Wakaba was walking home with Ren walking her home.

“Tomorrow is the end of this year!

What kind of year was it?”

He asked.

“Right.

This year has been a fun year, but now that I’m a junior high school student, I’ve started club activities, and I’ve had a lot of fun with everyone at school and with my club mates!”

She responded.

“I also had more fun than usual this year!

School was fun, club activities are fun!

Everyone in my class is really nice, so it’s been a very fulfilling year!”

Ren responded.

“I know!

Everyone in my class is so nice!”

She was excited.

“The summer festival was fun, and I’m sorry about that.

At that time, thank you very much!”

She also talked about the summer festival.

“You were so light!

And I was so happy that I could become friends with Wakaba after that!

We were always together in class after that, so thank you very much!”

And he thanked her on the contrary.

They thanked each other and laughed as they walked away.

“We had a lot of fun at the Christmas party!”

Ren said to her.

“I got to know Wakaba even better!

It was the most fun ever!

And we got to go out together today too!

Thank you so much!”

He said.

“Thank you too!”

And they thanked each other again.

She was getting close to home.

They got to the front of her house and said to each other

“I had a great time today!

Let’s go out again!

Thanks for dropping me off!”

she said, and was about to send him off.

Just when Ren was about to say something.

“Daiki?”

Daiki came walking toward the station.

Ren stopped what he was going to say and looked at Daiki.

Then he turned to Daiki and said

“Hey! Daiki!”

and waved his hand.

Daiki noticed.

He had a shocked look on his face.

Wakaba, for some reason, also felt bad.

Soon Daiki’s face became his usual face.

“Shiraishi… something wrong here?”

He managed to speak.

“Wakaba and I were out today, so I came to take her home!”

He said.

Not being able to run away from the situation, he concentrated on acting normal.

Of course, he knew what was going on, because he had just seen it.

But he didn’t want to hear it.

Didn’t want to know.

But at this point, he had to make it clear.

“You had a date today!

That’s great!

I’ve got a lot of stuff to carry, so I’m going now!

Bye!”

That’s was all he said, and headed for home.

Shiraishi said.

“Date? Yes, it was a date!”

He said to Wakaba.

Not wanting to hear what he said after that, he walked quickly toward his house.

He pretended not to hear what Wakaba was saying.

After entering his house, he hurried to his room.

Without saying a word of greeting, he entered the room and sat down.

“It was a date after all…”

He remained downcast for a while.

After Daiki left, Ren said something, but nothing came in.

“Date?”

Wakaba did not understand.

The fact that she and Daiki always went out together was not a date, so she assumed that going out with Ren was not a date either.

Daiki’s voice was hard to hear.

“So it was a date!

That’s is great!”

Was it a date?

What was great about it?

She was stunned.

“Hey, Wakaba?”

She finally realized when Ren tapped her on the shoulder.

“Sorry, sorry!

I’m a little tired, so I’m going to take a little rest!

Thanks for today!”

And with that, she went inside the house.

Ren was about to say something, but right now she wanted to be alone right away.

She didn’t know how she felt about herself.

She hated it when Daiki assumed it was a date, and it was painful when he told him that he was happy for him.

She did not want Daiki to see her with Ren.

The reason for this, unknown.

But it made her heart tighten to think that Daiki would think so.

Wakaba did not understand this feeling.

In truth, she might have known.

But she had been too much convinced that Daiki was like a younger brother to her.

That had become a stopper for her.

They became more and more distant from each other.

The distance between them was so great that she thought of him as family, so she couldn’t be aware of him.

The closer you are to your nearest and dearest, the less you realize how important they really are until you get away from them.

This may be the case.