The night after the open house, once I got home, my father gave me a severe scolding.
That said, he seemed more furious that I hadn't consulted him beforehand rather than about what I had actually done.
Getting lectured was well within my expectations.
Even if I had talked to him, he would have just stopped me anyway, so I accepted the reprimand as a necessary cost.
Miko's parents came over to apologize that very evening.
They apparently had no idea things had escalated to such an extent, and both looked completely frantic.
Miko's mother bowed repeatedly to me.
"I'm so sorry, Subaru-kun. This is entirely our family's fault. Come on, Miko, you apologize too."
With that, she urged Miko to bow as well.
However...
"..."
"What are you doing? Apologize!"
"..."
Even at this stage, she remained utterly silent.
Her face was contorted, her lips pressed tightly together.
Perhaps trying to hold back her tears, a faint sob escaped her.
"Miko?!"
Why wouldn't she look at me?
Even she had to realize that we were long past the point where this could simply be swept under the rug...
Miko's attitude completely ruined any chance of continuing the conversation.
And understandably so.
If the perpetrator showed no remorse, the discussion was entirely pointless.
Her father stepped outside with Miko, leaving her mother behind to let out an exhausted sigh.
"I'm so sorry... I don't even know what's happening anymore... I am truly, deeply sorry."
As Miko's mother repeated her apologies over and over, all I could do was nod.
◇
Ever since that fake confession, I had vaguely assumed Miko would eventually come to apologize.
Of course, not some shallow apology dripping with the presumption that she would be forgiven anyway.
I wanted a sincere, heartfelt apology where I could actually feel her remorse.
I didn't know what she needed to do to achieve that, but figuring that out was her responsibility as the one in the wrong.
Only then would I finally be able to let go of my anger.
Yet she didn't apologize the next day, nor the week after that.
"Miko is seriously the worst. Dumping all the blame on Ayano-kun just because she gets a free pass for being Hatsukade's childhood friend?"
"Totally, I feel so bad for Ayano-kun~"
As I walked down the middle school hallway, I saw Miko surrounded by the girls from our class.
I had witnessed similar scenes quite often over the past few days.
Ayano had been an irredeemable piece of trash, but he was still a central figure in our class.
There must have been plenty of girls who had crushes on him.
Now, those same girls were venting their frustration by spitting venom at Miko.
Then again, these were the kinds of people who laughed and found entertainment in a fake confession prank.
They might have just been enjoying tormenting Miko now that she was pathetic and vulnerable.
"Did I hear my name?"
"Hatsukade?!"
"N-Nothing at all! Haha, see ya!"
With just a single word from me, the girls looked at me as if they were staring at a monster.
They immediately scattered like panicked spiders, so I reached out and firmly grabbed the shoulder of the one girl who lagged behind.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Eeeek?!"
"You don't get to bring up my name and then pretend it was nothing."
"...T-That's..."
The girl's eyes darted around frantically.
I used to be completely isolated as the target of their bullying, but now I stood out in the classroom in an entirely different way.
To those complicit in the prank, the blow I had dealt during the open house must have traumatized them deeply, because they had stopped harassing me altogether.
"I believe I already explained this. The only reason I didn't seek punishment for Miko was because she tried to stop your harassment. I don't recall ever saying it was because she's my childhood friend."
"...B-But that's practically what it is! It's completely unfair that the worst one gets off scot-free while only Ayano-kun has to suffer like that... Hmph!"
Shaking off my grip, the girl bolted.
Left behind, I turned around to find Miko staring at the floor.
"...Why are you helping me?"
"I'm not. They were spouting nonsense, so I simply corrected them."
"Please, just stop. I don't care what happens to me... So please, don't try to forgive me."
"...What?"
I couldn't make sense of it.
I was trying to forgive her?
Where was she getting such a completely baseless idea?
"Hey!"
"...!"
Ignoring my call, Miko walked away.
The childhood friend I had spent my entire life beside had become someone I could no longer comprehend.
◇
The days that followed were fairly routine for me.
Following my plan, I systematically eliminated the nuisances one by one.
