[POV: Sota Wakushima]
As soon as second period ended, Shuhei Narayama leaned over my desk.
"Sota. Did you hear that Aiba and Mikage were studying together in the library after school yesterday?"
The voice coming from that sun-tanned buzz cut was completely unsuited for whispering. Having known Shuhei since elementary school, I knew he was the type who could never keep whatever was on his mind to himself.
"Yeah, a girl from the literature club told me this morning."
"Before, he said they'd only gone out together once. Since then, they ate lunch just the two of them in the courtyard, and now it's the library after school."
Shuhei ticked the events off on his fingers one by one.
"I thought he'd merely made it past the castle gates before, but he might have already reached the inner keep by now."
"You're still using that metaphor, huh?"
"Of course I am! An impregnable fortress has opened its main gates exclusively for Aiba. We're witnessing history in the making right now!"
From a seat slightly away from us, Togo Makimura turned around with an exasperated look.
"Narayama, stop turning Naoki into a historical figure on your own."
"You tell me you're not curious, Makimura? Compared to what we heard before, things have clearly progressed."
"Progressed or not, don't go measuring other people's relationships on your own."
"I know, I know. It's not like I'm trying to get in their way."
Replying like that, Shuhei dialed back his earlier enthusiasm just a bit. Glancing toward Aiba-kun's empty seat, he continued in a calmer tone.
"It's just that Aiba always looks so noticeably happy after talking with Mikage. He only recently came back from being injured, so as long as it cheers him up, I'm all for it. That said, I'm still curious about what's going on."
"So in the end, you're still curious."
"Well, who wouldn't be? Aiba might just end up becoming my master one day, after all."
"You're still planning on becoming his disciple?"
"Not planning on it. I'm assessing him right now."
Just when I thought we were having a serious conversation, it ended up veering off in a weird direction again.
Mikage-san was someone who stood out, whether she wanted to or not. Bright ash-beige hair, with slightly sharp eyes framed by long eyelashes. With her symmetrical, petite face and tall height for a girl, she was easy to spot even in a school uniform.
Once, when I saw her near the station on a weekend, she was walking with her friends in relaxed sweatpants. It was far more casual than her uniform, but her bright hair and dazzling aura were the same, making it easy to understand why everyone called her a gyaru.
In addition, it was widely known throughout the school that she avoided interacting with boys more than necessary.
Apparently, every single boy who had confessed to Mikage-san up until now had been turned down flat. As those stories piled up, some people even started calling her the Subzero Goddess. I didn't particularly care for that nickname.
Just this morning, I'd heard a rumor that even Kitaoji-senpai from the basketball team had been rejected by Mikage-san. Since nobody knew who started the rumor, it was still impossible to tell if it was true.
It wasn't that Mikage-san was cold to everyone. She laughed often when talking to close female friends, and she naturally lent a hand whenever she saw someone in trouble. It was just that whenever a boy approached, her expression would stiffen and she would distance herself. Knowing that made seeing her standing beside Aiba-kun and chatting with him stand out all the more.
On the other hand, while Aiba-kun didn't act flashy, he left a strangely lasting impression.
His grades were quite good, I believed. He rarely talked about sports himself, but he handled most activities in PE without any trouble. He didn't seem to have any desire to stand out, and when complimented by those around him, he would thank them honestly without elaborating further.
I remembered a time when Shuhei asked him after class about his athletic experience, and he mentioned having been in the track and field club during middle school.
Aiba-kun's name would occasionally come up in girls' conversations, too. Most of it was about how calm and easy he was to talk to, or how he never made a sour face when asked for a favor. I'd never heard any rumors about him going out with anyone.
Above all, Aiba-kun never blatantly changed his attitude depending on who he was talking to. Whether Shuhei approached him energetically or a girl asked him about a book, he would listen properly until the other person finished speaking.
Watching how composed he was, I sometimes thought of him like the protagonist of a story who was getting a second chance at youth. Even though we were both second-years, Aiba-kun looked like he was living his second playthrough of life.
Yet, only when he was with Mikage-san was Aiba-kun slightly different.
His voice and mannerisms didn't drastically change. Even so, when Mikage-san was searching for words, he waited longer than usual, and when he spotted her, his expression softened before she even spoke to him.
