After several days of sweltering heat, Tokyo at night gradually began to experience winds, accompanied by the dry hot air slowly becoming humid.
The sudden cold rain instantly soaked the ground.
Pitter-patter—
The sound of raindrops hitting the window grew increasingly loud, causing Tsukimi Chifuyu, who was lying sideways on her bed holding her phone with low spirits to sit up.
Her spread-out jet-black hair smoothly cascaded down her back as her plump, soft body gradually straightened, seamlessly covering the perfectly round silhouette of her bottom that remained clearly visible even beneath her oversized nightgown.
Tidying the hair at her temples, the girl leaned forward slightly and pulled open the curtains a little.
Outside the window, the previously clear night view had become blurred by the heavy rain.
Only a few bright lights could be seen through the rain-covered glass.
With only herself at home and heavy rain outside, in this quiet and lonely atmosphere she inevitably missed her boyfriend.
But thinking of him...
Withdrawing her gaze and closing the curtains again, Tsukimi Chifuyu wrapped her arms around her knees and sat leaning against the inner side of the bed, tilting her round eyes full of grievance toward her lit-up phone screen.
The 6.74-inch phone screen clearly displayed the LINE chat interface.
Below the front camera, she had saved the chat partner's name as "Takagi-san."
In this chat interface, what should have been a back-and-forth conversation now showed a completely one-sided trend.
All messages from different time periods in the chat were without exception sent by the person on the right.
The most recent message from the left was a "Sorry, I'm still not done" sent not long ago.
Chifuyu had then replied with "It's okay, we can meet next time too."
At this point their conversation ended.
Clearly, her attempt to arrange a meeting to question him as Sasaki had suggested the day before hadn't gone smoothly.
Every time she sent a message, it took forever for Takagi to mark it as "read."
Even after being marked as read, he didn't reply.
A whole day had passed before she got just one "still not done."
How could she not feel disappointed and upset about this?
Her bright, lively eyes gradually dimmed as the girl collapsed back onto the bed and sighed resentfully.
"Sigh...what should I do~"
After fruitless contemplation, she gave up thinking and picked up her phone to call for support.
[Fuyumi, do you have time now?] 20:10 「Unread」
[Pitiful.jpg] 20:10 「Unread」
Just as she was about to put down her phone after sending the messages, a notification sound different from the message tone rang out.
Looking up to see a video call request from "Fuyumi," Chifuyu's eyes widened in surprise.
However, she did not hang up.
Instead, she quickly sat up straight and smoothed her slightly messy bangs before leaning against the inner side of the bed, shyly pursing her lips as she answered the call.
"Hello?"
After the call connected, Sasaki, wearing a loose short-sleeve shirt with slightly damp hair, appeared on the girl's phone screen.
"Hello?"
"Can you hear me?"
For some reason, Fuyumi with his flushed cheeks and slightly damp hair looked even more handsome than usual.
Looking at the handsome boy, the girl froze for a moment before shyly nodding with pursed lips.
"Y-yes, I can hear you. Fuyumi, did you just take a shower?"
"Yeah, because it was so hot today and I sweated a lot."
After casually explaining, Sasaki asked through the phone.
"Chifuyu, did you need something?"
Since they were already quite familiar...plus Sasaki had been helping with her relationship, Tsukimi Chifuyu openly shared the difficulties she'd encountered.
"You mean Takagi only replied to you once all day?" Sasaki's voice sounded completely astonished.
"Mhm~"
Sasaki's shocked response was like cutting an onion, making her eyes sting with tears.
At first Chifuyu hadn't thought much of it, just feeling wronged that Takagi was too busy to talk.
But seeing her good friend so surprised...for some reason she just wanted to cry.
Hearing the choked-up tone in idiot Chifuyu's voice, Sasaki quickly comforted her:
"Don't cry don't cry, he's just busy with things, it's not like he's abandoning you. No need to cry over this."
Sniffling, the girl wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and nodded.
