Chapter 3

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TL: Single TL Translations

Chapter 3

After a week from then, Aoi and I have been in frequent contact. We asked each other questions and told the other about what we did that day. It seems like Aoi is somewhat of a lonely person, so she frequently contacted me.

Her work was unlike that of an office worker because her holidays varied, and she didn’t have a fixed schedule for work. Though, it seems like she’s trying her best to keep Sunday her day off. I haven’t asked her a lot about her work, so I’m not sure, but she seems to have a busy job. After thinking of asking Aoi more about her job, I got a message from her.

[Yuki, it’s been decided that my day off is Thursday of next week, so do you want to come over and eat together Wednesday night? Are you open?]

She sent the message along with a cute looking rabbit sticker. If it’s next week then I’m open. Thursday is my day off so there’s no problem. I quickly replied since I’m slow at typing.

[Yeah, I’m free. I’m working until 7 pm, but is that okay?]

The message was immediately read.

[It’s okay! That’s good. I’m happy. Your workplace is from the XX direction, right? Since XX station is closest, let’s meet there. There’s a lot of shops over there too.]

If it’s XX station, then it’s the perfect halfway point from Aoi’s house too.

[Okay. Let’s meet at XX station. Is it fine to meet at 7:30? I might be a little late though.]

It was read immediately, again. Her attentive to detail is amazing; I felt a little ticklish because of it.

[Yeah, it’s fine. I’ll be waiting at XX station at 7:30. I’m looking forward to next week.]

[Yeah. I’m also looking forward to it, I want to hurry up and meet you, Aoi.]

After sending that, I looked at the clock and saw that it was time for my afternoon shift. I reluctantly started to work, thinking that it can’t be helped and told her that I’ll talk to her later. Since I work as a nurse, I have a day off on weekdays, but since the medical industry is based on customer service, there are a lot of times where it wears down my nerves. I pray that nothing bad will happen today. While praying for something that won’t come true, I went to receive the patient.

A few days passed nearing the promised day and as always, we still messaged each other. When Aoi gets busy there are times when she doesn’t reply for a day, but without exception, there will be a reply. During this time, there are a few things I learned about Aoi.

It seems that Aoi is 26 years old this year. She’s 2 years older than me, her job is TV and magazine related, she loves to eat but since she doesn’t have many friends, she usually cooks by herself, plays games alone, and goes to the gym. This was surprising. Her manners and attitude were good, yet she doesn’t have many friends, so she spends most of her time alone. Even though she’s such a gentle, cute, and kind person? I only had doubts in my head. I can understand if I was always alone, but Aoi? My doubts only deepened. Even looking back at the texts

[Thank you for your hard work, how was your work today? Don’t work too hard. I’m the same as always (lol)]

Or,

[Do you want to eat this cake in this picture next time? It’s popular and I’ve heard it tastes good! Do you not like it? If you don’t like it then it’s fine…]

Etc.

No matter how you look at it she looks like a popular girl, isn’t it a waste to be friends with someone ordinary and who always drinks?

Now compare that to me

[I was too absent-minded during work, so I don’t remember anything. How are you feeling, Aoi? Rather, my umbrella yesterday had a hole in it, it was hilarious. I was soaked (lol)]

And

[I’ll eat anything! I don’t have anything I dislike, but if I were forced to say I think it would be sweet potato shochu*? It’s so smelly I can’t drink it…]

*shochu – Japanese traditional hard liquor

etc., like, I don’t know, it’s so different I feel sad.

Compared to Aoi, I’m 2 years younger and both my figure and face are normal. My hair is an ash-colored bob hairstyle, so that’s ordinary, and my face is super ordinary that I have no words. I have bad drinking habits, but my friend group is on the larger side. It’s at a level similar to social polarization*, I’ve been wondering if it’s fine if someone like myself can be friends with her from the beginning. I thought that she may be trying to forcefully match herself with me, but since she’s constantly messaging me, I don’t think that’s the case.

*Social polarization – honestly had no idea how to translate this. Social polarization – the splitting of a society into 2 distinct groups that are on different ends of a spectrum. Eg. Would be the rich and poor. Yuki (mc) is comparing her relationship with Aoi like this, ie, 2 completely different people on 2 different ends of a spectrum, associating with one another. I hope you got that?

While I was fiddling with my phone, it vibrated again. It seems to be from Aoi, seriously, I’m surprised that my undiligent self would continue to keep in contact with her. It’s strange for me to be in contact with someone for a long time like this, but I guess this means that I like Aoi quite a bit.

[Thank you for your hard work today. It was tiring today, wasn’t it? Um, I know it’s kind of sudden, but are you free right now?]

I wonder what happened, is she troubled by something? Nothing like this has ever happened, so I quickly replied.

[Thanks for your work, yeah, I’m free. I’m just relaxing in my room.]

The message was immediately read.

[I see. Um, can I call you? We’re going to eat soon, right? So, I thought it would be faster to talk over the phone than typing.]

Ohh, now I got it. We did talk a lot about it, but we never made any decisions, did we. There’s 2 days until the promised day. Since I always decide right before, deciding beforehand feels like a trip; it sounds fun. I was cheerful when calling Aoi.

After the ringtone rang a few times, I heard Aoi’s voice.

“H-Hello?”

“Hello, Aoi. It’s been a while”

“Uh huh, it’s… been a while”

“It has. How’re you feeling? I feel like you’re busy recently, so you don’t have to force yourself to reply, okay?”

That’s right, Aoi has been replying after a day a lot of the times recently. I’m telling her that’s it’s fine to reply at any time or not reply at all, but she’s been very sincere and always replies and even apologizes when she’s late at it.

“That’s fine! It’s fine! I’m not forcing myself. …It’s…There’s a lot I want to talk about, but I can’t…and…I… aren’t I annoying?”

