Illustration: Takashi Sano
Chapter 6 Tears of Joy
Not realizing that they would be at the coffee shop for so long, Shusaku and Nana returned home well past five in the afternoon.
“I’m back.”
With that Nana opened the door. Meeting the door was the sound of Golem’s hurried footsteps coming down from the second floor.
“┅”
What a horrible face.
Both eyes glared as if they were suspended in anger.
The eyes seemed to burn with indignant fury.
Golem, who woke up this morning, or should I say past noon, noticed that the most important hair accessory was missing.
Just now she was at home wrapping her head around it and searching like crazy.
“I, I’m coming back…”
Shusaku was surprised at Golem’s wretched appearance on one side, but still timidly greeted her on the other.
But Golem didn’t even look at him, just looked at his sister aside with sharp eyes.
“Ah! As expected…”
My Hair Accessories…
Golem recognized that what was tied to Naina’s head was his most precious and cherished hair accessory and quickly raised his right hand.
Without even allowing Shusaku time to stop it he flung it downward, and Naina’s cheek rose with a resounding thud.
“Pop!”
Because of the suddenness of the incident, even the person who had been heavily slapped was still confused about what had happened.
It took a while for Naina to come to her senses, and instantly both eyes filled with tears as she let out a loud cry.
“Woo… wow!”
Shusaku, who had been stunned by this unexpected event, was called back to his senses by the sound of crying.
He barked at Golem, who was shaking his shoulders with emotion.
“What are you doing!”
As if to protect the beaten Nana, Shusaku stepped forward. This action made Golem’s anger rise even more.
As in the old days when I took my mother and sister from my youngest, this “Sister” is now taking my favorite “Little Fixer Upper” from me.
It’s really too much, too much.
Sayuri, who heard the noise and ran out, was shocked to see Nana, who was crying her heart out.
“What’s wrong? Nene.”
“Uh, sis…”
Naina had long been sobbing.
Sayuri looked back and forth between Golem and Shusaku’s faces again.
“What the hell happened?”
“Ah, this…”
Golem blocked Shusaku, who was about to give instructions.
“Hair accessory… My hair accessory… Naina even took it for herself. She casually took my hair accessory…”
I can’t even speak clearly because I’m too emotional.
I wanted to speak as usual, but as soon as I opened my mouth, I was stopped by the excitement that rushed up to my throat.
He was spouting out sentences that he didn’t even know.
Hair accessories?
It wasn’t until then that Shusaku realized that Nana’s head wasn’t tied with the usual ribbon, but with a hair ornament with small red beads.
But he hadn’t recognized it as something he had given to Golem as a child.
He just found it strange why Golem would strike out and beat his sister over such a trivial matter.
“What does it matter? It’s just a hair accessory…”
“！”
Golem froze.
She bit her lip tightly, like she was trying to cover the emotions that were welling up, and lowered her head so that the bangs in front of her eyes covered them.
“┅┅”
Golem’s shoulders shook slightly, his hands hanging at his sides in tight fists.
“What’s going on with everyone?”
Looking at Nana, who was hugging and kicking off her shoes haphazardly and running over crying on one side, Sayuri inquired about everyone.
“┅┅”
But there was no one to answer her.
Suddenly, Golem raised his head and glared at Shusaku. Inside those eyes, there was a faint glint of tears.
The sight flickered.
Golem walked out of the foyer, slipped on his slippers, crashed through Shusaku, who was standing there like a log, and darted out in a frenzy.
“Ah, Golem!”
“Golem where are you going?”
Shrugging off Sayuri’s stopping yells, Golem ran headlong toward the street, which was drained orange by the setting sun.
Left behind was a sobbing Nene.
A puzzled Sayuri.
Also, the chest is stained with the repair work of Golem’s tears.
“Tick-tock…”
The sound of the second hand of the clock, which I usually don’t care about, now sounds particularly clear, and I feel that time passes particularly slowly.
An hour had passed since Golem had run out. The days were short in the fall, and the windows were beginning to darken.
“Why isn’t Golem back yet?”
Sayuri, who was the eldest sister, looked straight at the clock in worry.
Because she was entrusted with childcare by the young couple next door, Sayuri didn’t have time to prepare dinner.
So everyone’s dinner today is fondue.
This is actually all you need to do to prepare some ingredients and a pan.
A small gas stove sits in the center of the table, with fish, meat, noodles, and tofu side by side on plastic trays.
