The story we started

【Feeling the gazes of those behind him and the somewhat gloomy and dark sky, Zaimokuza couldn't help but think.】

[“Wait! Sabre, don’t run!”]

[“Woof woof woof!”]

[As Zaimokuza was walking and practicing his "smile", a sudden scream and dog barking in front of him attracted his attention, and he looked in the direction of the sound.]

[A dachshund ran down the ramp from above happily, dragging the leash around its neck on the ground for a while, while a pink-haired girl wearing the freshman uniform of Sobu High School was chasing the dachshund running in front of her breathlessly.]

[Obviously, this dachshund is the girl's pet, and now it has broken free and is running wildly towards freedom.]

[And the direction it ran down was exactly the direction Zaimokuza was heading. ]

【But Zaimokuza just glanced at it and then silently lowered his head. He was in a very depressed mood and really didn't want to meddle in other people's business.】

[And not surprisingly, with the girl's instruction, the short-legged dachshund was closing the gap between them and was about to be caught up.]

【boom--】

【"Um?"】

[Zaimokuza looked up again at the engine sound, and then his eyes suddenly widened.]

[On another road ahead, a black luxury car was driving towards this side at a very fast speed, and the speed did not slow down at all. ]

[The girl who was chasing the pet was heading in the direction of the car, and it was right in the blind spot of the girl's vision! ]

[“Hey! Stop now!”]

[Zaimokuza could no longer ignore it, and waved his backpack vigorously and shouted at the girl.]

[“Eh? Wait! Sabre!”]

[The running girl looked back at him in confusion, and then continued to chase her dog, which was running towards the new path of the car, with an anxious expression.]

[Oh no!!!]

【Looking at the two parties about to collide, Zaimokuza's expression changed drastically, he threw away the backpack in his hand and rushed forward quickly. 】

【“!”】

[In another direction that Zaimokuza couldn't see, a black-haired boy who was pushing a bicycle also saw this scene, and his originally lifeless eyes suddenly widened. ]

[“I’ve got you! You really are——”]

【"--Danger!!!"】

[At the moment when the dachshund ran into the path of the car, the girl finally caught her escaping dog. She breathed a sigh of relief and was about to complain, but a hoarse roar made her turn her head away.]

[She turned her head and faced the direction where the luxury car was approaching! ]

[——It’s too late! ]

[Zaimokuza rushed over, looking at the girl who turned back in front of him and the car behind her, and rushed over with gritted teeth. 】

【——】

[A black figure leaped up together with him, and the two figures were completely parallel at this time, with no one in front or behind.]

[Time seemed to stop at this moment. Zaimokuza turned his head slowly and looked to the side. He saw that the other party was also looking at him in astonishment. His dead fish eyes were full of astonishment, as if he could not expect someone to make the same choice as him.]

[They stared at each other, so close that they could almost feel each other's breath.]

[Plop——]

[Looking at those eyes, even without saying a word, Zaimokuza suddenly understood what the other party was conveying. ]

[Whether it was himself or the black-haired boy in front of him, the two people who had never met before seemed to have a spiritual connection at this moment, conveying their inner thoughts to each other, and reaching a consensus in a moment that was too short to describe.]

[——Save that girl first! ]

[The two men quickly turned their heads, put their hands on the girl's shoulders, and pushed her away with force as she looked frightened.]

【--Bang!!!】

……

[Patter. 】

[While he was half conscious, Zaimokuza felt as if he heard some strange sound ringing in his ears. ]

[It is just like the second hand representing the progress of time stops for a moment, and then moves again in the next second.]

[——But the meaning it represents is no longer the same.]

[He and the young man were lying on the iron railings of the road, both of them had their heads broken and were bleeding, and their bodies were leaning against each other, shoulder to shoulder.]

[Zaimokuza saw the girl who was pushed away by them running towards him with a panicked and tearful face. A hand opened the door of the parked car not far away, and a long black hair was faintly visible behind the non-reflective car window glass...]

[Unable to hold on any longer, he slowly closed his eyes, which were stained red by the blood from the wound on his forehead, and passed out.]

……

[That day, four young people with different personalities had a unique encounter, which laid the groundwork for everything in the future. ]

[The story therefore took a very different direction from the original one. ]

[This is the first encounter between the four members of the Service Club.]

15. The Door of Memory - Chapter 5K

【“…”】

[From a third-person perspective, Zaimokuza silently watched as "himself" and his best friend were carried into the ambulance by the paramedics, and then drove away in the direction of the hospital, with a complex expression in his eyes.]

