At that moment, a cold late autumn breeze blew in through the open corridor window.

“Wow, it’s cold.”

“It’s getting late.”

I looked out of the window and saw that the sun had set and the stars were glimmering in the night sky.

“Looking at the stars like this reminds me of when Yamato and I first met.” Suddenly, Hina smiled nostalgically. 

“Oh. That time when Hina was folding paper cranes by herself, right?”

In the evening in the classroom, Hina was folding origami in solitude. I couldn’t leave her alone, so I called out to her. 

“Afterwards, when I was taking you home, you barely responded to anything I said to you, so I was in a fix.”

We didn’t manage to have a conversation at all, so we both walked home, staring blankly at the stars. 

Hina blushed a little when she remembered this past. “I, I was nervous. It was the first time I’d ever left school with a friend… let alone a boy.”  

“Is that so? I thought you were very wary of me and I was depressed.”

I now remembered with fondness that awkward silence and the desperate search for a topic of conversation.

“I was really overwhelmed too. We folded a thousand paper cranes together and talked about it on the way home…”

“And then you got teased by our classmates who saw us walking together.”

At the time, there was a rumor going around that Hina and I were dating. When I mentioned it to her, she seemed to remember and bobbed her head in acknowledgment. 

“Yeah, that happened. To be honest, there was a time when I was also nervous because I thought Yamato might have liked me.”

“Oh, really? So I got a chance with you?”

“Nope. I never rejected anyone before, so I was nervous about how I was going to say no.”

“Huh, that? It’s so laughable how you were so not into me.”

Feeling both relieved and relaxed, Hina laughed in a goofy way.

“Ha-ha. There was nothing like between us back then, was there?”

“Well, that’s true.” I nodded and the conversation was cut short. 

Eventually, looking out of the window at the night sky, Hina began to speak, “…But then, what kind of relationship did we have, I wonder?” 

And so she brought forth the crucial question for the first time.

“…”

“I thought we were best friends. You were my closest friend, so I thought that I could talk to Yamato about anything and that we could quarrel and make up.”

I tried to say I also thought the same, but the words wouldn’t come out. I was the one who betrayed our relationship, that was for sure. 

“I never thought we’d have a relationship where we couldn’t even quarrel.” 

Her sad smile made my heart ache. 

""

“I’ve always wanted to ask Yamato something.” She looked me straight in the eye. 

From one year ago, I had always known what she wanted to ask.

Once again, I contemplated. What answer should I give to Hina, whom I had hurt a year ago? How can I answer her without hurting her? 

“But I won’t ask you now,” Hina said quietly as if she could see through my nervousness. 

“…Why?”

When I asked her about it, she smiled a little sadly.

“What I want to know is what Yamato really thinks. I don’t want an answer that is carefully chosen so as not to hurt me.”

*silence*

I was thrown off by the fact that she had seen through me. It was true that I didn’t really try to sincerely confront her now. 

“That’s why I won’t ask it now. Not until Yamato properly faces me again—like how you used to be.” Hina’s words were spoken with a determined expression. 

Oh… I see! I finally understood. I came to know what this uncomfortable feeling was. 

“Hina… I—”

As I had said to Yuzu, I believed that the end of a friendship was not a bad thing. However… it was not over yet between me and Hina. 

In the end, we separated without a fight, without telling each other our true feelings; and as a result, we did not reach a proper closure. Hina and I both been having that unsettled feeling for all the while, and remained caught up in it.   

“Oh, Hinano-chan. A while ago, a member of the drama club told me that they had finished…revising the script…”

Kunie-san, who had come to report on her work, seemed to have noticed the atmosphere between us in the middle of her words, and stiffened.

“Sor-sorry…am I interrupting anything?” Kunie-san instantly shrank back. 

In this situation, there was no way for us to continue the conversation. We forcibly shelved the past that had been laid bare in our hearts and smiled at Kunie-san. 

“It’s okay. We were just reminiscing. Anyway, what happened to the script?”

Hina took the lead to smooth the situation.

“Um, they said the script change to the Halloween version has been completed… Tomorrow morning they’ll print it and be ready to be handed to us, so they ask you to come to get the new scripts…” Kunie-san timidly reported. 

I smiled in appreciation for her hard work and said to her, “Good job, Kunie-san. Thank you for taking the trouble to tell me. I guess it’s my job to go and get it then.” 

When I assured her of this, Hina responded with a smile, which erased her previous seriousness. 

“Yes, please. Ah, why don’t you use this chance to go get it together with Nanamine-san? I prefer not to see you two flirting while working, so it’s better to make time with just the two of you.”

“It’s none of your business. And I don’t remember flirting with Yuzu.”

“HUH??” “HUH??”

“Hey, don’t question me in unison!”

I glared at Hina and Kunie-san who were utterly surprised.

“Haha, sorry. Then, we’re going home now. See you tomorrow.”

“Goo-goodbye.”

Hina waved at me and Kunie-san bowed.

“Okay, see you tomorrow!”

I watched them go until they disappeared into the corner of the corridor and let out a small sigh. And then I remembered what Yuzu had said. 

“…Loose ends, was it? Exactly what she said, but it feels strange.”

It wasn’t about some failures or mistakes I had done, it was about loose ends I had to tie—the unfinished business that I still had to address from now.  

After all, maybe she was the one who understood best. To bring closure to what didn’t get to end back then. 

That was what I was supposed to do.  

chocolala: this was the longest chapter in the novel, now we’re ready for the big day—the cultural festival!