That threw me off, as I hadn’t expected his name to come up.
“Huh? R-Really?”
Kurose-san was in a good mood. “I’m going to have dinner with him after work today.”
“What? You mean, alone with him...?”
“Well, I don’t know... If he doesn’t bring anyone, then yeah, I guess?”
It’s only been a day. You work way too fast, Sato Naoki.
“O-Okay... Say hi to Sato-san for me...”
It wasn’t like I wanted to say hi to him, but I couldn’t think of anything else to say at that moment.
“Okay, see you later, Kashima-kun!”
When our working hours came to an end, Kurose-san immediately packed up and left the editing department ahead of me. It was unusual because until today, she’d always waited for me so we could leave together.
“Yeah, see you...” I replied.
As she disappeared from sight, her ponytail swayed much like how a happy dog would wag its tail. Watching it, I couldn’t shake off an uneasy feeling.
Fujinami-san had been slow in getting ready to leave work today. He had just ended a call and put his phone down on his desk.
I called out to him. “Fujinami-san, do you have a moment?”
“Ah, Kashima-kun. What’s up?”
He didn’t seem to be in a hurry, so I came to the conclusion that making some small talk was okay.
“Do you know a manga artist by the name of Sato Naoki? He said he had an editor from Cromag before...”
“Ah, the author of Imokore?”
That was the abbreviated title of Sato-san’s hit work that had been adapted into an anime five years ago.
“Yes, him.”
“What about him?” asked Fujinami-san.
I scanned our surroundings. It was seven in the evening, and there were still employees at roughly every fourth desk—there weren’t all that many people here. It felt like it’d be okay to talk about personal matters in this situation.
“Well, it’s just...I talked to him at a drinking party yesterday. Kamonohashi-sensei invited me to go,” I said.
“Huh, there was a party? Nobody invited me...”
“Oh, they said they didn’t invite any active editors.”
Seeing me get flustered, Fujinami-san smiled. “Yeah, I figured. So, what about him?” he asked.
“I was just wondering what kind of person he is, and if he might do some work for Cromag...”
“Oh, I see you’re getting passionate about work. You want to bring Sato-san to us? You’re suited to be an editor after all, huh?” he asked teasingly. When he saw me look a bit anxious again as I started looking for what to say in response, he continued speaking. “But anyway, to be real with you...” Fujinami-san looked around us and greatly lowered his tone. “I’ve heard from someone who’s worked here longer than me that he’s...trouble when it comes to...”
Cutting himself off there, Fujinami-san lifted his pinky finger. That was a gesture meaning “women”—I’d previously seen Yamana-san use it at one point too. I guessed she wasn’t the only one who still used it nowadays.
“There used to be a girl in our department who was an editor for Sato-san.” With that, Fujinami-san pulled over a chair from a nearby unoccupied desk and beckoned me to sit down.
Now that we were sitting right next to each other and could talk in secret, Fujinami-san lowered his voice even more, switching to a complete whisper.
“This is just between you and me, okay? Apparently, they would meet up over drinks to discuss work, and afterward, Sato-san would invite her to a hotel. She got fed up with that, and the assistant to the editor-in-chief took over for her. But then, Sato-san stopped sending in storyboards, saying that because he’d worked out the plot with his previous editor, he couldn’t draw if he had to work with someone else. And sure, if he was exceptionally talented, the assistant would’ve bowed to him and begged him to keep drawing somehow, but that wasn’t really the case. His works are kind of samey, you could say... When he made his debut, stories like that were popular and he got to ride that wave, but now, they feel kind of dated. They’re just classic harem rom-coms, you know? And sure, the girls are cute, but they suffer from same-face syndrome. Of course, there are people into that, and I’m sure there’s some demand for that sort of thing no matter what year it is, but at any rate, it’s not something we want in Cromag. So in the end, we decided to cut ties with Sato-san.”
I sighed—this was a rather unpleasant inside story. Perhaps my hunch had been correct.
“But really, this is just between you and me. I only told you about this because you might become an editor in the future,” Fujinami-san added.
I hadn’t decided on my future yet, but Fujinami-san’s expectations for me made me genuinely happy, so I bowed like a good boy.
“Um, how common are people like Sato-san?” I asked.
“Not at all. Pretty rare, I’d say. I don’t know anyone else like him,” replied Fujinami-san with a smile. His voice sounded more normal too. “Then again, I hear he got married and had a kid after that, so he’s probably settled down by now.”
That caught me by surprise. “What? Are you still talking about Sato-san?”
Fujinami-san looked surprised by my reaction. “Yeah? At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what I heard...” A distant look appeared in his eyes as if he weren’t completely certain.
Well, this got kinda ambiguous.
“Okay. Thank you,” I said, getting up and returning the chair to its original place.
“Thank you for listening,” replied Fujinami-san with a pleasant smile. At times like this, he was like a different person compared to how he was during proofreading.
Leaving the building and walking through Iidabashi at night, I sighed.
Even if Sato-san couldn’t behave himself around women—or if he was married and had children—I wouldn’t mind if all he wanted to do was simply be friends with Kurose-san.
“Don’t let your cuteness go to waste.”
I remembered the self-satisfied expression on his face as he looked at her.
“I’m glad I could come.”
And that look on Kurose-san’s face too.
“They’re not going to be just friends...”
I couldn’t be sure that my hunch was correct, given that I was an introvert with no romantic experience with anyone other than Runa, but that was the only conclusion I could come to after having watched them from nearby that day.
I had to wonder how much Kurose-san knew.
***
With no regard for my concerns, Kurose-san was still in a good mood the next day when she came to work.
Once our shifts were over and we left the building, she immediately asked, “Hey, do you want to eat together somewhere today?”
“Sure, I guess...”
I figured she wanted to tell me about something. Perhaps this was convenient—I’d been curious about the thing with Sato-san too...
“Where do you usually eat out with Runa?” Kurose-san asked while waiting for her beer.
We’d gone to our usual cozy izakaya.
“Huh? Well... It depends, but I guess we often go to coffee places? Runa likes those. We go to family restaurants too.”
“I see...” Kurose-san didn’t seem very interested in my answer despite asking the question herself. “Sato-san took me to a restaurant in a high-rise yesterday.” Her hands were next to her mouth and her eyes were lowered as she spoke. “We sat side by side at a window counter and ate while looking out into the night all along... It was wonderful.”
Kurose-san’s cheeks were rosy. She looked like a completely different person from the girl I’d seen knock back mug after mug in this exact same izakaya, banging them on the table as she did.
