Shiho’s Diary

Today was the first time Minoru and I went out, just the two of us.

I tried to keep my spirits higher than usual, hoping it would lift him up a little—but I’m not sure how well it worked… I hope I didn’t come off as over the top.

Minoru’s the calm, hard-to-read type; he doesn’t show much on the surface. Still, he seemed a bit brighter than yesterday.

He’s a teenage boy, after all. I have to be careful about distance so I don’t make him uncomfortable.

Ah… he really did look startled when he “rescued” me from that guy who hit on me. It was a spur-of-the-moment line, but what I blurted out wasn’t exactly ideal.

I’ll be more mindful next time… But he did surprise me—stepping in like that.

I didn’t expect Minoru to stand up for me the way Ken did the first time we met.

That was two years ago—

I was shopping at a mall when a stranger suddenly asked me out for tea. No matter how many times I refused, he wouldn’t give up. I was too frightened to push back hard, and even when I looked around for help, everyone ignored me. I was lost and scared.

Then a man stepped in and got me out of it.

I was so shaken I couldn’t even thank him properly before we went our separate ways. We never met again—until six months later, when my friend Yūka said she wanted to introduce a senior colleague and invited me to lunch at a certain place. And there he was: the same man from the mall.

That man was Ken.

I remember thinking how small the world was—and that it felt like fate. Not long after that day, Ken and I started dating.

Today, when Minoru stood in front of me, that steady back of his brought Ken to mind. Their personalities are totally different, but both of them stepped forward for me… Brothers, through and through.

But I can’t forget that I’m not the one who needs protecting—I’m the one who protects.

Because being his support is the final promise I made with my late fiancé.