Episode 15: Bonus - Reunion ⑴

I gaze at the yellow handkerchief.

High school life begins today.
Though I feel I’ve taken a step towards adulthood, there’s also a gloomy feeling that I must endure three more years of high school life.

Today too, I gently pressed my lips to the yellow handkerchief before leaving home.

　I still haven’t seen the girl who gave me that handkerchief.

I just want to thank her for that day.

I want to see her again, just once.

The girl I met in the park had beautiful black hair. It fell to her shoulders, and she was slightly shorter than me. That day, she was dressed in something like loungewear, so I wondered if she lived nearby. When I went to shops near my house, I kept an eye out, but I’ve never seen her again.

　It seems she doesn’t live nearby after all.

Enrolment day.

Some people were taking photos with their parents in front of the school gate, others were walking with friends. As I walked along, impressed that they’d already made friends, a large cherry tree appeared before me.

I was drawn towards it, as if pulled in.

Beneath the cherry tree sat a girl.

She was pointing her smartphone screen upwards, photographing the blossoms.

　Click.

She glanced back at the photo and smiled faintly.

When she turned towards me, my heart pounded so hard it felt like it might leap out of my chest.

The black-haired girl I met in the park…?

Thinking I must be mistaken, I rubbed my eyes, but there she was, definitely the girl who’d handed me that handkerchief that night.

　I must speak to her… I want to speak to her, but my body won’t move.

Beautiful black hair and a beautiful profile.

She was so beautiful the cherry blossoms seemed to pale in comparison.

How many minutes passed while I stood frozen?

That girl was already gone.
But she attends this high school.

It was the moment a tiny glimmer of hope pierced through my otherwise gloomy high school life.