Editing City Series:Volume7 Layer 8 (section)

===Record 98: What He Doesn’t Know Either===

'''12/20/1998

'''6:19

Maybe it was the conversation with myself last night and maybe it was thinking too much about you and Senpai, but I had barely gotten any sleep when the dawn arrived.

''Maybe there’s nothing I can do about this,'' I thought without much confidence. I decided to settle things inside me once and for all and stepped outside.

It was past 6 in the morning and I made my way to the road alongside the railroad we had walked down last night.

Senpai would be running there early in the morning.

I wanted to be there.

The needle ice flowers blossoming in the area would make any footprints really stand out.

When Senpai found me, he would slow his pace, approach me, and ask me to walk with him like usual. Then I could ask him what was worrying him. I wanted to know what was most weighing on that worrier’s mind at the moment.

I recalled him once saying that the most important worries are best kept a secret.

So would he tell me his most important worry?

Part of me wanted to know and part of me didn’t.

I picked up my pace on the way toward the railroad.

Only after I got my body moving did I realize how much I cared for you. You had once worried for the boy who came in 2nd place, but would you one day be able to share that worrier’s worries?

''Make sure to stand up for yourself more,'' I silently told myself and you.

It was time for the current me to go to where my future self and past self had been. That was where I would meet Senpai who was such a worrier he never stood up for himself.

I would meet him and receive an answer that I both wanted to hear and didn’t want to hear.

'''Author Comment:

This story is continued in Record 99.

By gathering and reading these memories, I think you can get a picture of the protagonist, You, and Senpai’s positions from the protagonist’s point of view.