Her question for me had been nothing but a lead-up to this. I could tell that this was what she’d wanted to talk about.
“Wasn’t a place like that expensive?” I asked.
“I guess. Sato-san paid for me, though. I don’t know when he took care of the bill. When I took out my wallet, he said he’d paid already. Maybe he did it when I was in the bathroom?”
“Huh...”
I’d never done something like that. Judging by the way Kurose-san was acting, maybe pretentious moves like that made girls happy. Then again, in my and Runa’s case, Runa had a full-time job and earned more than me. It would probably have been pathetic if I tried it since it’d be clear as day that I was pushing myself over the limit. It wasn’t worth trying.
“So anyway, we were on the sidewalk, and a car was coming up from behind us. Sato-san said, ‘Watch out,’ and moved so he was closer to the road.”
While I thought things through, Kurose-san kept talking about her crush. That’s right—that’s exactly what this was. She wasn’t touching the beer she’d ordered at all. Instead, she kept talking with a dreamy smile on her face.
Given the situation, I didn’t know if I should be drinking my own lemon sour. This was the place we usually went to for drinks, so at some point, the waiters almost completely stopped putting the beer mugs on my side of the table by mistake.
“That’s adults for you, I guess. Sato-san said he’s thirty-two. It’s been ten years since he published his first work, and he’s got two anime adaptations under his belt too. It’s so amazing...”
Kurose-san was enraptured. It didn’t seem like she knew that Sato-san was married.
Should I tell her now, before it’s too late? But what if Fujinami-san was just wrong...?
My hand hovered near my lemon sour—I still wasn’t sure if I should reach all the way for it or not. The reasons for my indecision had now grown by one as there was something else I couldn’t make up my mind on.
“I’ve never been around a guy who’s called me cute every time we saw each other before,” said Kurose-san as if talking to herself.
Surprised, I pulled back my hand and stared at her. “Really?” I asked.
She’d be a stunning beauty in anyone’s eyes—I’d assumed she would’ve heard things like that countless times throughout her life. I even remembered how all our classmates had praised her looks when she’d transferred to our school.
“I get it a lot from girls,” she said. “Especially the old lady who lives nearby.” Smiling a little, Kurose-san lowered her gaze to the table. “Not the boys, though... Especially not when there’s nobody else around.”
“Huh...” I said, surprised.
Kurose-san looked up at me all of a sudden. “Even you said it to me just once, I guess.”
“I did?”
“When I asked you why you fell in love with me in our first year of middle school, you said it was because I was cute.”
Her words made an old memory resurface.
“Right...”
If I remembered correctly, it had been during the autumn of our second year of high school. My friendship with her had created a rift in my relationship with Runa, and I’d resolved to quit being friends with Kurose-san.
“Can I ask you one last thing? What made you fall in love with me in our first year of middle school?”
“You were cute.”
“That made me happy. Even though you said it when you decided to stop being friends with me.” An awkward smile appeared on Kurose-san’s face, and she lowered her eyes again. “Sato-san has already beaten every other guy in terms of how many times he’s called me cute.”
Well, yeah. Normal guys wouldn’t be able to say that.
“He keeps saying I’m cute, patting my head... Nobody’s ever done that to me in my life.”
A guy wouldn’t normally be able to do that. At the very least, not me or Kujibayashi-kun. Probably not Fujinami-san either. After all, Kurose-san was exceptionally beautiful. Just her being in front of him would make a guy nervous. She also had the brains to be attending Risshuin University.
Kurose-san was perfect as a woman and would be out of any guy’s league. It felt like saying “you’re cute” to her face—words you’d use with a child—was simply rude. A guy like Sato Naoki could do that—a man significantly older than her who was tall, attractive, was recognized by the masses for his work, and who maybe even already had a family of his own. Nobody else could possibly bring himself to act that way toward Kurose-san.
“I thought I’d be scared of a guy touching me, but when he patted my head... If it was him, I...”
“H-Hey, slow down, Kurose-san.” I hurried to stop her, as she was getting too excited all by herself. “Do you think Sato-san might be married? I heard that from someone, but maybe I got it wrong.”
Regardless of whether I liked his personality or not, I couldn’t support Kurose-san’s feelings if we didn’t make this clear.
She went silent all of a sudden. This told me that she probably knew something.
“He did say he has a girl...” she said with a pained look on her face. Her expression said she was dealing with something that made her uncomfortable. “I know about her. He has her on his lock screen. Her name is Aoi—she’s two.”
“Oh, okay...”
So he’s not hiding that, huh.
I couldn’t tell if it was honorable or sly of him, but it was slightly relieving to hear.
“But then...don’t you think this is getting pretty bad?”
“What is?” replied Kurose-san, still looking miffed.
“I mean... You’re falling in love with him, aren’t you?”
More like she was probably already smitten.
“But he said he doesn’t see his wife as a woman anymore,” Kurose-san countered, seeming more stubborn than I’d expected.
“No ‘buts’,” I said, growing disconcerted. “You realize he’s married, right? That’s really important. If he really doesn’t see his wife as a member of the opposite sex, don’t you think he should leave her before dating other women?”
My argument was too sound. Kurose-san went silent for a moment.
“It’s not really like that,” she said eventually.
“Huh?”
“I know our feelings aren’t the same. I know my love is one-sided.”
Her words made me recall something she’d said to me once.
“I decide who I fall for and who I continue to like. My feelings are mine to do with as I please, wouldn’t you agree?”
“I’ll keep liking you as much as I want. That’s all.”
I’d forgotten she had this stubborn side to her.
“Okay...” I said.
So just like how she kept loving me in high school while I dated Runa, she once again wants to lose herself in a hopeless love?
But it wouldn’t have been as bad if being hopeless was the only problem here. What I was worried about was that Sato-san was probably a different kind of guy from me.
“You know...” Once again, Kurose-san looked like a maiden in love. She must’ve taken the end of that awkward moment as a cue to go on. “He said he’s swamped with work and plans to hole himself up at a hotel. That’s amazing, right? Like, that’s a popular manga artist for you. His work environment is fully digital, so he can send drafts to his assistant from anywhere.”
“Huh...”
So there were still people who’d put themselves up at hotels in this day and age? That was something I’d only expect from novelists in the distant past.
“He even told me to come see him. Jokingly, of course.”
“You’re not going, right...?” I asked nervously.
Kurose-san chuckled, finding it funny. “No. I don’t even know where he’s staying.” Averting her eyes somewhat awkwardly, her gaze landed on her mug. “Oh, my beer’s already here.” It’d been sitting on the table for about eight minutes—its foam was all gone. She picked it up and forced a smile for me. “Let’s drink. Cheers!”
