Chapter 10: Should I tear it up like a poster? (6)

After returning to school together, Hoshino left the student council room, saying she needed to talk to Yume alone.

It figures.

They must have a lot to talk about between them.

The last conversation was Hoshino’s one-sided rant, so she probably wants to apologize.

If Hoshino gives a proper apology, wouldn’t Yume accept it with a big smile?

I think she’d smile even if she didn’t apologize.

“Ugh. But what are they talking about that’s taking so long?”

It feels like several hours have passed, but they still haven’t come back. I wonder if something happened.

A useless sense of unease crept in, and I got up from my seat.

Maybe they’re doing something without me again.

Like when Yume was kidnapped before.

“Hoshino? Yume?”

I looked all over the school, but I couldn’t find Hoshino and Yume.

As time passed, the growing anxiety urged my legs.

Now I don’t know where I’m going.

All I see in my blurred vision are my legs, staggering this way and that, but running steadily.

All I can hear is my own rough breathing.

A long time passed like that.

Then, the underclassman I had been looking for appeared before my eyes.

“Hoshino…!”

Hoshino looked tired for some reason.

Dragging her trembling legs, I approached Hoshino.

“Where were you? And where did Yume go?”

Hoshino looked at me with empty eyes in response to my words. The only thing I saw in those eyes was a sticky emotion.

I flinched without realizing it. I stepped back from Hoshino.

“Hoshino, are you… okay…?”

Hoshino stared blankly at me for a moment, then let out a wry laugh.

“You’re really comfortable, Senior.”

“…What do you mean?”

But Hoshino gave me something without saying anything in response to my question.

I looked at what was in my hand. It was something familiar to me.

“It’s Yume-senpai’s shield. Since you were the closest to Yume-senpai, I’ll give it to you.”

“What? What are you talking about? Why are you giving me Yume’s shield?”

“Because it’s no longer needed.”

“Who? Yume?”

“Yume-senpai has left Kivotos.”

Yume left Kivotos? That doesn’t make any sense….

That can’t be.

Graduation is still a long way off. Why would she leave Kivotos?

“That doesn’t make sense, Hoshino.”

Right. That doesn’t make sense.

“Yume is right here.”

I looked at Yume, who was smiling beside me. I smiled too because Yume smiled.

“Yume, I’ll give this shield back to you.”

I offered the shield to Yume, but she shook her head without saying anything.

“Are you really not going to use it?”

As expected, Yume smiled without saying anything.

I smiled too.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. If you want it, Yume.”

What Yume wants is what I want.
If Yume wants me to use this shield, I will.

“Okay, let’s go home for today. It’s cold, I think, because it’s night.”

The nights in the desert region are quite cold. I might catch a cold if I stay outside for too long, so I should hurry back.

“Huh? Hoshino?”

Something’s strange.

Why is Hoshino like that?

“Hoshino, why are you crying? Is something wrong?”

I went to Hoshino, who was standing blankly and crying. Even if I wiped away the tears that flowed down her cheeks without resistance, the tears didn’t seem to stop.

Even if I asked Hoshino why she was crying, she remained silent and just cried quietly.

So I kept comforting Hoshino.

Yume also comforted her.

Maybe it was because Yume helped, but Hoshino quickly came to her senses and went back to Abydos with me.

The moon was particularly bright that day.

That’s why it was a particularly memorable night.

It was a series of enjoyable days.

Maybe because I’m spending school life with Yume like before, it feels like time is passing quickly.

The only regret is that Hoshino has become very strange.

She avoids me when I’m talking to Yume… and she never talks to Yume….

There are more than a few strange things.

Could it be that she still hasn’t made up with Yume?

I looked at Yume with that thought in mind. Yume also stared at me intently.

“Yume, haven’t you made up with Hoshino?”

Yume nodded.

As I thought!

That’s right. It was quite suspicious that Hoshino didn’t talk to Yume at all.

But she still hasn’t made up… I should make them face each other by force.

If I don’t, they’ll ignore each other for the rest of their lives.

“Hmm. Should I look for Hoshino first?”

Hoshino quietly left the student council room earlier when I started talking to Yume.

It probably won’t take long to find Hoshino.

That girl, Hoshino, is good at hiding.

“Hoshino? Where are you?”

I called Hoshino’s name while walking through the hallways, but I didn’t get an answer.

