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Chapter 126 – Nostalgic Faces
I was a little late.
Today was the Coming of Age Day and they held the Coming of Age Ceremony earlier, but I didn’t go there. One was held at a venue near my mom’s house, but only my grade school and middle school classmates would be there, so there was no point to. Besides, I didn’t want to bother wearing a furisode. Instead, I went to the hospital to visit Sui. Since today was also the day of our high school reunion, I figured that I should visit him before going there. (T/N: Coming of Age Day is a national holiday in Japan. They hold it on the second Monday of January, it’s to commemorate the people who had just turned twenty in the span of one year, hence the name ‘Coming of Age’. For the occasion, they held ceremonies in various places of the city called ‘Coming-of-Age Ceremony’. For women specifically, the formal dress to participate in the ceremony is furisode, or long-sleeved kimono in English, meanwhile for men, they usually wear either formal suit or montsuki, which is a traditional kimono for men.)
“Today is the Coming of Age Day. Also, they’ll hold our school reunion this evening.”
I was glad that I didn’t go to the Coming of Age Ceremony. If I were to walk around the hospital in a kimono, I would look really out of place. Besides, it was uncomfortable to walk in it.
“Also, Ugin-san will have her entrance exam this weekend. Don’t worry about her much though, she will be fine, she’s a really smart girl.”
He had lost even more of his weight recently. I knew that this outcome was inevitable, but it still left me with anxiety when I was seeing him like this. His hands had started to become colder lately, but that was probably because of the weather’s influence. The doctor said that his condition was still stable, so I had nothing to worry about.
“I have to go now. Sorry, my visit this time is shorter than usual, but don’t worry, I’ll be back soon.”
After leaving the hospital, I went to Starbucks in front of the station.
As soon as I put my drink on the table, I pulled out a thick manuscript from my bag. My proofreader sent it to me and I had to revise it accordingly. I haven’t touched it yet since I had just received it last night.
For the next few hours, I dedicated everything to the revision. I moved the red pen in my hand as I corrected one thing after another. The work was fun and I enjoyed doing it, but at the same time, there were a lot of things to revise, so it was quite hard work.
*   *   *
“Oh, no…”
I realized that I was going to be late to the reunion a few minutes before it began. I put the manuscript away and called Tsuru.
“I’m sorry, I’m going to be a little late.”
“It’s okay! You’re not the only one who’ll be late! Guys, Arina said that she’s going to be late!”
I heard excited cheers over the phone and in that instance, I regretted my decision to go there.
I planned to run to go there quicker, but I decided to walk instead. We would be gathering in a bar in Kokubuncho, not far from where I currently was. There was a group of men and women wearing kimonos because it was the Coming of Age Day. I was wearing a black shirt with a coat draping over it, a totally different outfit than the other people who were celebrating it.
After walking for a bit, I arrived at the destination. I opened the door and the bell installed on the door rang. I had intended to sneak inside, but that bell ruined my plan. My classmates, especially the boys, started to make a big fuss when they saw me. For some reason, they were clapping their hands in excitement.
I gave them a bow and a wry smile. Tsuru beckoned me to go to her side, so I did and sat beside her.
“There are a lot of nostalgic faces here.”
“You finally made it! If you had come any later, we’d have gotten into a huge trouble! The boys have been screaming about you for a while now.”
These guys were my classmates from my third year of high school.
Only two years had passed, but I missed them already. Some of them haven’t changed at all, but there were others who changed so much that I failed to recognize them without hearing their names first. Now that we were together again like this, those three years of high school felt like it happened a long time ago.
The interior of the bar looked stylish. The food was a buffet, so everyone was free to take whatever food they wanted. I chose to take the pizza and salad. While eating my food, I listened to the girls’ stories. They talked about their love life back in high school, their crush, how they missed the teachers and other things.
After a while, everyone started to talk in a louder volume, probably because they were under the influence of alcohol. I was an exception, though, since I didn’t drink much of it. The boys who were approaching me while keeping a reserved attitude soon threw it out of the windows. They let the alcohol do the talking and had some fun talking with the girls.
Seeing this scene reminded me of Sui. It would have been more fun if he was here. There were people asking me about his situation, but as soon as I told them that he was still sleeping, they immediately dropped the subject. They probably thought that it was a sensitive subject for me.
Suddenly, I caught sight of Tanaka Masao. He was as large as ever. Like usual, he was sitting quietly by himself in a seat by the wall. I had spent a lot of time with him at the sports festival, but after the festival was over, we barely talked at all. I approached him.
“Hey, do you remember me?”
