With Futaba’s words ringing in my head, I tried to play my favorite high-octane shooter to try and curb those thoughts. Still, they kept crawling back over and over.

It’s not like I’m looking at the situation the wrong way. What Ayumi wants to do is reckless. She’s messing with something we don’t understand. It’s dangerous no matter how the situation develops. But the way my mom and Futaba explained the situation made it seem like it was my fault. That, despite knowing Ayumi for so long, I didn’t understand her at all.

Wait, could it be…? Has Ayumi always had a firm grasp on reality? If... if that’s the case… she must have known that angels existed all along. And I just bet that that relates to the reason she’s so obsessed about them.

She must know some crucial information she’s never shared with me. She’s not “riding the fantasy” of angels and the supernatural. No, she knew perfectly well from the very beginning that angels exist.

And that’s what I didn’t get.

Why, Ayumi? Why didn’t you trust me with this? How am I supposed to trust you when you don’t trust me back?

These ideas kept running in circles in my brain for hours. Who was at fault? Who should give in in this battle? Heck, were either of us even wrong at all? And what “lie” is she living?

Eventually, I decided to stop mulling about it and take action. I was going to get to the bottom of this mystery called “Ayumi”, once and for all.

* * *

After a night of little sleep, I decided to return to school. I also texted Ayumi in the morning and asked her to wait for me as soon as classes ended that day to make sure she wouldn’t disappear.

Since most people thought I had a cold, my return to class was met with absolute indifference. Futaba and Daichi did come to talk to me to make sure I was fine, but that was it.

After an anxious day, I left the classroom before Ayumi did and waited by the school entrance for a few minutes. She showed up not long after, smiling and laughing with her friends. As soon as she saw me, she excused herself from them and went past me with a sour expression that struck me as purposely forced.

It didn’t feel weird being with her after so long; what felt weird was the fact that she was quiet. The awkwardness prevented me from saying anything concrete too. After a few minutes of silent walking, I knew this tense situation was reaching a tipping point. Ayumi was walking ahead of me, but I could feel her rising irritation in her gait.

“So? What did you want to talk about?” She asked with a rough tone.

“I…” Despite my resolve, my words got stuck in my throat.

“What, are you chickening out of admitting you were wrong?”

Jeez, this girl has an unparalleled way of pushing my buttons.

I took a deep breath to calm myself down.

“No, I still don’t think I’m wrong at all.”

Hearing this, Ayumi turned around and revealed her definitely-for-real-this-time sour frown.

“Then why did you want to meet with me? If you don’t have anything to say, I’m going on ahead. I've got a lot to do and time’s not on my side.”

She began trotting away, but before she could get too far, I grabbed her arm.

“Wait a second. I haven’t said everything yet.”

Ayumi, forced to stop, turned back to me with narrowed eyes that told me to go somewhere else.

“At least hear me out.”

She relaxed her expression a bit, as if saying I could go on.

This is it. I can’t fail now.

I took a deep breath. The chilly air entering my lungs helped clear my head somewhat.

“Despite disagreeing with you, I’ve decided to trust you. I trust that you have a good reason to be doing something so rash. That was where I was wrong. I’ve been wrong for a long time. So for that, I apologize. I’m sorry, Ayumi.”

I gave a deep bow, half for honestly apologizing and the other half to avoid looking at her face.

Then, silence.

On top of those heartfelt words, the silence that befell upon us made my body feel like it was going to collapse at any moment.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

When I raised my head, Ayumi lowered hers, hiding her eyes behind her messy bangs.

“Really… you always have a way to come around at the end of the day. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to hear that?”

I rattled my brain, trying to find anything I could use to answer her words. But before I could, she raised her head.

Ayumi’s expression was so unexpected I couldn’t respond even if I had something prepared.

Is she… blushing?

Her emerald eyes were shining, on the verge of tears. A light-pink tint was painted on her cheeks. No matter who it was, at that moment, they would have said she was ridiculously cute.

“Thank you, Takkun,” she said with a childish, innocent smile. “Thank you for finally understanding.”

I was speechless. Despite her blissful look, a deep, gnawing darkness made me feel sick to my core.

Who knew such simple words could make her so happy? Where have I made a wrong turn in my life to not notice something so simple?

If I had known that ephemeral expression would disappear along with her next words, I would have burned it into my mind for all eternity.