Out-of-season spring chrysanthemums and onions are served in a bowl, and there’s fresh Matsusaka beef in the fridge waiting to be served.
The fondue is ready.
The next step was just a matter of getting everyone together and lighting the gas fire.
However, there was no sign of the fruit forest yet.
At first it was only assumed that she would come back on her own once she had calmed her anger outside, yet an hour had passed.
It’s almost six o’clock.
Goering is now a sophomore in high school. It’s not like he’s three years old.
Even though it was getting dark, there was no need to worry, just a little hung up on the way she had just left the house.
And, again, it’s a season of cooler mornings and evenings.
She darted out suddenly, with only her polo shirt plus her denim skirt flopping around outside, so I was afraid she’d catch a cold.
“┅┅”
Each other didn’t know what to say.
The three of them gathered around the dining table, just waiting for Golem to get started as soon as he returned.
Everyone sat in their seats, waiting for that empty chair to be filled. The odor of onions wafting around them smelled pungent.
Sayuri, the oldest of the three, was the most fidgety.
“It’s so slow. Where the hell did Golem go?”
Checking the time every three minutes, standing up for a moment, then sitting down again.
If that’s the case, it’s better to prepare more dishes.
And maybe a little distraction.
Sitting paralyzed in her chair, Naina’s eyes were red and lifeless.
What was sitting on the table was the hair accessory that was the cause of the incident, just waiting for Golem to come back and have to give it right back to her.
Naina’s tousled brunette hair, which was always tied up neatly, was now draped over her shoulders with her hair down.
Shusaku, on the other hand, was arguably the hardest hit of the three.
It was only after Goering ran out of the room and listening to Nana’s sobbing explanation of the whole thing that Shusaku suddenly remembered…
That hair accessory was the very thing he had given to the resultant forest.
So Goering had always treasured that hair ornament…
Seeing the sorry state of Golem’s face when she and Nana returned home, one could tell how much she treasured that hair accessory.
That would also be a clear indication of how much she valued the memories with herself.
I can’t believe she kept it.
However, I…
Click .
There was no longer any point in waiting any longer, and Xiu forcefully pushed back his chair and stood up.
“I’ll go get her back.”
“But…”
Sayuri looked up at Shusaku in the middle of her sentence.
She had a puzzled look on her face, an expression as if she was about to ask him if he knew where to find the fruit grove.
“Eh!”
With an affirmative nod, the impatient Shusaku put on the jacket on the back of his chair and darted outside.
Where Golem would be now, Shusaku had in mind.
Golem, had always been so attached to the hair accessories she had given her.
Even as the decade passes, the height grows and the hair is cut short, The Fruitvale is still the same old childhood friend, The Little Fruitvale.
It was still the same Golem he had known before.
Then that was the only place where Golem, who had been hurt by Shusaku’s offhanded remark, could go.
The secret place in the shrine that belongs to only two people…
Places with memories of both of them as children.
And now the only one who can go get her is herself.
Shusaku thought so.
No one else but myself is qualified for this.
The town was completely shrouded in night.
Gradually for the night to invade, leaking into the deep purple eastern sky in the starlight twinkling.
As soon as Shusaku rushed out onto the street in front of his house, the streetlights came on just in time.
The street lamps were just enough to light up the way to go. As I walked, I felt more deeply the changes in this town.
Most of the town has been transformed over the years.
The roads were widened and asphalted.
And the former vacant lots have been covered with blocks of condominiums in large buildings, and the small hotel on the corner has been replaced with a convenience store.
After walking for a while by memory, I just couldn’t find the shrine I was going to.
Shusaku was surprised. With a small child’s footsteps traveling back and forth to places every day, it shouldn’t be that far away.
Stop and think…
That’s when he realized he had gone in the opposite direction.
It was too dark to see the road clearly, plus the look of the surroundings became too much to reverse the direction.
“Ughhhh!”
So he turned his head sharply, seeking his way to the shrine by what little memory of the town remained in his mind.
Finally, I could see the large tree that I remembered towering over the shrine through the rows of houses.
Properly speaking, it should be the branches and leaves stretching toward the sky to avoid the fading sun, and become the black shadow floating in the night sky.
Shusaku followed the dark shadow and finally reached the front of the shrine.
Regardless of what had become of the shrine for the moment, he was saddened by the fact that the woods inside had been leveled.
Looking up the stone steps, behind the shrine was the same view as then.
