Since the nurse already left, Minori stopped her bloody nose herself in front of the mirror.
“Wait, has it stopped yet? Could you stop looking at me like that?” Sitting on the bed, she covered the bottom half of her face with her hand.
“You scared me. I thought you were crying.”
“You thought I was crying?”
“Yeah, of course, that’s what any normal person would think.”
That would have paid off—Minori softly mumbled and gave him an embarrassed smile. Taiga had gotten away from them, and since they didn’t know what else to do, they had gone to the nurse’s office to at least get Minori first aid.
“I decided I wouldn’t cry anymore. Takasu-kun, you asked me before how you could keep facing forward, right?”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“And I told you that you have to decide to do that. Do you know… Do you know what I ‘decided’ for myself? I’m going to try my hardest to make my dream come true. In order to do that, I have to stop worrying and crying, and continue moving forward—that’s what I decided. Regardless of reality, this is how I’m doing things. If you understand that, then I think all my work has paid off.”
Minori pressed at the plug she had put up her nose and smiled.
“The reason I’m working so hard is because I’m stubborn.”
What she started talking about then in a bright voice was her younger brother. She talked about her little brother, who had continued playing baseball, gone to Koshien Stadium, and was aiming to eventually become a pro. Then she talked about how she couldn’t keep playing baseball because she was a girl. She talked about how her brother’s dream was prioritized in her family, and how her own dreams were postponed.
“I want to keep playing softball. I want to yell out that my dreams are big, and they’ll come true for sure, too. But I don’t have the skill to join a team after graduating high school. That’s why I’m going to save up and get into an athlete’s college where I can keep playing softball. Then I’ll aim for the top—I want to get into the all-Japan pro team.”
“So that’s why you work all the time…”
“Yep. I was just too scared to put it into words. I was sort of thinking that people would laugh at me or something. But now I want to tell everyone outright. I want to yell it frok the rooftops so everyone can hear—my little brother, my parents, my little league coach, the junior high school teacher who laughed at my dream, the public, the world. I’m going to reach the top! This is what I decided makes me happy and what I’m going for! That’s what I want to tell them. I’m just being stubborn…but I’m going to stop worrying about that, or crying. I’m going to keep going forward. I want to go as far as I can get by myself. I want to become someone who complains to nobody. I’m trying as hard as I can like that… Even if I cry, even if it’s painful, even if it’s hard, I’ll keep my spirits up and carry on.”
Even if I cry, even if it’s painful, even if it’s hard—when Minori said that and he saw her smile, Ryuuji thought about everyone. He thought about himself, Taiga, Ami, Yasuko. Even if they couldn’t say it out loud, they all had something that caused them pain. Some of them probably felt crushed. Some of them had probably given up. The path ahead was long, and no one knew how much longer they could persevere.
It was just that Minori, who was looking straight ahead toward her dream despite the pain, would definitely never change. She would continue to shine as bright as she was now.
Ryuuji found her light blinding, but it was also like salvation lighting the way.
“I’ll believe you’re trying the hardest you can.”
“All right. As long as you believe in me, Takasu-kun, I’m sure I’ll be able to keep working.”
So that was the reason why Kushieda Minori always seemed to shine so blindingly. Of course.
“So this is about after the giant farewell—actually what is a giant farewell? Well anyway, after that, I’m glad I understand what you’re going through now.”
“Takasu-kun, it’s because you tried to understand me. I’m sure that we’ll keep showing each other how hard we’re working and how we’re feeling for a really, really, really long time to come. And that’s going to be happening—”
Minori raised a hand to his face. Naturally, Ryuuji put his own hand against hers.
“—for eternity.”
“Yeah…”
This love was fruitless.
But the emotions that came to life after it—the bond—was an eternal promise. Their hearts were open to each other without deception, and even though they hurt each other so many times before, they had grown so much. Maybe others would laugh at them? Maybe they wouldn’t be understood, and would be whispered about? Regardless, Ryuuji thought, it was like a journey. They might have taken the long route, and grown disheartened along the way, but they finally made it. He made it to the place where he was putting his hand on Minori’s and made it to a time where they made an eternal promise to each other.
“I said everything I wanted to Taiga. I think she probably was listening. I think she heard it…so that’s why I’m going to stop chasing Taiga here.”
Minori took in a small breath. Then she brought her head up high.
“There’s someone else I need to chase down. That’d be someone named Ahmin. She’s someone I really want to be persistent about chasing down, no matter how many times she gets angry, even if we end up fighting again. She’s someone I want to clash with. She’s someone I want to reconcile with. I don’t have anyone else I can fight with like that. I didn’t even know that I could get in a fight with someone like that. I’m pretty sure there’s no one else who would bring out a part of me even I didn’t know about…even though it was so much work.”
He knew all too well what Ami was like. Ryuuji thought that Minori could probably shine a light on the heart of another person just as awkward as him.
As for him, he thought he might stand one more time—or maybe two or three or countless times—in front of Ami’s heart, but at a distance where he couldn’t miss her voice.
“Well, how about we go, Takasu-kun? There are places we should get going to.”