We had been in bed since the sun was high in the sky, so we hadn’t turned on the lights in the room.

There was little light coming through the curtains, and the flickering light from the LCD of my phone made it look like an aquarium.

Yuika snuggled up to me and I operated my phone.
I put the title in the search box and clicked on the link to go to the corresponding page.
It was a page of a novel written by Yuika.

“… But don’t read what’s inside, okay? If you read it, you’ll be using honorifics for the rest of your life. Please keep that in mind, okay?”
“I will, I will. I won’t read the contents of your novel.”

I don’t want my childhood friend to talk to me as a stranger for the rest of my life.
Although she gave me the title for the search, I ignored the link to the text because she wanted me to, and went to the novel information page. I immediately jumped to the page with the number of accesses, thinking that the higher the number at a glance, the better.
But as soon as it appeared, I bit my lip. This is…

 

Access Analysis—— Total 5 accesses

 

There are a lot of novels on the site that have gotten tens of thousands of access.
After 12 hours, only five people had viewed Yuika’s page. Even I could tell that this was a disappointing result.

“… Yuika, cheer up. You know, there are times when this kind of thing happens… —Yuika?”

I turned to the side, trying to comfort her, and was taken aback.
My childhood friend was still clinging to my arm. There were teardrops in her eyes.
But they were not from sorrow. What Yuika had on her face was so much joy that she was on the verge of breaking down.

“… Someone read it.”

A slender finger fearfully stroked the edge of the phone.

“Someone read the story I wrote…”

The moonlight shone through the curtains.
The soft light illuminated the teardrops.

“It’s arrived… The story that I filled with my favorite things, the story that I put all of my energy into, was accepted properly… Hey, Souta! Look at this! They read it! I’m so glad that my writing has reached someone..!”

Holding my hand with my phone, Yuika sobbed. Looking at her profile in the moonlight… I finally realized.

I have a lot of people around me.
At school, I have classmates who tend to get into bad jokes, at home, I have a free-spirited family, at my part-time job, I have an unnecessarily unique manager and coworkers, and the Kisaragi family’s father, mother, and Yuika’s younger brother are also very close to me.

That’s why I felt that five was a small number for me.
But not Yuika.

My childhood friend spends most of her day in this room. I’m the only one she talks to. Just one person. There’s no one else.

In the midst of all this, she was frightened and trembling, but she finally wrote her story.
The story that she packed with the things she loves was delivered properly. They have read it.

They are not just any five people.
Thanks to these people, who found her novel in the sea of the Internet.
Kisaragi Yuika, who had been holed up for a year and a half.
Now, finally.

 

Connected to the world.

 

The next thing I knew, I was hugging her.
No wonder it was scary. No wonder she was afraid.
By uploading her novel, Yuika was reaching out to the world. For the reclusive Yuika, it was like opening a door to the outside world.

It must have been scary. It must have been terrifying. But she mustered up the courage to reach out and this is how they responded. She was able to connect with the world.
Just thinking about it fills my heart with joy. I said with joy, pride, and all the other feelings I could muster.

“Yuika.”

I felt like crying too.

“Good work there…!”

At that moment, tears spilled from Yuika’s eyes.
She knew that her childhood friend, who was a huge bastard, had finally noticed her hard work after lapses.

“You’re late, Souta…”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. But you did your best. You worked so hard!”
“More! Tell me more at…!”
“You did great! Great job, Yuika! You worked so hard!”

Yuika hugged her phone and nodded.
And proudly puffed out her chest.

“Yeah. I did my best…”

Droplets of tears glittered in the air.
The time that had stood still for a year and a half would surely begin to move from here.
By the will of none other than Yuika herself.

Under the spotlight of the moonlight.
In a room like an aquarium.
Yuika whispered.
Holding her phone to her chest, she whispered to someone on the other side of the internet.

“…Thank you. Thank you for finding me…”

I stroked Yuika’s hair, listening to her praying voice.
It felt so peaceful.

I sighed in my heart at my uselessness and continued to stroke Yuika’s hair.
My childhood friend rubbed her cheek against mine like a spoiled puppy.

And so.
Slowly, time passed, and eventually, night gave way to a dazzling morning.

 

 

[TLN: Save me from my horrible teacher, I ask a question about this or that, and the response I get is yes. I guess I was able to do a chapter. Also—

The End of the first arc.]