Though she was being half-dragged with Taiga, Minori wouldn’t let go of Taiga’s hand. They bumped into each other and knocked over a desk. Even the chair Minori had been sitting in got knocked over. Taiga whipped around the hand Minori was still holding in an attempt to escape, and Minori braced herself to endure it.
“Taiga…! Are you sure you just want to pretend like he didn’t hear anything?!”
“Le—”
Ryuuji froze with his eyes wide open.
“Takasu-kun is the one who saved you…! But then something happened, and he couldn’t tell you! That happened because of you!”
“Let! Me—”
Ryuuji looked back at Kitamura.
He shook his head.
This isn’t what I want.
He actually did want to know what Taiga’s feelings were. He wanted to tell Taiga how he felt.
“Why Taiga! Why can’t you just be honest with yourself and say it…why can’t you just say it?!”
“—GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Whether it was because her hand was slippery with sweat, or because she was stronger than Minori, Taiga got her wrist free of Minori’s grip. She fell over onto the floor, but then used the momentum to make a break for it, like a bullet. She crossed the classroom in two bounds and tried to open the door she’d previously closed.
“Ugh!”
Taiga looked up at Kitamura, who had made it to the door ahead of her to block her path. Reacting with the reflexes of a wild animal, she headed for escape through another door.
“Dimhuahua—”
Her yell was desperate. Ami was standing right in the way of the other door.
“Ugh, you’ve got the worst look on your face.” She snorted down her nose at Taiga.
Minori stood in front of Taiga, who had nowhere to go, and grabbed her shoulders.
“Look, Taiga! Look at me!”
“No! No no no no nooooooooooo!”
“Who do you think I am?! I’m Minori! I’m you best friend, aren’t I?! You said you loved me, right?! In that case, believe me! Believe in my choice!”
Like an exploding bomb, Taiga flailed her hands around and continued to rampage.
“I believe in you, Taiga! I’m believing in you and that you’re not the type of person who would use me as an excuse in order to keep yourself from getting what you want! Or are you?! Are you actually that kind of person?!”
“Th-that’s not how it is!” Though she finally responded to human language, Taiga’s voice went high like a screech and cracked. “I was just doing it so you’d be happy! I care about you so much that I wanted you to be happ—”
“Cuuuuuuuut the crap!” Minori shouted. “Don’t underestimate me! I’m going to secure my happiness for myself, with my own hands—with these two hands! I’m not gonna let annnnnyone else decide what makes me happy!”
Taiga pushed Minori’s arm away and ran past her, overturning the desks she came across as she did. Minori clambered up onto a desk, seeming to lose her patience.
“Damn it, now you’ve done it!”
Fwoosh! Like a hawk, Minori leapt from the top of the desk and swooped down on Taiga.
“Aaaaaaaaah?!”
…Or, at least, that had been her plan. Uncharacteristically for her, she flubbed the landing and fell flat on her face, just like her friend normally would have.
Whoa, you’re an idiot… Ami muttered.
Taiga made another dash for the door. For a brief moment, she hesitated between the one Kitamura was guarding and the one that Ami was at.
“Looks like this is how it is…” Kitamura said.
“Guess we don’t have any other options,” Ami said.
The two childhood friends moved in sync, as though they were actually siblings, to step away from the doors. They exchanged glances as they stood next to the wall.
“Looks like this is all we can do.”
“Right, right.”
They nodded to each other.
Taiga went through the door Ami had left open and ran out into the hallway. Minori was the first one to yell.
“Aaaaaaaaaahmin?! You traitor!”
Next, Ryuuji stood up.
“Kitamura…!”
As Taiga’s footsteps quickly grew distant, and Minori and Ryuuji exchanged glances. Ami’s sickly-sweet voice shamelessly rang out to them, “Looks like someone’s got to go after her—that is, if there’s someone who wants to.”
He could go after her—and then what?
Ryuuji took in a breath. He stared at the chocolate Taiga had left behind on a desk. He snatched it up and tried to stick it into his pocket, but it wouldn’t fit. In desperation, he shoved it into the front waistband of his pants.
