Ch.423IF Side Story: Seems I’ve Arrived a Bit Early (120)

Our homeroom teacher seemed like a good person.

He looked so young that he couldn’t have been more than ten years older than us.

I don’t know much about teaching as a profession, so I’m not sure at what age someone typically becomes a homeroom teacher for the first time.

Judging by how nervous he appears, I wonder if this is his first time as a homeroom teacher too?

“…Alright then, shall we start with self-introductions?”

Since it was the first day of school, our teacher made this suggestion. It wasn’t unusual, as we used to do this routinely in middle school.

But I felt a little nervous.

My surname has changed once.

Originally it was “Kurosawa,” but it changed once when Kagami and I ran away, and then again when I started living with Harumi and Yuu.

It changed once more when we escaped from that place. At least the name Mako knew was the same as the one I use now.

In any country, changing surnames isn’t common. Even if one’s father changes multiple times, it’s unusual for the surname to change that often.

No, having fathers change like that is itself quite rare.

“…”

Kagami never had a husband. Considering the true nature of Koko and me, perhaps there was never a father to begin with.

Born without a father, the result of some ritual. That’s probably the right way to think about it.

It’s not that I’m embarrassed about my surname changing.

I didn’t want Kagami to be misunderstood that way. She had lived solely for watching me grow up since I was little.

I listened absently as other classmates stood up for their introductions, then it was my turn to stand.

“…”

I was silent for a brief moment. Then I gathered my courage.

Yes. Eventually Harumi, Yuu, and Mako would know anyway. While I could hide that monster blood flows in me, I had to mention that my surname had changed.

So I said it.

All the students were sitting behind me, so I couldn’t really see their expressions.

I didn’t want to deny my childhood. Those memories made me who I am today.

So—I needed to accept the parts that had changed since then.

The name “Kurosawa” isn’t that important to me anymore.

I was Kotone, and Kagami’s daughter. With those two things, no matter how my name changed, I would still be me. That’s what I decided to believe.

Fortunately, no one seemed surprised by my name. It seemed there were no children who had attended the same elementary school as me.

Or perhaps they just didn’t remember me clearly.

*

“Kotone.”

After school ended, as everyone was gathering their things to leave.

I heard someone calling me.

It was Mako, who sat behind me.

Despite hearing about my changed surname earlier, Mako didn’t seem to mind at all. In fact, I felt guilty seeing the genuine happiness on her face.

“Since we’ve met after so long, let’s—”

But Mako’s voice lost some of its strength as she continued.

Soon her eyes moved from me to the other girls. Yuka and Koko.

And, though these three didn’t know it yet, I had more friends at this school. There was also Shii, who was the younger sister of another friend and a friend herself.

I was planning to meet them after school today.

…Actually, it wasn’t really a “plan.” We all walked home in the same direction anyway. Even Yuka had started living on her own not far from my house.

Without thinking, I looked at Yuka sitting in front of me.

“Well, why not?”

Yuka said.

“She’s a friend from when you were little, right? From the way you talk about her, you must have been quite close?”

Looking at Yuka’s slight smile that seemed to understand everything, I felt somewhat conflicted.

“We’re all in the same class anyway, so it doesn’t matter if we all hang out together, right?”

“Y-yeah, that’s true.”

Mako carefully offered her opinion in response to Yuka’s words.

“Harumi, Yuu. What do you think?”

“Yeah, I’m fine with it.”

Harumi said with a smile. But Yuu still had a somewhat sullen expression.

As time passed, her emotions seemed to have eased a bit. It takes energy to stay angry, after all. So even though the temperature seemed to have risen a little now, it was probably more that she had run out of energy rather than her anger truly subsiding.

Yuu’s eyes remained fixed on her phone, not really moving. She seemed to be listening to our conversation though.

“But I wonder what Souta will think,”

Yuka said, seemingly trying to change the subject.

“He sometimes feels uncomfortable being around us.”

I couldn’t help but smile a little at that. Though I still felt some discomfort in my heart, Souta’s reactions were sometimes a bit funny.

Souta is, after all, a boy.

And a boy whose puberty hasn’t completely ended yet. At his age, he probably feels much more comfortable with friends of the same gender.

