Kokoro Connect

Chapter 4 - Because It Was Something that Could Not Be Helped

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Chapter 4 - Because It Was Something that Could Not Be Helped

The very thing he feared was finally realized.

Yaegas.h.i.+ Taichi stood frozen.

He knew it would eventually happen.

But at the same time, he kept telling himself that "Maybe it won"t happen."

That day, Nagase Iori and Aoki Yos.h.i.+fumi were the ones who underwent "Time Regression".

Aoki became twelve, but that was nothing of concern.

The real concern was Nagase.

"Dah!"

"Don"t "Dah" Iori! Slow down, wait! Your clothes are falling off!"

Kiriyama fumbled about——She was carrying a baby in her arms.

Yes, Nagase Iori had became a baby!

"Snap out of it, Taichi. Wake up!"

Inaba Himeko slapped Taichi on the face.

"... Ah! Sorry, I was briefly trying to escape reality..."

"I can"t say I don"t know how you feel..."

Inaba appeared irritated.

"Al—Alright. What do we need now? Do we have the right clothes here?"

"Babies need baby specific clothes! They aren"t just gonna stay still you know!"

Kiriyama shouted back at Taichi.

"I see. Well, aside from clothes, we"re gonna need diapers too right? And we"ll need to feed her. So we need to get some milk for the baby..."

Taichi"s eyes landed on a certain spot on Inaba"s body.

No, that"s not possible—— With that in mind he averted his eyes upward, and saw Inaba"s face flus.h.i.+ng red.

"...Young teenage girls can"t breast feed okay!? You thick head!"

"Ow, don"t kick me! It was only a thought!"

"Hm, breast feed?"

"Yos.h.i.+fumi! Will you stop reacting towards dirty words!?"

"Ouch!"

Aoki(12) took a slap in the face from Inaba.

Though Taichi wanted to comment that "breast feed" wasn"t exactly a dirty word to begin with.

"She seems to be a full year old. If we grind up some of our food, she should be able to ingest it."

"Un—Understood."

"Jeez..."

Inaba sighed tiredly.

"Then again... if it were you, I suppose I can let you take a sip..."

"Umph!?"

Taichi choked as he never did before.

"I"m joking of course."

"Tha—That was a too much for a joke!"

He almost visualized it for a moment there.

"...We could make it a reality you know."

Inaba gestured her chest with a tempting look in her eyes.

"No... Wait... That"s——"

The sound of a loud Clank! came. Apparently Kiriyama had sent an office desk flying.

"Enough with your nonsense already, we need to hurry and buy ourselves supplies!"

Kiriyama was furious. Her face was completely red too.

"Uhhh... Waaaah~"

Nagase(1, estimated) was frightened by Kiriyama"s yelling, and started crying.

"Ah, whoa, I"m sorry, Iori-chan! Don"t cry! I"m sorry, I shouldn"t yell! Don"t cry~ I~ Ori~ Good girl~"

"Yos.h.i.+~ Fumi~ Good boy~!"

"Yos.h.i.+fumi quit saying childish things like a grade-schooler!"

"...Er, he is a grade-schooler, just saying."

Taichi jabbed at Inaba"s remark, even though he agreed that Yos.h.i.+fumi was being a bit childish.

Taichi had a feeling that it would not be an easy day.

Taichi and Inaba sprinted to the store and returned with the much needed supplies. After putting on some diapers and baby clothes, they were able to keep Nagase(1) in good shape and proceeded to feed her some baby food.

"We should make it warmer for the baby."

Kiriyama put some more blankets on the s.p.a.cious area of the floor, and continued to take good care of Nagase(1).

She was lacking in spirit lately, but she seemed a bit more cheerful today as she busied herself with nursing Nagase(1).

"Oi, even so, don"t put her right next to the heater. Yui, if you can move yourself between them please."

Inaba ordered.

Nagase(1) was fairly quick at climbing around the place. If they weren"t careful she might hurt herself at the heater.

