Kakuyomu Award-winning SS
A Story that Could Have Happened at the End of the Original Work.
Spring is often referred to as the season of partings and encounters.
As it was the third year of high school, it wouldn’t be strange if many agreed that Spring is the season of partings.
Setting aside those who have to repeat a year, today was the day when everyone graduates.
The graduation ceremony ended without a hitch, all students received their graduation certificates and the last homeroom session ended with the teacher’s tearful speech.
Each class had their last photos taken and it was now time to go home.
But no one tried to leave.
Friends remained in the classroom, chatting, shedding tears, and reminiscing about the three years they’d spent together.
Many students didn’t want to let the last day of their high school life end.
Dozens of minutes passed and eventually, we reached the point where everyone unanimously thought it was time to go home for good.
However, there was a single boy who stood out. Rather than being ready to go home like his peers, he was wandering around the school grounds, looking for a certain someone.
Unable to find that person, he wondered if she had gone home already but immediately rejected that thought.
The person he was looking for was most likely still at school, just not in the classroom.
He thought that she might have gone to the next class to see Shigemoto Yuichi and Fujise Shiho but he didn’t see her with those two.
As he pondered about her whereabouts, he found himself recalling the place where they’d often held strategy meetings together.
It was the rooftop of their school. Usually, it was a place you weren’t allowed to enter.
And the person he was looking for wasn’t someone who’d break rules like that but since today was graduation day, he could see her going for it.
Since it was the last time anyway, it seemed like a nice place to be by herself, so it wouldn’t be too strange for her to do it.
With such thoughts in his mind, the boy left his classroom and approached the staircase that led to the rooftop.
That area was usually locked but strangely enough, not today.
The boy was greeted with the breeze of spring when he opened the door and stepped outside.
On that rooftop, where such spring breeze was blowing, a certain girl was standing there with her elbows leaning onto the rooftop fence.
“Shimada.”
The boy called out to the girl who showed him her back.
Shimada Sei, although surprised, still turned around and responded to the boy.
“…Ah, it’s you, Hisamura.”
Hisamura Tsukasa who had been looking for Shimada Sei called out to her with a light “Yo” and walked up to her while waving his graduation certificate.
“What are you doing at a place like this? Fujise was looking for you, y’know?”
“There was just something I had on my mind, I’ll get in touch with Shiho later.”
“Something you had to think about? Did you really have to be by yourself at such a lovely place in the twilight?”
“Heh, it’s not something that important but when I thought about places to be alone, I could only think of this place or the cubicle in the girls’ washroom.”
“Haha, true. With those two options, this seems to be an obvious choice.”
Both leaned their elbows against the fence and chatted while gazing at the cherry blossom trees.
They saw a lot of students taking their commemorative photos near those trees.
“….So you gave up on confessing to Yuichi in the end.”
“…Yeah, I did.”
Sei had fallen in love with Shigemoto Yuichi.
She didn’t know when it had happened.
But she recognized her feelings when she reached her third year.
She also understood that she had probably loved him already way before that but had kept denying those feelings of hers.
As for why, it was because Sei cherished her best friend Fujise Shiho.
Shiho had been in love with Yuichi since her first year of high school.
When Sei found out about that, she wondered what kind of person Yuichi was and started talking to him to evaluate if he was truly suitable for Shiho.
During that process, she got to know the boy next to her, Hisamura.
The results of her investigation revealed that Yuichi had almost zero flaws and thus he received Sei’s stamp of approval.
However, during her investigation process, Sei found herself being charmed by Yuichi’s nature and held special feelings for him.
But she kept those feelings hidden from Yuichi and even Shiho.
She didn’t know why but the boy next to her had figured her out at some point.
“Are you really okay with that? At the moment, Yuichi hasn’t gotten together with Fujise or Tojoin yet, if you confess now, you might still…”
“It’s okay, I’m fine with it.”
To interrupt Hisamura’s words, Sei responded in a biting tone.
“Shigemoto was confessed by them and told them he’d give his reply before their graduation. If that’s the case, me confessing to him now will surely just trouble him.”
“…Is that so..”
“Putting me aside, is your little sister okay?”
“You mean Rie?”
“Yeah, won’t she confess to Shigemoto?”
The fact that Hisamura’s little sister Rie was also in love with Shigemoto was known by all his close friends except Shigemoto himself.
However, just like Sei, Rie too has decided to not confess.
“Rie has already given up. Yuichi seems to see her as a little sister he couldn’t leave alone and she said she’d give her best but ultimately, she didn’t think she could win against those two.”
“…Right… Shigemoto is really a sinful man.”
