The simple line of text on the phone screen was like a stone dropped into a calm lake, rippling through Kanzaki Sou’s heart.
He paused in the motion of standing up.
Kondo Haruka looked at him in confusion, following his gaze, but only saw the dark phone screen, already auto-locked.
“What’s wrong, Sou-kun?”
“….. Someone just sent me a message.”
Kanzaki Sou placed the phone back on the bench and stood up, his tone unreadable.
“Let’s go. Weren’t we going to play another round?”
“Oh, oh! Sure!”
His chestnut-haired childhood friend didn’t notice whose message he’d been looking at, and was too busy grabbing her racket and running back across the court, excited.
Kanzaki Sou followed, his steps a little slower than before.
He flexed his wrist, unconsciously recalling the contents of the message.
[Kanzaki-san, good afternoon, sorry to bother you. There’s something I’d like to discuss.]
[Sports Day is coming up soon. I never really participated in these kinds of events before, but now that I’m in high school, I want to try doing something different.]
[It’s a bit difficult for me to join competitive events, but the fun projects you mentioned before sounded interesting. I’d like to sign up and give them a try.]
[If possible, could I register together with you as Library Committee Members? If it’s inconvenient or you don’t want to, please say so directly. It was rude of me to reach out, so if you’d rather refuse, don’t worry about it.]
[I’ll wait for your reply.]
Polite wording, reasonable explanation, and even considerately gave him an easy way out so he wouldn’t feel awkward about refusing.
This was exactly the kind of attitude—and words—one would expect from Xiao Chun Miura.
But……
Sports Day, huh.
Those fun events during Sports Day were just things he’d mentioned casually before.
To begin with, he was only a first-year at this school…
The only reason he knew about such things was because he often helped the Student Council and other student groups.
As for what those fun projects were like, having never participated in such events himself, he really had no idea.
And yet, it was Miura-san who reached out and invited him.
— That shy, even somewhat timid girl actually did such a thing.
Unbidden, Xiao Chun Miura’s face rose in Kanzaki Sou’s mind.
Those eyes, always slightly flustered and evasive behind round glasses, made her look like a small animal ready to be startled at any moment.
Her voice, too, was light and soft, as if afraid to hurt anyone—a gentle presence like a drifting cloud.
If he had to describe her aura, it was like an introverted child who spent most of her time hiding in quiet corners.
Even in the days he’d known her, he’d only seen her show a less introverted side a handful of times.
When she helped him revise the poster draft, and during heated group study discussions.
Just those few times.
— Only when talking about things she was truly passionate about would those eyes shine with an irresistible light.
The memory flashed across his mind, and his racket swung off-target, letting the tennis ball Kondo Haruka had served slip past.
Kanzaki Sou stared in a daze at the green ball as it bounced and rolled away.
“Sou-kun! The ball’s out!”
“……. Sorry, I’ll go get it.”
He shook his head.
Turning around, he walked toward the tennis ball, his back no different from usual.
“Sou-kun! Serve already!”
He’d just picked up the ball when Kondo Haruka’s call came from across the net.
Kanzaki Sou looked over. His childhood friend on the other side had planted her feet firmly and struck a confident, energetic pose.
“Phew…”
Kanzaki Sou took a deep breath, pushed aside his scattered thoughts, and focused once more on the tennis ball before him.
If you’re going to do something, do it right.
Whether it was tennis practice now, or replying to Miura-san later.
He glanced at his childhood friend, waiting excitedly for his return serve, tossed the ball up, and struck.
“Bang–!”
The rest of the day passed without incident, but deep into the night after her bath, Xiao Chun Miura still tossed and turned in restless anxiety.
She’d placed her phone within arm’s reach by her pillow, and every few minutes, she would light up the screen again.
But the empty notification bar seemed to silently mock her earlier impatience and unease.
Xiao Chun Miura frowned, swiping repeatedly at the top of the notification bar.
— Kanzaki Sou hadn’t replied to her message.
***
After sending it that afternoon, she’d been too afraid to check at first.
Whether he replied or not, both seemed like different forms of torment for Xiao Chun Miura.
If he replied, she was scared to read it; if he didn’t, she grew even more anxious…
In that state, she went home, uneasy.
Then she heated up some curry, took a bath, and even inexplicably cleaned her room.
But by this time, she was no longer in the same trembling state she’d been in half an hour after sending the message.
After all, back then, it was shame and fear at seeing his response—regardless of what he said.
But once the initial anxiety passed, Xiao Chun Miura started to ‘anticipate’ Kanzaki Sou’s reply.
She sneaked glances at her phone while cooking, while bathing, and even after tidying up.
But on LIME, no notification of a reply from Kanzaki Sou ever popped up.
Even after all her nervous energy had been spent and she lay in bed, the phone remained silent.
Did he not see it?
Or did he see it, but didn’t know how to respond?
Countless guesses swirled through Xiao Chun Miura’s mind.
— Or maybe… Kondo Haruka saw it—and that chestnut-haired childhood friend stopped him from replying?
Endless possibilities spun and crashed inside her head, each enough to set her heart pounding.
Was she too impulsive?
Having lost the stable opportunity to interact as Library Committee Members, she should have been more careful.
If this made Kanzaki Sou distance himself, what would she do at Sports Day?
To send such an invitation so rashly…
***
It was like laying all her cards face-up on the table.
She buried her face deep into the soft pillow, trying to smother her panic with suffocating pressure.
Regret set in—regret for her own stubbornness, for the impulse spurred by that scene on the tennis court.
But she also knew, even if time turned back, she would still have sent that message.
Because she had no retreat.
Sports Day was a hill she had to conquer, and the “Borrowed Item Relay” was her only possible breakthrough.
The anxiety continued until dawn the next day.
Xiao Chun Miura arrived in class with faint dark circles under her eyes, exuding an aura that warned others to keep their distance.
Even the usually lively Yui Hori, seeing her in that state, only dared to ask worriedly, “Koharu, are you okay?”
Not even teasing her about Kanzaki Sou as usual.
The whole morning, Xiao Chun Miura was restless.
When the lunch bell rang, she nearly fled the classroom, but unlike usual, she didn’t head for the rooftop or anywhere in particular.
She had no reason to go to the library today, nor did she want to.
She simply wandered aimlessly through the school building, like a lost soul without a home.
Until, in a secluded stairwell corner, she heard a familiar voice.
“……So, what exactly are you sulking about?”
It was Kanzaki Sou.
His voice was lower than usual, carrying a trace of suppressed, obvious fatigue.
Xiao Chun Miura’s heart clenched, and she instinctively shrank behind the wall.
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