The Aftermath

Arata-kun rushed toward the exit gate of the Academy as soon as the crowd cleared.

“I... Did... I really see him?”

He muttered to himself, only to be abruptly stopped by someone.

“Hey there, you must be Arata-kun, right?” he said with a smile on his face.

“I'm Daiki Hiro. I am a first-year student at Kyousei and your future classmate,” said the boy.

Arata-kun, however, could not care less. He slowly calmed down, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and replied,

“Yeah, nice to meet you, Hiro-kun.”

Arata-kun’s mind gave up on pretending he was merely hallucinating as he faintly remembered the man he saw in the crowd.

Hiro-kun continued,

“I was going to introduce you to my other friends, but sadly, no one wanted to attend this chaotic event.”

Arata-kun replied, “That's fine. I assume they're people from famous families.”

“I will introduce myself when our classes start tomorrow,” he added.

Kujo-san finally finished the interviews and joined the two, exhausted from the reporters' prying questions.

She noticed Arata-kun swaying slightly and placed a hand on his arm. “You look a bit dizzy, Arata-kun. Are you sure you're okay?” she asked, concern evident in her voice.

Before Arata could answer, Hiro-kun quickly stepped forward, pulling a chilled water bottle from his bag and pressing it into Arata’s hand. 

“He’ll be fine, Kujo-san. I'll stay with him and make sure he rests a bit,” Hiro-kun said reassuringly.

Kujo-san’s eyes softened as she glanced between the two boys. Her maid, who had arrived to pick her up, called out from a short distance away.

“I have to leave now,” Kujo-san said apologetically.

“Arata-kun, take it easy today, okay? There will be plenty of time to get used to all this later.” she added as her hands fidgeted with her dress hesitantly.

With one last, worried look, she turned and walked toward the car, her maid following close behind.

Arata and Hiro didn't even look at each other, though their thoughts were the same.

“She really thinks I'm having that much trouble dealing with the reporters and the crowd, isn't it?”

“Yeah,” whispered Hiro-kun, having perfectly guessed his thoughts.

After Kujo-san left with her maid, the campus slowly quieted down around them.

Arata sat in the same position, contemplating the situation after Hiro-kun had left the campus after Arata told him he needed some time alone. As he thought,

“That wasn’t a hallucination, though. Even if it was just a glimpse I saw in the midst of of the crowd.”

“But there's no way Dad’s still alive... That can’t be it. I’ll just clear my head by bantering with Grandpa tonight.”

Arata shrugged his shoulders in defeat, knowing well that his parents were indeed no longer alive. Still, a small part of him clung to the hope that what he had seen was true, as he gazed at the sunset on his way home..

“Arata-kun! What took you so long at that event? I was scared, you know?”

His grandpa hugged him. Arata-kun’s tired gaze softened as the two of them headed into the retirement facility they called home.

After a cheerful yet calm celebration for Arata at the facility, he still couldn’t sleep.

His eyes drooped, worn out from the chaos of the campus event. His heart was still racing at the thought of going to Kyousei tomorrow as a student.

Even so, Arata tried not to think about the faint blur of his deceased father that he had seen in the crowd, and eventually, he fell into a deep sleep.

The Next Day, Arata’s first day at Kyousei