Misaki 81 EN

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Chapter 65: Reunion.

At first I was very surprised.

And then immediately after that I remembered my past and got a little scared.

There’s so much I want to talk about.

But I don’t know where to even start.

I wonder what’s Akane thinking right now.

For now it seems like she’s glad to know that I’m still alive.

But then, what about after this?

However, Saito pulled me over to continue with our work so we didn’t have the chance to talk to each other.

After that we started our work, but it was difficult for me to concentrate.

Saito was the one doing the speaking for the most part, time flows and now it’s lunch break.

“Who’s that, your ex?” (Saito)

“No that’s not it.”

During the lunch break, I was restrained by Saito and Akane was restrained by her employees so we couldn’t meet during this time either.

In the afternoon Saito is always beside me giving support, or rather observing me so I didn’t have the chance to talk to her, eventually the end of our shift comes without a single chance to talk to her. No I think I’ve talked to her about work today but I don’t really remember much of it.

And then on my way back home.

Even at this point Saito is still making a fuss, but the employees at the factory took care of him, and so me and Akane ended up walking to the train station together. However, neither of us could even open our mouths to speak, perhaps it’s because it has been such a long time before we finally met each other again.

“……Uhh, which way?”

“……Ah, umm, go right.”

In the end, the only conversation we made were only the ones asking for directions.

This station is an unmanned station where only two train lines pass through, surrounding the two side platforms are only simple fences. The platform is clearly visible from outside, and apparently at this station there’s no one else except me and Akane.

“……”

“……”

I stopped in my tracks, trying to find the right words in my head.

Akane also stopped walking, surely she’s trying to do the same as me, searching for the right words.

The thing I wanted to say the most right now is the stuff that happened back then. I want to apologize to Akane for being a loser that always talk big but can’t actually make anything happen. I don’t think she’ll ever forgive me for that but I at least have to apologize to her. However I just couldn’t utter the words out. It feels like something is pressing down on me when I try to speak, even breathing becomes difficult for me.

I take a glance at Akane and incidentally our eyes met, I reflexively avert my eyes from her.

I wonder what she’s thinking. I wonder if she’s thinking the same thing as me, thinking about the stuff that happened back then.

And so time goes by without us speaking a word and the automated voice rang out, announcing that a train is coming.

“I’ll take this train.” (Ryuusei)

“……I see.”

“What about you Akane?”

“……The other one.”

This one beat off conversation is really awkward.

Our voices were really quiet, and we couldn’t even make an eye contact.

Eventually the sound of railroad crossing rang out, I take that sound as the signal for me to go through the ticket gate to get ready to board the train.

“Ryuusei!”

Immediately after I passed through the ticket gate, I heard a voice calling for me so I turned back.

Akane’s looking straight at me, finally opening her mouth.

“See you again tomorrow.”

“……Yeah, see you too.”

And so, even though we met each other again miraculously, but we parted ways again without much conversation. Perhaps it’s because we know that we can meet each other tomorrow anyway so we feel relieved even without much conversation, or that we’re too scared to talk about the stuff back then…

If it’s because of fear, then I wonder what’s scaring Akane from speaking it out. Since she’s not the one at fault for that incident, then she has nothing to be afraid of. If anything, she should even be blaming me for the incident.

Then that means that something is holding Akane’s heart back. If that’s the case then it’s my responsibility to clear up any misunderstandings she had.

But even though I knew that in my head, I couldn’t act according to what I’m thinking at all.

In the next day, and the day after that, our time were spent in the same way as today.

Meanwhile, about my work.

The consulting in the morning that we had was about solving the problem of labor shortage, and we finished our plan proposal in the morning of the first day. Akane accepted the plan, thus our designing work begun in the afternoon of that same day.

I’ll give my ideas to Saito, and Saito will point out which one is good and which one is not. We repeated this process so that we can polish our ideas and get an excellent product out of it. That’s how we do our work. I’m sure that if Saito is the one thinking up ideas then he would have finished this work within a day, but he was committed to supporting me throughout the entire working process.

As for Akane, we only had a bare minimum conversation about work.

Even when our automation system is finally completed and I do not have to come here anymore, we still didn’t talk about anything other thank work.

But this doesn’t mean that we won’t have another chance to see each other again, since our system has one year warranty, I’ll probably have to come here again to take care of any problems that’re going to occur.

