Chapter 20

When I arrived at Yuki’s house, I was immediately urged to take a bath. He half-forcefully stripped me of my uniform and threw it in the washing machine, saying that I would catch a cold if I kept wearing my soaking wet uniform.

Yuki should be soaked too, but he refused to bathe with me for some reason, even though we used to wash together all the time. As I thought of that, I soaked in the warm water, then slipped into the warm loungewear that Yuki lent me.

It was probably originally designed to be loose-fitting, but it was so big that it was hard to tell if I was wearing shorts or not.

Even though I was the bigger one when we were in elementary school, he was now growing like a damned bamboo shoot . . .

No matter his growth spurt, this difference made me feel a bit sad.

I climbed up the stairs and headed to Yuki’s room. I knew the layout of the house because we had many playdates when we were children. It seemed that his family hadn’t returned yet, as the house was dimly lit.

Just in case, I knocked before I entered Yuki’s room. When I went in, Yuki’s eyes widened for a moment, then he slowly looked away.

“. . . You must think I look like a kid because this is too big for me.”

“It’s not that, but it’s more dangerous than I thought.”

“Dangerous?”

I tilted my head, not knowing what he meant. Yuki coughed once and pulled out a photo on a low table in the center of the room.

The photo showed a group of about twenty university students in skiwear. I think it was a commemorative photo taken for his older brother’s ski club four years ago.

“Yesterday, my brother came back home to visit a friend’s grave . . . While reminiscing, he showed me this . . .”

“You mean the one from that accident on the news?”

“It seems like yesterday was the anniversary of his death. It was decided that they would all get together every year on the anniversary of his death.”

“I see.”

From the sound of it, his brother’s friend must have been someone well-liked. If they were disliked or merely tolerated, there was no way that many people would gather together like this after their death.

“So, this person in the middle is the one who passed away.”

“Huh? This person . . . ?”

When I saw the person Yuki was pointing at, I couldn’t help but take a second, and even third look.

The girl in the picture looked too much like the crossdressed version of me.

“I was surprised when I saw it. Kazuki only showed me that picture briefly, but I thought she looked very similar to you.”

He might have remembered it wrong, but the resemblance wasn’t to the level of being very similar.

“This person’s name was Haruka, and she had a fiancé. My brother was rarely this talkative. Maybe he had been drinking, he doesn’t talk about things like this usually . . .”

“I wonder if he liked her. He sounded very disappointed. He said ‘Haru was everyone’s idol, but senior Kaji snatched her away . . . !’”

As I listened to Yuki’s story, I started to break out in a cold sweat. I could feel my face stiffening and my blood running cold.

His brother’s classmate looked similar to me and her name was Haru. Moreover, her fiancé’s name was Kaji?!

What was going on here? Was this just a coincidence?

“So, I’ve been thinking. The reason Mr. Kaji is calling you Haru . . . He said it was the name of the cat in his parent’s house, but I’m questioning if that’s true. Takumi, you said you met with someone while dressed like that, right? Wasn’t that person Mr. Kaji?”

He threw that question straight at me and I couldn’t move. There was no way I could remain calm after suddenly being told such a story. I couldn’t think straight and my hands were sweating.

Yuki was probably asking me with certainty. He was the type of person who didn’t talk about unclear things and only believed what he had seen with his own eyes, whether it was a rumor or not.

“Th- the name Kaji isn’t that uncommon anyway, isn’t it just a coincidence? It’s a different person from the one I met.”

“Really?”

“Ye- yeah . . .”

I lied as quickly as I could. I was confused, but if possible I don’t want to believe that the Kaji in that story was really Akira.

Speaking of which, Yuki told me that the girl we saw earlier was Haruka’s little sister.

Could it be that yesterday, the reason Akira was walking together with that girl was to go to visit his fiancée’s grave—?

Then that meant Akira approached me and started messing around with me because he saw Haruka through me?

That was why he wouldn’t call me by my proper name no matter how many times I told him to . . .

The more I thought about it, the more unpleasant my thoughts became. This was all a lie . . . I didn’t want to believe it.

Yuki, who had been staring at my internal turmoil, exhaled in an obvious way.

“Takumi, you like Mr. Kaji, don’t you?”

“Wh- what are you . . .”

“Who do you think I am? I’ve been by your side for a long, long time. Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”

Right in front of me, a pair of black eyes caught mine. His words were calm, but his expression wasn’t calm at all, and I naturally backed away.

“Recently, you’ve only looked at Mr. Kaji, Takumi. Even though I was right there . . . Why is it not me . . .? Why . . .!”

He suddenly grabbed my shoulders and hugged me forcefully. There was no time for me to avoid it. His voice sounded like he was about to cry, and I could feel his shoulders trembling.

“Yu-Yuki . . . ?”

“I like you, Takumi. For a long, long time I’ve always . . . liked you. That’s why—!”

Without the time to feel confused by the sudden confession, his wistful voice sounded and suddenly my view was flipped at a tremendous speed.

When I came to, I was pushed down to the floor and forcefully grabbed by the chin.

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