"Ozaki…right?"

Ozaki looked up from his phone and saw it was Daichi. Even if they never interacted, he knew who Daichi was since he was well-known as the judo club's ace.

He nodded, "Your group is here too?"

"No, we give ourselves free-time today, so I'm by myself," Daichi glanced around, "You're in one group with Sei, right?"

"Kurosaki just went into the bathroom. We're currently waiting for him," Inaba answered, "We're heading to a festival after this. Why don't you join us?"

"A festival?" Daichi recalled it wasn't in the schedule Sei gave them.

"Kurosaki's cousin told him that there's a food and game festival currently going on around here. We did plan to go to a food market, so why not? It's practically just a mall here."

In the bathroom, Sei looked at the 2 people in front of him. The 2 people were also staring back at him. One was wearing a green cap while the other has light-colored, short, wavy hair sporting a white hoodie.

He didn't remember having any friends that looked like them, but by how they immediately recognized him, he should have some degree of closeness with them.

"Saki-chan, it's me, Yuuya. Shirokou Elementary?" The short-haired man pointed at himself excitedly.

Once the young man introduced himself and called him like that, Sei could see the resemblance with one of the boys from his close group of friends in his memory. But taller and more mature. It was a bit hard to recognize at first sight since it has been a very long time since they last met. His facial features have also opened up.

"Morinaga?"

"Yes!" Morinaga was elated that Sei finally remembered.

Sei hesitantly looked at the other person and he raised his hands, "I'm just Morinaga's high school friend, Yamada."

"Saki-chan, I almost didn't recognize you if it wasn't for your smell."

Sei, "???"

Yamada, "???"

That's very creepy in a lot of sense???

Noticing their looks, Morinaga hurriedly tried to save his image, "No, I mean, you still use milk-based bath products, don't you? We always stayed at each other's place every month at least once, so it's kind of stuck in my memory. There's nobody else I know who smells like milk more than you do. Especially guys."

"Dude, you're making it worse!" Yamada elbowed him to just stop talking and laughed awkwardly, "Sorry, he's a bit out of it sometimes."

"…It's alright."

Though it was still a bit unsettling how someone he has never met for several years knew he was still wearing milk-based bath products. Did it really smell that strong?

"Hey, we really should catch up. How about we hang in a cafe and chat? We can wait for you outside. Did you come with someone?"

"I'm with my friends from school too and we're going to a festival after this, so I don't think it's possible."

"That's perfect. We're heading there too. It's this one, isn't it?"

Morinaga showed the poster from his phone. Much to Sei's dismay, the location was exactly the same as the one Keiichi sent to him.

"You're cool with going with them, right?" Morinaga turned to Yamada.

Without waiting for his friend's reply, he walked out to find Sei's friends.

"Why did you even ask if you're not going to listen?" Yamada groaned and chased after him.

The 2 of them left before Sei could speak again. He didn't really need to use the toilet or anything, but they would suspect something if he didn't do any business, so he just washed his hands before going out.

Still, even if he managed to do anything, Morinaga and Ozaki would inevitably meet since there was only one path to go in and out of the bathroom.

"Yo, are you guys Saki-chan's friends?" Morinaga looked at the 3 people waiting outside.

"Saki-chan…? No, we don't know any Saki." Inaba shook his head slightly.

Yamada stepped in to correct it, "He means your friend inside…uh, what's his full name?"

Morinaga dropped his fist to his palm in realization. 'Saki-chan' was Sei's nickname among their group and Sei wasn't really fond of it. Nobody must've called him 'Saki-chan' other than them.

"Kurosaki Sei." He corrected.

Daichi's eyebrow slightly twitched. Saki-chan?

"And you are?"

"Morinaga Yuuya. Saki-chan's childhood friend. This is Yamada, my friend. Saki-chan said you guys are going to that festival in town, right? We're also going there, so we're thinking to go there together."

Yamada sighed tiredly and pulled him back to take over, "Sorry about that. More accurately, this guy wants to catch up with your friend inside since, apparently, it has been a while since they last met. Our plan coincidentally matched, so do you mind if we join you guys for today? It's fine if we can't. I'll make sure this guy stays away."

"Oh, so it's like that…" Ozaki looked at Inaba and they nodded, "Sure, the more the merrier. Let me tell the girls."

Daichi saw Sei coming from the corner. Sei saw the situation was already out of his hands. Looking at how Yamada was already talking to Inaba, the plan to go together was set in stone.

"Sei, who are they?"

Sei flinched slightly from Daichi's voice and just noticed that 'the judo character' has already arrived. He forgot that he entered the bathroom to avoid encountering Fuyukawa and possibly other characters.

Why did Morinaga just have to appear now? Was he what caused the ominous feeling in his heart? But it still hasn't dissipated even a bit yet.

"Sei?"

"He's a…friend. Wait a minute," Sei grabbed Morinaga's arm, "We need to talk," he then looked at Inaba, "Can you tell Kawakami and Tsumugi to just meet us on this floor when they're done?"

"Got it. They said they're paying at the counter right now."

Morinaga let Sei drag him away until they were outside, right in front of the fountain. It was wide enough to not inconvenience other people and was empty since the fountain wasn't currently on.

"Morinaga–"

"Just call me Yuu-kun as usual, Saki-chan." Morinaga cut him off before he could continue.

"…Morinaga, my friends don't know about my family's…situation. They also don't know I'm from here. Can you do me a favor and not mention anything about it to them?"

"It's been…what? 5 years? And that's the first thing you're asking me?" Morinaga put his hands into his pocket, "Aren't you too cold? You're even refusing to call me Yuu-kun."

Sei cooled down and frowned, "With what happened at that time, I'm surprised you still thought of me as your friend. I never called you and the others with nicknames anymore since the end of fifth grade."

He turned around to leave, "Forget it. Why did I even try talking to you? I'm telling my friends we're going by ourselves."

Morinaga hurriedly caught his wrist, "Hey, you're still upset about that? We're still kids back then. For all we know, it was you who did it. And we tried to apologize to you, didn't we? But you refused to talk to us and even avoided us completely."

Sei shook off his hand, "Even if you guys tried to apologize, I can see very clearly that you still doubted me because you guys wanted to trust Shinoda. You wanted to apologize for accusing me in full public, but you still believed that I really did bully her. And maybe you still believe that until now. Do you know how betrayed I felt at that time? It felt as if the world was out to get me without having anybody on my side. Not even my friends who promised to always be on my side."

Sei knew he was being unreasonable. He already understood that it was probably caused by an unexplainable force, but he couldn't stop his emotion from pouring out after being locked away for years.

Morinaga's voice got stuck, but he quickly regained himself, "No, Saki-chan. I really regretted it. The others as well. When we separated at junior high, I thought about that incident a lot and realized that there were many strange things about it. I even broke up with Shinoda after finding out the truth. We know now it was all just her misunderstandings."

"I don't care about your love affair, Morinaga. I already decided to cut off all ties with my past in Fukuoka. And that includes you. Please don't act friendly with me anymore because I don't like reliving my past. Especially talking about it and letting people know about it. In that sense, you are a risk, and I don't want you near my friends."

Morinaga grabbed his arms this time, "Saki-chan…No– Kurosaki, I'm sorry. I genuinely am. Can't you at least give me a chance to fix my mistakes? I just want us to become friends again."

"Let me go, Morinaga."

Sei tugged his arm away, staggering back as a result. Unexpectedly, there was a person behind him and he accidentally hit them. He heard a yelp before a splash following right after. He hurriedly turned to apologize and help.

Much to his horror, the person who fell into the fountain pool was none other than Fuyukawa.