Fortunately, the innermost woods escaped the havoc of this development.
Shusaku believed that it was the blessing of the gods that allowed his shared memories with Kokurin to be preserved.
Compared to the town, which looks different from what it used to be, the shrine is still the same as it was in my memory.
Rushing up the stone steps and through the ancient portals with their peeling red paint, it felt as if I had stepped back ten years.
Round the inside of the wooded social hall and ascend the slope of the red clay.
What I remember should have been a steeper slope was actually nothing more than a mound of dirt.
Thinking about it, I know that it’s certainly not that the slope has gotten smaller, but that it’s because after all these years, Shusaku has grown up.
Shusaku walks up the slope and senses that not only has the town changed, but even he himself is no longer the same as he used to be.
Seventeen-year-old Shusaku, walking across the slope, stepped into the grove.
The forest had long been full of yellow leaves, and a thin layer of fallen leaves had accumulated on the soft ground.
Between the gaps between the trees and the trees was a square covered in night color.
There it is.
Found it!
Golem was sitting on a rock in the middle of the square surrounded by trees.
Perhaps it was because Golem was slumped over his shoulders, making the thin body seem even more chilly.
“Sha…”
Hearing the sound of shoes on dead leaves, Golem jerked his head up.
I couldn’t see the expression on her face because it was too dark, but I could vaguely sense her nervousness.
“Sure enough, it’s here…”
After saying that Shusaku came over to the square.
Shuusaku reached the rock in the center, at which point Golem stood up as well, and the two faced each other awkwardly.
A moment of not knowing what to do…
“Just now, I’m so, so sorry!”
“Eh!”
I don’t know what to say.
Shusaku then apologized first.
“Golem, it’s better to go home first. Sayuri-sama is worried. Nana, she’s already recognized her mistake…”
“┅┅”
“Golem!” Shusaku called out again.
“┅┅”
Golem still didn’t reply. Listening to Shusaku’s words, his slumped shoulders tensed up and his two fists clenched tightly.
“You’ll catch a cold if you look like this…” said Shusaku with concern.
“Idiot!” Golem shouted angrily.
“It’s… it’s too late…”
“Yeah?” Shusaku looked puzzled.
“If you want to come… if you want to come, why don’t you come at that time?”
She looked like she was crying and her voice was shaking a little.
“That time?”
Poor Shusaku was still confused.
“Don’t play dumb! It’s the day before the move!”
Tensing his shoulders, Golem shouted.
Then the sight turned.
“I’m sorry about the ring… the ring falling off. But… but…”
His eyes fell to his feet, and his voice was so low that he could hardly be heard.
Goering, she’s crying…
Perhaps it was because his eyes had gotten used to it, and Shusaku saw Golem’s slightly shaking shoulders through the pale night color.
“Fruit Grove…”
Shusaku tried to say something, but Golem suddenly raised his head.
“All the time… I’ve been waiting here. Even though we’d just had a fight, I was sure you’d come to see me one last time… wanting to apologize to you for the ring… I’ve been waiting… but then you left without saying anything…”
Golem whimpered, and words failed him.
“Then, at that time, Goering had been waiting here all along…”
“Yeah, sure. Is there anywhere else we can wait?”
What are you doing? You’re still playing dumb… Thinking about this, Goering couldn’t help but growl angrily.
Is that so? Yes…
In the darkness, Golem couldn’t see anything clearly, but Shusaku’s expression at the moment was indescribably complex.
A short silence…
Finally, Shusaku said with embarrassment.
“That, the day before… ah, no, the day before then, we, that, weren’t we married?”
“？”
At this sudden topic of his, Golem’s eyes filled with tears for a moment’s levy.
“After we got married, we were supposed to go to the back of the mountain on our honeymoon… Also, this wasn’t the place to say goodbye, it was at the foot of the back of the mountain… Goering, remember?”
Don’t remember. Forgot.
But it all comes back to me now.
“Shuu, it’s a wedding!”
The “Kokorin” who was overjoyed to have the ring put on his favorite “Kokorin”. Suddenly hearing the word “marriage”, “Xiao Xiu”, who was still a bit overwhelmed, also immediately warmed up to this marriage game.
From time to time, the two of them huddle together and talk about all things “newlywed life”.
And, indeed the two had agreed to go up to the back on their honeymoon. A honeymoon trip decided on by two people who could still hang out together on the last day of their honeymoon in order to make good memories.
The place where they had arranged to meet was, of course, at the foot of the back of the mountain.
