Days went along as usual for me as a student and as a vice president of the student council president, helping other clubs solves their issues, handling student activities, and such.

The school seems to be in a very peaceful state just like when I started entering the school. People now treat me slightly better than before, maybe because I helped them a lot? Not entirely sure though…

As I wondered in class after the school session ended, a voice called me

“Hitori-kun”

Oh, it’s Kaichou, no wonder I was excited to look.

“Yow, what’s up?”

“M-m-”

Why is she hesitating to say anything?

“M-my parents invited you to have dinner with us tonight”

Dinner? With them?

“That is if you are free”

“Uh, may I ask why?”

“Apparently, they wanted to thank you”

“Thank... me? For what?”

“Ask them yourself, are you coming or not?”

Should I go? But I don’t want to feel awkward like before…

Refusing an invitation without a valid reason is straight out rude… I don’t really have a reason to deny too…

“I’ll go then”

Kaichou’s expression on her face suddenly showed a slight relief… but why would she be relieved of me coming to have dinner?

Wasn’t the last time she got so mad she tied me onto a chair and tried to torture me? Thinking back sure sends a shiver down my spine…

“Then I’ll come to pick you up at your apartment later”

“Eh? No, I’ll just come to your house by myself, no need to pick me up”

“This might just be me but why are you so persistent in me coming to your house? Do you have something to hide like you’re some rich kid or something?”

Why is she suddenly mad?

“Why would you say that? But firstly, why are you mad?”

“I…kind of feel like you don’t trust me at all, even though you said you would”

She still remembered that time huh…

One would normally forget trivial small talks like that, but why did she remember it, even more so coming out of me… a nobody.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, I’m not sure how to put it but if it makes you feel at ease, then I don’t mind letting you come to my apartment”

I don’t know why but it feels like if I don’t let her come, she’s going to have another trust issue later in life… I don’t want that

“...”

She seems to be feeling guilty for forcing this.

“You don’t have to feel guilty, it’s not such a big deal, a visit to my house, that’s all”

“I’m the one being unreasonably paranoid about someone visiting my place”

“You know, it’s like when someone refuses to invite anyone over to their house to avoid them knowing about their private life, something like that”

“Well, in my case it’s nothing serious, you’ll know when you see…”

“Then maybe I shouldn’t come.”

“No, after hearing your compassion towards me, which is rather rare, I felt a bit obligated to let you do as such.”

“Now I feel like I’m being absurdly selfish…” she said.

“Well, humans are selfish don’t they?”

“In my opinion, human’s survive by being a bit selfish now and then”

“...”

“In any case, you can come to pick me up…”

Why isn’t she saying anything? A silent stare like that is scary… have I gone overboard again?

“Very well”

She said that and left the class. There is no meeting today and I have a part-time shift at the bookstore.

I wonder how it’s going to be…

After finishing up my part-time job I headed straight to my apartment.

As I was walking past an alley, a voice called me…

“Onii-chan… help me…”

That voice! Could it be…

Upon hearing the call, I immediately rushed into the dark alley, this place is shaded very well with a roof and appears to be a very lack of sunlight.

My body tells me that I must run towards the voice no matter what happens.

I ran and ran but there doesn’t seem to be a limit to where this alley can go, I got confused and slowed my pacing.

Turning my head to look at the back, it seems that the entrance was also nowhere to be found…

I stopped running and it appears my surrounding is pitch black, there is nothing, like a void. The emptiness… it is somehow nostalgic…

“What is this?” I asked…

A distorted voice then said something

“This is you… remember?”

“Me? How is this darkness, emptiness, void, is me?”

“Don’t you remember? You threw away everything… even me… do you think you deserve a life as easy as this after tossing me aside?”

“What are you saying?”

Why is this voice somehow resembles… it could’ve been…

“Ah!!”

I snapped out of the hallucination and I found myself surrounded by people…

“Hey, kid are you okay?”

“My head hurts a bit, what happened?”

“You collapsed in this alley and stayed like that for about 5 minutes”

“Do you need an ambulance? We can call them if you want or perhaps I can drive you to a hospital”

“Thanks, but I think I’ll be fine”

I immediately got up and thanked everyone for their concern about me and continued to walk home.

What was that? Is it because I’m tired?

That was a bit scary I must say…

Maybe it’s just a dream.

