“And, well, that’s about how it is.”
“Ah.”
Momomi giggled. “You’re pretty disinterested, aren’t you? But that’s why I tell you things at all, I suppose.”
“I’m disinterested, but you don’t tell me anything,” Olesa remarked. “You’re quite the hypocrite.”
“You’re not disinterested, though. You’re interested in watching me fail, or at the very least, at teasing me.” Momomi grinned. “Don’t try to deny it. But Amane-san is genuinely ambivalent.”
“I’m glad for you, though.” Amane stroked Starbright’s neck. “This is what one calls a happy ending, is it not?”
“Uh… I guess so,” Momomi mused. “Though to be honest, it’s more like things turned out this way. Life’s complicated, things don’t end just like this, and we’ll have problems in the future. Life isn’t like a story, something you can cut up into chapters and arrange neatly, with a fixed ending. There isn’t such a thing as an ending, until I die.”
“That’s pretty philosophical, considering she was making a trite comment about your success in romance,” Olesa murmured.
“But it’s interesting, isn’t it? In stories, you know-” Momomi waved a hand vaguely. “Most of them start at a given point in someone’s life, and end with some kind of resolution. But, like I said, life isn’t like that.”
“Well, if every single story was biographical in length, I suspect authors would be vexed and bored people.” Olesa frowned, adjusting Ganymede’s reigns slightly and turning the horse to pad after Starbright. “For a start, the childhood years would be very dull.”
“I know. I’m not saying stories should be like they are in real life. That would just be silly.” Momomi grinned. “But life isn’t a story. Or if it is, I want to die so old that it’ll be completely impossible for anyone to write in full.”
“Because life isn’t a story, though, life may become a story so short that you can write it.” Amane closed her eyes. “You aren’t protected. You might die young.”
“Well, yeah. But what’s the point in thinking like that?”
“It’s how life is.” Amane shrugged. “If you don’t consider such things, there’s no point in distinguishing stories from real life after all.”
Momomi sighed. “I’m not sure whether that makes sense or not… oh, well. I’ll let it go, as you sounded intelligent when you said it.”
“In any case, I told you.”
“Eh?”
“To acknowledge the possibility of a happy ending… I was right.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Momomi muttered. “You and the rest of the world. I still think that’s dumb luck, though, so I’m not giving any of you any credit.”
“But still. You’re lucky.”
“I guess so.” Momomi glanced at the blue-haired girl. “So you do have emotions, after all…”
“Of course.”
“Probably.” Momomi looked up at the sky again. “But I’m happy right now. It’s funny, but I was never very happy before. When I was, I ended up being betrayed.”
“Hopefully you won’t make a habit of that.” Olesa glanced at her briefly, then looked away. “Being betrayed by someone isn’t enjoyable. We both know that.”
“It’s fine, though.” Momomi frowned. “Have you noticed this strange tendency of the past to absolve itself over time? Things you consider unforgivable become less and less important, until they’re just signposts on the path to you becoming who you are now. No one ever really disapproves of who they are at any given moment, not in their heart. So after a while you accept what came before in that light.”
“I know exactly what you mean.” Olesa frowned. “It isn’t a comfortable sensation.”
“Sometimes. But it’s also a good thing, I think. The past can be a prison, of a kind. By letting those wounds heal in the present we can move on from the pain, while retaining the growth the experience afforded us.” Momomi shrugged. “That’s what I think, anyway.”
“That makes sense. But still, it can feel like a betrayal of the past. Sometimes it’s proper to feel pain.”
“You suffer or you don’t. There’s no point in pretending.” Momomi glanced at her. “Even if pain lets us feel self-righteous, it would still be objectively better for us to move on, right?”
“I suppose so.” Olesa tapped her fingers against Ganymede’s bridle. “But it’s dangerous, when that past pain is a cornerstone of your identity.”
“Yeah. That doesn’t apply to you, though.” Momomi grinned. “For you, life is about the future, right? The future with Amiki and your mother.”
