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“…You know…”
It was the second day of the exam.
I did better on today’s exam compared to yesterday’s.
The current time was 1pm.
Because of the exam, we only had to attend school for three hours. I was currently on my way home.
Actually, no, I was supposed to be on my way home, but for some reason, I was inside a shopping mall near the school area.
Before you assume things, no, I didn’t come here out of my own volition.
“Don’t you have to study?”
I asked Hina, who was walking in front of me, that question. Hearing it, she turned around to face me.
She placed her hands behind her backs as she smiled.
“I’ll study properly when I get home~”
“Alright, what are we here for then?”
“Lunch, of course. Studying is important, but taking a break is also important. Since school finishes early, we gotta make the most of the time!”
She then scurried around the streets filled with restaurants.
“You brought me here just for that?”
“…What’s that? You got a problem with that? It feels lonely going here alone, you know?”
She averted her gaze slightly as she pouted. Her cheeks reddened a little.
“If you’re too lax, you’ll end up like Shinji, you know?”
“Shinji who?”
“Wow, that’s just cruel…”
“Anyway, why are you worried about me? I got way better grades than you. Worry about yourself instead.”
“I mean, yeah, but… Honestly, I don’t think I’ll get any red marks even if I were to slack off a little.”
“See?~”
She was in an unnaturally good mood, I wonder why?
Did she do well in the exam or something?
“What do you want to eat?”
“Omurice.”
“Of course, what did I expect from you, anyway?”
“There is a western-styled restaurant there.”
“I don’t wanna go there.”
“Why?”
“I want some ramen!”
“Then, why did you ask me what I wanted to eat?”
“So I know what I should make for you later.”
“Oh, really? I’ll look forward to it, then.”
“…Yeah, go ahead, but can you back off a little? People will think that we’re a couple.”
Said Hina in a whisper before she turned her head away.
“What’s the problem with that?”
When I asked that question, Hina’s face reddened as she stopped dead in her tracks.
“…You really don’t care much about what other people think of you, huh?”
I mean, I used to be a hero back in my previous life. People assumed a lot of things about me back then, so I was pretty much used to it by now.
“…Hina?”
Hina let out a cough. She then scolded me for some reason.
“You should pay more attention to how people think about you. That’s why you’ve never noticed what me or other people are thinking about you.”
Well, I guess what she was trying to tell me was correct. I was executed by the church because I didn’t notice what they were thinking about me back then. Though, I had no regrets about that since I did my job as a hero properly before I died.
While thinking of this, I followed Hina to enter a certain ramen shop.
I sat by her side in front of the counter and ordered a large-sized tonkotsu ramen. They only sold tonkotsu here and Hina knew it too as we used to come here often back when we were younger as the price here was cheap for students like us and the food was tasty. I didn’t come as often nowadays, though. Mostly because I had been busy.
We slurped our ramen without a care in the world.
Even with sweats trickling down from our foreheads, we enjoyed this momentary blissful feeling.
“Phew~ I’m full.”
I muttered as I pat my stomach. I noticed that Hina was staring at me.
Her eyes looked serious.
“So…”
She shook the glass in her hand as she asked.
“What’s bothering you these days?”
“…You noticed?”
“Of course I did. Who do you think I am? I’m your childhood friend.”
She snorted and crossed her arms.
Her boastful attitude looked adorable.
Seriously, I couldn’t beat this girl.
She probably knew about me more than I did myself.
“You know…”
That was why, it should be okay to ask her this.
“Yes?”
“There’s something that I don’t understand…”
She listened to me in silence.
I thought about the witch.
“…There’s this one person that I hate. My enemy.”
Her eyes widened as I said that.
“Now, that’s rare. I thought you liked everyone.”
“That person is a special case.”
Honestly, it felt strange even to me.
“I hate that person. I don’t want to get involved with them. Like I said, we’re enemies, we don’t get along well. We sometimes work together but, even during that, we’ll curse each other as we go.”
That was how our relationship went.
