Akiko was alone in the circle, listening to music on her headphones. Tomoyuki, dressed in gym clothes, looked out the window and was in gym class.
"It seemed like Yamada-kun was going to explode after a volleyball accidentally flew into his face with all his might. You should have seen it!"
"Really?! Too bad I couldn't watch the game then."
Akiko was happy to chat about everything with the unapologetic Tomoyuki. Her social circle had decreased noticeably lately, and after all the obstacles that had come over them, she no longer cared about her school reputation. No, she remained an idol, for people liked the change in her appearance. Some at school even noticed that the new Akiko looked more sincere.
She opened her diary, and flipping to the opening page, she read the first sentence. "Be loved and love others," it was written there. "Only then will you become someone you need."
The schoolgirl covered her eyelashes bitterly.
"I can't believe our communication has changed so drastically over time."
"Uh-huh…" he replied suppressedly. Soon the guy was called back to practice, whereupon he apologized and said he would be back soon.
Akiko said goodbye too and closed her diary and continued listening to music, but in the meantime Tomoyuki bent over to the wall to get his water bottle, and as he began to walk away, he heard someone coming into the circle room.
"Attyan, are you skipping class?"
"Not at all, I got excused from gym today."
Tomoyuki was excited about Yumiko's arrival, and when he decided to say hello to her one last time, he heard the following words from her side:
"I want to talk to you, Atchan. It's important to me, so I thought I'd speak out in front of you. Do you mind…?"
"Of course not!" Akiko took off her headphones and turned off the music. "I'm all ears."
Tomoyuki thought it would be unfair of him to listen in on their conversation, so he turned back around and moved toward the field.
"I wanted to talk to you about Ryou-kun."
Tomoyuki stopped suddenly. Interest took over him.
During the conversation, Yumiko admitted that she was sure she didn't want to have a relationship and explained the reason for it. The whole reason was her promise, which she had been driven by since childhood.
"Why is it important for you to say no to Ryou-kun?" Akiko said, worried for her. "It is your happiness, after all."
"I have my reasons… My life values, my lack of love experience, my friendship and learning. Love is the last thing I'm interested in, but I'm worried that this friendship might end."
"If I were you, every girl would agree to accept his hand. I-I mean, they wouldn't even refuse a ring. But, since you have your own way of thinking…"
"So please help me construct a proper and competent answer to reject Ryou-kun!"
Tomoyuki pressed his back against the wall close to the window. He felt sorry for his friend, for Ryou could not know that he had no chance of having a loving relationship with her, especially considering Yumiko's desire.
"I want to be free of such things…because I'm more worried about graduating from school and moving out of the house. After that I'm completely free, but… it's unlikely Ryou-kun will be staying with us by then…"
Akiko appreciated her friend's feelings with these words. Yumiko wouldn't mind dating just for the reason that she didn't have her own personal problems to worry about. She became very curious about Yumiko's inner world.
"Attyan, I'm worried about us because you're my only friends… I don't think about breaking up with you after graduation, and, even though we'll see a lot less of each other…it's better than we'd stop seeing each other altogether! I want us all to finally be independent."
Yumiko's ideals, however, were incomprehensible to Akiko. Keeping all experiences within oneself can end unfavorably, even though one's psyche is unshakeable. It is the distinctive flaw of being human that makes one vulnerable.
Yumiko looked depressed, and Akiko grasped her hands tightly and comforted her.
'We all understand, don't we,' Tomoyuki reflected to himself, 'that it will soon be over… I don't want to break up with you either. Not one of you.'
"Yuttyan, you have so many memorable experiences you wanted to see with our company this past year… Let's have our best months as much fun as you dreamed! And then we'll all look back on it with smiles on our faces in the future! I dare say we'll be sure to decorate the remaining days with new and bright colors, just make a wish…"
"I... Of course I wish it, Attyan!"
Tomoyuki began to look more relieved.
"I will surely come to you and save you, Yuttyan, wherever you are, for we are friends."
Akiko's words caught her heart.
'This will all be over soon,' Tomoyuki walked away from the window. 'That's why every minute counts. If someone tells me that something bad is about to happen that will erase our friendship, then I'd better put a stop to it with my method...in all the ways that can protect our bond.'
Everyone strives for the best. Especially friends when they try to help each other.
