───● The Childhood Friend University Student Notices ●○●

Sometimes, in a dream, you can recognize that you’re dreaming.

‘Bye-bye! Let’s play catch again tomorrow!!’

‘Yeah! See you tomorrow!!’

A memory from when I was little.

Even now, I still see it in my dreams.

‘Koumi, you are to stop going to that place.’

‘Why? He’s a really nice boy! He’s fun, and he’s kind!’

‘…I’m not going to say anything bad, just stop.’

‘Why!? No! I won’t! I hate you, Mom!!’

I was so excited to see him, I went to the neighborhood park every single day.

Day after day, day after day.

‘What time will he come today? I think he should be here soon.’

But, from one day to the next.

‘Is he not coming yet? Maybe he has a cold…’

‘Yeah, something must have come up today. I’ll come back again.’

‘…Is he not coming today, either?’

He stopped coming.

‘It’s starting to rain…’

In the midst of the cold, driving rain.

Something trickled down my cheek.

It was just the rain, washing away.

‘…Hey, —— why did you stop coming…?

“Ngh…!”

My eyes snapped open.

I grabbed the smartphone from my bedside table; the time was a little past 3 AM. Still the middle of the night.

“A dream… huh.”

I roughly scratched my head.

For some reason, I’ve been having dreams about the past a lot recently.

A memory from when I was really, really young.

I often remember the person I used to play catch with at the nearby park.

We only played together for about a year… and then, he suddenly disappeared.

I was so lonely.

Whether it was lingering attachment or something else, I ended up not quitting softball all through high school.

I think I’m such an idiot, even now. Even if I kept doing that, it’s not like he would ever come back.

After meeting Masato, I really thought I wouldn’t remember it anymore, but it seems that memories accompanied by the emotions of childhood stay in your head more stubbornly than you’d think.

“I don’t even remember his name… I wonder if he’s doing okay…”

As long as he’s happy and healthy, that’s all that matters.

Thinking that, I fell asleep once more.

Summer vacation at university is long.

All of August is usually off, and then having a break until the latter half of September on top of that feels incredibly long.

We’re about to enter that long university student summer vacation, but.

“Mizuho. I want to make plans to hang out with Masato during summer break.”

At a café on the university campus, I made this declaration to my best friend, who was cutely sipping an iced caffè latte from a straw at one of the terrace seats.

Summer vacation is right around the corner, and I still haven’t made plans to hang out with Masato!

This is a grave state of affairs!

“Yeah, so, you should just… do it, shouldn’t you…?”

“Don’t say it like it’s so easy!?”

Mizuho’s been acting kind of distant lately.

The same Mizuho whose trademark is being so full of energy and smiles… When I ask her if something’s wrong, she just shakes her head with a sad little smile.

I’ve known Mizuho for a pretty long time, but this is the first time she’s been like this.

“What do you want to do?”

“What to do… hmm, let’s see…”

I rested my cheek on my hand.

The caramel latte I’d ordered was now just a watery liquid with melted ice settled at the bottom.

“It’s summer vacation, so how about going to the beach or something?”

“The beach! Nice. I love the beach too.”

Oh, she seemed a little more cheerful.

You can get to the beach in about an hour and a half by train, so I don’t think it’s a bad idea.

And…

I leaned my body a little closer to Mizuho and whispered.

“It doesn’t have to be… a day trip, right?”

“Eh!?”

“I mean, we’re university students, you know? It wouldn’t be weird for us to go on an overnight trip, would it?”

I think it’s a pretty good plan, if I do say so myself.

Using a long trip as an excuse to go on an overnight getaway…

At the inn, a young man and woman together on a summer night… there’s no way something wouldn’t happen…

“I-I don’t think that’s a good idea!!”

“Ehh!? Why not!”

As I was lost in my fantasy, Mizuho’s voice of opposition rang out.

Seeing how her face is all red, she was probably thinking the same thing I was.

“B-Because you’re not dating yet, are you? St-Starting with something like that when you’re not even dating is, I, I think that’s not right!”

“You’re one to talk! Right after we started school, you were all like, ‘Shall we just get down to it and do the deed?!’ or something like that!”

“Th-That was me being a bit too hasty, or how should I put it…”

At a loss for words, Mizuho put her lips back on the straw of her caffè latte.

But she might have a point. If I suddenly asked him to go to the beach, just the two of us, overnight… even someone as dense as Masato might get wary and turn me down…?

Hmm, if that’s the case, then, let’s see…

“Then you should come with us, Mizuho.”

“Wha!?”

Mizuho pulled her mouth away from the straw with a start, surprised. I feel like her pigtails bounced along with her.

Her reactions are as cute as ever.

“He’d probably turn me down if I asked just the two of us… but if I say you’re coming too, Masato would probably feel more at ease, right? You two seem to have hit it off pretty well.”

“Eh, well… that’s…”

This might be a brilliant idea. I’ll feel a little bad for Mizuho, but maybe during a romantic moment at night, I can get her to create some time for just the two of us…

“You said it was your dream too, right, Mizuho? To go to the beach with a boy.”

“That’s… true, but…”

“Alright! Since that’s decided, I’m gonna propose it to Masato today! No time like the present, as they say!”

