Ch.422IF Side Story: Seems I’ve Arrived a Bit Early (119)

Excuses, excuses, excuses.

They were all just excuses.

No matter what I thought, in the end, postponing our meeting was nothing but excuses.

Reasons… yes, I did have what I considered reasons.

Yuu was a child connected to me by blood, and also related to Kosuzu.

Someone from the Yamashita side had died while I was being pursued.

So I thought that if I started getting involved, there would be no end to it.

Plus, I was now living a life that was truly far from ordinary.

But all those reasons couldn’t be anything but excuses now that we’d met like this. After all, we had been this close to each other all along.

“Kotone?”

Not just Mako, but Harumi who had been talking with her also called out to me as she stood up.

“It really is Kotone!”

And Harumi approaching me with a bright smile looked just like a child who had coincidentally met an old friend after a very long time.

Doesn’t she find it strange?

Isn’t she feeling upset that I hadn’t contacted her all this time?

But there was no such expression on Harumi’s face.

……

Ah, I see.

It was like that when I was younger too. Even with elementary school friends you were really close with, contact often just breaks off when you enter middle school.

Later, after several years, you might reconnect through another friend, or run into each other by chance if you still live in the same neighborhood.

“……”

So I felt a bit dazed and also a little scared.

I treasured Harumi and Yuu. The same went for Mako.

Did I want them all to treasure me just as much?

After I ran away, I thought about that for a long time.

If I couldn’t get close to anyone and had to spend my life running, I at least wanted to be a precious existence in the memories of those who remembered me. If I was someone who had no choice but to live such a life.

But maybe I was just a passing “childhood classmate who was once close.”

Not many people remember all their elementary school friends throughout their lives. Rather, most of those memories fade away once you become an adult. There’s a good chance you wouldn’t even recognize them if you met again.

I had thought that after everything was over, I would go meet them myself. I thought we would meet peacefully in a more peaceful world and become friends again—

Did I want Harumi, Yuu, and Mako to not forget me until then, to remain hurt as if they had lost someone precious?

“……”

No matter the circumstances, I have no right to say such things when I didn’t even reach out first despite thinking that way.

Rather, shouldn’t I be grateful for this kind of reaction?

So I couldn’t say anything. I don’t know how to express these complicated feelings.

If those precious few who remain in my memories only think of me as ordinary, just one among many friends—

Before I knew it, Harumi had approached and hugged me tightly. Memories of childhood came flooding back. Harumi always liked hugging her friends like this.

Even back then, there was quite a difference in our builds, but now the gap seems even greater. Even though I’ve grown a lot since then.

But I remember that hug clearly.

A hug different from when Kagami embraced me, a bit stronger. A hug where Harumi didn’t bother controlling her strength, honestly revealing her emotions.

Her face was full of smiles.

I… I’m not sure how I feel.

I’m happy and glad to see her—but at the same time, I felt a strange feeling that was the complete opposite.

I shouldn’t have met them here.

This school is dangerous. There have been “victims” among the students. While the chances would be small if someone were randomly chosen from among all these students, there was still a definite possibility of getting involved.

It’s strange. I thought I had come to a conclusion about all this just recently, but seeing these three people and feeling these emotions made me wonder if bringing my other friends to this school had been a wrong choice.

I—

“Do you know them?”

Only when I heard Yuka’s somewhat surprised voice could I finally break away from those thoughts. Actually, it would be more accurate to say they were broken rather than me breaking them.

“Yes. Friends from elementary school.”

“Oh……”

Yuka’s expression became a bit awkward. As if she didn’t know what to say in this situation.

“Kotone?”

Koko tugged at my sleeve beside me.

Only then did Mako and Harumi’s gazes turn to Koko.

“…Kotone?”

How many times have I heard that name now.

Well, I was the one who first asked to be called by that name.

“Who… is this child? She looks like you, Kotone.”

When Mako asked somewhat cautiously, I looked at Koko once.

Then looking back at Mako, I said.

“She’s my twin.”

“You had a twin sister?”

