The Case of My Childhood Friend Who Became a Very Popular Model and Came Back to Fulfill a Promise We Made When We Were Children
The Saturday of the weekend came, when I promised to go to the movies. I leave home on time.
The movie theater is in a building in front of the station. In front of the station is a plaza, and when you exit the station, department stores and other stores line the front of the building.
Once inside the movie theater, I take the elevator to the eighth floor. When I got off the elevator, Haruka was waiting for me.
“Ara, hello,”
“You’re early. I left early too.”
“I’ve been waiting for you for an hour.”
“An hour?!”
That’s pretty early. She was looking forward to it so much even though she was just going to the movies with me. I knew it was different from my history. I was always the first one to arrive for our dates. Rather, I was the one who gathered at the meeting place an hour before and welcomed Haruka.
I was always the one looking forward to the date, and Haruka would always come to the date with a calm and collected look on her face.
I was surprised that Haruka was looking forward to the date and showed up at the meeting place an hour before.
“What do you think?”
Haruka pauses to show me her appearance.
She is wearing a floral blouse and skirt. It’s the exact outfit I remember Haruka wearing in high school.
“It’s fine.”
“It’s kind of shallow isn’t”
“I think it’s cute.”
“It’s funny. I thought I was trying to match Shinohara-kun’s tastes.”
I’m sure she would have been my type back in high school. But now, Haruka looks like nothing more than a child to me.
“Let’s buy tickets.”
Haruka said and stood in front of the ticket machine. I stood next to her and looked into the ticket machine.
We select the movie we want and choose our seats. It’s Saturday, and the seats are all occupied, and the only available seats are at the end of the hall. Haruka chooses a seat at random and puts her money in the machine.
“The movies have gotten cheaper, haven’t they? I’m lucky to be able to see a movie at this price.”
“I see. I think the price of movies has gone up.”
“Ah, I see.
I’m sorry. It was a misunderstanding.”
What on earth could she have misunderstood? The price of the movie kept going up, and fifteen years later it would be over 2,000 yen.
We bought our tickets and walked to the food store.
“Let’s share the popcorn,”
Haruka says and orders a large size popcorn. I pay for the drinks and wait for the popcorn to come out.
“Are you going to buy me a drink?”
“I thought in a case like this, the guy is supposed to pay for the food.”
“I don’t think so. Thank you.”
It tickled me strangely to be thanked by Haruka. I don’t remember Haruka ever saying thank you to me during our married life.
“The doors are already open. Let’s go.”
Haruka pulls me by the hand and we enter the venue. As we entered the screen, a movie trailer was playing.
“I like to watch this movie.”
“I know.”
After we got married, we went to the movies a lot. Since Haruka liked movies, I often invited her to go with me. Even after our relationship had deteriorated, we continued to go to the movies together.
“I wondered why. I’ve never been to the movies with you before, but I feel like I’ve missed it a lot.”
“….. me too.”
The warmth of Haruka sitting next to me through her clothes is making my heart flutter. We always made up with a movie. If we watched a movie, we would talk about our impressions of the film together, and before we knew it, our conversation had returned. Toward the end of our divorce, we stopped going to the movies.
“My first love is already dead. That’s a nice title.”
“Yeah. I like it too.”
The quietness of the movie theater is pleasant. I can feel a connection with Haruka without talking to her. Why didn’t Haruka and I get along? It’s obvious. It was because Haruka didn’t want to approach me. She had the self-doubt that she was in love with me. I can’t say for sure, but that smugness was evident in her attitude.
“It’s about to start.”
The movie stealing alert is played, and the main story begins. I knew the main story from reading it in a novel, but watching it again made me feel nostalgic. I had already watched this movie on a streaming service. However, this was the first time for me to see it in a movie theater, so I was able to watch it with a fresh feeling.
The main character loses his girlfriend due to illness. However, his lover appears to him as a ghost. The hero studies witchcraft and tries to transfer her spirit to another person. The other heroine he chooses for that human falls in love with the hero. The hero gradually becomes attracted to the other heroine, and she ultimately becomes a spirit and disappears.
The emotions of the hero, who is swayed by his two loves, and the two heroines who love him are skillfully portrayed, and it is still a tear-jerker. I have seen this movie once before, and this time too, I found myself with tears streaming down my cheeks.
I looked next to Haruka and saw that her eyes were glistening as well, as if she had been moved to tears.
The movie ends and we watch the ending. Haruka and I were both in the camp of watching the ending of the movie until the very end.
“It made me cry.”
Haruka muttered in a whisper.
“I have to admit that I never had good feelings toward manga and anime, but I’ve changed my mind.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“So, please keep telling me what you think of anime and manga.”
I wonder if the world would have been like this if Haruka had been tolerant of anime from the beginning in high school.
I have mixed feelings about Haruka.
We were already over.