Part 1

“Do you see it? Maybe it’s under the sofa there?”

“Mother I already checked, I can’t find it!”

She let out a controlled sigh. “Okay, let’s keep looking. I won’t be late just yet, so if we find it soon I—”

Her words were cut off by the sound of their doorbell ringing, sending Toshi into a frenzy. “No, down boy!” scolded Yuuko as he opened the door. “Hello Yuya, I’m sor— err, excuse me that I’m late.”

“I’ve been waiting by your front gate for ten minutes!” she stomped. “It was your idea to walk to school together, why are you so late!?”

“I know, I’m………if you want, you can go ahead and we walk together tomorrow instead.”

“I-I never said I wanted to do that!” she said, the bottom of her ears turning red. “Just!…ahh! What’s taking so long, let me in!”

“You can’t!” he said, pushing the door against her.

“Why not?!”

“You just— wait! Seriously—no!”

Yuuko was thrown backwards as Yuya burst through the front door, landing face first in front of a dog with a curved tail, staring curiously at her.

“Ahh, it’s the dog from that time.”

“Wait, no no no he’s still not good around people!” Yuuko sprang to his feet as fast as he could, trying to stop her. “Yuya, he might bite!——huh?”

He stopped his words dead in their tracks for one simple reason, for the first time since he’d gotten Toshi, he was acting friendly with someone he met for the first time.

Yuya was squatted in front of him, petting him on the head and letting him sniff her clothes. He didn’t know how to react, much less what to say, when his dog hopped into her open arms.

“That’s……weird.”

“What?”

“He never acts nice with people he doesn't know. Well, I guess you met once before, but I don’t really think that counts.”

“Maybe I’m special,” she giggled as he pawed her knees.

A small part of Yuuko felt jealous she got along with him so quickly, but another part was happy to see her with such a big smile on her face.

“That dog is certainly something else, I still don’t know where Yuuko picked him up from.”

“OH! G-Good morning Miss Asahino.”

“Good morning Yuya,” smiled Hikari. “Ara, you certainly look nice today. I can see your ribbon matches your new backpack.”

“I-It’s not…umm……thank you.”

“Please don’t mention it, Yuuko only used it for one year so it should still be in relatively good condition. Speaking of which,” she turned towards her son. “It’s getting late, we need to find it otherwise you’ll have to stay up late.”

“Ahh! Right!”

The pair continued their search as Yuya watched on in confusion. Yuuko was in the kitchen, searching underneath their dining table while Hikari lifted the sheets of the kotatsu, quietly muttering to herself. After that, they began searching in whatever place they saw, the corners of the room, the stairs, Yuuko even ran upstairs and searched his bookshelf.

“Uhm, excuse me, Miss Asahino? What is it you’re looking for?” she asked as Yuuko returned down the stairs.

“We’re searching for my spare house key. You see, Yuuko normally has one for his return to school, but I get home very late sometimes.” she said, patting down her coat pocket. “Yuuko usually goes to bed before I arrive, but if there’s no key for me to enter with—”

“Then I’ll stay up and open the door for you! It’s really no problem mother!”

“Yuuko, a young boy needs his sleep. That’s how your body gets its strength back.”

“Uhm…”

“But I can do it just this once, really!”

“Ara, it makes me happy to see you’re so determined, but it would make me a bad mother to do something like that.”

“U-Uhmm……”

“Mother, I can stay up! Father sometimes let me!”

“Yuuko that’s—”

“UhHMMM!!”

Both turned to look at the girl who spoke louder than she had intended. Her cheeks flushed and she began fidgeting with her ribbon as she spoke.

“I-Is that the key you’re looking for?” she said, pointing to a small silver object on top of the kotatsu.

Though the pair approached the key slowly, Yuya couldn’t see the look they had on their faces.

“Mother?”

“A-Ara araaa? I-I wonder how long this was here…”

“Mother?”

“Y-Yes Yuuko?”

“Are we cursed?”

“No Yuuko………it’s your mother’s fault you inherited this…”

She didn’t know why, but Yuya felt as though she just witnessed something very personal to the both of them.

Hikari saw the two of them off by the front gate. She could see them running alongside each other, playful, joyous, like children should be. It was then that the feelings inside her bubbled to the surface.

She believed her son had the best intentions but……

“What child has feelings of false guilt?”

Is that truly…why her son wanted to help?

Part 2

Never before had Yuuko felt so irresponsible, both for himself, and another person. He set two alarms, but in the event they failed to wake him up, he asked her to do so. She was reliable, so he didn’t think he’d have to worry.

As it turned out, she was just reliable most of the time.

“Is there a reason you were cooking breakfast in my kitchen instead of waking me up?”

“Ara~? Most guys would pay to have a cute girl cook them breakfast you know!”

“We’re not in one of your novels, being late is only funny on the face of it.”

“But now I have great writing material! And it was such a treat to see you sleep.”

“How did you even get inside?”

She laughed. “You don’t have a great track record with keys.”

He opted to sigh in response as he ran as fast as he could through the suburban streets. Even though he spent nearly his entire summer last year running, his lungs started to ache; yet the girl next to him didn’t show any sign of fatigue. On the contrary, she ran gracefully with her school bag held in front of her; able to spare the oxygen to giggle every so often. Unsurprisingly to him, her stamina was frightening.

A busy intersection forced them to come to a stop, where they took a small break.

“Thank you for breakfast by the way.”

“Aaah, even though I’m nowhere near your level, I’m glad I was able to make it for you.”

“It wasn’t that bad.”

“Hmmm,” she said, bringing her face close to his. “That’s not very honest of you Yuuko.”

“I’m trying to spare you here. Besides,” he said, looking to the passing cars in front of them. “I have to learn to not be so……so…………”

“I know.”

He kept quiet, thankful she understood. He didn’t know if he had the words to explain it otherwise.

“Why were you late by the way?”

“I had a dream.”

“About back then?”

He nodded. “Our childhood. It was around the time we first met.”

“My my, dreaming about childhood.” she said, bashfully cupping her lips with her hands. “And you say this isn’t like one of my books.”

He looked at her with pangs of guilt. “You didn’t have to come back, Yuya. The way things were going I—”

She held a finger to his lips. “We made a promise.”

He could see it reflected in her vivid turquoise eyes, the weight of those words. He knew she was talking about the promise they made when they were children, but it was more than that. Their second, most recent promise.

That green in her eyes, he could never get over just how bright it looked.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “We did.”

Their attention shifted towards the fading green light, signalling the start of their sprint once more. It was irresponsible of him not to wake up, it would be more so of him to be late for his first day of high school.