Chapter 4: A Future I Want to Believe In

So Mizuki isn’t responding to your messages…is that right?

Yeah…

Ever since the day of the school festival… We talked only a little since then…

…I see…

But…it seems like she’s responded to Shiraishi-san, so I think she really just doesn’t want to talk to me.

…I’m sure Mizuki wouldn’t want me to run around in circles like this, huh.

… …

But… I feel like I can’t let things stay as they are.

…You can’t?

Because if this carries on, Mizuki will… …

I…feel like she might end up disappearing entirely…

So… I want to talk to her.

…I understand.

…This situation is complicated, isn’t it?

…I can’t really say if I should push you forward or stop you from doing this.

… …

So…

All I have to share with you…is my own story.

Huh…?

…I had a sort of similar experience.

At some point I thought, “That’s enough”–but in the end, a very persistent friend broke through that wall I built.

I did think at the time he was being overbearing, but…in the end, I’m walking the same path as him.

So when I put things into perspective, I think that overbearingness was something I needed at the time.

Really…?

Yes. Well, back then I did wonder why he was being so insistent about it.

Though…this was just my experience. Things might turn out differently for you and Mizuki.

… …

Especially since… The Mizuki from before would have just said, “Don’t worry about me,” and completely shut everyone out.

Eh…? She did that…?

She did.

I don’t think it’s something I should talk about, but…

Around the time I first met Mizuki…she was always alone.

Alone…?

Yeah. Around the time we were in middle school…we met up here on the rooftop like this.

I was always alone, too, you see. I struggled to get along with others…

And then…I met Mizuki, who was similar to me.

Mizuki was quite a different person back then. She seemed to shut out everyone around her…like she had an aura that drove others away.

We met here on the rooftop, and gradually started to talk to each other, but–

that was just the feeling I had.

Ah… I suppose we’ve been cut from the same cloth, is what I thought.

In the depths of our hearts, we’re shouldering a great deal of loneliness…

Mizuki…was shouldering that…

Are you a crossdresser too?

(Maybe…)

(Mizuki has been looked at that way ever since then…)

(If people look at you like that and say such terrible things to you…)

…How did… Mizuki…

… …

I’m sure that if you approached her too forcefully back then, she would have just shut you out.

As for now…I don’t even know how things will turn out.

Eh…

She’s changed ever since she’s met you and your circle.

Instead of smiling half-heartedly, she’s started to smile genuinely.

And… She told me…

She found friends that she wants to be with. She finally found a place she belongs.

…!

I’m sure… …That she…

wants a future where you’re always together.

… …

But…

I don’t think Mizuki wanted this to happen.

… …

Whether that wish is just a thing of the past or something she’s still hoping for even now, even I can’t say for sure.

But, I…

As her friend, I hope Mizuki can live a life she doesn’t have to run away from.

So I hope your courage reaches her heart…

And above all, I hope that she hasn’t abandoned that wish of hers.

Ah…

(This…still isn’t over.)

(As long as our feelings are still the same, even just a bit…)

(I…can’t let this end this way…!)

(Because I want…to be friends with Mizuki!)