The school day came to an end.
Most students had already left their classrooms to head home. Takashi was the last one out of the second-year hallway when he stepped out to find Rei, the other girl who was a significant part of his difficult childhood.
"Takashi!" Rei Miyamoto greeted him with immense joy, having waited patiently for her friend to emerge from the classroom.
"Rei? I thought you'd gone home already," he said, watching her approach with that familiar enthusiasm. "What's up?"
He noticed she was hiding something behind her back before suddenly revealing it: a small, wrapped gift box topped with a neat little bow.
"Happy birthday, Takashi. I know you hate celebrating on the actual day, so I waited to give this to you," she said with a sincere expression on her face.
"Th-Thanks." Caught off guard, he didn't make her wait and unwrapped the small box.
Opening it, he found something that couldn't be found just anywhere these days. "It's... a fountain pen." Takashi was stunned, not just by the wrapping but by the fact that the pen came with its own case and ink pad.
"Mom helped me find it. Since I know you're passionate about writing stories, I thought it would be much cooler to write them with a pen like this," Rei explained, hoping she hadn't misjudged his taste.
"Do you like it?"
"It's amazing." Komuro ran his fingers over the quality of the material, appreciating the craftsmanship. "I can't wait to use it. Thanks, Rei."
Hearing him say her name so freely, without any formal barriers, while holding the gift she'd given him, made her blush deeply.
"It's all because of you," Rei murmured quietly, longing lacing her voice.
"What was that?"
"I was wondering..." She changed the subject quickly.
"See, Takashi, my parents are going away next week, and I was thinking... maybe after school on Wednesday, you'd want to come over to my place? Just the two of us. We could watch movies and stuff..." There were more plans hidden within that simple invitation.
"Sure, that sounds great." His answer made Rei's anticipation for that day skyrocket.
"Awesome!" Her happiness overflowed. "I'll be waiting until then, Takashi."
So much so that she leaned in and planted a soft kiss on Komuro's cheek, leaving the dark-haired boy momentarily stunned as he watched the chestnut-haired girl dash off toward the stairs.
And as Rei descended the stairs all the way to the school gate, all the pent-up joy inside her reminded her why the time to confess her feelings to Takashi finally felt closer than ever.
Back in the days…
When Rei was finishing her second year and was supposed to advance to her third, but due to the malice of others, her life came crashing down.
Frustration, impotence, the crushing weight of loneliness. She assumed no one could possibly feel what she was feeling at that moment—not even Takashi when he found her wandering the school hallway with a lost, vacant expression.
After hearing of her misfortune, he had searched the entire academy for her until he finally found her, desperate to know what had happened.
"I don't understand, Rei. You're one of the top students in this academy," Takashi said once they were alone together.
"You wouldn't understand. Even if I explained it, you wouldn't get it." Tears threatened to spill from Miyamoto's face.
"Then make me understand," Takashi insisted, seeing just how lost she was from the look in her eyes alone.
"Please... just leave me alone..."
Rei started to walk away without looking back. But just as she was about to put more distance between them, Takashi's firm hand grabbed hers and stopped her in her tracks.
"Rei, wait!" Komuro's strong grip halted her. It was so firm that Rei briefly wondered if it was someone else. 'Since when had he gotten so strong?'
"What are you doing...?" Fury blinded her. She tried with both hands to free herself from Takashi's single-handed hold, but she couldn't break free. "I said I want to be alone."
"I won't allow it," he replied, careful not to use too much force and hurt her.
"I told you to let go of me, idiot!" Rei's shout was followed by the echo of a slap she unconsciously landed across Komuro's face. Only then did she break free. She realized what she had done—an act that perhaps needed to happen. She could see the sting of the slap on her friend's face, and now guilt consumed her.
"Takashi, no... I didn't mean to—"
Once again, Takashi surprised her. Unexpectedly, the dark-haired boy moved toward Rei and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tight against him. The warmth of that embrace, the strength with which he held her... somehow, it made her feel like everything was going to be okay, even though it wasn't.
"Takashi..."
"I know what it's like to be alone, Rei. To be alone even when people are all around you," he whispered into her ear.
"You want to push everyone away and shut yourself in because no one understands you..."
"I've been in that room. I resigned myself to never leaving it because the only thing I needed was someone to stay by my side, regardless of whether they understood my pain." In Takashi's mind, a feminine figure surfaced—someone who, back then, he lacked the courage to act upon and seize life's opportunities with. He made her look him in the eyes then.
"Rei, I won't let you lock yourself away in that world. Because... I won't leave you alone."
Those final words reached deep inside Rei. She could feel the weight in her chest beginning to lift. With her face pressed against Komuro's chest, she could hear his heartbeat—each thump cradling her as tears streamed down her face, allowing her to release the anguish of having been failed out of spite by Prime Minister Shidou and his son, who had been used as a tool for it.
But when he made her look into his eyes, Rei—who for all these years had only seen Takashi as immature, antisocial, and depressive (though the last had its justification)—suddenly saw in him a confident man and a lone wolf. Her heart began to race, mortified to have him so close in front of her.
"Takashi..." she wept as she spoke his name, her arms moving to wrap around the body of the friend who held her without letting go.
Now, she was the one who didn't want to let go. "Thank you, Takashi..."
To be continued…