The scenery Chiharu had played over and over in her mind as she sat down on the rooftop finally came true.

The same Ichika that stood against the wire fence years ago, stood there once again. Chiharu couldn’t help imagining that they were back in time—the simple and easy time of high school, where the energy of youth was the one leading their paths. Her silky black hair was tied into a ponytail, waving as wind blew—unlike her in the past, who would let her hair down freely.

“You don’t answer my call, so I have to fetch you,” Ichika started solemnly, though her eyes were still fixated on cloudless sky hovering above. “Even though I was excited to meet you—why did you ignore me?”

Chiharu’s gaze dropped as her mind hazed in guilt. Not a single reasoning escaped her guilty mouth. All form of sentences clogged her dry throat.

As heavy silent burdened their empty conversation, Ichika untied her hair, letting strands of ebony mane fell free to her back. The length was a tad bit longer than Chiharu engraved in her memories, as though reminding her of the time she lost. “I’ll tell you about my regret instead,” Ichika finally began, lowering her gaze to the empty school ground beneath them, unlike she had recalled.

Chiharu flickered her eyes, gazing at the senior whose figure remained a few feet in front of her—so close, yet so far away.

“Ten years ago, there was someone important to me that I let go,” the woman started with a voice like a lullaby replaying in the teacher’s mind, drowsing her to daydream. “And I thought—I thought that I could let go of that person, by running away.”

As what she said seeped in, Chiharu sealed her lips and held her breath—scared that even a single exhale could destroy whatever unsaid words meant to be said.

“There was someone that I held dear in my heart—even to this second, I still wish for that person’s happiness,” the woman continued. “I thought that I didn’t deserve this person, and that my feeling was not deserving of reciprocation. And I though, I had rid of it—but, guess what? I haven’t.”

Ichika released her grip from the wire fence. Her back remained straight; her head tilted upward again as though challenging the deity that dictated the way fate went. And even from the way her shoulders tensed, Chiharu found strength in her being—tough, yet excruciatingly graceful.

“And yet—here I am, meeting that person once again, standing in front of her, as if fate is playing mind games on me,” she sighed, to defeat and to hope. “And I will not let this chance go to waste the same way it did when I walked away ten years ago.”

Finally, she spun around to meet the other woman’s eyes. As she turned around, Chiharu could finally see her expression. Her constellation eyes were sparkling with milky way of hope. Her cheeks flushing in cherry blossom color—as though replacing the ones that hadn’t bloomed—framed the corner of her lips that were turned up as her expression lightened in luminous joy.

And at that second, Chiharu realized—that, perhaps, it was a second chance for the two individuals whose wishes were simply to love, who were cowards with no courage to confess the first time.

Indeed, fate aligned their paths as to give the two pure souls another chance to pursue the past they let go out of selflessness. That, it was alright to be selfish for once—to listen to their wishes and to pursue someone they wished for.

Indeed, Chiharu realized—the two of them had thought of each other for the longest time, shying away cowardly as they held tightly on this fragile string of friendship.

And it was time to let go of the string—as it was no longer able to hold the weight of their feelings—and tie a new knot, stronger than ever, with feelings blossoming as flowers in spring and hand in hand.

And so, a genuine valiance formed on Chiharu’s timid face, with her cheeks feeling a little heat of excitement. The words she cowardly buried in the depth of her throat had finally caught up, trying to escape. And now—they finally did. With as much resolution as she had, and as droplets of crystals escaped from her sparkling eyes, she screamed on top of her lungs the words that had been stuck in her for years.

“I love you, senpai!”

As though the two of them were back in their uniforms of ten years ago, they reminisced the path laid upon them—which they were not brave enough to take back then—with so much courage gathered over the past ten years.

And tranquility on her senior’s face was enough of an answer.