From there, I silently listened to Sachi’s answer and by extension, her thoughts and story. She seemed willing to let it all out now that she found an outlet in me.

She probably hadn’t noticed it yet but she’s spilling her deep-seated frustrations to me.

For sure, when she realizes it later, being embarrassed will be the minimum of what her reaction is going to be. I can already imagine her trying to run and hide away from my gaze.

But well, I just have to prevent that, right? Looks like putting her this close to me will have another purpose.

Anyway, this was what I heard from him.

According to her, the reason that guy chose a school in Tokyo is that he got an invitation to attend a rather prestigious school that can bring him straight to the college of his choice. From Sachi’s wordings, he’s someone who already planned his future career. While she’s turning into volleyball as her passion, that guy is focused on topping every test. He was even sent to a science and math competition – although he lost in both.

In short, he’s a nerd who’s dreaming to be a scientist. What kind of scientist? I have no idea.

Maybe he’s also a good-looking nerd, who knows? Sachi didn’t describe his appearance to me. She just kept on listing memories with him that she still considered precious.

They’re pretty much normal childhood memories.

When she said that their promise to message each other only held up for a few weeks before it dwindled to its current state, Sachi elaborated that initially, she could at least hear his voice at night or in the morning, greeting her night and day, talking about some useless science trivia that she finds hilarious. Or even if it’s something she couldn’t understand, she appreciated his attempts to keep their communication up.

It's like they were in a long-distance relationship back then but without a label.

But then, it didn’t even last a month.

Of course, while the fault ultimately lies with the guy suddenly acting lukewarm, Sachi wasn’t blameless.

From the way she narrated it, she seldom took the initiative to contact him and find out what was wrong. She was only waiting for him.

In a way, she’s in a passive state regarding their problems compared to how active she was at approaching me. Instead of voicing her grievances to him and hearing his side, she bottled it up and her reactionary move was to do the same.

If he didn’t send her a message on a certain day. She would also endure not to send a message – at least, she alluded that it’s pretty much how their relationship had been since the start.

If she was in a bad mood, she would also cut their conversation short. In her defense here, if he couldn’t even take a hint that her mood wasn’t at its best, what’s the point of ranting to him? She’s choosing to just let her bad mood pass rather than wait for the guy to pick it up.

Ah. Right. there’s another piece of information that she added a bit later.

When he started contacting her less and less, she’d sometimes be left talking alone during the calls that he initiated. On the other side, his responses would be short and really lukewarm as though he’s just waiting for her to finish.

Due to that, she somehow managed to mention me to him. Or rather, since she always talked about volleyball to him or whatever interesting thing she could gather, my name was brought up as a topic of their conversation. I wasn’t named though.

She simply told him that she found an interesting student and talked about the floating rumors about me; specifically, my closeness to the girls.

At that time, she had yet to approach me and that incident where I was trapped in the shower room with Orimura-sensei had yet to happen.

After the night that she talked about me, that guy didn’t contact her for two days straight. Even when she already sent him a message or called him, he hadn’t returned any and went radio-silence on her.

Although that wouldn’t discount the fact that he started everything with his lukewarm responses, that’s probably one of the reasons why he lost more interest in keeping up with their communication.

Did he feel he was being betrayed by her? I don’t know. But if that’s all she said to him and he immediately acted that way, then he must be an insecure bastard, no?

But then again, it could’ve been piled up with his desire to focus more on his new friends at school.

I don’t know the guy at all and I’m only hearing about him from Sachi. I may be only hearing one-sided claims here but I have no intention to hear his side at all.

I just don’t have the energy to do so.

At the very least, I could only probe Sachi whether she was being truthful with all of it or not.

Sachi said she did apologize to him when she got the hint that he was upset about something. However, not specifically about the way she talked about another guy to him.

She considered that instance as the same as how she shared with him the incident where the Volleyball Club President got knocked down by receiving the ball to her face – it’s not from a spike but still... she was out for a minute because of it.

Alright. That one piece of information was also new to me. That’s wild.

Anyway, that’s the end of her story. Sachi still believed that she had been patient but there’s always a limit to that.

“... If that’s what he wants, then so be it. He can focus on his new friends and I will do the same.” Sachi's voice cracked a bit there before turning her head to look at me.

Noticing that her eyes moistened, I put my hands on both of her cheeks and used my thumb to wipe the impending tears away.

“Alright. Since I’m a new friend of yours, should I help you out?” I said as I squeezed her face within my palm.

Although she held onto my arm in an attempt to stop me from playing with her face, she eventually gave up and simply pouted. Moments later, she tried reaching for my face too. Unfortunately for her, she couldn’t reach me. She could only grab my shirt and tug it in frustration.

“Where should we start? Do you need help in reconnecting with him or... making a connection with me?” I continued as a teasing smile rose from my lips.

Sachi curled her eyebrows as she probably couldn’t understand what I meant about that second option. Nonetheless, she showed that she’s also not that inclined to pick the first option.

“... That connection with you, is that the same as the others?”

“Close but not quite. Sachi, you know what it means to be the same as them. You’re not in love with me, right?”

“... Yeah. Not at the moment.”

She swiftly nodded. There are no surprises there.

“I know. Because I feel the same way.” I replied before sliding my hands off of her face.

“Ouch. I didn’t think hearing that would sting.” Sachi winced as though she felt a pang of pain. A second later she smirked and then probed me further, “But I get it now... the connection is being the friend I can confide with.”

“Mhm... You can dump your frustrations on me, or talk to me like how you talk with him. In turn, I’ll do the same and comfort you like this.”

At the same time as I said that, my arms slid from her sides, enclosing around her body.

Before she could process everything and react accordingly, I’d already pulled her closer. Her back leaning against my chest.

“This... Onoda-kun, isn’t this cheating? You’re not being fair if you do this!” Sachi protested but at a speed visible to human eyes, I caught her turning red from her neck upwards followed by her body heating up to a boil.