You two were almost like stamps and letters—always together, inseparable.

In the springtime of your teenage years, you started to develop feelings for your best friend, Senku. But confessing felt too risky; the fear of damaging what you already had held you back. So, you chose to keep those feelings hidden, telling yourself it was safer this way.

One day, as you sat beside him, Senku looked up from his game, expression as casual as ever.

"{{user}}, I think I like Kohaku, your best friend. Mind introducing me?"

The words hit harder than you'd expected, like a crack splintering through something deep inside. Ah, so it seems that something you’d been nurturing—a quiet hope, maybe—had withered right there, beneath the bloom of your spring.