It’s just that, that night, The Little Golem had been in bed thinking about what it would take to keep his beloved The Little Fixer, so he had forgotten all about that appointment.
Past events that lurked in the depths of my memory are now slowly coming to the surface.
But it’s too late. Too late. It was ten years later when I remembered the promise.
For ten years, Goering considered himself a “dupe”. The heartbreaking parting with “Xiao Xiu” was caused by the pain of being lied to by his favorite person.
But, in fact, it’s better to call them “gullible fools” than “forgetful fools,” fools who laugh and cry even at themselves.
“So, I had been waiting at the foot of the back mountain at that point.”
Just as Kokurin waited in agony for Shusaku in the middle of this square with a head of hair tousled by the autumn wind, Shusaku also waited for Kokurin alone and obsessively at the foot of the mountain where people were rare, letting the setting sun pour down on his body.
“If that’s the case, why don’t you ever contact me? If you write a letter or make a phone call, you won’t…”
It wouldn’t have caused such a misunderstanding if it had been explained properly.
“I think I must have been hated for saying something so over the top to Golem at that last time we hung out together… so I was afraid to call. I don’t know what I’d do if I was really hated, and…”
That’s what I thought. So afraid of being called nasty. Therefore, I don’t dare to call or write.
“So…”
Wanted to ask him about when they first met, but Golem held back. She remembered the attitude she had taken towards Shusaku, who was desperately trying to reconcile. After being treated like that, who would dare want to try to explain a misunderstanding?
What a big joke!
Having mistaken the place of the appointment herself, but having always decided that she was hated, she has spent the last ten years trying to make herself forget her favorite Little Fixer Upper.
In the end, he even went so far as to cut off the long hair that would take him back to happy times and remember the people he missed.
Golem laughed.
Wordlessly, just the corners of his mouth quirked up slightly in a smile.
I’m such an idiot.
Just then, Golem cried like a dike.
“Woohoo…”
“Fruit… Fruit Grove…”
Golem cried on one side and threw herself onto the chest of Shusaku who didn’t know what to do.
“It’s not like that… it’s not like that. I still kept thinking that Hsiao Hsiu didn’t like me anymore, so I desperately tried to forget about Hsiao Hsiu and didn’t want to grow my hair long again, but… but…”
For a long time, all the words that had been so desperately held back came out at once.
Golem buried her face in Shusaku’s chest.
“Then I’m like an idiot…”
Indeed. For ten years, Goering has been playing the lead role in an unsatisfactory drama. As a result, it was only an “idiot”.
It’s just that this comedy is, shall we say, a tragedy for the parties starring in it.
“Really… really like an idiot…”
The next has been unknown.
Tears flowed without being able to stop, and together with the nose water, they leaked and wet Shusaku’s clothes.
“Fruit Grove…”
Shusaku reached toward the weeping Golem’s shoulders and hugged the cold body as tenderly as he had done when he was a child.
“KNOCK KNOCK…”
I don’t know how many times I flinched before knocking on the door with a bit of hesitation.
“Come in!”
As soon as Shusaku made a sound, the door was opened a crack, and as if peering inside, Golem revealed his face.
“May I come in?”
“Ah, uh…”
With nothing to do, Shusaku, who was lying on his back, sat up.
The door was opened and a timid Golem walked in.
As if he’d just taken a shower, he wore a straight-striped male nightgown with a white cardigan over it.
Shusaku is pretty much dressed the same way, just in a little different color.
It was past eleven o’clock.
Shusaku sat on the edge of the bed with a puzzled expression on his face as Golem made his way to him.
Upon closer inspection, her left cheek was a little red.
It was when she returned home in Shusaku’s company that she was slapped by Sayuri, who had tears in her eyes and said angrily, “Don’t you know that everyone’s worried?” Sayuri slapped her in the face.
Shusaku was really shocked that Sayuri, who was usually gentle and sweet, could be so harsh.
At the same time, it also became clear why the parents of the three sisters were so relieved to leave their home in her hands, while traveling in peace.
At first glance, Sayuri looks weak, but in fact, she is very strong inside, as both parents should have known very well already.
“What’s wrong? At this hour…”
Shuusaku asked, pretending to be calm. However, Golem was unable to answer. Standing straight in front of Shusaku, she held out her right hand.
“？”
Shusaku looked puzzled.
Golem opened his hand, only to see a ring lying in his palm.