***
After that evening, some time passed. While I was curious about what was going on with Kurose-san, I went about my daily life as normal.
Since I was now working at the editing department four days a week—all weekdays—I saw Kurose-san practically every day outside of weekends. Wednesdays were exceptions, and one Wednesday, I received a message from her.
Maria: Sato-san invited me to go eat at the hotel he’s staying at once he’s finished his draft
“What?!” I quietly let out after casually checking my phone during a lecture.
It was late May, and as always, the May blues were running rampant throughout the university. There weren’t many students in the lecture hall, so it was unlikely anyone had heard me.
As it was the end of the fifth period, it was almost six in the evening, but it was still bright outside. The summer solstice was a month away.
Maria: I asked a girl I know what she thought and she said he definitely just wants sex, so I shouldn’t go. What do you think, though?
I gulped after reading her messages.
Ryuto: What hotel is that, by the way?
After I sent my reply, Kurose-san responded right away. She was supposed to be at the editing department, but it looked like she couldn’t focus on work right now.
Maria: It’s not some weird one
Maria: It’s this
I clicked on the URL and ended up on the website of a prestigious high-class hotel—I seemed to remember that weddings were held there.
He’s been drawing in a place like that? His wealth was incredible. I supposed that was what it meant when two of your works had been turned into anime.
Was I just overthinking things here? Was I just linking everything to sex because I was a virgin?
He invited a girl to a meal at the hotel he was staying in... Wouldn’t he invite her up to his room after that? And it was hard to imagine things not coming to that at that point... After all, he was the kind of guy who had invited his own editors to hotels. Even if he was married now, I couldn’t imagine that he’d suddenly become more sensible.
Ryuto: I agree with that girl you asked...
After I sent the message, there was no reply for a while. Growing concerned, I sent another one.
Ryuto: Are you planning to go?
If I had to guess, she wanted to but couldn’t make up her mind because she wasn’t sure of his real intentions. That was probably why she’d asked her friend and had messaged me about it too.
She loved Sato-san and wanted to have sex with him, but she didn’t want to be merely someone he had an affair with. If he was serious about her and considering getting divorced, then she was prepared to enter an illicit love affair—perhaps that was how Kurose-san felt.
The fifth period of classes ended, and she’d yet to reply.
I grew impatient for some reason and kept staring at my phone every now and then as I walked quickly to the station. I mixed into the crowd of office workers on their way there from work.
Then, I got a message from somebody else instead.
Runa: Gratz on getting through classes!
Runa: I just got home myself
Runa didn’t have work today. She’d said she had to go to a salon for herself, then Yamana-san’s nail salon, and then pick up her sisters from nursery school before coming home.
“Runa...”
Should I tell her about Kurose-san? It feels like a good idea.
I didn’t know if Kurose-san had talked to her about Sato-san, but given the circumstances, I was okay with potentially straining the two sisters’ friendship again with this. I couldn’t see how I could stop Kurose-san by myself.
With that in mind, I was about to call Runa. However, I suddenly received some new messages.
Maria: I’m thinking of going
Maria: I have faith in him
This startled me.
Ryuto: Wait, think about it
Ryuto: I didn’t tell you before, but word is that Sato-san was a huge womanizer before getting married
Ryuto: He’s definitely not serious about you!
I instantly sent an emotional reply, and Kurose-san responded right away.
Maria: That was before he married, no?
Maria: He’s hot, so I get that he sleeps around a bit
Maria: I’ve made up my mind, so leave me alone!
Maria: I thought you’d support me in this
Her messages took me aback. She’d been that one who’d asked for advice, and now she was telling me to leave her alone? What was I supposed to do with this hazy feeling?
Somehow, it began to feel stupid for me to worry about her. If this was how she was going to be, then I didn’t care anymore. If Sato-san used her for sex, she’d be the one to suffer for it.
I put my phone back in my pocket. I was about to head to the station when...
“Kashima-dono,” came a voice from behind me.
I turned around to find Kujibayashi-kun standing there.
“Oh? What’s up?” I asked.
“I partook of a dinner in front of the station and was bound for the university. My intent was to visit the library.” After giving that brief reply, Kujibayashi-kun regarded me with suspicion. “And what of thee, pray tell? The fierce look on thy visage made me hesitate to hail thee.”
“Oh...”
So this was why he’d called out to me from behind. Perhaps I’d been so mentally absorbed that I hadn’t noticed that I’d walked past him on his way from the station.
“There’s some stuff going on with Kurose-san...” I replied.
“With Lady Kurose?” repeated Kujibayashi-kun, sounding interested. He seemed to still have a thing for her.
“Yeah. So...”
It wasn’t the kind of topic to discuss on a busy road where people on their way from work continued to file past. We went to a nearby fast-food restaurant instead.
“...and that’s how it is,” I said, finishing my concise explanation to Kujibayashi-kun.
We were sitting at the counter right next to the register, facing the street.
Kujibayashi-kun had let his head hang as he listened to my story from start to finish.
“And since she said that, I’ve been feeling like just letting her do as she likes,” I added.
Even after I was done talking, Kujibayashi-kun silently stared at his vanilla milkshake for a while. That was unusual for a smart guy like him.
Then again, this self-proclaimed virgin fiend had spent six years in an all boys’ school. The romantic matters of married people were probably in a whole different dimension for him—though the same went for me. Perhaps he didn’t know what to say.
As I watched the condensation on his milkshake’s paper cup drip onto the table, I gradually regained my composure.
It had made me angry that Kurose-san had told me to leave her alone, but either way, there was nothing I could do at this point. In the end, deciding how to deal with Sato-san was up to her.
I looked at my phone for no particular reason. It was past 6:30 now, and her shift would soon be over. Once she stepped out of the editing department, she would surely head to the hotel where Sato-san would be waiting for her. And while she’d be happy to see the one she loved, she’d be feeling a hint of nervousness too.
All I could hope for was that, as an adult, Sato-san had the bare minimum of decency in him. With that thought on my mind, I was about to change the topic, but Kujibayashi-kun finally spoke up.
“Can this Sato fellow bring Lady Kurose happiness?” he asked. His eyes were still on his milkshake.
“Him? Nah, no way. He’s married,” I replied instantly, recalling what he’d been like at the drinking party.
“And yet perhaps Lady Kurose would disagree with that assessment.”
“Huh?”
“One cannot believe what one cannot see. Including the future.”
I looked on, wondering what Kujibayashi-kun was talking about. Still staring at his milkshake, he went on, speaking haltingly.
