The corridor was filled with the old scent of wax, mingling with the dusty air drifting in from the distant sports field.
I leaned against the wall beside the infirmary door, doing my best to keep my breathing long and silent.
Next to me, the young school nurse looked at me with a helpless expression, still holding the emergency kit in his hand.
I raised my index finger to my lips, making a “shh” gesture.
The school nurse blinked, his face clearly saying, “Is this some kind of youthful melodrama?” but in the end, he nodded in agreement and huddled with me in this blind spot out of sight.
Only a door separated us.
The sounds from inside the infirmary were almost painfully clear.
[ — Don’t think that by doing this, my opinion of you will change.]
That was Haruka’s voice.
Trembling, tearful, frustrated, but missing the sharpness that had once been suffocating.
[I never expected you to thank me, Kondo-san.]
The voice that replied belonged to Miura-san.
Calm, steady, carrying a poise I had never seen before.
Originally, I had planned to just go in.
When I heard Haruka’s heart-wrenching cry, the sound of things being swept to the floor, my steps really did falter for a moment.
A thousand possibilities flashed through my mind—had Haruka lost control? Would Miura-san be hurt? Should I rush in and put a stop to this mess immediately?
But, when my hand touched the doorknob, the words from inside made me freeze in place as if I had been hit by a defensive spell.
[I don’t want to be a supporting role that can be sacrificed at any moment……]
[As for Kanzaki-kun… If he truly likes you, there’s no way I could take him from you.]
In that instant, almost against my will, I withdrew my hand and slipped back into the shadows.
I knew eavesdropping was wrong.
But my instincts told me that the conversation happening inside was a thousand times more important than me going in to “uphold justice.”
This situation was caused by me, and unless I observed it from an outsider’s perspective, I might never understand where the real problem lay.
[If he doesn’t belong to anyone… Then all I can do is stay by his side for a while, as a friend or a partner.]
[I would never treat him like my private property the way you do.]
[I’ll respect his choice, and I’ll also… respect you, the one who holds a special place in his heart.]
When I heard those words, my heart squeezed tightly.
Through the sliver of light leaking from the door, I felt as if I could see Miura-san’s expression at that very moment.
She must have been bowing her head slightly, lips curved in that faint smile—a smile both self-mocking and tolerant.
What an… unbelievable girl.
In my mind, Xiao Chun Miura had always been quiet, introverted, and almost lacking a sense of presence.
She silently organized books in the library, asked careful questions in study groups, and always backed down when Haruka targeted her.
I thought she was fragile.
I thought she was someone who needed protection.
That’s why I told her: “You’re my partner. I can’t just stand by and watch you get hurt.”
But now, standing outside the door, listening to her inside, using a gentleness that bordered on cruelty to peel away Haruka’s defenses, I realized—
I was wrong.
Utterly wrong.
She wasn’t weak at all.
Deep inside, she possessed a resilience stronger than anyone’s, and a clarity sharper than anyone’s.
She saw through Haruka.
More clearly, perhaps, than I ever did, despite all our years together.
[Actually, I envy you, Kondo-san.]
[You’re beautiful, confident, talented……]
[He doesn’t want to see the proud, upright Kondo Haruka lose herself… or lose the shine she once had on the sports field.]
She was speaking for me.
No, not just for me.
She was using my perspective to call out to the Haruka lost in her obsession with winning and losing.
I leaned back against the wall, feeling a slight heat at the corners of my eyes.
All these years.
Haruka and I were like two trees tangled tightly by the vines called “childhood friend.”
To outsiders, we seemed inseparable—connected by roots and branches, admired for our closeness, praised for our harmony.
But only I knew how much those vines strangled me.
Haruka’s possessiveness, her competitive spirit, her natural assumption that my life was part of her territory—over the years, those vines only tightened, making it harder for me to breathe.
I had thought about resisting, about pulling away, even about just giving up and letting her go.
But I’d never considered untying the knot at the heart of those vines.
It was too hard.
Because we were so familiar, words couldn’t form.
Because we were so close, I couldn’t face our ugliness head-on.
What I couldn’t do, Miura-san did.