Olesa stared at her for a moment, looking surprised. Then she closed her eyes and smiled. “You’re right, of course.”
“I feel rather left out.”
Momomi turned and waved her hands. “Sorry, sorry… we were just talking about ourselves, pretty much. Don’t mind it.”
“I understand your sentiments, but you two are different. You understand each other.” Amane stated this quite factually, as if she was commenting on the weather.
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far…” Momomi said. “We fight a lot and half the time I’ve no idea what she’s thinking.”
“Well, half the time I’ve no idea where she’s bothering to think.” Olesa shook her head. “Most of time, she simply reacts without thinking.”
“At least when I think I come up with slightly less crazy answers,” Momomi retorted. “You still owe me big for the past, you know.”
“And your family owes me my life as it should have been. I won’t apologise for who I was then.”
“That doesn’t excuse what you did. I wasn’t even responsible!”
“That, in itself, doesn’t change the fact that you are who I ought to be. You should take responsibility, but you won’t. This will have to be enough.”
“I’m not taking responsibility? How about you, after all you did to me…”
Amane chuckled softly, instantly stilling the debate.
“What?” Momomi asked suspiciously.
“Nothing.”
“That must have been a pretty amusing nothing…”
Amane smiled, fiddling with a strand of her coarse hair. “It wasn’t anything important. But it is funny, how alike you two are.”
“I’m nothing like her!” Momomi snorted. “She’s an angsty, introverted, calculating egomaniac.”
“For my part, I also resent being compared to a clueless, noisy, manipulative baboon.”
“If you’d step outside your passions for a second, you’d notice. You are very similar people, and you have a rapport of a kind.”
Momomi frowned. “Yeah, well, it isn’t exactly a happy rapport.”
“This is enough, isn’t it? You’d both be happier if you’d admitted it.” Amane glanced at them. “What you said about past pains works well with past hatreds, as well. You are friends.”
“Just because you don’t say much doesn’t mean you can say anything and be right,” Momomi said. “You’re missing the point. We don’t have to be friends. This is fine in itself.”
Olesa nodded. “I would agree with that. Even enemies can understand each other.”
“Stubborn.” Amane rubbed the back of her head, looking away. “But it must be nice, having someone who understands you.”
Momomi frowned for a few moments, then smirked. “Okay, no one could miss that. Do tell, Amane-san, do you have anyone like that?”
Amane frowned and looked away. “A little too theatrical?”
“That depends on whether or not we were supposed to notice.” Olesa frowned thoughtfully. “But yes, a little theatrical.”
“In truth, though, I’ve never felt a connection like that with anyone.”
“That’s too bad,” Momomi replied, trying to sound sympathetic. “But you’re you, aren’t you? If you got to know people, I’m sure you’d find someone who understood you. To be crash, it’s a matter of probability.”
“Ah. That isn’t easy…” Amane frowned slightly. “For you, it was easy. Olesa who always had Amiki. Momomi who chanced upon Kaname. And then each other. Even for people like you, it was deceptively easy.”
“People like us…” Momomi frowned. “I think I’m being insulted.”
“With good reason,” Olesa replied. “At least be self-aware.”
“It doesn’t matter, though. Forget it.”
Momomi pouted. “Oh, no, you don’t. Not after you opened up a little for the first time ever.”
“Forget it.”
“Oh, come on.” Momomi frowned. “You say you wish people understood you, but you never open up to anyone. Even if they want to you, you keep everything hidden inside. That’s what I don’t understand. You’re an extremely defensive person, Amane, even though you shouldn’t be.”
“Ah.”
“Why? Is there a reason?”
“Forget it.”
Momomi sighed. “At least tell me why you won’t tell us any more than that.”
“Ah.” Amane shrugged. “Because I don’t know whether I can trust you or not.”
“Well… I guess that makes some sense, even if it annoys me. We haven’t known each other for very long, after all.”
“But still, what could we do, even if we weren’t trustworthy?” Olesa asked “You are you and we are who we are. We don’t threaten you.”
