[Serina Mikage's POV]
"All right!"
Rio whipped out her smartphone and looked around at the three of us in turn.
"Then let us begin: 'Operation Find Serina's Savior Strategy Meeting!'"
"Is the exclamation mark part of the official title?"
Miu asked flatly.
"Of course! It sounds friendlier that way, right?"
"Keep your voice down. And stop giving things such exaggerated names on your own."
Kotoha cautioned her, glancing around at our surroundings.
"It's not an exaggeration at all. This is a critical strategy meeting with Serina's first love and savior search hanging in the balance."
"I haven't decided if it's my first love yet!"
"In that case, we shall table the motion regarding whether it constitutes a first love for now."
"You don't need to put it on the agenda at all!"
"The agenda is already growing, and the operation hasn't even started."
Miu pointed out, holding her drink carton.
"We can iron out the details later. First comes finding the savior!"
Rio cheerfully tapped her screen awake and went straight to opening our school's messaging group.
"Should I try asking in the school group? Like, does anyone know a guy who suffered burns on his right shoulder and got hospitalized after the mall fire?"
"Don't."
Kotoha stopped her immediately.
"That would be broadcasting his injuries without his permission, and people might piece together the circumstances of your rescue."
"I won't use names. I could just say a friend is looking for someone, or—"
"If you give detailed specifics, people will realize it's about Serina. Everyone in our year knows she was caught in the fire and missed school."
Rio's fingers froze at Kotoha's reasoning.
The school hadn't gone out of its way to publicize that I was caught in the mall fire. Still, it was a major incident over summer break, and my absences had dragged on into the start of the new term. Plenty of students knew why I was injured.
If we posted that we were looking for a boy with burns on his right shoulder, there was a very real chance people would connect him to the person who saved me.
"Then what if we leave out the burn and just ask if anyone was hospitalized after the accident?"
"If you broaden the criteria, you'll get unrelated people."
Miu pointed out.
"He wasn't the only one rushed to the hospital from that fire. If you start including people outside the school, we won't even know who we're looking for anymore."
"I guess that's true..."
"Besides, if you put out an open call, someone might step forward and falsely claim to be the one who saved you."
"Would someone really lie about something like that?"
"If it means getting a chance with Serina, absolutely."
A chill ran down my spine the instant the words left her mouth.
A guy approaching me under the pretense of being my savior, weaponizing memories of the fire to get close.
Closing the distance under the assumption that I couldn't turn him away because of the debt of gratitude I owed.
Just imagining an outstretched hand made an unpleasant prickle crawl across my skin, and I instinctively pulled my arms tight against my chest.
"Gross."
Rio's face contorted in genuine disgust as well.
"Serina and the boy himself aren't the only ones who know what happened that day."
Kotoha chose her words with care.
"The scale of the fire and the fact that stranded victims were rescued made the news. If someone patches together the public reports, they could easily spin a convincing story."
As long as I didn't know his name or face, I couldn't afford to take any claimant at their word.
Still, if a fake did show up, would I be able to see through the lie?
I didn't know his face, and his voice had been warped by smoke. The burn stretching from his right shoulder down his arm was a major lead, but I couldn't conclude someone was him just because they had an injury in the same place.
To be certain, I would need to hear the things only the two of us shared within the flames—the conversations we had, and the promise about the crepes.
"Though, the real one hasn't stepped forward so far."
Miu added matter-of-factly.
"Meaning, if his goal was to get close to me, it wouldn't be strange for him to have reached out using the rescue as an excuse?"
"Yeah. He might still be in treatment, but at the very least, it doesn't look like he saved you with ulterior motives from the start."
I could nod in wholehearted agreement.
Even when I asked for his name, he told me it could wait until we made it outside, protecting me to the bitter end without expecting anything in return. Not once during that entire ordeal did he give off the slightest hint of trying to hold a favor over my head.
When I said I couldn't walk, he carried me on his back. Whenever I cried out in fear, he reassured me again and again. He had even made it clear that he was doing it because he chose to, insisting I had nothing to apologize for.
If he had been after a reward, he wouldn't have put his own name second while enduring such agonizing burns.
That was precisely why the thought of an impostor hijacking his goodwill was entirely unforgivable.
"Let's not do a public search."
I told them firmly.
"If he doesn't want to come forward, I don't want to drag him into the open. And I don't want to deal with anyone pretending to be him, either."
"But you still want to see the real him, right?"
I answered Rio's question without a shred of hesitation.
"—I do."
Just letting those words pass my lips set my heart pounding.
Realizing all three pairs of eyes were locked onto me, a belated wave of heat rushed to my cheeks.
"What?"
"Nothing, just that you answered awfully fast."
"I've been saying I wanted to see him from the start, haven't I?"
"Yeah. But the way you just said it was totally—"
"Rio."
Kotoha called her name, and Rio clamped her mouth shut with a smirk.
I didn't need to hear the rest of the sentence to know what she was getting at.
She was going to bring up the first love thing again.
"I'll ask the police if they can pass along a letter."
I said, deliberately steering the conversation back.
"Even if they can't give me his name or address, they might at least deliver my message to him."
"That's the safest approach."
Kotoha agreed with a nod.
"We will keep our ears open for any unusual rumors nearby. Instead of actively digging up info on severely injured students, let's just watch for something that might prompt him to come forward on his own."
"If we're just listening to rumors, it won't spread his private business around either, I guess."