“There may be a discrepancy in the future you see and the future Lady Kurose sees,” he offered.
“But wait. He has a wife and a child, and he’s still making a pass at a girl much younger than him. Of course he’s trash. Plus, he previously went for his editor too, even if he was single back then.”
“Does Lady Kurose know of this?”
“No...”
Even if I were to tell her now, it felt like it would be too weak an argument to convince someone blinded by love. I went silent with that thought on my mind, but Kujibayashi-kun went on.
“I may be a virgin fiend, but even I am familiar with the blooming of love within. I have also experienced it vicariously many a time through literature. This emotion is deeply rooted in one’s nature. It does not go away so easily simply because one is married,” he explained.
“Hm...?”
What does he mean by that? Don’t tell me he’s trying to defend Sato-san...?
“However,” Kujibayashi-kun continued, “one must go about expressing such an emotion in a different way. Were this Sato truly smitten with Lady Kurose, then he must conceive of ways to bring her happiness in spite of his married status.”
“Wouldn’t that, at the very least, not involve inviting her to the hotel he’s staying in?”
Kujibayashi-kun nodded. “Indeed, and thus his love is a false one. Alas, Lady Kurose sees not that fact as of yet.”
He was probably right. Sato-san had made sure to only show himself to her in a good light too.
“Kashima-dono.”
“Hm?”
Kujibayashi-kun unexpectedly called my name, and I looked at him.
He shook his head a few times, appearing hesitant, and then spoke with a look of resolve on his face.
“Would you...stop Lady Kurose?”
“Huh?”
I looked at him, taken by surprise. He looked at me too before immediately lowering his eyes to the table.
“She is a tenderhearted damsel. She endured it when yours truly bored her for two hours, all while indicating that she was listening.”
He must’ve been talking about when they’d first met each other. He’d given her a two-hour lecture on Mori Ogai.
“It is difficult to imagine that a maiden as kind as her could simply turn down the man she seeks in both mind and body.”
Perhaps.
“I thought I’d be scared of a guy touching me, but when he patted my head... If it was him, I...”
I’d never seen her make such a face. Well, perhaps that wasn’t quite true. Maybe she’d done the same back then, that time when she’d approached me in the gym storage room... It had been dark, though—I hadn’t managed to get a good look.
“She has not left my mind since then.”
Kujibayashi-kun’s words brought me back to the present. I looked up at him to see him staring at his milkshake with a serious expression on his face.
“Her beauty is akin to that of the wonders of nature. And her smile... They are burned into my heart. For a maiden as lovely and kind as her, I wish eternal happiness. Alas...”
I could sense the sincerity in every word he said. Perhaps his feelings toward her were too heavy, given that they’d only met once, but I felt like I could relate.
“As yours truly is not even a friend to her, there is nothing I can do. So I must ask this of you, to he who is our mutual friend: Please, stop Lady Kurose.” After looking me in the eye, Kujibayashi-kun looked down again. “Before she sacrifices her own happiness to grant the wish of the man she loves.”
With that, he lifted his vanilla milkshake, the paper cup now soggy and dripping with moisture, and sipped from it. He looked slightly awkward.
***
“Hey, Runa. There’s something I want to talk to you about... I know it’s sudden, but can I see you now? I’d like to meet you in Mejiro.”
After having parted from Kujibayashi-kun in front of the fast-food place, I called Runa.
“Huh? Did something happen?” Runa asked. I could hear the twins chattering in the background, as always. “It’s unusual for you to say something like that. But sure, Misuzu-san is home anyway. I’m on my way!” She then hung up.
After that, I called someone else while I walked to the station.
“Hello? Who might this be?”
“I’m sorry for the sudden call. This is Kashima. Are you free to talk right now?”
“Oh! What’s up?”
Even on the phone, Kamonohashi-sensei sounded jovial. I was glad I’d remembered that he’d given me his phone number when we’d exchanged email addresses.
“There’s something I wanted to ask... Sato Naoki-san is married, right?”
“Him? Yeah. I think it’s been five years or so? I don’t remember. I think he said she was a college girl or a nurse or a stewardess he met at a mixer...? I don’t remember, but anyway, she’s a pretty girl younger than him.”
“I heard he has a child too. Is that true?”
“Yeah. A girl, I think? One time, we were drinking, and he said she’d been born the day before. I paid for his drinks that day!”
There was no longer any doubt that Sato Naoki was a married man with a child.
“Why do you ask?” said Kamonohashi-sensei.
At that point, I briefly told him about what had happened between Sato-san and Kurose-san, starting from that drinking party we’d attended. I reached the station in the middle of it, and as I couldn’t hang up in order to get on a train, I took a taxi instead. There would’ve been no point if I hadn’t gotten to the hotel ahead of Kurose-san, so I had to take the hit to my wallet.
“For real? That’s messed up!” Kamonohashi-sensei said loudly after hearing me out. It was otherwise quiet on his end of the line, so he was probably at home or at work. “You know, I hate good-looking guys like him! I don’t like his alias either. ‘Sato Naoki’—he just writes his real name in katakana instead of kanji. Between this and him being popular in real life, he’s gotten so confident he thinks he can just lay things as is in the world of fiction! I mean, look at me. I’m ‘kamonohashi’—that’s a platypus! I’m so insecure I can’t even give myself a human name!” He laughed heartily at that, making it even more clear that he was somewhere private.
I decided it was about time I cut to the chase. “Do you know any manga artists who are friends with Sato-san?”
“Hm, let’s see... I guess there’s Yuki-kun and Tsukikage-kun, who started in the same magazine. I used to see them hang out a lot back in the day.”
“Would it be possible to have them send something that would prove how close Sato-san is with his family, and his wife in particular? Pictures, LINE screenshots, that sort of thing... And as recent as possible.”
“Huh? What’s a ‘screenshot’? Oh, you mean images?”
“Well, yes...”
“All right, got it! I’m using a dumbphone, but anyway, I’ll say something and have them send something over!”
“I’m sorry, I know this is hard to ask nowadays because it’s personal information...” I said.
“Don’t worry about it! You’re gonna show it to her and make her open her eyes, right?”
“Yes,” I said after a pause.
That’s a manga artist with nationwide popularity for you, I guess. He could tell what I was going for.
“Well, in that case, leave it to me! Nobody can turn me down in this industry! When there’s an overwhelmingly just cause like that at stake, you gotta abuse your authority to the max!”
“Thank you...”
“Don’t worry about it!” he said. “It’ll feel great to see Mr. Good Looks get what he deserves!”