“Everyone can be threatened by their own innermost truths.”
Momomi frowned. “If not us, then, why not someone else? So many people care about you. So many people love to watch you and talk about you and smile at you, so why can’t you at least try to find one of them who you can trust?” She sighed. “If you’ll forgive me, it’s very arrogant, when you’re like this. Popular but friendless. And I know you want to have friends. You’ve made that clear enough…”
“Ah. Well, the world is a complicated place.” Amane looked at the girls watching her, eyes distant. “It’s fine, though. Those thoughts are idle dreams I shouldn’t disturb you with. This is why I say so little in the first place.”
Momomi sighed deeply. “If you say so…”
“Ah.” Amane fell into a brooding silence, looking at the ground. Starbright flicked his ears at her.
Momomi rolled her eyes. “But I will say one thing. I don’t know much about you, Amane-san, and I certainly don’t understand you, though I try harder. What I do know is that once upon a time I thought I’d never able to trust anyone at all. I’d been betrayed, after all, by someone I cared a lot about. At that time, I didn’t have any thoughts but to distance myself from everyone around me…”
“Are you implying I’m employing such a primitive defence mechanism?” Amane asked.
“Are you saying you care if I’m implying that?” Momomi asked. “It doesn’t matter, right? You don’t care, whatever I say, it’s all the same to you… that way, I can never say anything that will hurt you. That’s how it goes, right?”
Amane just frowned, saying nothing at all.
“In any case, I was talking about myself. I kept myself distant, consciously so. I had my own reasons, my fear of being displaced by my parents, but it was still a coward’s tactic. If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t bleed. That was my logic.” Momomi looked at the other two. “Olesa’s probably aware of that logic. It’s quite seductive. And it works, on its own terms, it can protect you. But… it always left me with a hollow feeling. I felt like I didn’t matter to anyone, so I didn’t matter to myself. I craved recognition on some level, but I didn’t dare receive it. Well, you’re different from that, Amane-san. Everyone recognises you.”
Amane shook her head without replying.
“In any case, Kaname used the same logic as me, from a similar position… she protected herself like that. As a result, she was hated. I’m sure she thought that was fine. But, in the end, she told me about herself. Pretty much out of the blue.” Momomi chuckled. “It’s a little funny, actually. After over a year, covering every little facet of herself, she just snapped and told me everything. Her deepest wounds and insecurities. If I’d been that way inclined, I could have destroyed her with them.”
“Ah… I see.”
“It’s strange. Kaname is normally very reserved and cautious about these things, but she made that huge leap. Without that, nothing would have happened.” Momomi frowned. “When I look back on that, I realise that she’s pretty brave after all.”
“Unexpected of Kenjou,” Amane commented. “But I suppose I don’t know her that well.”
“I wonder how things have been, if she hadn’t done that?” Momomi mused. “Would they always end up like this? Or would they be completely different?”
“That was what we were talking about initially, isn’t it?” Olesa frowned. “You’re very easily distracted.”
“Oh, yeah…” Momomi nodded, accepting the change of subject. “Well, I don’t know what the future is. I don’t know whether this is a happy ending. But I am happy right now, I guess. Compared to that, the sufferings of my past are meaningless. I’m smarter now, and I can trust her. I’m sure of it.”
“A young girl in love. How sweet.” Olesa rolled her eyes. “Is that how it is?”
“Well, forgive me for being normal.” Momomi folded her arms. “All the same, she’s completely changed me. I’ve changed her, too.”
“I hope that doesn’t happen every time you get a girlfriend…”
“Oh, shut up.”
“I could get back from the summer holidays and find a completely new person in your skin.” Olesa closed her eyes. “That’d be pretty inconvenient for me.”
“Enough with the sarcasm, already.” Momomi pouted. “You know what I mean. I’m lucky, that’s all.”
