Vol. 1 Chapter 1

1

Humans have points you can’t see.

This is the story of me, who ended up being able to see those points.

We’re always being influenced by those points.

Points matter.

This isn’t some exaggerated story, nor is it complicated or overly difficult. Anyway, it’s not some weird story like that. It’s not fantasy or some fictional setting or anything like that. Probably.

It’s not that. This is something much more normal and ordinary. In other words, for us right now, it’s something real and pressing.

How am I supposed to explain this strange phenomenon of mine to other people? I still don’t know.

“I can see them”

If I say that, it makes me sound like someone who can see spirits or something, and it’s kind of hard to say. And it’d be a pain if they went, 『You know what I mean? Like, Apparently I’m possessed… by Masakado or something. Look, he’s right there』and start expanding the conversation like that.

[Taira no Masakado

A famous samurai from the Heian period who rebelled against the imperial court.

After his death, he became one of Japan’s most well-known vengeful spirits]

So I’ve hardly ever told anyone about this.

If there’s anyone I’ve told, it’s at most the doctor at the hospital. And even that, only because I had no choice.

“So, you’re still seeing hallucinations?”

“It’s not exactly hallucinations… I mean, I’m starting to wonder if they really are hallucinations. Lately, it’s just… strange.”

“Let’s organize what you’re saying a bit, Aoki-kun.”

The doctor picked up a pen and began scribbling on a sheet of copy paper.

“This is a human.”

He drew something like a restroom sign figure, and wrote the number『50』above its head.

“You see numbers above people’s heads. Right?”

I nodded.

It was last year that I got hit in the head with a metal bat.

When I woke up in a hospital bed, I thought my brain was broken.

The world looked like it was sparkling and shimmering.

Not metaphorically, I mean literally. Weird sparkles were floating around in the air, glittering, and it freaked me out.

For a moment, I honestly thought, wow, that’s pretty.

Then a beat later,『I went, oi oi oi, what the hell am I gonna do?』and started panicking.

As I spent my days just zoning out, staring blankly at those sparkles, a week passed before I knew it. Gradually, the sparkles inside me began to fade away. I watched the light shrink like that, feeling a little disappointed.

Once I couldn’t see the sparkles at all anymore, instead, I started seeing something else.

At first, I thought, what is that?

There were two-digit numbers floating above people’s heads.

Creepy.

That was my first impression of those numbers.

“Those numbers differ depending on the person, right? Then let me ask again. What do you think those numbers represent?”

“Well… how do I put it. My guess is, they probably represent a person’s value. On average, it’s around 50.”

“By the way, then, how many points do I look like to you?”

The doctor asked in a slightly joking tone. That oddly confident way of speaking annoyed me.

67

“46.”

Since I didn’t like the doctor, I lied.

“Yeah, that’s definitely a hallucination.”

By the way, this doctor is having an affair with my mother.

46 was my father’s point value.

I had already told my homeroom teacher that I’d be absent from the morning classes because of a hospital visit and it had been approved.

When I stepped out of the hospital, the sky was dazzling. White sunlight. There were barely any clouds, and as far as I could see, nothing but the color of the sky stretched out. It made me feel like I could just drift off somewhere far away like this.

But I couldn’t keep indulging in that kind of sentimental, escapist mood forever, so I quickly lowered my gaze back to the ground.

And of course, those numbers came into view.

It was exhausting.

Strange numbers floated above the heads of the people passing by.

I can see them.

For convenience, I call them『points.』

Whether I’m walking down the street or riding the train, I can see points above people’s heads. I’ve gotten used to it, but still, after leaving the hospital, the absurdity of it all always puts me in a gloomy mood.

I don’t really know if it’s just hallucinations… or some kind of occult-like, bizarre phenomenon.

Either way, I can see them. Two-digit numbers always floating above someone’s head.

It’s not like I even want to see them.

Apparently, those points represent a person’s value. Not long after I started seeing them, I realized that. The points are low for people who are no good and high for people who are, well… cool.

Before heading to school, I stop by the station restroom and stand in front of the mirror. Reflected there is an unremarkable-looking high school boy, in other words, me. 53. A completely average point.

