Episode 17 – My Childhood Friend Shouldn’t Know About Fate

My name is Miuchi Asuka, I’m the youngest of three siblings.

I have two older brothers, and we often played together.

That’s why when I was young, I played mostly with boys.

Perhaps because I played baseball and soccer with my brothers and his friends, I had a manly and strict personality at that time

That’s no wonder, because my father had a strong sense of justice, and I was the one who inherited that character mostly.

At that time, I met a boy who was the same age as me. 

His name is Matsudaira Riku. I called him Rikkun and he called me Asu. 

We didn;t go to the same school because we were in different areas, but I remember that we used to play a lot in the park.

That kid had a rather reserved personality, and the kind of boy who would follow a girl like me. He was attached to me because sometimes I helped him when he was being bullied.

However, when we turned 10 years old, his parents moved away.

When I heard about it from him, I couldn’t hide my shock at the fact, and I remember going home without even saying goodbye when we parted.

When I got home, I cried all night while still in shock.

Was this my first time falling in love?

When I think about it now, I’m surprised that I still have those feelings. 

Then, one day when I entered middle school, I started to play with my brothers less and less, and I realized something.

Perhaps due to the fact that I played with boys more often than girls, I had a hard time talking with the girls around me.

The girls around me talked about cute things, clothes, and their favorite idols, and I, who couldn’t understand them, smiled bitterly, but somehow, I tried to blend in.

I had a complex about my tomboy personality and way of thinking, so I began to admire clothes and cute things, and my masculine personality gradually faded away.

One day, I started to visit a website recommended by my friend. It’s a novel site called Kakeyome.

At first, I was just surfing the web, but one day, I was attracted by a certain novel.

“I Fell In Love With You Who’s Standing in the Rain” it’s a web novel.

The content was full of youthful stories, and it was a romance novel that I would have surely stopped reading in like 30 seconds.

However, as I entered puberty, this novel seemed somewhat dazzling to me, and I began to yearn for a destined love.

It was the summer of my third year in middle school. I still remember how happy I was when I learned that the author had decided to change his pen name and make his debut while reading his novel.

However, I was surprised that the author made his debut under the name Matsudaira Riku.

It goes without saying that i felt a sense of destiny that his name was the same as Rikkun, a boy i used to play with when i was a kid, and that the author was the same age as me, i immediately became his fans.

However the author said that he has an exam, so the debut itself was postponed until april when we entered the first year of highschool. And I was overjoyed to hear that a book signing would be held at a nearby large book store on the release date.

The person whom I felt destined to meet was unexpectedly going to hold a book signing in the same local city.

There was no way I could not go. 

I was encouraged by the fact that I was going to book signing and worked hard to study for the exam.

Even though I was going through a difficult time, I knew that I could meet the author in april.

I was able to do my best no matter what when I thought that the author might be “Rikkun”.

The continuation of Matsudaira sensei’s novel, which he uploads several times a month, also ignites my heart.

“I can’t lose to sensei who writes novels while taking exams even though he’s the same middle school student as me ! !.” With that thought in my mind, I was able to pass the exam and pass the school of my choice.

 And spring arrived, I made my highschool debut on the day of the entrance ceremony.

My heart was racing at the entrance ceremony, which was held in a bright atmosphere.

I was looking forward not only to the beginning of my new life….but also to the book signing session that is coming up this week.

The entrance ceremony is over, and we’re divided into each class and enter the  classroom.

My class was a special class where there were a lot of girls and some boys in the class.

We introduced ourselves in our first homeroom in high school.

As my classmates introduced themselves, my attention was drawn to a certain male student.

It was the back of the boy whose face was covered by his long hair.

I could see that the boy was wearing glasses, but I couldn’t see his face clearly.

As the self-introduction progressed, that boy’s turn came around.

[I’m Kaizei Riku….. Nice to meet you.] he just said that and sat down quickly.

There was another girl in the class, Kaizen san who was asked if she was his sibling, but she denied it.

However, it was something that didn;t matter to me.

I felt something nostalgic in his voice and his back figure.

There was something I wanted to confirm about him, and I was filled with vague feelings throughout the homeroom.

school ended in the morning after homeroom was over.

Someone in the class came up with the idea of holding a social gathering to promote friendship within the class.

The class decided to go to karaoke, and I also decided to participate because there was something I wanted to confirm with Kaizei kun.

However, he didn’t participate in the social gathering.

It never occurred to me that perhaps my fate might have been different if I had spoken to him that day.