Chapter 5: The Beginning of the Epilogue

A year had passed since then.
After watching Kameyama-kun for an entire year, I had figured something out.
Kameyama-kun was basically some kind of agent who jumped around through spacetime.
There were times when I saw him talking into something that looked like a wristwatch behind the gym.
I eavesdropped.
That was how I more or less figured it out.
Apparently there was someone like a superior giving him assignments.
While he was at school, he seemed to prioritize his studies and avoided doing agent work as much as possible.
But every now and then, some job he couldn’t avoid would come up.
Like the world collapsing.
That kind of thing.
And considering he had been wearing his summer uniform back then...
it had to be coming soon.
During a break between classes, I went over to Kameyama-kun’s desk.
“Hey, Kameyama-kun.”
And just like that, a girl who barely ever talked to him despite being in the same class suddenly struck up a conversation.
The male friend who had been chatting with Kameyama-kun a moment earlier stared straight at me.
“Here. Read this.”
I handed Kameyama-kun a stack of papers.
He looked back and forth between the papers and my face.
“Um... Hamori-san, right? What’s this?”
Right?
So that was where we were.
At this point, he really hadn’t started paying attention to me yet.
Meanwhile, I had spent the entire past year thinking about him nonstop.
“The literature club decided to randomly recruit readers and ask them for feedback.”
We had no such custom.
So that meant Kameyama-kun only started becoming interested in me after reading this novel.
Apparently this novel was basically functioning as a love letter.
What kind of love letter had a sex scene in it?
He looked reluctant.
“Uh... do I have to be the one to read it?”
Oh?
I’d expected him to just accept, so that surprised me.
He really did feel nothing for me right now.
Without a doubt, he only started becoming interested in me after reading this novel.
Part two.
“I want you to read it, Kameyama-kun.”
“If it’s random, couldn’t it be anyone?”
“I could roll the dice as many times as you want and it’d still land on you. If you’re okay with that.”
“W-What?”
He looked completely baffled.
But in the end, he took the stack of papers.

After school on a day when sixth period was PE, I followed Kameyama-kun like I always did.
Being in the same class made tailing him very convenient.
I pretended to look at my phone.
Pretended to fix my bangs in a mirror.
And watched him.
One day, I saw Kameyama-kun coming back from the shoe lockers.
Since I had been following him, I spotted him heading my way and immediately hid.
He went back toward the classroom.
I had a feeling.
The moment Kameyama-kun stepped through the classroom door—
he vanished.
Completely.
There one instant.
Gone the next.
“Ooooh.”
So it really happened.
I already knew it would.
But seeing it happen right in front of me still felt strangely moving.
It reminded me of a flipbook animation that wasn’t finished yet.
He existed up to one frame.
Then, in the next, he simply wasn’t there anymore.
I threw something into the spot where Kameyama-kun had disappeared.
Nothing happened.
I walked through it myself.
Still nothing.
So he probably really had used some kind of special device only agents had.
I decided to wait in the classroom.
I sat in the same seat Kameyama-kun had guided me into a year ago.
“So today’s the last day of stalking, huh...”
I muttered while looking out the window.
The summer sun set late.
The sky was still as blue as it had been during the day.
I felt strangely refreshed.
Almost sentimental.
Skipping club activities so I could wait in an empty classroom for the boy I liked...
Wasn’t this actually pretty youthful?
Maybe joining the literature club had been worth working up the courage after all.
I wondered what kind of expression Kameyama-kun would have when he came back.
He had caught me off guard with that kiss—
so in return, I had demanded “first kisses” from him more than a dozen times.
What kind of face would he make when he met me one year later?
After all, he had kissed me when I wasn’t expecting it.
A counterattack had to be thorough.
If I let him look down on me, I’d disgrace the name of the samurai.
Also, I deserved praise for keeping that whole thing secret for an entire year.
Good job, me.
Champion of the All-Japan Endurance Tournament.
If I had told anyone, there was a chance the future would change and I’d never get to meet the Kameyama-kun who kissed me.
That was something I absolutely had to avoid.
“Hehehe...”
A smile slipped onto my face.
What should I say to him?
Maybe I should even tell him I had been stalking him the whole year.
That Kameyama-kun would probably forgive me for anything.
I had carried these feelings for an entire year.
I was so excited I could barely stand it.
Back then everything had happened so suddenly, and we had so little time, that I still couldn’t tell whether I truly liked him or not.
But now I knew.
I did.
I liked Kameyama-kun.
I liked the boy who told me he liked my novel.
I liked the boy who had thrown himself wholeheartedly into creating something for my novel.
I liked the boy who respected what I wanted even if it meant throwing away the entire world.
From the bottom of my heart, I was glad I had given him my first kiss.
Again and again, I remembered the warmth of his arms.
I could never forget that faint, tingling sensation of the kiss.
Sometimes I remembered it and couldn’t stand the waiting anymore.
Sometimes I cried where no one could see me.
But that loneliness would end today.
The classroom door slid open.
Kameyama-kun.
He looked at me for just a second.
And that was all.
He walked straight toward his own desk.
“...Hm?”
Something about him felt wrong.
No.
He felt normal.
Completely normal.
Exactly like the version of him who didn’t know me—
the one I had spent the entire past year watching from a distance.
Was this really someone who had just finished kissing me over and over again?
“Kameyama-kun?”
“Huh? Oh. Hamori-san. I forgot something. Do you always stay this late?”
He looked slightly surprised that I had spoken to him.
“No way...”
A cold sensation ran down my spine.
My mind desperately rejected the possibility of what might have happened.
No.
I didn’t want that.
That couldn’t be true.
While I stood there shaken, Kameyama-kun rummaged noisily through his desk.
“Where did I put that career-preference form...? Hm? What’s this?”
He pulled a stack of papers from a clear file.
My novel.
“Did I put this in here? I really need to clean this out... No wonder I keep losing important stuff.”
He tossed the stack into the trash.
And I knew.
Kameyama-kun hadn’t made it back.