Episode 1

‘So, um — are you getting used to things? Hyōri.’
‘……’
‘You can always rely on me, you know. I’ll lend a hand and support you whenever you need it, for your sake.’
‘……’
‘Hyōri? Are you all right?’
‘Yuu-chan. I don’t think I can take it anymore. I’m sorry.’
‘Eh?’

　It was last Friday when she suddenly said that and we parted ways.
Through the weekend I regretted it, over and over. Hyōri’s state that day had been so hollow it could only be called abnormal — there was no life in her at all. Maybe I should have gone after her. Why didn’t I reach out to her as she walked away? Regret alone gnaws at me. It was a weekend so oppressively heavy I felt as though I might be crushed beneath my own self-reproach.

　Today — will she actually come to school? Will she show herself to me, if not in good spirits, then at least just… be there?

I was anxious.
I was so anxious that I woke up earlier than usual this morning, and so I’ve ended up arriving at school just a few minutes before the gates open. There’s now more than an hour and a half to go before my usual start time.

　Yet there is nothing for me to do.
I wipe the blackboard in my own classroom clean, sweep the floor, and tidy up the desks. This is all routine for me; I don’t even feel as though I’ve done anything out of the ordinary.

‘…Shall I read a novel? Or perhaps get on with preparing for the next section of the syllabus?’

It was just as I muttered those words to myself.

‘Komamori-san. Are you free right now?’
‘Huh!?’

I turn around.
There, at the classroom doorway, stood the source of all my worry.
Friday, at parting — she had turned her hunched back to me and trudged away as though each step cost her something.
My oldest friend, and the most “unfortunate” girl I know.

“Hyōri, wh — what’s the matter. Coming to school this early in the morning — that’s unlike you.”

Shaking her long white hair, she — my childhood friend — leans her weight against the doorframe and tilts her head.
Her hair, obedient to gravity, hangs and sways like a pendulum.

“You’re up early yourself, Komamori-san.”
“Komamori-san, you say?”
“I was just so looking forward to school that I somehow woke up early.”
“Looking forward to school, you say?”

Wait. Just wait a moment.
It’s not that I want to insist on or emphasise your misfortune, but surely you don’t have a clear enough outlook right now to find anything to look forward to.
　I found that deeply sad, and I was even gnashing my teeth at the fact that I, of all people, couldn’t make you smile.

But who is this girl standing before me now, with that curve of a smile on her lips?

And that formal way of calling me Komamori-san — I don’t like it one bit.

‘Komamori-san, looking so pensive… Ah, you’re twice as beautiful as I imagined. So cool, yet so cute. When I read through the memories, I thought, Impossible’ But I see. Cool and cute can indeed coexist.”

Gunjō Hyōri placed a hand to her cheek and muttered something.
Though I couldn’t quite make out the words, the intense gaze she was directing at me now felt somehow hard to accept.

I cleared my throat once.
After gathering my scattered thoughts, I asked her.

‘Hey, Hyōri. You seem different from usual. Has something happened?’
‘Something? No, nothing in particular, really.’
‘Hmm, is that so? Yet, calling me by my surname and using polite language, your attitude is completely unlike the Hyōri I’ve known until now.’
‘My, Komamori-san, you really do know me well. That makes me rather happy.’
‘Know you — of course I do…’

We’re childhood friends, aren’t we?
We’ve been close for so long.

‘Well, I don’t really care about my past right now. More importantly, Komamori-san, are you free at the moment?’
“Doesn’t matter, does it? — Hmm! You’re right. If you ask me if I’m free, I’ve got nothing in particular to do, so I suppose I have to say I am.”
“Well then, shall we go for a little stroll around the school grounds?”
“W-what, inside the school?”

As I found myself asking her to repeat herself, she smiled and replied in a clear, composed voice.

“Yes. Through this fine old girls’ school of ours.”

　◇

　Gunjō Hyōri.
Since our parents were good friends, our families had gone on trips together many times.
I’d shared a room with her countless times since we were little, and we understood each other’s likes and dislikes perfectly.

Or so I thought…

“What food do you dislike, Komamori-san?”

……….

　It had been going on like this for a while now — a back-and-forth of questions and answers, as though she were treating me like a girl she’d never met before.
The first question was: ‘Is it true that, right up until you started Year 9, you used to get up early every Sunday morning just to watch those Super Sentai shows that boys tend to like?’ It was a question I found embarrassing but couldn’t deny. Given that she knew that much, I found it strange that she was actually asking it with a questioning look on her face. The next question was a confirmatory one: ‘You still like magical girl anime even now that you’re in sixth form, don’t you?’ So if you know that much, there’s no need to ask! I thought, my face flushing slightly. Yet, as she asked these questions with such a serious expression, I couldn’t just brush them off and found myself answering them earnestly.

And after a few more questions, a rather abstract one came next.
It was, ‘What food do you dislike now?’

　I looked into her, Hyōri’s, eyes.
She smiles, a soft little smile — and yet the gaze she returns to me makes it clear that she is not teasing, not making fun, but asking in earnest. There is a sincerity in her eyes that won’t let me dismiss it.

——……

　I exhaled.
It’s because I keep losing to that gaze that I’ve been answering each question in earnest, one by one.
This time too, I answer her honestly.

‘People are often surprised, but despite how I look, I can’t handle spicy food. I’m sensitive to heat, so I can’t handle hot food either. And I hate bitter foods, like bitter melon.’
‘Mm-hmm. I know, I know!’
‘Then why did you ask…’

She’s definitely acting strange today.
　That was the case just now, too. It was as if she were confirming information she’d already obtained, checking that it all added up.
I can’t help but feel that the Q&A session we’ve been having since a little while ago has been intended for that very purpose.

‘Now, please tell me your favourite foods! Komamori-san.’

Your smile is almost blinding.
That radiant smile, so characteristic of her, which I’d hardly seen at all since that incident.
It’s illuminating my field of vision once more, and piercing right through my heart.

　I’m concerned about the change in her demeanour right now.
Her attitude, which makes me think I’d actually believe it if someone told me she was a different person, has given rise to new anxieties.

But the fact that I was able to see your smile again…

I’m just so incredibly happy.

Perhaps there’s no need to press her for answers right now.
And so, I answered her questions as many times as she wanted, until she was satisfied.