A Mob, Desperate After Being Ntrโd by a Coworker, Attends His High School Reunion for the First Time in 10 Years, and for Some Reason Is Approached by Four Beautiful Girls
When I got home, I took off my suit and when I was taking things out of my pockets, I found a card I got from Akamura-san.
Ahโฆ What should I do with this?
Should I contact her in case?
I tried to call her, but as I thought, I couldn’t get through.
If she is as popular as Akamura-san, she must have been at the after-party or something.
The commonality of the card suggests that Akamura-san may have been the sender of the letterโฆ.
No, it’s not possibleโฆ
Well, let’s not think too deeply.
I took a quick shower, changed into a nightclothes and fell asleep like I’d fainted.
ใโMonday 9 September
I wake up to a beep-beep-beep alarm on my mobile phone.
The time isโฆ โฆ8:15.
โฆ.8:15!
Huh! I’m late, aren’t I! I jumped up, but I relieved that I take a day off today
If I can’t do much work and if I’m late, it’s really over.
A good subordinate and a strict bossโฆ Being caught between the boards is really tough.
Then I looked at my mobile phone again and found seven incoming notifications on it.
All of them were from Akamura-san.
โฆ Seriously. Is this the one I didn’t answer?
But I can’t even call her back this early in the morningโฆ
As I was thinking that, my mobile phone rang again.
What was displayed was Akamura-san’s phone number.
What should I doโฆ? I reluctantly picked up the phone
โโฆ. H-Hello?โ
“Ah, Natsuki-kun, right?โ
โY-yeahโฆ
I’m sorry I didn’t answer the phone. I fell asleepโฆโ
“I’m sorry too!
Even yhough you contacted me..Andโฆ
I gave you a bad time yesterday, didn’t I? I’m sorry about that too..”
“Oh, noโฆ I’m used to it. Don’t worry about it.”
I used to get that sort of thing at company drinking parties. Like, โWow, he’s hereโ.
I haven’t heard from anyone since the beginning of the class reunionโฆ
“So, umโฆ
I’d like to talk to you alone.. is that possible? Like today if you don’t mind.โ
“โฆ
Talk? I’m off today, so it’s fineโฆโ
“I see.
Then that’s goodโฆ Wellโฆ I have something important to tell you.”
Important talkโฆ?
Could it be that that letter was written by Akamura-san after allโฆ?
“โฆ
I understand. Where should I go?โ
“Well, do you still have yesterday’s paper?
I want you to come to the address written there!”
Paperโฆ Paperโฆ
Check the paper I was given yesterday.
“Wellโฆ Um, there it is. Do you want me to go here? What time should I be there?โ
“Any timeโฆ
Any time around lunchtime! I’ll leave it to you!โ
“โฆ
All right.”
Then she hung up the phone.
โฆ This isโฆ What is going on?
No, don’t get carried awayโฆ
It doesn’t necessarily mean that yetโฆ
Even as I told myself this, I was a little excited by my good fortune, which was enough to make me forget all the bad things I’d been doing recently.
I chose the most fashionable clothes I could, set my hair properly and headed for the address written on the paper.
โ13:10
It was supposed to be around noon, so I arrived a little after 13:00.
The address written on the door was a designer flat near the station, which seemed to have been built quite recently.
“โฆ Amazing house.”
No, she normally has a boyfriend.. No, even husband. No, I guess she’s got one, right?
even a childโฆ
When I think about it, my stomach starts to churn.
The gap between her life and my own is making me mentally ill.
With this in mind, I fearfully enter the room number into the auto-lock intercom and press the call button.
[Beep, beep]
Then, immediately, โYes! Ah, here youey are! You can come in!’ and the door opens.
As it is, I tell myself to accept reality, get into the lift and press the intercom for her room.
โโฆYees”‘
[Illustration]
https://kakuyomu.jp/users/tanakamatao01/news/16818093089281425621
What came out was Akamura-san, wearing glasses, a hoodie and jeans, dressed quite roughly.
“Sorry to keep you waiting! Sorry, I called you out suddenlyโฆ”
I was embarrassed at myself for having come dressed up in style.
Or rather, I was convinced that no matter how I looked at it, it wasn’t the flow of being told she liked me, so I visited her house with a sense of disappointment.
“.. S-sorry to bother youโฆ”
The house was stylish but not that spacious.
This isโฆ Living aloneโฆ Right.
As I sat on the sofa, scurrying around and waiting, Akamura-san brought me two cups and said, โSorry to keep you waiting~โ
“Soโฆ
What’s the story?โ
“Wellโฆ
Well, where should I start? Well, I have a lot of friends, don’t I?โ
“Huh?
