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Sakuta sat for a while after Rio and Yuuma left. When he finally exited the café, he made his way out of the brightly lit station area and onto the road he’d walked nearly every day.

He took his time and reflected on Rio’s words.

“I like it better this way.”

Seeing her with Yuuma had made him realize he felt the same way. And awareness of that slowed him down. He wanted to sort out his feelings before he got home. And that made him stretch out the time of his commute.

What was normally a ten-minute walk took him twenty.

He arrived at the building and still didn’t have his thoughts straight.

If anything, they were in more turmoil.

He got on the elevator, his brain spinning.

By the time he opened the door and said, “I’m home,”“I like it better”was still echoing through his mind.

“Sakuta, welcome back!” Kaede said, coming out to greet him.

Only then did he pull himself out of the spiral.

“I told the pandas hi for you!”

She’d accomplished the mission he’d set for her.

When he saw her innocent smile, he found himself asking, “Do you like it better this way?”

“What are we talking about?” she asked, tilting her head. She went so far that her whole body tilted with it.

“Nothing, never mind.”

He took off his shoes, then stepped into the apartment.

“I want to be with my brother forever!”

Not an unusual statement. Kaede said things like this. But her smile was so dazzling it lit a fire inside him. The heat raced through his body, gathering behind his eyes.

“……”

“Sakuta?”

He found himself on the verge of tears.

The only thing that stopped them from spilling over was the ringing of the phone.

He headed to the living room.

The display showed Shouko’s number.

“I’ll get it,” he told Kaede, picking up. “Azusagawa speaking.”

“Sakuta? It’s me, Shouko.”

“I was planning on calling you. About Mitou.”

“Then wanna meet now?”

“Now?”

He checked the clock. It was half past eight.

“There’s something I want you to see.”

She sounded serious. Calm, but insistent. This must be important.

“Okay,” Sakuta said.

His voice carried through the phone line.

He met Shouko at the same Fujisawa Station restaurant where he worked part-time. When he went inside, he found her waiting in a booth by the windows, waving at him.

The place was only half-full, a slow-paced evening. Sakuta ordered the drink bar only and sat down across from Shouko.

“Thanks for waiting.”

“Don’t worry, I only just got here.”

“So what did you want to show me?”

“……”

When he got right down to business, Shouko gave him an odd look.

“What?”

“What happened to you, Sakuta?”

“Meaning?”

“It’s not like you to just ignore a classic date line.”

“……”

He had to wince at that one.

“Earlier, Futaba told me she likes it better this way,” he admitted, figuring it wasn’t worth hiding.

“……I can see how that would get under your skin.”

“I went home, and Kaede was waiting for me…and I kinda get where Futaba’s coming from.”

Tomoe going to his school, Uzuki still attending classes—neither was exactly bad for him. Both were actually welcome changes.

“In which case, do you want to leave it alone?”

“I’ve gotta get Mai back to her old self.”

The rest was a tough choice. There were pros and cons. Some he couldn’t choose.

Shouko seemed satisfied with that answer, and she moved on.

“Did you have a good talk with Miori? You went on a drive date, right?”

“Mitou said she wanted to see Touko Kirishima again. But when I relayed that to Futaba, she suggested it’s the opposite.”

“She doesn’t want to see her?”

“I don’t know why Mitou would feel that way, but situationally…”

“In that case, I’m glad I called you today.”

“Mm?”

“This is what I wanted to show you.”

Shouko pulled Touko and Miori’s exchange diary out of her bag. The one Touko’s mother had given her. She placed it on the table and flipped through the pages.

And stopped when she found the right one.

The date on it read December 24.

“The day Touko Kirishima died?”

“Yes, that Christmas Eve.”

Sakuta felt like he recognized the writing.

On closer inspection, it was the lyrics to a Touko Kirishima song.

The one Mai sang onstage on April 1.

I’m glad I met you.

That’s not how I see things.

My soulmate’s no longer out there.

But the love songs we listened to all agree.

We will meet again.

Don’t be afraid to get lost.

Get up, fling that door open, step outside.

But the future’s not guaranteed.

I’ll be alone again tomorrow.

No one to split things with.

This empty hollow in my heart.

If I have to feel like this…

I wish I’d never met you.

Below the lyrics was the song title: “Turn the World Upside Down.”

That was the last entry in the exchange diary. All pages after it were blank.

“This was Touko Kirishima’s entry?”

“I’m sure of it. They have pretty different handwriting.”

Miori’s letters were sharp and angular, while Touko’s were rounded.

“Mitou said she was supposed to meet Touko Kirishima that day. They’d had a fight the week before and were gonna make up.”

“But Touko was in an accident on the way to see Miori.”

“Yeah.”

“So in Miori’s mind, these lyrics were Touko’s last words.”

Shouko tapped the final line of the song.

“……‘I wish I’d never met you.’”

“Exactly.”

“That’s a pretty good reason for her to be running. If your best friend said that, it’s gotta hurt.”

“But I think she’s reading that wrong,” Shouko argued.

“How so?” Sakuta asked, not sure what she meant.

“There’s something I have to tell Miori about these lyrics.”

“……”

“Sakuta,” Shouko said, looking him right in the eye.

He already knew what she was about say next, so he chose to remain silent.

“Bring me to Miori Mitou.”