It’s the ring Shusaku’s mom left behind.
“This, back to you!”
Golem’s voice was as low as a mosquito. On his face was an expression like a schoolboy who had been reprimanded by his teacher.
Shusaku picked up the ring in Golem’s hand and moved it to himself to look at it silently. He knew what it was, he just, for the moment, couldn’t believe that it had a day to return to his hands.
Shusaku’s eyes were fixed on the ring.
“This is, Mommy’s…”
It’s a bit strange to call her “mommy” when she’s not so young anymore, but for Shusaku, who lost his mother when he was a child, the mother that exists only in his memories will always be “mommy” when he was a child, and he won’t be able to rationalize it as “mommy”! But for Shusaku, his mother will always be “mommy” in his memories, not “mom”.
Shusaku who stayed away because of this unexpected thing, Golem says it all.
The ring had never been lost, and the lie of losing it was just a fabrication to keep Shusaku, who was moving, alive… During the past ten years, Goering had been trying to apologize for…
The truth of the matter remained only in Golem’s mind. Therefore, if I said that I thought I had gone there, but I found it later, I was sure that I would be able to get away with it. However, if I confessed as recklessly as I did, I might create another gap between myself and Shusaku, who had managed to clear up the misunderstanding with great difficulty.
Moreover, in retrospect, the excuse of wanting to keep Shusaku or something like that was too childish and unlikely to be believed. It might even be considered as a fabricated excuse for wanting the ring.
However, Golem no longer wanted to hide anything from Shusaku. After ten years of separation, it had been hard for the two to make up. Because of that, it was even more important that no secrets existed between the two.
Instead of having to continue to lie to your favorite Little Fixer Upper, it’s better to be hated when it’s all said and done.
“This, I always, always wanted to apologize to you, but…”
As she said that, tears seeped out of Golem’s eye frames again. She had already made up her mind that she would rather be hated than lie again, but she couldn’t help but feel sad at the thought of actually being hated.
Golem, who had made everything clear, wiped away her tears while peering at the expression of Shusaku, who was sitting in front of her.
You’re really going to be called “nasty”, aren’t you? Will the act of “lying” be trivialized? Or will they be criticized even more harshly?
That’s for sure. One does the kind of thing that no amount of scolding from “Koshu” would be enough to make one’s “…”
Shusaku remained silent for a while and suddenly grabbed Goering’s right hand, which was waiting for the judgment. At the same time, without hesitation, he put this ring left by his mother on the same middle finger as he had put a ring on Kobayashi’s little finger…ten years ago.
“！”
This unexpected verdict called Goering’s surprise. Then the vivid memories of the fun times with Shusaku in the past all came flooding back at once.
He remembers everything…
Surprise, confusion and joy all mixed together, and for a moment it was hard to know what to do. Only, even in the midst of all this confusion, a question surfaced in his mind.
Why did you put the ring on my hand?
Guessing Shusaku’s intentions, Golem opened his mouth with a puzzled expression and asked.
“Xiao Xiu, this is…”
“This ring is meant for Golem.”
For me? This…
Shusaku made it sound as easy as giving a candy bar, but the ring was an important thing his mother had left behind.
Ah.
“But this is the most important thing!”
“Eh!”
Shusaku nodded slowly.
“Just because it’s the most important…”
He said and looked at Golem’s face.
“So I hope to give it to the most important person.”
Xiao Xiu’s tone carried infinite depth of feeling.
“Xiao Xiu…”
Before the words were finished, Golem’s voice began to choke. Tears that had accumulated in the corners of his eyes welled up and slid straight down his face.
Shusaku hugged the slender shoulders of Golem, who was standing there, hiding her face and sobbing, and sat her down next to him.
Then look at the tearful childhood friend.
“What’s the matter? Is this ring giving you trouble?”
Golem still kept his head down and just shook it vigorously.
“So why?”
Shusaku was surprised.
“Because, because it’s so much fun!”
Without realizing it, Golem has traveled through ten years of time and is once again back to the same Little Golem that he was as a child.
And in the same way, Shusaku goes back in time together, and both of them become like children in their speech and behavior.
“Crying because you’re happy, that’s weird. If you’re happy, you should be smiling! Right?”
“Uh…”
Golem faced Shusaku and tried to make a smile.
But no way. Just the corners of his mouth tugged upward, no smirk visible at all.
As soon as I saw The Little Fixer who was looking this way with a worried yet tender expression, tears flowed unheeded.
