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Sakura knew Suo wouldn't be coming that day.
"Where's Suo?"
But, of course, asking about his whereabouts was the most natural thing to do to give the impression that he knew nothing. Sakura even denied Nirei's guess that Suo was sick, because idiots never get sick and Suo was an idiot.
Or, last night, he remembered that Suo's pen had been taken by him, so he turned back from his doorstep, guessing that the boy couldn't have gone far. And that guess was correct, because he found Suo still standing on the side of the road, watching the sky with his usual calm smile that only this time looked lonely.
"What are you doing standing here? It's going to rain soon." Sakura approached his friend in wonder, and Suo turned to him with a rare look of confusion.
"Sakura-kun should be home too. Why are you wandering around on the street at this hour?"
"I forgot to return your pen."
There was a moment of silence.
Sakura held out the pen, but Suo didn't take it. His reluctance was clearly unusual, and a car stopped right on the side of the road before Sakura had a chance to insist.
A man got out of the car, his appearance making Sakura instantly forget to protest about returning the pen. The man was probably in his twenties, and the earrings he wore were no different from the tassels Suo always wore.
"Suo, that person...?"
Suo turned his head, smiled slightly, and nodded once in confirmation. "Good evening, Brother."
"Hm, is that your friend, Hayato?"
"That's right, my classmate, Sakura-kun."
Sakura stood stiffly. This was different from when he met Kiryu's older sister. Suo's brother had an expression that was difficult to understand, and he didn't know whether to be wary or feel safe.
"Ah, I see. Did you say goodbye properly?"
Sakura frowned, completely unable to understand the meaning of the question. He stared at Suo, who didn't even dodge or say anything for a while.
"Suo, what does that mean?"
Goodbye had a different connotation than 'see you tomorrow'. Even though Sakura didn't really care about such terms, he still felt that something was wrong with the diction used by the brother. And how Suo just stood there silently made his stomach feel even more queasy. Did Hiragi experience this kind of stress all the time?
"Sakura... well, do you know the legend of Princess Kaguya?" Suo's older brother stepped closer, until he was standing just a step behind his brother, who had a sad expression on his face.
"No."
"It's about a princess from the moon, who was exiled to Earth until she turned fifteen. When the time came, messengers from the moon came to pick her up right at the full moon, and she had to leave the people who took care of her to return to her home."
Sakura blinked several times, briefly drawing a parallel he didn't want to understand. That Suo was now fifteen, and the full moon was directly above them.
"That doesn't make sense," he muttered aloud. "Why would the princess want to return to the moon if she was happy on Earth?"
Suo's brother smiled calmly, and Sakura didn't like how similar that expression was to Suo's usual one.
"That's the most tragic part of the story, Sakura. You know? Kaguya was indeed sad and reluctant to leave Earth at first, since she had become too deeply attached to humans. However, once the heavenly cloak was placed on her, she immediately lost all those emotions and forgot all the warmth she had received on Earth."
Suo's brother dramatically raised both hands, moving them slowly as if placing an invisible cloth on Suo's shoulders. "Well, for Hayato, it was something different. But let's just say he also has a similar fur coat."
"What the hell?!" Sakura snapped in disagreement, but all his protests fell silent when he looked at Suo. The eye he knew to be always calm hadn't changed, only they felt colder. He vaguely remembered how Nirei had described Suo when they first met, and it felt closer now.
'I thought he was a colder and more unapproachable person...'
That seemed to fit the Suo standing in front of him now.
"You can have the pen, Sakura-kun." Suo gently pushed away Sakura's hand as he tried to grab him. "Even though it's not as valuable as the elixir of immortality in the legend of Princess Kaguya~"
Huh?
Later, Sakura learned the full story, that Kaguya had entrusted the elixir of immortality as a gift to the emperor, but the emperor burned it on Mount Fuji because he had no interest in living forever. Sakura clenched his fists every time he thought about the implications of that story. That damn Suo was clearly not Kaguya, and he was not the emperor in this case.
"He didn't reply to my message," Nirei said gloomily, staring intently at his phone screen.
Sakura shifted his gaze to the wall, trying to compose a comment that wouldn't make Nirei even more worried. "Well, sometimes these things happen, right?"
"Sakura-kun, this isn't Kaguya's story."
"Of course, don't be weird and come here!"
Suo reached for the car door, opening it slowly as if Sakura's words meant nothing.
"... So, Sakura-kun, I won't forget anything. Instead, you and the others are the ones who have to wear that coat, right?"
Sakura and the residents of Makochi were the ones who had to forget him.
A week passed, and Sakura knew he was at the peak of his frustration. Nirei and the others were suffering because they had no clues, while he was tormented by information he couldn't talk about with anyone.
Because, if that was Suo's choice, did he have the right to interfere? If that was the life Suo was living, did he have the right to stand in the way? He didn't even know the details at all, about why that boy had to vanish overnight from Makochi.
If the emperor in the story of Kaguya was so depressed that he burned the letter at the summit of Mount Fuji, then the only thing he could do was slam Suo's pen onto the floor, then dismantle it because the ink had run dry after hitting the ceramic.
He found a roll of paper neatly wrapped around the ink tube. Sakura opened it hastily, finding a series of addresses and phone numbers that were not listed in the school's data—Nirei had checked it since the first day.
/"Sakura-kun, this is definitely not the story of Kaguya."/
Sakura laughed wearily.
That friend of his was indeed not a kind people.
And still, he missed him.
"Nirei, do you know this address?" Sakura showed the paper to Nirei, who immediately showed curiosity.
"Hm? Let me take a look, Sakura-san."
As the paper changed hands, Sakura took his cell phone out of his pocket and approached his pink-haired friend's desk. "Kiryu, how do I add a new number?"
"Here, here, whose number is it?"
"I don't know either."
"Eeh?"
Suo hadn't really left without a trace, and that made Sakura want to believe that he could still be dragged back.