Silence befalls the two individuals, both alone on the rooftop with nobody around. The ice has already broken, yet it feels as if the water below it had frozen over in an instant.
The purple-haired girl pushes herself up hastily as Kane takes a step back, still in a state of shock and absolute terror.
With a shy pose, the girl who was supposedly Erisa greets Kane, albeit quietly and awkwardly, "...L-long time no see, I guess."
Kane grits his teeth, an overflow of emotions flooding his brain. He simply cannot comprehend why this person is here even after the things they said back during junior high.
He speaks under his breath; completely and utterly confused, "This can't be right..."
the girl catches wind of his words as she raises her eyebrows. The girl, worried about the boy in front of, questions him in an attempt to understand, "W-what...?"
"I thought you left!?"
Kane shouts with anger fueling his voice, which frightens the girl. As a tear forms under his left eye, his lips quivering and his head looking toward the floor, unable to bring himself to look her in the eye.
"Y-you..."
What was originally a singular tear has now become many; Kane begins to cry aggressively, unable to contain his emotions any longer. Those months he had to endure, it was too hard a burden to carry anymore.
The girl stands there, silent and unmoving; it is almost as if she had come to accept that she was indeed in the wrong. She continues to look at him quietly with a solemn face.
"Y-you told me..."
His whimpering begins to quiet down as he wipes the tears off his face with his arm, before looking up at her and staring her directly in the eyes. His voice shaky yet soft, he continues, "...Yet... you're here... why?"
The girl looks down at her hands, guilt and regret soon fills her mind. She looks back up at Kane, and for a moment, she saw something... and that sight gave her the strength to take a step forward.
"...I'm really sorry for not telling you sooner... that I was just brought by emotion…"
She takes another step closer to the crying boy infront of her. A vision flickers from her past: a blurry image of a small boy sat down while crying in a sandbox, with her towering over said boy.
"...I'm really... really sorry for telling you all those painful things... before walking away and disappearing from your life…"
And another step, before coming face-to-face with Kane, who, due to being unable to speak, has begun to simply look at her with tear-filled eyes. She remembers the way that young boy looked at her as she helped the boy stand up.
"...But..."
Erisa looks up at the boy she had called her friend for so many years, her eyes now filled with the same sorrow that had plagued Kane for so many months.
The soft noise of fabrics rustling pierces the silent rooftop as Erisa goes in to hug Kane in order to comfort him; Kane's eyes widen once more.
"...I'm here now, aren't I?"
In the blink of an eye, Kane is brought back to a simpler time. He sees himself as a smaller version of himself with a bruise on his knee and a young purple-haired girl in a sandbox, with him crying on her shoulder while she comforts him with a hug and slow head rub.
"There there… you'll be alright!"
The young girl spoke with a playful yet comforting voice. A tear rolls down his cheek.
She lets out a chuckle, before speaking with a playful tone...
"You've always been a crybaby, Kane-kun!"
Those final words echo on in his head as he is brought back to reality, his tears have stopped flowing as Erisa continues hugging him and slowly stroking the back of his head.
With a quiet chuckle, Erisa pulls Kane closer to her shoulder, almost reminiscent of the way they were before; she speaks in a hushed tone, "You've always been a crybaby, Kane-kun."
The two remain silent as they slowly immerse themselves in the moment together, accompanied with the sound of the wind whistling and the hustle-and-bustle of the courtyard below.
⋆｡°✩
Moments pass, and now both Erisa and Kane are both sat down on the concrete flooring; Kane blows through his nose and into a handkerchief he took from his back pocket.
As he brings the handkerchief down from his face, he sniffles before looking at Erisa, she seems to be fiddling with her fingers and looking away, refraining from giving eye contact.
Kane clears his throat, catching the attention of Erisa; before long, he asks her with a nasally voice, considering he had just finished crying, "So... where have you been, Erisa-san? Why did you disappear like that?"
Erisa laughs awkwardly, as if she did not want to answer the question to begin with; she proceeds to scratch the back of her head while saying, "W-what do you mean by that? Do I really have to answer that?"
From that statement alone, it was clear to Kane that she was playing dumb and did not intend to answer the question.
Kane looks at her with suspicion and confusion; "She's always been a tough cookie to crack... I guess I'll have to pull out an old trick I used to play on her when we were kids..."
With a sigh and shrug while closing both his eyes, Kane initiated his act, "As I expected... I guess I don't deserve an explanation even though I cried my eyes out to you. Poor ol' me doesn't deserve anything after all."
He reopens one eye discreetly as to watch what her reaction is. He begins to cockily think to himself, while also laughing to himself internally, "So? How will you react to this? Will you let your guilt consume you? Erisa Fujikawa, give me an answer!"
To his favor — and to her dismay — Erisa shows a crack in her fortitude due to her showing an awkward smile.
Erisa looks down, and begins to show signs of stress as she ponders to herself, "Ugh! Why does he have to make things so hard?"
She looks up for a quick moment, trying to look closer at Kane's expression, which clearly shows dismay.
Looking back down in embarrassment, her lips start quivering as the guilt slowly consumes her, all according to the plan of Kane, "Gosh, why do you also have to make yourself look like that..."
She looks back up, fully accepting her defeat; as she opens her mouth to let out the words that Kane has been wanting to hear, something unexpected happens.
CREAAK...
"Fujikawa-sama~ I'm back with the things you wan..."
An elegant and deep feminine voice is added to the fray of this chaotic rooftop scene; both Kane and Erisa glances over at her at the same time as she fully opens the rooftop door.
