Daiki continued to watch until Wakaba entered the house.

Even after Wakaba entered her house, he continued to stand in the yard.

The scene he had just seen kept playing in his mind.

After standing there for a while, his mother came out of the front door.

“Daiki?”

Perhaps he had been thinking so much about today that he didn’t even hear his mother’s voice.

She said she had been calling for him many times, but he had not noticed her at all, so she had come outside.

“Is everything all right, Daiki?”

Suddenly coming back to himself, Daiki said,

“I’m sorry, I’m fine!

I thought I saw something in the yard, so I just looked!

I didn’t see anything, so everything is fine!”

He went inside the house and went straight to the bathroom.

After showering, he took a bath.

Decided to soak more slowly than usual.

While soaking in the bath, all the scenes of the day came back to his mind.

Despite not wanting to think about anything else, he couldn’t stop thinking about them.

By the time everything had calmed down, he felt like he was going to get a little tipsy, so he got out of the bath.

Still a little tipsy, he decided to lie down on the sofa in the living room and take a short rest.

His mother, seeing him, immediately realized that he had gotten a little too hot, so she gave him a drink and held an fan over his head.

“Daiki, are you all right?

It’s unusual. Is there something wrong?

You looked like that earlier, did something happen?”

She asked him as she looked up at him with a fan.

Daiki said,

“I was having so much fun at the festival that I had to take a long bath in the tub to relive it.”

Daiki replied.

He closed his eyes and tried not to talk until he calmed down.

His mother had her own thoughts, but she could not force Daiki to listen to what he did not want to say, so she kept looking up at him with a fan for a little while.

He felt a little better, so he decided to return to his room.

He told his mother.

“I feel much better!

Thank you!

I’m going to bed!

Good night.”

And he went to his room.

His mother was still worried.

But she knew that something had happened with Wakaba.

But being young, she decided not to tell Wakaba about today, thinking that tomorrow things would be back to normal.

Daiki was still thinking about it when he entered his room.

Still, it was late and he decided to lie down on his bed.

After returning home, he realized that he had not looked at his cell phone, so he checked it and found that everyone had contacted him.

Of course, Wakaba had contacted him too, but he didn’t want to respond to her right now.

He checked the messages from his friends and replied that he had arrived safely.

One of them said

“Wakaba was worried that you didn’t reply to her when she contacted you?”

And there was a message from a female friend.

After replying to the friend, he checked Wakaba’s message as well.

“I’m sorry I left before you.

Did you get home safe?”

At first it came.

Wakaba called me back too.

“Is something wrong?

Are you okay?

Call me as soon as you see your cell phone.”

Another message came in.

Not knowing what to say back.

“Sorry, I was in the bath!

I’m fine!

You cool your feet and then go to bed!

Good night.”

He decided he was in the bathtub.

And with an appeal to sleep so that the exchange doesn’t even have to be made.

“I was worried something was wrong!

But thank God! You look okay!

Now I’m relieved, I’m going to bed!

Good night!”

Wakaba immediately replied.

Daiki felt happy, but he could not be honestly happy today.

“You seemed to be having a good time with Shiraishi…

A beautiful couple, well-matched…”

Again, he was lost in thought.

Scenes kept coming to his mind like a loop.

Before he knew it, he fell asleep.

Daiki was also dreaming.

He was gazing at Shiraishi and Wakaba talking happily, and Wakaba blushing as Shiraishi carried her on his back, and himself staring at her alone from a distance.

In his dreams, he even thinks it’s the best thing to do.

Daiki is afraid that his normality will be broken.

He controls his emotions unconsciously.

He believes that the best way to prevent the breakdown of normalcy is to keep the relationship as it is now, unchanged.

If he is always spoiled by Wakaba, he will be a hindrance to her.

He will continue to watch over Wakaba as he has in the past, and as a childhood friend, slightly further removed from her than before.

He was dreaming, but he thought that on his own.

Daiki acts when he thinks like that.

He is accustomed to holding back.

It may be an immature idea, but for Daiki, it was the right thing to do.

“After the summer vacation, I will gradually distance myself from Wakaba and support her with her love life.”

Wakaba is not in love with anyone.

But to Daiki, it looked that way.

He is close to her, yet he can’t ask her about it.

He is close to her, yet he can’t understand her.

Little by little, they are crossing paths…

End of volume 1