Chapter 9

“…Sigh.”

That morning, Shizuna had been feeling depressed right from the start.
Needless to say, the reason was her phone call with Ryuichi from yesterday. It was the very first phone call after exchanging contact info with him, and she remembered how much she had trembled just pressing the call button… When the call finally went through and she heard his voice, she felt as though her chest was overflowing with a warm sensation.

However, the voice of the woman who had forced them to cut the call short—that voice still lingered in Shizuna’s mind, leaving a restless, unsettled feeling behind.

“…Sigh.”

Just as her repeated sighs from moments prior suggested, she couldn’t stop wondering what kind of night Ryuichi had spent with that woman. Why was she caring about this so much in the first place? Besides, he had explicitly told her before that he had relationships with many different women.

“…My chest hurt a little back then, too.”

It wasn’t like she had felt nothing when he confirmed those rumors, but since she hadn’t witnessed it with her own eyes back then, it had felt more like a vague so it really is true kind of realization. This time, however, as her current reaction clearly showed, she was letting it bother her to a considerable degree.

“…Her name was Chisa, right? I wonder if that’s the person he’s still seeing now.”

Naturally, no answer came from pondering it all by herself, but getting lost in thought like that must have been a bad idea. She completely failed to notice a familiar presence approaching from behind.

“Shizuna!”
“Eek!?”

Hearing a voice she recognized right behind her, she found herself suddenly pulled into an embrace. It was only a light hug, but it was far too sudden and shocking for Shizuna.

“Souhei-kun?”
“Yeah. Morning, Shizuna.”
“…Morning.”

The one clinging to her back was Souhei.
Thinking back on it, Shizuna wondered if they used to cling to each other like this all the time when they were kids. They rarely ever did things like that now that they were high schoolers, but seeing him act this way made Shizuna feel that Souhei hadn’t changed a bit from the past.

“Are you in a bad mood or something? Wait… were you annoyed?”
“I’m not annoyed. Just thought your timing was a bit off, that’s all.”

With that, Shizuna told a lie.
She wasn’t annoyed—that was what she said, but in reality, she was a little annoyed. Setting aside the fact that she had been deep in thought, she couldn’t help feeling that suddenly hugging a girl out of nowhere was a bit much.

“No… actually, I was annoyed. Souhei-kun, we’re high schoolers now, you know? There’s a difference between guys and girls, so we shouldn’t really be doing things like this.”
“I get it.”

No, I need to make it crystal clear, Shizuna thought as she spoke up.
Her tone hadn’t been harsh, but being told she was annoyed by him—her childhood friend—seemed to come as a massive shock to Souhei.

“Shizuna…”
“What?”
“N-Nothing. See you at school.”

With just those words, Souhei ran off.
Did I go a little too far? Shizuna wondered, though she recalled that she used to be the one clinging to him back in the good old days. He was still an irreplaceable childhood friend they had spent forever together with, and she sincerely hoped things would stay that way forever.

“Back when we were kids, we used to say we’d get married when we grew up. It’s a nostalgic memory, but in the end, it was just a child’s promise. I wonder if both Souhei-kun and I will ever find someone we can truly believe is the one.”

Who would that be for me? When she pondered that question, a certain someone suddenly floated into her mind. Yes, the one who had protected Shizuna with that massive body of his…

“Rindo? What are you doing standing around in a place like this?”
“Fah!?”

The owner of the voice that interrupted Shizuna right as she was about to drift off into daydreams was, in a sense, the exact person she had wanted to hear from, yet also the one she’d be in all sorts of trouble running into right now.

“S-Shishido-kun?”
“Yo.”

Unlike herself, who was stumbling over her words as memories of last night flooded back, Ryuichi looked completely unfazed, which annoyed Shizuna to no end. Why was she feeling like this in the first place? She just wanted to vent her pent-up frustration somehow, so she started tapping lightly against Ryuichi’s chest with her fists.

“What’s your deal?”
“I’m sorry. For some reason, I just felt like doing this… Hmph.”