“For real. He dumped my cute little sister and various other girls as well.”
“I guess it can’t be helped. We just let Shigemoto choose that path.”
“That might be true but…”
“To not increase his burden further, I won’t confess to Shigemoto. Rejecting someone isn’t something one should view lightly, y’know?”
“Since I’ve never been confessed to, I honestly don’t know about that.”
“Fufu, I’m sure you too will experience it one day.”
“I’d rather not. I don’t have such shameless nerves as Yuichi.”
The two of them laugh and then once again gaze upon the cherry blossom trees beneath them.
The number of students has decreased quite a bit by now.
“…You don’t regret not confessing to him?”
“…Right now, I don’t. I might start to regret it afterward though.”
Her reason assured her that it was the right decision to not confess.
However, being unable to convey these feelings of love she has been experiencing for the first time in her life, will perhaps leave her with loneliness and regret later on.
And yet, Sei has no intention to confess to Shigemoto.
“If confessing to Shigemoto just increases his burden, then I’ll choose to not confess and regret it later.”
(TLN: Sei-chan….)
“…I see.”
“That’s why, with this, my first love ends.”
Sei muttered as if trying to affirm it to herself as well.
It was a nice first love, even if it didn’t come to fruition in the end.
Even if she hadn’t conveyed her feelings, the fact that Sei has been in love will not vanish.
Sei felt content with just the memories.
The spring breeze blew through the rooftop and Sei’s hair fluttered.
Hisamura, who watched her side profile, chuckled and suggested:
“Then, how about starting a new love?”
“That’s sudden… but yeah, I’d like to fall in love again. This time I won’t think about anyone else and just enjoy my romance with that person, just the two of us.”
“Haha, Shimada, you’re quite a romanticist, aren’t you? Well, I kinda knew that already though.”
“I-is that bad I’m more or less a girl too, y’know!”
“Nope, I didn’t say it’s a bad thing. In that case, my dear romanticist Shimada, what do you think about this: A boy and a girl stood next to each other on the school rooftop. That’s where their new love story begins.
“…Hah?”
When Sei heard Hisamura’s words, her eyes widened in surprise and she replayed them once again in her mind.
The situation he had just described was the very situation she found herself in.
As that thought crossed her mind, she looked at Hisamura and noticed that his cheeks were slightly red.
“Oh man, it’s kind of embarrassing to say lines I’m not used to.”
“W-what do you mean?”
“…I’m sure you noticed it, right? But I guess I have to put it into words after all.”
Hisamura took a deep breath to calm himself down and then faced Sei head on.
His expression was serious and he gazed directly into Sei’s eyes.
“I love you, Shimada. I love you from the bottom of my heart.”
(TLN: And this is why I wanted to translate this. Shiryu is goated.)
“WHA-!?”
In response to Hisamura’s words, Sei’s face turned vermillion.
“Haha! Hey, isn’t this the first time you’re making such a face to someone who isn’t Yuichi?”
“W-what’s wrong with you!? Are you teasing me?!”
“No, I’m not. I’m serious. I love you, Shimada.”
“Uhh…!”
Sei unconsciously averted her gaze when Hisamura looked into her eyes and was just honest with her.
“I-I didn’t notice any of that. Like, I couldn’t see any signs of that at all.”
“From my perspective, everyone around Shigemoto, including you as well Shimada, sucks balls at hiding their feelings.”
(TLN: I don’t understand why he calls him “Shigemoto”, since it should be “Yuichi.” That said, he’s pretty much calling her out for trying to be a wannabe tragic heroine who hides her feelings despite being so obvious to the reader.)
“WHA-!”
“Ah, no, maybe Fujise was an exception? However, her appeal was turned to the max in the end. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, usually one should be able to keep their feelings hidden until at least around the time of confession, just like this.”
“Ugh…”
Since Sei had been somewhat aware of her inability to keep her affection hidden, she found herself being unable to retort to his argument.
“Just…since when…did you…”
“Since when I began to love you?”
“Uh… y-yeah, that.”
“Hm… since when huh. I honestly can’t remember. There were just so many times when we met up like this and at some point I found myself thinking that I wanted to have those cute reactions you showed to Yuichi just for myself. Or maybe it was around the time when you decided to give up on your own feelings for the sake of Fujise, your friend. I can’t really pinpoint when but witnessing all of that and spending my time with you, I just ended up falling for you, Shimada.”
“Kuu!! You really are something else… being able to utter such embarrassing lines…”
Sei’s face was red already just from listening alone.
Well, Hisamura’s face wasn’t much better, it was as red as hers.
