We walked through the dark, quiet streets of the residential neighborhood.
We had no destination in mind.
I simply wanted a chance to talk with Miko alone, without anyone getting in the way.
Beside me, Miko had been frowning with a look of pure bewilderment ever since I told her this was a continuation of her fake confession.
She was probably wondering why I was dredging all of this up after so long.
Still, deep down, I felt like the two of us were still trapped on that rooftop on that day.
Not just her, but me too.
That was precisely why we needed this time.
Wandering away from prying eyes, we eventually arrived at a small park.
Here, we could probably talk in peace.
"Want to sit on this bench?"
"..."
We sat down side by side.
"Sitting like this really brings back memories. When we were kids, we were always playing together. Honestly, it’s harder to remember the times we weren't."
"Yeah... I guess so."
"After we were separated, I struggled for a while with how to spend my time. There was no one left to get back at, and the rest of the class wouldn't come anywhere near me, so I didn't really know what to do with myself."
"..."
"Thanks to that, I got good at finding great places to eat, and I picked up reading and dabbling in stocks."
"Is that so?"
"I don't know if what I gained makes up for what I lost, but I like to think I've had a reasonably good time. So hearing that you've been doing well lately made me happy."
Miko didn't reply.
She just silently studied my face, gazing intently at me.
"Look, there's nothing left for me to say. What do you actually plan to do with this 'continuation of that day'?"
"I just found myself wondering why we ended up drifting apart like that. Don't you think it's about time we cleared the air? For both of our sakes."
The me from a little while ago probably wouldn't have been able to look back on things with Miko so calmly.
I had never once regretted the way I handled things in middle school.
Miko disappearing was her own fault, and as the victim, there was no reason for me to care.
I'm not in the wrong—that was what I had constantly told myself.
Yet in truth, I think I was only trying to convince myself.
Deep down, I just hadn't wanted to admit it.
Miko, my childhood friend, had cast me aside.
She had failed to appreciate the feelings of someone who had devotedly supported her all along.
I simply couldn't forgive that.
"You told me why you made that fake confession. But I still haven't heard why you stubbornly refuse to apologize."
"..."
"You don't plan on telling me?"
Well, of course not.
If she were willing to give in so easily, our relationship never would have become so twisted in the first place.
In that case, I would just have to pry it open by force.
I spoke the words that Miko would likely hate to hear most of all.
"I'm sorry, Miko. I should have forgiven you."
"Wha—?!"
She sprang to her feet and frantically stepped around to face me.
"St-Stop it! Why are you apologizing, Subaru?!"
"Because I think I was in the wrong."
"No! Subaru, you did nothing wrong! It was all my fault, so don't apologize!"
"I refuse."
"Why?!"
"You're the one who decided that whether to apologize or not is a personal choice. You have no right to complain. If you don't like it, then you apologize too."
"Ugh... I-I..."
Miko clenched her fists tightly.
A conflicted groan escaped from deep in her throat.
Without taking my eyes off her as she stood frozen, I waited patiently.
Just then—
"Woof!"
"Ah, I'm so sorrrrry!"
Out of nowhere, a dog that had slipped its leash came bounding toward us.
Behind it, an adult woman—presumably its owner—was sprinting over at full tilt.
"Eek?!"
Letting out a shriek, Miko quickly ducked behind the bench, using my seated body as a shield.
The dog trotted up to my feet with a clumsy, waddling gait and wagged its tail.
It was a Chow Chow...
It looked just like a giant stuffed animal, completely and outrageously fluffy.
I was overcome by an intense urge to pet it.
"I'll pull him away right now!"
Grabbed by the collar by its owner, the Chow Chow let out a mournful whine.
"Awoo..."
"I am so terribly sorry! He's usually so sluggish, but of all times, he had to bolt today..."
Bowing repeatedly, the woman dragged the Chow Chow away.
It was deeply, deeply tragic to see it go...
Though I supposed this wasn't really the time to be petting dogs anyway.
I glanced down at Miko's hands resting on my shoulders.
Noticing them as well, Miko quickly pulled her arms back.
"S-Sorry..."
She could apologize immediately at times like this.