I take wax out of my bag and work it into my hair. Then I take off my glasses and put in my contacts. It’s a hassle, but I don’t feel like going to school like that. Once I finish fixing my appearance, my points go up to 54. It’s a tiny difference, but I want to value even that.

Inside my head, I adjust my『character.』Not Aokin, but Aoki Naoto. I recall the persona of Aoki Naoto. Blend into the classroom. Check the polite smile. Does it look fake? Straighten my hunched back adjust my facial muscles, breathe slowly and deeply. I have to make sure no one notices that I’m not actually enjoying anything at all. Staring into the mirror, I change my expression. I give my head a small shake, brushing away the anxiety. Lastly, I pray to something. Please let me get through today as well, unnoticed, not standing out, just another peaceful, uneventful day as a student. And then I say to my reflection,『Do your best, okay?』 Just like Travis, or Vincent Gallo.

I arrive at school late, pull the door open, and step into the classroom. That moment always makes me a little tense. Fourth period had already started.

Above my classmates’ heads, their points float.

49, 53,

62, 52…

The same familiar numbers as always.

49 goes,『Aoki, you’re way too late』then 53 follows with,『You overslept or what?』They toss quiet, casual remarks at me. I feel like explaining the situation would just make things awkward, so I reply,『Stayed up too late watching videos online yesterday.』

“What kind of videos?”

“Xvideos, obviously.”

The site name works like a kind of code around girls. It’s not actually true at all, but I say,『Bingo』and since it gets a small chuckle, I end the conversation there.

Even while having these kinds of casual chats sometimes, I find myself thinking…

I want to disappear.

I want to vanish from here.

If only I could become invisible.

School is a drag again today.

Even so, I figure it’s still better when people are messing with me like this. The really bad situation is probably when no one says anything to you at all.

I take a notebook out of my bag.

I look again at the points floating in the air above my classmates’ heads.

Who should I pick today?

My eyes stop on the highest point in the class.

78. That number stands out, floating above his head. His score is clearly way above the rest.

Short black hair, a lean, muscular face. There’s something about his looks that reminds me of a beautiful crow. He has this aura that draws people in. Come to think of it, he’s always at the center of the group.

Soyama Fumitaka.

At the top of the right page of my notebook, I write down the name of that classmate I barely even know.

78.

Since the average is 50, that means he has a total of +28 worth of positive and negative factors combined.

I focus, staring intently at his points.

Before long, the breakdown of that score starts to come into view.

Tennis club (+4), tall (+2), lean-muscular (+2), handsome (+6), stylish (+3), good communication skills (+7), excellent grades (+4)… One after another, they appear and disappear and I jot them down in my notebook.

It’s not just that I can see points. If I concentrate and stare at someone, I can even see the reasons behind them, the breakdown of those points.

Using this side of my… mysterious ability is quietly exhausting.

This almost useless, superpower-like ability of mine. Just looking at points doesn’t tire me out much, but the moment I try to figure out their breakdown, I end up completely drained.

First ability: I can see a person’s overall points. This one doesn’t tire me out.

Second ability: I can see the breakdown of a person’s points. This one requires concentration.

Using the second ability, I can only manage one or two people a day.

After figuring out Soyama’s point breakdown, I’m already gasping for air and none of the lesson content is getting into my head at all.

If it tires me out that much, I shouldn’t do it. That’s completely reasonable.

But still.

This strange power of mine that isn’t all that useful. I’m trying, in my own way, to make use of it.

I use other people’s points as reference and try to raise my own. For example, the reason I started paying attention to my appearance after entering high school is because I noticed that people who care about their looks tend to have higher points. I form hypotheses like that, then act on them. By repeating that process, I’ve gradually raised my own points.

Now then. Once again, I look at the number 78 floating above Soyama’s head. And its breakdown. You could just call him a high-spec guy. His score is so high, so perfect, that I don’t even know what I should try to imitate. People with points this high are extremely rare.

To live a happy life, it’s important to accumulate points. (According to my research.)

