| Chikage | .... |
| Sakuya | Here, Chikage-san, you too! |
| Chikage | ...Are we really going to sleep here? |
| Sakuya | Yes! |
| Chikage | ...Sigh. |
| Sakuya | .... |
| Chikage | .... |
| Sakuya | ...I mentioned that during our debut performance, Spring Troupe had some trouble getting in sync, right? |
| Chikage | Yeah. |
| Sakuya | We had only just met, and we were all beginner actors. But we needed to put on a successful performance, and we had a deadline.... |
| It was really rough back then. |
| And then Yuzo-san told me that I didn’t understand anything about theater, so I decided to sleep on the stage. |
| Chikage | How’d you reach that conclusion? |
| Sakuya | Ahaha, in retrospect, it makes no sense. But at the time I was so desperate that it was the only thing that came to mind. |
| Everyone joined me—and strangely enough, since that night we started to grow in sync with each other. |
| I guess it’s called a sense of unity? We started feeling that. |
| Chikage | .... |
| Sakuya | Our second performance was based on Alice in Wonderland. The lead was Masumi-kun, and the second lead was Itaru-san. |
| Chikage | Huh.... |
| Sakuya | They never really got along, so they had a lot of trouble with their exchanges on stage.... |
| But Itaru-san couldn’t let things stay that way. So out of nowhere, he went to pick Masumi-kun up from school. |
| Chikage | Chigasaki did...? That’s surprising. |
| Sakuya | Right! But after that, their exchanges began to improve. |
| Apparently they went to the game center and came to the understanding that they could never understand each other, but.... |
| Chikage | I don’t understand. |
| Sakuya | At first, I didn’t either, but I think they must’ve properly acknowledged each other. |
| Tsuzuru-kun was the lead in our third performance. |
| Chikage | Ah, I watched that one. It was about an alchemist, right? |
| Sakuya | That’s right! I didn’t know you were there. Tsuzuru-kun was in a terrible slump during that performance. |
| Chikage | Huh? |
| Sakuya | He just couldn’t come up with a good ending, and finally decided on one at the last minute. |
| Chikage | I couldn’t tell. |
| Sakuya | Citron-san supported Tsuzuru-kun as the second lead by keeping him from brooding; he also worked really hard at articulating his lines.... |
| Even if our performances look successful every time, it’s not like we get there easily. |
| It’s the result of our hard work; the result of overcoming our struggles. |
| There wasn’t a single time when everything ran smoothly from start to finish. |
| But by the final stage, we’re always one, and we put on our best performance. |
| Chikage | .... |
| Sakuya | That’s why we’ll be fine this time too. |
| Chikage-san, you were always good during practice. Most importantly, now you actually look at your fellow actors when performing. |
| You’re just having a bit of trouble getting back to normal. |
| Chikage | I don’t think that’s the issue here.... |
| ...I probably can’t act the way I did before. |
| I’d been betraying the final wishes of someone important to me this entire time. Now that I know the truth, all sorts of emotions are welling up in me. I can’t control them. |
| I’m emotionally unstable with self-disgust because I can’t forgive myself for what I’ve done, and the feelings I’ve bottled up all this time are shaking my heart. |
| It hurts when I’m acting as Oswald because his feelings won’t stop flowing into my heart. |
| Right now it’d probably be impossible for me to perform as a poker-faced charlatan who can calmly control his emotions. |
| Sakuya | But—. |
| Chikage | You guys worked so hard to build Spring Troupe’s reputation. You wouldn’t want me to completely ruin it. |
| Sakuya | ...Of course not. |
| Chikage | Then—. |
| Sakuya | But there’s something more important than that. Something more important than a successful performance.... |
| Chikage | Something more important? |
| Sakuya | ...I lost my parents when I was young. |
| Since then, I kept moving from one relative’s house to another. I felt like I was living in a borrowed home all those years. I didn’t have a place to belong. |
| I didn’t know what “family” was. |
| It felt like I was watching a family of relatives on stage from the audience.... |
| “Family” was something very distant from me. |
| When I was given a role and stood on stage, I felt like I had a place to belong within the world of the play. |
| That was why I started acting. |
| But then I joined this troupe and met everyone here. I found a place to belong—not just within the play, but also within the troupe. |
| For the first time in my life, I felt like I was a member of the family I had always been watching from the audience. |
| Chikage-san, I want you to know what it feels like, too. |
| Chikage | I see... So you were the same.... |
| Sakuya | Nobody can steal this place from you, Chikage-san. This is where you belong. |
| Chikage | Where I belong.... |
| .... |
| Sakuya | Good night, Chikage-san. |
| |
| Masumi | Yaaawn.... |
| Citron | Let’s have a ham-filled morning practice! |
| Tsuzuru | Do you meant heartful? |
| Sakuya | ...Zzzz. |
| Chikage | ...Zzzz. |
| Itaru | Hm? |
| Citron | It’s no fair for just the two of them to be sleeping here~! Let’s sneak into their covers and startle them when they wake up~! |
| Masumi | ...If they’re gonna sleep, so am I. |
| Itaru | Then me too... g’night. |
| Tsuzuru | Hey, hey! |
| ...Sigh. I can’t practice alone, you know. |
| Izumi | Morning~! |
 |
| Izumi | !? |
| Why is everyone asleep!? On two futons, too.... |
| (Their arms and legs are all over the place They look like one weird giant animal.) |
| Chikage | ...Zzzz. |
| Izumi | (Chikage-san said he couldn’t sleep with other people around, but he fell asleep... I’m glad.) |
| Chikage | —. |
| Izumi | Good morning. |
| Chikage | What’s going on.... |
| Citron | ...Mnnmnn. |
| Chikage | —Let me go. |
| Izumi | He’s stuck right onto you. Why is his smartphone out.... |
| Chikage | Sigh.... |
| Izumi | Chikage-san, you were able to sleep with everyone around. |
| Chikage | —. |
| ...Maybe my body accepted it before my mind did. |
| Izumi | (Chikage-san must’ve realized that the place he could relax was by everyone’s side....) |