“I mean, confessing is an embarrassing thing after all, and in the first place if you don’t confess clearly, your crush won’t understand. There is a prime example in front of me who taught me that.”
“H-ha?! Why are you bringing that up now!”
To hide his embarrassment, Hisamura started to tease her while Sei got angry with her red face.
“And? Shimada. Have my feelings reached you?”
“Y-yeah. But are you, y’know, for real?”
“I’m pretty sure I said it already. Do you want me to list the things I like about you? Let’s compete and see who gives up first.”
“S-stop it! I can’t see any other future than both of us dying in embarrassment!”
Sei took a deep breath and then started talking while stealing glances at Hisamura.
“You know…Hisamura’s feelings made me really happy but they were so sudden and so…”
“Ah yeah, I don’t really want you to answer yet.”
“Eh? Really?”
“If I asked you to answer now, you’d probably reject me. You still haven’t fully lost your feelings for Yuichi yet, right?”
(TLN: Hence our Hisamura is the goat. Blows Sei-chan’s broken heart away with a chad-level confession!)
“Y-yeah… that’s true…”
Sei had decided to give up without confessing but she couldn’t say her feelings for her first love would vanish right away just like that.
“Then… why’d you confess?”
“I’m not like Shimada who can keep her confession in check. I also don’t have any reason to hold myself back. And well, if it’s about comforting your beloved girl, then a confession seems just about right.”
“It… It’s not like you have to comfort me or anything…”
“Haha, sorry about that then. But I’m glad that you don’t seem to be down anymore.”
Sei had indeed been worrying all by herself on the rooftop on her graduation day.
“So… are you saying you really don’t want me to reply?”
“Yeah, for now at least. Though, I will go on the offense after this Shimada, so prepare yourself.”
“…Why are you declaring that…”
“I’ll definitely make you happy, Shimada. A cute girl who cherishes her friends like this, I won’t let you end as a losing heroine!”
“…Hi..Hisamura…”
“That’s why, prepare yourself. Shimada Sei! I’ll make you forget about Shigemoto Yuichi and bring you happiness!”
“!”
After Hisamura declared that, silence fell upon the two of them and then they laughed together.
“Fufu, Hisamura, don’t you think that was too cheesy?”
“Shut it! It was fucking embarrassing. It’s your fault Shimada for being a romanticist.”
“Yeah, I’m glad that I’m a romanticist, it allowed me to listen to Hisamura’s passionate lines.”
They laughed and once again gazed upon the cherry blossom trees beneath them.
There is barely any student left now.
“…Thank you, Hisamura.”
“I don’t really recall doing anything deserving to be thanked for though.”
“No, you did. Thanks to you, my graduation day has become an unforgettable one.”
“In a good or bad sense?”
“Fufu, who knows.”
Sei’s smiling face was awfully beautiful and cute, and Hisamura found himself falling for her all over again.
“Welp, I guess we should head home as well. Let’s get along in university as well, Shimada.”
“Yeah…Nn? Eh? Wait, I don’t know which uni you’re attending but don’t tell me…”
“Yeah, I’m attending the same as you, 〇〇 university.”
“WHAT?! You don’t go for the one Shigemoto and Shiho went for?”
“Well, if Shimada had gone for that one, I would have as well but you didn’t. Man, I really studied my ass off though! Shimada, you’re a bit too smart. Please pick a more down-to-earth university.”
“…Are you really attending the same uni as mine? This might be a bit rude to say but I thought Hisamura wasn’t really the smartest tool in the shed.”
“That’s why I honestly worked my ass off! I really wanted to attend the same university as you and I also wanted to see this surprised face.”
“Kuu! Your character is rotten. One wrong step and you’re just a stalker, y’know.”
“Haha, that might be true. But I really gave my best to pass the entrance exam, so I kinda want you to reward me. Like, allow me to call you by your name from now on or something.”
“My name? If it is just that, then that’s okay.”
“In that case, allow me to call you by your name, Sei-chan.”
“Se-Sei-chan?”
The two of them walked home together on the last day of their high school lives while having such a conversation.
Translator:
*Edit: Thank you Ichika for pointing it out. I translated the whole chapter but it seems I somehow messed up copy-pasting the text. The chapter didn’t end just with his confession but him telling her that he’ll attend the same uni as her.
I’m just a dude that TLs oneshots, short stories, extra chapter or leftover chapters by translators that dropped the novel close to the end. I like romance and I aim to build up enough confidence to translate Misaki LO.
Also, there is one untranslated chapter left but I’m not 100% if the NeoSekai translator wants to do that one or not. I did this one on a whim and got permission to post it on my site.
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