Today marked the beginning of my second chance at my second year of high school.

The prefectural Nishi High School I attended was one of the better college-preparatory schools in the prefecture.

It wasn’t the very best academic school, so its athletic clubs were also quite active.

It took about fifteen minutes to walk from my house to the station.

From there, it was a three-stop train ride, followed by another ten-minute walk to school.

The commute wasn’t difficult at all.

My parents had left on another overseas business trip, so I had to make my own breakfast.

I kept it simple with toast and fruit yogurt.

Just as I stepped outside through the front door to head to school, the front door of the neighboring house opened, and a girl in a school uniform came out.

Her name was Inoue Mio.

She had shoulder-length hair and delicate, well-defined features that made her incredibly cute.

She was a member of the basketball club and had an energetic personality to match her athletic ability.

By pure coincidence, she lived next door and was in the same grade as me.

We had played together almost every day when we were children, making her the very definition of a childhood friend.

However, around middle school, I started seeing her as a girl.

She was cute and popular at school.

Compared to someone as plain and unremarkable as me, I felt we simply weren’t on the same level.

Before I knew it, I had started keeping my distance.

If I remembered correctly, during my previous life—before the time leap—our second year of high school had begun the same way.

We happened to leave our houses at the same time that morning too.

Even then, I hadn’t spoken to her.

In the end, we were never assigned to the same class during high school, leaving us with almost no opportunity to talk.

After that, we enrolled in different universities and drifted completely apart.

There had been many moments in the other world when I thought I might never be able to return home.

Whenever I was on the verge of giving up, the person who always came to mind was my childhood friend.

The childhood friend I feared I would never see again was now standing only a few steps away.

“Good morning, Inoue.”

“Good morning.”

“That’s unusual.”

“You actually greeted me first, Natsuki.”

She turned toward me with a surprised expression.

We had grown so distant that I suddenly greeting her must have caught her completely off guard.

After everything I had gone through negotiating impossible situations in another world, speaking to someone I hadn’t talked to in years was hardly intimidating.

“Today’s the first day of our second year.”

“How are you doing?”

“I’m fine.”

“More importantly, don’t you seem a little different, Natsuki?”

“Do I?”

“I think I’m the same as always.”

“No, your build is completely different.”

“You used to be much thinner.”

“Now you’re… really well-built.”

“I went through some special training during spring break.”

That wasn’t a lie.

The only thing I left out was that the training had taken place in another world.

“Training?”

“You changed that much in just one spring break?”

“More importantly, let’s walk to school together.”

“We’ll be late.”

“Alright.”

“But still… hasn’t your personality changed too?”

“You’ve never asked me to walk to school with you before.”

“We used to play together all the time when we were kids.”

“We drifted apart after middle school.”

“But I was thinking it’d be nice if we could become close again.”

“How about we leave at the same time and walk to school together tomorrow too?”

“I don’t mind.”

“But you’ve become awfully proactive.”

“I’m making my high school debut.”

“We’re already second-year students.”

“You’re a whole year late for that.”

Inoue laughed, but it seemed she accepted my explanation.

We chatted about recent trends and our favorite television shows as we rode the train to school.

After getting off and passing through the ticket gates, we joined the stream of students heading toward the school.

“Mio, good morning.”

“Aika, good morning.”

The girl who greeted Inoue was her friend, Ito Aika.

She was also a member of the basketball club.

If I remembered correctly, she had been in the same class as Inoue during both their first and second years of high school, and the two of them were quite close.

“Well then, Inoue.”

“I’m going on ahead.”

“See you.”

“Okay.”

Even if we walked to school together, this was probably the right place to split up.

If we stayed together all the way to school, we’d end up attracting unnecessary attention.

It had been years since we’d had a normal conversation.

I was glad we had been able to talk so naturally.

If we could keep talking little by little like this every day, maybe we could become close again, just like we were when we were children.