[Third-Person Point of View]

–Let’s rewind time a little.

It was still about two hours before Mary and Kirari paid a visit to the bookstore.

She came to the café space after buying a book and also took a break to sit by the window. She takes a sip of the coffee she ordered, then looks out the window.

“It’s raining…”

Combing her hand through her chestnut-colored hair, which had recently been cut short, she caught it in the process and a strand of hair fell out. Frowning in slight pain, she looked at the broken hair and saw that it was curved in an undulating manner.

The high humidity had caused the hair to become crooked, and Kirari didn’t like that. Until recently, her hair had been long and not curly, but now it was getting worse, these were the effects of having it cut short.

(It was true that short hair is more annoying than long hair.)

Since the haircut, she has been going to the hairdresser more often. She is considering growing it out again because it is so bothersome.

However, hair is a trivial matter.

Taking the book she had just bought at the bookstore out of her bag, her thoughts quickly switched to the next topic.

‘The Beautiful Blonde Transfer Student Loves Me Too Much’

As the title says, she is looking at a light novel with a beautiful blonde heroine on the cover. She knew that this work had been cancelled after two volumes. Basically, the discontinuation of a work was not publicly announced, but she happened to see the author lamenting about it on SNS.

It was a pity for the fans, but it was not the only reason. As a fan, she was disappointed, but that didn’t mean she could do much as a mere reader, so she bought the book, hoping that reading it would at least help her a little.

(Does she have big melons in her b*****s? I guess they have to be this big to qualify as a heroine, right?)

When she was staring at the part of her b*****s that were emphasized as much as possible, she suddenly remembered her classmate, a beautiful blonde girl.

(I think … this heroine might resemble Mary-chan.)

Similar, rather.

She looked like Mary Parker, who is a blonde with big b*****s, so she felt that they inevitably resembled each other.

(She sometimes comes to school and sometimes doesn’t, and when she seems to be getting along well with Ryu-kun, she doesn’t talk much, or when she looks … cheerful, she suddenly shuts down and is very cryptic.)

Mary thinks she is a perfect person.

She is proud of her perfect behavior at school, but in fact, there are many holes in her usual correct responses. She has an egotistical side, so her self-analysis tends to be naive.

There was something ‘uncomfortable’ about Mary, and Kirari didn’t like that very much.

(Come to think of it, I sometimes see her talking with Ko-kun… Those two seem to be incompatible, what kind of relationship do they have?)

Then thoughts turned to her former “friend”, whom she remembered even if she did not want to remember.

Speaking of Kotaro Nakayama, “Cultural Festival”.

“… Guh.”

Suddenly, remembering the festival, Kirari plopped down on her table.

She was crazy back then. Maybe it was because she was blind in love, or maybe it was because her actions didn’t make sense…, and when Kotaro pointed this out to her, her blood boiled over and she slapped him.

The time that has passed is still too short for the memory of that scene to fade away.

“I want to die…”

It is too shameful a past.

Now that the time was too short to forget, but long enough to reflect, Kirari was aware that everything had been wrong at that time.

And yet, she turned the tables and raised her hand to Kotaro, and then, as if resenting him, she said, ‘Don’t make fun of my love! I’ll definitely be happy!’ What a thing to say.

Now that was too embarrassing.

If she had a pillow, she would want to bury her face in it and scream her heart out.

(Well, it’s about time I apologize to Ko-kun…)

Since then, she hasn’t spoken to him.

It’s not that she wants to get back on good terms with him, but … she felt the need to make a clean break or clear the past for the sake of the future.

(If I don’t apologize properly …Haaa, why did I slap him?　I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to be able to keep it up if I don’t get Ko-kun to slap me as hard as he can.)

Recently, she has been a little estranged from Ryoma Ryuzaki, whom she loved so much,… and perhaps because of that, Kirari was regaining her old calmness.

That’s why she decided to properly ‘end’ the past in order to make her future self happy.

(Okay. First, let’s contact him and ask if he would be willing to meet with me… Oh, but I don’t know his contact information. Hmm, I’ll ask Azu-chan.)

With her hesitation gone, Kirari was quick to act. She asked Azusa, Kotaro’s stepsister, “I’m sorry for the sudden notice. I need Ko-kun’s contact information.”, she sent the message.

“… I wonder if the rain will stop.”

Still not in the mood for reading.

Kirari looked out the window and waited for a reply…