Arriving at home, I took a shower and put on my school uniform back.

“I have some time I guess, let’s write today’s journal.”

Keeping a journal about my encounter with Kaichou is very fun.

As I was happily writing the journal, a voice then suddenly called through the door.

“Hitori-san, someone’s looking for you”

Oh, it’s the neighbor’s voice.

Has Kaichou arrived?

I walked out of the apartment and Kaichou was in front of the stairs in a black blouse.

“You’re here already?”

She appeared to be looking at the condition of the building…

“That’s the reason why I didn’t want you to know my house… but at the same time, I felt a bit relief”

“You think I would treat you differently if I know you where you live?”

“Well… not entirely true but something along that line”

The real reason I don’t want anyone to know especially Kaicho, is not because she would look at me differently, but instead to pity me.

Yes, because of her good-natured personality even though she doesn’t express it, she will most likely feel sympathy towards me.

Having people feel that way about me just meant that my efforts are not enough even though I’m already happy with what I have, well that’s just my personal opinion.

“I couldn’t care less about how you live, let’s go”

Ouch, that line hurt a bit… why can’t she just say something nice?

I locked the apartment door and followed her.

“Nice outfit, it suits you well, so feminine with that frilly stuff, hehe.”

“...”

She stayed silent along our walk to her house, even though I tried to strike up conversations like the weather, school, and some things… maybe I’m just bad at starting conversations.

We arrived at the gate and it automatically opened.

Entering the house from the front door, we walked past through the garden that once again caught my sight with its vibrant colors.

As I entered the house, a voice called me out

“Onii-chan is here!”

It’s Koemi-chan!

“Yow,” I said with a hand lifted to greet her running towards me…

“Ugh!”

She bumped her head on my stomach… it hurts…

“Koemi-chan… good to see you…”

“Me too, onii-chan!”

A maid came and said,

“Master and Miss are waiting in the dining hall, Koemi please don’t disturb our guest like that again.”

“Ah, it’s okay”

We then followed the maid to the dining room.

As the door opened, the Master appear to be also running towards me… just like Koemi-chan did… should have seen this coming…

“Ugh!”

At this rate, I might pass out considering how painful my stomach is right now…

“Please… calm… down…”

I tried to say while getting pinned down by the Master, for an old man like him, he sure has a lot of strength.

As we get seated,

“Ah, I’m sorry for earlier Hitori-kun, I can’t help but get excited to have you come here again”

“Actually I too wanted to apologize for last time, I sneaked out of the house…”

“We already knew about that, we even knew what happened in the room”

“You knew?!”

Kaichou suddenly shouted in shock.

“Ah, of course, whose house do you think this is?”

That makes sense…

“But most importantly, because of your speech to my daughter, she has now slowly recovered from her condition.”

“I’m glad to be of help, but the truth is I didn’t do anything, she was the one who chose to change, you should congratulate her, not me”

“You can’t imagine how happy we were when we found out that she had been changing, it’s like a miracle.”

“I’m happy it turned out fine.”

“I have a question for you Hitori-kun”

“Hm?”

“Why did you decided to help her in the first place?”

Why did I decide to help her in the first place?

I never thought about it, but exactly why did I help her?

“I think it’s because we’re acquaintances? I’m not very sure but doing so feels like the right thing to do”

Honestly, I had thought that she might not be able to fix her condition once she entered the world after high school, this is because colleges and universities have fewer opportunities for her to change as it’s going to be filled with a lot more things that will undoubtedly give her any time or space to do so on her own.

Perhaps the chances are not completely zero too, there are possibilities that she might even meet someone who can ‘fix’ her condition.

I guess if there’s the best time to change, it would be before high school ends.

“We want to repay your kindness, do you have anything you want in mind? Just say it, money? College recommendation? Or perhaps you want to marry our daughter?”

“Otou-san!”

Kaichou suddenly shouted with an embarrassed face.

“What? You don’t want to?”

He said to her.

“I didn’t do it to get anything in exchange. Thanks, but I guess eating this dinner and the one before is already a lot.”

“What a guy… you truly are a kind person, Hitori-kun.”

“Ahah, it’s not that I’m kind, you just happen to meet with the wrong people”

“I think any normal person would do the same.”

“...”

