“Asuka-chan! It’s been so long!” 

That afternoon after school, when Kazuto invited Aoi to his house.

Otomi Asuka was reuniting with her middle school friends for the first time since entering high school. 

The place was a family restaurant near the station closest to their school.

Three high school girls, wearing uniforms from a different school than Asuka’s, sat together laughing as they picked at a plate of fries.

“The Bira High uniform is seriously cute! That ribbon on the collar is so stylish~”

“I think your uniforms are pretty cute too.” 

“Really? Then why didn’t you come to our school, Asuka?” 

“Yeah, totally. Bira High’s cutoff is pretty high, so it was impossible for idiots like us from the start~”

“Yeah, seriously~!”

Those three girls had been close to Asuka since middle school.

But when it came time to advance to high school, Asuka alone went to a different school, while the others all enrolled in the same one.

Now that they were seeing each other again after so long, the time they spent together was filled with both nostalgia and a faint sense of distance.

“…By the way, Asuka, what’s up with you? You seem kinda down.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’ve looked spaced out since earlier.”

“Yeah… I’m about to say something kind of weird, but will you listen properly?”

“Of course! We’re best friends forever!”

Amidst the overlapping laughter, Asuka’s expression was slightly clouded. 

From the opening ceremony until today, a vague unease had lingered in her heart. 

—The boy who’d called out to her at the park that morning. 

And the person who coincidentally ended up sitting directly behind her in class. 

“…Do you remember the only boy in our class?”

“Oh… I don’t remember his name, but he might have been there.” 

“I really can’t remember him!”

“Yeah, same~”

(I knew it… Of course they wouldn’t remember. A boy wouldn’t leave any impression. But—that boy, ‘Fukase-kun,’ was different. He talked like we’d been close back in middle school… he even said we were dating. That can’t be right. There’s no way I’d ever have been involved with a boy…)

The reality Asuka knew and the memories he described were so far apart that they left her heart unsettled.

That’s why she had decided to confirm it with her friends from middle school. 

“That guy is in my class now… and his seat is right behind mine.” 

“Ugh, that’s such a pain.”

“I get it. Just having a boy around cuts down the number of girls you can get close to.”

In this world, it was normal for girls to bond with each other while boys were nothing more than background noise or mere nuisances at best.

“And… that boy isn’t exactly normal.”

“…Not normal?” 

“He talks to me out of nowhere, or suddenly raises his voice… And today in PE, he even ran the hundred-meter sprint faster than a girl from the track and field club.”

“Huh? That’s seriously way too weird.”

“Boys are supposed to keep their heads down and stay quiet, right? That’s how it was back in middle school too—they usually don’t leave much of an impression.”

They exchanged glances, their faces clouded with doubt.

Faced with a story that strayed so far from the common sense of what a boy should be, their eyes held a hint of fear.

“And then… that boy said I was his girlfriend. Even though we’d never talked before.”

“Huh? Isn’t that basically a mental issue?”

“He’s seriously delusional if he thinks he could ever be a romantic interest. That’s way too much of a stretch.”

“Yeah, totally.”

“…Right.”

Asuka forced a small smile, but the heaviness in her heart didn’t lift at all.

No matter how she looked at it, the boy’s words didn’t feel real.

To begin with, she’d always thought of having a boyfriend as something completely unrelated to her own life—she’d never even imagined herself in that kind of relationship.

Of course, she figured the day would come when she’d fall in love with someone.

But up until now, Asuka had never taken a single step toward romance.

“By the way—are you interested in anyone in your class?” 

“Oh, yeah! You’ve always been cute, Asuka, but you never really tried to get a girlfriend, did you?”

“Not really, but I talk a lot with the girl who sits next to me. You know, my school’s full of really cute girls. I bet quite a few girls applied just because they liked the uniform.”

“Oooh~ so that’s how it is. I guess popular schools really are different~!”

“So you should hurry up and get yourself a girlfriend too, Asuka~!”

“You say that, but none of you have one either!”

Asuka gave them an exasperated look. 

“Ahaha, yeah, that’s true.”

“But hey, maybe I’ll get one before you do?”

“When that happens, you’d better tell us properly!”

“Exactly~”

In the end, the topic of boys never came up again after that.

Amid the laughter and the savory aroma of fries, they spent the afternoon carefree, just like always.

And yet, something about Kazuto continued to weigh on Asuka’s mind.