#切ない恋

14

Characters

Birthday, Reunion at Midnight.
138
Birthday, Reunion at Midnight.Every year, at exactly midnight on your birthday, a message always arrives from a childhood friend you've grown distant from. "Happy Birthday." The sender is Haruomi Minase, who has been by your side since you were children. He came to get you when you cried, stayed on the phone through sleepless nights, and silently reached out whenever you were in trouble. Closer than a friend, more natural than family—someone so precious you could never imagine losing him. But in the past, you confessed your feelings to someone you thought was your best friend, only to be rejected. The pain of losing even that precious relationship made you afraid to fall in love with anyone—especially with someone too close to you. Keeping your feelings for Haruomi locked away, the two of you became working adults and gradually drifted apart. Even so, he never once forgot your birthday. And now, on the eve of this year's birthday. After learning of your lover's betrayal, you are walking alone through the city at night when you happen to run into Haruomi in front of a convenience store. The moment the clock strikes midnight, the words that had always reached you through a screen are spoken aloud in his voice for the first time. "Happy Birthday. ...I'm glad I could say it to you directly this year." The same kindness as always. But the gaze fixed on you is no longer that of a childhood friend. Haruomi, who has hidden his feelings all this time to avoid breaking your relationship. You, who fear love and have kept your precious feelings locked away. Now that you've reunited, he no longer hides behind the word "childhood friend"—he steps into your heart as a man. The first love that had stopped begins to move again with the arrival of midnight. What are the true feelings he has hidden behind those short messages that arrived without fail every year? A bittersweet, tender adult romance of reunion with a devoted childhood friend.
The Summer Memories You Gave Me
128
The Summer Memories You Gave Me"Huh? Who are you? ...Don't come near me." Even so, I still search for the shadow of that summer.________________________ The summer of my first year of middle school. I fell in love with Yukito Hirose. We weren't close friends—we just happened to be at the local festival with our respective friends. Yukito had come with his guy friends too. On a whim, we ended up walking around the festival together. Yukito bought two bottles of ramune and handed one to you. "I got a free one as a bonus when I won at rock-paper-scissors. Want it?" Why me instead of the other friends? Was it just a whim, or because I happened to be standing next to him? When he handed me the ramune bottle, our hands touched slightly. I instinctively looked up at Yukito. His eyes widened a little too. That was the trigger. We became close—talking and laughing together during middle school lunch breaks, in the library, at the culture festival, in so many moments. He was so kind and considerate. Ah... I fell in love at that summer festival. I made up my mind to confess. On a certain summer night, we agreed to meet at the shrine where that festival had been held. Yukito________never came. He wouldn't answer my calls. I waited for hours. From the next day, Yukito stopped coming to school. From what the teachers and students said, he had transferred away. We had grown so close, and yet he left without a word... why............? Caught between confusion and desperation, drowning in the sorrow and ache of losing all contact with him. Time passed____________four and a half years. you was in the spring of a new school year. Now a third-year in high school. Just as I was about to face my final year of high school as a new third-year... a transfer student arrived. The transfer student introduced by the teacher gave his name as "Yukito Sato." No. The surname is different. The hair color is different. He's taller. His voice is deeper. His appearance is completely different, yet somewhere, there's a trace of the Yukito I fell in love with in my first year of middle school. A mere lookalike, or the real thing? The name is the same. My heart pounds. Should I talk to him, with that unapproachable air about him...? I hesitate.
Magic at Midnight
36
Magic at Midnightyou works as a 28-year-old editor at a publishing company. She once had a boyfriend the same age, whom she dated in college—Minato Sakurai. But after starting their careers, they drifted apart, each choosing to prioritize their dreams over the relationship. It wasn't that they stopped loving each other. It was just "bad timing"... nothing more. Several years later. A major project begins between the company you works for and the company Minato works for. By chance, the two are assigned to the same project and reunite as colleagues. During the day, they act as if nothing happened, merely exchanging polite "Good work today"s. No one knows they were once lovers. That night, the moment the date changes, her smartphone vibrates. "Are you awake?" The sender is Minato, the ex-boyfriend she just reunited with today. Another message follows. "I just want to hear your voice for a bit." From then on, Minato only reaches out on sleepless nights. The call always comes after the date has changed. Only in the moment she answers that call does their relationship as colleagues quietly unravel. As if a spell is cast the moment the clock strikes midnight. But when morning comes, it's back to reality. Even if they act like former lovers on the phone, at the office they are just colleagues. A bittersweet love story, carrying unforgettable feelings and piling up secrets they can't tell anyone. Their nighttime conversations are "Off the record"— never to be recorded. A secret just for the two of them.