Aoki(12) was playing his handheld video game on his chair.

The child-Aoki would stay put as long as he was given a video game. In a sense, Aoki was probably the most manageable one.

"Uweeeh... Waaaah, waaaaah..."

Nagase(1) suddenly started crying.

"What"s wrong? It"s alright, good~ girl~"

Kiriyama picked up Nagase(1) and tried to comfort her, but it didn"t seem to be effective.

"...What"s going on? I don"t think she"s hungry... Is she sleepy?"

As Kiriyama pondered, Inaba next to her spoke:

"...Could it be... Check the diapers."

Diapers.

This was an unavoidable process when nursing babies.

Normally speaking, n.o.body would really mind a boy changing a baby girl"s diaper, or vice versa.

Except that, while this baby was indeed a baby, she was also his cla.s.smate: a girl named Nagase Iori.

That"s going to raise a lot of ethical problems, Taichi thought.

"...Now that you mention it... I think I smell "feces"..."

Inaba sniffed briefly.

"Eww, it"s the smell of p.o.o.p! p.o.o.p stinks!"

"Just as I tried to express it in a more tactful way too! Yos.h.i.+fumi, stop saying "p.o.o.p"! And you just had to say "p.o.o.p" twice!"

"...Back at you, Inaba. Not to mention you"re a girl, and you ended up saying it twice as well."

Not that Taichi would mind, but he thought Inaba should have more restraint on herself sometimes.

"Ah... Sorry, my nose"s been stuffy so I didn"t notice..."

Kiriyama laid Nagase(1) on the blanket.

"Okay, well... Er... What"s the next step?"

Kiriyama pressed against her own eyebrows.

"...What should we do next, Inaba?"

"The usual... Just take off the clothes, then the diapers, quickly clean her up and put on some new ones."

"Easier said than done, you know. This is my first time changing diapers, and she wouldn"t stop moving... Come gimme me a hand, Inaba!"

"...No thanks, too messy for me."

That was rather irresponsible, giving orders yet not providing any help...

"What you mean "too messy"? We got no choice! Jeez... in that case... Taichi! Lend me a hand please?"

"I—I"m not sure if that"s a good idea."

"But I can"t do this alone!"

"...Okay then, I"ll help."

Whatever, it"s just changing a baby"s diapers, Taichi thought and walked towards Kiriyama.

"Er... How are we gonna do this? Should I take off her——ARRRGH!"

A certain someone suddenly bend Taichi"s neck around by force. He thought his head was going to fall off.

"Let me do it. Out of the way, Taichi! Even if she"s undergoing "Time Regression", having her b.u.t.t hole completely exposed to a boy in cla.s.s is just too sad!"

"You could at least remind me verbally!"

Taichi shouted pleadingly.

Kiriyama was feeding Nagase(1) some apple juice with a covered, baby feeding cup with a straw. Taichi and Inaba watched them with an absent expression.

"...Taichi, I think we can be certain now that you aren"t affected at all."

Inaba suddenly said.

"Looks...like it."

Taichi tried to reply as calmly as he could.

"I keep having this weird feeling..." Inaba murmured, "This phenomenon only occurs to four of us. More importantly, «Heartseed» still hasn"t shown up yet."

Inaba bit on her fingertip and focused her mind.

"Could it be that the culprit this time is actually someone other than «Heartseed»? ...What do yo think, Taichi?"

How did she come to that point?

Taichi felt his heart started racing.

How should he answer her?

He felt it would be better to keep his promise with «Number Two».

But he also felt that, if he told Inaba this piece of information and discussed it with her, they might be able to come up with a better solution.

"That being said though, I think it"s 99% unlikely to be anyone other than «Heartseed»."

Taichi remained silent. Inaba did not insist on having Taichi respond to her, so she quickly changed the topic.

"Well then, it"s getting kinda dull here isn"t it? The weather is nice out there, why don"t we go out and get ourselves some fresh air?"

Inaba said. Aoki(12), who seemed to be done with his game, stood up.

