After frantically cleaning up the broken fragments of the gourd scattered around the freshman welcome sign with Sunohara,
and all the other mess strewn about the place,
I was just about to head to the infirmary to see Okazaki.
"Hey, Morita! Okazaki’s coming this way!"
Sunohara, carrying a sack, urgently shouted as he pointed toward the main building.
"Already...?"
I could see Okazaki walking toward us slowly from some distance away.
His pace was as unhurried and calm as usual,
but my mind instead began filling with a thousand ominous possibilities.
‘Could it be because he’s so frail...?’
Sunohara and I looked at each other for a moment,
then, without either of us needing to say a word, ran toward Okazaki as fast as we could.
"Hey. You here to meet me?"
As we approached, panting heavily,
Okazaki raised one hand in a casual greeting.
"Okazaki!"
"Okazaki! What happened to that upperclassman?!"
With an expression close to tears, Sunohara grabbed Okazaki by the shoulders and shook him.
I swallowed hard, tense as I waited for the words that would come from Okazaki’s mouth.
"Ah, that upperclassman?"
Okazaki shook off Sunohara’s hands as though they were a nuisance, then gave a small laugh.
"To get straight to the point, his life isn’t in danger. He just lost consciousness."
"Phewww...!"
At those words, Sunohara collapsed onto the ground as if his legs had given out, releasing a long sigh of relief.
I felt as though a boulder pressing down on my chest had finally been lifted away, too.
[The system does not lie.]
I had known that from the beginning.
Even so... the relief of hearing it directly was entirely different.
"Okazaki, did he regain consciousness...?"
Okazaki shoved his hands into his pockets and nodded.
"Yeah."
"Another upperclassman from his class came by midway through, so I gave them some space,
but I stayed until I saw him wake up."
With Okazaki’s explanation, I was finally able to relax completely.
"Th-then my gourd... I mean, his head didn’t actually get cracked open because of me, right?!"
Sunohara, who had been sprawled on the ground, miraculously came back to life and clutched at Okazaki’s pant leg.
"Yeah. He’s always been weak, so he just fainted at a bad time."
Okazaki gave Sunohara’s head a light shove as though he found him pathetic.
"See, Morita?! What did I tell you? My perfect genius plan never fails!"
"Sunohara, you need to apologize."
"Yes..."
When I pointed it out with a stern expression,
Sunohara immediately wilted and answered in a shrinking voice.
At that moment, Okazaki scratched his chin, looking slightly troubled.
"But you probably shouldn’t go to the infirmary right now."
"What? Is there..."
My heart dropped, wondering if there was another injury we didn’t know about.
"Ah, it’s not that."
Okazaki paused for a moment, then continued with a faint laugh.
"That upperclassman made a friend."
"A friend...?"
When I asked in confusion, Okazaki nodded.
"Yeah. There was another upperclassman in his class, and apparently they’d wanted to talk to him for a long time.
Thanks to this prank incident, they got an opportunity to talk to him while taking care of him in the infirmary."
"An opportunity..."
At my quiet murmur, Okazaki glanced toward the main building and added,
"That upperclassman hesitated for a long time over what to say, then looked at the words on the white cloth beside the bed.
Then, as if they’d gathered their courage, they spoke first. I made sure to see that much before coming back."
Hearing that, Sunohara’s eyes widened, and he jumped up with a shout.
"Okazaki! You watched all of that through the crack in the door?!"
"Idiot! They went to the infirmary because of us. Of course I had to make sure everything turned out all right!"
Okazaki snapped, flicking Sunohara’s forehead as though it were obvious.
Watching the two of them bicker as usual,
I fell quiet, overcome by an emotion I couldn’t quite name.
‘Did the prank we caused... become the opportunity someone had desperately wished for?’
I remembered the upperclassman’s back as they hesitated over and over before pulling the string.
The moment they found the courage to pull it.
Had what that upperclassman wished for... come true?
The offhand remark Okazaki made as he passed me
gently stirred my thoughts.
"The way they kept hesitating, they kind of reminded me of you, Morita."
"...Of me?"
When I blankly asked him again,
Okazaki simply smirked instead of answering and walked ahead.
"All right, we know what happened. Let’s head back now."
The long shadow stretching behind Okazaki began moving toward the school gate before he did.
I remained where I was, quietly turning over the words I had just heard.
He said I was like that person.
Hesitating,
holding back,
unable to easily approach others and always lingering on the outside.
The version of myself who had always hesitated in the real world
overlapped with that upperclassman’s retreating back.
But just as that upperclassman had finally found the courage to act after seeing the message Okazaki wrote on the white cloth—『Don’t lose to the hardships ahead. Keep going.』—
I, too, was gradually changing in this world.
I had friends who supported my back, telling me not to try to carry everything alone.
Even when I was immature and clumsy enough to cause trouble,
there were people by my side who embraced those wounds with me and shared my relief.
Perhaps... this ordinary everyday life was what I had truly wanted.
Just as memories of reality rose up and my eyes began to sting,
"Hey, Morita! What are you doing? I’m seriously leaving you behind!"