What was he going to do by chasing after her? What was he going to do after finding out Taiga’s feelings? What was he going to do after he reached out a hand to save her and they grabbed each other’s hands?
“Takasu-kun, I’ll go after Taiga,” said Minori. “We still haven’t finished talking. What will you do?”
What will I do?
“I’ll—”
He looked at Minori. There wasn’t anything to think about.
“No matter what happens, I don’t want to leave Taiga. So…”
How would he tell her that? All he knew was that he didn’t have even a bit of hesitation anymore.
He wouldn’t let her go. Like he’d let her. He wouldn’t let her abandon him.
“I’m going after her!”
He felt Minori take in one large breath. She let that breath settle in her gut, gathered herself up, and touched her right hand to her lips. Then she took her hand, and…
“All right. Takasu Ryuuji—here’s a giant farewell for you.”
“Huh?!”
…she lightly hit him on his lips. When she saw Ryuuji’s surprise, her mouth bent up like a child who had successfully managed their mischief.
“Takasu-kun, you go from the left. I’ll take the right. Taiga left her bag in the classroom, so she’s probably headed to the breezeway to get it. We’ll corner Taiga in the breezeway and meet again there!”
No sooner had she said that than she ran out with her skirt fluttering behind her. Ryuuji also flew from the classroom in a fluster. Minori went to the right, and Ryuuji to the left, aiming for the second-floor breezeway. They were flagrantly violating school rules in front of the student council president as they ran through the halls at full speed.
He would follow after Taiga, and then what? What would happen? The passion swelling in his chest fueled his speed as he ran. Now that he decided he didn’t want to leave Taiga alone, what was he waiting for? He didn’t know, but his legs wouldn’t stop. It was fine if he didn’t know. It didn’t matter what happened.
As long as Taiga was there, that was enough.
“Whaaa?! Huh?!”
“Whoa?!”
When Ryuuji and Minori reached the breezeway and came face to face, they didn’t find Taiga there.
“How?! Wait, did she get away?!”
He noticed a cold wind brush his cheek. A window was open in the breezeway between the first and second floors. No way. The two of them turned to stare out the window. It led to the new school building where their classroom was. It wasn’t out of the question that she could have jumped out still in her indoor slippers and already gone back to the classroom.
“The shoe cubbies! The entrance! She can’t leave without her shoes, right?!”
“Right!”
They thought about jumping out from the window, but they got unlucky and a teacher stuck her face out of the building next to them. “What do you think you’re doing?!” she shouted. They pulled their heads back into the window in a fluster and ended up going the long way around to the entrance that shared a building with their classroom.
Ryuuji didn’t think they could catch up with her while going down the stairs. Minori seemed to be feeling the same as she skipped steps while running in front of Ryuuji.
“Taiga! Can you hear me?!” she yelled on some slim chance that Taiga might have been able to hear a floor below them. “Hey Taiga! You always wanted to know didn’t you?! I…I also liked Takasu-kun—Takasu Ryuuji!”
She didn’t even look back at Ryuuji behind her.
“As your friend, I won’t run away from that! I’ve always liked him! And then I covered up those feelings because I thought I needed to give him up for you! I thought that you needed him…but I was wrong! I said it earlier, right?! I get to decide what makes me happy! In the same way, only you can decide what makes you happy! I underestimated you! I’ve decided something! The only way I can be happy is if I do this—if I do it in this way! So…so…Taiga! Show me the way you do things, too!”
When they finally got to the first floor, the remaining students noticed Minori’s loud voice and turned around to look. Minori and Ryuuji, both gasping for air, practically collapsed into class 2-C’s shoe rack.
However, Taiga was already gone. Her shoes were missing, and they didn’t even know whether she had heard Minori.
“Ugh…”
Minori squatted down and covered her face with her hands as she turned down. Ryuuji thought she was about to cry.
“What is that…?!”
“I-I think it’s from when I fell down just earlier… I’ve been tasting blood this whole time. Damn it…I hate this.”
When he peeked at Minori, he saw blood dripping from her nose.