A quiet vacant lot beside the tennis courts.
There, Sunohara and Okazaki were huddled together, diligently making something.
With bandages plastered across various parts of their faces, the two of them were absorbed in their work as though nothing had happened.
"...I really thought I was going to hell."
Sunohara let out a relieved sigh without stopping his work.
"So why are we making something like this again?"
Even as he grumbled and helped Sunohara with the work, Okazaki seemed completely unable to figure out why they were doing this.
"Listen, Sunohara... You promised you wouldn’t do anything like that again."
I was crouched beside them, watching the two with eyes full of unease, worried that they might be about to cause another major disaster.
The guilt I’d felt earlier over hurting Kyo in the hallway had vanished without a trace.
Instead, the sight of these two hopeless idiots was starting to give me a headache.
"Hey, Morita! You’ve got it wrong, wrong! This absolutely isn’t for Kyo!"
Earlier, when I’d put on a serious face and shown a little anger in the classroom, Sunohara had shouted himself hoarse that he would never do it again. Now, his eyes sparkled as he made excuses.
But whether it was for Kyo or not, seeing him plotting something again made sighs spill out of me on their own.
"Sunohara, I’m asking why we’re doing this."
Okazaki sighed as he continued helping with the work.
Still, it was impressive how loyal Okazaki was, helping his friend without a word of complaint.
"Well, I’m going to take out all this resentment on the freshmen—"
"—and relieve my stress!"
Sunohara puffed out his chest and declared it proudly.
"So you’re just taking your anger out on them."
At Sunohara’s confident proclamation, Okazaki and I clutched our heads at the exact same time, as if we’d planned it.
What they were busily making was a huge papier-mâché ball like the ones we used to burst by throwing balls at them during elementary school sports days.
Between the two of them, hard at work, I saw a little string dangling beneath the ball, with a piece of paper tied to its end.
"What’s this paper?"
I moved closer and read the words written on it.
『Someone, please pull it. It’ll be fun.』
"What do you think, Morita? This will be an unforgettable memory of youth for the freshmen!"
"Sigh..."
‘It might really be unforgettable for the rest of their lives.’
...
Somehow, Sunohara had found a huge plastic washbasin just small enough to fit inside the ball.
Before I knew it, he had quickly secured it inside the now-finished ball.
Whenever he pulled some pointless, malicious prank like this, why was he so unbelievably handy?
Watching the two of them complete a perfect trap-ball in just a few dozen minutes, all I could do was sigh silently.
"Sunohara, that basin won’t be dangerous, will it?"
At my question, Sunohara puffed out his chest and answered with absolute confidence.
"Of course not! It’ll just hurt a little!"
"...Really?"
"Really... right?"
Sunohara’s final answer trailed off awkwardly and ended as a question.
Seeing the eyes of the guy who had been so confident until moments ago begin to waver only made me more anxious.
"Hey, Sunohara. Did you just turn the end of that sentence into ‘right?’"
Okazaki, who had been tying a rope nearby, glared at Sunohara suspiciously as well.
Unable to withstand our sharp stares in the end, Sunohara grumbled as he dismantled the ball.
He took out the plastic washbasin inside, then used scissors and a knife to cut slits all over it, altering it so it would split easily even with a weak impact.
Once he was done, he put the altered basin back inside the ball.
"There, happy now? At this point, it’ll split apart the instant it hits someone’s head!"
Sunohara wiped away his sweat and grinned.
Only after seeing the pre-cut basin did I feel even a little reassured.
At least no one would end up being carried to the nurse’s office with a cracked skull.
"All right, what should we write on it now?"
With the completed ball between them, Sunohara held a black marker in one hand and pulled a piece of white cloth taut with the other.
"How about, 『Sunohara, Morita, and Okazaki: a close-knit combo. By: Please Treat Us Well.』"
"‘Please Treat Us Well’ should be written in those difficult kanji delinquents always use!"
I had no idea what that was supposed to mean.
Still, knowing that my name was included in the lineup for that prank gave me a strange sense of belonging.
Oddly enough, it didn’t feel bad.
