The Difference Between Horikita Suzune and Karuizawa Kei

Emi Eura replied quickly, and Karuizawa Kei immediately felt her worries ease:

"Want to go shopping together this afternoon? I've invited a few other classmates, too. It'll be a good chance for you all to make up."

This was probably the first invitation Karuizawa Kei had received since summer vacation began. The shock of it was so great that she forgot Emi Eura hadn't contacted her at all during the previous month. Right now, Karuizawa Kei desperately needed someone to listen to her worries. Afraid that the invitation might be withdrawn if she took too long to reply, she hurriedly accepted Emi Eura's offer.

After they agreed on a time and place, Karuizawa Kei began thinking about what to wear. If she wanted to change her circumstances and put an end to the bullying, she first had to turn the tide in her class. This outing was a golden opportunity.

Karuizawa Kei dug a white sleeveless dress out of her closet. It was another outfit Kitagawa Ryo had given her. Summer was already here, and the temperature outside was rising day by day. The pale blue dress she'd worn before was no longer suitable for going out.

She'd received the white sleeveless dress the previous summer, when she and Kitagawa Ryo had spent time together by the sea. After taking it out a year later and hanging it in her closet, she could almost smell the sea breeze's distinctive, slightly salty scent.

She and Kitagawa Ryo had walked side by side, hand in hand, along the beach at sunset. The white hem of her dress fluttered in the breeze. Karuizawa Kei had spun around with a delighted smile, the billowing hem tracing a white arc through the air. Holding down her sun hat, she'd asked Kitagawa Ryo, rather smugly:

"How do I look?"

"Beautiful."

Kitagawa Ryo praised her without holding back.

"That's too simple."

Karuizawa Kei tossed the sun hat in her hand to Kitagawa Ryo. Her smooth, glossy, honey-colored hair spilled out as if freed from its restraints, falling to her waist. The sea breeze tousled it across Kitagawa Ryo's eyes. Apparently dissatisfied with his answer, Karuizawa Kei's blue eyes revealed the little pout that was so uniquely girlish.

"That doesn't count. You have to tell me how beautiful."

Kitagawa Ryo shook his head helplessly. He stepped forward, took Karuizawa Kei's hand, and looked straight into her eyes as he answered earnestly:

"So beautiful that I want to be the only one who gets to see you."

"Better?"

A sudden gust of wind blew in through the window. As Karuizawa Kei watched the white dress swaying in the closet, memories came rushing back. It felt as if she'd run into someone who'd been waiting a long time for her—and whom she'd been waiting a long time for, too—on a narrow mountain path barely wide enough for one person. There was the relief of a long-awaited reunion, and the despair of having nowhere left to retreat.

The appointed time drew closer, but the white dress continued to sway there. Karuizawa Kei even had the vague impression that it was looking down on her, as if her past self, dressed in that white dress, were watching her present self with disdain.

She hesitated, unsure whether to wear it. Karuizawa Kei stared silently at the dress for a long time, then finally reached out to it.

She changed into it bit by bit, relieved that it still fit well enough after a year. She carefully smoothed every wrinkle and uneven spot, as though she weren't wearing a dress, but a silver-white suit of armor to protect her fragile self.

But she had grown, after all. As she walked, the dress felt a little awkward. Some parts that had once been loose now clung tightly to her. Wearing this armor, Karuizawa Kei slowly made her way toward the mirror. It was as if the dress weighed a thousand pounds.

In the end, Karuizawa Kei didn't dare look at herself in the mirror. She silently closed the door, greeted her parents, who seemed rather surprised, and left.

Shiina Hiyori soon noticed that Kitagawa Ryo was writing a letter to someone. One day, as she and Kitagawa Ryo were leaving the library reading room together, she asked him about what she'd observed.

"Are you writing a letter to someone, Kitagawa-kun?"

If anyone else had asked such a sudden question, it might have made him wonder whether they were prying into his private affairs. But after a month of getting to know each other, Kitagawa Ryo had a pretty good idea of her personality. She really did just have a habit of expressing herself in ways that seemed to come out of nowhere.

How should he put it?

Looking at Shiina Hiyori, whose expression was calm as she waited for his answer, Kitagawa Ryo found himself thinking, This is what they mean by naturally airheaded.

"Yes. I'm writing to my childhood friend."

