After what had happened, I promised myself to gradually start doing something to overcome my fears—everything that had held me back until then.

I started with small daily things. I have to admit it wasn't easy and I didn't succeed on the first try. Fear continued to hold me back for a while. After putting in effort for many days, I went to school without taking any special detours, walking the same road as other kids heading there, but I still couldn't enter with them when the bell rang.

Another small milestone happened one day during lunch break. For the first time, I ate in the classroom. I'll never forget the faces of my classmates; my presence had surprised them quite a bit. Most likely, in the eyes of others, these things might seem trivial, but for me, with the personality I had, they were the first steps toward my next inner evolution. Before then, I had never put myself out there so much, maybe because I didn't have valid reasons to do so. But in those days, my thoughts were guided by a single goal. When he returned, Yuto-kun would see how strong that scared and insecure girl could actually be. It wasn't long before summer vacation arrived.

During the summer, I went to the hospital daily to visit Yuto-kun. I told him about the progress I had made, and I kind of liked seeing his incredulous face as he listened to me.

He had asked me several times: "What happened all of a sudden?" but I never answered. It was too embarrassing to talk about.

Other people went to the beach or the pool to cool off and spend their days hanging out with friends, as you do during normal summer vacations. For us, however, little was enough to have fun. To feel like we were on vacation, we just needed to be within the four walls of that room, cooling off with the air conditioner that, on a whim, worked well one day and not the next.

Shortly after returning to school, and therefore after the end of summer vacation, when I was about to leave, I received a message from him.

He had sent me a photo. It was him in front of his house door. Finally, after three long weeks, he had been discharged.

I didn't waste any time; I grabbed all my things and quickly headed home.

At that moment, someone called me:

"Maeda-san, clean up for us! We have things to do."

Again, some of my classmates asked me to do the cleaning for them.

What would I do this time?

Would I accept?

Would I let them walk all over me?

"I'm... I'm sorry. I have things to do too."

I said, turning around and running with all my strength, both to get away from them and because that message had literally sent me over the moon.

This time, even if in a clumsy and indirect way, I had managed to assert myself without being held back by fear. Even though I was aware that I still had a long way to go. I ran as fast as I could the whole way from school to home, stumbling and almost falling a couple of times.

Once I arrived in front of the building, I immediately went up the stairs and rang the doorbell. With a quick gesture, I fixed my wind-blown hair. He came to open the door.

"Hi," I said, out of breath.

"Hi," he said with a smile. A loose white t-shirt made his face look paler than usual. I was so glad they had discharged him and that he was here, in his house, out of that hospital room. I reached my hands toward his face and placed my palms on his cheeks. His eyes widened slightly.

"Thank goodness. You're back," I said. Then, realizing the impulsive gesture I had just made, I immediately lowered my hands, embarrassed.

"Yeah. I'm home," he said simply with a little laugh. I stood in silence staring at him for a couple of minutes, trying to find something to say. We had known each other for a year, and I still struggled to be spontaneous.

"I have an idea. Let's throw an impromptu party," I said suddenly, to his great surprise.

"What kind of party?"

"For your discharge."

"Okay, but I don't have anything for a party." Still at the doorstep, he turned his head back to take a quick look at the kitchen.

"Party" was definitely a big word. I hurried to explain what I had in mind. In my head, the idea was to eat snacks and sweets as an excuse to spend time together, just the two of us, with his sister, who surely couldn't wait to spend as much time as possible with her little brother.

Too bad my aunt and Hiro weren't around at that moment. She, as usual, was busy with work, while Hiro was at a friend's house. Ironically, that child had more of a social life than I did.

"So we can go to the supermarket to buy something. Come on, it'll be fun," I insisted. I was really convinced it was a good idea.

"Okay. Why not," he said calmly, running a hand through his dark hair.

"Then let's go."

"Wait, let me get some money." He went back inside for a moment, then we left and headed to the nearest supermarket to buy everything we needed for the party.

Once inside, we grabbed one of the many shopping baskets placed near the entrance to put all the things we would choose later. We immediately headed to the savory snacks section.

"Do you like these spicy ones?" Yuto-kun asked me, pointing to some red snack packages.

"I prefer the plain ones."

"And these others?"

"No, I don't like them."

"Let's do this—I have an idea. Why don't we each choose on our own, and then we'll see together which ones to keep and which to put back?"

"Okay."

So we started gathering the savory snacks we liked best. I also picked some I had never tried, just because it was the right occasion to try them.

After barely ten minutes, we found the basket full of items. And those were just the savory ones...

"That's quite a lot," he said.

"They're all different too," I replied.

"Better. We'll try a bit of everything."

"Sure, but I'm not sharing the spicy ones."

"What? Why?"

"They're my favorites, and I want to eat them all myself."

"But... Greedy."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing."

"I thought I heard the word 'greedy.'"

"No, no, I didn't say anything. You must have misheard."

"Anyway, this is more than enough," he said confidently.

"Of course not," I said immediately. For me, we weren't done yet...

"What do you mean, no?"

"These are just the savory snacks. Now we need to move on to the sweet ones."

"I confirm what I said earlier. Greedy."

"I'm not greedy. We're celebrating, so we can indulge a bit. Besides, these are portions for three people, more or less."

"Three people?"

"Yes. Me, you, and your sister."

"My sister went to our aunt and uncle's house tonight. She had to talk to my uncle about the operation."

"What does your uncle have to do with the operation?"

"He's the doctor who works at the hospital, the one who helped us with the admission and the paperwork for the tests and the operation. I thought I told you. He's my uncle on my mother's side."

"No, I didn't know."

"Sorry. I must have forgotten."

I moved a little closer to him and gave him a stern look.

"Wh-what is it?" he asked, scared.

"Did you forget, or is there something else you haven't told me that I should know?"

"No, no. Nothing."

"Good then. Back to the sweet snacks."

We did the same with the sweet snacks. On sweet ones, we had more or less the same taste, so we bought more packages of the same kind.

In the end, we returned home with three enormous bags full of food that we would share between just the two of us.

Yeah... Just the two of us.