I spoke while keeping the fact that the CD Sako didn't like was amane's a secret, since Ichikawa was right there.
“...Is that why you stopped telling people you make music, Konuma-kun?”
“Yeah.”
The two of them looked at each other.
They must be surprised by the unexpected connection between Sako and me. Or so I thought, but then Azuma-san muttered while scratching her cheek as if it were hard to say.
“Um... Konuma-kun, aren't you a bit too fragile?”
“...Huh?”
“Right, Amane?”
“Well, yeah, maybe a little...?”
Ichikawa also agreed with her eyebrows forming a 'ハ' shape.
“What do you mean...?”
As I stood there puzzled, Azuma-san let out a big sigh—"Haa—"—and explained it to me.
“Look, first of all, it's impossible to take that much damage just because your musical tastes didn't match once. You're different people, after all.”
“No, but we were always...”
“‘We always liked the same songs and were always such good friends,’ is that it?”
“T-That's right.”
“But if that's the case, then,” Azuma-san said, messing up her hair with her hand.
“Doesn't that mean it was a friendship that could disappear just by being rejected once?”
I caught my breath. It felt like a cannonball of air had been fired into my solar plexus.
“I can understand it as a reason for not being able to tell people about making music, but I don't think it's a reason for a childhood best friend to stop being even just a friend.”
“Yuri...”
I was unable to say anything anymore.
What I had been fixated on until now might have seemed like a very small thing to others.
But for me...
While I was turning thoughts over in my head—whether they were excuses or reflections—
“This is just meddling and might be really annoying, but,” Azuma-san placed her fist lightly against my chest, as if resting it there.
“Why don't you make up with her?”
“But I...”
“Hmm?”
In a gentle voice like an older sister, Azuma-san prompted me to continue.
“...I'm scared of whether I can properly talk to her again.”
I poured out my heart with a level of honesty that surprised even myself.
“Well, of course you are.”
Azuma-san continued while smiling.
“Because you were afraid of getting hurt, you vacuum-packed and sealed everything away just before it could hurt, and stopped time with Sakohasu.”
That metaphor, which should have been hard to understand because it was so 'poetic,' was perfectly clear to me now.
I see. I had been running away all this time.
Labeling Sako's actions as a betrayal, looking away, and blaming everything on her the whole time.
Muddy emotions started swirling around inside my body.
What should I do? What was wrong? Was it my fault? Or was it, after all, my music...?
Just as I fell into a loop of pitch-black negative thoughts.
At that moment, a voice reached my ears.
“‘If you walk while avoiding pain and wounds, before you know it, you've distanced yourself from what's important. That's surely because being near what's important is what hurts the most.’”
Suddenly, Azuma-san sang in a small voice.
Ichikawa and I snapped our heads toward her.
“Azuma-san, that's...” “Yuri...”
That was...
A phrase from one of amane's songs.
A song that I had listened to over and over again for encouragement during my high school entrance exams.
“Konuma-kun.” Azuma-san tapped my shoulder firmly. “If it's important, you have to stay by its side even if it hurts.”
“You're... right.”
The lyrics I had heard hundreds of times pierced through me once again in this form, now of all times.
“...I mean, doing something this cheesy takes a lot of courage, okay?”
Azuma-san, her face turning red, cleared her throat.
“...Thank you.”
Beside me as I whispered that,
“My song...” Ichikawa murmured.
When I looked to the side, Ichikawa was looking down, tears streaming from her eyes.
““Eh!?””
Azuma-san and I both jumped in surprise.
“Sorry Amane! I didn't mean amane-sama's lyrics were cheesy, I meant my own actions were cheesy! Konuma-kun, this happened because you're a coward!”
“Wait, me!? O-Oh, I see, sorry, Ichikawa!”
As the two of us desperately apologized, Ichikawa slowly looked up while shaking her head.
Her face, though wet with tears, was smiling.
“I'm so happy... to have my song sung like that... If it reached someone's heart like that, I'm really glad I made it...”
That tearful voice was hoarse and quiet, but it reached us with a gentle resonance.
“Konuma-kun, now that you've made amane-sama cry... you know what you have to do, right?”
Azuma-san, her large eyes also moist, questioned me quietly but firmly.
“...Yeah.”
I gently clenched my fist, hardening my resolve.