Volume 6 Short Story

✧･ﾟ: * Part 1 * :･ﾟ✧

No matter how many kilometers apart we are, friends are friends.

No matter how far away, that does not change.

We are friends.

Even though I think that, sometimes the distance that separates us feels tedious.

"I have something I want to ask, is that okay?"

I ask one of my friends, Maika. She is on the other side of the smartphone, in a distant place.

"It's fine."

Hearing her bright voice, I clear my throat once. Then I bring up a topic appropriate for now, as April nears its end.

"Golden Week! Our first Golden Week since starting university!

Aren't you coming back here for it, Maika-san?"

"I'm not coming back, Ami-san."

Maika says it plainly.

I deliberately let out an exaggerated sigh, then speak in a voice so heavy it feels like my body is sinking into the bed.

"That is a grave situation."

"Which one is 'that'?"

"That one! Not coming back for Golden Week is so boring!"

University is fun.

I have made friends.

But when it comes to who I want to meet during the break, the first thought that comes to mind is "the usual group from high school."

"Even if you say it is boring, Golden Week is short anyway. I will come back during summer break, so wait until then."

"That's so mean!"

"You already knew I was not coming back, yet you still react as if it is the first time you have heard it."

"That is just how much I want to see you.

Shiori said she is not coming back either, so it is boring, isn't it?"

There is not a single lie in the words I spoke.

The fact that I can no longer easily meet "the usual group" I used to meet so effortlessly is boring, and that feeling has not faded at all since we graduated high school.

I have no intention of meddling in the path she chose, but since even Shiori is not here, it is unbearable.

Because Shiori said she would stay here.

Even if I have no intention of blaming her for betraying us, I cannot help but lament it, and I have voiced my grievances and complaints to Shiori several times.

"Ugh, this is too painful."

I let out a voice from deep inside my body.

In any case, being far away is boring.

Not being able to meet is truly boring.

"Is it because Shiori and I are not coming back for Golden Week?"

"That is part of it, but also my own situation.

I am the only one far away."

"Sorry."

"Ah, no, sorry on my side too.

I do not want you to apologize. It is just complaining, just whining.

Shiori, who said she would stay here, ended up going there and is doing something fun like room-sharing."

I speak all at once and sit up.

The word "room-sharing" carries an emotion close to admiration in it.

I think that is because even after starting university, I am still living at home like during high school.

Even so, for Shiori to do something like that.

She said the roommate is a relative, but Shiori had never once mentioned any relatives before, so I was surprised.

"Hey, Maika. Is Shiori really room-sharing with a relative?"

"Really, as in?"

"It is not actually her boyfriend, right?"

Just like with the relative story, I have not heard anything about her having a boyfriend.

But curiosity makes me say it.

I strain my ears to listen to Maika's voice coming from the smartphone.

✧･ﾟ: * Part 2 * :･ﾟ✧

"Ami. Are you still curious about that after all?"

A voice that sparks my curiosity comes from the other side of the smartphone.

"Of course I am curious. So, what is the actual situation?"

The story about room-sharing with a relative is a lie to hide the existence of a boyfriend, and when I go to Shiori's house, an unfamiliar handsome guy comes out.

Something like that would not be strange at all.

No, if it actually happened, it would be pretty interesting, at that level.

In my heart, there has always been this modest wish to tease Shiori and have fun with her, something that continues directly from our high school days.

"I wonder how it really is. The story about living with a relative does feel suspicious, though."

Maika says it in a drawn-out, teasing way of speaking.

If this were a high school classroom, I would surely be able to see Maika grinning.

"So it is suspicious after all."

"When I say I want to come over and play at her house, she refuses, and she will not even show me a single photo."

"Ah, Maika. Maybe Shiori hates you."

"Ugh, really?"

A deliberately exaggerated sniffling sound comes through, and the two of us laugh together.

"Well, saying Maika is hated is just a joke, though.

Even when I bring up the person she is living with, she dodges it immediately, so of course I am curious what kind of relative it is."

Whether I am talking just with Shiori or with the three of us including Maika, it is the same.

She tries to avoid words like room-sharing or roommate, and she tries to change the subject.

Even when I ask to see photos, she will not show them.

Shiori's roommate remains completely obscured.

"I am curious, though. But forcing her to tell me feels wrong somehow."

Maika says it quietly, and I agree with "Yeah."

It is not something we absolutely have to hear, so we should prioritize Shiori's feelings over our curiosity.

I understand that.

So I change the topic.

"So, Maika-san. You are really not coming back during Golden Week?"

"Ami-san, unfortunately, no. But I will be there the whole summer break."

"That is a promise, okay. I am believing you."

Summer break feels far away.

But it is better than not being able to meet at all.

I want to meet after so long and do stupid things together like we used to.

"It is fine, I will come back. Wait for me."

"I am waiting, so come back soon with Shiori."

We are not high school students anymore, but I still want to play together like high schoolers.

I pressed her with "It is absolute, okay."