Once More, In That Same Place
“Yuna—! I’m gonna miss you! I don’t want to go home!!”
“We’ll see each other again later.”
I gently patted the head of Fuuka, crying dramatically without a care for who might be watching. She’d flung herself at me so suddenly the red corsage on my chest nearly came loose.
“But… I’m going to miss this!”
Too early yet for the cherry blossoms to bloom. Realising I’d never come back here again, a sudden, sharp pang of nostalgia caught me off guard.
My final speech as former student council president went reasonably well, I think. From the stage under the lights, I could just make out Dad, sobbing openly in the parents’ seats, and someone who looked like Shiho-san beside him. I think I did everything I could.
“I’m going to miss it too. It still doesn’t feel real that I’m graduating.”
Next week I’ll walk through these gates again with Ao, spend lunch break with Fuuka, maybe hang out with Rin and the others after school sometime. It’s hard to shake the feeling that those ordinary days are just going to come right back.
“We’ve been together for ten years, and you think it just ends the moment high school’s over? That pisses me off. Are you not going to hang out with me anymore, Fuuka?”
“I love you! Marry me!”
I soothed Fuuka as she rubbed her tear-streaked face against me, and looked up at the school building that had looked after us for three years.
So much happened during these three years of high school.
A first-year watching Ao from far away, in love with her. A second-year who became her family and finally had her feelings reach her. A third-year who promised to keep living alongside her, from here on.
I don’t remember feeling anything much at my middle school graduation. My whole life back then had felt like playing at being an adult, watching myself from somewhere distant. But over these three years, Tsukishima Yuna seems to have changed a great deal.
All of it thanks to Ao and Fuuka. Where would I even be right now without the two of them?
“You’re staying over during Golden Week, right? We’ll see each other again soon.”
I said it and patted her head lightly. Fuuka with black hair still looks unfamiliar to me, but I think it suits her — makes her look more grown-up. Though I love the gyaru version of her too, exactly as she is.
“I know. I’m just feeling sentimental, I guess.”
Fuuka lifted her face, wearing a smile more grown-up than the one she had on the day we started here, and went on.
“But I think it’s a good thing, feeling sad about this. It just means we had that much fun. We really did a lot together, didn’t we, Yuna.”
Something in her steady voice made my own tears threaten to well up again.
“You’ve got such a good look on your face right now.”
“You think… so?”
I wondered how I actually looked, through Fuuka’s eyes, right now.
“Because back in middle school you always looked kind of bored. Elementary school too.”
Fuuka gently ran her hand along the bench where we’d eaten lunch together so many times, gazing off into the distance.
“I can’t beat Ao. Annoying to admit, but I really do think that.”
“…That’s not true.”
I remembered the day Fuuka pushed me forward. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look on her face that day. I don’t think I’m allowed to forget it.
“But it’s fine. Ao sends me pretty good photos, after all.”
“Huh?”
Fuuka smirked and turned her phone toward me. On the screen: me, fast asleep on the sofa, stomach exposed.
“Th— that’s spying!”
When was that even taken? And more importantly, why does Fuuka have it—
“Ao and I are the Yuna Alliance. Lots more fun to come, so look forward to it~”
“…Give me a break.”
I let out a sigh, holding down my skirt against the wind.
I know Ao and Fuuka get along well. They message each other often, apparently, and go out together sometimes too. Honestly, it makes me happy.
“If you try to steal Ao from me, even Fuuka’s going to get angry.”
I gave her a flat, narrow-eyed look, peering into her face as she doubled over laughing.
“Guess I’d better tell Ao I love her even more, so she doesn’t get taken from me.”
Fuuka pressed her cheek against mine, hugging me tight, and the closeness made me blush despite the heat of it — but it didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. Even at graduation, we’re exactly the same as always. And I think that’s exactly right, for us.
“Isn’t it about time? You shouldn’t keep her waiting too long.”
After a while of getting worked up over silly old memories, Fuuka glanced at her phone and murmured, her voice turning serious.
“You’re right. I should get going. See you tonight at the after-party.”
Just as I turned my back to her, something I wanted to say surfaced in my head, and I turned to face her once more.
“Thanks for wearing the proof of our friendship.”
I smiled, touching the burgundy hairpin at my ear. The matching pair we’d bought that day, playing at going on a date. I never got to be with her as girlfriends — but it’s proof of our friendship, something not even Ao has.
“That’s… not fair.”
Not the exaggerated crying face she’d been wearing until a moment ago. Silent tears spilled from her eyes, and she wore the brightest smile I’d ever seen from her.
“I’ll buy a new one in university! Something even more expensive, so Ao gets jealous!!”
She smiled without even trying to hide her lovely teeth, a smile blooming wide open.
I’m sure she’s still hurting, even now. But she’s the one and only childhood friend, the one and only best friend, who chose to stay by my side anyway. I’m so glad she’s been here with me.