"Really? Why not contact her by phone? Is it because international calls are too expensive?"

Kitagawa Ryo shook his head.

"No. It's just that, for certain reasons, I lost her contact information."

"To be precise, it seems her family changed their landline number when they moved."

"Oh."

Shiina Hiyori nodded thoughtfully.

"But if they moved, wouldn't your letter get returned, Kitagawa-kun?"

"Yes. That's why I'm only writing it. I haven't sent it. I just wanted to write down what I've been meaning to tell her these past few days."

Kitagawa Ryo nodded, admitting that what he was doing was a little childish.

"I left in such a hurry back then that I hadn't even met my father and mother beforehand. Then I was suddenly told that one of them was actually some famous person... By the time I came to my senses, I'd already been brought to England to go to school."

"It sounds like something out of 5 Centimeters per Second."

Shiina Hiyori sighed, her eyes narrowed. Then she quickly explained:

"I don't mean that you and that girl won't end up together. I just think childhood feelings like that are rare in real life."

"That's why they're worth cherishing."

Kitagawa Ryo casually went along with her. He looked up at the rosy clouds on the horizon and spoke:

"I have something to do next Friday, so I won't be coming by."

"Okay. What's up?"

In response to Shiina Hiyori's question, Kitagawa Ryo smiled at her.

"Because I'm planning to secretly travel a long way to see her, just like the male protagonist in 5 Centimeters per Second."

He gazed toward the edge of the horizon, where a huge, quiet, blood-red sun was slowly sinking between the city's high-rises.

"But the male protagonist in the story only took a train from Tokyo to Tochigi Prefecture in the Kanto region. This time, I'm secretly going all the way from London, England, to Tokyo."

Kitagawa Ryo tightened his grip on the letter in his hand. It was as if he were speaking to Shiina Hiyori, or perhaps to himself:

"With that kind of effort, surely some heartless screenwriter won't give us an even worse ending."

Shiina Hiyori opened the calendar on her phone and brought up her schedule for next Friday. She changed the entry she'd already written, "Recommend a novel to Kitagawa-kun," to "Read alone." The date next Friday showed August 9. She was already wishing she could skip the day.

She squeezed the backpack behind her. Shiina Hiyori had a habit of keeping books she wanted to recommend to others in her bag, so she could lend them out right away. But since Kitagawa Ryo already had plans, all she could do was smile and say:

"You'll definitely end up together."

"But what kind of person is your childhood friend, Kitagawa-kun?"

"Kei?"

Shiina Hiyori's question brought back memories, and Kitagawa Ryo eagerly introduced her:

"Kei is a girl who's both weak and strong. I suppose people might think she's pitiful, or that she doesn't have the courage to stand up for herself."

"That sounds contradictory."

"People are contradictory by nature. No one's personality can be defined by a single label. You could even say that the person you are at each moment is different. That's what makes each person unique."

Kitagawa Ryo sat down on a bench by the road.

"I want to help Kei change the parts of herself that aren't good, but that's an awfully self-righteous idea."

"So all I can do is stay by her side and watch her grow."

As if he'd thought of something unpleasant, Kitagawa Ryo's gaze turned a little fierce. But then he spoke again as if nothing had happened:

"Growing up is strange, isn't it? Everyone says pain and hardship are necessary for growth. Then, after they've grown up, they credit their success to their hardships and even go out of their way to thank them for making them stronger. That's just strange."

"If someone was bullied at school and abused at home as a child, but still grew up to be a well-adjusted adult, does that mean they have to forgive and accept the people who abused and bullied them?"

Kitagawa Ryo turned his gaze east and slowly closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his familiar smile had returned.

"Hardship can help people grow, but growing up doesn't require hardship. And there's certainly no need to be grateful for it."

"I just want the people I care about to grow up with me, safe and healthy. If some unreasonable hardship comes looking for them, we'll knock it flat."

"If Kei can't do it, I'll do it for her."

Chapter 7: The Difference Between Horikita Suzune and Karuizawa Kei

[Day One: Without telling your parents, you got help from your butler, Mr. Izaki. At last, you found a time when their busy work schedules meant they couldn't keep an eye on you. With Mr. Izaki accompanying you, you boarded a flight from London, England, to Tokyo.