“Not really. Probability suggests that there has to be plenty more people in this school who could fulfil a similar role. If you widen the pool, the chances of meeting at least one possible partner must surely become a certainty.”
Momomi laughed. “You’re no kind of romantic, are you, Olesa?”
Olesa shrugged. “I’m practical. That’s all.”
“Alright, alright. How about you, though? How are things with you and Amiki?”
“What should I say? Still difficult.” Olesa sighed. “A life that was simple and pre-determined has become very complicated, and full of hard decisions. I blame you for that.”
Momomi laughed. “You’ll thank me eventually. Do you like her?”
“Somewhat.”
“Somewhat? Is that even an answer?”
“Yes, then. But-”
“Oh, come on. How can there be a but? She likes you too, we all know that.” Momomi frowned. “I scraped by, you should keep up with me.”
“Like I said, things are complicated.” Olesa frowned. “If my mother hates me, I would be upset. And if I was in such a relationship, I’m sure she’d be upset.”
“Can’t you just hide it from her?” Momomi glared at her friend. “To be honest, I’m sure you hide everything else from her anyway.”
“I could do that, but I’m not sure I have it in me. She’s my weakness.” Olesa sighed. “And my strength. But you must understand. Things are… complicated. We have an understanding, we know our feelings are mutual, but she is my servant and we have been together since childhood. Far more than the friendship between you and Kaname, if this fell down around us, it could destroy us both.”
“You shouldn’t be so timid. I mean, if you don’t do it, you’re just going to regret not doing it, right?”
“We have plenty of time,” Olesa replied evasively. “Patience doesn’t mean we have to regret.”
“Well, it’s your business, I’m sure. But it doesn’t seem fair to make her wait and wait, just for you.” Momomi grinned. “And what would you do if another girl fell for her? Let her go?”
Olesa snorted. “As her master, I’d expect… never mind. I don’t know, already.”
“If that’s how you feel, you might as well act on it. It saves you the pressure of having a rival later on.” Momomi smirked. “But don’t get too complacent. That’s all I’m saying.”
“You’re talking pretty confidentially considering I was the one giving you advice all of two days ago.”
“Well, I’m returning that favour, of course. What do you say?”
“I’ll think about it.”
Momomi groaned. “You think about everything. Doesn’t that get a bit boring after a while?”
“It’s prudent. You should understand.”
Amane closed her eyes. “Interesting.”
Momomi flushed. “Sorry, we’ve been talking without you again…”
“It’s fine. I like listening to you two talking.”
“I see. But what do you think, anyway?” Momomi asked. “I presume you’ve been following this.”
Amane shrugged. “I don’t know Rivera well enough to say.”
“As usual, you’re very precise…”
“But Perez-san should make her own decision. If it’s made for her and things go badly, that would hurt too much.” Amane glanced at them briefly. “That’s how I see it, anyway.”
“That’s illuminating but not, perhaps, very useful.” Momomi sighed. “Oh, well. That’s all Olesa would do anyway. It’d take more than me to break her.”
“Of course. It’s my problem to deal with.”
Amane nodded. “You both lead very interesting lives.”
“Pretty much,” Momomi agreed. “When I look back over the stuff I went through these past few weeks, I can’t disagree with you.”
“You involved us in more of it than I would have liked, too.” Olesa shook head. “That was quite annoying, you know.”
“Oh, shush. You enjoyed it really.”
“The hell I did.”
“In any case, how about you?” Momomi asked. “Even if you’re being really gloomy, like you always are, your life is interesting too, right?”
“Objectively, yes.” Amane shrugged. “I don’t have strong feelings about it, though.”
“As ever, you’re keeping up the act…”
“It’s not an act.”
“Yes, yes…”
Amane sighed. “You’re very tiring. But still, life here has its moments.”
“Of course.”
“It’s just that I have a strange feeling, from time to time, when I look around.” Amane glanced at her audience again. “It all feels so… fake.”
Momomi laughed. “As ever, you can put a negative spin on anything at all.”
“No.” Olesa shook her head. “I know what she means, somewhat.”