[It turns out that looking at what happened from an outsider's perspective gives you a completely different feeling than the original one? ]

[Thinking about it now, everything that happened that day seemed like it was destined. ]

[It was just an unexpected encounter, but it changed everyone's life. 】

[“That day was the first time we met. We were both injured and suffered complex fractures. We were taken to the hospital by ambulance and stayed there for about a month.”]

[He looked at the direction where the ambulance carrying two people was going, and suddenly stood there and began to talk to himself, as if he was talking to the air in front of him.]

[“What’s even more coincidental is that we were actually in the same ward. At that time, I couldn’t stand the loneliness and kept talking to you who was lying in the bed next to me. At first, you were lukewarm to my greetings and always tried to evade me by saying things like “bears are solitary creatures, and I’m a man like a bear”… Actually, I thought you were a strange person at first, but after getting to know you, I realized that you were just not good at greeting others.”]

[“But after living under the same roof for a month, we have become familiar with each other. I changed my name for you from “Hikigaya-kun” to “Hachiman”. I still remember the first time I called your name, you looked like you were about to cry, but the next second you turned around with a cold face and said that it was your freedom to call me whatever you want, and you refused to call me by my name.”]

[“I remember Komachi came to visit you and hit you in the face with a pillow after you knew about this incident. She also called you a tsundere brother.”]

[“We were even discharged from the hospital on the same day. When we returned to school, the social circle in our class was completely fixed and we couldn’t get in. So we were familiar with each other and kept hanging out together.”]

[“We really did a lot of ridiculous things, like playing games together, singing together at KTV, and so on. As a result, one time we ran into your junior high school classmate, I think his name was Orimoto? Hahaha? He looked at us with strange eyes, and later Komachi told me that after you went back that time, you wrapped yourself in a quilt and howled all night.”]

[“About a year later, when we were in our second year of high school, we wrote a messy homework assigned by Ms. Hiratsuka, so she thought there was something wrong with us and wanted to correct us. She ordered us to join the Service Club that the then president had just founded and forced us to participate in club activities.”]

[“Then the first commission we received was from Yuigahama… I still remember how bad the cookies she made were, but in order not to make her sad, the two of us finally swallowed the cookies that tasted like Huoxiang Zhengqi water. After she left, we immediately ran to the sink and vomited so much that the director turned blue, hahahaha?”]

【Thinking of the time when he made a mess in the home economics classroom, Zaimokuza couldn't help but burst into laughter, his eyes were nostalgic and gentle. 】

[He recounted the events that happened in the distant past one by one, like an elderly man recounting his past glory.]

[“After that, Yuigahama applied to join the club from Hiratsuka-sensei, and joined the Service Club. Thus, a four-member Service Club was born.”]

[“A lot of things really happened during that time. I helped Totsuka-san practice tennis, and then it somehow turned into a tennis match with the school’s most popular person. I played cards with the guys in the game club who liked to use stripping as punishment, but in order to prevent the president and Yuigahama from making a fool of themselves, we lost so much that we almost took off our underwear. In the end, we had to cheat to make a comeback. We also received a report that Miss Ki did not return home overnight, and we secretly followed her to collect intelligence, but because of our suspicious behavior, we were mistaken for stalkers. Passersby called the police and took us to the police station. In the end, it was Hiratsuka-sensei who used her connections to bail us out. Her expression at that time makes my hair stand on end when I think about it now…”]

[“Of course, not all of these things are good. We have quarreled and had estrangements because of this. We have also had the cold war with each other because of our different views and ideas on things. But... we are always able to reconcile in the end and return to that old empty classroom together, waiting for the next commission to come.”]

[“It was a really happy time.”]

[“So I’ve always been very thankful, thankful that I didn’t choose to be absent on the day of the entrance ceremony. Because of that, I had the opportunity to meet you guys, and I was able to join the Service Club, become friends with you, and the four of us stayed together noisily, causing one trouble after another for Ms. Hiratsuka… Although I feel sorry for her saying this, I’m really happy.”]

[“But sometimes, I can’t help but think about one thing - if I hadn’t chosen to attend the entrance ceremony that day, what kind of person would I be now?”]

[“…Have you ever thought about this, Hachiman?”]

