It didn't happen all at once.
There was no dramatic declaration. No tragic confrontation. No sobbing confessions in the rain.
But the shift… was real.
After the flood incident, the school returned to normal. The halls buzzed again. The rooftop was filled with sun. Life moved forward.
But between the lines of that life, something subtle changed.
---
Yuki still smiled. Still cracked jokes. Still waved to Leo when she passed him in the corridor.
But now, when he smiled back, there was a softness in her gaze.
Like she was seeing more.
Believing more.
---
Hana was the first to pull back.
Not out of hurt.
But out of clarity.
She still ran laps with Leo. Still punched him on the shoulder when he teased her. Still swiped half his sports drink after training.
But she stopped waiting.
She no longer lingered by the vending machine hoping to walk home with him.
She no longer dropped by his classroom "just because."
One day, she grinned at him across the field and shouted, "Catch you later, team captain!"
Team captain.
Not 'Leo.'
It wasn't rejection.
It was redirection.
---
Sora, too, stepped back—but in her own way.
No one noticed at first. She was quiet by default. Distant by design.
But Leo noticed.
She no longer waited at the rooftop.
She still replied to his messages, still offered homework help, still gave advice when asked.
But the silence between those moments stretched longer.
During one study session, Leo looked up from his notebook and asked, "You okay?"
Sora didn't look at him.
She adjusted her glasses, flipped a page, and said, "Sometimes letting go isn't giving up. It's making room for better things."
Then she looked at him.
And smiled.
Not sadly.
Not bitterly.
Just… honestly.
Leo didn't know what to say.
So he said, "Thank you."
And she nodded.
---
Yuki didn't know all the details.
But she felt it.
Felt it in the way Sora no longer challenged her to top test scores.
Felt it in the way Hana skipped group lunches more often.
Felt it in the space that slowly, gently, quietly formed around Leo.
Not as a trap.
But as a gift.
One afternoon, Yuki found herself walking alone across the quad. She paused under a cherry blossom tree, looked up at the falling petals, and whispered to herself:
"…Why does this feel heavier than victory?"
But even then, she smiled.
Because it meant it mattered.
---
Leo wasn't blind.
He noticed.
He saw Hana's extra seconds of hesitation before waving goodbye.
He heard the silent pages in Sora's book as they turned without comment.
He felt the distance growing—not from coldness, but from kindness.
It broke something inside him.
And it built something new.
He didn't know what it would become yet.
But he knew… he owed them more than silence.
So when he saw Yuki waiting by the bench near the koi pond again, swinging her legs and holding two melon sodas—
He sat beside her.
Took the can.
And said:
"I'm ready to try."
Her eyes widened. Just a little.
"…Try what?"
Leo looked up at the sky, blue and endless.
"Everything."
And she smiled.