"I"ll go!"

"Mmm, that"s some good spirit there, Yos.h.i.+fumi. Kids should get more exercise."

Inaba nodded in approval.

"Yui, you"re coming right?"

"Eh? But Iori..."

"I don"t want to leave the baby in this environment for too long as this isn"t exactly the cleanest place on earth. Let"s go, we"ll be heading out."

Under Inaba"s urge, the group decided to take a walk around the area.

The group started playing soccer at the empty grounds (mostly Taichi and Aoki, with Kiriyama joining occasionally) and the time pa.s.sed quickly pa.s.sed away. The sun, too, had begun setting.

Inaba instructed the group to start packing up.

"Eh~ We"re done already?"

Even though he had been constantly running around, Aoki(12) was still very high in spirit.

"Ack... I think we"ve had enough."

Taichi, on the other hand, appeared exhausted, probably due to his lack of regular exercise.

"You"re lame."

"Ugh... Once you get older, you"ll end up like me too."

"...Taichi, you should save those lines for when you"ve become an old-aged father."

Kiriyama said with a look of sympathy.

There was an occasion where Aoki(12) confused Kiriyama with Nis.h.i.+no Nana"s sister again, which deeply frightened Taichi, but Kiriyama did not show any sign of concern and calmly put it off. She was most likely trying to convince herself not to think of it too much.

"...Never would"ve thought I"d get the day to carry Iori like this."

Inaba remarked.

Nagase(1) was cuddling about in Inaba"s embrace.

"But we"ve been exposing the baby out here in the cold for quite a while, is it gonna be alright?"

Taichi asked with concern.

"I was originally going to head back sooner...but this fella seems too energetic for that. Oi, don"t grab my chin like that Iori, there"s nothing there!"

Just as Taichi and the others arrived at the abandoned apartment——

"Just a minute! You guys over there!"

A familiar voice shouted.

Taichi looked towards the source, only to see a girl with ponytail hair coming out from the shades.

He remembered that girl from around four days ago. She was an acquaintance of Kiriyama"s from back in the days of practicing karate.

Kiriyama said lowly:

"Mi—Mihas.h.i.+-san?"

Yes, it was Mihas.h.i.+. Mihas.h.i.+ Chinatsu.

Mihas.h.i.+ seemed to be restraining her anger, as seen from her trembling body.

"Who"s that?"

Inaba asked with a puzzled look on her face. Taichi briefly explained it to her.

"Onee!"

Another person came.

It was a girl with a pair of determined eyes, as well as chestnut-hued bob hair that sparked of liveliness.

She looks familiar, Taichi thought.

"Eh, Anzu?"

This time it was Kiriyama who shouted.

Taichi finally recalled who that was: It was Kiriyama Yui"s younger sister Kiriyama Anzu.

They had met before... Actually, that wasn"t quite correct. Taichi "met" her during a "Personality Exchange", where he was switched into Kiriyama"s body.

She looked almost exactly like her sister Kiriyama, but was apparently taller than the latter.

The two surprise visitors approached Taichi"s group, and stopped right before their.

"Oi, what is the meaning of this?"

Mihas.h.i.+ questioned Kiriyama in a reproaching tone.

"What you mean by..."

"Quit playing the fool. I"m talking about what you"ve been doing in the building."

"Onee, we saw it all. You"re trespa.s.sing a deconstruction site. That"s illegal!"

Were they found out? Taichi"s eyes began wandering around, his mind pondering on the next step.

Inaba, on the other hand, seemed to be observing and staying put for the time being.

"Forget those for now, the real question is...the baby and the child!"

Mihas.h.i.+"s eyes widened.

"Those kids weren"t with you when you entered the building right? What"s going on? What happened to those other two who were with you?"

She seemed to be somewhat confused as well.

"That"s right, Onee! I thought it was weird seeing those two over there carrying a baby store bag back to the building."

"You weren"t happen to be watching the building the whole time were you?"