Momomi half-shrugged. “Well, fine. Whatever you say…”
“That play you were doing. How is that going?”
Momomi blinked. “You remember that? Well, we’re still struggling through it. It’s a lot of work, to say the least, especially on top of everything else. But we should still be finished on time.”
Olesa nodded. “Certainly, with Shion chasing us…”
“I never really understood that. Why are you both working so hard on something this difficult? Isn’t it just tiring?”
“Hey, it’s not like we want too,” Momomi replied. “I just owe Shion a lot for services rendered. I do have some sense of honour, you know.”
“More like you’re afraid of all the dirt Shion has on you…”
Amane patted Starbright again, watching the horse for a few seconds. “It must be difficult for you two, though. Working together when you don’t get on sounds awkward.”
“We manage somehow. Regardless of our personal differences, we’re both, frankly, talented at linguistics.” Momomi smirked. “Something like this isn’t so bad.”
“Ah. And what happens when you’re done?”
“Shion gets the script, and does whatever with it, I guess. It’s out of our hands at that point.”
“For a lower school play?”
“It’s a strange idea, I know, but all Shion’s ideas are strange. I see what she’s getting at, though. Undue emphasis really is places on the seniors, don’t you think?”
Amane cocked her head, considering. “Actually, I think I’m a bigger problem case…”
“Well, quite.”
“But I know what you mean.”
“So I suppose is that we can do something together, as the younger years. And we’re taking it seriously, too, which sounds odd, but any idiot can put together a vaguely funny parody. For our peers, playing something straight is a lot harder…”
Amane nodded. “You should get involved, you know.”
“Huh?” Momomi blinked. “You know, we are already. That’s the point.”
“As actors.”
“Why?”
“Because it would be interesting.”
Momomi looked down and closed her eyes, smiling in bemusement. “That’s always enough for you, isn’t it? If something’s interesting.”
“Of course.”
“Well, I might.” Momomi opened an eye briefly. “But how about you? Are you going to get involved too?”
“Only if it looks interesting.”
“Of course…”
“Don’t hold your breath, though. I dislike having people watch me.”
“So that’s why you’re so gloomy all the time.”
Amane sighed. “Well, quite.”
“They go well together, don’t they?”
Kaname glanced at Amiki, slightly surprised. Recovering her poise, she looked back calmly. “I guess so.”
“It’s at times like this that remember how different we are, even if we spend so much time together.” Amiki leaned on the fence, smiling wanly. “Broadly, she rides the horse. If I’m lucky, I get to hold the bridle, but for the most part I just watch.”
Kaname snorted. “You shouldn’t talk like that. It doesn’t suit you at all.”
“Ha. It’s not like I’m proud of this, but I can accept it. How about you?” Amiki looked at her analytically. “Momomi’s much the same. She’s certainly involving in the school and becoming known. You aren’t. She’s still the one who leads the way.”
“I wouldn’t want to follow her there. But still, I’m not her servant. I’m not like her.”
“I suppose not.” Amiki smirked. “You don’t get paid to be with the one you love.”
“That cocky attitude is a contradiction after your melancholy, isn’t it?” Kaname folded her arms. “If you’re going to be hypocritical, you should at least wait a little.”
“There’s no contradiction. I like things like this, for the most part. Olesa is magnificent, so watching her from afar is enjoyable… it’s a lot easier than ever being directly involved.”
“That sounds pretty pathetic.”
“Well, how about you? Don’t you know how difficult it is to get involved?”
“I guess so. But still, you aren’t making a good account of yourself.”
“Watching someone is easier. You can love them or hate them. Someone you call a friend or someone you call a rival. It doesn’t really matter.” Amiki smiled. “The principle’s the same. You know what I mean.”
“Tch. Speak for yourself…”
“But I can live vivid experiences through someone who appears to have no fear and absolute self-belief. By identifying myself with that person, I receive a kind of happiness, or at least an ideal. I don’t even aspire to it. I just watch it from afar.”