I must be getting strange too.
"There are several things I’d like to fix, but let’s just stop there."
Watching from the side, Okazaki threw in a jab as he looked at Sunohara in disbelief.
That only made Sunohara more excited. Waving his pen, he offered a second draft.
"Then how about this? 『Yohei, Shu, Tomoya. Friendship Behind the Curtain! The Three of Us Are the Best! By: Please Treat Us Well!』"
"Why are curtains involved...?"
Sunohara casually dredged up my dark past.
Today, too, he was trying to socially kill me.
"For starters, you’ve got the word order around ‘by’ backwards."
Okazaki pointed out the nonsensical English.
"Then let’s go with 『Sunohara, Morita, Okazaki: a close-knit combo and America Extreme Ironing, feat. the Hikarizaka Terminators. By: Please Treat Us Well!』"
"That’s so crammed in, I can barely breathe."
Okazaki muttered in disbelief, and I couldn’t resist adding a word of my own.
"Sunohara, have you watched Terminator recently?"
"Then you write it!"
Grumbling, Sunohara shoved the pen and white cloth at Okazaki.
Okazaki obediently took the pen and cloth, then stared quietly at the ball sitting alone in the middle and asked seriously,
"When this splits, that thing drops, right?"
"Yeah. We’re teaching them firsthand that high school life isn’t easy!"
"Sunohara... Isn’t this supposed to be a memory?"
"Th-That’s part of the memories too!"
At my incredulous remark, Sunohara rolled his eyes and stubbornly insisted on it.
Watching that, Okazaki seemed to sink into thought for a moment as he spun the marker between his fingers.
Then he spoke quietly.
"Then this is all I have to tell them."
As though he had made up his mind, he began writing something across the white cloth in a neat, gentle hand.
"『Don’t let the hardships ahead defeat you—keep going.』"
Without realizing it, I read aloud the words Okazaki had written.
"...That’s a nice message."
"Yeah."
Okazaki gave a quiet snort of laughter, capped the marker, and shrugged.
Then he turned his gaze toward me, still staring blankly at the cloth.
"Morita, that goes for you too."
"..."
In that instant, something sank heavily in my chest, and I found myself unable to speak.
The guilt of having offered Kyo such clumsy comfort in the hallway earlier, only to make her run away.
The self-reproach that I was still such an immature person, someone who only hurt others.
Into my heart, which had been floundering alone in those dark feelings, Okazaki’s words quietly seeped.
‘He probably just said it by chance.’
‘So why does it strike so deeply?’
‘Could someone like me... really keep going without letting the hardships ahead defeat me?’
Questions about myself followed one after another, and just as my eyes were beginning to sting with heat—
"Heh~ Okazaki! Look at this. Morita’s getting moved again, isn’t he? Are you gonna start sniffling?"
Sunohara grinned as he jabbed me in the side with his elbow.
"...I’m not crying, Sunohara."
"Aw, don’t be embarrassed! It’s written all over your face, Morita!"
"...Leave him alone."
Okazaki snorted and lightly tapped the back of Sunohara’s head.
"Learn to read the mood a little."
Sunohara, helplessly cheerful and constantly causing trouble, and Okazaki, who could offer deep consideration while seeming indifferent.
With these strange guys beside me, I thought that maybe I could find the courage to take even a few steps forward.
...
"All right! At last, the [Hardship-Overcoming Memory Maker] is complete!"
Sunohara lifted the finished ball with both hands and smiled wickedly.
"Shall we go set it up? The greatest falling object of this era... no, a milestone of youth!"
"...Sunohara, your word choices have been getting stranger and stranger."
When I pointed it out, Sunohara pretended not to hear and began walking ahead, whistling.
Okazaki chuckled and followed after him.
The sunset was dyeing the school red.
The freshman welcome sign we had made together stood firm, unmoved even by the evening breeze.
Good thing it was sturdy.
Smiling broadly, Sunohara brought over a ladder and carefully hung the [Hardship-Overcoming Memory Maker], as he had named it himself, from the center of the sign.