"Are you still bad with dogs?"
"...I mean, one bit your butt back then..."
"That was ages ago."
Miko had originally loved dogs.
When we were little, she would run right up to talk to them whenever she spotted one.
"I just can't forget it..."
"Even though I spent years telling you not to worry about it. If anything, trying to keep you from hating dogs just made me end up loving them instead."
"...Subaru, you were always like that. Always trying to do everything for my sake."
Losing all her strength, Miko sank back down onto the bench.
Her expression looked utterly drained, as if she had no energy left in her.
"You know, after that fake confession, I didn't even realize how awful of a thing I'd done."
"..."
"I honestly believed you'd forgive me no matter what I did, Subaru. But as time went on and I saw how furious you were, I finally realized I was wrong. I was such an idiot, really."
She continued in a frail, unsteady voice.
"At first, I was desperate trying to figure out how to get you to forgive me. I thought that if I got everyone in class to stop talking behind your back, things might go back to normal, but it didn't work. If anything, you just became more and more isolated..."
Looking down, Miko's voice turned strained and high-pitched.
"I didn't know what to do anymore. I couldn't tell Mom or Dad that I'd had a falling out with you, and I was so lost. And then, on that open house observation day... ah, I realized it was already too late."
"Why?"
"Because... the kind Subaru I knew would never take revenge so ruthlessly. On top of that, letting only me—the person you were most angry with—off the hook made no sense no matter how I looked at it... And that's when I finally understood."
Miko lifted her head.
Tears spilled from her contorted eyes, streaming down her face.
"You were trying to forgive me, Subaru... Even though I did something so horrible, even though you were hurt so badly... you kept giving me chances to apologize!"
Sobbing, Miko spat out the words in raw agony.
"Why?! Someone like me... you shouldn't forgive me!"
"...It's not like it was a given that I'd forgive you."
"You already were forgiving me! Because watching you keep taking revenge, you were acting weird the whole time. Every single day at school, you had a look of such deep pain on your face, looking like someone I'd never seen before... Honestly, you should have just cast me aside along with the rest of our classmates. You're just too kind, Subaru. If you weren't, you wouldn't have come all this way to see me after I moved so far away!"
I couldn't deny it.
If I had truly just been furious, I could have ratted her out to her parents right away to force an apology, and I could have punished her right alongside Ayano and the others.
Yet the fact that I hadn't might mean that, deep down, I never wanted to.
Looking back, it wasn't as if Miko had completely refused to apologize.
I had simply rejected her because her apology lacked sincerity and rubbed me the wrong way, but the intention had been there.
I was the one who pushed her away.
Ever since we were little, she had depended on me to the point where she couldn't even function properly at school without my help.
Whenever she ran into trouble, she would come to me first, and we would solve the problem together.
When a girl like that got into a fight with me, what was she supposed to do?
Who was she supposed to turn to for advice?
Back then, Miko was just a kid who had graduated from elementary school only a few months prior.
Anyone makes mistakes, and that was supposed to be a time to reflect on those mistakes and grow.
And the same went for me.
In the end, even I hadn't known specifically what kind of apology I wanted.
I was just furious about being betrayed.
I simply couldn't bring myself to forgive her.
Perhaps our relationship had been twisted all along.
Miko and I had always been two halves of a whole.
I couldn't function without her, and the same was true for her.
When you suddenly lose your other half, it's only natural that you wouldn't know what to do.
It was only now, after all this time, that I could finally look back on things with Miko with this kind of clarity.
That was just how massive of a presence Miko had been in my life.
Up until now, I had constantly looked at my high school classmates and scoffed at how they let romance ruin their lives.
Yet my middle school self had been the exact same way.
I had been blind to everything around me.
I had been hopelessly immature.
Even so, I'd like to think I've grown.
And I had to let her know that.
As her childhood friend, this was the last bit of meddling I would ever do for her.
It was my stubborn pride, wishing for the happiness of the person I had fallen for until the very end.
I reached out and took Miko's trembling hand.
"Let's do the continuation of that day, Miko. This time, no lies—just our true feelings. I... I've always loved you, Miko. I genuinely wanted to marry you."
"...Huh?"