When I asked him once when they had gotten so close, Aiba-kun replied that they had simply started talking little by little some time ago.
I was sure there was no lie in those words. Still, I couldn't figure out why Mikage-san, who was known for disliking boys, had opened her heart only to Aiba-kun.
Even so, I didn't want to pry into things they hadn't shared just out of curiosity. The fact that Mikage-san didn't show the stiffness she normally directed toward boys when she was in front of Aiba-kun was enough to make me think that an unseen amount of time had built up between the two of them.
Perhaps the reason I could think that way was because I knew a little about how Aiba-kun handled other people's feelings.
◇◇◇
A little before summer vacation started, the literature club gathered to share manuscripts for the anthology coming out in autumn and give each other feedback.
Among them was a short story written for the first time by a first-year girl in the club. It was a story about a middle school girl who couldn't bring herself to read the short notes her grandfather packed with her bento every morning.
It wasn't a piece where any major incident occurred. During the feedback session, one member remarked without malice, "Nothing really happened all the way to the end," and other members followed up by saying they wanted a bit more emotional ups and downs. Even though I liked the story, I couldn't quite put into words what had moved me.
In the end, that first-year looked down as she gathered her manuscript, said, "It's fine if you don't include it in the anthology," and left the club room early.
After school the next day, I was rereading the copy of the manuscript I'd kept in the library. Without finding an answer as to how I should have approached her, I kept flipping through the same pages, when Aiba-kun, who had come to return a book, stopped in his tracks.
"Is that a manuscript for the literature club?"
"Yeah. But it's not going to be in the anthology."
I hadn't intended to explain the detailed circumstances. Even so, without making assumptions about the reason, Aiba-kun sat in the seat across from me and listened to what I had to say.
"I really liked it. But when she said not to include it, I couldn't say anything. I'm hesitating to stop her now because it feels like I'd just be forcing my own opinion on her."
After thinking for a moment, Aiba-kun looked at the manuscript.
"If the author is okay with it, would you mind if I read it too?"
I'd heard from her that it was fine to let people outside the club read it as long as she remained anonymous. When I handed him the manuscript, Aiba-kun began reading it carefully, page by page.
At first, the protagonist doesn't reply even after reading the notes from her grandfather. However, after her grandfather is hospitalized, she starts leaving short words of her own in her empty bento box. The story ended with her making a bento for her grandfather for the first time after he was discharged, sticking a note on the back of the lid that read, "Please eat it all without leaving anything behind."
Even after finishing the last page, Aiba-kun didn't look up right away. He flipped back a few pages, checked the first note and the ending once more, and finally placed the manuscript on the desk.
"I don't think this is a story where nothing happens."
"You think so?"
"This girl never writes 'thank you' until the very end. But she tries to return what her grandfather did for her with her own bento and note. I think she was able to convey the feelings she couldn't put into words by using the exact same method as her grandfather. When I read that final 'Please eat it all without leaving anything behind,' it felt to me like she poured every single word she'd been unable to say up until then into that one line."
Aiba-kun expressed what I hadn't been able to put into words, using simple, straightforward language.
"Do you think it's too late for me to tell her that now?"
"Isn't that up to the person who wrote it to decide? If you truly felt that way, Wakushima, I don't think telling her would be imposing at all. Whether to publish it or not is something she can decide for herself afterward."
The next day, I told the first-year club member the thoughts I hadn't been able to voice during the feedback session. I didn't ask her to put it in the anthology; I simply told her the scenes I liked and the reasons why, one by one.
She remained silent for a while, but clutching the manuscript to her chest, she asked, "Would it be okay if I tried rewriting it just one more time?"
A few days later, the revised manuscript was returned, slightly longer than the original. The core of the story hadn't changed at all. However, the scene where the protagonist traces her grandfather's handwriting with her eyes was depicted with greater care, making the emotions leading up to the final note come across much more clearly than before.
When I reported that to Aiba-kun, he didn't act like he had played a part in it; he simply smiled with relief.
"That's great. But the reason she felt like writing it again was because you shared your impressions in your own words, Wakushima."
