Chapter 100 – In the Spaces Between Words
[Flashback – Age 14, Summer Break – Hoshikawa Junior High Grounds]
The cicadas screamed like they always did in August.
Naoto stood by the old vending machine on campus, waiting for a drink that refused to drop. He tapped the button twice more, sighing.
"Are you seriously fighting with a vending machine?" came a familiar voice.
He didn't turn.
"I'm not fighting. I'm negotiating."
"Right. And I'm a queen from Mars."
He glanced sideways. Himari stood with a ribbon hanging off her uniform collar, hair tied half-heartedly. She looked exhausted and radiant in the same breath.
"I thought you were skipping today," Naoto said.
"I was." She held up a notebook. "But someone has to drag your corpse through summer homework."
They walked toward the rooftop together, a place unofficially theirs for years now. The rusted door creaked like a bad memory, but neither of them minded.
There was something about the view there—open, endless, but far away from everyone else.
They sat in silence, the notebook untouched between them.
Naoto leaned back.
"You ever feel like you're waiting for something that never comes?" he asked quietly.
She looked up at the sky. "Like what?"
"I don't know. A moment. A word. Maybe just… peace."
Himari didn't answer for a long time.
Then softly, "You're always waiting, Naoto. You wait instead of ask. You wait instead of feel. But I see it anyway."
He turned his head toward her.
"That you care too much. That you think too deeply. That you love in silence."
His chest tightened.
"…You think I love?"
She met his eyes. Hers didn't waver.
"I know you do."
---
[Mini Flashback – Himari's Birthday, Age 13]
She had cried when the cake fell off the table, splattered on the ground before anyone could take a bite.
Everyone else froze.
Naoto had scooped up what was salvageable, put a candle in the untouched corner, and made her close her eyes again.
"Make a wish," he said, firm.
She didn't move.
He leaned closer.
"Sometimes broken things still taste sweet."
She smiled, lips trembling, and blew out the flame.
---
[Back to Rooftop – Age 14]
Naoto stared at the horizon, his voice barely above the wind.
"I'm afraid to lose people. That's why I don't say things."
Himari's voice was a whisper, "You'll lose them anyway, Naoto. That's life."
"But if I don't say anything… maybe they won't leave angry."
Himari blinked slowly.
Then she reached over, pulling his hand into hers.
"I'm not going anywhere."
His fingers twitched—but he didn't pull away.
---
[Present Day – Naoto's Car, Outside School Gates]
Naoto sat in the parked car, the rain starting to dot the windshield. His daughter, Yui, had fallen asleep in the backseat after her kindergarten event.
In the silence, he let the past bleed in.
The memories weren't haunting—they were sacred.
The reason he had chosen.
The reason he had let go of Rika.
The reason he couldn't waver, even now.
---
[Mini Inner Monologue – Naoto]
I didn't fall in love suddenly. It wasn't one moment or one confession.
It was a thousand quiet promises. A hundred nights on the rooftop. A dozen lost birthdays. A single time she cried into my shoulder and asked, "If I disappear one day, will you remember me?"
And I told her: "No."
"I'll never let you disappear."
---