Childhood Friend Heroine V2 Interlude
Interlude
Obsession
Lunch break was nearly over.
“Hey, Vice President, you got a sec~?” a student called out.
“My apologies,” Koyuki replied without breaking her stride. “I’m in a bit of a hurry right now. Perhaps another time.”
“Aw, man, she’s gone,” the student grumbled. “Running around like that, she’s gonna drop her bre—”
Koyuki sprinted through the school building. Several other students tried to get her attention along the way, but she brushed them off with vague excuses about non-existent business, her focus fixed on a single goal: finding a quiet place where no one would be around.
She checked all the usual spots. The library, the student council room, the storage room—all the places that should have been empty were occupied. She skipped them all, a growing sense of frustration welling within her. It seemed luck was not on her side today.
Normally, in times like this, Koyuki would retreat to her secret haven, a hidden space tucked away behind the hedge on the rooftop terrace. But she couldn’t go there. In a cruel twist of fate, the one person in the entire world she wanted to avoid had somehow found it—even though Koyuki hadn’t told a soul about the spot since her time leap.
Having exhausted every possible refuge inside the school, she realized her only option was to head outside. Koyuki pushed against the tide of students returning to their classrooms and slipped out of the building.
Thud.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. That was careless of me.”
After running about fifty meters, she collided with someone and stumbled, landing hard on her rear.
“Ah, it’s fine. Wait—Koyuki?”
Looking up, she saw that she had unluckily bumped right into Takumi.
Why is he carrying a watering can? And what’s he doing over by the first and second-year building? …No, none of that matters right now. I just need to get somewhere I can calm down.
The questions about Takumi’s presence were endless, but a blaring alarm went off in Koyuki’s mind.
“…President. Excuse me.”
If she stayed, he would only make another one of his snide remarks. Takumi’s verbal barbs had been especially sharp lately, and in her current fragile state, she knew she couldn’t handle it.
Making a snap decision, Koyuki scrambled to her feet, offered a hasty apology, and took off running once more.
“Hey, wait—class is about to sta— Pfft! Hey, can you see—”
She thought she heard him say something as she fled, but whether by good fortune or bad, his words didn’t reach her ears.
Koyuki plunged into the dark forest, a part of the school grounds where no one usually ventured. She pushed onward, enduring the humid, clinging air, until the path suddenly opened up into a sunlit clearing.
“Is this… a garden?”
In the three-odd years she had spent at Seira High School, between her time leap and the present, Koyuki never knew such a place existed. She quickly recalled that the area had once been a botanical garden, and it made sense that some traces of it remained.
“It’s beautiful,” she murmured, taking in the sight. “It’s so well-maintained… I bet flowers bloom everywhere in the summer. If other students knew about this, it would probably become a famous confession spot, wouldn’t it? Being confessed to while surrounded by beautiful flowers is every girl’s dream, after all. …Still, if it’s this well-kept, there must be a caretaker, but I don’t see anyone. Maybe they’re on break? In that case, I’ll just borrow it as a refuge for a little while.”
She didn’t intend to stay long—just until she could sort out the chaos in her mind. Making that quiet excuse to herself, Koyuki sat on the edge of a stone fountain, took a deep breath, and let her thoughts drift to Haruki.
Yesterday, unable to contain her feelings any longer, Koyuki had confessed to him, only to be rejected.
The reason he gave was:
“There’s someone I’m interested in. Right now, my head is full of thoughts about her. I think it would be rude to date someone without resolving this first. So, I’m sorry.”
It was an answer she had already known was coming. And yet, a faint, foolish hope had lingered—that maybe, just maybe, because Haruki was so kind…
But of course, a confession was doomed to fail when he was already aware of his feelings for another girl. Especially a confession from someone he had known for barely over a month. If his heart could be swayed so easily, she wouldn’t have struggled so much the first time around.
But the same could be said for Haruki and Lily. Despite that, Lily had managed to occupy most of his heart. Whenever he had a spare moment, his gaze would invariably drift in her direction.
It was just too unfair. How could this be anything but a rigged race? She couldn’t accept that Lily’s single moment held more weight than everything Koyuki had painstakingly built up, day after day.
“…Is it really impossible to change fate?”
The one thought she had tried so desperately to avoid surfaced. What if the two of them getting together was something ordained by God? Could she, Koyuki, truly overturn that? And if she couldn’t, then what was the point of coming back to the past—
“—!? Huff, huff…”
The thought sent a sharp, constricting pain through her chest.
I don’t want to go back I don’t want to go back I don’t want to go back I don’t want to go back. I can’t stand being alone anymore. I don’t think I could survive in a world where no one loves me again. That’s why, no matter what it takes, I’m going to make Haruki mine.
It was no longer a question of whether she could change things or not. She had to change them. If she didn’t, she was certain she would die this time.
In that instant, whatever beautiful, pure emotion like romantic love had existed within Koyuki vanished completely. In its place, something ugly and dark, like sludge, began to sprout.
This was for herself, and herself alone.
No matter what criticism she faced, she would obtain Haruki—the one person who would love her.
“Hehe… hehehehe…”
Like a black cloud drifting across a clear sky, an eerie smile spread across Koyuki’s face.
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