The sky is a vivid purple. Run sits in the park alone looking at it.
Yuuko sits besides her, "Mind if I take a seat?".
"What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to make sure you were okay after what happened today, and your mom said you might be here. So I guess I should ask you the same thing."
"This is the park, me and Tooru met." Run says, "We used to laugh and play all day long, and even back then she was so little. Sometimes she'd fall, and I'd bring her to her mom. Though also sometimes she'd have to help me get unlost trying to find her."
Run rubs the back of her head, while Yuuko smiles and nods.
"So what of Hideki? Do you miss him?"
"At first I was sad." Run says, "I'd never lost someone before, but after a while I was fine. To be honest, I never felt that special bond you talked about, kind of like we have."
"Like have?"
"Anyway, I was happy to see my brother again when he came by. He's not a bully or anything. He just wanted to ask him some questions to see if he's a good guy. But apparently, he fell down, and immediately said he'd break up with me before running away."
"So he did?", Yuuko laughs nervously.
Run nods, "My brother said, love isn't just sweet, it can be sour too, and a guy who would give up on me that easy, should just be forgotten about."
"Well as long as it's what you really wanted."
"Yup." Run says, "But it's not enough, just to be persistent. Everyone is a person like any other, and you need to let them have their space to be themselves as well."
"Did your brother tell you that too?" Yuuko says.
"Actually Nagi told me that one."
Yuuko stands up, "Well I guess I should be on my way." Run grabs her hand, "Hold on. Can you stay a little longer?" she smiles, "If that's what you want?"
Yuuko smiles Back, "Sure."
One week later...
Tooru served at her suspension and is back at school. She didn't see Run and she didn't look for her.
Herself, once considered someone smart and dependable by her entire class, is now never called on. The questions skip by her, no group would have her when it came to projects, and her classroom duties fell on someone else.
Things go on this way for weeks with little change, while Tooru keeps up the downward forecast.
Eventually Miho (Miporin) and Yutaka approach her while she's eating lunch in the stairwell.
"I'm really sorry about what happened." Yutaka says.
"It's not your fault." Tooru says, "Don't worry about it."
"Well Miporin still punished me for it anyway. Look! I still have the mark." she starts pulling up her shorts, then Miporin pulls on her ear, "Don't go pulling that up in the middle of school!"
"I was only joking!" Yutaka cries.
Miho dusting her hands, "Know, the time and place." she looks to Tooru, "Though to be honest, we've known how you felt about Run for a while now."
"You did?"
"Well it was pretty obvious." Miho says.
"Really I never noticed!" Yutaka adds.
Miho's shoulders fall, "Don't make this harder than it is. Anyway, well... you could say me and Yutaka feel the same way towards you, that you do about Run,"
"Wow, that's crazy!" Yutaka says, "How did you read my mind!?"
"Please..." Miho reaches her limit.
"But wasn't it painful?" Tooru asks, "Having to hold in your feelings like that for the sake of someone you didn't know. Someone who was taking away-" Tooru stops realizing she was saying to much.
Even so Yutaka needed to add "What!? Me and Run are great friends! Why would I-" before finally getting her mouth tapped shut my Miporin.
As she struggles to pull it off, Yutaka says, "That's just how love is. But before love, we're your friends first, and want you to be happy."
"I see..."
And they leave it at that telling her to take care.
3 months pass sense that day. Things have started to go back to normal; Tooru learns Run transferred schools at concern of her mother and she's fine with it. The other students have forgotten and moved on from the incident as students do. The smart leader of the classroom, and cute girl everyone loves however, never fully came back. Though she had Miho and Yutaka by her side as friends, she still always felt something or someone was missing. Even so she pushes through every day.
One day, while buying things for her mom, she's stops in the middle of the street when she see's Yuuko and Run casually walking about. She starts rushing towards them then stops suddenly when she see's it, their locked hands.
She begins to aggressively rattle the bags in her hand.
"No." she says, as she eases on the bags, "That's what got me here in the first place." she see's the two of them sit down for coffee. Tooru turns around, "I still have a long way to go before I can sit besides them. If only I had been honest about my feelings sooner... or just never had them at all."
She looks over at their conversation once more; Run lightly blushing as she looks at Yuuko, they trade laughs and smiles as their conversation bounces back and fourth.
Now she looks back at herself. "This is what a date between women looks like. In body and mind I just can't compare. She taunts me without even trying. I can only hope. That someday. Someday I... I can grow to...
but...
It'll be already be to late.
And if I don't accept that...
I'll never grow in the first place"
The tear filled girl leaves her friends, one last time.