Recollection Part 13

It was when Yuzuki's words shocked me into silence.

"…Eh?"

Yuzuki, who was in front of the doorway, not even opening the door but only showing her face to deal with me, suddenly opened her eyes wide as if she had come to herself.

"Why... am I saying this?"

Looking flustered, she put on her shoes and walked out the front door.

Closing the door and facing me properly once again, she shook her eyes in confusion.

"No... No, it's not that it isn't different, but these thoughts... For a long time, I wasn't going to tell you."

Yuzuki's lips trembled apologetically, seemingly unable to control herself.

"I didn't mean to hurt you."

... When you think about it calmly, Yuzuki is certainly not a person who has the strength to hurt others.

She is a gentle and timid girl who would rather accept being hurt than hurt, and that kind of "weakness" would come forward.

The fact that she was so relentless in wielding the blade of her words against me..., even she herself was confused by it.

The attitude was somewhat bizarre.

It was like someone was manipulating her.

"This is not right."

Yuzuki took a step closer to me. The hand she extended unexpectedly looked like she was asking for help,... and I reflexively put out my hand to grab it, but I wasn't sure if grabbing that hand was the right thing to do, so I stopped moving.

I made a mistake, not knowing that that momentary hesitation would determine the fate of me and Yuzuki...

"...But it doesn't make any difference what my true feelings are."

Is it with the understanding that I would not take her hand?

Or has someone taken over her personality once again?

I was not sure, but at this moment, Yuzuki's turmoil disappeared.

And from this point on, she would never be the kind and timid girl she used to be.

"It's true that I've been frustrated with Kotaro-san for a long time, and I didn't intend to ... tell you, but it's my true feelings, so I can't help it."

Pulling her hand back, she smiled quietly.

But this smile was different from the usual and contained a tinge of mockery.

"I've never had any special feelings for Kotaro-san, even though we've been together for such a long time."

And what was spun was a merciless declaration.

"But he was different... From the first time I met him, he was completely different from Kotaro-san. I can't believe I got that nervous just by talking to him."

Like Kirari, she began to tell her story like she was floating in the heat of the moment.

The protagonist of this story was, of course, Ryoma Ryuzaki.

"In other words, time doesn't matter when it comes to love. ... That's right, I fell in love with Ryoma! So it is inevitable that I would be cold to a man who is not Ryoma-san. Because I am in 'love'."

Yuzuki was somewhat eerie as she justified her actions in this way and spoke as if she was showing her loyalty to Ryuzaki even though he was not looking.

It was as if she was trying to show someone that she, too, was qualified to be a heroine who was not allowed to have any experience with men.

These were not Yuzuki's words.

But she had already chosen Ryuzaki, and the ... original Yuzuki Hojo had disappeared, and she was given the characterization of a subheroine.

And so she became a servant of the story.

"That is why I don't think I will ever be close to Kotaro-san again. Please understand... then, I have to make lunch tomorrow in order to get Ryoma-san's stomach, so I don't want to waste my time talking to ... Kotaro-san. So, good-bye."

Our relationship that had lasted more than a decade fell apart in a mere moment.

With those last words, Yuzuki turned her back on me and closed the door.

“…………”

I could not say anything to her.

Thus, I became estranged from my childhood friend Yuzuki.

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