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 dream of you like a trauma and miss you.

Back then, I thought it would be okay as long as I wasn't greedy. I thought it would be fine 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 faint smile.

Sigh...

Why did the two of us

Have to be born as the same gender and meet? It would have been a win-win for both of us if we weren't born the same gender or if we never 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.

It's 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. The sense of liberation from being released into the outside world after a long time made me feel like I was melting along with the hot summer.

But,

!!!

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

In the middle of the road,

Honk! Honnnnk!!!

Loud horn sounds pierced my eardrums from both sides, but I couldn't move. That one voice caught my ankle. Like being 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 pounded violently.

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