The Beautiful Girl With a Kind Personality and Good Looks, Who Happens to Be My Childhood Friend, Seems to Have Eyes Only for Me
The next day.
I steeled myself and spoke up.
“…Um, listen.”
My voice was quieter than I’d expected, trembling just a little.
The boy slowly turned to look at me.
Up close, his eyes still seemed dull, yet—somehow, they also looked like they were crying.
“…My name is Ayase Haru. …I broke a bone.”
Silence.
For a moment, I thought maybe it really was impossible after all.
“…Asahina… Yuma.”
He introduced himself in a hoarse voice.
That was the first conversation between me and Asahina Yuma.
It was awkward, a halting exchange.
It was such an awkward exchange that it became hard to tell who was saying what, but still, little by little, I started talking to him.
About the weather outside the window.
About what we had for lunch today.
About the snacks Mitsuri and the others brought us.
At first, he only gave one-word responses.
Even so, after talking to him several times, Yuma gradually started replying with more words.
“Huh… So you have a little sister.”
“…Before, I used to…”
The hint of something lost seeping into every word.
I didn’t press further.
I just listened quietly to whatever he wanted to talk about.
One day, I blurted out.
“…At first. I was a little scared.”
Yuma looked at me, startled.
“But… after hearing the nurses talk…”
“…I thought it must be lonely to have that look on your face all by yourself.”
Then, for just an instant, Yuma’s eyes widened—
And then, he smiled ever so slightly, looking troubled.
“…I see.”
The moment I saw that smile, something deep inside my chest tightened.
It wasn’t him that scared me.
It was the sight of him… holding all that pain inside, all alone.
From that day on, the hospital room stopped being just a “place for hospitalization.”
I started talking with Yuma a lot. For the first time, I shared my own troubles with someone else.
That I hated being childhood friends. That I’d been bound by it all along. That being next to him was taken for granted, and I couldn’t breathe.
I kept talking, words squeezed out as I kept my head down. I felt like crying halfway through, but I didn’t stop.
“…I’m scared of the word ‘childhood friend’.”
A silence fell for a while.
I thought he might laugh at me, or be exasperated. But before me, Yuma quietly exhaled.
“…That’s not a bad thing.”
When I lifted my face, Yuma smiled at me, looking troubled, yet somehow gentle.
“…It must be painful to have others decide that being next to someone is ‘natural’. It’s wrong to be forced to live according to others’ expectations when it’s really your own life. But you’re different, Haru. Even if you feel bound now, from now on, you’ll be the one choosing. You can choose who stands beside you based on your own feelings, not because you belong to anyone.”
With those words, I felt something tangled deep within my chest begin to unravel.
Because we’re childhood friends. Because we’ve always been together. I’d been bound by those words, but Yuma’s words gently set me free.
Yuma looked away slightly and continued quietly.
“…You know, I never got picked for basketball. I’ve regretted it ever since. That’s why—”
He paused there, cutting off his words, and looked at me.
“Haru, don’t end up regretting things like I did.”
Yuma’s expression at that moment, though he was just a kid, seemed somehow mature, and terribly lonely.
My chest tightened.
—I want to help this person.
That was the first impulse I’d ever felt inside me.
I wanted to save this person who had saved me from my own chains.
Some time later, I was discharged from the hospital.
The time spent beneath that white ceiling had ended, and I should have returned to my daily life—yet something inside me was different now.
The day I got home, my mother said as usual,
“You’re going to see Chiya-chan and the others today, right?”
Just a little while ago, I would have nodded without thinking.
But that day was different.
“…I have plans to hang out with my school friends today.”
I could tell my voice was trembling just a little.
Even so, I didn’t look away.
“Besides… when I don’t feel like it, I won’t force myself to go. Because that’s what I want to do.”
My mother looked at me, surprised.
Surely, the old me would never have said something like this.
My heart was pounding so loudly it was almost painful. To say I wasn’t scared would be a lie.
Still, strangely, I felt no regret.
――“To be in a position to choose.”
The words Yuma had given me back then were quietly breathing deep within my chest.
I was no longer someone who would just be swept along by others’ expectations.
Whether to go or not. Who to spend time with.
Deciding that was up to me.
From that day on, I gradually learned to put my feelings into words.
When I wanted to hang out with school friends, I’d tell them so.
When I just couldn’t bring myself to go, I didn’t force myself to show up.
It was a small step, but I was definitely beginning to break free from the spell.
A year later, we would meet again.
The moment I spotted that familiar profile amidst the unfamiliar uniforms, my heart raced.
“…Yuma?”
When I called out to him, he looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“Huh… Who?”
At those words, time seemed to freeze.
We ended up attending the same middle school.
But—Yuma didn’t remember me.
Maiasa