It was a nostalgic feeling.
In the morning, I leave home to break up with Maple and walk my way to school on my own.
About the classroom, I spend time listening to music before taking classes.
During the lunch break, we eat a special maple lunch box in a less popular place and come to class in the afternoon.
There is no student council activity, and listening to the bell announcing the end of the class makes me flutter home.
Until just a moment ago, this was supposed to be the normal routine, but the discomfort is greater. It's proof that I was starting to get used to that noisy routine.
Much of where you walk, a sight emerges behind your brain as a memory of the past.
I started using different paths to avoid it.
Human memory cannot be erased of its own free will.
Even though I know it's a waste of action, extra thought is just stressful for me right now.
Elementary school students were playing baseball in a square along the river.
The expression shines, I guess it's not in those kids' brains other than the idea of enjoying the present.
That's the best part.
One, another. Innocence is lost as we approach adulthood.
My spirit grows up, I get to peek into the eyes around me, I get used to blending into a group.
When I look at the boys in front of me, I even wonder if we're really growing up.
Drop something, throw away your innocence, is that really growth?
I wonder if I'm really not able to grow anything just dyeing the white canvas black.
Well, it's a useless product from thinking about such psychology.
When I let the stopping stride resume, a pair of boys and girls ran from right in front of me and passed by.
Since they are not similar in appearance, are they childhood friendly?
I looked back and captured the girl in the same uniform as I was dropping that off.
"I miss you...... we were playing like that too"
"... you're wrong that I was being taken around"
Shizuku, looking back in the same direction as me, told him to miss it.
For a moment, I wondered why I was walking down this road, but I didn't even have to think about the answers.
The house is across the street, and the route home is squeezed at a time when I'm not walking on my normal path.
She must have guessed that she was coming home from this path, though it would be a little farther.
Stand up on the spot until you are completely blind to the boys, and look forward.
Next door, Shizuku walks shoulder-to-shoulder at the same stride.
……
……
Transfer your gaze to each other into the landscape around you, but do not exchange words.
How long has it been since I've walked this road with her?
Shizuku was just smiling.
Words and such are unnecessary, as if that's what you're saying.
Continue along the river and stop in front of the residential area, in front of an old private house.
It's rusty everywhere, and now there's no shadow, but this house used to run a pastry shop.
This shop, which was run by an old couple, cannot be said to thrive in flattery.
I just said I enjoyed seeing the kids, and they were open for decades until we were in junior high.
However, the town's population was smaller, and the number of children began to decline and the store, which had a little bit of history, closed a few years ago.
On the last business day, the three of us, Shizukuishi and Maple, visited this store with strong memory.
"... you didn't usually waste it, but you decided to come to this store and buy a lot of it."
"It's a pastry or I want to eat it asexually... my economy was going around here because I used to spend less money than I do now"
Rather, until I was turning the economy of this candy store around.
... of course, just kidding.
It is known that there was no such thing as a child allowance.
Shizuku narrowed his eyes, smiling at my words.
"But buying was always something you liked about me and Maple. Were you going to put it up if you wanted it?
"... forgotten"
I hope you don't break your trivial boy mind.
Well, maybe I also wanted to look cool about my brother's kindness and childhood training as a young man at the time.
It's an old time now, a forgotten past.
Did she come here to miss it?
No, that's not true.
"... you're angry"
"What?"
"Physical Education Festival... I asked you out and I couldn't say anything"
Did you care?
I told you before that there was no such thing as anger.
But maybe that was caught behind her chest like a small bone in her.
"You can't help but say in that situation... didn't you tell me you didn't care before"
"But... in the end, I wasn't any different than before"
'I don't care about the eyes around me anymore,' she said when it was.
That was how she herself decided to change and the challenge she always had on her chest.
But if human beings can be changed so easily, the world will be more peaceful and less troubled.
Me and her, everyone around us is no exception, and it takes time for humans to change.
It's very difficult to take the first step, and there are authentic paths ahead.
I don't like it, there's a path that makes me want to go back.
The first is that she and I just plugged in.
And me and her are back.
I can't say at all that it's a bad choice.
However, she herself seemed to regret that it was a bad choice for Shizuku.
"Your high school friends often tell you to take care of them... it's easier if you think it's better than being badly impressed by your classmates"
"... lying is what they tell you not to understand... so I told you, right? You're the one who doesn't lie."
……
Shizuku shook his head sideways.
It seems to repeat itself over and over, but years are scary.
Only for that number of years, they derive answers that are close to the mood they are thinking about.
Turn your neck to the side to divert attention from a grin similar to her self injury.
Moving away from the old building, we enter a familiar residential neighborhood.
Through the boulevard among the residential neighborhoods, passing beside the park you often see.
And when we stop in front of the road separating the Makoto and Kanzaki houses, we stand up in a way that faces each other.
"The sports festival thing is solidifying into that kind of shape because of me, but I'm still going to give you my answer"
"... you don't seem to have to worry."
Those eyes seemed to have already gotten the answer.
I stepped onto the grounds of the True House with a slight breath of relief in the words.
Shizuku spun his words the moment he unlocked the front door and pulled the empty door.
"Cha-jun!... I'm not going to be on the field with anyone but you."
On turning around, what did the girl laugh and show think, what did she think and say the words?
Knowing that answer is going to be a little further.