“...The owner of this necklace is pretty stupid, you see. He can't even tell who the girl in front of him is. Because of that, he always ended up fighting with those around him.”
Koutarou smiled as she began speaking to Kiriha. His smile and his words were completely different from what he had shown Kiriha up until today. As if he was talking to a small child.
“But... when he unexpectedly ended up somewhere far away, he strangely enough missed that fighting. So he desperately struggled to return home. So I think... that he's happy. At the very least, I don't think he's feeling lonely.”
Koutarou spoke as if he was talking about someone else. It was a little embarrassing for him to speak as if it was about himself. Even more so when one of the reasons he had returned home was right in front of him.
“...I'm... I'm so glad...”
However, Kiriha didn't seem to care about how Koutarou felt. The moment he had said that he was happy, her chest was filled with emotions and they poured out without stopping. Kiriha didn't know what to do, and so all she could do was cry and embrace Koutarou.
However, there was one thing that she knew.
That was that she no longer needed to worry about if her first love was happy or not, and that she would be able to be of Koutarou's help from now on. She would be able to see his smile up close from now on, and all she needed to do was keep that smile from becoming cloudy.
That made Kiriha shed even more tears of joy and she put more force into the arms around Koutarou.
“But still, to think you were Kii-chan...”
“...You're so slow... geez... couldn't you have noticed half a month ago...”
“I'm sorry.”
Like that, Kiriha continued crying while being held by Koutarou. Since the feelings she had pent up inside of her were huge, she continued doing so for quite a long time. However, Koutarou silently supported her until she stopped.