Uh, yeahโฆโ
How do you start a conversation?
“Wellโฆ So, your name is Serizawa Kana chan, right? Natsuki-kun’s ex-girlfriend. She’s a friend of a friend of mine.”
Unexpectedly, I am stunned by the name of the ex-girlfriend that came out unexpectedly.
“โฆ Wellโฆ I heard about it. The fact that she’s going out with Natsuki-kunโฆ. I also heard what happenedโฆ That’s why I was really worriedโฆ I wondered if you were okay. Yesterday, you seemed really down. Soโฆ I want you to tell me if there’s anything I can do.”
So that’s what she meant.
No, it’s more like that.
She’s always been a good person, gets on with everyone and reaches out to people she’s never met before.
You haven’t changed, Akamura-san.
“โฆ Yeah. I’m fine. Already.โ
“Did you cry properly?
Did you talk to someone about it? Have you found someone you like?โ
“..
No. I don’t want to do that anymoreโฆ In the end, I’m sure the reason she cheated on me was because of my inadequacies. If I can’t even see the reason for it, then it’s no wonder she cheated on me.โ
“โฆ
Do you really believe that?”
I look at her face involuntarily at those words.
She looked me in the eye as if she could see right through me and said again.
“Do you really think so?”
I’m an idiot
There’s no need to lie now. Or did I want to be cool?
Did I think that perhaps we could get back together again through Akamura-san?
How stupid am I?
Biting down hard on my back teeth, I speak my true feelings.
“โฆ No The truth isโฆ I hate it so muchโฆ”
Emotions explode at the worst possible time.
It’s as if it happened yesterday, and begins to boil over and re-boil in the pit of my stomach.
I should have cried properly somewhere.
If I had done that, I’m sure it wouldn’t have happened.
“It’sโฆ It’s okay, don’t think about anything. Let out everything you’re thinking.”
With such sweet words, I let out my words as I felt them.
“I thought of him as my best friend tooโฆ! Why, why! Did I do something wrong ?I wonder if he was always laughing inside! IโฆseriouslyโฆI loved herโฆโ
โโฆyeah”
Akamura-san didn’t deny the dirty words coming out of me, she just nodded at everything and gently rubbed my back.
A few months have passed, and the feelings I’ve been putting off will come back one day.
I think I probably cried for almost an hour.
After I finished crying, I felt a sudden rush of embarrassment.
A 28-year-old, mobbed-up man who seriously cries because his girlfriend has dumped him.
Oh, it hurtsโฆ This hurtsโฆ
While I feel such awkwardness, Akamura-san doesn’t seem to mind at all and talks to me normally.
“Do you remember Yuri? Yuri recently got married and had a baby. Seeing her like that makes me think that I want a boyfriend soon too, or maybe I want to get married.โ
“Oh, reallyโฆYou don’t have a boyfriend, Akamura-san?โ
“No, I donโt. I had an ex-boyfriend about three years ago.โ
“I see. โ
‘Surprising, isn’t it?โ she said that with a mischievous laugh.
“Wellโฆ It’s certainly surprising.โ
“Right? I’m popular. Well, when you’ve been popular for 28 years, you can usually tell when you first meet someone. What kind of person that person is. What do they see in me? Is it my body, my face, my heart?”
I can’t empathise, but I kind of understand.
Incidentally, what does she think in me?
“โฆThat’s a secret,” she said, as if he could see right through my heart.
After that, we didn’t do anything in particular, just watched TV together somehow, talked from time to time, and time just passed.
The next thing I knew, it was evening, and I thought it was time to go home, so I started preparing to go home.
โAh, I’m going home soonโฆ Thank you so much for today.”
“Huh? Are you going home? Let’s have dinner together.โ
โEh? Butโฆ Isn’t that a nuisance?โ
“โIt’s not a nuisance. You’re being too careful. We’re friends”
Friendsโฆ
But I appreciate her putting it into words like that.
Perhaps this kind of distance is her experience.
“.. Yeah. Then, dinnerโฆ Shall I have some?โ
“Yes.”
Then she started cooking as she was used to doing.
After about 30 minutes, what came out was an omelette rice.
It was a fluffy omelette rice, just like in a restaurant.
The omelette rice had this written on it in ketchup.
[LOVE]
[Illustration.]
https://kakuyomu.jp/users/tanakamatao01/news/16818093089300700987
“I’ve only ever cooked for my boyfriend.”
โฆthe person who has been popular for 28 years was still on another level.