Sunohara, already far ahead, turned around and waved a hand at me.
"I’m coming!"
I set my heavy feet in motion and ran toward the two of them.
...
"So? What’s this about?"
The next day after arriving at school,
I grabbed Sunohara by the nape as he tried to run away first thing in the morning and called Kyo out into the hallway for a moment.
Then, as soon as Kyo stood before us, I bowed at the waist.
"I’m truly sorry!"
"I’m sorry, Kyo..."
Standing beside me, Sunohara was unable to withstand my stare and reluctantly bowed his head too, adding his apology in a loud voice.
For hanging a gourd from the freshman welcome sign yesterday and causing a huge commotion,
and above all, for unintentionally disturbing Kyo’s heart by offering her clumsy comfort in the hallway.
My mind was filled only with feelings of apology toward Kyo.
For a moment, Kyo silently looked at the two of us with our heads lowered.
After releasing a long sigh, she first pointed at Sunohara.
"You, I can let it slide since you’re always like this..."
"Ugh, that’s awful treatment, Kyo!"
Sunohara muttered as though wronged, but Kyo casually ignored him.
Then her gaze slowly, very slowly, moved toward me.
"Morita, you..."
After saying my name and quietly studying my face for a moment, Kyo’s violet eyes trembled slightly, as though she had remembered what happened in the hallway yesterday.
Before long, she lowered her eyes as if avoiding my gaze.
"...Never mind."
After muttering quietly, she lightly shook her head from side to side as though trying to collect herself.
Then, as if putting on her usual confident voice, she deliberately cleared her throat.
"I’m only letting this end here because it’s me!"
"Don’t ever do something like this again. Especially you, Sunohara!"
"Y-yes!"
Sunohara answered in a thoroughly disciplined voice at her sudden scolding.
"And like last time... you know what happens if you pull something similar on my sister, right?"
"Eek! I’ll never do it again!"
I didn’t know what expression Kyo had made,
but Sunohara’s face turned pale, and he threw himself onto the floor in a dogeza as though diving.
At that desperate gesture that had practically sprung from reflex, the eyes of students passing through the hall instantly gathered on us.
"...Sunohara, the hallway floor is dirty, so please get up first."
I tugged at his clothes with a mix of exasperation and embarrassment in my eyes,
but Sunohara was too busy watching Kyo’s reaction to even think of getting up.
"Hmph. As long as you understand."
Kyo clicked her tongue quietly, arms folded.
As she looked down at him, Kyo’s gaze naturally
and subtly shifted toward me standing beside him.
"..."
The instant our eyes met, Kyo’s shoulders twitched.
Had my awkward comfort helped her?
The system had marked it as a success, so it seemed it must have helped somehow.
But more than anything, seeing her as she was now compared to yesterday
made me feel relieved. More than anything, I was happy that she had forgiven me.
"Kyo."
"Y-yeah?"
"Thank you for forgiving me."
The moment she faced my bright smile, filled with sincerity,
Kyo’s violet eyes lost their destination and shook violently.
"...!"
It was a straightforward expression of gratitude she had never expected.
I only hoped that my smile, relieved without any calculation behind it, would reach her.
"Y-you really are..."
"Kyo, Morita has always been like this."
Okazaki, who had somehow come closer, spoke as he placed a hand on my shoulder.
Seeming to have calmed down somewhat, Kyo looked between Okazaki and me before finally sighing.
"Haah. I think I get it now."
"Right?"
As Okazaki and Kyo conversed as though exchanging some secret code that only I didn’t know,
both their gazes settled on me at once.
What were they talking about?
Had I done something troublesome again?
"Ah... did I cause trouble again...?"
When I cautiously asked with a completely confused expression,
Okazaki only gave my shoulder a couple of pats and smirked.
"Haah. Morita, no more putting yourself down from now on, okay?"
"Yeah. Your endless apologizing drains the energy out of people, Morita."
Kyo’s order, laced with reproach, was followed by Okazaki’s easygoing agreement.
Having been braced for the possibility that I had caused trouble, I blinked at their unexpected reactions.
The two of them had simultaneously pointed out and stopped my habitual urge to apologize again.
"Ah..."
My lips moved, and the words "I’m sorry" nearly slipped out again without me realizing it,
but I barely swallowed them back when I saw Kyo’s sharp stare.
"See? You were about to apologize again just now, weren’t you?"
Kyo said it with her arms folded, looking directly into my eyes.
Though the faint blush remaining on her pale cheeks made it seem otherwise,
her gaze had returned to its usual bold, steadfast look.
Yet beneath it, there was a subtle warmth and concern for me.
"You’re too careful, and that’s the problem. What happened yesterday is already over,
and nobody got hurt. So don’t keep feeling sorry anymore."
Nobody got hurt.
Hearing those words from her herself made me feel truly relieved.
Kyo hesitated for a moment, her lips moving before she spoke again.
"That... what you said yesterday definitely got through to me, so... so! Don’t worry about it!"
"Y-yes!"
At her sudden shout, I answered in an automatically stiff, disciplined voice.
The awkward and clumsy comfort I had given her in the hallway yesterday.