She was like a traveler entering a foggy forest, holding a pair of scissors—not sharp, but unwavering.
With a “snip.”
She cut the knot strangling Haruka and me.
[I don’t think you lost at all.]
[In his heart, your place was always there. No one can take it from you.]
[You are his only childhood friend—as long as you don’t destroy it yourself.]
How precise, how gentle, and how… moving, both as a lie and a truth.
Yes.
In my heart, Haruka holds a special place.
Built over more than ten years, it’s a bond of family and friendship that no one else can replace.
But, if it isn’t destroyed…
Miura-san, do you really understand the weight of those words?
What you’re saving isn’t just Haruka’s pride, but also the pure memories I, as Kanzaki Sou, want to protect.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
The old waxy smell in the air seemed to fade, replaced by a freshness like clear skies after rain.
I felt an unprecedented sense of resonance.
It wasn’t love, or infatuation.
Right now, I couldn’t possibly feel something so deep for a girl I’d only recently met.
But it was a kind of…
….
Resonance.
A sense of “Ah, so there really is someone in this world who can understand my silence, and see my helplessness.”
A trust that “If it’s this person, maybe we really can fight side by side.”
She wasn’t just a partner for the Borrowed Item Relay.
In this moment, in the corridor filled with the smell of disinfectant, she became a solver of the questions in my life.
[Hmph… At least you know your place.]
Haruka’s voice came out, thick with tears and that familiar, awkward tsundere tone.
[This time… Let’s call it a draw.]
[From now on, we’ll compete fairly.]
Hearing that, I couldn’t help but smile.
The proud, undefeated Kondo Haruka, actually admitted to a “draw.”
It was nothing short of a miracle.
And the magician who made it happen was already preparing to leave the stage.
[Well then, I’ll be going.]
[Kanzaki-kun will probably be back soon. I don’t want him to see me here.]
So considerate.
So thoughtful.
Even in a moment meant for just the two of them, she was still thinking of me, still protecting the fragile balance between me and Haruka.
Did she not want me to see them together, to spare me the awkwardness? Or did she just not want me to know what she’d done?
What a fool.
I said silently in my heart.
Doing a good deed without leaving your name behind isn’t the smartest way to survive, Miura-san.
But…
Maybe that’s just who you are.
That person who gives her all on the track.
The sound of the doorknob turning reached my ears.
“Sensei, this way.”
I quickly signaled the school nurse, then pulled him with me around the corner to the other side of the corridor, hiding behind a row of storage lockers.
Almost at the same time, the infirmary door opened.
A slender figure stepped out.
Miura-san had her head down, not looking at either end of the corridor.
She leaned against the wall, letting out a long, exhausted breath like she’d just run a marathon.
Through the gap in the storage lockers, I saw her profile.
Gone was the composure and poise she’d shown inside—her face was filled with fatigue and a sense of relief, as if a great weight had been lifted.
She lifted her head, gazed out at the blue sky beyond the window, and a faint, gentle smile appeared on her lips.
It was a light, subtle, but undeniably real smile.
[The first stage… Cleared, I guess.]
She whispered, so softly it was almost inaudible, but I still caught those words.
Cleared?
What did she mean?
Was she comparing resolving Haruka’s problem to clearing a stage in a game?
What a… cute metaphor.
Seeing her “finally done with it” little expression, I couldn’t help but laugh quietly.
So the commanding aura she showed inside, able to read people’s hearts and control the flow, was something she forced herself to maintain?
She could feel fear, and tension, and exhaustion once it was all over, too?
That contrast only made her seem even more… real.
Like a living, breathing person—not just a symbol acting out a role.
[As long as that unreliable System doesn’t start anything weird again……]
She was still muttering to herself.
System?
Did she mean the school broadcast system, or something else?
I didn’t quite get it, but it didn’t stop me from admiring her all the same.
She patted her cheeks, as if to restore her energy, then started walking toward the rest area for Class (5).
Her back wasn’t broad, maybe even a little fragile.
But in that moment, to my eyes, it looked tall and dazzling.
I didn’t step out from behind the storage lockers until her footsteps had completely faded at the stairway.
“Ka—Kanzaki-kun?”