After ending the call with Kamonohashi-sensei, I sighed in the back seat of the taxi.
“One cannot believe what one cannot see. Including the future.”
“There may be a discrepancy in the future you see and the future Lady Kurose sees.”
When Kujibayashi-kun had said that, I’d realized I had to show her Sato-san’s feelings in a tangible way—through something the eye could see. I didn’t know if my plan was going to work or not, but for now, all I could do was put faith in Kamonohashi-sensei’s connections and virtue.
***
I got to the hotel’s grandiose covered driveway at roughly fifteen minutes past seven. I’d had the driver take the expressway, so the fare had added up to a painful 5,000 yen. I had no doubt I’d arrived before Kurose-san, however. Since she’d been at the editing department until seven, she couldn’t have gotten here yet even if she’d taken a taxi as well.
I didn’t know where she would be meeting up with Sato-san, so I decided to wait for her in the lobby facing the main entrance.
I sank into a shiny armchair with high-quality upholstery and timidly rested my feet on the soft carpet with a Persian-like design. I couldn’t even focus on my phone—I kept staring at the entrance.
After a while, the automatic doors opened, and someone I knew stepped inside.
“Ryuto!”
Surprisingly, Runa had gotten here ahead of Kurose-san. She waved and walked over to me before sitting down in the armchair across from mine.
“I took a taxi too! The station was too far from my house,” she said and started looking around.
The only people in the lobby were those waiting to check in and men in suits who seemed to be discussing business.
“Where’s Maria?” Runa asked.
“She’s not here yet.”
“What, really? Isn’t Iidabashi Publishing super close to this hotel? The taxi app said it would take twelve minutes.”
“Well... Maybe she took the train or a bus...”
After my conversation with Kamonohashi-sensei, I’d messaged Runa and briefly explained the situation. She’d been surprised—she hadn’t known anything about the connection between Kurose-san and Sato Naoki.
“Oh, Maria...” began Runa, looking downcast. “She’s finally fallen in love with someone, and things turned out this way...”
“Yeah...”
Runa must’ve wanted to support her sister’s romantic endeavors. The look on her face indicated that she had some mixed feelings.
And as the two of us sat there with a cloud of sadness overhead...
“Ah...” Runa’s head jerked up when she looked at the entrance. “Maria!”
Runa stood up. Following her line of sight, I saw Kurose-san standing at the entrance, petrified. She stared at us, seeming surprised beyond words.
She looked at me and Runa in turn and then glared at me as realization set in. “Why...? Did you tell Runa? About Sato-san.”
Runa started walking toward Kurose-san. “He did, Maria. Was that bad?” she asked. “I thought we were at a point where you and I could talk about anything. Did you think it would make me worry if I knew? So then you realize that what you’re doing would make me worry?”
As Runa held her dark-haired sister’s hands, Kurose-san kept biting her lip and averting her eyes.
I found the stares around us unsettling. I walked over to the two of them. “It’s too quiet here, so let’s talk outside.”
***
We left the hotel lobby and went to the garden nearby. It was spacious enough for a stroll—you wouldn’t normally expect a hotel to have a proper Japanese-style garden, but this one did. It brought the one we’d visited in Kyoto on our school trip to mind.
There were people actually walking around here, but we were here to talk and had no time to appreciate the scenery. The three of us sat down on a bench instead.
It was already dark by now, and the paths of the garden were illuminated by gentle lights here and there. The trees swayed gently under the cold wind of an early summer night, and their leaves brushed against each other lightly.
“Maria...” Runa, who sat in the middle of us, fully turned toward Kurose-san and gazed at her with concern. “Do you love Sato-san that much?”
Hanging her head, Kurose-san didn’t reply. After a while, she nodded slightly.
“He’s staying here, right?” asked Runa, at which point Kurose-san silently nodded again. “If you eat at the restaurant and he invites you to his room for a drink, what will you do?”
Kurose-san said nothing.
“Would you go?” Runa prodded, at which point Kurose-san nodded. Runa furrowed her eyebrows. “Maria... Do you realize what that means?”
“So what if I go to his room? That doesn’t have to lead to anything, does it? What if we actually just have some drinks and that’s it?”
That was the first thing she’d said since we’d gone outside.
“Well, sure...” replied Runa.
Runa went quiet, so I spoke up instead.
“But if someone takes a photo of you entering his room, that alone could be enough to prove that Sato-san is having an affair with you, even if you really only drank and did nothing else. His wife might sue you for compensation.”
Kurose-san didn’t reply for a while. Eventually, she said, “As long as the two of us know the truth, that’s good enough for me. I can pay for any damages after I get a full-time job.”
“Maria...” There was a pained look on Runa’s face.
Somehow, I felt like I understood Kurose-san’s feelings. She loved Sato-san and just wanted to be with him. Perhaps she hadn’t resolved herself to becoming his mistress.
Sato-san almost certainly had different plans for her, however.
“I understand how you feel, but what if he asks for more? Can you turn him down and leave the room?” asked Runa.
“I have faith that he’s not the type to do that.”
“He is,” I replied with mild irritation.
“And how do you know that?” Kurose-san looked annoyed too.
“I just do, as a guy,” I said emotionally.
Kurose-san and Runa each held their breath as they looked at me. Neither said anything further.
“Kurose-san,” I continued, “I don’t think having faith in someone is the same as abandoning rational thought and simply saying that you believe in them.”
At that point, you’d simply be projecting your ideals onto the other person. And it wasn’t like Kurose-san and Sato-san had already built up a relationship deeply founded on trust, given how quickly and suddenly things had progressed between them.
Once again, Kurose-san had nothing to say in response.
Then, Runa spoke up. “I think that to have faith in someone is to be okay with being betrayed by that person,” she said, staring at her hands resting on her knees. “If Ryuto betrayed me...I would be okay with it. It’d be something I could live with.”
Runa...
I stared at her. She didn’t look at me—instead, Runa kept gazing at her sister with a serious look in her eye.
“Have you prepared yourself for that? Would you have no regrets if he betrayed you?” asked Runa.
Kurose-san kept hanging her head and didn’t reply.
Runa went on. “Could you face reality and accept that it was all your fault, instead of saying things like ‘I didn’t think he was that kinda guy’ or ‘I shouldn’t have gone with him’?”
At that point, Kurose-san looked up. “But...I love him! I love him, so I want to have faith in him and to do as he wants.”
In response to that, Runa hesitantly said, “You sound just like me before I started dating Ryuto.”
This time, I was at a loss for words along with Kurose-san.
