Part-2 Ch-12 Ep-02

Mari’s POV

“I’m going to go cool my head for a bit.”

Leaving those words behind for Maki, I headed toward the deep sea area where Godaiin-kun had gone.

As I left the place we had been in just moments before, I glanced back briefly and saw Maki sitting down on one of the benches installed inside the museum.

She was looking down, so I couldn’t see her expression, but she might have been feeling down.

A sharp pain pierced my chest.

I murmured silently to myself that I would be back soon, then turned away again.

The moment I stepped into the deep sea area, the buzzing atmosphere vanished, and I was wrapped in a hushed silence.

In the especially dim, faintly dark space where the lights had been lowered even further, several small tanks, each about the size of a peephole, were installed.

Surrounded by a silence and darkness that felt almost frightening, I approached one tank that emitted a faint glow.

When I stood beside Godaiin-kun, he noticed me immediately and spoke before I could say anything.

“Huh, Nagase-san, you’re alone?”

“Yeah.”

In a light tone, he said, “I see. Same here. For some reason, I feel like walking through a place like this at my own pace,” and then fixed his gaze on the tank.

At the end of his line of sight, tiny fish were swimming.

Looking at them, I thought about how even in a place over two hundred meters deep, where almost no sunlight reaches, such ordinary creatures still exist.

The surroundings were extremely quiet, and I could barely hear any voices.

Still, although there were few people, there were clearly some around, and it looked like they were talking to one another. It was too dark to see clearly.

Even so, the reason their voices barely reached me was probably because the darkness of this room was absorbing the sound, I thought vaguely.

“I’m going to confess to Ichinose-san tonight.”

Keeping his eyes on the tank, Godaiin-kun suddenly said it, out of nowhere.

At those words, my heart felt as if it had been tightly clenched, and it hurt. Cold sweat broke out.

Doing my best not to let my agitation show on my face, I replied briefly, “I see.”

“…Is that really okay?”

At my response, Godaiin-kun looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“There’s no such thing as okay or not okay. I don’t have the right to stop you, do I?” I said, and he made a face that didn’t look fully convinced.

Perhaps he had noticed the relationship between me and Maki.

Even so, I cannot stop his confession itself.

No one can stop someone from liking another person and wanting to convey those feelings.

So I won’t stop him.

That was something I had been thinking about and struggling with throughout this school trip.

Still, even so, there was something I had to tell Godaiin-kun as well.

“Then I’ll go ahead and confess without holding anything back.”

Although his expression still didn’t look completely satisfied, he once again stated his resolve. He’s serious, I thought.

If things followed the game’s scenario and he ended up with Maki, he would surely treasure her deeply.

But.

“Yeah… but, Godaiin-kun.”

I don’t want that scenario.

What I’m about to say now feels unbearably heavy, and I don’t want to say it.

Facing someone head on like this is frightening.

But without my realizing it, Maki has probably done this countless times before.

In places I don’t know about, she surely has.

So I will do it too.

To protect what I have with Maki right now.

Say it. Say it.

All kinds of words and emotions swirled inside me.

My palms were slick with sweat from nervousness.

Wanting to cling to something, I gripped the hem of my uniform skirt tightly.

I took a slow, deep breath.

“What is it?”

He looked at me with a tense expression.

So that I wouldn’t waver, I met his gaze directly.

“You can confess. But I won’t hand Maki over to you, Godaiin-kun.”

“……”

“Maki is my very, very precious girlfriend. She’s my treasure. So I can’t hand her over to you, Godaiin-kun.”

“I can’t hand her over.”

I repeated it once more, pouring strong emotion into my words.

I looked straight into his eyes as I spoke.

The moment I finished, his face crumpled, and then a transparent sheen slowly spread across his eyes.

It was so beautiful, and it looked like it might spill. In that instant, Godaiin-kun lowered his gaze.

“I… see. I see, I see, I see. So that really was how it was, huh…”

It would probably be better if I didn’t look at him anymore. Thinking that, I lowered my gaze as well.

As I looked down, I noticed Godaiin-kun’s hand, and realized that he was gripping the fabric of his uniform trousers just as tightly as I was clutching my skirt.

“Well then, I’m going to go.”

It would be best not to stay here any longer. I no longer had any business with him. I had conveyed my feelings, and that was all.

All that remained was to return to where Maki was. Because Maki is waiting for me over there.