But everyone around him happens to be girls. Me, Koko, Yuka. Nanami. And his younger sister Shii.

If three more girls were added to that, what would Souta’s expression be like?

Ironically, unlike in the original story, Yuka wasn’t interested in him, and neither Koko nor I would fall for Souta, so the only girls who actually clung to him were Nanami and Shii. But that didn’t eliminate the peculiar discomfort a boy might feel.

“Souta? Is that a boy?”

Harumi’s eyes widened a bit.

“Ah, yes. He lives nearby…”

“Kotone is close with a boy?”

Is that what interests her?

Thinking about it briefly, I don’t think Harumi, Yuu, and I were particularly close with boys in our childhood. The three of us hung out together, and occasionally others joined us, but they were mostly girls of similar age.

…Looking at Harumi and Yuu now, they had appearances that wouldn’t make it strange for them to have boyfriends, but apparently Harumi didn’t see me that way.

“Yeah… we are close.”

When I answered like that, Yuu’s expression hardened even more. I saw her gaze, which had been fixed on her phone, briefly turn toward me.

Is she misunderstanding something?

If she’s misunderstanding, why would that make her angry—Oh.

I see.

We used to share our worries with each other. Since they were elementary school concerns, none seemed very serious to me.

Even elementary school students aren’t completely uninterested in boys. Of course they have fantasies about romance. Even if I didn’t, Harumi occasionally talked about “handsome boys.”

I think we even made a promise to tell each other if we got boyfriends. At the time, I thought I wouldn’t get one and took it lightly, and naturally, I still haven’t had one.

She seems to have misunderstood in a way that would make Nanami’s blood boil—but what should I say here? Shouting “We’re not dating!” somehow feels like it might hurt Souta.

While I was briefly considering this—

“Is he handsome?”

Already completely hooked on this topic, Harumi leaned toward us with sparkling eyes and asked. Her expression was very bright.

“Hmm… objectively speaking, among the boys around us, I’d say he’s quite handsome, don’t you think?”

Yuka evaluated Souta’s appearance very analytically. Well, he was the protagonist, so he was indeed handsome.

“Oh.”

For some reason, Harumi looked at me with new eyes, and Mako was blushing and seemed flustered. And Yuu’s mood sank even further.

Somehow the conversation seemed to be going in a strange direction, so I looked back at Yuka, but she was just looking at me with a slight smile.

So, Yuka didn’t seem inclined to help with this situation. Why?

For reference, Koko didn’t particularly care that we were showing interest in talking about Souta. She just tilted her head while looking back and forth at us as we conversed.

Well, that’s Koko for you.

…If Koko ever showed interest in boys, I’d be shocked in a different way.

Hmm.

Was this how Kagami felt when I first went home with Souta?

I tried to escape reality with that thought.

*

In the end, Yuu did follow us.

Though she still seemed unwilling to talk to me, keeping some distance.

“…”

Harumi watched Yuu for a while, then moved a little closer to me.

“It was unavoidable, wasn’t it?”

Harumi asked.

“…Yeah.”

I nodded.

“Then Yuu-chan will understand too. No need to worry too much.”

“…Yeah.”

As I nodded again at Harumi’s words, this time Mako spoke up.

“But to think you’ve been friends since elementary school, it really must be fate. That you could meet again like this.”

There was no longer any awkwardness to be found on Mako’s face.

Rather, she was smiling broadly as if genuinely happy.

Her face looked just like the Mako I saw a few years ago. Of course, she’s much taller now, and her demeanor is even calmer than before.

…I see.

That young face has now grown so close to adulthood. But at the same time, the face of that childhood hasn’t completely disappeared.

Enough time has passed to move beyond our childhood, more than just a few years.

I could understand why Yuu, who was so close to me, was angry.

We’re… still young. Both then and now.

Perhaps it’s fortunate that we could meet again even now?

After becoming adults, it might be easier to be forgiven. We’d just say “Those things happened” and move on.

But then, I wouldn’t be Yuu’s childhood friend anymore.

I’d be no different from someone she met after becoming an adult, like someone she met at work—that kind of bland relationship.

I didn’t want that.

So—I wanted to believe there was still a chance.