Crossing Paths, Traumatized, and Yet… - Chapter 33

The year is over, the holidays are over, and a new semester has begun.

From then on, Daiki and Wakaba changed little by little.

However, it seemed to those around them that little had changed.

Daiki started to spend less and less time with Wakaba.

He started to spend more time with his male friends and friends from club activities and tried to avoid seeing them outside of school so as not to disturb Wakaba.

They still went to and from school together as before, and things remained pretty much the same inside school.

Every day, they exchanged brief messages.

They acted the part of normal childhood friends.

His feelings of love for her had not changed, but he was able to suppress them.

He could tolerate seeing Wakaba and Shiraishi together.

There was still a lot of work to be done between Daiki and Wakaba.

It was still assumed that Daiki and Wakaba were no longer hung up on each other.

Wakaba was still not quite sure what her feelings were.

However, she gradually began to feel uncomfortable with the distance between herself and Daiki.

They rarely saw each other on their days off, or when they went home, which was normal on their way to and from school.

At first, she didn’t even notice because they gradually stopped playing together.

Now, the two of them no longer play together on their days off.

They would go to summer festivals, Christmas parties, and other events together, but once they joined the others, they stopped coming near each other.

She was puzzled by the change in Daiki and felt lonely, but subconsciously tried not to notice her feelings.

Ren began to approach her more and more, and people around her always tried to get her to go out with him.

Because of this, she and Ren became good friends, but she still thought of him only as a good friend of hers.

Perhaps she did not feel that she had found the right response yet, but Ren did not confess his feelings to her.

Meanwhile, Wakaba had been confessed to by other boys, but she had turned them all down.

After her club activities were over, Wakaba made it to the top eight of the prefectural tennis tournament in the individual competition.

Her opponent in the final eight was a potential winner, and she lost by a narrow margin.

Daiki also made it to the prefectural soccer tournament, but was eliminated.

The time came for the junior high school entrance examinations.

Daiki and Wakaba had good grades, so they decided to take the entrance exam to a local school.

Daiki and Wakaba decided to take the entrance examination for another school.

Daiki’s deviation score was just barely above the standard, but he decided to give it a try.

Wakaba had decided to go to a local school from the beginning.

Of course, she thought that Daiki would apply to the same school as her, so it was only natural that she and Daiki would go to the same high school.

When Wakaba heard about this, for the first time in her life, she could not hide her shock at having to go to different schools.

She was also very determined, so she couldn’t say anything and fell into a state of depression.

“We’re getting further and further apart…”

She felt sad.

However, time is short for students preparing for exams.

Wakaba also asked Daiki to join her and the others to study for the exam, but he refused, saying that he would study while teaching his club mates.

Wakaba was also invited to study with Ren and the others.

Wakaba also tried to invite him to study on other days, but their schedules didn’t match and they couldn’t study together.

So, although they went to school together in the mornings, they went home separately for the most part.

Recently, however, Ren has been waiting for her on the way to school.

As a result, she could talk with Daiki only a little.

Whenever she walked with Ren, Daiki would walk a little further behind her and find another friend to go with.

Wakaba felt lonely again.

Daiki started to run errands as much as possible except in the morning so as not to disturb Wakaba.

“Shiraishi and Wakaba seem to be getting along well,”

All her friends were saying that.

So they tried to stay out of the way.

After he finished his club activities, Shiraishi started waiting for Wakaba before going to school in the morning.

The little time before meeting up with Shiraishi was a time when he and Wakaba could talk alone, but just as in the past, they would talk as usual.

After meeting up with Shiraishi, he would walk a little behind her, trying not to join in the conversation, and if he saw a friend, he would go over there and try not to get in the way.

Daiki spent all the time except for the morning hours studying, trying not to think about it or look at it.

He was used to it compared to the first time, but when he saw Shiraishi and Wakaba enjoying themselves, he couldn’t help but feel a bit tight in his chest.

If he was studying, he didn’t have to think about it.

Daiki’s grades improved when he realized that he had been on the brink at the beginning.

Daiki had reached the passing line for the high school he had initially just barely passed.

Even his teacher said to him.

“With these grades, I think you will be fine!”

He decided to study harder so that his grades would not drop.

He thought that Wakaba was probably studying hard to be accepted into a local preparatory school, so his contact with her became minimal.

On the day of the exam, Daiki went to the station alone and took the train to the exam site.

When the test started, he felt that he had a good result.

Wakaba was studying hard for the entrance examination to a local school.

Although she had passed the exam, it was not a sure thing.

She was desperate not to fail.

Wakaba could not fail the exam just because Daiki was going to a different high school.

She also knew that Daiki’s grades were improving rapidly.

He knew that Daiki was working hard, but Wakaba couldn’t afford not to do her best.

Wakaba’s grades were also higher than before.

On the day of the exam, she sent a message to Daiki and wished him good luck.

She was able to finish the exam with a solid result.