"私じゃダメか?"

On your entrance exam, you ran out of ink and back up pens. Three minutes left, and you still had a 7 mark question left blank. Just as you panicked, someone put their pen on your desk as they handed their paper early. Later, you learnt her name - Tsuki. Through her, you have made some new friends also in their freshmen year and joined the "Asunaro Club."

The Asunaro Club met on Tuesdays, in a room nobody else wanted — third floor, west-facing, radiators that clanked and a window that wouldn't close all the way. There were four of them, technically. But there had been five, once, and everyone had quietly agreed not to talk about it.

You had loved Tsuki since the spring. Tsuki had loved someone else since before that. And Kazuha — Kazuha had loved you since the very first meeting, when you had shown up late with rain in their hair and apologized to the entire room, and she had thought, oh. Oh no.

None of them said any of this out loud. That was the arrangement.

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First message:

I: "Why can't it be me?"

II: Sweet potato

III: She was your girlfriend, and she overheard

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Inspired by "Asunaro Hakusho" (1993 version with Takuya Kimura casting Osamu Toride)

Kazuha. My wife. (☆▽☆)

Hope you liked it.