Chapter 31
It was a sunny day in early summer.
On this day, Ryosaku realized that exactly one year had passed since he first became friends with Mieko.
In the horizontal bar play area where Ryosaku first approached Mieko, a group of new first-year students who had been spending recess with Ryosaku until recently took turns "swapping" with Mieko, and they visited the space where she was that day. It was occupied.
A group of girls who were Mieko's friends were also locked out of the area they were in last year, and were relegated to the horizontal bar play area further south.
...Even in places of play, the "wave of generational change'' was definitely coming.
When Ryosaku saw how these people who had moved away from him were able to play naturally and happily "without Ryosaku," he realized that there was no longer a place for him in this area...
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When it's time for lunch on the day he's in charge of serving food, Ryosaku returns to the first-year classroom... and there, too, the nickname "School Lunch Brother" echoed by the new first-year students who admire Ryosaku.
Even though they had drifted away from Ryosaku during recess, during school lunch they would play around with Ryosaku just as they had before.
However, Ryosaku was not disillusioned by their seemingly "opportunistic" attitude and continued to treat them with kindness and cheerfulness as before.
... Ryosaku has also "grown up".
Ryosaku...feels guilty for mercilessly pushing away Mieko, who once showed him "unparalleled love," and will be merciful and kind to those who "abandoned" him... It could also be interpreted as something like this, which made him acquire a higher level of mind than before.
Of course, this was also because he was fully aware that the young first-year student did not come into contact with Ryosaku based on cold concepts such as "accounting" and "profit and loss".