After this job was over, I really hoped that there’ll be no problems in the system I created, but my other half also hoped for another chance to meet Akane again, these two thoughts in my head kept swirling in my mind.

However, it seems like the system I created was better than I thought it was, one month passed by without any calls for repairing or anything at all. Right around the time Misaki’s summer break was over, at that time I both felt relieved and disappointed.

At the very least I’ll try to not show my worried face in front of Misaki.

Or so that what’s I intended to do, but apparently Yui seemed to notice it.

On the day I went shopping with Misaki, I had a talk with her.

That’s when I realized that I can’t let things be this way anymore.

Or else I can’t move forward.

Myself in the past never had given anything a deep thought about it. I always did the thing I wanted to do immediately. But because of that it caused severe mistakes, and I became afraid of doing anything. That’s why ever since I met Misaki I’ve always been worried about lots of things all the time. I worried days and nights, but time never waited for anyone, in the end I always felt like I had to jump into things with my eyes blinded all the time. And yet everything worked out well because of everyone who supported me.

However, this time I can’t ask anyone for help anymore.

Surely the time for me to walk on my own has come.

Let’s have a talk with Akane. This time I won’t run away, I’ll have a proper talk with her.

And then, as if they were waiting for me to make up my mind, they contacted our company.

The factory I visited again this time seemed to be a more frightening place than the last time I’d been here. There’s no senior I can rely on beside me this time however. The thing I’m anxious about is not my work, but rather my personal feelings.

As usual, I began my work silently under the curious eyes of the factory employees, and before the lunch break began I checked and confirmed that the system is operating properly. It is quite easy to solve the problem within the system that occured since the only problem it had was that it sounded a warning earlier than it should, which was something that we had already expected to happen.

I reported to Akane who was in charge of this system, and after I explained all the details to her, I bring up the main topic that I wanted to talk about.

“Would you mind hanging out with me for a bit during lunch break?”

Akane responded.

“……Got it.”

After a short moment, she nodded quietly.

There’s almost nothing nearby the factory. The nearest convenience store is about fifteen minute walk away, which can’t really be called nearby. That’s why Akane and the employees had already prepared their own lunch beforehand. As for me, this time I only bought something to drink with me.

I walked out of the factory while drinking it and waited in front of the factory’s entrance. Then Akane appeared alone, in her hand is her lunch.

“……Sorry to keep you waiting.” (Akane)

“No…… it’s fine.”

It’s already awkward right off the bat.

“Is there somewhere nearby that, uhhh, like, we can sit?”

“……No. But there’s a place under the shade, it’s pretty cool there.”

“Then let’s go there.”

“……Got it.”

Although I’m pretending to be calm, but my heart is beating crazily right now. I follow behind Akane while trying to suppress my heart so that she doesn’t know of this.

After a short walk, Akane sit down beside the wall at the same place we sat together back then. I follow suit and sit down about one’s person distance away from her.

It is exactly as Akane said, this place is quite cool and refreshing as there’s a breeze from somewhere passing through. However the scenery here is bleak with only concretes in sight, so there was nothing I can look at except for the clouds in the sky.

I feel my mouth getting a little dry so I drink the rest of the drink in one go.

I then clutched my right hand tightly, opening my mouth.

“It’s nostalgic isn’t it, coming here to have our lunches that is.”

My voice’s tone is the same as usual, but it also shakes like crazy, so much so that it’s laughable.

“……You’re right. It’s been seven years.”

Akane’s tone of voice is also different from when she was working as well.

“I see. So it’s been that long huh……”

“……That’s right. It’s been that long.”

The way she said it made me a little less tense.

Akane looked a lot more mature than the last time I saw her, my impression of her changed quite a lot. Although the growth of her height stopped, but except for that all the other places had grown instead.

Akane’s back then looked like a child in need of help, but the current Akane that’s in charge of the factory looked like a splendid adult. But after a bit of talking, I noticed that both her choices of words or her tone is still the same as before.

“Akane, you’ve become more mature.”

“……Is that so? Ryuusei, you’ve also grown taller as well.”

When I turn to look at Akane, I saw her looking downward with her hand on the back of her neck. Because of that I couldn’t see her expression, but it somehow made me feel really nostalgic.

“Akane, you height haven’t changed much.”

“……The growth seemed to have stopped right around the time I met you Ryuusei. Completely.”

“You must’ve been precocious all this time.”

“……I guess.”