It was the moment I heard directly from Kyo herself
that my sincerity had truly reached her heart.
Kyo was shouting with her face red enough to burst,
but to me, it felt like a greater salvation than any perfect sentence could have been.
‘It really... got through to her.’
It felt as though the heavy burdens crouching in my chest melted away in an instant.
Not some success notification from the system,
but Kyo’s vivid reaction before my eyes finally gave me complete relief.
"Hm? What did Morita say to you yesterday?"
"Ah, Okazaki, um, that is..."
"Stop!!"
Kyo’s piercing scream rang through the hallway.
At that fierce force, my mouth, which had been about to explain to Okazaki, snapped shut,
and it was loud enough that students even came out from other classrooms to see what was happening.
"S-sister?"
Fujibayashi Ryo poked her head out from the next classroom and looked at us in surprise.
"Morita! That’s... a secret just between us, got it!"
Startled too much to answer, I could only widen my eyes and nod.
"Heh. Now I’m even more curious."
"They say getting punched in the head makes you lose your memories. Want to test it?"
Kyo smiled as she raised a fist toward Okazaki.
Okazaki merely shrugged and shook his head.
"A-anyway! Morita, Okazaki! Come with me. My sister wants to meet you two!"
"Changing the subject?"
"Shut up!"
Kyo swept past us, grabbed my wrist, and began pulling me along.
"U-um, Kyo?"
"Haah, I guess I have no choice."
Watching Kyo drag Morita away,
Okazaki began following behind with the air of someone who had no other choice.
From afar, Fujibayashi Ryo’s face was turning red as she looked at the approaching Okazaki.
Seeing that, I asked Kyo, who was leading the way while holding my wrist.
"Kyo? Are you going to introduce Okazaki to your sister?"
"Heh. Morita, why are you so perceptive when it comes to other people?"
"?"
Still gripping my wrist tightly as she strode ahead, Kyo glanced back and let the words slip out.
Fujibayashi Ryo’s flushed face when she saw Okazaki,
Kyo, who cared more deeply for her sister than anyone,
and even making an opportunity under the excuse of introducing them...
Wasn’t my guess right...?
"Kyo, you always think of your sister first."
"Of course I do! Ryo is my sister."
Of course...
In reality, I too had believed that, as the eldest son, I naturally had to think of my younger sister first.
But living that way had made me realize that I never thought about myself at all.
Pushing myself, deceiving myself, and living that way had only left me with a sickness in my heart.
At the very least, I hoped Kyo would think about herself too, even if caring for her sister was good.
"...I tend to think of my family first too."
"But when you do that, you end up putting yourself further and further aside."
"So... I hope you don’t push yourself too hard either, Kyo."
They were unfeigned, sincere words born from the deep wound inside me.
As though she had been struck by something entirely unexpected,
Kyo’s mouth opened and closed soundlessly again as her entire face turned bright red.
Then Okazaki, who had been watching her from behind, let out the breath he had taken in and said,
"I get roughly what you said yesterday now."
"You really do have a talent for flustering people."
Okazaki’s sighing reproach reached me from behind.
"...What?"
When I asked, Okazaki just patted my shoulder and passed me without answering.
"Y-you really...!"
As though trying to hide her face, red enough to burst, Kyo turned her head away.
We hadn’t known one another for long, but
I hoped my advice would help Kyo, who seemed to have always taken on the role of a strong older sister solely for the sake of her younger sister.
"Oh? Sister...? Morita and Okazaki are here too...?"
At that moment, Ryo, who had been waiting for us some distance ahead, flinched and approached.
Behind Ryo’s innocent figure, her cheeks turning pink the instant her eyes met Okazaki’s,
Kyo was still red-faced as she tried hard to compose her voice.
"Y-yeah! Ryo! I brought the guys I told you about yesterday!"
Just as Kyo fussed over Ryo and tried to naturally change the subject,
we suddenly felt as though something was missing, and all three of us turned our eyes at once toward the far end of the hallway we had come from.
In the middle of the hallway in front of the bustling Class B, there was still—
Sunohara, doing a dogeza.
"Have you forgotten about me...?"
"Ah! Sunohara, I’m sorry!"
Feeling sorry, I ran toward Sunohara,
while Okazaki shook his head as he watched.
...
"Um, sister... they seem like very cheerful people."
"Yeah, don’t they?"
Watching Morita finally notice Sunohara and hurriedly run over to him, and Okazaki shake his head at the sight, Kyo smiled.
At that, Okazaki smirked in agreement.
"One’s a real idiot, and the other’s a timid idiot trying hard to act like an adult."
"Heh. Then what are you, Okazaki?"
Okazaki simply shrugged without a word.
"Moritaaa! How could you forget me too? Waaah!"
"Sunohara, I’m really sorry! Please get up already!"
Feeling sorry, Morita slipped his hands beneath Sunohara’s armpits and lifted him up,
but Sunohara made a huge scene, grabbing Morita by the collar and shaking him as though he had been terribly wronged.
Okazaki looked between Sunohara and Morita, then gave a quiet laugh.
"I guess school won’t be boring."
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