“Of course. The sports festival is an event that I will never forget for the rest of my life.”
He became even bulkier than back when he was still a student. If Sui was here, he would call him a tank. His hair was still the same as before, though.
“So, what have you been up to?”
“I’ve been doing some judo again at the university. I’ve quit the going-home club.”
“Glad to hear that you’re doing judo again.”
“All thanks to Sui-kun. The sports festival gave me enough courage to try again. I’m aiming for the Olympics now, so I’ve been practicing hard.”
He was a shy boy back then. He always walked with his gaze fixed downward. It was Sui who made him regain his confidence. Every day, Sui would shower him with praises whenever he got the chance to. I still vividly remember those scenes.
“So, um… Do you know what happened to Sui-kun?”
“He’s still asleep. I visited him earlier today and there’s still no change in his condition.”
He bit his lips after hearing my reply.
“It’s a shame… I really want to thank him in person. We only practiced together for a few weeks, but he taught me an important lesson… Thanks to him, I’m able to walk with pride. Honestly, I only came here to give my thanks to him…”
“I can relate with you. There’s a lot of things I want to say to him too…”
“I’m sorry. This should be a happy occasion but my insensitive self just had to ask you about this. Even though you’re the one who is suffering the most–”
“It’s fine.”
I cut him off.
The ones who were suffering the most were his family. I wasn’t part of his family, I was merely a woman who one-sidedly loved him. Yes, I was nothing more than that.
“I wonder how the others are doing. Takazo, Eiji, Rion… I hope that they are doing well…”
“Takazo-kun is most likely still trying to become one of the elites. Eiji-kun is still in the gaming industry… As for Rion-san… I don’t know…”
“Hehe, I see. Well, if fate allows it, we’ll meet them again someday.”
*   *   *
The power of alcohol was frightening. It could easily rob one person off their rationality.
Somehow, I became the center of the conversation with a broken logic. One could also say that I became the eye of the typhoon. Everyone around me made some dumb jokes like confessing their love to me or fighting about being in ‘Arina faction’ or ‘Tsuru faction’ and whatnot. After a while, I couldn’t take it anymore, so I made up a random excuse and got up from my seat. I went to get some food when a drunk man approached me.
“Hiwa! I love you!”
“I know. I rejected you already back when we were in the first year.”
The man, Takatori Makoto, got down on one knee while holding his chest. There was a beer mug in his hand, it seemed like he was still planning on drinking more. I didn’t want to deal with a drunk guy if I could help it, but a wave of nostalgia overcame that feeling, so I decided to have a talk with him. Besides, he was Sui’s best friend, he was probably curious about Sui’s condition.
I won’t tell him about it easily though. Let’s tease him a little first.
“Didn’t you use to date Ruka?”
“…Stop.”
“I heard you broke up with her.”
“AAHHH! Yeah, we did!”
“Why?”
“Me, busy. Cooking practice. She has a lot of free time. We stopped seeing each other.”
“Okay, I got it.”
“Hiwa, I love you!”
“If you say that again, I’m going to call the police.”
“I’m kidding. I know, it’s impossible. Hiwa is scary. Ah, toilet…”
“Go then. You don’t need to come back here.”
“I love you.”
“I’ll hit you.”
Dealing with drunks was troublesome. I turned my gaze toward my food and kept my mouth shut. I pretended to ignore him.
“Recently, I visited Sui.”
I turned my gaze back at him. He wore a different expression now. His face was red, but his eyes looked serious. Those weren’t the eyes of a drunk.
“I told him to wake up quickly. Seriously, that guy sure takes his time. It’s been two years already…”
“I visited him earlier too. I knew you guys would ask about him, so I figured I’d go to check on him.”
“Are you still waiting for him?”
The way he asked that question made my heart flutter.
“That terrible expression is the only answer I need. Well, glad to know that. I shoulda told Sui something like ‘if you don’t wake up soon, the most beautiful woman in the world will die alone.’”
“That woman sure is stupid, isn’t she?”
“I disagree.”
“Really?”
“I think you’re amazing. Normal person wouldn’t be able to bear it if they were in your position. They’d go crazy when thinking about the possibility of the worst possible situation happening. You know, I became depressed for months after breaking up with Ruka, but you’ve been keeping this up for two years, Hiwa… And I assume you’re not going to stop anytime soon, right? Only an amazing person like you could do something like that, you know?”
After saying that, he placed his mug on the table and went to the toilet.
“You made yourself a good friend, Sui…”
I chuckled.
For the rest of the night, we never spoke to each other again. But that didn’t matter to me. I knew for sure that we would meet each other again later