Having Had My Bride Stolen, I Just Want to Live Peacefully - Chapter 31

Evening hour.

It was a grave visit in the afternoon, but it took time to travel by train because it was far from the grave to the destination.

I wonder if Nene-chan would be there, and if she had been there, she would have already left.

I couldn’t control my excitement and after getting off the station, I was running.

Sweat falls both in running heart rate and in the heat of summer.

I hear cicadas chirping from afar. It’s not the summer season yet, but there must be some who came out early.

It may end its life by singing alone without meeting any other cicadas.

And I’m relieved to see my destination at last.

Her black and red hair fluttered beyond my sight, reflecting the setting sun. It’s Nene-chan.

She looked surprised, perhaps because she saw me running.

That’s good, I thought she could run away if we met, but I don’t think I need to worry about that.

“Haa, haa. Nene-chan was here after all.”

When I got right in front of her, I spoke to her, breathing on my shoulder.

“Arata-san, why are you here?”

“Because today is the first day I met Nene-chan.”

The place where Nene-chan and I were was on a bridge that we stopped by on our way home from Nene-chan’s part-time job.

This is the first place we’ve ever met.

And I thought she might be here because it was our first day.

“And you told me before that Nene-chan cherishes this place, didn’t you?”　

Nene-chan said that she likes to stop by on her way home and look at the scenery.

Nene-chan looked confused, but I continued without worrying about her.

“I met Nene-chan’s mother today.”

“I see…”

Nene-chan, who guessed everything from my atmosphere and one word, looked down and murmured a little.

“You’ve heard it all.”

“Aah, yes.”

“Then why did you come to see me?”

Nene-chan turns to me with a very painful face.

I have something to tell Nene-chan.

“I wanted to say thank you.”

“Nene-chan’s been lying to Arata-san for a long time?”

“That doesn’t matter. Everything Nene-chan did for me was true, and just because the trigger was a lie, that’s a trivial thing. Therefore.”

―Thank you.

I bowed my head and thanked Nene-chan again.

“Don’t do that, Arata-san, for Nene is not such a good child as to be appreciated. Nene made a reason to hurt Arata-san…”

Nene-chan spoke as she was about to burst into tears.

“There’s one thing I regret. Three years ago today, Nene-chan remained the same…”

“No, don’t be joking.”

Nene-chan continues, shaking off her restraint.

“I don’t think Arata-san would have been hurt if I had just jumped out of here.”

The silence was as if time had stopped.

I had flashbacks of that day in my head.

It was a deep night when the rainy season was over and summer was just beginning when I had difficulty sleeping.

A girl was standing on the railing of a bridge.

When I first saw her, I thought it was a ghost or something.

For her vision was so dark that she seemed to stand on the railing as if she were floating in the air.

It was a very unrealistic sight.

I had been stunned for a while, but then I began to run when I recognized her substance.

“What are you doing!!”

She drew her limp and helpless body.

And she neither called nor resisted, but only one word,

“I want to be out of this world.”

She said heartbrokenly.

My heart tightened at the thought of what had happened before the words came out of the young girl’s mouth.

“It may be irresponsible to understand nothing, but I still want you to live.”

Then I contacted the police and had her protected.

Nene-chan wouldn’t leave me, so I talked to her properly until the police came, and until her parents came to the police station.

It seemed that she had been bullied at school.

It seems that the reason was that there were two groups of friends, and it became a question of which of them they belonged to.

Trouble between friends is common in junior high school.

Nene-chan was playing with both groups because she had close friends, but she didn’t seem to like their attitude, so she gradually became isolated because she couldn’t play with either group.

It seems that even her friends who were close at that time were afraid to leave the group, so they didn’t get involved properly.

Since then, she has not only become isolated but has also been subjected to terrible things.

When I tried to listen to the content, tears welled up and I couldn’t stop, so I didn’t listen to it.

“Arata-san, who happened to pass by that day, saved me. But that led you to get involved with the Fujisaki family, and that’s what happened…”

At first, there was talk of making Nene-chan’s fiance, but she decided that she was a young girl and that she was still mentally unstable, so I got engaged to her sister Himeno.

“As I told Yui-san, it’s true that Nene, who was saved that day, wanted to support the injured Arata-san this time. At first, I didn’t have the courage to say no… So I went to see you for a reason.”

I listened in silence to her story.

“In the beginning, I was glad and happy to see Arata-san, but I felt more and more guilty about lying and going to see you. I was going to tell you one day, but I couldn’t help it because I was afraid you wouldn’t like me…”

Nene-chan said as she looked down little by little.

I’d like to accept it without any context.

“And I didn’t know what to do after I realized indirectly that the reason why Arata-san got hurt was because of Nene.”

At that time, Nene-chan gave an introduction.

“I heard of Arata-san going to America. I thought it would be a good time to leave now. Then I won’t be caught lying, and it’s all for your own protection. I’m not as good as you think I was.”

I understood why she came to my house and why she left.

“I’m disillusioned, aren’t I?”

She asked me in a voice that was about to disappear.

No, it’s not.

Nene-chan has one big misunderstanding.

“You are not disillusioned. People’s minds sometimes lie, and there are many things that don’t work logically, because I do. I told you that I wanted you to live that day, didn’t I?”

“Well… you’re doing your best because those words resonated so much?”

“I’m glad to hear that, but I don’t know which mouth says it to me. For―”

I took a breath and I said.

“I was going to jump out of here that day.”