My Childhood Friend, Who I Made a Promise To Spend the Future With, Dumped Me... But Ever Since I Started Dating a Beautiful Girl From School, My Childhood Friend Has Been Acting Strange - Episode 16

The usual noise of the school filled the air, and in the classroom, Suzuki Toma sat at his desk, gazing out the window. There had been no significant progress regarding Azusa Saori.

Today was Monday, the start of a new week, but the distance between them didn’t seem to have lessened at all.

Originally, Toma and Saori had been close. As childhood friends, they had maintained a friendly relationship since they were young. Even after entering middle school, they would walk home together after school, and on days off, Saori would play with Toma’s younger sister, Emi. Emi had always been treated well by Saori, which was why Emi couldn’t forget her.

Toma, still looking out the window, thought that Emi probably couldn’t let go of Saori because she still held onto the good memories of her. He understood Emi’s feelings. However, the situation didn’t seem conducive to reconciliation. When Saori arrived in the classroom that morning, Toma had greeted her lightly, but he didn’t get a good response in return.

While Toma wanted to respect his sister’s feelings, he also felt that it would be extremely difficult to repair his relationship with Saori if he couldn’t even talk to her casually.

Last weekend, Toma had seen Saori in town, happily chatting with someone she was dating. Reflecting on that, Toma couldn’t help but think that Saori no longer had any feelings for him.

Toma and Saori had met in the first grade of elementary school. At first, they were strangers, but since they happened to sit next to each other, they became friends through their classes. Their houses were surprisingly close, only about a five-minute walk apart.

Back in elementary school, after school ended, they would decide whose house to play at and walk home together, playing simple word games along the way. When Emi started elementary school, Saori would even walk to school with her. It felt like such a long time ago, even though it had only been a few years.

Now, Toma couldn’t even have a proper conversation with his childhood friend.

The promise Toma and Saori had made about their future was during their second year of middle school, a few months before entrance exams began. They had started thinking about what they would do after graduating from high school.

Saori had said she would go to university after high school. Toma had also planned to attend university.

They had promised to get married after graduating from university and once they had established themselves as working adults. Until then, they had agreed to focus on becoming independent.

Toma had planned to go to university, but his plans for the future were vague. To figure out what he wanted to do, he had tried various things after entering high school, like taking on part-time jobs and joining sports clubs. However, he wasn’t good at many of them and didn’t stick with anything for long.

His inability to build a solid plan for the future was likely one of the reasons Saori had broken their promise. Still, Toma couldn’t help but feel that breaking the promise so suddenly was too much.

Feeling his own inadequacy, Toma let out a deep sigh.

“Toma? Are you okay?” came a gentle voice from beside him. It was Kamiya Suzuha, sitting in the chair next to him.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. It’s just… things aren’t going well,” Toma replied.

“Well, that’s life. Things don’t always go as planned. But you’ve been trying all sorts of things since starting high school, right? That’s something to be proud of.”

“Thanks for saying that.”

It was afternoon, and Toma’s class had unexpectedly been given free time because their teacher had to leave due to personal reasons. Originally, it was supposed to be an art class, so most of the classmates were in the art room.

For the art class, they were allowed to either go outside and draw the scenery or stay in the art room and draw whatever they wanted.

“Toma, are you good at drawing?” Suzuha asked.

“No, not really.”

“Really? You’re better than me, aren’t you? Want to see mine?”

Toma looked at Suzuha’s drawing. It wasn’t particularly good, but he could somewhat tell what she was trying to draw.

“Just so you know, I’m not that good either. Here,” Toma said, showing her another page in his sketchbook. It had an original illustration he had drawn.

“Oh, I see. But the one you just showed me was pretty good.”

“Well, I’m okay at copying things.”

“Just copying?”

“Yeah. Creating my own characters is hard.”

“Ah, I get that. I’m not good at that either.”

“Right?”

“Yeah. But even without copying, I think you have a good sense for it. Maybe you should consider pursuing art.”

“I’m not that good, though. I started drawing because of fan art for a VTuber I used to support. It’s not something I take seriously.”

The illustrations in Toma’s sketchbook were fan art of a VTuber he had supported in the past. He had recently copied an old photo of the VTuber that he found saved on his computer.

“I see. But I think you have talent. You’ve been trying all sorts of things to find what you’re good at, right? Maybe you should consider pursuing art.”

“I’ll think about it.”

For Toma, drawing was just a hobby. He had started it because he enjoyed drawing fan art of the VTuber he used to support. He had never seriously considered making it a career. The VTuber he used to support was no longer active.

Toma opened a new page in his sketchbook.

“Suzuha, want to go outside and draw?”

“Sure, but why?”

The reason was that Saori was in the art room.

Wanting to change the mood a bit, Toma led Suzuha outside the school building