Chapter 1: Confessions Are Fun When They Happen Too Late

On the day of his graduation, Haruto wanted to walk the halls of the school one last time.

"Wait! They've added that weird thing that plays movies right on our last day? How is that even fair?"

"You mean the projector?" Haruto answered with a sigh. 

Of course, he wasn't walking these halls alone. The one who kept him company was another boy going by the name of Kobura Kenta (古村 健太). As a boy who'd come from a forgotten village to experience city life, Kenta's high school years have mostly passed by with him marveling at how far technology had progressed.

"Call it however you want, but I'm telling you... That thing's holding spirits inside! There's a god right there whom we've been forcing to play those gross biology videos! We're all sinners, Haruto!"

Another sigh.

"Okay, man. Whatever rocks your boat. As long as you don't run off and start chanting another norito on the school's property we're—"

Haruto didn't bother to finish his idea, and he didn't even bother to look beside him. Instead, passed the already open door that led to his old classroom, and he went straight for the desk where the projector had been placed.

In front of that desk, there stood Haruto's friend. He was on his knees, his forehead touching the floor, speaking hard-to-understand prayers up until the point Haturo stepped on his head, trying to see if it would go through the floor.

If anything, today wasn't much different from the others, and the son of the priest named Kobura, acting his usual, made Haruto's heavy heart feel a bit lighter.

*giggle*

As the two were clowning around, both their ears picked up a soft voice, and as is natural for two young boys, they both stopped what they were doing to look for its source.

There, on the other side of the door, they barely managed to catch a glimpse of a girl laughing at them before she ran away, and a glimpse was all that was needed.

"Shirakawa Yuurei!? Haruto, that was Shirakawa Yuurei, wasn't she?"

"I think so... I never really got to know her—"

"And why are you sitting there like that? She's getting away!"

Getting up from his praying position with no issue, as if his forehead hadn't left a dent in the floorboards, Kenta dashed out the door and into the hall, his eyes open wide as if he were out on a hunt. Following him out was Haruto, with much less eagerness.

"She's gone!..." the overreacting boy said as he fell on his knees.

"Kenta, what's this about? Do you know that girl?"

"Who doesn't know Shirakawa Yuurei in this school? The beautiful, cute, silent but deadly, one look to break your heart Shirakawa Yuurei?"

"One look to break your—"

"That was my chance, Haruto! She was laughing at how funny we are! It was my chance to confess my undying love to her!"

Hearing the strong words spoken by Kenta, who was grabbing onto Haruto's shirt and wiping his nose on it, the later didn't seem too impressed. Regarding this scene that he had by now grown accustomed to, there was only one thing he wanted to confirm.

"Kenta..."

"What?"

"What's Shirakawa-san's favorite thing to do during lunch break?"

*Sniff * "How am I supposed to know that?..."

And that answer was confirmation enough for Haruto. Kenta didn't feel anything for Yuurei. At least nothing that he wasn't feeling for any other pretty girl.

"Come on. Get up and let's go..."

Thus, Kenta grabbed his hand and got on his feet. Judging by his face alone, he had already forgotten all about the girl he was crying for seconds ago.

"You're right. We should grab something to eat. What about that place near the campus? We have to get used to our university soon!"

"Hey, you two! Over here..." a soft voice resounded from two classrooms away.

"We're coming!" Haruto answered. He then grabbed Kenta, and dashed to where that voice was coming from. 

Although not as desperate as Kenta, a boy couldn't resist that call nonetheless.

*****

In the empty classroom, the two boys were doing their best to catch their breath before the cute girl that had called them over.

The girl, going by the name of Shirakawa Yuurei, was sitting in a chair before them, facing the board.

"This is the last time we're seeing this board... Am I right?"

Suddenly, the atmosphere turned gloomy.

"Yeah... it would seem like it..."

Their conversation only amounted to that, and then silence took over. That was the case at least for a short while, until Kenta did what he knew best and jumped on his knees next to the girl.

"Yuurei-chan? So why is it that a cutie like you has called us here? The truth is I..."

"I'm sorry, Kobura-kun, but could you leave me and Haruto alone for a bit?"

"Haruto..."

The young man—whose first name had been spoken lightly by someone he didn't even know—tried to repeat her words, but the sound of his voice was nothing compared to the loud crack that came from Kenta, who had turned into a fragile ice sculpture out of nowhere.

Again, silence. Only this time nobody broke it, for the one who would usually assume that role was now nothing more than a well-made piece of art waiting to fall apart.

"Okay then... Haruto, would you come with me for a bit?"

Still astonished by how she was calling him, the boy only nodded and followed Yuurei, leaving behind his friend-turned-ice—who shattered the moment the door was shut.

*****

She walked in front of Haruto as they both went down the stairs. Not too close but not far, she always kept herself two steps away no matter the pace. Haruto had already changed the walking speed three times, testing her, and he was about to do it a fourth time were she not to turn around.

Without a single word, Yuurei grabbed the boy by the hand, but then she continued walking. Still in front. Still the same distance. Only, the one dictating the pace had now changed.

It's hot... the boy thought as his consciousness went into his hand that was being held. Looking at the pair of palms that had come together, he came to also understand where that heat was coming from. It came from Yuurei's soft hand, having a reddish hue that was nowhere else on her skin... except for the cheeks that the boy had no way of seeing clearly.

With his pulse above the usual range, Haruto's senses also went out of control. His sense of smell was the first one to start acting up, and suddenly, a floral smell unlike any he had come across before filled his nostrils.

Looking at the source of that pleasant smell, Haruto's eyes fell on the slim silhouette of the girl in front. After all this time spent in school, he was well versed in looking past the uniform all the girls wore to guess how they looked like. He saw Yuurei's slim waist and slender arms. From where the skirt began, he could also gauge that she walked proudly on a pair of unusually long legs. But most of all,

Ah, a white strand...

Haruto was captivated by the girl's dark, perfectly combed heir. It was so well kept that from his side it looked as if it were a whole—like those dolls that have the strands painted over a piece of plastic to hint at having hair, yet hers didn't look that cheap.

The only exception from the rule of uniformity was one hair strand that stood perked up as if to rebel from the rest, and as irony would have it, it was a strand that forgot it should be black in color.

"Haruto, I like you..."

"Huh?"

Lost in thought, the boy had taken notice of his surroundings only when Yuurei turned towards him and spoke those words.

They were on the sidewalk behind the school, and the pretty girl he was admiring was now looking at him with determined eyes and a straight face, any hint of redness having long faded.

What's more, she seemed to have said something, but Haruto must have misheard it. It couldn't have been that she said "I like you," so what did she say?

Her sentence having not yet fully registered in the boy's mind, Haruto stood there like a statue, giving no answer whatsoever.

What's this? It's all moving way too fast.

Who knows how much time had passed? Seconds? Minutes? Days? No matter, it was way too fast that she opened her mouth again and continued speaking, but her first words having not registered yet, the boy heard none of the ones that followed.

Instead, he saw the girl's face turning beet red. She then covered it with her palms, turned around, and ran for the opposing sidewalk.

"No... Wait!"

But his words came out too late. Same for the hand he had stretched to catch Yuurei. She was already in the middle of the street, and a truck from the left was approaching fast.

The girl's words, together with whatever might have happened mere seconds ago, everything was overwritten by a loud honking sound. 

What mattered more was what Haruto was looking at, about ten meters to his right, where the pretty girl with a strand of white hair was laid still in front of a truck with a dented hood.