It’s Too Early to be Having Newlywed Syndrome! ~Childhood Friends Who Rekindled their Love for Each Other ~ - 4 - 8 - I’m Really Glad that I was Able to Meet You
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- It’s Too Early to be Having Newlywed Syndrome! ~Childhood Friends Who Rekindled their Love for Each Other ~
- 4 - 8 - I’m Really Glad that I was Able to Meet You
I’m Really Glad that I was Able to Meet You
After that, the happy circle of the seven continued.
The focus of the topic was on Naoto. Many of them just became acquainted with each other yesterday and today, and naturally everyone present doesn’t now many of the stories about Naoto of the past.
With a smile, Haruka recounted a memory of hers.
“——So then, sometimes when we’re on class duty, there were times were the ‘ta’ in ‘Morita’ gets erased on the board, and my previous surname is Mori, so it looked like the class duty for the day was Mori and Mori and it was so confusing, so we just had an agreement among the girls to refer to Morita-kun as ‘Morimori’, and write that in katakana whenever his on class duty.
So of course, our teacher would ask ‘Who’s this Morimori?’, right? Then Morita-kun would awkwardly answer with something like ‘Ah, that’s me….’ I felt bad for him, so I said ‘I’m sorry, it was my fault.’, and that’s how we became friends, right?”
Haruka, happily asked Naoto.
Naoto made a face like he’s not the one being talked about.
“No, I don’t remember that. Is that the reason we’re friends?”
He asked.
“Eh——?! You’re so mean. Or rather than mean, I was somewhat embarrassed.”
“Somehow, I only remember that were not that close in the beginning.”
“When we were assigned to neighboring seats, we talked too much that we were scolded by teach, remember?”
“Did we become seat neighbors? Maybe at that time, I don’t have a crush on you yet.”
“Remember, you always roll your gym clothes when you store them and they always end up lumpy, so I showed you how you should store them, then from then on you always fold them before keeping them away.”
“Tachibana-san’s the one who thought me how to do that?”
“Yes”
“Like, I should fold the sleeves first kind of thing?”
Naoto looked at Haruka while making gestures.
“Yes, that’s it!”
“I don’t really remember, but there’s no way I would learn to fold it on my own, so maybe that’s what really happened.”
“Morita-kun, somehow today your replies were very on the fly, or maybe it’s just because you’re very relaxed right now.”
“Ah, is this kind of half-baked attitude making things unpleasant?”
“No, it’s the opposite. Currently, whenever I know that a guy is being nervous around me, there are times when the nervousness also infects me. So I want you to stay relaxed like that.”
“What, then I just need to keep being at ease.”
“That’s right, but back at middle school, you we’re not like that at all, so it’s somewhat interesting.”
“That’s because, I like Mori-san only as a friend now. There’s no need buttering up to you.”
“Eeh—, you’ve become very honest.”
“Have you come to dislike me?”
“The current you is better, I think.”
“If that’s the case, then I’m happy. That’s because I believed this person when she told me she’ll make me grow up.”
While saying that, Naoto looked at Natsuki.
“Somehow, the way you word things have become mature, Morita-kun.”
“Is that so? I don’t really know about it myself, though. I just felt I I now have a bigger attitude. At this rate, it looks like everyone will come to hate me, so it’s a bit scary.”
“I’m not talking about a bad thing like that, I just thought that you’re now able to speak what’s on your mind.”
“Well, I wasn’t able to honestly apologize to this person—-Natsuki-san—- for many years, and I wasn’t able to mend our friendship for a long time, I’ve just come to think how important it is to convey my feelings.”
“Eh?! Wait a minute, wait a minute, er…… when you said you weren’t able to apologize to her for many years……”
Haruka began to think of something.
“By any chance, was the person who Morita-kun did something awful to and wanted forgiveness from, was Natsuki-san?”
“Why do you know about that?”
“You wrote it on your essay.”
“I didn’t write it though.”
“That thing where we need to make an essay about promises.”
“Huh? I do remember that we made that kind of essay.”
“So listen. During our Japanese Language class, after a reading of ‘Run, Melos!’ we were tasked to make an essay about an experience of being glad for being able to keep a promise, or about promises in general.
Morita-kun was the fastest to submit his work, like, in just in a blink of an eye, you’re already done, and what’s more, the teacher okayed your submission on the first try without any comments of corrections or revisions. I was surprised when I saw your composition appear in a pamphlet afterwards. I thought it was amazing how you felt, and how you immediately made it into an essay.”
“What did I write there again?”
“It was short, so I can recite them word for word. That an essay doesn’t need to be very lengthy, I was touched.”
“Word for word?! Ah— but Tachibana-san was able to memorize all poems in Hyakunin Isshu, after all.”
(TL note: Hyakunin Isshu is a classical Japanese anthology of 100 waka (poetry) by 100 poets.)
“Is it okay if I say it?”
“I don’t really remember its contents, so I’m embarrassed to hear it. Is it really about Natsuki? Is it something that’s okay to be said?”
