Heroine next-door, childhood friend coin always flipped to lose.

That was the jerk comment Mina accidentally popped up while working at lunchtime.

Dumb comment section on dumb Romance in a Forum post. Dumb sentence.

"Childhood Friend girls never win."

Kuro didn’t really care what the original post was about.

Akari point-blank cared upon first sight.

Akari laughed it off at first.

"Ha? What a cliché."

Then all afternoon Akari was unusually quiet.

Akari Tachibana being quiet is like an apple tree full of oranges!

Even Aoi noticed.

"...she’s no longer talking."

"Now that is alarming," agreed Mina.

Rika pushed her spectacles on her nose.

"Emotionally unstable Akari can be extremely dangerous, statistically."

Kuro quietly sighed.

He also had picked up on how different her personality was from normal.

Akari is still smiling, still joking, still acting hyper.

However..something was just a bit absent.

And for some ridiculous reason this bothered him more than he’d like to admit.

After school had ended, a light rain drizzled on the classroom windows and the students took their time packing their things away.

Kuro looked around the room.

"...Where’s Akari?"

Aoi turned her head towards the hallway.

"...She’s on the rooftop."

Of course she is.Kuro immediately stood up.

Mina raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"Oh?"

Rika looked at Kuro with a tinge of concern.

"Are you going after her?"

"...She’s acting strange."

Mina smirked in amusement.

"Sounds like you have concerned boyfriend energy."

"I don’t like that word."

Before Mina could make another comment about Kuro, he was on his way out the door.

The rooftop was quiet.

The gray sky loomed overhead and the wind blew gently in the open space.

Akari sat alone against the fence with her knees pulled up.

When Kuro spotted her, he slowed down a little.

Akari seemed smaller in size.Not physical size.Emotional size.

"Kuro-kun?"

When Akari saw him, a smile spread across her face.Too quickly.

"...What are you doing here?"

"You skipped out on going home."

"...I wanted to breathe some fresh air."

"That’s a lie."

Akari blinked at him.

Kuro sat down next to her quietly.Silence hung heavily between them.

The wind was blowing softly through her hair.

Usually, Akari fills silence with words without fail.

However, today she just stared out at the distance.

Kuro frowned a bit.

"...Did something happen?"

Akari let out a small laugh.

"...You noticed that?"

"You are always so loud that it’s impossible not to notice."

"Wow. How very considerate of you."

"You know what I mean."

Akari grabbed onto her knees even tighter.

After an extended period of silence between the two of them, Akari ended up asking the question:

"Do childhood friends ever win out in the end?"

Kuro looked at Akari with a blank expression.

"What?"

Akari’s response to having asked him the previous question was one of embarrassment.

"Never mind. Bad question."

And Kuro was again left in silence while he remembered his internet post earlier that very day.

"Oh wow, she really thinks about that?"

Akari turned away from Kuro.

"Maybe."

Silence.

Then after a moment.

"I know it’s stupid."

They watched the wind gently blowing around them.

Akari laughed to herself again but less than before.

"But sometimes I wonder..."

Akari’s voice became quieter.

"Could it be that I am of no real value at all, just because I was born and grew up at the same time as you were?"

Kuro became frozen.

He had never heard or felt that Akari spoke as if she didn’t exist. At least this didn’t sound or feel like her normal happy-go-lucky way of speaking.

This was coming from a place of being vulnerable.

Being honest.And being very fragile.

Akari continued talking very quietly.

"Mina is prettier than me."

Kuro’s response was immediate.

"That’s not true."

"Mina has more confidence than me."

Kuro remained silent.

"Then Rika probably is smarter than me."

Kuro nodded.

"Traitor."

"But?"

Akari cracked the faintest of smiles.

"Aoi understands you without words."

Akari and Kuro sat in silence for almost a minute.

Then.

"And me?"

Kuro turned his head to look at Akari.

Akari was now staring straight down at the ground and avoiding looking at Kuro.

"I’m just loud."

That sentence hit Kuro harder than it should have.

There was a long pause before Kuro answered.

He had never really thought about it before.

Not like that.

Akari was simply... Akari. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

She was always there. She was always loud. And she was always dragging him into whatever nonsense she had going on.

This was normal for him.

But now Kuro realized an important fact while sitting silently beside her; she looked genuinely insecure.

The house felt emptier without Akari’s smile.

He surprised himself with how hard that realization hit him.

"...You’re not just annoying," Kuro finally admitted.

Akari blinked at him in surprise.He felt awkward and looked away.

"You make it feel less... empty."

Silence followed.Akari stared at him.

Kuro rubbed the back of his neck and felt awkward.

"Sometimes you drive me crazy."

"Like WOW."

"But..."

He hesitated and then said, "When you’re quiet, it doesn’t feel right."

Her expression slowly changed to something more positive.

Kuro continued on without really knowing what else to say.

"You make others feel comfortable."

"Really?"

"Sadly, yes."

Akari chuckled a nervous laugh.

And then - suddenly her eyes glistened with tears.

Kuro freaked out internally.

"YOU HAVE TEARS ON YOUR FACE!"

"I don’t!"

"Um. Yes, you do."

Akari immediately started rubbing her face.

"This is so embarrassing..." cupped her hand and passed over his handkerchief. She reached for it rather meekly.

Kuro did look unsure when she actually leaned on him; she leaned on them very lightly.

He shivered a little but never pulled away.

The entire rooftop had grown quiet again.

The rain continued to hit the roof.

Finally, Akari spoke, "Thanks for coming to get me."

Kuro replied, "It was Aoi that told me."

Akari added, "Traitors."

They fell silent again for a second time.

This time, the silence was warmer as well.

Akari had a very faint smile on her face with Kuro’s shoulder.

She softly said to him, "Did you know..."

He quickly answered, "...know what?"

"Childhood friends are supposed to have a loser."

Kuro immediately sensed that there was danger in her voice.

"Akari," he spoke, because she had never looked at him like that before.

"Then I’m going to be the one person you can never lose to," she continued.

"That’s a bit threatening," Kuro reminded her.

"It is threatening," Akari interrupted.

Normal Akari had resurfaced.

Kuro was exhausted.

"Welcome back," he sad to Akari.

Akari flashed him an endearing smile, and seeing her smile allowed him to feel comforted in a way he was unable to articulate.