Report 197

Plot
Chizuru notes that walking together with Arata with the beautiful Christmas lights in the darkness remind her of the fireworks festival. Arata agrees and recalls spying on Kazuomi an Rena confessing their feelings to each other, and also that it was then that he realized he was in love with Chizuru and that his feelings would only grow stronger the more time he spends with her. Taking a brief pause from walking, Arata thinks that it is irresponsible for him to push his feelings on Chizuru as they will have to separate when his experiment ends, yet in spite of it he catches up with her and takes her by the hand.

Arata tries to speak, but Chizuru pulls her hand away and then distressedly apologizes for avoiding his touch after all the times she has asked him to touch her and after having been the one to ask him out. Saying that he must think her strange, Chizuru tells Arata that as her interest in him grows she finds herself acting like someone else, but while her earlier self would have given up on her feelings she finds herself unable to do so anymore. Chizuru apologizes for always bothering Arata, with pained awareness that she is in love with him and really does not want to let it go.

Arata interrupts Chizuru by patting her head, telling her that being troubled by her emotions is a sign of progress and that he does not find her strange nor does she bother him at all. He goes on telling her that he actually likes everything about her: her awkward but constant striving to progress, the smiles she makes every now and then, her businesslike manners on LIME, her reliability contrasted by her occasional absentmindedness, and that he finds her extreme straightforwardness honest and charming. As Chizuru wonders about what Arata is saying, Arata tells her he is completely in love with her.