The conversation goes on easily, so easily that I feel kind of dissappointed. It was your usual bland conversation, but it was a conversation that I couldn’t even make during these past few months. It took me such a long time before I could make such a simple conversation.

But today’s objective is not to have this kind of conversation with her.

It’s to properly apologize her for the things that happened back then.

“Akane, about back then you see.”

The moment I was about to talk, I felt a terrible dizziness in my head. The regret in that day, all the past that I couldn’t erase assaulted me all at once, my entire body is trembling so hard that I just want to run away right now. My back is cold from all the sweat, and even though I just drank something, but now my mouth feels dry as if I had been walking in a desert for a long time.

……Don’t run away me. I have to say it.

The words that I finally able to utter out is, even to myself, quite powerful.

“I know that I’ve always talk big, but in the end I couldn’t do anything at all. And because of that I made Akane suffer. It’s all my fault. I’m sorry, really.”

I put my hands on the ground and bowed my head.

I waited for Akane’s words that are to come in that pose.

I’m willing to accept any blame she had.

“……There’re a lot of things, I want to hear from you.”

I wonder how much time had passed.

Akane said so in a small voice.

“……After that happened, why did you left without saying a word?”

It was the words that I didn’t expect to hear.

“I…… I ran away.”

I said while remembering about the things back then.

“I was scared to meet Akane, so I ran away. It’s just that.”

I have no excuses. I’ll just honestly tell her the reason. At that time I didn’t want to think about anything. I just wanted to forget everything and ran away to somewhere far.

“……Why, why are you scared of meeting me?”

“That is…… it’s probably because I don’t want to be rejected.”

I couldn’t immediately answer Akane’s questions. That’s why after a short thinking, I answered so.

“……What do you mean by that?”

“I was scared of being rejected by you Akane. I was afraid that you’re going to blame me, saying ‘it’s all your fault that things are like this’ or something along that line.”

“……Is that so. So that’s how it actually is.”

Apparently Akane understand what I said.

I wonder what she’s thinking about after hearing what I said. For me I’ve already prepared myself to be punched in the face while waiting for her next words.

“……So it’s not that you hate me or something like that, I see.”

That’s why I thought to myself if I misheard what she said or not.

But Akane continued to speak in a happy voice.

“I thought that you had completely hated me Ryuusei.”

“Wha-, why did you think so?”

“Because you suddenly left.”

“That is, well that you know…… but why you Akane, don’t you resent me for what happened?”

“Resent? Why would I?”

“If I wasn’t there then things would’ve probably turned out better than what it was.”

I said in a desperate voice, but then Akane laughed at it as if she couldn’t endure it anymore.

“……You sillーy.” (Akane)

“Wha……”

And just like that, she began to laugh while holding her stomach.

After a while of laughing at me who was still stunned, Akane turned to look at me again.

“It’s obvious that that’s the best outcome of that incident isn’t it. What, Ryuusei, did you really think that way?”

Akane seemed to be sincerely happy saying so,

“Ryuusei, you were my only ally. Even when all those old men ran away, but you didn’t ran away with them Ryuusei. Do you know just how much that made me happy?”

The tears start welling up in my eyes, as if feeling relieved to hear that and,

“Even though it’s the situation where everyone already knows that it’s impossible to resist, yet Ryuusei you didn’t give up. Well in the end the result wasn’t what we hoped for, but after that, whenever I had a hard time I always thought of you Ryuusei. It was you that help me reminded myself that I had to do my best as well.”

Akane said, her voice feels really nostalgic to me.

“Ryuusei, you’re my hero.”

With just that one word, I’m at my limit.

“……You’re still as kind as ever Akane. But please don’t avoid it, just be honest with me.”

“But what I said is all true though. I’ve never lied to you am I?”

When I look up, the scenery is a little blurry.

There I saw a smile, a smile that I used to see often long ago, but never thought that I’d see it again a second time.

“……Yeah, right.”

In the end, this was all it was about.

It was just my own worry, Akane actually didn’t resent me or hate me or anything at all.

I wonder how many detours I’ve taken to get this so simple, yet unbelievably happy answer.

“Yaーi, Ryuusei you’re cryingー”

“Shut up, it’s just that there’re dusts in my eyes.”

The time that I thought I’d never have a chance to return back to again, now is within my reach, and all I had to do was only reach my hand out for it.

It made me feel so happy that I couldn’t describe this emotion with words, I couldn’t stop myself from crying.