“Can I eat this?”

“Oh my bad, you can start digging in, hahaha.”

The dinner went a bit normal than I expected, we talked about the school and student council, after dinner, I walked around the garden,

“Even at night, the garden still shines brightly with the flowers, how nice is that”

Suddenly a voice said

“Those flowers, I was the one who planted them”

It was Kaichou

“You planted them? No wonder they were so beautiful”

I can see her face blushing haha.

“Not just me, Sora also planted some”

Sora… oh her childhood friend.

“You two were very close huh, mind telling me some more?”

“I thought of her as my own sister, there was this one time when I was lost in the neighborhood, she found me and told me a lot of things about directions but I had no clue about what she was blabbering about.”

I can imagine that.

“Then she helped me get back home, that’s when I thought I wanted to be best friends with her.”

“Our lives then revolve around each other, what I learn and knew, I shared with her and she did the same.”

“Being with her makes me feel so happy, she was very cheerful and brave, there was even a time when we ran away together from a dog, I was very scared but on the other hand, she just ran while holding my hand with a smile as if she was having fun. It made me less afraid at that time.”

I would like to see Kaichou in her loli form like in her flashbacks.

“She must be a nice person, do you have any pictures of her?”

“A picture, I have tons of them.”

“Ahah, one is enough.”

She opened her smartphone and scrolled through the gallery.

“Which one should I pick, all of them are cute,”

“Perhaps the one with you in it? Hehe”

“Keep dreaming”

There goes my chance…

“Ah here’s one”

I take a look…

Wait, I think I’ve seen this face before…

Argh… the memories are flashing!

No… it can’t be…

This girl, I saw her… but her condition…

“Hitori-kun?”

“Hitori-kun?”

“Ah, yea?”

“Why is your face like that? Did you see a ghost in the picture or something? Even though she’s dead, you shouldn’t react as so, it’s very rude you know.”

“Ah no it’s not that, I’m just remembering something”

“Remembering? Do you know her by any chance?”

Ah, she asked the question… I don’t think she needs to know anything about this.

“Nothing, it’s getting late, I should go home now.”

I heard a faint voice of Kaichou as I said

“Already?”

Does she not want me to go home?

“Why are you getting sad for? We’re going to meet tomorrow at school right?”

“I don’t think there’s any reason for you to be sad at all.”

“Or there is-”

“Goodnight then”

She cut my line…

Then I thanked everyone for inviting me for dinner and proceed to head home.

The girl in that picture, there’s no doubt that it’s the same person, she was kidnapped around the time when I…

I should stop thinking about this… otherwise the dream is going to come to haunt me again…

…

Summer is just around the corner, the time for relaxation, and a ton of homework. This will also be my first summer as a high school student, I’m having high hopes for it, I think I should plan it carefully.

Pool? Trip? Beach? There are so many things we can do!

“Summer’s going to start soon, why don’t we go somewhere together?”

“That’s a good idea bro, but I’ll be away from the whole summer, I’m staying at my grandpa's house.”

“Aw, man…”

“So what’s the plan? Maybe I can take into consideration,” Makino said.

“Hmm, I don’t have anything planned yet? Do you have any ideas? Kaichou?”

Kaichou seems to be hesitating to say something.

“You have an idea Kaichou?”

“...”

“How about we go to the pool?” I suggested.

“That sounds good! Swimming in a pool during hot times is the best!”

“How about you Kaichou? You’re in?”

“I can’t deny that going to a pool during summer is refreshing.”

“Then we’re all set.”

“Oh, but can we go around the first week? I’m going to be very busy after that because of cram school and some things.”

“Is that so… then we’ll try going in the first week I suppose.”

With that, the first activity of my high school summer is going to the pool!

But deep within me, something is going to happen during this summer, I’m not sure either it’s something bad or good…

Since not long ago, it seems some events evoke back my memories, they were not pleasant.

But why did I lost those memories?

No, it’s not that I lost them.

They just somehow got locked deep inside me, and slowly being released as I live my impromptu life.

I can remember bits of them but not the entirety, the whole picture only came to show when something triggered it I suppose.

For example, when Koemi-chan first called me onii-chan, the memories of my little sister came to my head, and it made me recall that direful and tragic moment in my life.

Will I be able to cope with it if I were to recollect the whole story?