[Looking at Shinjiro now, one would never guess just how bad he'd looked that night. The coat is clean and repaired. The watch, though... it told the whole story.
She'd seen it once after the accident, when the doctors told them about it, but it hadn't been in the box of things left in his room. Maybe Akihiko had kept it, or maybe he'd left it in the hospital room. The latter felt more likely. It was a wake-up-soon charm.]
They said if it hadn't been there you'd probably have died.
[No, now they knew he would have died.
She doesn’t know for certain how Minato and Shinjiro’s friendship went, but she can imagine. Minato isn’t pushy the way she is. He wouldn’t have shoved his way into his senpai’s private life and business. They likely sat at the same table in the dorm, or leaned against the same wall, not speaking but sharing the same space. Minato would have supported Shinjiro quietly, with brief conversations and an unstated trust, and Shinjiro would have come to respect the distance. Acted like a real senpai. Not troubled his leader with ‘minor’ things.
Minato probably never even knew the watch was lost.
Her thumb runs over the bullet marking for a moment before she sets it back on the table.]
Please... don’t tell Minato. [One tiny act no one could have predicted had meant the life or death of a friend. Minako knows how she’d react, if the situations were reversed. She doesn’t want her brother to even get the chance to feel that guilt. He doesn’t deserve it.]
no subject
She'd seen it once after the accident, when the doctors told them about it, but it hadn't been in the box of things left in his room. Maybe Akihiko had kept it, or maybe he'd left it in the hospital room. The latter felt more likely. It was a wake-up-soon charm.]
They said if it hadn't been there you'd probably have died.
[No, now they knew he would have died.
She doesn’t know for certain how Minato and Shinjiro’s friendship went, but she can imagine. Minato isn’t pushy the way she is. He wouldn’t have shoved his way into his senpai’s private life and business. They likely sat at the same table in the dorm, or leaned against the same wall, not speaking but sharing the same space. Minato would have supported Shinjiro quietly, with brief conversations and an unstated trust, and Shinjiro would have come to respect the distance. Acted like a real senpai. Not troubled his leader with ‘minor’ things.
Minato probably never even knew the watch was lost.
Her thumb runs over the bullet marking for a moment before she sets it back on the table.]
Please... don’t tell Minato. [One tiny act no one could have predicted had meant the life or death of a friend. Minako knows how she’d react, if the situations were reversed. She doesn’t want her brother to even get the chance to feel that guilt. He doesn’t deserve it.]