I turned my back on Fuuka and made my way through the courtyard, full of laughter and tears echoing from every corner, toward the place I’d been called to. Out of the corner of my eye: people confessing their feelings in quiet corners of the school building, others taking group photos to remember it all by. I passed by so many different scenes on my way up the stairs.
The photo the three of us took together, the one with the whole student council — I think both will be treasures for the rest of my life. I was never much good with cameras, but somewhere along the way I got thoroughly used to having my picture taken.
The classroom at the far end of the fourth floor. The room where I fell for Ao. Three years have passed since then.
I took a breath in front of the door and slowly pushed it open.
“Sorry to keep you waiting. Got held up.”
I called out to the figure sitting by the window.
Her hair’s a little shorter than it was back then, but I still find my eyes following it without meaning to — still glossy black. Her eyes, clearly shaped and always open wide, have been watching me this whole time. Her legs, longer even than they were last year, are enough to draw a sigh out of me.
I’ve been wearing this uniform, in love with her, for almost three years now. Even at eighteen, admiration and love still live side by side in my heart.
“Don’t worry about it. I could wait for you for hours. Years, even.”
Ao stood and made her way slowly to the very front, centre seat.
“I think this was my seat, originally. And Yuna was… where, again?”
“Here. Where I could always see the side of your face.”
I moved to stand at the seat diagonally behind hers.
“So that’s where you were watching from. I never noticed at all.”
“I made sure you wouldn’t.”
I said it, looking around the classroom. Fuuka’s seat was over there, I think. And Runa’s, over there.
“Come to think of it, why did you suddenly dye your hair? You were still black-haired for a while after we started here, right?”
“…Ah.”
Faced with Ao’s curious question, the words caught in my throat. I don’t think we’ve ever actually talked about this.
“…Because you said you thought brown hair was cuter.”
The words came out in a small, nearly vanishing voice.
“Huh? When did I say that?”
“I don’t know. Try hard and remember.”
I smiled, teasing, the way she always does to me. She probably doesn’t remember that day at all. Back then, I was nothing more than a classmate to her.
The girl I’d once admired from so far away that I couldn’t even meet her eyes was now standing right in front of me, frowning a little, trying hard to remember something for my sake. Watching her like that made me so happy that I pressed my forehead against her chest without thinking.
“I’ve liked you this whole time.”
“This whole time… the whole time. I thought it would be fine even if you never noticed.”
I don’t know why, but the tears came anyway.
“…I know.”
Ao’s hand, gently stroking my head, felt warm and good.
“We’ll always be together. Even if you said you’d started hating me, I wouldn’t let you go.”
“If it were you, I think you actually might lock me up somewhere. That’s a little scary.”
I pulled my face back from her chest and gave her a small laugh.
That strange air she carries — grown-up, and yet still faintly childlike — hasn’t changed at all, even now that we’re third-years. I wonder if that’ll change once we’re at university.
“No more Mum or Dad around from now on, you know. If I wanted to lock you up, I could, easily.”
I gently pushed back against Ao, whose gaze had gone warm for a moment, and turned my back to her.
Starting in April, Ao and I are leaving this town to live together. Same university, coming home to the same house. From the outside, we probably look like an unusually close pair of sisters.
But I’m glad Ao agreed to this. When I threw a fit, insisting I didn’t want to be apart from her at university or at home, she didn’t complain even once, and simply nodded along.
“Sister rules… should we add a few more?”
I murmured it, my face going stiff under the heat of Ao’s gaze.
Rules we’ve never once actually managed to keep. But proof, all the same, that we’ve never forgotten we’re sisters too.
“We’ll put them up properly on the wall this time, and make you read them out loud every time you break one.”
“Because that moment feels so good. Don’t let me forget to put them up in the new place either.”
I pressed down the smile threatening to break through at the happy laughter behind me, and let out a long breath.
“Should we head home soon? You must be hungry too, Yuna.”
The voices of graduating students drifting in from beyond the window were slowly growing fewer. Just as Ao said, it was probably time to go.
“Ao, look this way.”
“Hm?”
I stood on my toes slightly and gently touched my lips to her unguarded ones.
The first and last kiss I’ll ever have at this school.
“Let’s go.”
Embarrassed at the thought of her seeing my face after doing that on my own initiative, I stepped out of the classroom ahead of her.
I wonder how much longer this relationship of ours will last. I think there’ll come a day, eventually, when even what we have now won’t be enough. I don’t know when that day will come.
But I think we can manage it — after everything we’ve come through together. With Ao, who believed in someone as weak and fragile as me, I think we’ll be all right.
If I’m ever reborn, I want to come back as her.
That’s what I used to think. I don’t think that at all anymore.
If I’m ever reborn, I want to stay exactly who I am. And I want Ao to stay exactly who she is. I want us to meet again, and live our lives together once more.
That’s what I hope for.
The classmate I had a crush on became my stepsister, and then my girlfriend.
I think we’ll go on remembering this miracle, hand in hand, for the rest of our lives.