If your value as a person is high, you can shine anywhere, whether it’s job interviews or at a company. Successful people all tend to have high points.

Anyway, Soyama-kun’s future is bright.

Ahh, I’m jealous.

I really do feel that, honestly.

I’m jealous, I think he’s amazing and if I could be reborn, I’d want to be like that too.

People with high points look like they’re enjoying life. They seem happy.

And then, turning it back on myself… what about me?

Me, with 54 points. My grades are decent, I don’t think I’m dumb but my communication skills aren’t great, and I’m a little shorter than average. Overall, I’m slightly above normal, but I could fall at any moment.

Fall… but to where?

Everyone knows. They just don’t bother putting it into words.

That’s why, even like this, I’m desperate. To protect my small, ordinary life.

Fifteen. At this age, you gradually start to understand that you’re not anyone special, and that you probably never will be.

I’ll probably never become an outstanding person.

Most likely, just like the majority of my classmates.

Someday, I’ll probably be stuck in some dull company’s dusty office, making boring spreadsheets in Excel, bowing my head to people, fawning at drinking parties I don’t even want to attend, and by the time I’m middle-aged, my job might be replaced by AI or something. That’s the kind of future I vaguely imagine. Not a pleasant one. But it can’t be helped.

My points are mediocre, and my future is probably just as ordinary.

A life that’s neither especially good nor especially bad, nothing particularly interesting.

Well, even so, I think that’s fine.

I really do.

As long as I don’t aim too high, I should still be able to live a reasonably enjoyable life.

In the end, being able to accept things for what they are is what matters.

2

Now then, even a plain, unremarkable high schooler like me, whose only defining trait is being dull, has one small thing to look forward to.

Lunch break.

There’s no other time that’s enjoyable.

When the fourth-period bell rings, I head to the audiovisual room.

I sit by the window and wait quietly. I’ve already bought my bread from the school shop.

I check the clock. Sometimes she comes, sometimes she doesn’t.

Before long, a certain girl from my class walks in.

Naruse Cocoa.

The moment she opens the door, it feels like my gray world suddenly fills with color.

“Thanks for your hard work~”

Naruse always says that to me. Do I really look that worn out? Maybe I do.

Naruse’s points are as high as 74.

I’ve looked at the breakdown of her points once before. I don’t remember the details but I’m pretty sure I wrote them down in my notebook. Most of it, though, basically comes down to just one thing. She’s unbelievably cute.

In other words, Naruse is just… really cute.

Probably the cutest in the entire grade.

Her looks are like a『hardworking genius.』

Well-proportioned features, translucent white skin, a straight, refined nose bridge, large, moist eyes, a slender neck… everything about her is perfect from birth.

On top of that, her light-colored, medium-length hair is always neatly trimmed without a single flaw, giving off a constantly polished look. A lean, well-proportioned body. Thin eyebrows. Lips faintly pink. Every one of her movements seems effortlessly refined. And whenever you’re near her, she always smells nice.

“Aoki, you know…”

Naruse spreads out her lunch on the table in the audiovisual room and starts getting ready to eat.

“You’re always writing something in your notebook during class, right? Probably not related to the lesson. What is that?”

When Naruse asks me that, I panic.

My notebook, where I write down my classmates’ points.

If she found out about something like that, she’d definitely be creeped out.

Anyone would think that notebook is gross. Even I understand that much.

“It’s nothing. …No, really.”

When I say that, Naruse looks like she wants to say something more, but in the end, she stays quiet.

An awkward silence settles in, and I regret it. Maybe to smooth things over, Naruse changes the topic.

“Oh, the Ryo Ikuemi manga you lent me the other day. I finished it.”

[Ryo Ikuemi is a Japanese shojo manga artist]

“How was it?”

“It was sooo good! So bittersweet. I cried.”

“That’s always what you say, Naruse.”

“That’s not true. Aoki, you can be kinda mean sometimes, you know.”

She pouts a little, making a mildly protesting expression. I try to keep my face as neutral as possible so my inner thought,『Naruse is cute』doesn’t leak out onto my expression.

