The Shocking Confession
But why you? Emily kept waiting... I really am sorry.
Bianca bit her lip, lost in thought for a moment. In the end, she decided to come clean.
"I don't know... I just... I have no idea why I said that earlier."
"It's okay."
Emily accepted it calmly.
"Were the questions too hard...?"
This time, the silence stretched on longer. But Bianca had already made up her mind—or rather, she'd sorted through her thoughts.
"No, not really."
So she could speak.
"About that question earlier..."
Bianca forced her lips apart with difficulty, as if they were glued shut.
"The truth is, I..."
Emily's gaze turned to her. Bianca took a deep breath, clenched her fists, and continued.
"I don't like Carlyle."
Emily's lake-blue eyes darkened in the moonlight. She hesitated for a moment, her lips twitching.
Then Emily spoke to Bianca again.
"Bianca, tell me. Is that really how you feel?"
At the question, Bianca suddenly lost her words. I just answered that, didn't I? Why ask again?
Emily's calm gaze, her sunken blue eyes, fixed steadily on Bianca.
"Bianca, you... you have no idea what your face looked like when you said that to me earlier, do you?"
"No, that's not..."
"Don't run away from it."
It wasn't heated. Not annoyed. Just calm. And that made it all the more sincere, all the more earnest.
"At least, that's not how it seemed to me. So, Bianca—this is just a question."
A flicker of emotion crossed Emily's face. To Bianca, it looked a little pained, and at the same time, faintly hesitant.
"What are you hesitating for...?"
Emily Swan said. She must have agonized endlessly before saying it, but Bianca had no way of knowing.
But Emily had waited outside the break room, thinking it over and over. Seeing Bianca nearly bolt in a daze had hurt Emily too, of course.
Actually, ever since Bianca Shama's accident, Emily had felt uneasy deep down.
What was making Bianca hesitate, making her run away? Was it causing Emily unnecessary worry?
After agonizing, she'd reached one conclusion.
"Hah—"
Emily let out a disbelieving chuckle.
Why did it take me until now...?
Realization hit her, mingled with a twinge of misery.
She's holding back... for my sake?
Probably. Almost certainly. The pieces fit too perfectly.
Bianca, you're so innocently kind.
She was considering Emily's feelings. She knew her friend had long liked Carlyle. She couldn't steal her friend's crush—that kind of thinking?
It explained everything so absurdly neatly.
But even in that state, while pushing Carlyle away for her friend's sake, Bianca had still captured his heart. That made Emily feel a little pathetic.
"You don't have to do that."
So Emily said it. There was no need.
"Can't you just... not worry about me?"
Yes—even if she just admitted it. Unable to confess she liked Carlyle Schultz, pushing him away out of consideration for her friend, but still stealing his heart? That was too cruel.
Childish pride, born of jealousy and envy. But she was human; she couldn't help it.
Yet in this situation, it twisted strangely, driving Emily to press her.
"Be honest, Bianca. Just tell me clearly who you like."
Tell me, honestly.
"When I mustered my courage... Carlyle kept focusing only on you?"
How pathetic that had felt. Did Bianca know?
"If you truly have no feelings for Carlyle...! Then, Bianca—like you said before, if you like someone else, prove it once."
So suddenly. Caught off guard by Emily Swan's sudden pressure, Bianca panicked. She'd barely found an answer, and now—
Why? How?
"I, I..."
For a moment, Bianca felt suffocated.
She still couldn't grasp why Emily was pushing her like this. But still.
Who do I like...?
The answer was obvious. Emily Swan, the girl right in front of her. Vita Shama's first love, her long-time crush.
It had always been that way.
But now, Bianca had no idea. Why her heart was in such turmoil, why she was hurting those around her when she planned to return to being a boy.
Emily's expression looked a little pained. But from her words just now, amid everything Emily had said, Bianca glimpsed a way out.
—If you like 'someone else' like you said before...
Then revealing the identity of that 'someone else' from before should work, right?
Of course, first she had to tell the truth: she was originally a boy, Vita Shama, not Bianca Shama. Only then could she convince her.
But a surefire way. That she didn't like Carlyle Schultz—in fact, it was Emily she liked.
The most certain escape from this situation.
Is this right...?
Should I really say this...?
But it was the only idea that came to mind right now. She couldn't say she liked that guy Carlyle. She didn't, and there'd be no such future.
