Confession (Part 1)

As soon as school let out, Konoe went to the entrance of the School Building to wait for Ichinose. After that, he also wanted to stop by the Student Council and look into the files on Sudo's appeal.

Since school had just ended, the entrance was packed with students. Konoe thought it over for a moment, then went to wait for Ichinose in a corner.

Less than a minute later, Konoe spotted Ichinose in the crowd. Students around her kept striking up conversations, and she smiled and responded as she slowly made her way toward the entrance.

Seeing this, Konoe didn't think he could go up to her directly, so he took out his phone and called her.

"Look in the corner behind the lockers on your left." Ichinose looked toward the corner and saw Konoe waving to her from a short distance away.

After saying goodbye to the students around her, Ichinose hurried over to him.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

"Ichinose, you're really popular. Were all those people from Class B?"

"Not at all. I'm just close with everyone in Class B. Oh! Why don't you come to our classroom so I can introduce you properly? You'll soon be friends with everyone, too."

"...Thanks, but there's no need. What are we doing next?"

"It won't take too much of your time. Let's go somewhere else."

The two walked one after the other, heading toward the gymnasium.

The sun was already setting, and the road was covered in pale yellow light that gave a sense of its warmth. Quite a few people nearby were taking part in Sports Club activities, and cheers and shouts of encouragement occasionally drifted over from a distance.

Before long, Ichinose led Konoe to the back of the gymnasium. The building and surrounding trees blocked the sunlight, making it a little dimmer there. It seemed like a quiet place where people rarely went and they were unlikely to be disturbed.

"Well..." Ichinose took a deep breath and turned around. "Actually, this is about a confession..."

"...What?" Konoe stared blankly, unable to react for a moment.

"I think someone's going to confess to me here!"

"Huh?"

Seeing Konoe frozen in place, Ichinose took out a pink letter sealed with a red heart sticker.

"I still don't quite understand why you brought me here... Do you want me to give you advice?"

"Um... You could put it that way. Actually, the person is a good friend of mine. I don't know much about romance, so I don't know how to turn them down without hurting them. And I still want us to be good friends afterward..."

"You want to turn them down. I think I understand. Can I see the letter?"

"Go ahead."

Konoe opened the letter. The handwriting inside was elegant, and the words sincere. It said things like, "I've been interested in you since the start of the school year," and "I've recently realized how I feel," expressing how the writer had fallen for Ichinose.

"Ichinose, I don't know much about romance either, but even I can see how sincere they are from this letter. Since they're a good friend of yours, I assume you've given it serious thought?"

"Of course."

Konoe thought for more than ten seconds, but still couldn't come up with anything. "...Why not ask some of your other friends in Class B for advice?"

"Actually, the person is also in Class B. I want to keep what happens today from getting out as much as possible. It's fine if I only tell you, Konoe." Ichinose explained anxiously, as if she had something urgent to do.

"Right. Don't worry. I'll keep reading..."

The letter also said, "I want to meet you behind the gymnasium at four o'clock on Friday afternoon." It seemed the writer was serious about confessing.

"Wait! Isn't today Friday? And this is...!" Konoe started to panic, too. He checked the time; it was ten minutes to four.

"They should be here... any minute now." Ichinose took a deep breath. "I want to ask you to pretend to be my boyfriend. If I have that excuse, they'll have no choice but to give up."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier...? No, wait. Since they invited you by letter, you could've written back and turned them down." As he spoke, Konoe kept glancing behind him, afraid someone might suddenly show up.

"If I really liked Ichinose and confessed to you, then came here after making plans with you, only to find a guy standing beside you... And then you told me he was your boyfriend..."

"...Then what?"

"Then I'd never want to see another human being for the rest of my life... Maybe I'd go live in seclusion in some remote mountain." Konoe stared into the distant nothingness.

"Is it really that serious? But..." Ichinose suddenly stopped speaking and looked past Konoe.

"Ah..." Seeing Ichinose's expression, Konoe felt a little despair himself. He slowly turned around, curious to see what the boy from Class B looked like.

To Konoe's surprise, a cute girl wearing a skirt stood in the sunlight.

"Ichinose, is he... Konoe?" The girl stood a short distance away, looking dazed. Konoe had no idea how she'd learned his name.

"Um... I'm sorry, Chihiro... I brought Konoe here without asking..." Ichinose stammered.