"Mhm..."
Unable to figure out what her boyfriend was busy with, she asked with reddened eyes:
"Fuyumi, what do you think Takagi-san is busy with? He's been like this for several days already."
Sasaki's lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but after hesitating briefly, he pressed them together without speaking.
Not understanding what this meant, Tsukimi Chifuyu was about to curiously press further when she heard him say:
"Tomorrow are the midterms, he'll definitely come to school. When the exams end, we'll just ambush him outside his classroom."
"But I can't go find him...if other people see..."
Sasaki knew this, so he continued speaking.
"I'm not saying you should talk to him - we'll secretly follow him to see what he's busy with after school."
She really did want to know what her boyfriend was occupied with...so, Chifuyu didn't reject Sasaki's suggestion,.
However, even though she was really happy that her good friend was so supportive, she was really worried that it might interfere with his part-time job.
"By the time his club activities end, it should already be past 7pm...won't this delay Fuyumi's work..."
'Whether he's even been attending club lately...I'd know better than anyone.' Smiling to himself, Sasaki shook his head:
"Just taking time off from my part-time job is no big deal."
"If you don't clarify what Takagi's busy with, you'll keep feeling sad, right?"
"And if you keep feeling sad like this, I won't be in the mood for work either."
Feeling that having such a friend was the luckiest thing in her life, the tremble in Tsukimi Chifuyu's voice was full of emotion:
"Fuyumi~"
"It's nothing."
Smiling nonchalantly, Sasaki stopped talking about Takagi and instead chatted with her about the upcoming exams and her relationship with Otome and Rinka.
Knowing he was trying to distract her, the girl cooperatively put on a smile and responded to his questions.
They chatted like this until 9:30 when Sasaki was the first to end the conversation.
"It's already past 9:30, let's stop here for now. I still need to have my sister tutor me."
"If I do poorly on tomorrow's exam, they'll be very disappointed."
"You should rest early too."
Seeing how hard he was working, Tsukimi Chifuyu pursed her lips with mixed feelings.
Why couldn't Takagi-san be like this...?
His grades were so important, directly related to their future together, yet he...
A fleeting look of disappointment crossed her face before Tsukimi Chifuyu's cute, delicate features brightened with a smile again as she made a cheering motion toward Sasaki, clenching her small fist:
"Fuyumi, if you work this hard, your grades will definitely be great. Do your best!"
"Alright then, I'll take your kind words to heart."
"It's time, I'll hang up first. Bye-bye."
"Bye-bye."
Waving her hand, Tsukimi Chifuyu blinked in surprise at the over-one-hour call duration displayed after the video ended.
When Sasaki mentioned it was past nine earlier, she hadn't realized... Now seeing the actual duration, she understood just how long they'd been talking.
Yet it felt like they'd barely said anything...
Falling on the bed with a feeling of unsatisfied desire, Tsukimi Chifuyu collapsed onto her bed and began scrolling through her past chat history with her good friend.
There were conversations about studying, jokes, funny school incidents, daily trivialities... so many of them.
Unconsciously smiling, she silently read through their exchanges word by word.
By the time she noticed the time again, it was already 10:30.
It was bedtime.
So, Tsukimi Chifuyu placed her phone by her pillow, snuggled under the covers, and turned off the light.
How much time passed...? Maybe ten minutes, maybe an hour?
Unable to sleep, Tsukimi Chifuyu reached for her phone.
The lit screen showed she'd received an email.
The sender's profile picture was a small purple flower, with no name attached, just a string of numbers, but....
'This doesn't look like spam...'
Feeling a bit doubtful in her heart, Tsukimi Chifuyu opened the email to find several video files and two pictures.
In the pictures, she saw a familiar face, but couldn't be sure...
With growing unease, she tapped to open the first image.
And the suddenly enlarged photo, showing her boyfriend, Takagi Kenta wearing a black blindfold kissing a yellow haired girl, instantly burned into Tsukimi Chifuyu's vision, and he pupils dilated.