You looked out through the airplane window. The clouds floating in the sky were thick, clump after clump, but had no definite shape. They changed from moment to moment and never stayed in one place, their hazy outlines blending into the blue background.

A child sitting beside you, probably six or seven years old, leaned against the window and excitedly said to his mother:

"That one looks like a flower, that one looks like our dog, and that one looks like a broom..."

You couldn't make out any definite shapes in the clouds he pointed to. But perhaps it was precisely their uncertain nature that made people imagine different things.

People were simply projecting their feelings onto clusters of tiny water droplets. Once you realized that, looking at the clouds naturally made you think of fluffy cotton candy, and of the night of the Fireworks Festival, when you'd reached out to wipe the strands of candy from the girl's lips.

You rested your head on your hand and watched the clouds, a smile slowly appearing on your face.

In shapeless forms, people used their own will to draw shapes and place their hopes in them. Whether clouds or stars, turning them into objects or constellations—that was the uniquely human power of imagination. Or perhaps it was a lie you told yourself.

Your plane arrived in Tokyo on the morning of August 9.]

[Unlocked Story CG: Lying]

[Lying: I don't have to lie. Why should I lie?]

[Read this story CG? (It may help you with your upcoming game.)]

"So my parents knew all along that I was secretly coming to Tokyo with Grandpa Izaki?"

Amid the crowds at the international airport, Kitagawa Ryo pushed his suitcase in front of him. He'd tucked all his important documents and credit cards into the innermost pocket of the lining. Looking a little helpless, he turned to the man in his fifties beside him and asked.

"Of course. Did you really think I had enough pull to take you out of the country in secret, young master?"

Mr. Izaki patted Kitagawa Ryo on the head. For the past thirteen or fourteen years, he'd raised Kitagawa Ryo almost entirely on his own. Though Izaki had been entrusted to do so by the Kitagawa Family, after spending so many years together, he and Kitagawa Ryo had developed the bond of family. In fact, before Kitagawa Ryo had even met his parents, he'd always called Mr. Izaki simply "Grandpa," without using his surname.

"...Grandpa Izaki, do you know why they're doing this?"

"Maybe they're trying to make it up to you, young master. I don't know the details. There may be something else they need you to do, too."

Mr. Izaki spoke vaguely, trying to change the subject.

"But didn't you come to Tokyo this time to find the Karuizawa family?"

"Yeah! I came to find Kei."

Hearing the surname Karuizawa made Kitagawa Ryo perk up at once.

"Grandpa Izaki, did you find out where they moved?"

"We're still looking into it, but we should hear something soon. Maybe in two hours?"

Mr. Izaki glanced at his phone and estimated the time.

"Let's put our luggage away first, then find a restaurant and get something to eat."

Kitagawa Ryo knew there was no point getting impatient, so he nodded.

"Actually, Gaku asked me to do something, too, so I'll wait here for now."

"Horikita Manabu?"

Mr. Izaki thought of the composed young man who often came to visit their home.

"Sounds like you two are close. He certainly seems to have good character and ability. He's a friend worth having."

"Gaku's only two years older than me, but he really is impressive. I hear he'll be going to Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School next year."

Kitagawa Ryo readily agreed.

"But he has a troublesome problem of his own. You could even say it's the reason he went abroad during middle school and plans to attend a boarding school like Advanced Nurturing High School."

"Does it have something to do with what he asked you to do?"

"Yeah."

Kitagawa Ryo and Mr. Izaki finally left the airport with their suitcases. The temperature in Tokyo was still high in early August, so Kitagawa Ryo unzipped his jacket. As the two of them searched for the driver they'd arranged to meet, they chatted.

"Gaku has a troublesome little sister. I think she's about my age. Since he hasn't seen her in years, he wants me to go check whether she's still the way she used to be."

"The way she used to be... What do you mean?"

"He didn't explain it clearly, either. Anyway, Gaku told me to take a look at her from a distance, see how she's doing, and send him the details."

"I see. Do we need to look up any information about her?"

"No. Gaku already gave me her name, school, and address."

They found the driver and loaded the luggage into the trunk. Once Kitagawa Ryo had settled into the back seat, he took a photograph of a girl from his bag and handed it to Mr. Izaki.

"Horikita Suzune."

He read the girl's name aloud.

"Let's go to this restaurant. If Gaku's information is right, Horikita should be eating there around this time."