I hate you.

I hate you.

I hate you so much for bullying me to death back in school.

But I love you,

I love you.

Even if you're like that, I love you so much.

I still miss you, dreaming of you like a trauma.

Back then, I thought it would be enough if I just didn't get greedy. I thought it would be okay even if I just had a one-sided crush forever.

Ah,

I should have just kept it a crush.

I tried hard to smile brightly in front of people. Because I'm satisfied with my daily life now...

...

I clutched my tight chest.

Should I... start going to counseling again?

...No, I don't have the confidence to reveal my bundle of flaws anymore.

I let out a deep sigh with my head hung low, then slowly lifted my head and gave a thin smile.

Sigh...

Why did the two of us

Meet while being born the same gender? It would have been a win-win for both of us if we hadn't been born the same gender or hadn't met in the first place.

...I know nothing changes by regretting it now, but I just wanted to lament inside the second stall of the restroom.

Today is June.

A street crowded with people.

An ordinary summer day where the sunlight heats the asphalt and the sidewalk shimmers with heat haze. And today is my first leave. I felt like I was going to melt along with the hot summer from the sense of liberation of being released into the outside world after a long time.

But,

!!!

Ah, it's familiar. So much that I feel like throwing up.

In the middle of the road,

Honk! Honnnk!!!

Loud horn sounds piercing my eardrums came from both sides, but I couldn't move. That one voice caught my ankle. As if I had been called to the back of the classroom in high school, my whole body froze as if caught in a trap. But my heart didn't freeze; it beat violently.

I could only see... you standing in front of me.