As the festival came to an end and the crowd began to disperse, Ryo found himself walking alongside Hana, Saki, Mei, and Yuto. The girls seemed in good spirits, and even Yuto was unusually quiet, perhaps tired after all the excitement.
"So, did you have fun?" Hana asked, looking up at Ryo with a hopeful smile.
Ryo nodded. "Yeah, it was a good time. Thanks for inviting me."
Hana beamed, clearly pleased with his answer. Saki, meanwhile, gave him a playful nudge. "See? You survived the night. Not so bad, huh?"
Ryo chuckled. "Yeah, I guess it wasn't."
Mei, who had been walking a little behind them, finally spoke. "We should do this again sometime."
Ryo glanced at her, surprised by the suggestion. Mei wasn't the type to openly ask for things like that, but there was something almost… sincere about her words.
"Yeah," Ryo agreed. "Maybe we should."
As they walked home together, Ryo couldn't help but feel that things were changing. What had started as a simple invitation to a festival had turned into something much more complicated.
But for now, he was okay with that. Because, for the first time in a long while, he felt like he was starting to understand his own feelings.
And maybe, just maybe, he wasn't as hopeless as Yuto liked to claim.