Just One Night (Issei Matsukawa)

Makki

Sometimes, relationships don't go as smoothly as you think. Right now, I can't help but question what I thought had been a good relationship. Not my own, of course, but my best friend's.

Eight months. For eight months now, Sayo had been dating Issei's best friend... and to look at them together, you'd think they were a picture-perfect couple. Not necessarily perfect, but seemed like they belonged together.

Obviously, the picture on my phone screen said otherwise. Well, it's really a picture of a picture... the picture that Sayo found hidden away in her boyfriend's dresser drawer.

It's an old picture, for sure. His hair hasn't been that short in the time that I've known him and I'm dead certain that's his high school uniform that he's wearing. That's not the problem though. The problem is the girl with him in the picture.

She's a pretty girl... clearly a foreigner... and the way Hanamaki looks in the picture, he was pretty deep in love with the girl at the time. Obviously, the girl wasn't around anymore, so it shouldn't be a problem, and yet...

Kazumi, what do I do? What do I even say to him?

The simple answer would be to put it back and pretend she never saw it. I don't have the heart to tell her to do that though. There's more to this than we know. For all we know, the girl in the picture died years ago and he could never let her go. Or maybe it was just a reminder to himself of a relationship he'd screwed up...

"Fucking Makki... I thought I told him to throw that stupid thing away."

I turned my head to look at Issei behind me. There's a look on his face that I've only ever seen him make one time... and that was when I'd gone out with Yuuji. That expression couldn't possibly mean anything good.

"Issei?"

He looks kind of pissed, but there's a spark of something in his eye that says this isn't just anger... I've seen that same look in Sayo's eyes anytime Yuuji is mentioned. It's then that I realize, things with this girl did not end well...

"That's Makki's first girlfriend... and a lot of other firsts for him too..." The way Issei was looking at the picture reminded me of Sayo... though, rather than anger, he seemed more hurt... feeling his friend's pain... "He fell for her really hard... and she was always pretty good to him... but she never loved him as much as he loved her."

He stopped there, but clearly there was more to the story. I wanted to ask, but before I had the chance, he spoke again. "He ended up breaking up with her... and she didn't even seem like it bothered her. All she said was 'okay.' Didn't question why... didn't try to say she could change or do better... didn't even cry... She just went on like nothing had even happened... and Makki... he was a wreck... He never really got over her... I thought when he moved in with Sayo, that maybe he was finally getting over her... but I guess not."

In the end, I couldn't even give Sayo any advice. After hearing this side of the story, I really couldn't blame Makki for anything. In a way, he was just like me... and just like me, he'd probably run away from this situation...

That little suspicion came true about a week later... when I learned that he and Sayo broke up and Hanamaki began staying with me and Issei.