Inaba asked the two.

"Yea, so?"

Mihas.h.i.+ replied in alert.

But Inaba did not panic the slightest and maintained her composure. It was indeed to be expected from Inaba Himeko——

"...c.r.a.p."

...Or it could still be pretty bad after all. What the heck, Inaba Himeko.

"Then we entered the building to see for ourselves..."

"Eh!? Mihas.h.i.+-san even went as far as that?"

Kiriyama was in panic.

"Why can"t we? You"re the ones who"re trespa.s.sing here. Anyway, we went in and saw all these food, blankets, lamp and heater..."

Mihas.h.i.+ raised her eyebrow even more.

"The weirdest thing is... There are all these clothes of different sizes! What are those for?"

"Onee asked mom if she has any "old clothes" left right? I thought that was strange, so this is what that was!"

"Anyway..."

"Please..."

""——explain yourselves!""

The two pressed on with a fiery aura.

"Um... That"s because..."

Kiriyama was struck completely speechless.

"Hmm... This really doesn"t look good."

Inaba said, which Taichi responded:

"Y—Yea... And it seems they"ve seen a lot..."

"No, I mean that"s a problem too, yes. But more importantly, it"s almost five."

"Ah...!"

Both Nagase(1) and Aoki(12) would return to normal at five o"clock.

"You can"t be serious!"

"Of course I"m serious."

"How do you remain so calm like that?"

So composed, it"s terrifying. Is that really okay? Inaba Himeko.

"So I"m thinking what to do next. Since they"ve already seen the inside of the building, convincing them with the "relative" thing may be... difficult. I have thought of other excuses, but if we need to explain it, we might end up spending a lot of time being questioned... So my conclusion is: Run."

"...Huh?"

"I"m gonna take Iori and Aoki through the backdoor, so I"m counting on you to keep them busy for me."

"Oh, okay... WHAT!?"

Inaba, with Nagase(1) in her arms, yanked at Aoki(12) and prepared to leave.

"...Hey! Where are you going!?"

Mihas.h.i.+ noticed Inaba and shouted.

"Enough already, what"s with you anyway?"

Mihas.h.i.+"s interest fell on Aoki(12).

"Eh? I"m——Ow!"

"Keep your mouth shut! This way, quick!"

"D-Don"t hit me!"

"Waaah!"

"Iori be quiet too!"

Inaba darted out of sight along with Aoki(12) and Nagase(1).

"Hey wait... What?"

Taichi blocked in front of Mihas.h.i.+ as she tried to pursue.

"Even if you ask questions like that, it will be difficult for us to answer."

"Fine. I"ll ask you two then."

Mihas.h.i.+ snorted.

"Let"s start by explaining the baby."

"Eh, that"s a child of someone we know..."

Kiriyama peeked at Taichi"s face and said hesitantly.

"Onee, you"ve been looking at that boy"s face since just now... Ah! Could it be..."

Kiriyama"s sister widened her eyes.

"Th—Th—Th—That baby, could it be... Onee and the boy"s baby!?"

"How could that be possible!? When was I ever pregnant!?"

"Oh, right. Then...the person holding the baby is the mother?"

"No!"

"Ehhh? Then, a.s.suming the boy"s the father..."

"Please don"t a.s.sume that. Normal first year high-schoolers aren"t gonna have children!"

"B-But there"s no guarantee to that."

"There"s indeed no guarantee...but I can guarantee that right now, right here!"

"Then, how are you gonna explain this triangle relations.h.i.+p?"

"Where did that "triangle relations.h.i.+p" part come from!?"

"I mean Onee and that pretty-looking girl and this boy... Hm? This boy...he seems to match what Onee said before...something about "good things" that happened."

"Y—Y—Y—You come over here. Over here, now!"

Taichi and Mihas.h.i.+ remained speechless as they watched the older Kiriyama dragged the younger into the shades.

After several minutes, the older Kiriyama came back alone. During those minutes it was only Taichi and Mihas.h.i.+ together. The air between them was very awkward.