“Wait, whoa, are you serious, Koumi?”

“Deadly serious! You’d better get a swimsuit ready too, Mizuho!”

“…A-Are you for real…?”

I can hang out with Mizuho, and I can advance my relationship with Masato. Killing two birds with one stone!

Now, it’s just a matter of whether Masato will agree or not!

“So with that, Masato, let’s go to the beach!”

“Wait, I don’t understand what ‘with that’ means at all??”

I immediately invited Masato to the beach the second he got to campus.

Masato glanced at Mizuho, who was standing next to me, looking for an explanation, but she just gave him a wry smile.

“Let’s go to the beach overnight! Doesn’t that sound like a university summer vacation?”

“The beach, huh… It definitely sounds fun, but… overnight, an overnight trip…”

Ugh. As I thought, even Masato is hung up on that part… Of course he is. I had a tiny hope that he’d agree without any hesitation, but no such luck.

But I still have another card to play!

“It’s fine! Mizuho’s coming with us!”

“Does that really make it fine??”

“Ahaha…”

Mizuho laughed apologetically.

If he turns me down, so be it. I’ll just suggest a day trip, or a different location!

I won’t be defeated!

Masato put a hand to his chin and thought for a moment…

“Alright. But we’re definitely getting separate rooms, okay?”

“Yay! Of course, of course! Alright! Let’s decide on the dates!”

Yes!! He probably would have turned me down if it were just me, so nice one, Mizuho!

“Mizuho, you help decide too! This is so exciting!”

“Y-Yeah, it is…”

I can’t wait.

It looks like this is going to be a fun summer vacation!

On the way home that day.

Mizuho said she had plans and left in a hurry, so I was walking to the station with just Masato for the first time in a while.

This is a good chance. Maybe I should ask Masato about Mizuho’s weird behavior recently.

“Mizuho’s been really distant lately… Masato, do you know anything?”

Masato, walking beside me, looked up slightly and thought for a moment before answering.

“Eh… ah… you mean, she’s been distant towards you, Koumi?”

“Yeah, that’s right~. Whenever I ask her about it, she just says it’s nothing…”

When the usually cheerful Mizuho acts so distant, it makes me antsy too. If she’s troubled by something, I want to be there for her…

“…Sorry, it might be my fault.”

“Eh!? Why?”

“Ah, man… I might have done something bad. I’ll apologize to Mizuho.”

The reason she’s distant with me has something to do with Masato…?

I-I need to know…

“I-If you don’t mind my asking, what’s the reason…?”

“Hmm, I can’t really go into detail, but she happened to find out about a secret I’ve been keeping, and maybe asking her not to tell anyone has become a burden?”

“Ehh…”

“I might be overthinking it, but it’s a possibility, so I’ll ask her about it.”

So only Mizuho knows Masato’s secret?

For just a moment, a sharp pain ran through my chest.

Is it something he can’t tell me?

Suddenly, my heart felt lonely.

“I-Is that… something you can’t tell me?”

The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them.

My feet, which had been walking toward the station, came to a halt.

My grip on my tote bag tightened.

Masato, noticing I’d stopped, gave me a troubled smile.

“How do I put this… It’s the kind of thing that, if I say it, you might start to hate me.”

“I would never hate you!”

“…Koumi?”

“I would never hate you… I wouldn’t be disillusioned… Being pushed away like this is… much more painful…”

No matter what he tells me, I would never be disillusioned with Masato.

These feelings I have for him aren’t that cheap.

I might be surprised, I might even get hurt.

I don’t know.

But I can say with absolute certainty that it would never, ever make me hate him.

Pat, pat. He gently patted my head.

“Thanks… Koumi. You’re right. Will you hear me out, then?”

“Yeah… of course.”

A small part of me is scared.

What if he tells me he has a girlfriend or something…?

After saying I’d never hate him, I can’t just have a terrible reaction.

I steeled myself.

“The thing is… I told you I had a part-time job, right?”

“Yeah. The tutoring.”

“Well… I have another one I’m working on.”

I didn’t know that. I did think that he must have a job on weekdays too.

Masato continued, looking like it was difficult to say.

“I, um, I work at a boy’s bar.”

The fact landed in my chest with a thud.

Sure, it’s a surprise. But there’s also a strange sense of consent, a feeling that if it’s Masato, he could probably pull it off.

I do worry if he’s being pestered by weird women because of a job like that.

But because I was so worried he was going to tell me he had a girlfriend, in that moment, I wasn’t really that shocked.

──But, in the next instant.

Something far more important than that…A shockwave ripped through my mind.

What flashed through my head was a conversation with my energetic best friend.

‘He was so kind!? I was so happy, I never thought a guy like that existed!’

‘I found out where my fated person works! Turns out, he’s a boy at a boy’s bar!’

‘I just can’t believe that was all an act or a lie…’

It’s a single possibility.

Back then, I just thought, oh, so there are other people like Masato out there.

But maybe that’s wrong.

But when I introduced them, she didn’t react like that.

Is it possible they both didn’t realize? Can something like that even happen?

I want to believe it’s not true.

I want to believe it’s impossible.

But my intuition is screaming.

Could it be that Mizuho’s fated person… is Masato?

I felt like a hand had clenched tightly around my heart.