“Strictly speaking, I wanted to have faith in my boyfriends... To believe in the love of guys I barely knew yet, and so I’d give them my everything... I regret that. I’ll regret it forever.” Saying that as if she were half talking to herself, Runa lowered her eyes. “That regret... It’ll probably stay with me my whole life.” Then, she lifted her head and looked at Kurose-san. “I don’t want you to go through the same thing.” Her lips turned up into a pained smile. “Didn’t you used to treasure yourself more?”
Kurose-san’s face contorted, and she held her clenched fists against her knees. “You wouldn’t understand.” She struggled to get her words out and sounded like she was about to cry. “I’ve had someone I didn’t love go after my body, but I’ve never had someone that I loved accept it when I offered it.”
I recalled that time Kurose-san had run into a molester, along with when she’d tried to seduce me in the gym storage room.
“I love Sato-san. So if he wants me... Even if all he wants is my body... I’d be happy to give it to him...” A tear left her eye and streamed down her cheek. “He’s the first person I’ve fallen in love with who wants me.”
“Maria...”
With a sorrowful look on her face, Runa took Kurose-san’s hand. She was about to say something when...
Bzzzzzt. Bzzzzzt...
Vibrations could be heard coming from Runa’s handbag. She pulled her phone out.
“My manager again? Come on! What does she want at a time like this?!” Runa got up from the bench in a huff and brought her phone to her ear. “Good evening! ...What?! Seriously?!”
Runa walked away from the bench while continuing to talk. She went far enough that we could still see her but not hear her conversation.
Left alone with Kurose-san, I recalled what she’d just said.
“I’ve had someone I didn’t love go after my body, but I’ve never had someone that I love accept it when I offered it.”
She must’ve been talking about our encounter in the gym storage room.
It occurred to me that Kurose-san kept having warped experiences with guys. She’d suddenly asked me to have sex with her even though she had no experience herself. And then she’d run into that molester that time, leading her to become androphobic.
Setting the thing with the molester aside for a moment—what if because I’d rejected her, I’d injured her sexual self-esteem, and that had led to her current reckless behavior? If that was the case, then I felt like I needed to tell her the truth.
“Kurose-san, I...”
It was convenient that Runa had left us alone. I couldn’t say this in front of her.
“The reason I held back wasn’t because I wanted your first time to be with someone like Sato-san. That time, in the gym storage room...”
Kurose-san stared at my eyes. I was aware of her doing so, but I still kept my gaze on the leaves of the trees in the garden. They were rustling in the evening wind.
“Even I...” I continued.
When our eyes met for a moment, the look on Kurose-san’s face was suffocatingly serious. Her eyes wavered, however, and she looked ready to cry at any moment.
I wanted to do it.
Kurose-san must’ve been able to tell what I was thinking, even if I wasn’t saying it out loud. She lowered her gaze and didn’t move a muscle.
“Kashima-kun...”
Kurose-san was extremely beautiful and had been my first love. When she’d approached me without a hint of shame or decency, I had wavered—both in mind and body.
“But I had another girl that I loved... I couldn’t make you happy, and that’s why I didn’t accept your offer,” I said while watching Runa talk on the phone in the distance. “Didn’t you ask me to set you up with one of my friends because you wanted to find a guy who was at least that decent?”
She hung her head and didn’t say a word. I could no longer tell what she was thinking. Had I managed to persuade her?
I checked my phone, but nothing had come in yet.
“To tell you the truth, at first, I felt like letting you do as you like if you wanted to go to him so badly,” I admitted.
Kurose-san glanced up at me.
“I came here with Runa because of what Kujibayashi-kun said to me.”
At that point, she lifted her head. “The Mori Ogai guy?”
I smiled a little. “Yeah, him.”
The air had felt unfittingly tense for a garden in the evening, but now, it had relaxed somewhat.
“He said you were kind enough to listen to his dull chatter to the end, so you might be unable to turn down a bad guy too. He asked me to stop you.”
Kurose-san lowered her eyes a little and pressed her lips together.
“He’s a good person,” I continued. “You might not be able to see him as a love interest or a potential boyfriend...but I want you to become friends with someone like Kujibayashi-kun. You told me before that you’re scared of men—there’s nothing all that macho about him.”
Looking over to the hotel, I saw lights on in a few of the guest rooms. Perhaps Sato-san was in one of them, waiting for Kurose-san with a dirty look on his face.
“At the very least, what you’re doing right now isn’t something that a girl who claims to be scared of men would do. Please think this through.”
It was so common for women to get involved with married men who weren’t serious about them and get hurt as a result. That kind of thing didn’t even make waves on social media anymore. I didn’t want Runa’s sister to appear in such a trite story.
“Didn’t you call me your brother?”
The look on Kurose-san’s face suggested that she’d just remembered that.
“I don’t want to let my future sister go to him, knowing it would cause her pain.”
Her eyes wavered like the water’s surface. When she blinked, a drop of moisture escaped.
At that point, my phone vibrated, and I checked its screen—I had an email from Kamonohashi-sensei. I hurried to unlock the phone and open what he’d sent.
From: Kamonohashi-sensei
Rejoice, I got you something big lol
That was all he’d written. I opened the email’s attachment, and it turned out to be a screenshot from a LINE chat.
The first thing that caught my eye was a photo of Sato-san being affectionate with a beautiful woman. She looked to be still in her mid-twenties. She wore a casual tank top that accentuated her short hair and thin neck. The woman’s ample chest and cleavage unconsciously drew your eyes in. Sato-san was pulling her close to him with his arm under her heavy-looking breasts like he was propping them up. Judging by the angle, this was probably a selfie he’d taken.
Under the image were chat messages. They were very recent, dating from the middle of Golden Week this past May.
The name of the chatroom was “Sato Naoki.” The first message was his, and the whole thing was a conversation between him and somebody else—probably one of those manga artists he was friends with that Kamonohashi-sensei had mentioned.
Ain’t nothing like a wife with melons
Thanks. This’ll get me through the night
Don’t fap to a guy’s wife lol
Second kid soon?
After I start another series. Just bought a house and all
Keep it up, dad. Man I want a gf too
Wanna do another mixer, then? Real talk though, wife wants our girl to go to a private school. Shit’s rough tbh
And I guess you probably can’t do other girls now that you’re married
lol nah I’ve got that handled, it ain’t gonna stop me. Man, can I get another anime...? C’mon you stupid moepiggies, you know my heroines are cute, get squealing and show some support
I was at a loss for words. Wow.