Harumi asked with wide eyes.

“……”

I felt nervous. This was also a contradiction. Not knowing about the existence of a twin sister could be a flaw for Kagami, if not for me. It would mean that a mother didn’t know about the existence of her own daughter.

Whatever I said in front of Harumi, who had known me since I was very young, would sound strange.

“I-I see!”

But perhaps sensing something from my expression, Mako clapped her hands once and spoke.

We all felt somewhat awkward with each other.

I… I didn’t want it to be like this. I wanted to smile brightly and say “It’s been a long time!” when meeting my friends.

But was it because we met so suddenly? I missed the timing to greet them cheerfully like Mako and Harumi were doing.

These three people must have lived ordinary lives since then.

Harumi, Yuu, and Mako—while their families might not have been completely ordinary, they would have lived normal lives without getting caught up in all this.

That’s why I was planning to find them after everything was over. Was I too naive?

“Woo?”

Feeling that the gaze directed at her was strange, Koko tilted her head.

“Hmm.”

Harumi thought for a moment, then approached Koko and cupped her cheeks with both hands.

“Wha?”

“Oh. So soft.”

Harumi smiled.

Somehow, there was an atmosphere that suggested she wouldn’t ask for more details, which was fortunate.

I still felt a bit confused and anxious though.

“Wow, she’s really cute!”

Seeing Koko’s uniquely innocent expression, Harumi said with quite a serious face.

“Yuu-chan too— Ah.”

Harumi turned her gaze toward Yuu, but seeing that Yuu wasn’t looking this way at all, she made a somewhat troubled expression.

“Um, well.”

With an expression that the Harumi I knew wouldn’t have made—one that seemed a bit flustered—Harumi hesitated for a moment.

Did something happen between them in the meantime?

Before I left, Yuu was gradually learning about what kind of people her family were. Including that her father did different work from other children’s fathers.

She was still friends with Harumi, and had become close with Mako too, but.

“……”

After thinking for a moment, I carefully went over to Yuu.

“Yuu.”

When I called her name after approaching where she was sitting, Yuu finally looked at me.

But her expression was somewhat cold.

“……”

She didn’t say anything.

After hesitating briefly, I opened my mouth again.

“Hello, it’s been a while.”

When I said that with a slightly awkward expression,

“Aren’t we meeting for the first time today?”

Yuu asked.

I closed my mouth.

Various thoughts crossed my mind. Should I apologize for disappearing without saying goodbye? Or for not contacting her?

Honestly, I don’t know what to say.

Did she really forget? No, that can’t be. If she were treating me like someone she was meeting for the first time, her attitude would be warmer than this.

Rather, it must be because she knows me well.

Yuu liked Kagami too. Because she resembled her own mother. When she first saw Kagami, she even mistook her for her mother.

We were cousins and close friends, so we were almost always together with Harumi for years. She often came to play at our small house before I ran away.

“I……”

As I was about to say something—

Suddenly, Koko was standing beside me.

Koko tilted her head and looked back and forth between me and Yuu. As if wondering why the atmosphere was like this.

Though Yuu had been maintaining a cold attitude toward me, she seemed flustered when Koko approached and looked at her like this.

A twin with exactly the same appearance as me.

But a purely innocent child who knows nothing about the relationship between us.

“Woo?”

Koko looked at Yuu once more,

“Koko.”

She pointed to herself and said.

“I’m Koko.”

“Oh, yes.”

Yuu nodded and answered without realizing it.

I exhaled softly.

For now, thanks to Koko, the atmosphere passed over ambiguously—

But Yuu’s demeanor was still cold. There was also a strange awkwardness with Harumi. Both of them seemed to be thinking a lot about me, who had suddenly disappeared and suddenly reappeared.

Could we become close again?

The current me couldn’t be called the same person as back then. There was a strange mark engraved on my left wrist, and I always wore something to cover it.

The same would be true for Yuu, Harumi, and Mako. That much time had passed, and they must have gone through a lot too.

But still—

Still, I wanted to smile again like before.

All together.