Chapter 19

“Hah, at this rate, it’s not going to stop anytime soon.”

Looking up at the black sky, Yuki brushed his wet bangs away from his eyes.

After school, I was walking out of the school gate toward the train station when I ran into Yuki on his way home from club activities.

However, it suddenly started raining. I couldn’t even greet him properly and had to run at full speed.

Luckily, the train station was pretty close, so we managed to avoid being completely drenched. But my rain-soaked blazer felt heavy.

“The weather forecast is always off lately, huh?”

When we reached the well-heated waiting room, Yuki looked up at the sky resentfully as he wiped his head with a towel he brought with him.

He was right. It was said it would be a mild winter this year, but it had been cold day after day. Sometimes, it didn’t rain at all even when predicted, while other times it would suddenly start pouring out of nowhere like today.

Rain was especially cold at this time of the year. It made my hands and feet feel like ice, so I wished they could at least get the weather forecast right.

As I positioned myself right under the heater to warm my chilled body, a towel was softly draped over my head.

“Takumi, you should wipe your hair too, you’ll catch a cold.”

“It’s fine. I’m a dumbass, after all.”

“No. Don’t say that, what will you do if you catch a cold?”

“What are you saying, Yuki? Don’t talk like my mom.”

“Isn’t that a little harsh? I’m just genuinely worried about you . . .”

He pouted and grumbled. This kind of casual banter with Yuki was so fun, it soothed me.

But such a peaceful thing couldn’t last for long.

On the platform on the other side of the station, I saw the girl from yesterday standing there.

My face tensed up immediately and my chest was in an uproar. There should be nothing to get upset about, but the feeling of discomfort rushed over me.

“Takumi? Ah, that person . . .”

“You know her, Yuki?”

Yuki noticed my gaze and gave me a slightly complicated expression. I couldn’t help but notice that his behavior felt like he knew something about her.

“I know her, I mean . . . Do you remember the big accident in the city that happened four years ago?”

“Yeah, I saw it on the news yesterday. The one with the drunk driver, right?”

“Right. There were five people in the accident, but only one of them survived.”

“That person is her,” Yuki muttered quietly.

My heart made an unpleasant thumping sound.

Don’t tell me, that girl was . . .? I couldn’t hide my surprise from finding out that the victim was closer to me than I had thought. More than anything, she was smiling when walking together with Akira yesterday, so it was hard to believe that she had such a dark past.

“How did you know that, Yuki? That she’s the victim.”

“Because the seniors on the basketball club were gossiping about it . . .”

He said that and then turned his gaze to the platform on the other side.

Speaking of which, my dad told me yesterday that a friend of Yuki’s brother died in that accident.

I never realized how small the world really was. A chill ran down my spine. The news, which had seemed so unrelated to me, suddenly felt far closer.

“By the way, it’s rare for you to be interested in a girl, Takumi. Could it be . . .”

“Huh? No!”

“I still haven’t said anything.”

“. . .”

“Takumi, you’re not very good at hiding things. Though, you probably thought you hid it well. Did something happen with you and that girl?”

I couldn’t answer that question. After knowing that she carried such a heavy fate on her back, the ugliness of my emotions felt really pathetic.

“No, nothing . . .”

Seeing me casting my eyes downward as I replied, Yuki exhaled a long sigh. He opened his mouth to say something, hesitated for a moment, and then asked, “Do you want to come to my house?”

He told me there was something he really wanted to show me.

I wonder what it is that he wanted to show me. Judging by the flow of the conversation, was it something related to her?

“Okay. I’ll go.”

No matter how much I thought about it, there was no other way I could find out, so I nodded.

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