Not Like Before

"Arata…" She said, but he didn't say anything in return to her. Even after what his mother said, Yuriko still had a little bit of fear from what he was going to do next. Quietly, he slowly walked up to her.

"…" He sighed, then embraced her as she sat on the couch. "I'm glad you're okay." He said quietly. She would've cried, if it wasn't for what he did next. Without warning, he bopped her on the head with a karate chop. "And that's for making me worried."

"Sheesh…" Yurime facepalmed at the sight of this. "They really are friends, aren't they?"

"I'm sorry." She said, for some reason. Despite being forgiven, she just couldn't accept how readily they were about that. "For everything."

"I should be apologizing too." He said the same back to her. "I said some mean things about you."

"What did you say to her?" His mom asked.

"Mom..." Arata didn't expect his mother to stick around for this. However, the only adult in the room simply pulled up a chair to watch the show. "This is kind of a private conversation."

"Nonsense, I've already talked to her. So I'm as much a part of it as you."

"Fine…" He sighed, muttering under his breath, "I guess we could have someone here to lighten the mood." Why did this have to be how some moments happened to him?

"But, it's the truth, isn't it?" Yuriko returned the focus of their talk. "That's how you really feel."

"I won't lie to you. That is what I felt then." He said, it shot through her heart hearing that. "But, I was wrong." He admitted, that he might've jumped to conclusions. Though perhaps if it was some other girl he might not have been so forgiving.

But that's why Yuriko was special. He had seen how she changed from the child she was in the past. The girl he was standing before, was nothing like that one that stood on top of him. The pain that she gave him now, was different from the one inflicted all those years ago.

"I know this is about you two, but I wanted to say that-"

"You forgive me too?" Yurime was a little surprised to hear her sentence completed like that, but Arata wasn't. "I didn't forget you… I've always known."

"Then why would you pretend not to?" She was hurt at hearing that. As if it was done because of something she had done.

"I didn't think that you deserved me." Yuriko admitted. "Because, I was the one that left you."

"I see how it is." Arata had gotten the idea at this point. "You haven't forgiven yourself, have you?" That was the root of the problem for her. Not only did she lose so many precious years trying to move on. Others had to struggle because of her actions.

"I've worked so hard to change, but even then… I still can't help but feel bad for everything."

"All right then." Arata sighed, he didn't want to say it. But it sounded like it might be his best chance. "I'm about to tell you all something about myself, but don't tell anyone else about it." He pointed his finger at all of them. "Especially you mom."

"My lips are sealed." She made a motion over her mouth, pretending to zip it up.

"The truth is, I've become a little scared about some of the things that happened to me..." He started. But it wasn't the events that scared, it was the idea of them never happening.

When he lost his memories, he got a taste of what could have been. The idea of never having participated in any school events. Never becoming the school's treasurer and secretary. Not opening up about his hobbies, or even meeting people from his childhood.

None of that, all lost in his mind. More than that, it only happened because he was blackmailed by some girl trying to get another boy's attention. Being blackmailed isn't a good thing to have happen to anyone. Yet for him, it was thanks to that, that he was able to have so many good things happen to him.

"But isn't that different?" She asked. "That's stuff that's happened to you, I chose to make my own mistakes."

"True, but my point is that we can still choose to positively affect things." It was true, there were many things he could've done. Like the time he got mad at Erina, he could've chosen to move on. When it was clear she wasn't going through with her blackmail plan.

Yet he believed she changed, or perhaps hoped she did. Because he knew inside himself that he had become a different person from his experiences with her.

"And you've chosen to try and make things right. What about that boy you met at the other school?" He put up an example. "Would you say that he's better off since he met you there?"

"Probably, we graduated top of our class there. Not that it was that hard…" She muttered quietly the final part.

"Exactly, if it wasn't for you. He might be off someone causing trouble for people." Arata grinned. "And thanks to him, you're a better person too. So, don't think that everything's been so bad." Yuriko sat there silently, contemplating everything that he had just said.

"Thanks." She finally said after some thinking. Wiping the tears from her face, she returned the smile.

"Ooh, I just love a happy ending." Arata rolled his eyes from his mother's statement. There was at least one person super interested in the drama of his life. "Now with that out of the way. All of you should probably take a shower, you're a mess."

At that point, he lifted his arms to note just how dirty his clothes had gotten from the search in the rain.

"Heh, I guess you're right." He chuckled a little.

"Yeah and you stink too." Yuriko was back to her old snarky self now. Ready to send an insult at him. Yurime laughed along at it, while Arata was a little less than impressed.

"Yeah, well… You stink too..."