【At the end of his speech, Zaimokuza turned his head and looked behind him, speaking softly.】

【“——”】

【Behind Zaimokuza, Hikigaya Hachiman appeared like a ghost and was quietly looking at his back without saying a word.】

[The familiar pure white door behind him slowly turned from virtual to real. Hikigaya Hachiman turned around, grasped the door handle, opened the door, and walked into it again, disappearing from Zaimokuza's sight.]

[He still said nothing.]

[“You really… don’t want to say a word.”]

【Zaimokuza sighed dejectedly and followed him again.】

Chiba Prefecture, Sobu High School, Service Club.

"So... the person we saved that day was Yuigahama? And the car owner who caused the accident was actually--"

Zaimokuza said in surprise, hesitated for a few seconds at the end of his words, and secretly turned his head to look at Yukinoshita Yukino behind him.

Yukinoshita Yukino felt his gaze, and for the first time she looked away guiltily, as she had always taken "integrity" and "correctness" as her motto.

"..."

In response to this, Hikigaya next to Zaimokuza also remained silent, and Yuigahama Yui, who was standing next to him, seemed to be hesitant to speak. She poked her fingertips with a panicked expression and lowered her head like a little girl who had made a mistake.

"Xiao Qi, um... I didn't mean to not tell you! It's just that when I first met you..."

"……It doesn't matter."

Hikigaya shook his head and spoke in a calm voice.

"Now I don't take this matter to heart anymore, and... I actually have a rough idea of ​​what's going on."

He glanced at Yukinoshita Yukino, who once again turned her eyes away unnaturally because of his gaze, and sighed silently.

Should I be angry that they had deceived me, or should I doubt our relationship during this period? Should I doubt that they were just making up for me and Zaimokuza out of guilt? Should I doubt that the "friendship" I felt during this period was just a "fake" created by an illusion?

If it were the me before, even if I wouldn't be angry about this, I would inevitably have doubts in my heart, and then, driven by this disappointment and doubt, I would drift away and eventually leave the Service Club.

But now...Hikigaya Hachiman put his hand on his chest, feeling the beating heart inside, closed his eyes and listened carefully to the echo of his heartbeat.

After a series of mishaps, something seemed to have changed in a corner of my heart, which was hard to explain.

Hikigaya didn't know whether this change was good or bad, but he felt... he seemed no longer as obsessed with the difference between "fake" and "real" as he was in the past.

True or false, it seems that it is no longer important to him.

The scenes of his interactions with Yukinoshita and others in the Service Club over the past few days flashed through his mind, flipping through them quickly like a book, and Hikigaya carefully felt the emotional changes engraved on the pages.

The throbbing he felt when interacting with these guys might really be partly a "fake" created by their guilt, but... it did touch his heart at some point.

——Brother, you have to learn how to get along with others. Don’t be so awkward and stubborn all the time. That may make you unable to even notice other people’s feelings.

——Because I have been worried. If you continue to be like this, I always think that once Komachi is gone one day, no one will understand you like I do.

——Sometimes, it’s not that hard to accept to change for the people who care about you... Hehe, Komachi got a high score for that sentence just now!

His sister's smiling face suddenly reappeared in his memory, and the words she once said to him also echoed in his somewhat confused heart, guiding his soul like a beacon.

The corners of Hikigaya Hachiman's mouth slowly curled up slightly, and he lowered his hand that was covering his left chest.

...Perhaps, what you said is indeed correct, Komachi.

"Yukinoshita."

Hikigaya spoke softly to Yukinoshita Yukino, who was slightly stunned and then replied with a somewhat awkward expression.

"…What's going on? Hikigaya-san."

"I, forgive you."

"—"

Hearing his words, Yukinoshita Yukino's expression was stunned for a moment, and she couldn't help but open her eyes wide and look at Hikigaya, as if she met him for the first time.

Hikigaya also raised his head without avoiding it, and the two pairs of eyes with different pupil colors looked at each other quietly, as if they could see through each other's inner thoughts through each other's eyes.

"--snort."

Yukinoshita Yukino's fair cheeks suddenly turned red, and she turned her head to look directly at Hikigaya with her navy blue eyes.

"Cricket, a student who is younger than Penguin, actually dares to say that he forgives me? It's really a cold joke that makes people laugh... How did you say that sentence? Oh, right, this move is really the most ridiculous thing in the world."

Having said this, she paused, then spoke softly.

"...But out of kindness, I will accept your forgiveness, and you should be grateful."

"Ah... Then I really want to thank the noble Miss Yukinoshita for giving me this opportunity to express my magnanimity to you."