Akiko and Tomoyuki realize this fact better than anyone else. They are the ones who previously tried to ruin school life for the rest of the club and have so many complexes about their own mistakes, but this is what makes them strive to be better. Masks are no longer necessary, for friendship is subject to neither sale, nor lies, nor grudges.
***
In the light of day, the four of them strolled through the park where they used to sit frequently. It occurred to Ryou, who had recently begun putting his hair in a bun, to ask the brown-eyed friend her opinion on leadership in big events.
"Yumiko-chan, about how you felt after leading a whole group of people during the Fall Festival… did you enjoy the experience?"
"Oh, it was exhausting…"
"Ah, yes!" Akiko remembered and glowered. "You got so much into your task that you forgot about rest."
The cultural festival had a favorable effect on her socialization in society.
"I thought then that I would…live up to your expectations, for you were confident in my abilities…"
Her sentimentality made the others blush in pleasure and chagrin at the same time. Yumiko had an enormous responsibility on her shoulders at the time, and it was biased to deny this fact. The schoolgirl literally used all her strength to bring pleasure to the whole school, but, in truth, she only wanted to make her close friends happy with her actions.
"But," she added brown-eyedly, "I no longer have any desire to participate in major events, either as the main person or as one of the leaders."
"I understand. Leadership does not represent any talent; on the contrary, people have to go through many challenges to become a leader. The mark of leadership in a person indicates his predisposition to develop the society around him."
"Leaders…" Akiko muttered, thoughtfully. "They are amazing. They put their whole selves into their goals, regardless of the weather. It's true what people say, that without a leader, no pack will live to see the dawn."
"Hey, who is the leader in our circle?"
The three friends wondered about Ryou's question. Immersed in brief speculation, Tomoyuki, having projected a whole tree of research in his mind about who the leader in their circle was, and looking over the faces of the others, decided to be enthusiastic:
"Could it be Glenn-kun? He was the only one among us who always helped us out of the shadows and figured out our secrets ahead of time. I think the only thing he lacked was the health to live his best life he could think of. If it weren't for him…"
Tomoyuki suddenly sank into darkness, digging deeper and deeper into his opinions.
"...I wouldn't be here."
"You're wrong," Akiko waved her hands, bringing him back, hovering in the clouds. "Wrong, period!"
"By my calculations," Yumiko stepped back from Tomoyuki's affected words, "Glenn-kun was and is our alpha wolf. No, just think about it: he's as popular at school as Ryou-kun and thanks to him I was able to overcome my fear of… to ask. With this I was able to call you into the literature club."
"Ah, of course…" Tomoyuki subsided.
"Thanks to him, we learned about the field of social assistance work," Akiko explained. "I had no idea that such things existed in our world."
Ryou, noticing her words, added: "And he was also even trickier in that he didn't choose our orders at random and paired us up himself. It was said earlier that we couldn't refuse a form if it was directed at your profile, even if it was by chance. Hell, we have to talk to him about it, he's hidden something from us again!"
Eventually, agreeing among themselves, they concluded that Glenn was the leader of their social circle. Apparently, it was fun for them to chat about any topic, and this one turned out to be one of them. It didn't matter to them, because everyone valued each other equally.
After the end of another lesson, they were walking down the school hallway together. Out of the blue, a couple of guys from the younger classes bumped into them and puzzled them with their request. They were determined to talk about one thing in particular to Yumiko.
"It was you, Yumiko Satou, the high school student who was organizing the Fall Festival on par with the head of the student council himself!"
"Uh-huh."
"How glad we are to meet you! We have a request for you, Sato-san!"
"We approached you today to ask you to take the lead in organizing a city event among the schools, including ours."
"There will be a major Academic Olympiad in Tokyo in three weeks, where students will have to demonstrate their full potential. After that there will be a spectacle in the central school auditorium, and we need a good leader for that!"
"We need someone who is great at organizing everything, and you were recommended to us! Please help organize the spectacle and help our cast beat the rest of the performances."
"Ahhh… W-well, I don't know…"
"Please!" the ninth-grader extended an arm around her frail shoulders. "It's very important for our school to—"
Unexpectedly for the two teenagers, Ryou stood in front of the girl and grabbed the ninth-grader by the wrist, blocking him from her. Before they could blink, Ryou and Tomoyuki were staring at them with intense, hostile eyes. Yumiko appeared to them to be an unreachable individual, guarded by faithful friends.
"Don't you dare touch her."