Sometimes, during lunch break like this, Naruse and I talk about shoujo manga here in the audiovisual room.

For me, it’s a small, secret kind of time.

＊＊

Originally, Naruse and I had no connection whatsoever. That’s only natural. Naruse is one of the central figures in the class, the heroine of a sparkling school life. On the other hand, me? I’m nothing special, just an ordinary 54-point character.

Someone like Naruse talks to people with high points, like Soyama. In fact, it always looked like most of the guys she talked to were from Soyama’s group.

The point where Naruse and I first connected goes back about two months, to a day after school in April.

By the way, I read a lot of shoujo manga. It wasn’t anything special that got me into it. I just casually started reading some that were on my older sister’s bookshelf, and before I knew it, I was hooked. There was a time when I stayed at home a lot, and I was so bored that I ended up reading shoujo manga from all eras and places one after another. Eventually, I even started buying them with my own allowance.

But I kept the fact that I was a shoujo manga otaku a secret from people around me. If people found out a guy like me was into shoujo manga, I felt like my points would plummet.

But one day during lunch break, Naruse saw the shoujo manga I had secretly brought with me.

“Aoki-kun, you like shoujo manga?”

Naruse said that, sounding a bit surprised. Crap, this is bad, what do I do? I thought. At the same time, I was a little shocked that Naruse, who I’d never had any connection with before, suddenly started talking to me.

“I like them too.”

“I really like shoujo manga.”

Naruse said that and I snapped my head up to look at her face. It was probably the first time I’d seen her up close like that, and I thought again, she’s cute. Trying to hide that, I said,『It’s embarrassing. Could you keep it a secret?』

“I don’t think it’s something you need to be embarrassed about.”

Then, for some reason, Naruse looked unusually serious as she said to me,

“Hey, lend me some shoujo manga you recommend.”

A bit unsure, the next day I put some shoujo manga I had at home into a paper bag and brought them to school.

“Naruse, um…”

Waiting for lunch break, I called out to her.『What?』 When she turned toward me, I suddenly felt like continuing the conversation in the classroom would be a little uncomfortable.

“Wanna go to the audiovisual room?”

“Sure.”

There weren’t any other students in the audiovisual room. It was probably because it was a bit removed from the main school building people usually used. I’d deliberately chosen a place like that.

“Whoa, that’s a lot. Thanks.”

Looking at the thirty recommended shoujo manga I’d brought, Naruse said that with a slightly surprised tone. But to me, it sounded more like you brought way too many, and my mood sank.

“Sorry… for bringing so many.”

“What are you talking about? It’s totally fine. You worry too much.”

After that, Naruse and I started occasionally meeting in the audiovisual room and talking little by little about shoujo manga.

She was probably just starved for someone to talk to about shoujo manga.

Otherwise, there’d be no explanation for why someone like her would talk to someone like me, with low points and no value.

＊＊

Anyway. Naruse is cute. Maybe that’s why, sometimes, I get the urge to just open up completely and tell her everything. About the points, and all that. I catch myself wondering, maybe she’d understand… maybe there’s a one-in-a-million chance. It’s just a moment of weakness.

And then, immediately, I give up.

It’s not just about the points. I start thinking, would Naruse accept this side of me too… the part of me that’s so pathetically obsessed with something this trivial? I let myself have that convenient hope… for a split second.

But really, I want to tell her everything. Things like,『I like you』Or even,『I really, really like you.』

But I can’t say it.

There’s no way I could.

Naruse and I just aren’t on the same level. From my perspective, the difference in our points is way too big.

Even so, I cherish this time that feels almost like a miracle.

So this is enough.

I’ve already decided…I won’t wish for anything more than this.

This isn’t some story about me, an average guy with average points, growing through hard work.

It’s a trivial, pointless story about me trying to get by efficiently with moderate effort, aiming for a moderate kind of happiness.

I know that in life,『moderation is best.』

So I don’t hold onto any grand ambitions.

For example, I don’t think about things like wanting to date Naruse.

3

It was on an after-school day in June that my high school life, which was supposed to pass by in a perfectly average, uneventful way, started to change.

I was on my way home.

