After staring at the neighbors' door long enough, I went back inside and had breakfast with the others as usual. My mood was at rock bottom. My sorrow was too great, and my aunt had surely noticed, but I still made every effort not to show it. Even though the morning had taken a different turn, I felt reassured to see that the routine was still the same: my aunt running late, her and Hiro rushing out to be on time. Yuto-kun came out of his house the moment I was closing my front door to head to school.

"Good morning," he greeted me with a half-asleep smile.

"Good... morning," I said hesitantly, tucking my hair behind my ears. I didn't even have the strength to greet him properly. As soon as I looked at his face, that void, that chasm that had opened in my chest that morning, reappeared.

"Ayame-san, are you alright?" He turned his torso slightly toward me with a questioning look.

"..." I didn't answer. I was completely lost in my thoughts. Guilt was eating me alive.

"Ayame-san?" he repeated, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Huh?" I raised my eyes toward him. He was taller than me, so I had to make an extra effort to look at him.

"Is everything okay? You seem strange." He had the usual face and the usual messy hair, but suddenly I felt like I hadn't given enough weight to even those details.

"Yes... everything's fine. I'm just a little tired." The light on the landing was bothering my eyes. I wanted to get out of there.

"Alright..." he said warily. "Anyway, I'm going to head out now, otherwise it'll get late. See you at school."

At that exact moment, when he turned to walk away, I grabbed him by the sleeve of his jacket.

"Wait!" It was an instinctive gesture. He turned around abruptly and our eyes met. I saw Yuto-kun's face change color, from rosy to a more pronounced, almost reddish shade. Seeing such an innocent reaction made me feel two distinct emotions. On one hand, I felt uncomfortable, also because of the conversation with Harada-san; on the other, I felt a strange sensation, an emotion different from usual. A wave of heat rose to my face and reached the hand holding his jacket. Only after grabbing him did I realize the embarrassing action I had just done. I let go abruptly, bringing a hand to my cheek. Seeing even that docile side of him had moved me.

"Y...yes?" he said, touching the sleeve of the jacket I had just released.

"Well... can we go to school together?" I asked, trying to control myself. I straightened up.

"Didn't you say you didn't want to change your habits?" The unexpected request had confused him.

"Well... now I feel like changing them," I said firmly.

"Whatever you want. Actually, it's better this way; I get bored going alone."

I don't know why I felt like making such a request; I just had the desire to spend time with him. Since our relationship had changed over time, asking him this didn't cause me too many problems. If someone had told me at the beginning that things would end up this way, I would have laughed.

By now everyone knew that I was finally no longer alone. I had tried to rebel and find strength even when he hadn't come to school and other people had loosened their grip on me.

In the end, the real reason I was bullied was my tendency to isolate myself to avoid being hurt; I was considered the "strangest" person of all.

At this point one might think that the fault was actually mine, because I had decided not to conform to the crowd, but an individual's behavior doesn't justify the behaviors and actions that others decide to take toward them.

In the end, my demeanor encouraged them to use me as entertainment, when in reality I just needed to learn to react a bit.

Now I didn't see things that way anymore, and it came naturally to ask him to go to school together.

We took the elevator down to the ground floor and left the building, heading toward our destination.

During the walk, we really looked like a pair of friends. I was finally living that scene that had always played out in my mind during my walk to school. I had just fulfilled a wish I thought was impossible, but I couldn't fully enjoy the emotion I was feeling at that moment.

I was still shaken by the sharp words from that morning. For this reason, even though I was happy to walk beside him, I kept a troubled expression throughout the journey and said nothing. From time to time, Yuto-kun would glance at me, evidently worried by my melancholic expression.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing..."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes..."

"Really?"

"I told you yes."

"Alright."

I didn't want to talk to him about my thoughts. He would surely say, "What are you talking about, you do help me" or "Don't say that, it's not true," which wouldn't have helped; on the contrary, they would have only worsened my state of mind. I carried that sadness with me for the rest of the day.

After school, seeing me so down, Yuto-kun suggested going to karaoke together. I accepted without hesitation.

Karaoke places are usually very popular with young people of all ages and are a fun pastime. Even if you're not good at singing, you can still make those listening appreciate your terrible singing skills. Even if you make fools of yourselves, in the end you always share a few laughs. We spent a couple of hours there, between music and the snacks we'd bought to silence our stomachs.