She stopped hitting him almost immediately, but her heart still wasn’t satisfied.
Seeing Shizuna puff out her cheeks, Ryuichi let out a sigh and started walking again. Naturally, Shizuna matched her pace to walk right beside him.

“Hey, are you planning to walk all the way with me?”
“Yes. Though I suppose we should probably part ways halfway? From Shishido-kun’s perspective, I mean.”
“I guess so.”

Walking to school together shouldn’t have been a big deal. However, during the impressionable era of high school, the simple act of a boy and girl walking side by side was enough to make people start jumping to all sorts of conclusions.

“Hey, Shishido-kun.”
“What?”

As she glanced at Ryuichi walking next to her, she noticed he was staring straight ahead without looking back at her. Unlike Shizuna, who wore her uniform properly, his sloppy appearance with his collar unbuttoned was the same as always.

(…His muscles really are amazing, though♪)

Catching herself thinking that, she quickly shook her head.
Shizuna decided to muster up the courage to ask about yesterday.

“Yesterday… the phone call got cut off halfway through.”
“Ah. Chisa… a college girl came over to my place. She smelled strongly of booze because she was coming back from a drinking party.”
“Is that… so?”

She purely and simply wanted to know: was that woman his girlfriend?

“Is she your girlfriend?”
“Nah. We just got acquainted a while back and the relationship kept going.”
“I see.”

She wasn’t his girlfriend, hearing that gave Shizuna a sense of relief. Yet, she still hadn’t realized the true nature of that relief. However, following up with a simple though, Ryuichi continued his words.

“She’s not my girlfriend, but… well, we are in a relationship where we do that sort of thing.”
“…!”

She wasn’t a child; she knew what that sort of thing implied. Imagining it sent a sharp, stinging pain through her chest that far outweighed any embarrassment. When she peeked up at him, Ryuichi looked as nonchalant as ever, making her feel like an absolute idiot for agonizing over it while he remained completely unchanged.

“Does that mean…?”

The words that followed were things Shizuna never would have uttered if she had been thinking clearly. But those words never made it past her lips. Because Ryuichi’s arm suddenly shot out.

“Rindo.”
“Eh?”

Her arm was grabbed, and with a strong, sudden pull, she was drawn straight into Ryuichi’s embrace.
Her face brushed against his chest, the solid, hard contours of his pectoral muscles transmitting directly to her skin. Her cheeks rapidly grew hot, and distracted by that sudden wave of heat, she failed to notice the faint, strange throb blooming deep in her lower abdomen.

“S-Shishido-kun…?”
“Don’t walk around daydreaming. You almost bumped into someone just now, you know?”
“Eh?”

In the direction Ryuichi pointed, an old man leaning on a walking cane was strolling past. Sure enough, if they had kept walking at that pace, she might have actually collided with him. If that had caused the elderly man to fall over, it could have been a disaster. Ryuichi had pulled Shizuna into his arms purely to prevent her from crashing into the old man.

“…Thank you, Shishido-kun.”
“Don’t need any thanks. Nothing happened, after all.”

He gave her head a few gentle pats.
It felt almost like he was treating her like a child, but for some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to tell him to stop. In fact, she found herself wishing he would do it more. Moreover, being held by him just moments ago had made her genuinely happy. The warmth and heart-pounding thrill, sensations she never felt around Souhei, were things she unmistakably experienced with Ryuichi.

“Come on, let’s get moving.”
“Yes. I know.”

Shizuna fell back into step beside Ryuichi as he resumed walking.
A little further ahead, she would have to part ways with Ryuichi and head toward her own school building. If she could, she wished this time would just stretch on forever… That was what Shizuna secretly wished for.

Under normal circumstances, Shizuna was supposed to end up with Souhei.
That might have been the original path of this world, but a single, tiny change had managed to warp the trajectory this drastically.

However, that change had never been driven by malice.
It was merely that the future reeled in by Ryuichi, a man who had recovered his memories, had happened to sweep Shizuna up along the way. He wasn’t manipulating her, nor was he pulling strings with her feelings. Shizuna was simply, purely looking at Ryuichi for who he was.

She was simply continuing to gaze at his true essence, the core of the man who had regained his memories.