All of a sudden, I felt uneasy. It felt like I’d forgotten something. But I didn’t know what.

Carrying that groundless yet strangely persistent anxiety, I walked alone along the road from school to home. Eventually, I couldn’t ignore it anymore.

I stopped.

I sat down on a bench at an empty bus stop and opened the zipper of my bag.

And sure enough, it wasn’t there.

That notebook.

The one where I write down my classmates’ points was gone.

The blood drained from my face.

This is bad.

I probably left it in the classroom. And maybe… I might’ve left it sitting out on my desk.

A bad feeling hit me, and I decided to turn back to the classroom.

If someone saw it, I’d be screwed.

Seriously screwed.

I mean, think about it. If someone saw that notebook, it’d be the end of me.

It has all my classmates’ scores written out in detail. Anyone like that would obviously be a total creep. I mean, I’ve written things like『short (-2)』and『stupid (-1)』and even worse. There’s no way I can let anyone in the class see that. If they do, my life’s over.

I step into the classroom.

There’s almost no one left that day.

Just one person.

Sitting there alone is my classmate, Kasuga Yui.

The moment I see her, I think, oh, it’s that idiot, Kasuga.

Idiot Kasuga.

Her points are 42.

I’ve barely ever talked to her, but for some reason, I remember her existence clearly.

Probably because her points are noticeably lower than everyone else’s.

In one word, she’s practically an outsider-in-the-making.

Kasuga is dumb.

She’s unfashionable, and a bit bad at reading the room.

She’s often late to school and even when she gets called on during class, she only says things that are completely off the mark. She’s not a delinquent but her behavior is pretty much that of a problem child.

Her bangs were cut blunt, like she did them herself, and they didn’t suit her at all. With her glasses, her poor sense of social awareness, and her overall plainness, she gave off a totally uncool vibe.

It didn’t seem like she had any friends.

Normally she was lethargic and quiet, but once she started talking, she’d suddenly speak really fast and wouldn’t stop. The way she communicated with people was… off.

There wasn’t really anything you could call a strong point.

And yet, she had this oddly strong sense of justice, which was exactly what made people dislike her.

I remember the day Kasuga’s points dropped decisively. And probably everyone else in the class remembers it too.

For class representative, Soyama volunteered for the boys and was chosen right away. But for the girls, it just wouldn’t get decided. So someone nominated the most timid girl in the class, basically trying to dump the responsibility on her. At that moment, saying,『I think that’s wrong』Kasuga suddenly stood up straight. She volunteered, and just like that, she became the female class representative. Almost everyone looked at her with cold, unimpressed eyes. Ever since then, Kasuga’s points had dropped drastically.

In other words, she had no sense of calculation whatsoever.

In a way, Kasuga is the complete opposite of me.

Deep down, I looked down on her a little.

If possible, I didn’t want to get involved with her.

And yet, that same Kasuga was flipping through my notebook without permission.

The moment I saw that, I completely panicked.

“That’s… my notebook, right?”

I said as I approached her, a faint edge of anger in my voice.

Only then did Kasuga turn to look at me.

“Yeah. This really is your notebook, Aoki-kun.”

【Oi oi oi… what the hell are you doing?】

“Why are you just going through my notebook like that…?”

I tried to snatch it back from her. But Kasuga deftly dodged my hand with a quick, light movement.

“Well, you’re always writing something in your notebook during class with such a serious face, even though it doesn’t look related to the lesson. I’ve been wondering what you were writing for a long time.”

“Even so, you—”

“So I took a look.”

No, you don’t just go and read someone else’s notebook without permission.

“Aoki-kun, please.”

Her unusually serious expression made me hesitate for a moment.

“Tell me my points too.”

The moment she said that, a chill ran down my spine.

She knows everything, I realized.

“Hey, what are my points?”

42.

The number kept floating above her head.

“I don’t know. Just give me back the notebook.”

“Aoki-kun, are you okay with someone seeing this notebook?”

For a second, I couldn’t understand what she meant, and I froze.

Someone… seeing it?

“Can I tell everyone in class what’s written in here? That you’ve been secretly assigning points to everyone?”