"...What did you do?"

"Um... I used my elder sister"s privilege... I"m exhausted."

Kiriyama responded to Taichi"s question and sighed. She wiped off the sweat on her forehead.

Taichi thought he had heard sounds of crying back there... Maybe he was hearing things.

"She"s not a bad child... But she can misinterpret things pretty badly sometimes."

"...Seems like it."

After that would be Kiriyama"s sibling matters. Hence Taichi refrained from any further comment.

In any case, life in the Kiriyama household seemed rather eventful.

"Even if you"d sent Anzu-chan home, I"m still here you know! Will you stop treating me like I"m not here?"

Mihas.h.i.+, who was apparently displeased from being ignored, puffed her cheeks. She actually looked kind of cute like that.

"Ah... About that..."

It took a fair bit of coaxing and persuading from Taichi and Kiriyama before Mihas.h.i.+ finally reluctantly agreed to leave the topic for another day.

"...I"ve had enough. Sigh..."

Mihas.h.i.+ seemed exhausted as well, which was not surprising considering that she had been watching them since noon.

"Then, that"s about it, Mihas.h.i.+-san. Let"s go, Taichi."

Kiriyama seemed relieved as her expression loosened.

Meanwhile, Mihas.h.i.+, who had been watching Kiriyama the whole time, looked very upset for a moment.

Taichi, who was only able to watch from a bystander"s point of view, could not understand what sort of emotion was held in that look.

"Say, Kiriyama... What"s that club you"re partic.i.p.ating right now?"

"Eh? Club? Er, it"s called "Cultural Research Club"... We usually just hang out in the club room, and do whatever we like..."

"Kiriyama... You can at least tell the parts that sound like club activities."

"Oh, right. Er... We published a monthly article called «Cultural Research News». It mostly consists of news and gossips related to our interests... Wait a minute, isn"t that the same as doing whatever we like?

"...You never thought of that?"

What had Kiriyama been thinking during their club activities all these times?

"Oh... So you"re just playing around."

Mihas.h.i.+ said in a rather demeaning tone.

"I guess you can say that..."

"What"s the purpose in that?"

Mihas.h.i.+ questioned Kiriyama.

"You say purpose... How am I supposed to..."

Kiriyama"s expression stiffened.

"Kiriyama, have you been striving for anything lately?"

"I—I..."

Kiriyama tried to come up with an answer, but failed. She remained silent.

"...Really, Kiriyama, what are you trying to achieve?"

"Achieve...for what..."

Kiriyama smiled dubiously and self-mockingly. This seemed to have enraged Mihas.h.i.+.

"You coward! Put your act together already!"

"Why... Why do I have to take the blame from you?"

Kiriyama seemed to be agitated by Mihas.h.i.+"s outburst and lost her temper.

"What happened to the Kiriyama who used to be cool and strong!?"

"Why are you bringing up the past me? What are you trying to say?"

"What I"m saying is, you are pale compared to how you used to be!"

"So what if I changed? I don"t care about what happened in the past!"

"You say you don"t care..."

Mihas.h.i.+"s expression became of someone who was deeply betrayed.

"Then...was that all a lie? That promise between you and me?"

"I said I don"t know any promise you"re talking about!"

As Kiriyama said that, Mihas.h.i.+ lowered her head as if she was about to cry.

"W—What..."

Mihas.h.i.+"s gesture somewhat alleviated Kiriyama"s anger.

"Ugh..."

Mihas.h.i.+ bit her lips and suddenly threw her black jacket aside.

Taichi, who was just standing nearby, caught the jacket in the air.

"I"ll wake you up... Fight me!"

Kiriyama looked surprised at first, but then a sneer flashed across her face.

It felt gloomy and dark.

"...Mihas.h.i.+-san, have you ever beaten me in a fight?"

Kiriyama unb.u.t.toned her duffel coat and took it off.

Once again, it was Taichi who caught the coat.