The school nurse, who had been forced to play along with my “spy drama,” wiped the sweat from his forehead, looking at me with a complicated expression.
“Can we… go in now?”
“Ah, sorry, sensei.”
I straightened my slightly rumpled collar, putting on my trademark gentle smile again.
“Just now… You didn’t hear anything, right?”
The school nurse blinked, then gave a wry smile and nodded.
“Of course, my ears are bad. Didn’t hear a thing.”
“Thank you.”
I took a deep breath, steadying my emotions.
Everything I’d just heard and seen, I sealed away in a corner of my heart for now.
Now, I was Kanzaki Sou, the guy who just came back with the doctor.
I was Kanzaki Sou, who knew “nothing” about what had happened.
I was about to face the childhood friend who had been “reborn.”
“Let’s go, sensei.”
I started walking, my shoes tapping crisply against the floor.
This time, my steps were lighter than before.
Because I knew that on the other side of the door, what waited for me was no longer suffocating possessiveness or twisted competitiveness.
But a Kondo Haruka willing to start over, willing to try to understand “love” and “respect.”
And it was all thanks to her.
I walked to the infirmary door and placed my hand on the knob.
As I pushed it open, Miura-san’s relieved smile flickered through my mind once again.
“Partner… huh?”
I silently mouthed the word.
A relationship that had started as a temporary team for the Borrowed Item Relay.
A contract born of mutual convenience (she wanted to experience the sports festival; I wanted to avoid trouble).
But now—
I felt that the weight of that word had changed somehow.
And it wasn’t a bad feeling.
In fact, it made me feel a flicker of long-forgotten anticipation for the ordinary days to come.
“Haruka! The school nurse is here!”
I opened the door, my face showing just the right amount of urgency and concern as I strode in.
“Ao-kun…”
On the bed, Haruka looked up, her eyes red, like a rabbit that had just been bullied.
But I could tell—the cloudiness and stubbornness from before had vanished.
In its place was a clearness, like the sky after a storm.
She looked at me, her lips trembling.
“I’m sorry.”
She said.
“And… thank you.”
I froze for a second.
Even though I’d heard this line outside the door, having her say it to my face still hit me hard.
Was this really the same prideful, stubborn Kondo Haruka?
The one who would keep running even after slamming into a wall?
“……As long as you’re okay.”
I reached out and gently patted her head.
The sensation under my palm was familiar, but it felt completely different now.
Before, I patted her head to calm her, to smooth things over.
Now, it was because I genuinely felt relieved.
“We can talk later. Let’s check your injuries first.”
I stepped aside to let the school nurse examine her.
As the nurse tended to her wounds, I stood nearby, my gaze drifting out the window.
Outside was a bright blue sky and a lively sports field.
And within that bustling scene, a girl—exhausted and carrying her secrets—walked alone back to her own corner.
Miura-san.
Maybe you think this was just a task, just clearing a stage.
But to me—
This was the best sports festival gift I’d ever received.
I owe you one.
No—maybe more than one.
When all this is over, when Haruka’s healed, when the festival’s noise has faded—
I think we need to talk.
Not as a library committee member and a regular student.
Not as temporary partners in a Borrowed Item Relay.
But as…
Kanzaki Sou and Xiao Chun Miura.
I want to hear your true thoughts.
I want to know which is the real you—the one who calmly analyzes and sees through people outside the door, or the one who’s always blushing and flustered in front of me.
Or maybe, you’re both.
My lips curled up slightly on their own.
That strange feeling, like a seed, quietly took root and began to grow inside me.
It had nothing to do with romance.
It was simply a pure sense of appreciation and curiosity for another soul.
And for someone who had always lived along a set path, that might be even more dangerous than love.
“Kanzaki-kun, could you pass me the bandages?”
The school nurse’s voice snapped me back to reality.
“Ah, sure.”
I handed over the bandages.
My eyes drifted to Haruka’s face again.
She was biting her lip, bearing the pain, but she didn’t cry out like she used to.
Has she grown?
It seems… we’ve both grown up.
In this Borrowed Item Relay called “youth,”
We both gained something more important than victory.