“…Toward someone like that, there should be no reason to sympathize with them, right? As long as they didn’t ask me, I shouldn’t care about them, right? I mean, there’s no reason for me to help them…”
“…”
“But…”
I…
“Why am I…”
While I was staring at my own hand, Hina asked me a question.
“So, you want to help that person…”
“…”
“But, you don’t know if that feeling is coming from your heart or not, am I correct?”
“…Yeah.”
I didn’t know why.
But I had been struggling with this. I didn’t know where this feeling came from. Was it from my obsession? Or was it my true feelings?
“…You know.”
Hina held her forehead with her hand and sighed in exasperation.
“You’re an idiot.”
I didn’t expect her to suddenly insult me like that.
When I looked up at her in surprise, she was frowning while rubbing her brows.
“You looked so down these days, I wondered what was wrong with you… Turns out it’s just this dumb thing… Then again, what did I expect from you? …Jeez, seriously, what an idiot.”
She muttered those words.
“…Hina? You know, I’m actually struggling here–”
“Listen here, idiot.”
“Stop calling me an idiot.”
“Shut it and listen. Your assumption is wrong in the first place.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your hatred. What enemies? If you really hate that person, you wouldn’t be worrying about them like this. You think that you hate them, but in truth, you don’t. That’s all there is to it.”
“Huh?”
“You care about that person. Maybe you even like that person.”
I wanted to deny her words immediately.
But no words managed to come out of my mouth. Maybe, somewhere in my heart, I was aware of that already.
“You want to help them because you like them. Since you like them, when you notice that they’re in trouble, you want to help them. It’s simple, isn’t it?”
My memories together with the witch flashed through my mind.
There were barely any good memories.
Most of the time, we were just fighting or cursing each other.
In the first place, we were enemies. Because that was the case, I refused to help her and she stated clearly that she hated me and cursed at me.
Based on the knowledge that I had learned, I always assumed that I hated her.
It was impossible not to hate your enemy, after all.
I thought that way of thinking was the correct one.
Thinking back, I had never really learned about how relationships worked.
When I thought about the time I had with the witch.
I never felt bad around her.
I never felt uncomfortable around her.
Our silly banters, stupid quarrels… Those times when we did it, felt really fun.
At that time, I didn’t realize that feeling.
After all, the witch was the first person I had a real relationship with.
“…I don’t hate that person?”
It was only when Hina put it into words for me that I could come to terms with my feelings.
“Yeah. I don’t know who that person is… But you actually like that person. You just didn’t realize it.”
It felt like my common sense was overturned
What we were talking about felt so obvious that it was embarrassing that I felt troubled by it in the first place.
“When you want to help someone so much even though they refuse your help, that means you like that person and you don’t want to lose them.”
Said Hina in a gentle tone.
“It’s the same as me, you know?”
“…What do you mean?”
“Even though you don’t want my help, I’m here to help you anyway. You’re someone I care about. We’ve been friends since we were kids. I’m always worrying about you every day, you know?”
“Friends, huh?…”
Friend, a relationship.
Connection.
A word that symbolized mutual support.
What was it that made me reluctant to befriend the witch?
“I see.”
The words came out of my mouth involuntarily.
I looked out the window. The sky was clear.
I knew what I should do now.
“My bad, Hina.”
I stood up.
When I was racking my brain for an excuse to tell her, Hina waved her hand dismissively and said,
“Just get going. That person is waiting for you, aren’t they?”
She really could see through me, huh?
Or maybe I was just too easy to understand.
I placed the money for the ramen on the table and dashed toward the exit.
“I’m going.”
“Go get ’em, tiger.”
“Roger!”
I got on my bike and pedaled it to the witch’s house.
Maybe I didn’t really need to do it now, but…
I wanted to save her as soon as possible.
After all, I found the reason I had been looking for.
However…
It was a simple thing, it was unthinkable that I had been ignoring it for so long.
Hina was right, I was an idiot.
Sweat poured down on my face like a raging wave.
The summer heat was slowly taking my energy.
But, I had no intention of slowing down my bike.
I had no reason to hesitate anymore.
This time, I’ll definitely save her.