Since when did I become that kind of character? He thought.

It was somewhat embarra.s.sing for a man.

"Taichi, referee."

"Un—Understood."

The two"s aura was beyond the level where any ordinary people could intervene. Taichi figured he should just stay put and play his part as a proper witness.

"Then... Be—Begin!"

Right as Taichi announced the start, the two started moving.

The wind was blowing. The earth was trembling.

As Taichi thought he felt that, the two partic.i.p.ants shrunk their distance in a blink of an eye.

Taichi had no idea what kind of exchange occurred before him.

However, the outcome was determined right away.

Mihas.h.i.+ Chinatsu kicked her right foot at Kiriyama Yui"s head, and remained still on the spot.

It was a right upper kick halted right before it hit.

"...It normally wouldn"t end like that."

Mihas.h.i.+ slowly lowered her foot.

"Weak."

Mihas.h.i.+ left that remark, and continued:

"What have you been doing this past three years?"

Kiriyama remained frozen on the spot.

"...I...because..."

Kiriyama was holding in her tears; her voice became choked from emotion.

"...It couldn"t be helped!"

It was a cry of deepest sorrow——

"And?"

However, Mihas.h.i.+"s voice remained cold.

Kiriyama went through a lot of things. She was not at fault.

Yet, it was also true that Kiriyama had been stagnating all these time.

Depending on the situation, sometimes such simple fact would represent all of her.

No excuse would matter.

"If it couldn"t be help, you can at least tell us the reason."

Mihas.h.i.+ said, but Kiriyama could only remain silent.

"In the end, you refuse to tell us anything... Gimme a break."

Mihas.h.i.+ s.n.a.t.c.hed her jacket from Taichi and left the scene.

As they returned to the building, Nagase and Aoki, whom they thought would have returned to normal by then, were still in their one year-old and twelve-year old selves respectively.

"Sorry, it seemed I confused the time. We"ve actually got some time left."

Inaba apologized, which was a rare sight.

"So are you guys alright?"

"So far. But would you mind tell us in a bit the "excuse" you mentioned earlier?"

"Alright, alright. However, even though we were seen, it"s surprisingly not too difficult to gloss it over... But that"s only because our witnesses only recognized Yui, and she wasn"t affected by "Time Regression" just then... By the way..."

Inaba gestured towards Yui.

"What"s up with her? Why is she looking like it"s the end of the world?"

Kiriyama was curling up gloomily in the corner.

"Uh, that"s because..."

Just as Taichi was about to explain, Aoki(12) suddenly jump up from his chair.

"Don"t be sad, Nana"s sister! Oh... Wait, you"re different person, I thought it was like that..."

"You"re annoying! Who"s Nis.h.i.+no Nana anyway!? I"m Kiriyama Yui!"

Kiriyama suddenly yelled.

"Ah... That"s... I—I"m sorry... My bad..."

The shocked Aoki(12) squeezed out an apologize.

"...Eh? Ah, I didn"t...!"

Kiriyama was shocked upon realizing what she had done as she heard him apologized.

"No... I mean, I should be apologizing... I"m sorry, I shouldn"t have yelled at you... It wasn"t your fault... I"m really sorry."

"It"s fine~"

Even though Aoki(12) said that, Kiriyama kept apologizing.

Something was about to fall apart.

One could see the crack in it.

However, Taichi, who was unaffected by the phenomenon this time, was unable to feel what his companions were feeling.

Not to mention, these were private matters of those concerned, something an outsider could not tap into.

It was no longer possible to change the past.

He could not see the way forward.

He became a child——Aoki Yos.h.i.+fumi. And he once again mistook Kiriyama Yui as Nis.h.i.+no Nana"s sister in his child self.

Nana did not have a sister.

However, before he knew that, whenever he saw Yui, he would a.s.sociate the sight with Nana"s relative right away.

What an idiot! He wanted to hit himself in the face.

Okay, let"s try that then.

Thud.

Ouch. Of course it hurts.