Rio set her phone face down and crossed her arms thoughtfully.
"If he seemed around our age, he might go to a high school around here. If he saw Serina in uniform, he probably knows our school too. He might even come looking for you."
The moment the possibility crossed my mind, something leaped violently in my chest.
Students streaming through the front gates.
Boys brushing past in the corridors.
Unfamiliar faces walking past the classroom door.
He could be among them.
He might even be attending this very school right now.
What if we had already crossed paths in the hallways or stood in the same assemblies without me ever realizing it?
Just entertaining the thought made the familiar school grounds look entirely different.
"What would you do if he went to our school?"
Rio asked playfully.
"What do you mean, what would I do?"
"You could see each other every single day."
"Even if he goes to our school, we wouldn't see each other every day if we're in different classes or grades."
"It means you'd be within reach whenever you wanted. Walking to school together in the morning, meeting up at lunch, grabbing crepes after class..."
"W-Why are you jumping to that?"
"Your face is bright red."
"It is not!"
I clamped my hands over my ears again.
This time, it wasn't just Miu; even Kotoha was fighting back a faint smile.
"All of you, stop deciding it's a first love already."
"We're not deciding anything. We can just tell by looking."
Rio replied as if stating an undeniable truth.
"I've never seen Serina blush this hard just over the idea of seeing someone."
"I'm just nervous because I don't know who he is."
"When Serina deals with boys she can't stand, her face doesn't turn red—her eyes turn to ice."
Miu's observation was so devastatingly accurate that I couldn't muster a defense.
"You aren't scared right now. You're just flustered from imagining meeting him."
"I'm not flustered."
"You're hiding your ears."
Only then did I realize my hands were still clamped tightly over them. The moment I yanked them down, Rio finally lost it and burst out laughing.
"Seriously, you're so adorable."
"Be quiet."
"See? That pure reaction says it all! This is the same Serina who used to shoot guys down in a flat second whenever they confessed, and now look at you just over the chance of seeing him—"
"I'm going back to class."
"I'm sorry! I won't say another word, just sit back down!"
As I started to push myself up from the bench, Rio scrambled to pull me back.
If a guy had grabbed my arm, I would have yanked it away on reflex, but I felt zero aversion to Rio's touch. I settled back onto the seat as urged, while Kotoha shot Rio an exasperated glare.
"You're teasing her too much."
"I can't help it! I've never seen this side of Serina before."
"That still doesn't give you license to push her."
"I know, I know. I won't say anything that actually crosses the line."
Rio straightened her posture, turning to me with a softer look.
"Still, when you do find him, I really don't think you should hide how much you wanted to see him."
"...I know."
"You're not going to just say thanks and send him on his way, are you?"
"No."
"Are you still getting crepes?"
"We made a promise."
"Just the two of you?"
"The promise was for just the two of us, so none of you need to come."
The second I stated that unequivocally, the grin crept right back onto Rio's face.
"Man, I really should've recorded that."
"Delete it."
"I told you, I didn't record it!"
"Then wipe that look off your face."
"Can't help it! Serina is guarding a date with a guy this fiercely, you know?"
"Keep making a scene and I'm really leaving."
"Sorry, sorry! I'm done, I swear."
Even as she apologized, Rio made no effort to wipe the smile away.
"His voice will probably heal over time too."
Miu steered the conversation back to safety.
"If it was raspy from the smoke, it won't sound the same now. But the way he talks and his mannerisms won't completely change."
"The way he talks..."
"You remember the way he sounded when he told you not to worry."
Deep in my memory, that raspy voice echoed once more.
—Don't worry.
—Until you feel safe.
—I won't let go, so don't worry.
They were ordinary words.
Even so, coming from him, they made me feel genuinely saved. If anyone else had said the exact same things to me back then, I never would have believed them the way I believed him.
"I wonder if I'll even recognize him."
"If you can't, we'll help you figure it out."
Kotoha assured me gently.
"You don't have to search on your own."
"Yeah, exactly! Four heads are way better than one."
Rio chimed in with a bright nod.
Surrounded by the three of them, the tension finally drained from my shoulders.
I still didn't know my savior's name. I had no idea where he was, or when our paths would cross.
Even so, I wasn't grasping at straws by myself anymore. The same three friends who had waited outside for my safe return that day were now standing right beside me to help me find him.
"Thank you."
I murmured softly, catching Rio off guard.
"Save the thanks for after we track him down."
"She's right. We haven't actually done anything yet."
"You should write that letter today."
Each of them responded in their own way.
The chime rang out across the courtyard, signaling the end of the lunch break.
As the four of us rose from the bench, a sharp throb twinged in my right ankle. I winced slightly, and all three of them stopped dead in their tracks.
"I'm fine."
The knee-jerk response slipped out before I could stop it, prompting Rio to arch an eyebrow.
"Aren't the people who say they're fine usually the ones who are hurting the most?"
"Those were my exact words to you, you know."
"Then you should practice what you preach."
Cornered by Kotoha, I gave up trying to bluff.
"It just twinged for a second. It's not like I can't walk."
"Much better."
Miu offered her dry approval.
Matching their strides to mine, the three of them walked beside me, guiding me back toward the school building without rushing a single step.
He had been the exact same way that day.
Rather than forcing false reassurance on me, he had waited patiently until I was ready to reach out my hand on my own.
If I could ever meet him again...
Next time, instead of being driven by fear, I wanted to reach out and touch his skin of my own free will.