“That’s just too sad, though, isn’t it? If you live like that, you won’t grow at all.”
“I know.” Amiki looked around. “But you see all the other girls… they think in the same way as us. To them, Amane is their unapproachable dream. In that respect, she’s like a star.”
“Etoile, huh?” Kaname sighed. “What a ridiculous title.”
“I know better than that shallow image, though. After all, I’ve known Olesa for a long time.”
“I should think so, under the circumstances.” Kaname stole a glance at the other girl. Her face was uncharacteristically soft, with no signs of hostility or impatience. She looked relaxed and surprisingly beautiful.
“The truth is that Olesa really isn’t that special after all. She’s just a normal girl, with the same insecurities and fears as everyone else. She’s just better at pretending, but I can see through that. The Olesa you know isn’t anything like the real one. That’s why I feel so happy when she entrusts her thoughts to me.” Amiki adjusted a lock of her hair distractedly. “You should know a similar story, right?”
“I suppose so. Momomi’s better about being so defensive, though.”
“Even if you say that, I’ve never been sure. For you, maybe. But for all her nice-girl act, I can’t say I know her.” Amiki shrugged. “But Olesa is troublesome. She drives herself too hard, she’s reckless with her body and her reputation, and she insists on making everything her own responsibility. She has grand designs and a great pride, so in the end she has to work hard and struggle. She suffers, really. Because she can’t ever let herself be a normal person, or achieve normal happiness. She lives for something more than that. It worries me a lot.”
Kaname laughed quietly. “You too, huh?”
“Hmm?”
“For once, I know what you mean. Someone who struggles, sacrifices themselves and tries to do everything, being guilty for everything and always choosing the hard path over the easy one… something like that?”
Amiki nodded. “Yeah.”
“It’s so troublesome. If only she was more normal, she’d be a lot happier. But all the same, I like her because she’s not normal. Even if it’s a real pain sometimes.”
“Well, for me… I guess I’m the same, after all.” Amiki closed her eyes. “I'm not sure exactly when it was, but we were very young. Perhaps when we were nine or ten. Either way, it stuck in my mind. Some girls had been bullying her, never by touch; they were more cunning than that. I didn’t know that, though. I just found her crying behind the school.” She chuckled. “I used to think that Olesa could never cry. She was always so strong, always so detached… she was too in control. But she could cry. At first, that shocked me. It was almost like a betrayal.”
“Such a loving childhood friend…”
“I know. But that’s what happens when you discover an idol’s true nature.” Amiki shrugged. “In any case, I got her to tell me what happened. I shouted, I think, or something. She wasn’t willing, but she told me. I found those girls and shouted at them, and when they talked back I just snapped. I just saw Olesa’s crying face, over and over. In the end it all came to light when the teachers sorted out the mess.”
Kaname sighed. “I don’t mean to sound critical, but if you understand moments like that, why did you put Momomi through the same thing? It isn’t in good taste.”
“That was what she wanted. Olesa, I mean. To be honest, though, I didn’t like Momomi either. We both had bad preconceptions and neither of you had done anything to dispel them.”
“So it’s our fault now?”
“Nope. But I make no apologies, either.”
“You’re as stubborn and proud as ever. Well, forgive me for not sympathising with you too much.”
“Likewise. You’d do the same thing without remorse.” Amiki watched them ride. “Nonetheless, I remember that moment quite clearly. It would be too dramatic to say that from then on I knew I had to protect Olesa. Children don’t think like that. But I did start to look out for her and protect her, in my stupid little way. From then, I was determined to be more than the girl who helped her dress, carried her bags and played with her while her mother was busy. So I support her. I’ve got into far more fights than was strictly necessary for that, I’ve got involved in martial arts and I’ve stepped past my perfect imagining of her. I listen to her fears and insecurities and provide comfort when I can. I know why she does what she does and I’ll always be the one to help her with it. I don’t care what it is. I don’t care who is hurt. I just want to help her… that’s all.” Amiki’s hands tightened round the fence. “That’s enough.”