It was then that Golem realized for the first time that genuine rejoicing can bring tears to one’s eyes.
Epilogue, “Goodbye, Shuu.”
This was followed by almost six years.
There were many things that happened, but the biggest change was that both Shusaku and I went to college.
I went to a local university where I could commute, while Koshu went to a private university in Tokyo.
Shusaku rented a house near the school, and my cohabitation with Shusaku drew to a close. I had no choice but to cry like a tearful person when I held a farewell party at home.
Even though it was only one year of living together, I was happy to be able to fill the gap of ten years of separation, and to live “under one roof with Shuu”.
Under the pressure of exams, it was still a steal to go to the beach together in my senior year. In retrospect, I’m really glad I was able to go to college.
The beach, the movies, the picnics, the parks at night, and other trivial things cannot be said enough, but all in all, they added to what was left of our high school life. Especially the last summer in memory.
Because of this, the pain of parting is even more profound.
In this way, from that spring, Xiao Xiu and I began our separate lives. Although we lived far apart again, our hearts were never far apart.
It is true that the time spent together is reduced, but it is also clearer about the importance of each other because of the distance.
In fact, twice a month we’ll meet somewhere.
However, there was still the inconvenience of not being able to see him right away even though I wanted to, and there were also a few fights due to disagreements, and there were times when I thought that “it was over”. However, having survived these crises, I was also able to confirm my feelings for Shuu.
At the end of that year, the reassignment period was over and Hsiao Hsiu’s father returned home from Australia.
That proper look was still the same as it had been in memory, except that the tanned skin, which looked like it had just finished a round of golf, looked much healthier than it had in the past.
The next summer, mom and dad returned home from Africa, and just as if it had been arranged, my sister was getting married.
He was a male teacher at the local public elementary school, and seemed to be in the same year as his sister. He was a tall, kind and handsome man, and his ideas matched those of his sister. The two of them are quite a good match.
I was so surprised that the man who was to become my sister’s husband was Kenichi, the man who used to come to our house to play, that I couldn’t speak. When I found out about it and looked at him again, I realized that he still looked like he did in the old days.
The wedding ceremony of my sister and The Kenichi took place on a sunny day in October.
Sister in her pure white wedding gown is really beautiful.
The day came full of joy, transformed into a soft and happy bell that surrounded the beautiful sister.
What I remember as much as my sister’s bridal gesture is my father’s face during the wedding. My father, who was called the “bearded man”, had a red face with a big beard, and his expression of desperately trying to hold back tears made me want to laugh, but when I thought that if I were to get married, my father would have the same face, I couldn’t help but see my eyes reddening again.
In contrast, my mom was less upset and kept saying, “It’s a good thing you can get married before you’re 30.”
I was always joking about it, saying, “Get ready to repay your parents”.
But even my savvy mom probably didn’t know that I had already decided on a “way out” and was just waiting for the opportunity to make it public.
As a result, by the time both of us graduated from college, three years short of my sister, I got married to my childhood friend, Shusaku Takanashi, who was a “Koshu”. However, the two of us only went to register our marriage, and did not hold a wedding ceremony. The reason was that the wedding ceremony of Shuu and I had already been held in the secret place of the former shrine, and I always felt that such superficial things as formality would destroy the pure and innocent feelings of the two of us at that time.
But my sister was very much against this. She thinks that marriage is a once-in-a-lifetime event, and it’s better to have a ceremony. She seemed to feel so strongly about the pure white bridal gown she wore when she got married that she wanted her younger sister to experience it as well.
Mom, on the other hand, thinks that as long as we are happy, and thus has no problem with our decision.
But she was straight up yelling that she was going to take the money she saved and eat something nice.
The argument finally centered on whether or not to hold the wedding, and my father, who wanted to give his opinion on my marriage, was sulking because he couldn’t get a word in edgewise. In addition, my mom said, as if it were a lie, “When Nana gets married, we’ll both go to Africa and live there permanently,” and he had a complicated look on his face that he couldn’t explain.
After a bit of a dispute over opinions, the ceremony was finally discontinued, as we had hoped.
So, together with Hsiao Hsiu, I filed a marriage certificate with the household registration office.
Now I am busy in the lounge doing preparatory work. When I look at the time, it’s 2:05 pm. It’s a little past the scheduled start time.
I am wearing a long, pure white gown.