He wore the expression of someone who firmly believed it would become another person’s ‘memory.’
We had altered the basin so it would split easily.
Inside, we had also placed the message Okazaki had written:
『Don’t let the hardships ahead defeat you—keep going.』
...Still.
I hoped no one would get seriously hurt.
...
Whether they were freshmen or current students heading home, everyone who saw the ball we had installed gave it nothing but suspicious looks.
Seeing the dangling string and the words, 『Someone, please pull it. It’ll be fun,』 no one readily reached out to pull it.
"What’s that?"
"It’s blatantly suspicious."
"Why don’t you try pulling it?"
"No way. What if it’s full of water or something?"
The students glanced at the ball, clicked their tongues, and hurried past.
...
Huddled together behind some nearby bushes, we watched blankly as students continued to pass by without taking the bait.
"No one’s falling for it."
"Only an idiot would fall for something that obvious."
Okazaki immediately countered Sunohara’s mutter with an exasperated tone.
Sunohara clutched his head and spouted nonsense with a grave expression.
"Damn it...! Have they surpassed my intellect?"
"Sunohara... Do you actually mean that?"
When I asked quietly in disbelief, Okazaki drove a blade into Sunohara’s chest with an even colder fact.
"No, you’re at the very bottom."
Sunohara’s baseless confidence left both Okazaki and me with no choice but to refute him automatically.
"Ugh! Then what am I supposed to do?! We can’t just wait here until the sun goes down!"
Just as Sunohara stamped his feet in frustration, we saw someone quietly staring at the message hanging from the ball.
"Th-There!"
I pointed that way in surprise and called out to my friends without thinking.
A female student with brown hair was standing there, staring vacantly at it.
Something about her back looked lonely.
She gazed at the message as though considering it over and over, flinching slightly as if she were trying to summon her courage.
"A first-year?"
"Her uniform ornament is blue. Isn’t she a third-year?"
"Why would a third-year pull that...?"
Okazaki, Sunohara, and I voiced our questions in that order.
Then, at that moment, she muttered something to herself several times.
"...Pork cutlet."
And then the upperclassman slowly reached out her hand toward the string hanging from the ball.
"Uh..."
"Uh-oh..."
"Wait!"
All three of our voices burst out almost at once.
It felt as though time had slowed down.
Through the split ball, the plastic washbasin and the white cloth bearing Okazaki’s message, 『Don’t let the hardships ahead defeat you—keep going,』 drifted slowly down in the sunset light.
And in the next instant—
Thud.
The plastic washbasin, which we had slit beforehand, shattered the moment it touched her head.
But the unexpected impact made the third-year stagger.
"Gah!"
Thump.
With a short cry that hardly sounded feminine, the strength seemed to leave her body, and she collapsed straight to the ground.
I’d heard people say that when they were too startled, their bodies could freeze.
This was exactly that.
We had definitely altered the basin beforehand to make sure she wouldn’t be hurt.
It had shattered the moment it touched her head, and it hadn’t even looked particularly painful.
But...
Why had she collapsed?
My mind went completely blank.
Had I done something I would regret again?
What finally moved my frozen body was Sunohara’s scream beside me, his face drained white.
"A-Aaaah! She’s dead! The upperclassman is dead!"
"Don’t make a fuss, Sunohara! We need to check on her first!"
Okazaki shoved past the panicking Sunohara and ran straight toward the upperclassman.
I followed Okazaki, forcing my uncooperative legs to move as I quickly ran toward her fallen body.
Broken pieces of the basin were scattered everywhere, and beside them, the white cloth bearing Okazaki’s message fluttered quietly in the sunset glow.
Seeing the upperclassman lying there up close made it hard to breathe.
[Confirmation: Suho’s anxiety level has increased.]
[Checking status to stabilize the user...]
[Results]
Cause: Fainting caused by a sudden shock while in a state of tension
Status: Extreme tension, temporary loss of consciousness
Underlying condition: Frail constitution of unknown cause
Physical injury: None
Risk level: Low
Conclusion: No current threat to life
‘Thank goodness...’