The rosy glow drained from her delicate face, leaving it pale.
Lying sideways on her bed, Tsukimi Chifuyu stared blankly at the girl's coquettish smile in the photo.
That smile was bewitchingly radiant.
She didn't know what boys might feel seeing that smile, but, she only found it blinding... Not just to her eyes, but piercing her heart.
Her heart throbbed with pain as Tsukimi Chifuyu, eyes blurred with tears, opened the remaining picture... then one video after another.
"Kenta~ How is it?"
"Senpai... I feel so strange, senpai... my face... so hot..."
"Senpai, I'm sorry... I can't hold on..."
"Senpai, I can't..."
"..."
"Kenta, someone messaged you. The contact says 'Tsukimi-san'—who is she?"
"Ah? She's... just a friend..."
"A friend?"
"Mmm... yeah! Just someone I met by chance. We don't interact much. Recently we've been studying together."
"I'm jealous~ What are you going to do about it?"
"Then... I... I won't go to the study session..."
"Eh? Is that really okay?"
"It's fine, Senpai... I want..."
"Okay~"
"..."
"Kenta, she messaged you again."
"Don't mind it, Senpai. Let's continue."
"..."
"Kenta, are you really just friends? She's sent so many messages..."
"We're... well... actually we're dating... but right now I like Senpai the most!"
"I... I like Kenta too, but since you already have a girlfriend, I should probably..."
"No! Senpai, I'll find a chance to break up with her. Believe me!"
"Is this her in the photo? She's so pretty."
"No, Senpai. She's just decent-looking, she can't compare to you at all."
"How can she not compare? She's so beautiful with such a good figure."
"She can't, she really can't!
Even though she has a good figure, but so what? She's boring, always nagging me to do things I hate, and constantly threatening to break up. I've had enough."
"Really? Then what about me?"
"Senpai is passionate, charming, loves soccer too, knows so much... we get along perfectly."
"Nice answer~ Then shall we..."
"Senpai~"
"..."
"Between me and your girlfriend, who do you prefer?"
"Senpai! I prefer Senpai!"
Just friends...
Likes Senpai...
Always nagging...
Had enough...
Tears blurred Tsukimi Chifuyu's vision like thick fog, completely obscuring the video playing on her phone.
Yet every word pierced her heart like a knife, making it hard to breathe.
"No... this isn't real... Takagi-san isn't like this... he wouldn't..."
Burying her face in the pillow, she repeated the words, which sounded even more unconvincing to herself.
If the video wasn't real, how could she explain his recent behavior? If it wasn't real, why were his replies so half-hearted?
Remembering Fuyumi's hesitation during their call, she now understood.
Understood that he'd suspected this all along but didn't dare tell her...
Sobbing, she wiped her tears dry.
Her eyes burned as she picked up her phone and messaged Takagi Kentta.
Unlike his usual delayed or dismissive replies, this time he responded almost instantly, within two seconds of her sending the message.
But the reply was:
[He's asleep.] 00:30
"Uuu..."
Two simple words that slapped her across the face, shattering her fragile hopes.
Tears spilled from her swollen eyes as she muffled her cries into the pillow.
Outside, the rain intensified.
A sudden thunderclap made her jolt, cutting off her sobs.
Like a frightened hedgehog, she curled under the blankets, knees drawn to her chest as she wiped her tears, flipping the damp pillow over.
Just as she prepared to cry again, her phone lit up.
Whoosh—whoosh—
Someone was messaging her...
With trembling hands, she reached for it.
[That thunder was loud. Did it wake you?] 00:45
[Smile.jpg] 00:45
"Fuyumi..."
Her voice was hoarse as she sniffled and replied with a simple "Mm."
The instant she sent it, the chat transformed into a call invitation.
She knew she shouldn't answer, shouldn't burden him with her pain. But...
As she hesitated, another message popped up:
[I can't sleep. Want to talk?] 00:46
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