Chapter 1: Yamamura Miki’s Soliloquy

Chapter 1: Yamamura Miki’s Soliloquy

Chapter 1:

Yamamura Miki’s Soliloquy

B EFORE I KNEW IT, I found myself alone.

It wasn’t as though anyone particularly disliked me.

I simply didn’t catch anyone’s attention, that’s all.

I am a shadow. I have no presence.

Forget about getting people to like me, I couldn’t even get people to dislike me.

So in the end, I’ve always been alone.

That’s how it was in kindergarten, in primary school, and in junior high school. I didn’t have anyone you could call a friend, and I spent a lot of time alone. I couldn’t develop the ability to talk to people, so I just remained as I was, someone who doesn’t stand out at all. Even after entering high school, that didn’t change.

But I thought that was okay.

It was like I forced myself to accept the idea that this was a good thing about me…

I thought that, even when I became an adult, I could just live quietly and alone.

And so…I exist here, quietly.

“…I think that… I think that losing really doesn’t…suit Sakayanagi-san after all…”

“You could try telling her that. No one has the right to condemn your actions.”

What is this sensation, this feeling seeping into my heart?

I don’t understand.

I didn’t understand.

I simply didn’t know.

…until that day.