The silver-haired girl holding a carton of strawberry milk and cookies delicately wrapped in a plastic container stops in her tracks at the now open door as soon as she sees the boy who is currently frozen in a shrugging motion infront of Erisa.
A glint passes through Erisa's eyes as she gets an idea. Now with the chance she has been given, she stands up and sprints to the silver-haired girl in a flash, catching Kane off-guard.
"A–A–Ayumi-san! This black-haired CREEP has been harassing me for the past five minutes! If it weren't for you, I don't know what would have happened to me~!"
She tells the silver-haired girl frantically as she stood behind her, trying her best to hide her figure. She began holding her shoulders, leaving Kane speechless.
It takes a moment for him to regain his senses. He pushes himself up while looking completely shocked. "H-hey! Don't give her the wrong impression, Erisa-san!"
The silver-haired girl passes the strawberry milk and cookies to Erisa, before proceeding into a battle ready stance with her fists forward.
The demeanor of this girl suddenly changes to something fierce and scary. "Don't worry Fujikawa-sama. I'll protect you with all my life."
"What in the-!? Is this woman some kind of combat specialist!?"
Kane thought as he starts taking a few steps back in utter terror; completely and utterly defenseless and with no escape route, only one thought enters his mind.
"I'm so dead."
To his surprise however, he hears two voices approaching coming from the open door, he watches both the door and the silver-haired slowly approaching him in her fighting stance. "Wait, I still may have a chance at survival!"
For every step the silver-haired girl takes, Kane takes a step back. "Could you two walk any faster?!" He thinks to himself in utter desperation, waiting for both Kazuo and Satoshi to reach the rooftop door.
As soon as he sees the red hair of Satoshi and the blonde hair of Kazuo peek over the stairs, he makes a sprint for the door.
"Now's my chance!"
Kane had thought with adrenaline coursing through his veins. While sprinting toward the door, he feels a shift in the wind as he runs past the girl that had nearly cornered him.
He looks back and watches as the silver-haired girl has performed a complete 360 degree turn and has taken a leap toward him in an attempt to tackle him.
She shouts as she reaches out for the man making his escape, "Not so fast, you pervert!"
The girl successfully gets a grip on the blazer of Kane; as she falls to ground, she pulls the blazer down, which causes Kane to come to a complete halt and fall on his back.
CRASH!
As soon as he reaches the floor in an untimely crash, he tries to get up but his foot is grabbed by the unstoppable force of which is the silver-haired girl.
"L-Let go!"
Kane shouts while having an expression that screams, "Oh God, I am actually gonna die," plastered all over his face; he tries to pull himself away from the woman but her grip is too tight.
He looks forward again in a panic, seeing his two friends have now reached the door and are staring at him in utter and complete shock. Erisa can also be seen with the same expression, albeit stood a bit more to the side.
Kane screams out two words as he reached out with his hand, similarly to those generic horror movies where you would watch the side character get slaughtered by the rampaging murderer in a gory mess.
"Save me!!!"
⋆｡°✩
"Grumble... grumble..." Kane, who had faced death in the eyes and survived, looks to the side, clearly avoiding contact with the silver-haired girl who tried to pummel him to a pulp.
The silver-haired girl however, lets out a nervous chuckle while scratching her chin with her index finger; "Haha~ sorry about that, Koyasu-sama."
Satoshi, who is sitting in-between them as the mediator, sighs deeply and in a disappointed tone, as if he was a father handling a dispute between two siblings over who started the argument.
"It's your turn to apologize, Koyasu-kun," he says with one eye open looking toward Kane while crossing his arms.
Kane reacts violently, as shadows form over his eyes and a wry smile makes its appearance on his face. "Hah? She was the one trying to kill me over a false accusation! I shouldn't even apologize in the-"
"Oi, do you really have to make such a scary face?"
Satoshi interjects coldly, cutting off his friend's pointless bickering, he then sighs before sharpening his gaze at the man sitting to his side, before speaking word-for-word.
"Apologize. To. Her."
Grinding his teeth in defiance, Kane mutters to himself, "Tsk... I didn't even..."
"I can hear you, you know," Satoshi comments while raising the eyebrow of his open eye.
Sighing in defeat, Kane half-heartedly apologizes to his assailant, "S-sorry."
"Put in a little bit more heart, okay?" Satoshi playfully comments, abusing the power that he holds currently to ruin the ego that Kane had unfortunately built up over the time they spent during their years in junior high school.
"S-sorry about earlier, Okawa-san, jeez!"
Kane apologizes... kind of... if anybody could even consider that as an apology.
Kane turns to Satoshi, who is rubbing his chin while thinking profusely; after a few seconds of thought, he opens both of his eyes and gives him a thumbs up. "That's good enough!"
"Now..." Satoshi redirects his focus to the two who are currently conversing off to the side. Both Kazuo and Erisa are talking to one another, with Kazuo listening and Erisa explaining something. "I suppose you asked the same question earlier before we arrived, Koyasu-san."
Kane first looks at Satoshi, before looking over at the two; he nods in agreement. "Spot on, Ryūzaki-san, you're not wrong in the slightest."
The silver-haired girl, unaware of what is going on, wears a confused look on her face while blankly staring at the both of them. "Heh? A question? What kind of question?"
Satoshi nods — completely ignoring the girls question — while also giving a cheeky smile, "But honestly, even if that question remains unanswered, it's still a good thing, right?"
"Hah? What do you mean by that?"
Kane blankly and somewhat innocently stares at him, completely oblivious to his statement as he tilts his head, which is completely uncharacteristic of him.
With a proud laugh, he points at Kane while giving the biggest, 'I caught you' grin he could ever give.
"We finally got to see an emotion other than your deadpan expression, you dummy."