The guilty verdict.

Today was a school day, and today was also the day of the 'date' with Sakiko-san. But I don't feel excited about it at all. Rather I feel guilty about something. This whole situation feels wrong. At this point, I don't even know how I am so calm about this. This feels like a joke, like someone is playing a very nasty prank on me.

At first I thought Ayane was just joking— maybe I didn't think that, but her changing so suddenly made me question about it, not that I doubted her. But her expression and eyes told me she wasn't the one playing the prank. My sister is good at solving these kind of puzzles well, she read a lot of mystery novels after all. But it's something between me and Ayane, so I don't want others to come and solve, though a little help won't hurt.

Oh, thats right. Its a problem between me and Ayane, but instead of solving that problem first, I am going on a date with a seemingly random person. How would Ayane feel if she knows this? I don't know. But I sure know how would I feel if I heard amidst something like this, Ayane was going on a date with someone completely random. Just imagining it is making me cry.

I see... so this is the reason of my guilt... my reason for feeling like it was cheating...

"But what can I even do in this situation without this..? I don't have any other leads. Its like there is one piece in the puzzle that is missing." I mumbled during class, putting a little extra force than necessary. It broke the lead of my pencil.

The paper on my notebook didn't have todays class notes, I noticed. Instead, it was a list of everything that happened in the past few days, trying to connect everything together to find an answer.

Before I knew it, lunch break has already started. As I walked through the hallway, I felt a zap— a few zaps actually. Someone was eyeing on me.

"Oh right, I forgot to add this." At this point, I didn't know if I was just paranoid or my mind's nervous system was off. Why would someone keep an eye on me?

But the most hurtful thing I feel is that, Ayane has the answers to all of these questions, but she won't tell. She told me she trusts me, and she really does— I know this much, after all the things that happened. She also told me her past. Ayane was back to her old, lifeless self. After so much time we spent together, I felt she was healing. She was smiling, giggling, joking around and having the best time of her lives... but now, I feel like all the progress had lost. She went back to level 1.

"Hello, Kanako-kun. I see you are pretty prepared!" I heard as I was leaning on the school gate.

"Heya." I replied. I could already see people eyeing on us as they were leaving the school. It didn't felt right. I wanted to hide. What if Ayane sees it...?