“…Is that a threat?”

That’s not good. It’s definitely not good. Of course it’s not good. This is bad. No, this is really bad. My high school life would be over. Completely over.

If the existence of a notebook this cringey, this chuunibyou-like, got exposed… that’d be the end of me.

It’s only a measly 54 points, but they’re still points I’ve desperately built up. I can’t afford to lose them.

“While I was reading this, I started getting curious about what my own points are”

Kasuga said, but for some reason, her expression looked uneasy, and I found myself understanding her even less.

“So tell me. What do you think my points are, Aoki-kun?”

I clicked my tongue once and nodded at her. 『Fine.』

If we kept going back and forth like this, someone might come into the classroom. I was scared that someone might overhear us and find out about the notebook too.

“Alright… I’ll do it.”

I stared straight at Kasuga, almost glaring at her.

I focused.

I looked closely at the breakdown of her points.

“Bad at reading the room (-4), unfashionable (-1), bad at studying (-1), no friends (-2)…”

A wave of exhaustion hit me all at once, making me feel dizzy. Somehow holding it together, I spoke to Kasuga in as cold a tone as I could manage.

“42.”

When I said it, Kasuga looked at me with a slightly deflated expression.

“You’re at 42 points.”

“That’s low.”

She said it, sounding a bit bewildered.

“But… thanks.”

Kasuga said that with a strangely refreshed look on her face.

“Um… sorry.”

I felt like I’d said something pretty harsh out of irritation, so I apologized.

“I might’ve gone too far.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for.”

Kasuga let out a small sigh.

“It’s probably true, in a way.”

But even so, she still looked hurt.

“…Why did you want to know your points?”

When I asked, Kasuga fell silent for a moment.

“I just got a little curious about how other people see me.”

“All of a sudden? Why?”

Kasuga didn’t seem like someone who lived worrying about what others thought of her. That’s why I was honestly puzzled.

“Aoki-kun, do you have someone you like?”

The question came out of nowhere, and it caught me off guard.

“I do.”

Even I was surprised at my own answer.

It’s not like I’ve never been asked『Do you have someone you like?』before in my life. But whenever that happened, I think I always stayed silent.

And yet, I answered Kasuga honestly, just like that. It felt strange. Maybe I was being influenced by her oddly 『bare』unguarded presence in that moment.

『I have someone too』she said.

Honestly, that surprised me a little. Kasuga didn’t seem like the type to care about romance at all.

“Um… I was thinking… I might… con…”

She spoke hesitantly, and I couldn’t understand what she was saying at all.

“What? I can’t hear you.”

When I asked her to repeat herself, Kasuga raised her voice a notch, sounding a bit irritated.

“A confession. I want to confess. I want to.”

Her voice, her eyes, even her hands were trembling slightly.

“Huh? What do you mean… so, like—”

For some reason, I suddenly had this overwhelmingly bad feeling, like really bad, and I said,『Wait… don’t tell me you like me?』

“Don’t get the wrong idea,”

Kasuga snapped, sounding annoyed. Meanwhile, I felt a small sense of relief inside that this conversation wasn’t about to turn into something troublesome.

“That’s not it. Soyama-kun.”

“Soyama!?”

I was shocked twice over. First, that Kasuga would casually talk about something like romance with someone like me, whom she barely even talked to. And second, that the person she liked was someone so completely out of her league.

“When we were working together as class reps, Soyama-kun was really kind. And also, he’s cool.”

“Soyama and you… that’s, uh… how do I put it…”

I didn’t know how to say it, and the words I started to speak just wandered aimlessly out of my mouth.

“Just say it clearly.”

“You’re totally mismatched.”

“Shut up.”

“You’re the one who told me to say it clearly…”

“Then keep going. Continue. Talk.”

“The difference in your points. Tragic. Catastrophic. Terminal.”

“Yeah, you’re still annoying.”

Kasuga said that, looking embarrassed. Seeing that, I realized—she was serious.

What should I do?

It took me two seconds to reach a conclusion.

Ignore it.

