“Mom, she’s so beautiful~~”

After school, a long cordon stopped passers-by from walking.

As the warning bell dinged, Mai Shiraishi stood among the crowd.

On the opposite side of the road, the building with a red cross on the side was the destination that Teacher Shinohara reminded her to go to after school.

"Yeah...this is cherry blossom~~"

"Huh? But... shouldn't cherry blossoms only bloom in March and April?"

Facing her mother's gentle explanation, the girl's eyes glowed with confusion.

"Well...who knows~~"

Perhaps for that mother, her daughter's problems were beyond the scope of knowledge that her brain could grasp.

"However, the temperature and sunshine in autumn are very similar to spring~~

Just like now, everyone is wearing clothes that are not too thin but not too generous...

Maybe these blooming cherry blossoms, like us, mistakenly thought that spring was coming~~ so they bloomed."

Like the little girl, there were many students among the waiting crowd carrying schoolbags on their way home.

Even in autumn, there are still countless cherry blossoms blooming on both sides of the road.

Just looking at this scene, Shiraishi Mai also began to agree with what the mother said.

In terms of temperature and the softness of the sunshine paving the earth, this year's autumn in Gunma County is indeed like the spring that has left and has returned to the same place again.

Huhu~~

The autumn wind blew by, blowing bursts of pink petals and falling like a slanting water curtain.

As if to welcome him, the one-way street leading to the hospital was covered with a light pink carpet.

Because she was so beautiful, Mai Shiraishi became cautious even when she took the first step.

So, in the background is a noisy rural city filled with the sound of car horns, and the Shinkansen connecting places outside Gunma Prefecture occasionally makes a roaring sound as it passes over the overpass.

But everything there seemed to dissipate immediately after entering the protective shield built around the hospital.

They have no right to break into this place.

Surrounding this place was only an innocent girl whose eyes could not hide the look of childhood. She was holding up her black hair with one hand and jumping back and forth between each densely packed petal area on the ground with one foot.

I want to avoid stepping on them as much as possible, and I want to keep the petals in every area as pure and beautiful as possible.

Just like Shiraishi Mai's skin that is as holy as snow all over her body, this place has become the most perfect picture under the sky of Gunma Prefecture.

A hop, a jump, a footprint.

The distance from the hospital is like a rope of fate tied to the world on both sides of people and things.

Then, when he dropped the foot that had never stepped on a petal, he maintained this posture for a long time. After returning to normal, the fatigue and soreness that had been deprived of normal nutrients spread upward in an instant from the sole of the foot.

.

"Tooth white~~"

The body began to tilt uncontrollably, and the shoulders fell to the side.

It's over...I'm going to fall~~

Countless possibilities of embarrassment flashed through the girl's mind.

Do you want to lift the other foot to catch the left foot?

Well, if that happens, both feet will be twisted. If I go to see Mr. Shinohara with a limp, I might become a patient and be admitted to the hospital.

But if you don't lift it up and just let your body fall down like losing gravity, you will still feel a strong impact from the ground, and you will probably feel some pain afterwards.

hateful!

If someone could see it from nearby and come up to help me...

I don't know when such thoughts began to sprout in the girl's heart.

Also...it's best not to be a boy, otherwise you will definitely take advantage.

The bluestone steps connecting the main entrance of the hospital are magnified visibly to the naked eye. Even if you have poor eyesight, you can accurately see the patterns on the stone bricks at this moment.

When she thought that she would fall on it and there would be red marks on her face, the girl's shoulders began to tighten instinctively, and her hands that were holding the strap of her schoolbag quickly moved to her chest.

but...

Just the next moment.

A strange force that was completely not her own came from the side, and the hot temperature passed through Shiraishi Mai's neck and finally stayed on her shoulders.

At the same time, the body that was originally leaning downward was forcefully bent to a normal angle in only a few tenths of a second.

"Classmate, are you okay?"

The whispers that can only be heard in fujoshi fantasies from another dimension were replaced by warm breaths that hit his face.

Mai Shiraishi was startled, and her back straightened up sharply.

Thanks to the person who said this, the girl lowered her head helplessly and immediately saw the student leather boots that were put together and the white stockings covering the base of her calves.

As well as the boys' school pants and a pair of brown sneakers that you see every day in school.

"Classmate, are you okay?"

The gentle voice was repeated again, but compared to the previous anxiety, it was much calmer.

"Ah~~Arigado."

Although that person briefly touched her shoulders with both hands, Shiraishi Mai thought that more than half of her body was leaning against the other person's chest to a certain extent.

However, he didn't do anything to attract attention like other boys who always try to get closer to him.

"You're welcome...Shiraishi-san."

He straightened his body, and the warmth surrounding his body quickly dissipated.

For the first time, Shiraishi Mai fell in love with the kind of stability that filled her body and mind.

Then, she raised her head, and all she could see was a back figure that quickly disappeared around the corner of the hall.

Short hair.

Black school uniform.

Tall back.

There is also a guardian plaque hanging in the corner of the schoolbag with the word "Takiichi" engraved on it that swings left and right as you move around.

Therefore, the source of the embarrassing moment that just prevented him from happening should be the boy who left.

"Strange...how does he know my name?"

The slowly rising speed of the elevator always made Mai Shiraishi feel dizzy.

I believe that anyone who has fear in their bones, when they are in a small elevator with a maximum capacity of less than twenty people, will always think about "What if there is a power outage?"

If you call for help from the outside world, will you eventually suffocate due to the rapid disappearance of the air inside?" Or Ou Zhe's simple and crude "What if I fall?"

If you do the latter, you will fall into pieces.

Ah~~~ Like a vase with a delicate appearance, it fell from the sky and scattered all over the ground with clatter.

No no! It’s terrible!

Huddled in the corner, the girl shook her head and raised her hands to hold her head, staring closely at the rising numbers.

The elevator here is really old, and the advertising layout on the wall reveals the style of the Showa era. After entering the elevator, the signal level on the mobile phone dropped to the lowest point.

During this time, it seemed as if an invisible hand was holding my throat.

"Hurry up and open it~~"

"Hurry up~~"

Obviously the ward is only on the fourth floor above ground, but every time I think of my body gradually leaving the ground without control.

Mai Shiraishi felt that the strength to support her legs was losing strength, and at the same time, her heart also fell to the bottom.

The gap that separates this narrow elevator world from the world outside the door is filled with the girl's infinite desire for light.

Wanting to escape here is very similar to my rejection of campus life and my desire to find a part-time job that is not difficult until I get married.

As for the greeting cards filled with blessings from her classmates in the schoolbag in her arms, the girl didn't understand their true thoughts.

It is strange to say that when the monitor announced on the podium, "As for the candidate to send the cardboard filled with messages to Mr. Shinohara, Mr. Shiraishi will be the one to do it." After that, surprisingly there was no objection from anyone.

Many years later, she realized that for a long time she had been the number one "unpopular among girls" because she was too beautiful.

But...for sacrificing precious personal time after class to deal with "troublesome" things, and shirk this burden on themselves, it is precisely the tacit understanding among them that was exposed.

In other words, Shiraishi Mai knew that she was not useless.

It's just that... when I take on the burden that others also desire, I will encounter even more hostility than usual, which will later turn into invisible cold treatment.
To be continued...