What Kamonohashi-sensei had sent was so much better than I’d hoped. This was the kind of screenshot that could crush a love of a hundred years as well as the respect one could have for a manga artist. If Kurose-san was so blinded by love that she stayed infatuated with him even after seeing this, then things would’ve been truly hopeless.
“Kurose-san,” I began. Maybe it was a little cruel, but I showed her the screenshot I had on my phone. “Look at this.”
“Huh? What is this...?”
When she first looked at it, she was confused. However, she seemed to understand what she was seeing right away. If she had talked to him on LINE, then she must’ve been familiar with the landscape that was on his avatar.
“This is what he’s like.”
Kurose-san didn’t reply. Her lips trembled slightly as her eyes remained glued to the screen.
I had no way of knowing what he’d been telling her about his wife, but judging from the screenshot, his marriage was clearly a happy one.
“Are you okay...?” I asked. While I’d been the one who’d shown it to her, I’d grown worried after seeing how much it had shocked her.
At that point, Runa returned. “Sorry about that! The manager forgot about an event again, but thankfully, it looks like it’s gonna work out!”
Runa was still just as animated as when she’d been on the phone, but when she noticed the serious mood, a slightly awkward look came over her face.
After glancing at me and Kurose-san in turn, Runa looked nervous. “So... Any developments?”
Kurose-san met her gaze and smiled at her like someone who’d put something behind them. “Hey, how about we all go get a bite to eat? My evening just freed up.”
Runa was confused. “Huh? You mean...?”
Still smiling, Kurose-san added, “I won’t see him anymore. I’ll block him on LINE too.”
As Kurose-san said that, she took out her phone. She then blocked Sato-san and deleted their chat as we watched.
***
After that, we took a bus to Mejiro Station and had dinner in a restaurant there. It was a fancy place with a focus on organic foods, but it was considerably more casual than the hotel we’d just left. The prices were more reasonable too.
“Let’s drink! I really need some beer in me right now,” Kurose-san immediately said once we sat down at a four-seat table.
The restaurant had white walls and a cheerful atmosphere.
“M-Maria, don’t go overboard...” Runa hurriedly warned her. She knew what Kurose-san was like when she was drunk.
She and Kurose-san sat next to each other on wooden chairs, and I sat across from Runa.
“Let’s kick things off with a beer and fried chicken. You guys can order whatever,” said Kurose-san after glancing at the menu. She might’ve still been sober, but her eyes were glazing over already.
“What’s with that Sato Naoki guy? I seriously can’t believe it!”
An hour after we’d started drinking, Kurose-san was completely plastered—as expected. She had begun rambling with a beer glass in her hand.
“The stuff he said to me was completely different! He’s still going at it with his wife?! What was all that crap about not seeing her as a woman anymore, huh?! He even told me he might split up with her!”
“Wow, what a jerk! That’s the kind of bull he’s been feeding you?!” replied Runa, matching her sister’s level of energy. “What a bastard! They should get rid of guys like that to improve society!”
“I know, right?! Cut! Just cut, I say!”
“Yeah! And we both know what!”
“There’s only one thing! I won’t say it out loud, though!”
“C-Calm down, you two...!”
The topic was unfitting for the classy restaurant. Minding the tables around us, I quietly chided the girls. Then again, there were plenty of other groups here, and the average table had four girls at it. Everyone else’s surprisingly loud conversations worked to our advantage.
“Well, regardless of whether he’s having sex with her or not, it’s still a fact that he’s married...”
After I said that, Kurose-san’s spirits fell. “Yeah... You don’t even have to think hard about it... Of course it is...” Kurose-san heaved a large sigh—her vigor from a moment ago was gone. “Aren’t there any nice, single guys left anywhere...?”
Runa looked at her with sympathy in her eyes. “What kind of guy do you want?”
Kurose-san rested her cheek in her hand and pouted. “Someone like Sato.”
“What? Hold on, I really don’t recommend a guy like that, even if he’s single!” countered Runa.
“Exactly. He would cheat on you,” I added.
Kurose-san made a face like an unruly child. “Well, he’s the only example I can think of right now...”
Giving her sister a pained look, Runa took a sip from her own glass. She’d ordered a nonalcoholic lemonade—she’d probably wanted to be ready to deal with things once Kurose-san’d had too much.
“Do you have any guy friends other than Ryuto?” Runa asked all of a sudden.
Kurose-san slowly shook her head. “No.”
“Then you should start trying to make some male friends instead. It might be better in your case if you get used to guys first before getting into a romantic relationship.”
Kurose-san glanced at her and released another light sigh. “Look at these lovebirds. You’re both saying the same thing...”
“Huh?” Runa looked at me with surprise. It made sense—she didn’t know about the conversation we’d had on the bench since she’d been on the phone.
With no regard for her sister, Kurose-san turned her eyes to me and continued. “That guy, the Mori Ogai one... Kujibayashi-san, was it?”
“Yeah.”
“Would you mind inviting him to dinner? Us three and him. I want to try talking in a group.”
The manner in which she said that wasn’t offhand at all. I could tell from her smile that she had her eyes set on the future.
“Okay... I can do that,” I replied.
“Hey, that’s a great idea! I wanted to meet the ‘your stoolie’ guy too!” said Runa.
“It’s ‘yours truly,’ but yeah,” I said with a smile, then looked at Kurose-san.
Directing her eyes to me and then to Runa in turn, Kurose-san had a peaceful smile on her face. “You know...” she began, her cheeks slightly flushed from the beer. She had a nostalgic expression on her face. “When we’re like this, it reminds me of that time we made pamphlets together.”
“Ah... Now that you mention it...” A look of realization appeared on Runa’s face. “This might be the first time the three of us have had a proper conversation since those days.”
I recalled how, during our second year of high school, we’d all ended up in the pamphlet-making subcommittee for the cultural festival. At the time, Runa’s relationship with Kurose-san had still been strained, and we’d joined the subcommittee to try to close the distance between them.
That, however, had resulted in Kurose-san and me rapidly growing closer by virtue of having many things in common, such as our general interests and the fact we’d been going to the same cram school. All of that had endangered my relationship with Runa. As a result, I’d ended my friendship with Kurose-san, and after that, we’d been nothing more than classmates, even when Runa had been around, until after we’d graduated.
“Yeah, well, that didn’t really go as planned...” said Runa with a mixed smile on her face.
A similar smile came over Kurose-san’s lips. “The cultural festival in our third year was fun, though,” she said.
“Ah, yeah, it was!” Runa clapped her hands, looking cheerful.
I recalled that autumn...