Since then, Aiba-kun and I had started exchanging a few more words about the books we read. It wasn't as if we'd become close enough to go out of our way to visit each other's desks. Even so, I knew that Aiba-kun was someone who didn't make arbitrary assumptions—not just about stories, but about the feelings of the people who wrote them.
◇◇◇
A little before the warning chime rang, Aiba-kun returned to the classroom. Stepping through the door, he started walking toward his seat.
Shuhei looked like he wanted to ask him about the library, but perhaps remembering what he'd said earlier, he ultimately didn't leave his seat.
Just then, Mikage-san and her friends happened to pass by the open door. Spotting Aiba-kun, Mikage-san slowed her pace and called into the classroom.
"Naoki-kun."
The conversations that had been going on cut off here and there, and the gazes of the students remaining in the classroom gathered toward the entrance. People were starting to realize they called each other by their given names, but it was still an unusual sight nonetheless.
Hearing his name called, Aiba-kun stopped and turned around. Noticing Mikage-san, he walked back to the doorway without seeming to mind the stares focused on them.
"Did you look at the problem I sent after getting home yesterday?"
"Yeah. The answer you sent was correct, Serina-san. How about the step-by-step solution I sent?"
"I tried it again, and I managed to solve it properly. Thanks."
"I'm glad. I was worried my explanation wasn't thorough enough."
"Not at all. It was really easy to understand."
Apparently, they had continued sending each other problems via message even after parting ways after school.
Mikage-san started to say something, shifting her gaze as if mindful of us inside the classroom. Aiba-kun didn't press her to continue, waiting quietly where he stood until she opened her mouth again.
"...Let's study together again, okay?"
"Yeah. Of course."
Mikage-san smiled happily, and Aiba-kun returned a gentle smile of his own.
Seeing that expression, I thought it was only natural for Shuhei to wonder about their relationship.
I had seen Mikage-san laughing with her female friends before. But I didn't remember ever seeing her soften her expression so completely without a trace of guard in front of a boy. From the moment she spotted Aiba-kun, the vigilance she directed at other boys vanished.
It was the same for Aiba-kun.
While talking to Mikage-san, Aiba-kun's expression looked slightly softer than when he'd walked back into the classroom. Even after she began walking away with her friends, he didn't return to his seat right away, following her back with his eyes for just a moment.
Aiba-kun, who was the same toward everyone, was just a tiny bit different only when he was with Mikage-san.
From down the hallway, the hushed voices of female students could be heard.
"Are those two really not dating yet?"
"I heard before that they weren't, but I wonder how it is now."
Shuhei looked at me, raising his eyebrows as if to say, See?
As Aiba-kun returned to his seat, the gazes gathered at the entrance dispersed, and the interrupted chatter returned to the classroom.
Shuhei brought his face closer to my desk, as if blending his voice into that murmur.
"Things have definitely changed compared to when we asked before, right?"
"I can see why it looks that way."
"Right? Besides, how did they even get close in the end?"
"I'm curious about how it started, too. But I think it's wrong for outsiders to pry into things they haven't shared."
I had thought before that Mikage-san probably found Aiba-kun easy to talk to. Looking at the two of them now, that didn't seem wrong.
However, it also looked like it couldn't quite be fully explained by just being "easy to talk to" anymore.
"That's true. But it's getting kind of hard to suppress the urge to know."
"Suppress it, please."
"I know. Just kidding."
Shuhei gave a small shrug and didn't pursue the topic any further.
When reading a story, there are times when you become so curious about what happens next that you want to quickly flip ahead to the unwritten pages. But people watching someone else's story from the outside have no right to decide the ending or rush the next chapter.
The protagonist of that manuscript, too, had been gradually changing somewhere unseen long before writing that final letter.
Between Aiba-kun and Mikage-san, an amount of time known only to the two of them was surely accumulating. Where it started and what words it would lead to were things I didn't know right now.
The warning chime finished ringing, and the teacher walked into the classroom. I placed a bookmark in the paperback novel on my desk and quietly closed the cover.
The fact that the two of them weren't dating yet was merely one explanation attached to their current relationship.
The ones who would open the next page weren't us watching from the sidelines, but Aiba-kun and Mikage-san themselves.
If the day comes when the two of them put the same feelings into words, I hope they can cherish every moment of the time they spent building up to it.
Opening my textbook, I quietly made that wish.