15 Minutes Before We Really Date

For as long as either of them can remember, Yuuki and Natsuha have shared the same creaky stairwells, the same sunset view from the rooftop, and the same unshakeable rhythm of childhood friendship. Growing up side by side in their apartment complex, they've weathered every scraped knee, exam panic, and lazy summer afternoon together. Their bond is so seamless, so deeply ingrained in daily life, that neighbors and classmates alike have long stopped asking—they simply assume the two are already a couple, a foregone conclusion written into the walls of their shared history. Yet as the final spring of high school begins to unfold, bringing with it the weight of graduation and diverging futures, a strange, almost reckless thought takes root. What starts as an offhand joke—a playful "what if" muttered between bites of convenience store ice cream—begins to linger longer than it should. The idea of dating each other, for real, feels absurdly ridiculous, a betrayal of the comfortable dynamic they've always known. But the more they try to dismiss it, the more the question refuses to fade. Because if everyone already sees them that way, and if the world is about to change anyway, then maybe—just maybe—this ridiculous notion isn't quite so ridiculous after all.