It was on Friday of that week that my father finally woke up.
"Oh... Megumi."
"Yeah. Morning, Dad."
"Where’s that guy?"
"If you mean Yamamoto, he’s coming tomorrow. He had classes today."
"I see..."
He spoke with his usual sullen scowl, but for some reason, he looked a little lonely. Good grief—it seemed Yamamoto really had managed to win him over. I felt a small pang of sympathy for the guy.
The next day, my mother and I went to the station nearest my parents' house. We were there, of course, to meet Yamamoto.
"It’s been a while," he said as soon as he arrived, greeting my mother first.
"Yamamoto-kun. We’ve been waiting for you."
"I’ve been looking forward to seeing you as well."
Come to think of it, he was surprisingly good at social niceties when he wanted to be.
"What is it, Hayashi?"
"Nothing."
I quickly looked away from him. It had been a few days since I’d last seen him. I had already told him that my father had regained consciousness the night before, which was likely why the atmosphere in the car felt much more relaxed than on the ride here.
"Good to see you again," Yamamoto said once we reached the hospital.
"Yeah. Not like I was waiting for you or anything," my father grumbled.
He was being as contrary as ever. We spent a while having a peaceful conversation in the hospital room before heading back to my parents' house. Naturally, Yamamoto was staying the night with us.
"Yamamoto-kun, are you sure you don't need to head back to your own parents' house?" my mother asked once we were home.
I really wished she hadn't. I was so happy to see him again, and here she was saying things that made it sound like she was kicking him out. I’m sure I had a visible pout on my face.
"It’s fine. My parents are the non-interfering type," he replied.
"I see. Well, if you’re sure."
"Am I in the way?"
"Of course not! Right, Mom?"
I couldn't help but jump into their conversation. My mother looked surprised for a second, then gave me a knowing grin and nodded. "Of course not."
On Sunday, since my father was clearly on the mend, I prepared to head back to Tokyo with Yamamoto.
"Bye, Mom. If anything happens, I’ll come right back."
"I know. Do your best. Yamamoto-kun, please look after my daughter."
"I will."
After that brief exchange, we boarded the train for the trip home.
...What should I do?
As the train rattled along, I sat there in an agony of indecision. I kept thinking about what Kako-chan had told me at school the other day. When and how should I tell Yamamoto that I knew the truth?
And even if I did tell him, what was I supposed to do then? Apologize? Certainly. But what came after that? What could I possibly do for him?
"I'm glad, Hayashi," Yamamoto said, staring out at the passing scenery.
"Huh?"
"That your father woke up."
"...Yeah."
Honestly, this guy... This guy was just... He wasn't honest with himself at all. And yet, he was so selfless and kind.
I found myself wishing he could be saved, even just a little. He had always been so prone to being misunderstood. I felt that he deserved to be rewarded—at least by me, since I actually knew the kind of person he was.
"I'm sorry, Yamamoto."
"Hmm? It wasn't exactly a burden to visit your father. If anything, I’m the one who should apologize for being a nuisance again."
"That’s not it."
"Then what is it?"
He slowly turned away from the window to look at me.
"I found out," I said.
"About what?"
"About the post-festival party back in our first year."
"...Oh."
His reaction was unexpected. Back then, he’d been forced to take the fall for the entire committee’s failure and had been treated like a total pariah. And yet, he looked almost nostalgic as he thought about it.
"Yeah, that did happen, didn't it?"
"How can you say it like that? You were on a bed of needles back then."
"It’s an old story."
Ah, I see... I realized then that just as the rest of us saw that school festival as something from the distant past, so did he.
"Besides, I was given a chance to make up for it later."
"Make up for it?"
"Tell me, Hayashi. Which school festival did you enjoy the most out of our three years?"
"What?"
I couldn't quite grasp his point, but I wanted to answer him honestly. I looked up at the ceiling of the train car, thinking back.
"Our third year, I guess."
"I thought so." Yamamoto smiled happily. "Do you know who the Executive Committee Chairman was in our third year?"
"Wait, wasn't it Akari?"
Akari had been the one on stage for the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as the post-festival party. I had just naturally assumed she was the chairman, but the way he was phrasing it...
"At first, I thought she was just pushing a bothersome job onto me," Yamamoto said. "But I realized later that Mr. Kakogawa was probably giving me a chance at redemption."
I thought back to what Kako-chan had told me about how hard he had worked during our first year. It all started to make sense. She had said the first-year disaster was actually the fault of the teachers’ negligence. If that was the case, why did she know so much about the specific work the student committee had done?
It wasn't just Yamamoto. Kako-chan had been carrying that weight too.
"It was you, wasn't it?"
"Yeah."
From Kako-chan's perspective, of course she would appoint him as the chairman. It wasn't just out of sympathy for what happened in tenth grade; she must have known that if anyone could pull off the best festival the school had ever seen, it was him. The entire third-year festival had been organized and run by Yamamoto.
"Yamamoto?"
"Yeah?"
"I wasn't being biased when I said I liked that one best, okay?"
"I know."
He was smiling.
'The most important thing is to have an experience that can change your mindset. To have such an experience, I believe you first need to face things head-on and fight without running away.'
I remembered him saying those words once. Because he had faced the festival head-on in our first year, he was able to lead the third-year festival to success.
I felt a genuine sense of envy. To take a failure and use it as fuel for a massive success... because he had failed once, the pressure must have been immense. It must have been a constant cycle of anxiety and stress. But to overcome all of that and achieve something great... that had to be an irreplaceable experience.
"I think I’m going to start facing things head-on, too."
"Hmm? Oh, okay," he replied vaguely.
He probably had no idea what I was specifically resolving to face. I just smiled at his noncommittal response and leaned a little closer to him.