My arm was looped securely through Jun's, a public declaration I had no intention of retracting. On his other side, Aoi walked with her head down, but Jun's hand rested gently on her shoulder, a silent, steadying weight. We were a strange, mismatched procession moving through the school courtyard.
The air was electric, buzzing with the sound of hundreds of students. The famous idol group, Starlight Serenade, was apparently doing a soundcheck on the athletic field, and the entire student body had converged for a chance to glimpse their starlit glory.
Thank goodness for manufactured pop stars.
If even a fraction of this crowd turned their attention to us, the rumors would reach critical mass. The Legendary Transfer Student Establishes His Harem on Day Two. I could already see the headlines on the school's unofficial gossip forum. Not that I'd mind, and I was certain Jun would find the title hilarious. But Aoi… the pressure would be too much for her right now. Her heart was still too fragile.
Luckily, our sanctuary bench, nestled under the deep shade of the old camphor tree, was far enough away to be an island of peace in a sea of chaos. The distant roar of the crowd softened into a low, pleasant hum.
We settled onto the bench, a silent, unconscious choreography placing Aoi directly between us. Jun and I flanked her, two bookends determined to keep our most precious story from falling apart.
And then, silence.
A heavy, awkward quiet descended, thick enough to taste. My brilliant plan to have lunch together, to fix everything with the simple magic of a shared meal, was failing spectacularly. My mouth, which had no problem scolding Jun or making grand declarations, suddenly felt filled with cotton. We just ate, the only sounds being the soft clicks of our chopsticks against the bento boxes.
My eyes darted to Jun, a silent, desperate plea. Do something, you idiot!
He caught my gaze, and a familiar, mischievous spark lit his eyes. He cleared his throat, sat up ramrod straight, and projected his voice as if he were a game show host.
"Good afternoon, and welcome back to our show! Your host, Kuroda Jun, seventeen years of age! My likes include perfectly cooked tamagoyaki, and my dislikes include the sad, soulless puddings served in medical facilities!"
He gestured dramatically toward me. "And on my right, the beautiful, the wonderful, my wife, Hanamura Yui! Also seventeen! She has an inexplicable, borderline concerning obsession with grilled fish!"
My hand was already a missile, aimed squarely at his ear, but he was too fast.
"And last but certainly not least, our special guest today! My lovely mistress, Sato Aoi!" he boomed, a triumphant grin on his face. "She is seventeen but the youngest of us all, and she still secretly believes that strawberry milk is sourced from a special breed of pink cow!"
He finished with a deep, theatrical bow. "Please take care of us!"
The ridiculous performance was met with immediate, violent retribution.
"I told you I stopped believing that ages ago, you moron!" Aoi shrieked, her earlier reticence completely gone as she wrapped an arm around Jun's neck in a chokehold.
Simultaneously, my fingers found their target, twisting his ear with practiced precision. "And what's so wrong with grilled fish, huh? It's delicious!"
The sight of the two of us gleefully torturing the boy who had just returned from the dead must have been quite something. But a strange thought struck me. Huh. She's mad about the pink cow, but not about being called his mistress…
As if reading my mind, Jun gasped out between Aoi's chokehold and my ear-twisting, "Wait… you're supposed to be mad at the mistress part, not the cow part!"
Aoi froze, her cheeks instantly flaming red. "Th-that's… I… I just—!" she stammered, her grip loosening.
I decided to rescue her from Jun's oblivious line of questioning. "Don't tell me you really do still believe in the pink cows, Aoi?" I teased gently.
"Yuiiii! Stop it, you too!" she cried, finally letting go of Jun to shake my shoulder playfully. She was so cute when she was flustered. The tension had finally, blessedly, broken.
"But what about the cats?" I asked, my voice laced with laughter.
Aoi's expression immediately turned dead serious. "The cats are a different story entirely."
A laugh burst out of Jun, a deep, happy sound that I hadn't heard in what felt like a lifetime. "Her cat conspiracy theory! I can't believe you still remember that."
He was referring to Aoi's elementary school magnum opus: a detailed theory that the town's feline population was a highly organized society planning a silent takeover, a conclusion she'd reached after witnessing a large gathering of cats seemingly listening to a speech from a particularly charismatic calico.