“Huh? Annoying? How?”

I didn’t understand what she was saying with her uneasy voice. What is she talking about when she means annoying…? I don’t understand how the conversation even went there. Aoi’s voice seemed uneasy and a little gloomy.

“Um, since I want to talk about a lot of things, I end up sending long texts and when I want to talk, I keep messaging you, so… um… I was wondering if… I was annoying.”

So, it’s about that. I felt relieved. She shouldn’t even be worried about that.

“There’s no way I think that! I’m happy talking to you, Aoi. It’s fun and I’ve never thought of it as annoying. Rather shouldn’t that be about me? It takes me a while to reply and I message you about normal things, I’m really sorry about that.”

“No!! That’s not true. I’m also happy. I’m glad. I was worried that you might’ve been annoyed by it. But now I’m reassured… thank you.”

Aoi said in a shy voice making me think she really is a cute girl. There aren’t many nice girls like her, and to think she usually spends her time alone, I feel both sorry for her and can’t even believe it, that’s impossible. But, contrary to what I thought, it seems like she has trouble measuring distance between herself and others. Even though she saved me, some unknown person, it seems like she’s a little clumsy, but that’s also her charm. I continued to help her reassure herself.

“Aoi, it’s okay, alright? You can message me a lot and you can even call me like today, okay? I want to keep getting along with you from now on.”

“…Okay! I… feel the same. Then if I have work, I might be late in replying but I’ll still text and call you a lot.”

“Alright! Good, come at me! Oh yeah, before that! Where do you want to eat on Wednesday? The place we talked about is close to the station too.”

“Ah, that’s right. Hmm…”

We had a long call, but as she had a happy voice from beginning to end, I felt relieved. We decided where to eat and I bought a towel for Aoi since I ruined her previous one. I asked my friend who’s sensitive to the trend, so it should be fine. At any rate, I felt as though it was right before a school trip and waited for the long-awaited day in high spirits.

And then Wednesday came, while I shouldn’t say this, I was a bit late because unluckily, an emergency patient came in. I’ll be at XX station in 10 minutes. It’s currently 7:30. I messaged her saying I’ll be late so it should be fine, but I wish the train would get there faster. That’s right, I should buy her something as an apology for being late. The meeting place is the east entrance of XX station. There are a lot of shops within the station as XX station is in the city. If that’s the case, then let’s buy the same cookies I was gifted a few days back. As soon as I reached XX station, I went to the ticket gate.

It’s a popular cookie brand, but since it was a weekday and at this time of day, it wasn’t hard to buy. I carefully put it in my bag and headed to the east entrance. There was quite a bit of people in the station, but where is she? I looked around restlessly and then called her.

“Hello.”

“Ah, hey. I’m here. Sorry for being late, where are you?”

“It’s fine, I’m near the stairs, but… found you.”

“The stairs?”

She’s at the above ground exit, when I looked towards the stairs, I saw Aoi waving her hand over here. I wasn’t paying attention to her clothes that day but right now she’s wearing a cute brown duffle coat on a simple white top that shows her figure along with skinny jeans, her style stood out. Furthermore, today, she’s wearing glasses and arranged her hair. I regret not dressing up more, because compared to her previous youthful impression it looks as though she suddenly became more adult-like and beautiful.

I’m wearing a long coat with a jacket similar to the one I wore the same as that day, a blouse and pants. After I motivated myself and gave up about the fact that I can’t change anything about it, I walked at a quick pace towards Aoi who laughed happily.

“Long time no see, thank you for your hard work. Let’s hurry up and go eat. I’m hungry.”

“Yeah, it’s been a long time, sorry for being late. Let’s hurry up and go! If I recall, we have to exit from the east entrance and cross the intersection, right?”

“Uh huh! That’s right!”

We went up the stairs together and then headed towards the restaurant. It’s my first time seeing Aoi with glasses and her hair tied, but it had a very fresh feel to it and her beauty was emphasized.

“Aoi, you’re wearing glasses today, huh. It’s cute. And with your hair tied, the air around you feels different. It’s cute, but the beauty of it also surprised me.

“W-What? Even if you suddenly compliment me. Even if you say something like that… you won’t gain anything from it, you know? Besides… I’ll feel embarrassed.”

“Oh yeah! You’ll gain something from me, here.”

“Huh?”

I remembered the cookies I just bought from Aoi’s words and quickly took them out and handed them to her. The startled and shaken Aoi had an expression as though she had no idea what just happened. Well, that’s only natural.

“It’s my apology for being late even though you were looking forward to today. You know, this is something I’ve been gifted before and it’s really good, so don’t worry.”

“You didn’t need too…”

Let’s give it another push since she seems sorry, I’ll be troubled if she becomes stubborn about it. However, I felt a bit mischievous and so I said in a slightly sad tone.

“It’s fine then, I thought you would be happy, but are you not? Did you hate it? Ahh, I see, that’s how it is… sigh.”

“Y-You’re wrong! I’m happy! I like sweet foods and it’s something you gave me, Yuki! I’m sorry, y-you misunderstood me, didn’t you, I don’t hate it.”

Apparently, it was effective. When I started smirking and laughing, Aoi had an anxious expression of someone who had no idea what was going on.

“? Yuki, what happened?”

“Ahaha, sorry, sorry. I teased you a bit because you were cute. It was funny how you took it seriously.”

“Huh? Geez, don’t tease me… you both scared and worried me.”

“Yes, yes, I said I’m sorry, I won’t do it anymore. C’mon now, that’s the restaurant over there, right?”

I pointed at the restaurant and tapped Aoi’s shoulder who started laughing as if she were relieved. According to Aoi’s reaction, that seems to be the place. Our steps were light.

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