Back in the present, the narrator tells us that he's not in love with anyone else. He wants to go out with his childhood friend, Hiroyuki. He tells Hiroyuki that he doesn't care what other people think of him. He's just not into the idea of hanging out with other people. Hiroyuki, of course, is psyched to hang out with the narrator. The two of them have been hanging out since Hiro's first day back in school. The narrator tells Hiro that he has to tell him something about his feelings for her. He says that he knows he won't be able to win her heart after all of her "middle school years." He tells her that she can't "let those middle-school years drag you down forever" . He also says that she's never thought of him that way. He admits that he brought this up because