“Even if you say that, what about you?” Kaname glanced at her face. “You criticise her for being a martyr, but are you any different? Everything’s subordinate to her desires. If her aims make you unhappy, you’d still support her. And you give her everything you have without asking for anything in return. You’re sacrificing yourself for her.”
“I told you,” Amiki replied quietly. “This feeling is enough.”
“Even if you say that over and over, those words won’t come true, you know.” Kaname smirked. “As I like to say… this world isn’t that convenient.”
“Well, it’s true that it can be difficult for me too. But she tries so hard and protects herself so carefully that I’m fine with it. I can give without receiving anything directly back and still be happy with our relationship.”
“That’s still messed up to me. I mean, I’ll borrow your lines. You want her, she wants you, so why not go out or whatever?”
“We’ve talked about it. I couldn’t hide something like that from her, no matter how much I tried…” Amiki’s gaze settled on the grass. “You must understand, for Olesa everything is about the goal. If we troubled her mother, or if I stood in the way of her marrying to her advantage…”
Kaname chuckled. “Weren’t you listening when Momomi said that? Take everything. But if you avoid happiness like it’s something to fear for such feeble reasons, that’s just too pathetic.”
“Pretty arrogant for someone with so many issues so recently,” Amiki fumed. “We’re not like you two, you know, so don’t try to make a comparison. We’ve grown up together and my reason for living is her, as a servant and as a person. I can’t compromise my duty and I can’t risk losing what we have already. You two had it easy in comparison…”
“We had it easy? Oh, come on. You even know she returns your feelings!”
“For someone like Olesa, her feelings aren’t important,” Amiki snapped. “I told you that, didn’t I?”
“Olesa can be an idiot, then. It’s your job to shake her head out of it!” Kaname retorted. “You want to help her! That’s good! So don’t just take her words as commands and never question what she does. We both know that her way of life doesn’t make her happy. By all means, support her determination, but if she’s being stupid, tell her. And tell her, too, that you want to go out with her. Honesty is more helpful than going on with this in silence.”
“What do you know about it? After all these years, I’m not inclined to change everything because you think you know everything about everyone.”
Kaname laughed. “Don’t pout. It doesn’t suit you.”
“Shut up.”
Kaname returned her gaze to the riders. They were heading back to the stables now, still talking, elegant on horseback. “But still, you should believe in yourself more. If you were her girlfriend, I know you recompense her for the difficulties it’d cause her fifty times over. Making every day better… that’s what you do already. So make her happier.”
Amiki flushed. “Is that a vote of confidence from you, of all people?”
“You’re a less confident person than you appear. I know that, you know why.” Kaname leaned forwards. “But as an objective observer, I can tell you that. You’re the one who can make her happy however hard she pushes herself. If that’s true, it’s also your duty.”
Amiki snorted. “You make it sound so easy…”
“You make it sound so hard.”
“Touché.” They watched the other three dismounting slowly. “But still, they do go together well, don’t they?”
“Yeah. I’ll admit, it does make me jealous.” Kaname shook her head. “Even now, she spends so much time with Amane…”
“And you call me insecure.”
“Well, would you like her as competition?”
“I’ve always thought that might be good. They’d go well together.”
“Are you seriously saying that?”
“Of course. I’m always serious.”
“Well, say that again when you know Amane is after Olesa. Even if you pretend you don’t care, I know better.”
“Oh? The voice of experience?”
“The voice of common sense. There’s no point in trying to be cool.”
“Oh? Well, not everyone is a jealous, hyper-possessive freak, you know.”
“I’m allowed to be a little possessive about the person I like. You, on the other hand, sacrifice even that thanks to your damn martyr complex…”
“You mean I have a sense of perspective, unlike someone I could name?”
Kaname just grinned and said nothing, walking towards the stables. No matter how much time has passed, or how things have changed, some things will always stay the same. I think I like that.
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