In love, being exceptional yourself was important—extremely important, even.
Most importantly, Yukino Yukinoshita was exactly Hachiman Hikigaya's type. She suited his tastes.
In that regard alone, Yui Yuigahama could no longer compare to her.
Although Yui Yuigahama and Yukino Yukinoshita each possessed their own kindness, charm, and virtues, one could feel Yui Yuigahama burning as fiercely as a red flame, and sense the magnificence of that blaze.
Yet she could never be like Yukino Yukinoshita—a blue flame, burning with tragic beauty, solitary and dazzling, inspiring admiration while breaking one's heart.
What Hachiman Hikigaya longed for in his heart was precisely the latter. That was something that could not be changed.
Yui Yuigahama was ordinary, yet outstanding. Many people liked a girl like her and wished they could have such a girl in their lives. But likewise, some people liked looking for trouble. Even knowing full well that it was trouble, they would still seek it out—like Hachiman Hikigaya.
When it came to her love for Hachiman Hikigaya, Yui Yuigahama was not inferior to Yukino Yukinoshita in the slightest.
For Hachiman Hikigaya's sake, both of them had acted. From the complicated kindness they had shown him upon their first meeting, to the extra concern they gave him after coming to know him deeply; from changing how they addressed Great Teacher to the more intimate Hikki, to that near-confession at the festival.
Yui Yuigahama had always been trying, even if she could only watch his back time and time again, shedding tears alone again and again.
She understood Yukino Yukinoshita's love for Hachiman Hikigaya. She understood that Hachiman Hikigaya liked Yukino Yukinoshita. She understood even more that she was their mutual friend, which was why she had been unwilling to take that step for so long. Yet she could not suppress the