Chapter 25: Something New Between Them

The morning feels normal until Haru and Mina walk into class at the same time and both stop in the doorway like they’ve hit an invisible wall.

Haru clears his throat.

Mina looks at her shoes.

Everyone stares.

Ren leans over to Yuki. “They’re acting weird.”

Yuki nods. “Weirder than usual.”

Since the beach trip, something’s been off.

Not bad.

Just… different.

Haru keeps fumbling every time Mina’s nearby. He drops pens, knocks over chairs, forgets how to breathe. Mina mutters under her breath and calls him an idiot, but she blushes every time she says it.

And the entire class can tell.

During lunch, Haru sits with Ren. He stabs at his rice like it insulted him.

Ren asks, “You and Mina okay?”

Haru jumps. “Why would you ask that? Nothing happened. Everything’s normal. Super normal. Perfectly normal.”

Ren gives him a look. “Right.”

Across the room, Yuki pokes Mina’s cheek until she finally talks.

“It’s nothing,” Mina mumbles. “He’s just… being Haru.”

“But now you look away first,” Yuki says.

Mina stops chewing. “Shut up.”

The tension between them keeps growing, soft but steady, the kind you don’t see in childhood friends unless something is shifting.

After school, Mina heads home alone. She tells herself she’s annoyed with Haru. She tells herself he’s loud and nosy and too stubborn for his own good.

But when she closes her bedroom door, she remembers the beach.

Not the sun or the water.

Just the moment he said, “She’s with me,” with a voice deeper than she’d ever heard from him.

Her chest tightens for a second.

She doesn’t understand it.

She doesn’t want to understand it.

But the feeling stays.

Haru lies on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

He remembers her blush.

He remembers how she looked at him during fireworks.

He remembers how he almost said something stupid.

He rolls around and covers his face with a pillow.

Both of them think:

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Because in their memories—the ones Ren and Yuki know too—Haru and Mina never fell for each other. Not even a little.

This is new.

Too new.

And somewhere in the middle of the night, when Haru goes to get water, he sees the hallway light flicker for a moment. Just a flash. Just enough to notice.

A faint sound follows.

Like static.

Like a chime skipping.

He shrugs it off.

But it lingers.

Something is changing, and none of them realize how deep it goes yet.