Before Ichinose could finish, Chihiro's eyes filled with tears. "Could it be... he's your boy..."

"W-wait!" Konoe shouted, interrupting her. "Even though Ichinose said that, I'm the one who secretly followed her here without permission."

"Huh?" Ichinose tilted her head and looked at Konoe.

Chihiro also wiped away her tears and looked at him in confusion.

Konoe took a deep breath and spoke in a creepy, strange tone. "Actually, I was wandering around near the gymnasium when I saw the adorable Ichinose sneaking over here, as if she had some secret she didn't want anyone to discover. I thought I might be able to uncover one of adorable Ichinose's secrets, so I followed her out of curiosity. But then I realized this seemed like the perfect place for a confession, and Ichinose is so cute that I was worried someone else would get to her first... So I decided to confess to adorable Ichinose before anyone else could!"

Ichinose let out a surprised sound. "...Huh?"

"That's awful! So this is the kind of person Konoe is!" Chihiro said indignantly.

"But... Ichinose said she doesn't want to date girls, and that includes people who look like girls, so... Sob, sob..." Even after giving it his best performance, Konoe couldn't squeeze out a single tear. He covered his eyes with his arm, pretended to cry, and tried to escape.

"Wait, Konoe!" Ichinose tried to grab him, but when she saw Chihiro's expression, she froze for a moment and let him get away.

As Konoe passed Chihiro, he saw the hostility in her eyes, then fled.

Konoe reached a wooden bench by the roadside a short distance away and sat down. He bent forward, head lowered, and rested his arms on his legs, as if he were trying to bury his head beneath the bench.

The distance from the back of the gymnasium to the main entrance was nothing for someone who'd been training for a while, but right now, it wasn't his body that felt tired. His heart was exhausted.

He tried to take deep breaths to calm himself, but each time he did, he found himself sighing instead.

I should just go back. Just as Konoe was thinking this, a crying girl suddenly ran out onto the path. She seemed to notice him, then ran straight over.

By the time Konoe realized it was Chihiro from Class B, she had already sat down beside him.

Chihiro had stopped sobbing, but she couldn't stop the tears from sliding down her face, so she kept wiping them away with her sleeve.

Unable to help himself, Konoe took out a handkerchief and offered it to Chihiro. "...Are you okay? Maybe I'm not the right person to say this, but I still hope you won't be too sad."

"That's... not it. Ichinose just told me everything... including that she asked you to come here. So, thank you, Konoe." Chihiro took the handkerchief and wiped her tears, her head lowered.

Konoe glanced at the Cherry Blossom Hairpin in Chihiro's hair. "I'm the one who should apologize. I feel like I ruined your confession... It must've been hard, right? Working up the courage to confess and all that. Though I don't really understand these things either..."

Chihiro stopped crying and spoke with red eyes. "You probably don't know me, Konoe, but you're pretty famous in our class... I'm Shiratori Chihiro from Class 1-B... Ah."

Chihiro seemed to suddenly realize something. She stood up and ran off.

Before long, Ichinose came over to Konoe. As he started to stand, she pressed down on his shoulder, making him sit back down.

"...I can't believe you did that, Konoe. I might have just had more people call me cute in a row than ever before in my life." Ichinose sat down where Chihiro had been, right beside Konoe.

"Sorry, Ichinose... I couldn't think of anything else to do in the moment."

"I think your approach was flawed, but you helped me understand something. A lie told at a time like this can't solve the problem. It can only hurt someone." Ichinose looked up at the sky. "I was wrong to keep avoiding Chihiro because I didn't want to hurt her. Don't worry, Konoe. I told Chihiro everything, including that you lied just now."

"So how did you respond to Chihiro?" Konoe asked curiously.

"Of course I explained everything properly and turned her down directly. But what you said just now was way too funny. 'I don't want to date girls, so people who look like girls are out, too'? Hahahahahaha! I can't stop laughing when I think about how you got mad over that this morning... Sorry, Konoe." Ichinose clutched her stomach as she laughed.

"What! I only said that lie because... I was trying to help you handle that situation! I don't think I look like a girl at all." Konoe stood up, displeased.

But even when Ichinose later treated Konoe to a meal at the cafeteria, she still kept remembering what had happened and suddenly burst out laughing now and then.