But this was Ayumi. Her mood changed faster than the weather during the typhoon season. She rubbed her eyes with her oversized sleeves and forced herself to speak normally.

“Well, now that that’s over with, you won’t mind helping me get to the bottom of this, right?” she said, returning to her usual light-hearted smile.

“I… guess,” I said with self-doubt.

There was still something else on my mind.

If this was the answer, then…

I decided to take a gamble. “But you have to promise me something first.”

This time, she was the one caught off-guard. “Huh?”

“I don’t know what it is, but… whatever it is you’re hiding, the reason why you’re trying so hard to meet an angel, what this ‘lie’ you mentioned before is—I want you to tell me.”

Ayumi’s eyes opened so wide that I thought they might pop out of their sockets.

“I’ve decided to trust you on this, so… I hope you can trust me back. Otherwise, I won’t help you.”

The girl stared at me for what seemed like minutes with an inscrutable expression.

Eventually, she opened her mouth.

“Alright. When this is all over, I’ll tell you.” Then, she extended her right pinky finger. “Pinky promise?” she asked with a cutesy voice while staring at the ground.

Really, you’re such a child.

The pinky embrace didn’t last even a second. Ayumi, maybe feeling embarrassed by this childish ritual, returned to her brisk pace in the direction of the bus stop.

“Since you’ve promised to help me, I guess I have no choice but to catch you up to speed,” she said with her usual impish tone. “That said, nothing much has changed. I’m trying to find information about Shiina, but my investigations have been kind of fruitless.”

Even you, the queen of poking around, are stumped?

“No one I talked to has spotted her recently or knows where she might live. So lately, I’ve been making rounds around the shopping street, but no luck so far. It’s like she’s some sort of ghost.”

“You think she knows we’re onto her?”

“Nuh-uh, not likely. If they knew anything, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now. The only thing we know about her in the real world is that she goes to the bookstore. I’ve been staking out the place, but no luck so far.”

“Well, I haven’t been going to work either, so I can’t say if she went there or not.”

“Oh, that’s a bummer. I was hoping for an easy breakthrough, but it seems that won’t happen anytime soon.”

With a swift motion, Ayumi turned back around to face me. “However! With you on board, we can change tactics,” she said as she wiggled her finger in my direction. “I’m having you stay put at the bookstore. Preferably every afternoon. It’s our only point of contact with her, after all.”

“...What?” I questioned with a furrowed brow.

“The more you’re there, the better the chances of meeting her. If she does show up, try to extract as much information as you can from her.”

“Hey, wait a sec.”

“What? You can ask the owners to let you work more days. Say you need the extra money or something.”

What about my free time? Or my study time? Any concern for that at all?

“You want me to get information out of her? She’ll suspect me if I do that,” I tried to explain.

“She won’t. Remember, if she’s here in the human world, it means she has some intention of blending in. Since we’re in a rush, act like you’re hitting on her or something. That won’t look too out of place.”

What the heck is with that suggestion?

“Despite being a closet nerd you don’t look half bad, so she might just take the bait.”

“Sorry, no way. That’s impossible.”

“Aren’t you always playing those du— I mean, interesting dating sims? Surely that helps a bit, no?”

You were about to say “dumb,” weren’t you? Also, I’m not always playing them, come on. Okay, maybe I play them quite often, but the point stands.

“No way. I’m not Daichi. Dating sims are one thing, real life is a completely different beast.”

Ayumi sighed. “Fine. Just do your best. You aren’t actually hitting on her, so you can fail miserably as long as you still get the information.”

I elected to ignore her assumption for many reasons, and asked a very pertinent question. “What will you do in the meanwhile?”

“I’ll be looking around for her too, of course. You do the passive search, I’ll do the active. It’s the best of both worlds. You should be glad I’m not forcing you to be on the lookout in this weather. Do we have a deal?”

With her eyes shining like that, I had a hard time saying no. Not like I was planning to reject her anyway.

“Fine, but I don’t know how many additional hours the owners will give me.”

“As long as you can do it for a few days, it would be fantastic.”

And so, in just a few minutes, Ayumi and I went from being on bad terms to me getting, yet again, involved in her crazy plans. I dreaded the prospect of working every day for an undetermined amount of time. But the darkness consuming me over the past week had vanished.

This craziness felt right.