In that split second, thoughts swirled, but Bianca resolved herself.
Emily was suffering. She could see it.
She'd return to being a boy anyway; no need for needless misunderstandings.
Yeah, honesty is best...
With her thoughtful personality, Emily would believe her, and she wouldn't spread it around.
So, I...
Her confused mind, her turbulent youthful heart. Maybe exhaustion from it all, guilt toward Emily, overwhelming chaos.
In the end, Bianca impulsively opened her mouth.
"The truth is, I...!"
After the story ended.
"..."
"..."
A heavy silence hung between them for a long while.
"Believe me, Emily."
"You're telling me this now..."
Emily's face was a mask of shock. Honestly, utter bewilderment and confusion.
"Then, don't tell me... the pill you're taking right now is...?"
Nod. Nod.
From Emily's perspective, it was unbelievable, but the pieces clicked into place all at once.
The conversation from earlier that evening.
—Yesterday better than before, tomorrow better than today. Just keep improving. That's what you told me.
Definitely me.
Emily had never said that to Bianca Shama. But she had to Vita Shama.
So that earlier conversation had felt oddly out of context. Plus, her shyness around other girls, the ways she differed from typical girls her age.
Like how she couldn't do makeup at all, had zero interest. The awkwardness when putting on underwear.
During so-called 'girl talk,' she was unusually quiet.
Emily covered her mouth.
Yeah, in so many ways...
Thinking back, 'Bianca' had so many odd quirks.
And the way she'd panicked when Emily saw her taking the pill.
As if... the story was true.
"You're... Vita?"
"Yeah, that's right."
The other nodded. It seemed like it'd taken real resolve to say it.
Emily was dazed, not fully believing yet, but something clicked.
Wait.
"Does Carlyle know? About this?"
"...No, he doesn't."
Her expression hardened slightly as she shook her head. Emily's face grew even more confused.
"Th-then..."
It made no sense. Hearing the story hadn't changed her mind.
Even if Bianca Shama was really 'Vita Shama,' one thing remained.
You like Carlyle.
That's what Emily thought. So it was baffling.
What is this...?
The Bianca she'd observed lately—this girl now claiming to be Vita—clearly liked Carlyle.
That conviction hadn't budged.
—Carlyle? I'll take him? Her reaction then.
And all the other responses 'Bianca' had shown toward Carlyle Schultz.
No room for doubt.
But if this was true— Emily was at a loss for words. The situation was too hard to accept.
"So, Bianca... if you were originally a boy..."
Her childhood friend Carlyle already liked Bianca Shama, didn't he?
A dark thought crossed Emily's mind.
This is... deception?
Somehow, with Carlyle as her priority—her childhood friend first.
But if Carlyle has no idea...
It didn't sit right. Strictly speaking, wasn't this deceiving Carlyle?
Still, Emily managed to compose her expression.
"If what you're saying is true... yeah, okay. It'd be weird for you to like guys."
She could believe the part about liking her. Vita had crushed on her in the past, and Emily assumed that wasn't the case now.
So it was strange.
If she's really Vita...?
If the story was true.
Yeah, then.
Her head spun.
"But why you...?"
"Uh, um...?"
Emily Swan's nature was fundamentally kind. Gentle, deeply considerate.
But she had one bad habit she reflected on herself. Occasionally, yes.
Like when Vita Shama had publicly confessed to her before, and she'd panicked too hard.
Sometimes Emily blurted out her true feelings.
Why did I say that...?
She'd regret it later.
"Ah, I mean..."
And now, Emily was extremely flustered. Really.
Because it was weird. Because deceiving Carlyle like this was wrong.
"You're a boy, but... why Carlyle...?"
Emily's face was pure confusion.
"No, I mean. It's weird for a boy to like Carlyle, it just doesn't feel right... Carlyle hates lies the most..."
She rambled—
...!
Emily realized she'd done it again. That occasional regrettable slip.
From the other's perspective, it'd been hard to say.
But she'd dismissed it. Effectively.
She had good intentions, but to someone denying feelings for Carlyle because they were originally a boy.
Emily might have just driven the nail in.
And bluntly called it weird.
Spilling her honest thoughts.
"......"
Bianca's face went pale.
"Ah..."
Emily covered her mouth, but it was too late.