"So… how did you and Souta really end up together?"
Hayami stirred her drink dramatically, eyebrows raised as she leaned closer across the café table.
Miyako blinked, fiddling with the straw in her soda. "I told you. It just kind of happened."
"That's not an answer!" Hayami groaned. "You guys have been together for three years! You act like some calm, married couple in a romance manga—but how did it even start? You're like… total opposites!"
Miyako chuckled softly. "We were friends, first. Back in high school."
Hayami's eyes widened. "Seriously? Souta Fujiwara—the guy half the school was crushing on?"
Miyako looked away shyly, adjusting her glasses. "He wasn't always like that. Back then, he was popular, yeah… but kind of a loner too. Everyone thought he was cool, but no one really tried to know him. I guess… I just didn't care about all that."
Three Years Ago — High School Days
They sat beside each other in second-year homeroom, always paired up for class projects. While the girls whispered about his looks and the boys tried to copy his style, Miyako simply treated him like a person.
She asked him normal things—if he liked cats, what his favorite type of bread was, if he thought math was evil.
And somehow, he always answered.
Sometimes, they stayed late at school, just talking under the sakura trees near the gates. He'd listen to her ramble on about the books she was reading, even if he didn't say much.
Miyako had started liking him quietly. At first, it was just admiration. Then, it became something she couldn't ignore anymore.
"You confessed to him?" Hayami gasped, nearly choking on her drink.
Miyako laughed, flustered. "Yeah. I did."
"How?! What did you even say?"
It had been after midterms. The air was warm, the sky cloudy. Miyako stood nervously behind the old gym building, clinging to the strap of her bag.
Souta had come because she asked him to.
She couldn't even look him in the eyes at first.
"I-I like you, Fujiwara-kun," she blurted, eyes glued to the ground. "I know I'm not pretty like the other girls and I talk too much and I'm not cool or anything but… I just wanted to say it. Even if you don't feel the same."
There was a long silence.
She swallowed, heart pounding in her ears, and finally looked up.
Souta wasn't laughing. He wasn't smirking. He just looked… calm.
Then, he did something unexpected.
He stepped closer, leaned down just a bit, and said—
"Okay."
Miyako blinked. "H-Huh?"
"I've liked you too," he said simply. "You're honest. And kind. It's easy to be around you. It feels real."
Back in the café, Hayami was staring at her like she'd just read the plot of a shojo drama.
"That's so romantic I could scream," she said breathlessly. "You confessed first and he actually liked you back?! I thought stuff like that only happened in fiction!"
Miyako laughed, her cheeks red. "It still feels unreal sometimes."
Hayami softened. "You're lucky, Miyako."
Miyako smiled, warm and gentle. "Yeah. I know."
But deep inside, she couldn't shake a faint unease. Like something was watching the fragile happiness she built—waiting for a crack.