Chapter 36: After the Festival, Before the Storm
"Yami-senpai, I..."
"Shut up! You're just Yuu!"
...
...
It's a Saturday in late September.
Outside, the rain has intensified without notice, accentuating the "darkness" of the night.
The school building, now empty after the cultural festival, has only minimal lighting in parts of the hallway and near the shoe lockers. Both the classrooms and the corridors are likely devoid of people.
However, from the wide-open doors of the gymnasium, where the after-festival event is about to begin, a dazzling light and the cheerful voices of students spill out, as if carrying over the atmosphere from the festival just moments ago.
I... Shirakasa Hikari, am standing in the first-floor hallway of the school building directly opposite the gymnasium.
From the window, I take in the light and commotion from the gym.
...Alone, in the middle of the pitch-dark hallway.
The colorful flyers still pasted on the windows and walls of the surrounding classrooms, and the signs standing in the hallway, only enhance the darkness and silence, making the corridor feel eerily ominous.
No, that's not it.
Perhaps it's just my current state of mind that makes the scene feel eerie and terrifying.
The scene I just witnessed in my own classroom.
The boy I like, Ta-kun, and the girl I like, Aya-chan, were alone together...
Two people who should never have met.
A boy and a girl whose paths should never have crossed.
"Friends of friends" who were supposed to get to know each other from now on...
The conversation between those two keeps spinning around in my head.
Ta-kun called her "Yami-senpai," an old nickname of my best friend.
Aya-chan called him "Yuu," dropping the honorifics as if they were childhood friends.
It might have been a side of them I never knew existed, a "time of their own."
The rain is getting heavier.
Outside the window, the bright and lively gymnasium, just a short distance away, is being obscured by the sound and color of the raindrops.
Yuu: "Hikari..."
Hikari: "......"
Hikari: "Then, why didn’t you check LINE?"
Yuu: "Actually, um... my phone died..."
As if he could see right through my thoughts, he started making excuses for all the times we’d missed each other, even though I hadn’t asked.
But, you know, that’s a lie, right?
Because, just a moment ago, it showed as "read."
Yuu: "And then, I was wandering around the school... before I knew it, it got completely dark..."
Truth is, you probably forgot about me until you checked your phone, didn’t you?
You only started frantically looking for me after you saw the notification, right?
Are you really that shaken up that you’d tell such an obvious lie?
Yuu: "The cultural festival’s over, huh... I’m really sorry."
Yeah, it’s over.
While you were kissing Aya-chan, you know.
...
...
Yuu: "...I get it if you can’t forgive me. Hikari, you were looking forward to it so much, and I ruined it because of my stupid mistake."
It must have been about a minute.
But it felt like an hour.
He kept apologizing to me the whole time.
Yuu: "I... I wanted to go around the festival with you too, Hikari... I really did."
Hikari: "......"
His words, his attitude—they felt so sincere.
At the very least, he was "seriously lying."
He’s clearly shaken up by what happened in the classroom.
Probably feeling incredibly guilty toward me.
And surely...
He genuinely thinks the reason I’ve been silent this whole time is because he stood me up on our promise to go around the festival together.
He doesn’t have the slightest clue that I saw "that moment," does he?
Yuu: "So, cheer up, Hikari..."
Hikari: "......"
Hey, hey, Ta-kun?
You know I wouldn’t make you apologize to me over and over for something like that, right?
Sure, I’d sulk.
I might even cry a little...
But I definitely wouldn’t stay silent—I’d get mad right away.
Then, as you apologized, I’d gradually cheer up, and in the end, I’d forgive you with tears and a smile, right?
And as a sign of making up, I’d probably make a little selfish request, you know?
Like making you treat me to dinner tonight.
Or getting you to promise me our next date.
But one thing’s for sure...
If things were normal, I’d be talking nonstop right now.
I’d be that super chatty, noisy girl.
Are you so distracted by something else that you don’t even notice how off I am?
Like, maybe... thinking about her? Ta-kun...
Hikari: "...Ta-kun."
Yuu: "Ah, H-Hikari!"
At the sound of my voice—the first he’s heard in hours—his expression lights up.
Probably because he thinks the "proper fight" is finally starting.
He believes the moment he’s been waiting for—the moment I’d get mad at him—has arrived.
Hikari: "The cultural festival... it’s not over yet, you know?"
Yuu: "Huh?"
Hikari: "Look, over there."
Without turning to face him...
No, because I don’t want to face him, I point outside the window.
Hikari: "Over there, they’re about to start the after-festival dance party."
There, the gymnasium stands, drawing in students like moths to a flame, a place where everyone continues to gather.
Hikari: "It’s an annual tradition. To celebrate the end of the festival, everyone dances and goes wild together."
It’s a door to paradise, where the lingering afterglow of the festival is shattered in the best way, and everyone lets loose one last time.
Hikari: "Want to go together? Ta-kun..."
Yuu: "But... isn’t the after-festival dance usually just for current students...?"
Hikari: "No... no one really follows that rule, you know?"
I turn to the side.
No, I turn to face him.
I turn away from the window and face him directly.
Hikari: "Let’s dance, okay?"
Yuu: "Hikari..."
I reach out my hand to him.
His profile, illuminated not by moonlight but by the lights from the gymnasium, still carries a look of confusion.
Hikari: "It’s not over yet... right?"
But I desperately steady my trembling voice and fight to keep my crumbling expression in place.
Hikari: "Let’s make this time fun, okay? The cultural festival."
Hey, God.
Am I smiling right now?
Wait, what does it even mean to smile?
...
...
Shirakasa Hikari, 16 years old...
I’m going to confess, right?
No matter what happens, I’m going to confess... right?