It was a small room with a screen showing the lyrics and microphones that did nothing but amplify our voices. We even did a duet.

Basically, another normal teenage activity that I never thought I'd experience until some time ago.

Karaoke helped free me for a moment from the thoughts weighing on my mind, but while I watched him give free rein to his vocal cords, the thoughts came swirling back into my head and my mood returned to what it had been a short while before.

On the way back home, he turned to me, annoyed.

"Well, I'm tired of this."

"What do you mean?" I didn't understand what he was referring to.

"You've been sad all day. Are you going to tell me what's bothering you?"

"Still with this story? I told you nothing's wrong, I'm just tired."

He stared at me for a few moments, then asked me a question I didn't expect:

"Is it because of the conversation with my cousin?"

"...How do you know?"

"I heard her when she strangely left the house so early this morning. I'm a light sleeper and I woke up."

"What did you hear?"

"Everything. I heard you from behind the door while I watched through the peephole. So she was that famous old friend of yours?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"I'll take that as a yes, but let's not talk about that. I want to understand why you let her words get to you."

"It's... that she was right. I'm underestimating this and not giving it the proper weight. I'm not helping you at all. I feel so... useless."

"That's not true. Who was it that threw a party just for me when I came back from the hospital? Who rushed over to me when she heard I'd been discharged? Who dropped everything every time to come see me when I was lying in that hospital bed? You... You're not useless. All these things remind me that there are people who care about me. Your presence pushes me to keep going. Got it?"

"Yes."

"Are you calmer now?"

"Yes." I replied like a child who had just been scolded.

"Good, because now I have to show you something."

"What?"

He pulled a small piece of paper, folded several times over itself, from his jacket pocket. He opened it and I saw there was writing on it.

-Take a trip with friends (as many as possible).-

-Learn to draw.-

-Learn to play an instrument.-

-Go scuba diving.-

-Get married and have a family of my own.-

-Meet my favorite author.-

It was a list.

"These are the things I want to do. When we were at the aquarium, you told me I still had plenty of time to do all the things I want to do in this life. Well, I started believing it, so I made a list. Whenever I realize I want to do something, even the simplest or most insignificant thing, I write it down. So after the surgery, I can do it."

"After... the surgery..."

"Yeah... after the surgery. And I want to do these things with you too. So will you stay by my side like you always have?"

"Of course!" I replied, smiling awkwardly.

"Hey, why did you turn red all of a sudden?"

It didn't take him long to realize I had turned red because of the obvious connection between the last sentence and the idea of having a family.

"Uh... I didn't mean that one too."

We burst out laughing at the hilarious scene that had just unfolded.

"Anyway, you'll be able to check off the first item. We're going on a trip in a few weeks with the class."

"I'll mark it when we get back."

"And what about that one?"

Among those writings, there was another one at the bottom of the list that had been completely erased and that I couldn't read.

"That one, in a way, without meaning to, I've already done."

"Really? What is it?"

"Secret."

"Eh!? Tell me!!."

"No."

We continued like that all the way home, but he didn't tell me. I would find out later...

-From Yuto-kun-

"EUIKO!"

I shouted my cousin's name as soon as I set foot in the house.

"I'm here."

The voice came from the kitchen, so I rushed there immediately. Euiko was looking for something to eat in the refrigerator. Shortly after, Chika would take her back to her house.

"What's wrong?"

I was so angry and furious that I thought the expression 'eyes popping out of their sockets' didn't seem so far-fetched anymore. Euiko's face went pale seeing me so agitated.

"I'll tell you this only once. Your concern for me is fine, but I won't tolerate your rude behavior toward Ayame."

"Wh... Did she tell you? I told her not to say anything. She can't even keep her word."

"No, I heard you. I heard your entire conversation, and I also know that you went to middle school together. I have no intention of lecturing you about what happened in the past, but I won't allow you to make her feel bad again. You may be my cousin, but that doesn't mean you can do whatever you want in my life. Understood?"

"...Yes..."

She took her jacket and headed for the door.

"I'll wait for Chika-san downstairs. Sorry for making you angry..."

After dinner, while I was helping my sister clear the table, she asked me an uncomfortable question:

"You know, when I took Euiko to her house, she looked sad. Do you know what happened?"

I pretended not to know anything. Even though I knew I was in the right, I felt like a really bad person for having treated Euiko that way. Despite her highly questionable behavior, in the end she was just worried about me.