Chapter 40: Childhood Friend

Reading Settings

Translator: Soafp

---

We got on the private café's into the café together.

Miko didn't seem to come to places like this very often, so she had apparently just picked it at random by looking up nearby shops on her phone.

Soft classical music drifted through the store.

Sitting across from each other, we listened to it in silence.

She kept turning her face away awkwardly, looking pale and as though she wanted to bolt from the place at any moment.

“Have you been doing well?”

“…Yeah.”

“You've gotten a little taller.”

“…Yeah.”

No matter what I asked, Miko only nodded.

This wasn't a conversation.

Then, finally, Miko looked up at me with gloomy eyes and opened her mouth heavily.

“Why did you come to see me?”

“I don't really know either. I just wanted to see you once.”

“…”

“Can I ask you one thing too?”

“What?”

“Do you think what you did to me was wrong?”

“…!”

Miko's face crumpled.

“I know it was wrong. I did something I can never take back.”

“Do you regret it?”

“I do. That's why I moved away—I thought I couldn't face you anymore.”

“Then why don't you apologize now that we've met again?”

“That's because…”

If she really regretted it that much, a normal person would bow their head.

Carrying that guilt forever must be painful for Miko too.

“I don't want you to forgive me. If I apologize, you'll forgive me, Subaru. I hurt you and made you sad, so I don't have the right to be forgiven.”

“I'm not hurt, and I'm not sad.”

“That's a lie. I know that too. We've been childhood friends… This guilt is the punishment I have to carry.”

I sipped my coffee.

On the table, Miko's untouched coffee steamed gently.

It was our first reunion in years.

And yet Miko's attitude hadn't changed from back then.

Now that I thought about it, Shinonome had said something similar once.

But unlike her, the troublesome thing about Miko was that she truly didn't want forgiveness.

Shinonome had at least seemed, somewhere deep down, like she wanted to be forgiven if possible.

Miko, on the other hand, was stubborn.

Her sulking attitude irritated me a little.

But this wasn't exactly resentment or anger toward her.

No, this feeling was similar to something I'd felt several times recently.

Why had our relationship become twisted this badly?

As she sat there in silence, head bowed, I kept thinking it over.

---

My house and Miko's were next-door neighbors.

Our families were close, and ever since I was a child, taking care of Miko had been part of my daily routine.

One day in the second term of first year of middle school, I left home early for school and went to Miko's room.

“Come on, wake up, Miko. You'll be late.”

“Mmm… just a little longer…”

I shook the girl still lying in bed, not fully out of summer vacation mode yet.

She slowly woke up, glanced back and forth between my face and the clock, and then her eyes flew open.

“It's already this late!?”

“Hurry up and get ready.”

“Okay!”

She rushed to the washstand, then came back to the room chewing on a piece of bread—and screamed.

“Subaru, this is bad! I didn't prepare my textbooks yesterday!”

“I figured, so I already did it. Come on, let's go.”

“Uu… thanks, Subaru. Hehe, after all, the best thing you can have is a childhood friend!”

“I'm not some convenience store helper.”

Normally, spending time with such a needy girl might have become annoying.

But for me, taking care of Miko was part of life, and I even felt a sense of satisfaction from it.

I was happy that she needed me.

Then, one day:

“Miko, you're kind of childish, aren't you?”

“Eh?”

The classroom was noisy.

While a close group of classmates were chatting together, a boy named Ayano said that to Miko.

“M-Me?”

“Yeah. I mean, you came to school with Hatsukade again today, and he woke you up, right?”

“Yeah, but…”

“Isn't that pretty childish for a middle schooler?”

I listened from my seat a little ways away.

Unlike me, Miko was friendly, so people often gathered around her.

“Well, they're childhood friends, so isn't that normal?”

“No, no, no. That's definitely weird. You're kind of like a little kid in class, Miko. At this rate you'll never get a boyfriend.”

“Ugh.”

“No one likes girls who act like children.”

I could see from Miko's expression that she was troubled by the words she couldn't answer.

Truthfully, Miko did worry about seeming immature.

Her short height and baby face didn't help.

And with her personality, it wasn't impossible that someone might mistake her for a grade-schooler if she wasn't in uniform.

Around that time, people in class were always talking about who was dating whom.

Maybe she felt the gap between herself and the more grown-up people around her.

“Th-That's not true. I-it's just… Subaru always comes to pick me up on his own, so we're only together because of that…”

—Huh?

Caught off guard by the sudden words, I probably looked completely dumbfounded.

Our eyes met for a moment.

She quickly looked away.

“Well, your houses are close and your parents get along, so isn't it natural that you go to and from school together?”

“Ohhh, but still. I've got a childhood friend in my neighborhood who goes to the same high school, and she doesn't do that.”

“That's…”

“So you're basically just a kid who can't go to school alone.”

“I'm not!”

“Then try going by yourself starting tomorrow.”

“!”

The people around us egged her on as if trying to provoke her.

Then Miko walked straight over to me.

“Um, Subaru…”

“What is it?”

“Y-You don't have to come pick me up from tomorrow on. I can go to school by myself.”

“But—”

“No, really. You don't need to keep doing this kind of unnecessary meddling!”

That was all she said before returning to the group.

The people there raised excited voices over what had just happened.

But I understood.

That had just been a heated exchange—Miko had said it on impulse.

There was no need to take it seriously, I told myself.

But that night:

“Tomorrow, you really don't have to come pick me up!”

I got that message from Miko.

It felt like a hole had opened up in my chest.

Even after that, she didn't ask me to pick her up anymore.

We still talked at school.

We still went home together.

Those things continued, but the frequency had clearly dropped.

I thought there was no way that could be true.

The idea kept crossing my mind that maybe Miko didn't need me anymore.

It was unexpected.

We had always been together since childhood.

So I had simply assumed, without even saying it, that we'd still be like that in the future too.

Somehow, I started not knowing how I was supposed to act around Miko.

And then it happened.

“That incident.”

“Subaru, can you come alone to the rooftop after school?”

My head went hot all at once.

My heart thudded.

So I was right after all.

There was no way Miko, who had always been so close to me, would actually hate me.

I climbed the stairs, barely able to contain my excitement, and the path felt unusually long.

The sunset cast long shadows, and a cool wind swept across the rooftop.

Miko arrived soon after.

Her face was red with embarrassment, and after stumbling over her words several times, she finally said:

“I like you, Subaru, so I want you to go out with me.”

I was just happy to hear that.

It felt like the worry clouding my heart had cleared all at once.

I'd been thinking during class about how to respond, so the words came out easily.

“I like you too, Miko. Let's go out.”

That was when it happened.

The rooftop door burst open.

The boys and girls Miko always hung around with poured in.

“Surprise prank—success!”

Someone was laughing.

Someone was filming with a smartphone.

For an instant, my mind went completely blank.

But I calmed down immediately.

It didn't matter. I didn't care about the others.

If they wanted to play a disgusting prank and laugh about it, let them.

I wasn't interested in them.

What I did care about was this:

Ayano and the others said something to Miko, and she laughed along with them.

That was something I absolutely could not forgive.

A bunch of people kept talking at me.

I didn't even want to hear what they were saying.

“S-Sorry, Subaru. It was kind of a punishment game, so I had to confess to someone.”

“…I see.”

So my confession was nothing more than something cheap enough to be used in a punishment game.

The cold clarity vanished in an instant, and my head was flooded with such intense rage that my vision narrowed.

“Why are you making that face? The usual Subaru would forgive this, right?”

I didn't answer.

I just left the rooftop.

I could hear Miko's small cry behind me, but I ignored it.

And that was how my revenge began.