Chapter 155: Past Events

As Ephnel and the girl’s figures disappeared into a taxi, Futaba Eri remained stunned for a long while before coming to her senses with a sense of loss.

“Yanase Naoto,” no, perhaps she should say Ephnel.

Seeing her in her non-Agent form for the first time in a long while, Futaba Eri suddenly realized she was a little different from the person in her memory.

It was still the same beautiful, moving face, but now, Ephnel had started to smile.

In Futaba Eri’s impression, she rarely smiled.

The scene from just now once again flooded Futaba Eri’s mind.

—Ephnel… was kissing a girl.

Ephnel liked girls?

That happy, faint smile, that light touch where only each other existed in their eyes—that kind of scene, which belonged only to lovers in love, was hard to misinterpret.

So, Ephnel was “on this side.”

Futaba Eri didn’t know whether to be happy or sad about this reality.

A complex bitterness and trembling inexplicably rose in her heart.

She had been so sure that “Yanase Naoto,” or rather Ephnel, would never accept a girl.

“This side” and “that side,” they were a thousand miles apart.

And yet, separated by only a single line.

The thoughts that had been buried deep in her heart were now sprouting, about to break through.

Futaba Eri suddenly felt that she should have run up to her and confessed her feelings without hesitation long ago, instead of always just standing in place, watching that distant, unattainable figure.

Regardless of the outcome, at least she could have conveyed her feelings.

But now, Ephnel’s heart already belonged to someone else.

She was one step too late, again.

Futaba Eri.

She and “Yanase Naoto” were once classmates.

If she had to describe herself in one sentence, she would use “the trend-following honor student.”

And “the old-fashioned honor student” was Yanase Naoto.

From the very beginning, the two of them stood on completely different paths.

In truth, Futaba Eri didn’t know this male classmate, who always consistently beat her in the academic rankings, very well.

In her eyes back then, “Yanase Naoto” was just a rather unlikable boy.

Despite being an important cadre in the student council and the class, he often acted alone, detached from the group.

Although his grades were excellent, his personality made him difficult to talk to.

Futaba Eri was always very popular with her classmates.

She grew up with a good upbringing, dabbling in calligraphy, painting, dance, and tea ceremony.

She had a high-quality social circle.

Compared to the loner Yanase Naoto, who had no friends, Futaba Eri would occasionally feel a hint of superiority.

But Yanase Naoto was also one of the rare boys who didn’t treat her differently.

Whether you called Yanase Naoto reserved or introverted, Futaba Eri believed they were not cut from the same cloth.

The only intersection between the two was that single “annual scholarship.”

It was called an “annual scholarship,” but it had the backing of the Human Federation, an opportunity to gain the favor and support of a prestigious higher education institution in the central province.

Her father had suddenly fallen gravely ill.

She needed that hefty scholarship money and the chance for advanced studies.

She swallowed her pride and went to beg Yanase Naoto.

Just once, to let her have that year’s scholarship.

She even promised to do anything she could for him in return.

Having lived her life as a “young lady,” she rarely begged for anything, but she was mercilessly rejected.

The reason was “it’s not reasonable.”

And it wasn’t.

Other boys fawned over her, but there was no reason why Yanase Naoto had to do the same, and even less reason to hand over a scholarship that was within his grasp to someone he barely knew.

Giving up her naive fantasy, she worked hard to catch up.

In this regard, they were rivals.

But Futaba Eri still lost the competition by a huge margin—despite being second in total score, she was miles behind that guy.

Even with another year, she wouldn’t have been able to beat him.

She didn’t feel resentful; after all, he had beaten her without any tricks, relying on effort and strength that everyone could see.

But she also felt from the bottom of her heart… “it would be better if this person didn’t exist.”

Later, that person really did cease to exist.

The disaster that day came without warning.

The city’s defense agency didn’t even have time to react before the school gates were completely destroyed by Erosion Organisms.

Like a dead tree swept away by a flood, she ran in panic.

It was Yanase Naoto who appeared before her then, and saved her.

Only later did she find out that Yanase Naoto, this person who had always seemed like her rival in class, was a girl.

And, she was “Ephnel,” the Agent fighting on the front lines of this city.

After that incident, “Yanase Naoto,” whose identity had been exposed in front of her, left the school and officially became active as an Agent in the fight against Erosion disasters.

And Futaba Eri, with her outstanding grades, won the annual scholarship for two consecutive years.

But gradually, she could no longer feel joy from the weighty award certificate and the news from the central province.

Instead, she felt an ever-growing emptiness welling up from the depths of her heart.

She would often recall the girl who had knelt in blood that day, sobbing and choking, remember the bone-deep wounds on the girl’s body and her heart-wrenching cries.

She heard the girl apologizing to the corpses over and over again.

“So ‘he’ can make that kind of expression too.”

She had thought that guy never smiled.

Let alone cried.

That slender figure was like a thorn stuck in her heart, a slight touch would cause pain.

She began to follow news about Ephnel, scrolling through the photos and updates she posted on SNS over and over.

She began to reproduce the image of Ephnel in her mind with her own paintbrush.

Over and over again.

Until she subconsciously left a lipstick mark on her painting.

When she came to her senses, Futaba Eri finally realized that she had, at some point, developed feelings for that girl.

She, Futaba Eri, the first person she had ever fallen in love with in her life, was a girl.

“Yukina, how about you try this one?”

Ephnel held a light blue hair ribbon in her hand, gently tying it around the ends of Yukina’s hair.

In the mirror, their figures overlapped.

“I took a look, and the color seems to suit you quite well.”

In the accessory shop, the display tables were filled with hair ornaments, bracelets, and other decorations.

Ephnel had spotted this hair ribbon at a glance.

Because its color was very similar to Yukina’s hair color as “Fifina.”

So she had brought it over.

Yukina looked at the mirror, tilted her head, and didn’t say whether she liked it or not.

Instead, she asked Ephnel, “Does Naoko think it looks good?”

“It looks very good.”

“Is that so… but I think, rather than me, it would definitely look better if you tied it up, Naoko.”

A smile appeared on Yukina’s face.

She took off the ribbon and placed it back in Ephnel’s palm.

“Can I give this to you as a gift, Naoko? That way, maybe you’ll think of me when you see it.”

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