I really wasn’t suited to wearing this princess-like gown, which made me feel a little awkward, so I didn’t start getting ready until it was almost time.
Dad and Mom had long ago headed to the venue first.
Sitting quietly in front of the vanity, I let my sister brush my shoulder-length black hair.
Finally, my sister brushed the bangs on my forehead.
“How does this look feel?”
After confirming the hairstyle she fixed for me in the mirror, I nodded my head and said, “Yeah, OK!” and got up from the chair.
“Goering, it’s really beautiful…”
I looked in the mirror.
Well, beauty, beauty. It’s not for nothing that Xiao Xiu will fall in love, is it?… Everything is ready, so we have to hurry.
The guests being entertained at the venue must have been waiting for the main event to make its appearance.
As I walked toward the door, my sister rubbed her hands together and said, “Is that really good enough? It’s only once in a lifetime, so it’s better to have a proper ceremony, right?”
Sister is really…
I’ve been repeating these words since this morning, and they’re really growing on my ears.
I sighed softly and turned to face my sister.
“Fruit Grove…”
“That’s just fine. I’ve had my wedding to Hsiao Hsiu ages ago.”
“But…”
Just as Sis was about to say something else, the door to the room was opened and it was Nana.
Nana is also nineteen years old this year. She has grown slightly taller and her face is less childish.
Nana spoke in the tone of a cartoon character.
“Sister Lin, are you ready? Everyone is waiting!”
I guess I was called in by my mom to see what was going on since I hadn’t shown up yet.
What a coincidence.
It was a good opportunity to end the conversation with my sister.
A willful, self-righteous and unlovable sister, but sometimes it has the advantage of coming in handy.
“Eh, going out now.”
After saying that, as I walked past Naina who was standing by the door of the room, Naina’s gaze stopped on my right hand. On the middle finger of my right hand, the ring filled with memories was shining brightly.
“ ？”
“What?”
To me who stopped in her tracks, Nana said with a face that looked more like an idiot, “That’s strange. Aren’t wedding rings supposed to be worn on the ring finger of the left hand?”
In normal times, I would have pinched her smug little mouth, but today I just returned the favor with a confident smile.
“That will do.”
“? What? Why?”
This is an important secret between Shuu and me. I’m not going to waste my breath telling Nana about it.
“Kids don’t understand!”
“? What are you talking about? You’re treating me like a child again~” Of course, I treat children the same way I treat them.
Leaving behind the pouting Nana, I advanced from the hotel’s corridor to the party venue. It’s quite an effort to walk in the high heels and long dress that I’m not used to.
The venue is on the next floor. It’s quicker to wait for an elevator that’s not coming until who knows when, rather than take the stairs.
I was supposed to walk slowly into the venue accompanied by my sister, but as soon as the preparations were finished, I couldn’t wait to meet Xiao Xiu as a bride, and my steps turned into a trot without me realizing it.
After descending the stairs and walking down the corridor, I saw the banquet hall in front of me. At the entrance, there was a sign that read “Takanashi and Natsukawa Wedding Banquet”. Natsukawa Family Wedding Banquet”.
It seemed that all the guests had arrived, and there was not a single person to be seen at the white-clothed reception.
Just as they were about to open the door, my sister and Nana, who had been slowed down in turn by the use of the elevator, finally caught up with them.
“Slow down, Goering…”
Ignoring my sister who stopped me, I walked into the venue. A few people who sensed that the main character had appeared began to applaud, and in no time at all, the venue was filled with applause welcoming me.
It was grand, but it made me feel a little shy.
There were many recognizable faces in the venue.
My sister’s husband, Kenichi; my father, who lives in Osaka for work; my tutor in junior high school; my classmates in high school; my seniors in the university club…
Of course, there were some other people who were complete strangers. Probably friends or distant relatives from Koshu’s university in Tokyo or something like that.
In the crowd at the venue, I searched for another protagonist.
There.
Koshu, dressed in a western-style dress, is surrounded by his high school classmates with his back turned to this side. When one of them reminded him, he turned to face me and smiled lightly.
As soon as I saw Shuu, I ran over to him without thinking.
“Goodbye, Koshu…”
I’d like to say goodbye to my childhood friend Shusaku Takanashi. After today, Shusaku Takanashi will no longer be My Childhood Playmate, but My Other Half.
Faced with me darting into his arms, Xiao Xiu… no, my other half, tenderly picked me up.
Goodbye, Shuu. Please teach me more in the future, my other half.
[End of text]