"It's true!" Aoi insisted, pouting. "You two need to be careful! They're planning something!"
"But Aoi," Jun countered, wiping a tear of laughter from his eye, "you own, like, three cats."
"They're on the good guys' side!" she shot back without hesitation.
"There are sides now?" I asked, completely losing my composure.
The sound of the three of us laughing together, loud and unburdened under the shade of that old tree, was the first real sign that we were finally, truly, coming home.
When the laughter subsided, my gaze fell on Aoi's bento. "Are you still making your own lunch?" I asked.
She puffed out her cheeks, a proud, childlike expression on her face. "Of course! I'm good at it!"
I smiled. Some things never changed. Her bento was still a colorful, beautiful landscape completely devoid of anything green. I picked up a piece of broccoli from my own lunch with my chopsticks. "Here. You need to eat your vegetables."
Aoi recoiled as if I'd offered her poison. "No way."
I didn't need to say a word. I just looked at Jun and called his name, a single, soft command. "Jun."
He understood instantly. With a sigh, he extended both arms, slipping them under Aoi's armpits from behind and locking her in a gentle but inescapable hold. "Come on, Aoi. Say 'ahhh'."
She clamped her mouth shut, shaking her head defiantly.
Jun leaned in close to her ear. "Oh? Do I have to do it?" he murmured, his voice dropping to a low, dangerous whisper. "Do I need to use my special move?"
Aoi's eyes widened in panic, but she still refused to yield, averting her face.
"Last chance," he warned. Then, he bit down gently on her earlobe.
"Ah—eep!"
A sound, a high-pitched, embarrassingly lewd squeak, escaped Aoi's lips. Her mouth flew open in shock.
That was my opening. I quickly slipped the broccoli in.
"Good girl," Jun laughed, releasing her and patting her head like a pet.
Aoi, her face the color of a tomato, furiously rubbed her ear, which was now glistening faintly with Jun's saliva. Baka Jun, I thought, a fond smile touching my lips. You'd better realize what you're doing to her soon. He had dismissed her kiss yesterday as a "friendship thing," but I had seen the look on her face. I wasn't sure how long Aoi could keep pretending.
But for now, this was enough. She was here. She was laughing.
Aoi looked from me to Jun, a hesitant question finally surfacing in her eyes. "Is it… is it really okay? For me to be here? With you two?"
"Don't be stupid," Jun and I said in perfect, unrehearsed unison.
He reached over and ruffled her hair. "If you run away again, I'll have to put a collar on you."
I immediately swatted his hand away. "Stop it! You can't mess up a girl's hair like that anymore." I reached out, gently tucking a stray strand behind her ear. It had been so long since I had looked at her this closely. Her face had lost its childish roundness, the curve of her cheek now refined and womanly. Her eyes were still the same, wide and soft as a fawn's, but they held a deep, lingering sadness—a sadness I had put there.
"Aoi…"
"Yui…?"
"I'm sorry," I whispered, my fingers tracing the line of her jaw. "I'm so sorry I pushed you away. I missed so much. Will you let me make it up to you?"
Her eyes welled up, and for a heart-stopping second, I thought she was going to break down again.
Jun noticed it too. He leaned in until his lips were brushing against her other ear. "No more crying today," he murmured. "If you do, I'll just have to bite this ear until you stop."
Aoi flinched, a small laugh escaping her. "Ahh, okay, okay, stop it!" she giggled, squirming away. "I promise! I won't cry!"
I watched them, my own vision starting to blur. A single, warm tear escaped and rolled down my cheek.
Jun's head snapped toward me instantly. "Yui…?" He scrambled from the bench, kneeling in front of me and pulling me into a hug.
"I'm okay," I sobbed, burying my face in his shoulder even as a brilliant smile spread across my lips. "I'm okay, baka, can't you see I'm smiling?"
He pulled back, his eyes searching mine. "Really?"
"It's just…" I hiccuped, the happy tears now flowing freely. "The three of us… we're finally all together again. I missed this so much." The tears soaked into the back of his shirt as he hugged me tighter.
A soft sniffle came from beside us. Aoi wrapped her arms around us both, her own tears finally falling. "Me too," she whispered.
We stayed like that for a long time, a tangled, tearful, laughing heap, our little world finally, irrevocably, made whole again.