be alone for a while...but I didn’t want to cause trouble for everyone, so I came here since it’s the last place we had to visit today... I guess I did cause trouble after all, though.” Yamana-san looked ready to cry. “I’m sorry. I’m such an idiot... I didn’t know what I was supposed to do at a time like this... I just had to go and do something stupid, and that caused trouble for everyone...” Tears then began to drip from her eyes.
“We’re fine,” replied Runa, teary-eyed herself. She drew closer to Yamana-san, as if to shield her from the eyes of passers-by, and patted her back.
Wiping her endless tears with her fingers, Yamana-san continued. “I know it’s senpai who has it the worst right now... I hate myself for not being able to tell him right away that I’d wait and that he should do his best for another year... I wanna be a good girlfriend in front of him...”
“I understand, Nicole... It must be painful,” said Runa.
And as she comforted Yamana-san...
“Nikki!”
Tanikita-san and Kurose-san showed up. It looked like they’d come running here after I’d told everyone that we’d found Yamana-san.
A bit later, Nisshi and Icchi arrived too.
Nisshi looked relieved upon seeing Yamana-san. “Nicole... I’m so glad.”
“I’m sorry, everyone. I’ve really ruined today’s plans...” Having calmed down by now, Yamana-san looked genuinely apologetic.
To avoid getting in everyone else’s way, we’d proceeded along the garden-viewing route and were now sitting on a bench below the lowest level of the veranda where you could look at the garden from the edge of the building. Of course, we couldn’t all sit down at once, so Icchi and Nisshi, who’d shown up last, were standing.
They were about to stop accepting visitors for the day, so there weren’t many new tourists coming now. Thanks to that, we could gather as a group without minding the eyes around us too much.
“Don’t worry about it! At least one pair went to each place we had to visit in Sagano, so we shouldn’t have problems with our homework,” Runa said cheerfully.
Since this was a school trip, we’d have homework about it over spring break. We’d need to fill the notebooks we’d prepared when studying in advance for the trip with things we thought or noticed after actually visiting each place. Honestly, I doubted any of us could focus on sightseeing while we were here in Sagano, but we had come here, so it was probably going to work out fine.
“Anyway, I’m glad you’re safe, Nicole,” Nisshi said, and the girls nodded in response.
Yamana-san gazed at him. “Ren...” The smile she gave him was faint, apologetic, and grateful.
At that point, a figure appeared in the corner of my vision, so I turned my eyes to look. Once I noticed them, I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
I can’t believe it. Why is he here?
Either way, there was no doubt about it—it was Sekiya-san himself.
Like always, he was dressed casually and had a sling bag hanging diagonally across his torso—nothing fancy. When our eyes met, he nodded, looking a bit uncomfortable.
Noticing that I was staring elsewhere, the rest of my group started following my gaze too, looking one by one.
“Whaaat?!” Runa covered her mouth as she practically screamed.
And when I nervously turned to look further... Naturally, Yamana-san was staring too.
“Senpai...?” She looked dumbfounded, as though she couldn’t process what was happening or figure out if this was even real.
Sekiya-san looked at her for a while and gave her an awkward smile. It looked like he didn’t know where to start.
“’Sup.” It was the kind of casual greeting you’d use with a guy friend.
The moment she heard that, Yamana-san opened her eyes wide and got up. She sprinted toward Sekiya-san...and the two embraced each other.
“Senpai...! No way... Is this real?!” Despite being in her boyfriend’s arms, Yamana-san didn’t seem like she could believe what was happening.
“I’m sorry, Yamana.” Resting his head against her neck, Sekiya-san held her tight. “I didn’t give you anything for White Day either. I’m really sorry that this is how I ended up repaying you.”
Pressing her face into his chest, Yamana-san shook her head. “Getting to see you is the best present I could ever ask for...” Her voice cracked from her tears, but she was happy too.
Sekiya-san held her even tighter. “I’m so sorry...Nicole.”
A tear streamed down from one of Yamana-san’s eyes when she heard that. I could tell from her expression that it was a tear of joy.
Nervously, I glanced over at Nisshi. I did my best to avoid moving my head so he wouldn’t notice my gaze.
He had hung his head and was clenching his fists.
A gust of wind blew through Arashiyama all of a sudden, making its trees sway together at once. The trees in the garden began to move too, and ripples spread through the pond.
Perhaps it was the fact that Yamana-san and Sekiya-san were locked in an embrace in front of such a magnificent garden that made this feel like a scene out of a soap opera.
I looked around. Runa had teary eyes and was clearly moved as she watched her friend. Kurose-san and Tanikita-san looked at the two with admiration and hints of sadness in their eyes. Icchi seemed bored and had his eyes on his phone.
Then, Nisshi started walking away, his pace brisk as he passed the garden. He seemed eager to just get out of there.
“Nisshi?” Icchi called out.
Nisshi didn’t look our way and kept on going.
Before I knew it, I was chasing after him.
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