Whatever happens to someone like her, whether she gets hurt or not, has nothing to do with me.

It doesn’t concern me.

I don’t need to get involved in things that don’t concern me, or obsess over them.

It doesn’t matter.

“Well, do your best, I guess.…Anyway, I’m heading home.”

As I was about to leave, a thought crossed my mind.

Can a relationship with such a huge gap in points really work?

No way.

So what happens then?

I tried recalling past patterns. I went through the memories within my own observations.

With Kasuga and Soyama as they are now, their points don’t match. Even if she confesses, she’ll probably fail.

It lacks any sense of balance.

Doing something that lacks balance is painful.

And when you do something painful…your points drop even further.

They get made into a joke, ridiculed, looked down on, and mistreated.

I’ve known someone like that before. I know exactly what happened to them in the end.

It never turns out well.

If Kasuga’s points drop any further… then she’ll probably…

I didn’t want to see that.

Why not?

I don’t even care about Kasuga.

It’s stupid. Pointless. Has nothing to do with me. Just leave it alone. There’s nothing in it for me. I should think about this calmly, in terms of cost and benefit. If human relationships had a balance sheet, getting involved with Kasuga would be nothing but a loss. There’s nothing to gain. Only downsides. I’d just be taking a loss. Meaningless. Irrational. Unproductive. A complete waste.

And yet, for some reason, I felt like I couldn’t just leave it alone.

No… I was starting to feel that way.

Gradually.

One second passed, then two, then three, four…and that feeling of not being able to ignore it spread like a virus, multiplying. Like I was burning with some unexplained fever, I turned back to look at Kasuga before I even understood what I was doing.

Small, insignificant Kasuga.

Trying to force herself to do something beyond her limits in one leap… that’s not courage. It’s reckless. It’s practically self-destruction.

And if this confession fails, then in the worst case… well, things like bullying.

I don’t want to see that at all.

But Kasuga is standing right on that line.

“Kasuga, confessing to Soyama… there’s no way that’s gonna work. I mean… you should know your place.”

My voice trembled slightly as I said it to her. Maybe, just maybe, she’d give up.

And it felt like I was saying it to myself.

【Hey, Kasuga. It’s way better to live knowing your place. It’s easier. More than anything, you won’t get hurt. You won’t have to feel crushed. You shouldn’t push yourself. That’s honestly how I’ve always lived.】

“Don’t do it. Confess to Soyama? You’ll definitely fail. Confessing… you should just stop.”

“You don’t get it, Aoki-kun.”

『I do. Because I also—』like Naruse.

“Then what? Should I just kill these feelings and live my whole life giving up?”

That’s right.

【You’re exactly right.】

【You totally get it!】

【Perfect answer!!】

Those words popped into my head one after another like fireworks exploding in a summer night sky—

“—That’s not it.”

And yet, I turned to face Kasuga and said something completely different.

What the hell am I even saying?

This is ridiculous. It really is.

But…

I realized I couldn’t stand there and proudly tell someone that a life of giving up, like mine, is the smartest way to live.

And with that thought, words I didn’t even believe in, didn’t even mean, spilled out of my mouth.

“You don’t have to give up. You don’t need to give up. You just have to work to raise your points.”

You can confess. You can confess. If you raise your points more.

“If you raise your points…”

Then maybe you can become someone who matches him—someone who can say you like him.

Before you let『it’s hopeless anyway』take over your whole body and make everything too late without even trying… it’d be better if you could just say it.

“Say that you like them.”

If you do, then maybe… something will change.

“I’ll confess to Naruse Cocoa too. When that happens, let’s confess together.”

“Y-You mean Naruse-san? That’s who you like, Aoki?”

“Got a problem with that?”

『…You’re totally mismatched』Kasuga said, and for some reason, she smiled a little, almost happily.

“Hey, you’re one to talk.”

“When it’s someone else’s problem… you can look at it more calmly, you know?”

And just like that, Kasuga and I made a promise in the after-school classroom—to raise our points together.

It’ll probably be a rough road ahead, but even so, I decided to give it a try.

And that meeting became the turning point in both my and her high school lives.