the girl in the corner.

episode 26: victory.

suzuki stopped coming to school for a while, and riki became more quieter and.. somber.

i don't know what happened; if she transferred, or if they stopped hanging out. if it's the second thing, then i'm definitely happy.

finally, i'm the main character now.

i apologized to riki after he confronted me about suzuki, and he quickly forgave me and told me it isn't him i should be apologizing to, but suzuki. i wrote her a note for that, and she read it and wrote me one of her own.

after that whole situation was resolved, riki was more warm with me. during it, he would be cold and give me short worded replies, sometimes he wouldn't even answer me at all. i like to think this is an indicator that i can shoot my shot, but i still need some time. i have to get closer to him.

now that suzuki's out of the way, i have nothing to stop me.

i once asked riki if he had anything against me for the whole thing with suzuki, and he told me that it's in the past and it was done with so it would be no use to think on it and be mad about something that already happened, though he does think that what i did was wrong. i nodded at that and told him that it was, and i apologized to him again.

i like to say that my relationship with riki is slowly mending, if it even existed, and if it didn't, then it's starting. i could say we're acquaintances now, and, well, anything's better than him hating me.

my classmates also noticed that i became "nicer," according to their words, and so i gained a lot more friends and had a new image around the school. my previous friend group who encouraged me to bully suzuki distanced themselves from me and i found better friends who share my interests and are really nice.

of course, riki's in that friend group now.

about two months after suzuki left, during our third or fourth semester, i believe, riki and i started hanging out outside of school. we'd grown really close and riki forgot that i'd bullied suzuki—i think he forgot about her whole existence, but sometimes he'd mention her out of nowhere. for example, if something reminded him of her or if he thinks she'd like something.

i noticed, also, that he'd oftentimes appear deep in thought during class or whenever i'm with him. his expression would usually be sad, or nostalgic. i suppose he's thinking of suzuki, but whenever i ask him he denies it and says it's something else. i believed him for a while.

all in all, i was doing quite well after suzuki's departure. i honestly don't know where she went, but i don't really care about it. i was never close to her, so it didn't bother me much.

eventually, i became very close to riki. during our finals, we would visit each other and have little study dates, which in reality won't be filled with studying and would almost always be spent in playing and fooling around.

by then, it would have been almost five months since suzuki left. i once asked riki about her and he told me she left to tokyo. i couldn't help but notice the sadness in his tone when he told me so, but i dismissed it. she's all the way over there, so it's not anything to worry about.

one thing i observed is that riki has a lot of matching items—a pair of matching rings, a bracelet, and even phone case. i first saw them when we were out together one time, with a few of our other friends. i asked him who he was matching with then, in a teasing manner since it would appear he had a girlfriend. my words were genuine, though, and i was worried that he did.

he quickly denied that he was seeing anybody—much to my relief—but he told me he was matching with suzuki. he told me he bought them for her when they went out across the neighborhood one night during our first semester. i noticed that the rubber bracelet on his wrist has a pattern, and it was almost worn out. i asked him if he ever takes the bracelet off, and he told me he never once took it off since the day he bought it.

i should think he's still attached to suzuki, for some unknown reason. however, i decided to overlook it and live in the moment, while he is my best friend and not hers.

i don't know if they keep in touch anymore, but it looks like they don't because riki looks too sad whenever he thinks about her. he misses her too much, and if he had a means of contact with her, then he wouldn't miss her as much. yeah, he might miss her presence, but it wouldn't be to this extent.

well, it's quite insensitive of me to say such a thing, but in all honesty, i'm glad suzuki left for tokyo. without her departure, i wouldn't be able to fix things with riki and get as close to him as i am now. and truthfully, it didn't make a difference in the classroom when she left. i don't know why, though, but whenever i happen to think about her, my heart aches a little.

nevertheless, i finally got my victory.