I didn’t expect it, so I didn’t think much of it.

In the end, after searching through each classroom, I was able to find Hoshino in one of them.

“Hoshino, you were here!”

Hoshino was lying face down on the desk. She didn’t seem to be asleep.

I went up to Hoshino and poked her. Then she got up with a start and looked at me with empty eyes.

“What is it, Senior?”

I don’t usually like to get straight to the point, but it doesn’t seem good to beat around the bush with Hoshino….

“Hmm… You still haven’t made up with Yume, have you?”

“…”

“If you don’t restore your relationships, it won’t be good for you. So, why don’t you make up soon?”

Hoshino let out a wry laugh at my words. Then she gets up from her seat.

“Are you happy, Senior?”

“What do you mean all of a sudden? Rather than that, Yume is right next to me, so now’s your chance to make up.”

“Answer me, Hime-senpai.”

I flinched at Hoshino’s words, which felt frightening.

I looked at Hoshino with anxious eyes, and she looked at me too.

Still empty eyes. Inside, there’s nothing that should be there, only something sticky.

If I just keep looking at those eyes, I felt like I would fall into the swamp too, so I closed my eyes tightly.

“If you ask if I’m happy… I’m happy. Because I have Yume and you.”

“Oh, really?”

Hoshino approached me, as if she didn’t like what I said.

I couldn’t help but take a step back at the fear rising in my chest.

“Ho, Hoshino…?”

When I take a step back, Hoshino takes two steps closer. When I take two steps back, she takes three steps, and when I take three steps back, she takes four.

Then, as my back touched the wall and I had nowhere else to retreat, Hoshino glared at me, gritting her teeth.

“Stop waking up from your dream, Senior!!! Yume-senpai is dead… She’s dead…!!!”

My brain couldn’t process the information from the sudden words. The truth that I had been ignoring.

“What do you mean? Yume is right here next to me….”

“That day!!!”

Hoshino’s sharp voice pierced my ears.

“That day… You saw it too….”

The voice that pierced me awakened a memory I wanted to forget… a memory I had forgotten.

“The way you died….”

The vast desert that seemed to have no end.

The suffocating air.

Me standing in the middle of it.

And what was beneath me was….

“Ah….”

Yume, in a terrible state.

It was too terrible, a memory I wanted to forget. A memory I had forgotten.

Unlike Yume, who was always smiling, Yume had become a cold corpse.

Yume no longer exists here.

My dream.

“Ah, ah…?”

Now, it’s time to wake up from the dream.

“Ah, ahahahaha…!!!”

I wanted to forget.

I wanted to deny it.

So I forgot.

I had a moment of happiness for a short time. I spent pleasant days with Yume in my dream.

The price of that fleeting dream was too terrible.

“No… No!!!”

“It’s not a dream, Senior.”

“Yu, Yume is next to me…!”

I turned my head and looked to the side.

She’s not there.

“Yume-senpai is, no longer here.”

I know.

I know too.

“Stop it, Senior.”

“Ugh, ugh….”

Maybe it was the truth from the beginning. I just tried to ignore it.

“No… Yume is alive….”

No.
Yume is dead.

I saw it with my own eyes.

Let’s just accept it.

“Yume is alive…!!!”

“Stop it…!!!”

Bang.

My mind cleared up at the sound. I can see Hoshino in my blurred vision.

Hoshino, holding my collar and pushing me against the wall.

“Cut it out! Do you want to deny it so much?”

“What’s wrong with denying it? What’s wrong with that?”

“Senior…!”

“Why, do you want to tear me up like a poster?”

Hoshino’s face contorts.

She lets go of my collar. Then she takes a step back.

She looks at me.

I look at her too.

Hoshino looked like she was hurt.

Maybe I said something harsh. No, I must have said something harsh.

But why am I just looking at her without saying anything?

“…Senior, Senior…”

Fragments of emotion gather in Hoshino’s eyes. Then they flow down.

“…Senior, you’re the worst Senior.”

Hoshino runs out of the classroom.

I looked at the classroom door that Hoshino had left.
Something was flowing down my eyes. I don’t know if it was tears, or something precious.

Maybe it’s both.

My strength left me, and I slumped against the wall and sank to the ground.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry….”

Apologizing to the air, which is useless now.