Lacking the courage to retaliate against me directly, they turned their sights on Miko, subjecting her to insidious bullying and filming videos of her crying. I captured definitive photographic evidence of their acts and distributed it not only to the school and parents, but to neighboring middle schools as well.
Coming right on the heels of my own bullying scandal, the administration couldn't afford to ignore it. With rumors about the exposed students spreading like wildfire across the district, transferring anywhere nearby was no longer an option for them psychologically.
Just like that, the nuisances vanished into the distance.
Perhaps I had gone a bit overboard, because the school counselor suggested that I visit a medical clinic.
It was utterly absurd.
The ones with an abnormal state of mind were the bullies, not the victim.
I couldn't accept it, but my father told me to heed the counselor's advice, leaving me with no choice.
So, I turned the situation to my advantage. I attended a psychiatric clinic a few times and complained about how distressed and cornered the bullying had made me feel—things I didn't actually feel in the slightest.
Using those medical records as leverage, I succeeded in purging the remaining classmates who had tried to dodge punishment until the bitter end.
In the end, a quarter of the class transferred out.
On top of that, our homeroom teacher, who had continually turned a blind eye to the bullying, stopped coming to school citing "personal circumstances."
Well, from my perspective, none of that mattered.
Ultimately, far from offering an apology, Miko never said a single word to me until the moment we parted.
Perhaps concluding that repairing our relationship was impossible, Miko's parents decided to relocate.
During our final farewell, Miko left me with this:
"Someone like me doesn't deserve to be forgiven."
Those were the last words I ever exchanged with Miko.
◇
A pleasant classical melody drifted through the café.
I thought I had been pacing myself, but my coffee cup was already empty.
It seemed I had lingered for quite a while.
"Hey, Miko. If you're just going to stay silent the whole time, my taking the Shinkansen all the way out here was a complete waste."
"..."
"So look, this is the last thing I'll ask, so just tell me. Why did you give me that fake confession?"
Sitting across from me, Miko's shoulders twitched faintly.
Her lips parted hesitantly.
"...Because they told me I was childish... That I was always being babied by Subaru and was still acting like a little kid... So I wanted to fit in and act mature like the others."
"And that's why you couldn't refuse the punishment game? You wanted to look grown-up so badly that you were willing to step on me, after all the time we spent together?"
She shook her head.
"No, that's not it... When everyone told me a kid like me would never get a boyfriend, I thought they were right. Because without Subaru, I was completely useless and couldn't do anything on my own. That's why I thought I had to become at least a little independent."
"Is that the same reason you told me not to walk you to school anymore?"
"Yeah."
I had vaguely assumed as much.
Back then, Miko had seemed swept up in the peer pressure, blurting things out on impulse.
However, that wasn't the important part right now.
What I wanted to know was why she had felt the urge to change so drastically in the first place.
And drawing from my high school experience, I could pretty much piece it together.
"Did you want to date me?"
"..."
"You got terrified that if you stayed the way you were, I'd abandon you someday, didn't you?"
Miko didn't answer, but her silence spoke volumes.
Just as the background music shifted to the next track, I stood up from my seat.
Before we could get bogged down in an awkward argument over the bill, I quickly paid the cashier and stepped outside with Miko.
The sweltering sunlight beat down between the buildings.
I turned to the girl beside me.
"I'm glad I got to see you today."
"...Yeah."
Finally looking up, she gazed at me.
Her expression looked as though this were our final farewell.
"All right, lead the way to your house."
"...Huh? W-What are you talking about?"
"I mean, I came here planning to stay the night anyway."
"Y-You're kidding, right? You just said you had one last question. That's why I answered..."
"I meant before we left the café."
I gave the speechless Miko a faint smile.
"Realistically speaking, there's no way I could just leave without greeting your parents after they helped me out."
"...!"
I had spent a great deal of time dwelling on the past inside that café.
Even so, revisiting those memories after so long helped me sort out my feelings.
There were so many things I hadn't noticed back then—things I could only understand now.
It was proof of just how much my perspective had matured through high school.
That was precisely why I needed to tell Miko.
And Nakina, too.
How long are you two going to stay trapped in the past and mope around?
Hurry up and look forward already.
I needed to make them see that.