The moment I saw that she had a frail constitution, my heart dropped.
But once I confirmed the result that she was not in danger now, the tension that had gripped my heart gradually eased.
Other students heading home sensed that something was wrong and began gathering one by one.
In an instant, the murmuring around us grew louder.
"What happened?"
"She fainted!"
"Are you okay?!"
The area became noisy all at once.
I could see the students who understood the situation starting to move.
"..."
I felt relieved, but my body still would not move easily.
My thoughts were a mess.
I was glad the upperclassman was safe, yet that relief was tangled with the knowledge that Sunohara hadn’t caused an injury or a serious accident.
...Was it all right for me to feel relieved like this?
I stood frozen in place, watching for a while as the upperclassman was carried to the nurse’s office.
Then I blankly looked at the scattered pieces of basin and the white cloth around me.
"Morita! Take care of Sunohara!"
As Okazaki helped carry the upperclassman with the other students, he shouted urgently.
"Ah, yes!"
I answered reflexively and looked around. Sunohara was still trembling, unable to come to his senses.
Then, carried by a light breeze, the white cloth that had fallen to the ground rolled to a stop at my feet.
『Don’t let the hardships ahead defeat you—keep going.』
I stared blankly at the message for a moment, then remembered the upperclassman’s lonely-looking back before she pulled the string.
"..."
Clutching the cloth tightly, I ran toward Okazaki.
"Okazaki! Please... make sure you give this to her!"
Okazaki looked at me as though surprised for a moment, then gave a solemn nod.
"All right."
"Please."
I was truly sorry that she had gotten caught up in such an absurd accident.
I would never know what resolve had led that upperclassman, whose back had looked so lonely, to summon the courage to pull that string...
But at the very least, I hoped the message written on that white cloth could give her even the smallest bit of courage.
Watching Okazaki grow distant, I turned and walked toward Sunohara, who was still standing behind me with a tearful face.
"Sunohara."
"It’s okay, Sunohara. I think she was just startled and lost consciousness for a little while."
Originally, I had meant to go up to him, give him a piece of my mind, or shake him and tell him to snap out of it.
Maybe the usual way to communicate with Sunohara would have been to scold him for making such a fuss.
But somehow, seeing him tremble like that overlapped with how I used to shake in the real world, overwhelmed by anxiety and guilt. I simply couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Back then, I endured it alone.
So now, couldn’t I be the one to reach out a hand to someone first?
"Sunohara, look at me."
"Uh... yeah."
Sunohara’s wandering, unfocused gaze finally reached my eyes.
I continued in the calmest, most certain voice I could manage.
"She only fainted for a moment because she was startled.
We’d already altered the basin to split apart, so she wasn’t hurt because of you."
Only then did my words seem to pass through Sunohara’s ears and reach his mind.
Little by little, life began returning to his eyes, which had been filled with awful imaginings.
"Really...? She really didn’t get hurt because of me...?"
"Sunohara, she wasn’t physically hurt, but it’s true that this happened because of our prank."
At my firm but gentle correction, Sunohara flinched and lowered his head.
Looking at the trembling Sunohara, I let out a silent sigh and held out my hand.
"Later, let’s go apologize together."
Sunohara stared intently at my hand, then sniffled and took it.
He looked up at me with deeply moved eyes and said,
"Morita... Somehow, you look like an adult."
‘I’m older than you.’
Come to think of it, perhaps this was the first time I’d actually acted my age.
It struck me again just how much comfort and strength I had received from the people here.
So this time, I wanted to become a small source of strength for someone too.
Even if I was clumsy and awkward, I wanted to return at least a little of the warmth I had received to my friends here.
"Come on, Sunohara. Let’s clean up the pieces of the basin and go find Okazaki."
"Yeah!"
Seeing Sunohara, so different from before, regain his energy at my single word and clench his fist made me smile a little.
He really was a friend I couldn’t bring myself to hate.
The sunset sky spread above us looked softer than it had a little while ago.
The weight that had been pressing on my chest until then also felt just a little lighter.
Looking up at that sky, we slowly set off to clean up the mess.
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