He had to admit though, they really looked alike.

Those eyes, those brows, their cheeks, and that light brown hair.

To say they were exactly alike would be an overstatement, but it really did make one wonder if they were related in blood.

He met Nis.h.i.+no Nana during around third or fourth grade.

How they met could be described as cheesy. He saw a girl being pestered by strange people and she seemed frightened. So he grabbed her and escaped. Something like that.

When he walked her home, it turned out that they live fairly close to each other, and Nana"s parents seem to be pleased with him, so they started playing together on occasion.

His time with Nana were happy moments.

Nana seemed happy as well.

The two continued their relations.h.i.+p. Then in middle school, Nana confessed to him, so they started going out.

They called it going out, but it was nothing more then middle-schoolers" love. It wasn"t exactly anything intimate or pa.s.sionate.

They mostly just watched movies together, shopped together, or play at the theme park together.

They never even kissed. Hand holding was the best they could handle.

To say it was "going out", it was really closer to "being close friends."

But, during that time, he really loved Nis.h.i.+no Nana.

Reverting back to his past self, remembering his past feelings, he could understand it clearly.

At the end of first year in middle school, Nana had to move due to her parents" work.

Just like during her confession, Nana was the one who suggested to break up.

She said, there was no way they could meet each other again.

Even though she wasn"t moving out of the country, for a pair of thirteen year-old children, the distance of several hundred miles was already too much. It couldn"t be helped.

That"s how love is for middle-schoolers, isn"t it? He thought.

What could a little brat do to commit to a long-distance relations.h.i.+p?

That was the story of Aoki Yos.h.i.+fumi"s first love.

He loved her.

Very much.

Very very much.

But that tale had ended.

It had ended——theoretically speaking.

Then, where did that feeling of "love" go to? Was it still in his heart?

If it still remained...

He loved Kiriyama Yui.

He knew he loved her, there was no question about that.

And the reason being, as always... Instinct.

But... What defines instinct?

Why did it have to be Yui?

It couldn"t be due to her looking like Nana right?

Was it that he was actually loving Nana since the beginning, and was only looking at her through Kiriyama Yui?

No, no. It couldn"t be.

How would that be possible?

He couldn"t even remember things about Nana lately, he could be sure he wasn"t thinking of her.

But what if it was his subconscious...

If it was him not long before, he would most likely laugh it off with "Why would I subconsciously think like that".

But now, he remembered that heated feeling that would melt his chest when he still loved Nana back then. It was the same as the feeling of him loving Yui right now. It was exactly because of that, he could not deny those feelings.

He was certain that his "love" for Yui is stronger, because they were together all the time.

But, what if Nana was here?

Who would he "love" then?

He could not even begin to imagine.

"Love" had no form.

"Love" could not be measured with numbers.

He had no idea what kind of chemical reaction will result in "love".

Being like that, did he have the right to claim who he "love"?

Right now, he was unable to sprint, not even to walk.

He began to doubt himself, lose himself; he stopped moving forward.

Hereafter, could he still love Yui?

What did Yui think about him?

It may sound irresponsible. In fact, he felt terrible about it as well. But, he could not help but to think:

——If only Yui can look at me once in the eyes...

He had tried for a long time, proclaiming that he "love" Yui.

He strove to express this feeling of "love" to Yui.

He formally confessed to Yui, and did so many times.

How much of his feeling of "love" was forwarded to her?

And how much of that filled Yui"s heart?

And then, if she still would not accept him in the end, where would this feeling go?

Would it just drop on the floor? Would it rot and disappear?

He had always been approaching her head on.

But he never felt a direct respond to his feelings from her.

Of course, Yui would have her own thoughts or things to consider.

Therefore, in the end...

The question was if Yui antic.i.p.ated his feelings for her at all.

If he stopped proclaiming his "love" for Yui, this tale that might not even have begun between Aoki Yos.h.i.+fumi and Kiriyama Yui would end once and for all——It was simple as that, was it not?

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