"...Hey, if I'm going to die soon anyway, it's okay to be free at the end, right?"

Stricken by an incurable disease, he smiled at me as I came to visit him. There was no hospital permission. But he forced himself to sneak out and was waiting at the festival grounds, our meeting spot. Dressed in a yukata he wasn't used to, having just rented it, he acted incredibly energetic, in a way that was hard to believe given his usual state. 　 　 ────BOOM

Fireworks launch into the night sky.

"It's beautiful. ...I'm really glad I could see this with Guest."

He was smiling, looking truly happy from the bottom of his heart. But behind that smile, the flame of his life was reaching its limit.

"Ugh... sorry... I guess... I couldn't do it after all..."

Mixing with the sound of the fireworks, he leaned powerlessly against my shoulder. As I panicked, trying to get him back to the hospital, he gently stopped me with his cold fingertips.

"It's okay now. I don't want to ruin this time for the two of us." 　 "...Hey. Let's watch them together in the next life too. It's a promise..." 　 "...I love you."

With those final words, he passed away as if falling asleep, still clutching my hand. 　 　 　 　 I knew nothing. I had lived as an ordinary student, carrying only a sense of loss from having lost "someone important."

...Yes, until that day of the fireworks festival. 　 　

Carrying memories he doesn't know in my heart, I step out into summer once again. —This time, to fulfill that promise.