re:Happiness | Cell Phone Novel

childhood friend | x - xii

・・・ x ・・・

He blinked.

In the end he had made his decision.

Gathering his thoughts, he got up and slung his bag over his shoulders.

He tugged at his scarf.

With light footsteps, he walked outside of the classroom and into the hallway.

As he did, he turned to look outside the windows again.

The same white snow coated the outside world.

The same white silence.
The same white frost.

At the back of his mind, he remembered Hashimoto Rie's green muffler.

He wondered again if she was still waiting for him in the cold.

Ah... most likely, she probably still is.

・・・ xi ・・・

He was right.

When he exited the main building,
he immediately saw her leaning on the low metal barrier in front of the campus gates.

He could only see half of her figure.

The other half was hidden by the high bricked walls.

As his feet crunched softly on the accumulated snow,
he noticed that Rie was talking with someone he couldn't see.

That person was covered by the same walls that hid her other half.

From the way she was smiling, it almost seemed as though she was having fun.

For a moment, he hesitated in his steps.

"She looks... happy."

He shook his head.

Before he could think of anything, Rie had seen him.

Their eyes met.

She gave him a wide grin.

Then, she gestured with her hand.

He clutched the strap of his backpack unseasily.

A puff of air escaped his mouth as he breathed out.

Then, he started walking towards her.

・・・ xii ・・・

Rie kept on grinning as he approached.

When he was only a few feet away,
the angle finally allowed him to see her in full.

At the same time, he saw the person who was leaning beside her.

The one that Rie had been talking happily to this whole time.

"—Ah."

Ao froze.

—No.

His eyes widened.
His hands slightly trembled
His mind started to spin.

—No. No. No.

The one she was talking to was a boy.

Blonde hair.

Blue eyes.

Pale skin.

When he saw Ao, the expression on the boy's face was hard to discern.

"Get away from him."

Rie was still grinning.

She didn't notice yet.

"Ao-kun! Look who I have here," she said. "He says he's known you since you were kids! He knows a lot about you, too. You seem really close!"

—No. No. No.

Ao turned away from them.

From him.

He felt a lump in his throat.
His deaf ear throbbed uneasily.

Somehow, he still managed to speak.

In a cold, quiet voice, he asked the boy a question.

"What... are you doing here?"