Today, in the morning of the Minase household, it started with my helpless howl.

“Wake up! Hey, wake up, Nayuki!”

I banged the door.

“Mm…”

“Nayuki, Yuichi. Breakfast’s ready.”

“I’m coming now! Hey, can you hear Akiko calling you?”

Bang, bang, bang, bang.

“Ku?”

After a day’s bang, Nayuki came out of the room at last with her eyes half-closed.

“I don’t want to run to school with you any longer!”

Even though I said that, I still run with Nayuki every morning to school.

“We’re out.”

Morning with bright sunlight and cool wind.

“It’s already spring…”

We should be running for our lives, yet Nayuki comfortably greeted the wind.

I didn’t know what to say—to call her capable as the captain of the track team, or explain to her her conceitedness.

“Oh, it’s sakura petals.”

Smiling, Nayuki caught the falling petals.

Every day felt like repeating the same scenery, but the seasons do change, albeit slowly.

“Nayuki, do you like the spring?”

“Yeah! How about you?”

“I think the winter’s better.”

“Why? Don’t you hate the cold?”

“I still hate it now.”

Sadly, I couldn’t make snowmen in the spring.

During lunch break, I walked to the cafeteria with the same person.

“Aizawa, you’re still eating curry? The best thing now is Chinese rice with meat and vegetables, you know.”

“Mind your own business. I like curry.”

I rejected Hitagawa’s recommendation.

Nayuki looked at my plate with awe.

“It’s fine, but why are you always eating double servings?”

“Because I seem to have a bigger appet.i.te.”

“You don’t eat that much at home.”

Nayuki showed confusion with her tilted head.

“It’s about time for people to show up in the court.”

Kaori looked through the wide windows. The court was only unpopular in the winter. In the warm seasons, many students like to go there to have their outdoor lunch.

Abruptly, I stood up and checked the refrigerator at the counter.

I didn’t know whether it had been sold out or it didn’t restock. It was empty inside.

Was it because of the warmer weather? Students do surprisingly know what is best to eat at the court.

Days were tranquil, but I didn’t feel bored pa.s.sing each and every day.

One time, when I ran an errand for Akiko to buy something at the shopping district, Nayuki suddenly said something.

“Speaking of which, that girl…have you ever met Ayu recently, Yuichi?”

“No. It’s pa.s.s the season for taiyakis. I bet she’s gone to hibernate for the spring.”

“Hibernating in the spring, uh?”

“Don’t mind the details. Why are you bringing her up?”

“Because I’m starting to remember something.”

The two of them met Ayu in front of the shop selling kid’s stuff.

“Do you remember a girl you really got along with in this town seven years ago?”

“…I’ve forgotten already, but now that you say so, I do have an impression.”

As the piled snow melted, spring slowly arrived to the streets. I gradually recovered from the memories the snow covered.

“Are you saying that she is Ayu?”

Seven years ago, though, I lost that child in front of my eyes.

The heavy sadness of the episode, how the girl sobbed, how it was painful and tragic, was enough to s.n.a.t.c.h away all the memories I had.

“If that’s the case, the wings behind her bag were real.”

“Mm…”

“Anyway, we’ll certainly meet when the snow starts falling again.”

Let’s see, then.

But now…

The windows of the school were open, the curtains fluttering in the wind. The air of new life, the court filled with students, school transformed into an unfamiliar place to me.

“What are you doing here?”

Sitting alone on the bench at the court, I saw a girl wearing the uniform with a green ribbon.

“Can’t I come?”

“Well, if you don’t take a good rest at home, your curable sickness…might become incurable.”

“Don’t worry. From today onwards, I’m going to school again.”

“I see…”

I forced myself to lift up the face I had brought down and smiled mischievously.

“But if you’re starting today, you’ll have to retake the first year again.”

“I hate people who say those things.”

That was the line I liked to hear the most.

But not yet able to accept this reality, I couldn’t look straight at this girl.

“I bought a lot today.”

The girl was holding a paper bag.

“I had lunch already.”

“No. You have to finish it even if you have to force yourself.”

She pa.s.sed the bag to me.

Inside, there were the vanilla flavour, but also strawberry, chocolate mint, coffee, green tea…and all other sorts of ice cream.

“Compared to the hot weather, eating it when it’s warm is better.”

“Of course.”

Moving my eyes stiffly, I finally met them with the girl’s.

Small and tender, her skin was still white as snow, but her rose-coloured cheeks and her glamorous and lively lips coupled with her clear eyes looked prettier.

The girl of snow in the cold weather had now transformed to the dazzling girl of spring.

“It’s called a miracle because it doesn’t happen.”

“Yeah.”

“Did I lie?”

“Yeah.”

“But…”

Her voice was trembling. Her usual mild smile deformed.

“It is okay if I cry now?”

“If you don’t, I wouldn’t know what to do.”

“Why?”

“Men cannot cry first, I guess.”

“Haha, figures.”

At the same time as she spoke, the bag of ice cream fell on the floor. She flew into my arms.

“Shiori…”

“Uu, uu…Yuichi…senpai…Yuichi-senpai…Yuichi-senpai…”

Shiori who had never shed a single tear in front of anyone else now bursted in tears like a child.

“Actually, I don’t want to die…I hate saying goodbye…I hate being alone…I hate it.”

I embraced tightly my lover who was sobbing. I thought I wouldn’t ever feel this warm feeling, but I did. Spring had come, certainly.

In the serene park, I could hear water moving.

At a corner, Shiori and I looked at each other, between us an aqua-blue sketchbook.

“Say, can I just move a little bit?”

“No.”

Shiori looked serious. She used crayons of many colours. The new sketchbook and the crayons were my present for her.

“When can I move?”

“When I’m finished.”

“That’s quite impossible…”

“Uu…”

Lowering her head, she looked at me with protesting eyes.

“I hate people who say those things.”

“What you said hurt me, so before I finish the entire portrait, you’ll have to remain completely still,” Shiori commanded with a finger.

Agreeing reluctantly, I fell into silence with the surroundings.

“Yuichi-senpai.”

While rubbing the paper with the crayons and looking at the sketchbook, Shiori said.

“Have you thought of this? Like…we’re living in someone else’s dream.”

“What?”

I couldn’t give a good reply to this sudden thought.

Not really expecting much out of me, Shiori smiled docilely and continued, “To someone who is dreaming, we’re the people appearing in that person’s dream. But this is reality to us, so that person is instead in the realm of the dream.”

“…”

“That person made a really long dream, as if forgotten to wake up. For a long time…Although that person is looking for the chance to wake up, that person fails to find it.”

Looking for something…

“But because that person looked for and waited so long, that person got a present. That person could make a wish come true in the dream. Whatever wish it may be. Really, whatever wish…let’s say…”

Shiori suddenly lifted her head up.

“if that person wished, that person could save a girl with a heavy illness.”

In that instant, Shiori must be staring at that person in the realm of the dream.

“What I said sounded profound and cool, don’t you think?”

“I wouldn’t say it’s cool, though.”

“Yuichi-senpai, you’re rude!”

I laughed at Shiori who was irritated.

In my heart, I knew this person. Maybe, the present this person gave us was Shiori’s miracle.

Could we meet? In a dream, I meant.

Perhaps when the season of snow pays us a visit next time…

“We have to make a snow man this winter.”

“A big one, right?”

“I hope it’ll be 50 metres wide.”

“Let’s do it!”

It was spring.

The wind lightly flipped a few pages of the girl’s sketchbook.

Both the girl in the drawing and the girl in front of me were smiling from the bottom of their hearts.

-fin-