Chapter 17

                                    

                                          
[Ei's PoV]
"Ah, wait!"
I heard Y/n call out to me right before I shut the door, but I deliberately ignored her and left.
As soon as the sharp cold hit the back of my neck, I realised that I had forgotten my scarf, and I guessed that Y/n noticed the same thing, but I rushed for the emergency staircase, trying to escape from the place.
I wasn't confident that I could face Y/n with the same smile from before if I turned and looked at her now.
I had put on a calm face as I left, but there were sort of inexplicable emotions vying with each other in my heart.
She had declared outright that she loved Makoto, and yet she wanted to date me so that my sister and Sasayuri would get together. In the face of this completely senseless proposal, I had a complicated feeling springing up towards Y/n.
Something that didn't quite fit to 'anger' or 'sadness'.
"God, she's terrible, she's terrible, this is terrible..."
I jump single-mindedly down the emergency stairs, leaving my white breaths behind me.
The chill stung the back of my neck, but this was no time to be concerned about that.
I was experiencing an indescribable emptiness, and at the same time a sense of elation, and I felt like I was about to go crazy.
As of today, I was Y/n's girlfriend.
Even if it was just a fake relationship for tha sake of getting Makoto and Sasayuri together.
I was Y/n's girlfriend.
I didn't exactly believe all that nonsense about jumping back in time, but on the other hand, I couldn't state for sure that it was a complete lie either.
This was my first time seeing Y/n get so emotional about something, compared with her usual aloof way of viewing the world.
In spite of her powerful feelings for Makoto, she chose to date me so that Makoto could be with Sasayuri- no normal college junior would do that.
"...What the hell is going on?"
Just as I had let my impulse carry me down the stairs and was trying to distance myself from Y/n's apartment building, a small, electronic dinging  sound rang out behind me.
"...!"
It was the elevator.
Maybe Y/n had come after me.
I quickly hid myself.
Just as I thought, Y/n was the one who emerged from the elevator.
She must have been in a big hurry to follow me.
Seeing her under the winter sky, dressed just as she had been in her room, without even a coat, made me feel even colder somehow.
She was holding my forgotten scarf in one hand, looking back and forth.
My fingertips felt numb as I looked at her.
Right now, I was the one Y/n was chasing after...
Me.
That alone threw something deep inside me into disarray. A suffocating pain tightened around my heart.
"Ei!"