***
In our third year of high school, we had merely been guests at our school’s cultural festival. My classmates were focused on getting into humanities departments at our colleges of choice, so we didn’t have to prepare anything for the festival. We weren’t required to show up to either day of the event, so some people from our class didn’t show up to school at all.
Meanwhile, the students in Class E, which included Yamana-san and Tanikita-san, were focused on getting full-time jobs or going to technical schools. They didn’t need to study for college entrance exams, so they’d been the only third-year class doing something for the festival.
Incidentally, Runa had yet to make up her mind on her future by the time she’d submitted her career aspiration survey, and that had been one of the reasons she’d been put into the other humanities-focused class. There were two of them overall. Nisshi and I were in one, while Runa had been placed in the other. The students in hers had slightly worse grades. Well...maybe “slightly” wasn’t quite right, but you get the picture.
Class E decided to run a themed café for the festival—sort of like a maid café, but not quite. And, believe it or not, they went with a bunny-girl theme. Tanikita-san was at the center of that project—she prepared outfits for the girls. As for the guys and the decor, she settled on them being video-game-themed, like Luida’s Bar. It was pretty impressive.
But what surprised me the most about the whole thing...
“Ryuto! Whatcha think?!”
...was the fact that Runa was one of the bunny girls. Apparently, there was a special rule that allowed third-years from other classes to participate in Class E’s project as long as they weren’t planning to go to college.
On the first day of the festival, Runa had told me to meet her at Class E’s café and hadn’t said anything else. She’d welcomed me at the entrance of the classroom.
“R-Runa...?!” I replied, amazed.
Her bunny girl outfit was perfect. It was the orthodox set that included ears, a tail, a bowtie, cufflinks, and a tight bunny suit. Her breasts threatened to spill out of the suit’s M-shaped neckline, and her long legs, clad in thin black stockings, stretched out from the bottom of the high-cut suit.
I heard later on that, unsurprisingly, fishnet stockings had of course been banned by their teacher on the grounds of being too sexual. But even so, this outfit was stimulating enough for guys in high school.
“Oh, Kashima Ryuto. You’re here,” said Yamana-san.
“Show him in, Runy!”
Yamana-san and Tanikita-san appeared from the back in their own bunny outfits, but I was too shocked by the sight of Runa to care.
I entered the classroom and took a seat. Runa brought me a menu.
“I’ll have a cola...” I said without giving it much thought. I also didn’t know where I should be looking in this situation.
Runa bent over and brought her face to my ear. “Hey, Ryuto,” she said.
I was startled as her ample cleavage suddenly came close to me. In this outfit, it was much more visible than in her school uniform, and possibly even more compared to her in a swimsuit. My heart wouldn’t stop pounding, partially due to the fact that I spotted a mole on her chest that I previously didn’t know about.
“They say there’s...‘paff-paff’ on the secret menu...” Runa said slowly and suggestively. She then straightened herself out and tilted her head toward me. “Do you want it...?”
“What?!”
P-Paff-paff?!
“Y-Yes?!”
What is that supposed to be?! Is it really okay to offer a thing like that at a school festival?! And besides, what would she do if someone besides me ordered it?!
In the midst of my confusion, Runa giggled. “Okay, one paff-paff coming up!”
After she flashed me a bewitching smile, I watched with bated breath as she disappeared into the staff area behind the folding screen.
A few minutes later, a cola and two miniature strawberry parfaits appeared before me. My mood fell considerably.
“Ummm...”
Runa sat across from me and kept smiling, seeming to enjoy my reaction.
“Wouldn’t this be more like a ‘parf-parf,’ then...?” I asked.
“Heh heh. It is.” She smiled with amusement. “Ordering this makes me sit with you, though.”
I supposed that wasn’t all that bad, even if it wasn’t exactly what I’d expected.
“What did you think it was? Perv. ♡”
I had nothing to say back to her.
Yes, yes, I’m a pervert...
As I hung my head, Runa giggled. When I looked up, I found her gazing at me with a smile.
“The real one will have to wait,” she said.
“What...?”
What did she just say?
The real one? The real paff-paff? What even is this paff-paff? Is it what I think it is?!
While I got all embarrassed, Runa picked up a plastic spoon. “C’mon, let’s dig in,” she said. “Say ‘ah.’ ♡”
As a spoonful of Runa’s paff-paff...or rather, parfait, entered my mouth, I was more taken in by the bittersweet feeling that was spreading through my chest than the strawberry ice cream melting on my tongue.
A sports festival was held at the same time as the cultural one. Even now as a third-year, Runa performed really well in the footrace and the relay race. But there was one major difference from the previous year’s event...
“Go Runa! Maria!”
Their mother waved from the stands. Runa and Kurose-san, who’d been waiting in line for their turns, looked at each other and smiled.
“Thanks, Mom!”
“I’ll do my best!”
They held hands and waved to their mother with their free ones. Then, they looked at each other again and smiled happily.
That was what I’d wanted to see from them.
I was moved by the sight as I watched from my seat in my class’s designated area.
***
It had been three years since then. Runa and Kurose-san walked through the night holding each other’s hand, just like back then. We were heading along the main street to Mejiro Station.
It was nine in the evening, so rush hour was already over. There weren’t too many people walking around in front of the station.
“With your looks, you’ll be fine, Maria,” Runa said reassuringly, gesturing their linked hands in an exaggerated manner. “There’s not a guy in this world who wouldn’t fall in love with you. Even Ryuto would probably have gone out with you if it wasn’t for me.”
I couldn’t deny it so easily. But I also felt that there was no need to say it. My gut told me that my relationship with Runa had already passed the point where we had to mind such things.
“So it’ll be fine next time. Things will work out with the next guy you fall in love with, I’m sure,” added Runa.
Kurose-san could probably sense the unspoken too. A slightly sad smile appeared on her face.
“Thanks,” she replied. “I’m glad you came today.” Then, she looked past Runa to me. “Thank you too.” Next, she faced forward, and said, “I’ll do my best.”
When I looked up at the sky, it was a little clouded over, as if covered by a white mist. A round, waxing half-moon was spreading its light all around. It was a pure light—it even felt somewhat holy.
“I’ll do my best and live a respectable life,” Kurose-san added as she looked up at the sky. A tear trickled down her cheek.
“Right...”
“You can do it, Maria,” said Runa, and she took my hand with her free one.
With Runa in the middle, the three of us held hands as we walked past the roundabout in front of Mejiro Station.
You can do it, Kurose-san. I admire your decision. Not just any girl in your position could’ve made that choice. You’re dignified. I want you to become happier than anyone else.
I gripped Runa’s hand, hoping that this wish of mine would reach Kurose-san through her.
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