Naoto became so anxious that he asked Haruka.
“Did you do awful stuff to many people?”
“No, no! Just to Natsuki.”
“Then, it would probably be alright, I think. I’ll try to think back on your essay.”
After saying that, Haruka closed her eyes, and began reading Naoto’s essay in her mind.
Feeling that if they say something, it will just be an interference, everybody refrained from speaking.
Naoto pitched forward a little, and while stroking his chin, he looked at Haruka’s closed eyes without hesitation. Next, he stared at Natsuki, then tried to touch her eyelashes with his hand. When Natsuki shook off his hand in surprise, as payback, she touched Naoto’s eyelashes with her fingertips many times.
Seeing Naoto with half-opened eyes and looking scared, everyone around had it rough holding back their laughter.
Seconds after Natsuki and Naoto stopped messing around, Haruka opened her eyes,
“It’s definitely safe. I recited it twice in my head, but I found no reason for Natsuki-san to be mad about it.”
She gave her seal of approval.
“Somewhat, I’m ready to apologize if it’s wrong, so hit it.”
Because of messing around with Natsuki, Naoto has calmed down considerably.
“Then, please wait one moment.”
After wetting her throat with juice, Haruka began reciting.
“ Never Again
Morita Naoto
Once I have a friend I dearly cherished.
However, to the kindness that friend had for me, I paid back with cruel betrayal. There’s no way that I’ll be forgiven, but I always wished I could return to that day.
If, sometime in the future, she came to forgive me, I would surely cry tears of joy. And then, I would swear that I would never betray her again.
That’s because there’s nothing more precious to me in this world than that girl’s kindness.”
Because of too much embarrassment, Naoto plopped to the table.
“Uwa—…… I wrote that, I now remember that I wrote that.”
Knowing that his cheeks were heating up, Naoto doesn’t want to lift his face for the time being.
However, with the next words from Sakurako, he couldn’t help but raise his head.
“Morita-kun, Natsuki’s crying.”
When Naoto raised his upper body, maybe due to being on her limit, Natsuki embraced him and started crying.
“A—-a, Natsuki now cried aloud two days in a row.”
Naoto laughed while stroking Natsuki’s head.
“But for me to forget making such an essay.”
“The author himself forgot about it? You don’t even have the faintest memory of writing it?”
Haruka asked.
“Rather, why did Haruka-san remember such an essay? I don’t look like one to remember the whole essay of others, not even those I made. Tachibana-san, did you remember your own essay?”
“I don’t remember my own, but I fairy remember things like Morita-kun’s graduation anthology. It’s just today that I happened to remember an essay of yours word for word.”
“Eh? How about Iida’s essay?”
“I don’t remember it. Iida-kun’s composition felt like they we’re written reluctantly, so they’re not interesting at all. I can’t remember them at all.
It’s the same with the other three people who had their essays on the same pamphlet as Morita-kun’s. They were all about being glad about keeping a promise, and with the run-of-the-mill contents and length, I don’t remember them at all.
Only Morita-kun wrote in the format of ‘If It happens like this then I promise this’ by writing ‘And then, I would swear that I would never betray her again’. I thought that I definitely wouldn’t be able to write such a thing, I got excited by myself. I like unusual essays better, you know.”
“As I thought, I still can’t get my head to understand the fact that you read my composition fully, and memorized it because it interested you.”
“I’m kinda not normal after all. On days off while wondering if I could compose my own song, I noisily played the guitar on my room. But I couldn’t make a good lyric, so I’m really in awe with Morita-kun’s essay.”
“No, it’s just because I put some pretty words into my essay. It’s just like wondering how I would think if I’m in a good mood, that’s all there is to it.
Even in writing lyrics, won’t you be able to form one by combining pretty words? Aren’t there lyrics that were like, ‘this is too over did a saint wrote this’?”
“I can’t make something like that. I haven’t completed even one song though.”
“Maybe it’s because you’re thinking too hard about it. With your first song, wouldn’t it be good enough making it in one day, just make up some easy phrases in rapid succession, and for the mean time, setting the goal to just complete a song?
I heard that there are some musicians who, whenever they’re in a slump, what they do instead is to limit themselves in using only words that can be understood even by grade schoolers, when they make it like nursery rhymes, it seems like they can make five songs in five hours.”
“Then, try making one in an hour, Morita-kun.”
“Why me?! I don’t want to, it’s a bother making one!”
“E—-h, even though it looks like it’ll be interesting.”
“That way of saying it, doesn’t it sound like you’re pressuring me to do it? You asked me to do it with extreme lightheartedness, it surprised me.”
“It’s not like I’m lightheartedly asking you to do it. I really like Morita-kun’s composition very much, I thought you would really be able to make one.”
“I don’t understand the sense of someone who likes a essay written by a person who’s practically a no one to that extent at all. I immediately that the message you wrote on my yearbook was ‘Let’s keep each other posted’, you know.”
“I remember what Morita-kun wrote in mine. ‘I’m really glad that I was able to meet you. I wish you happiness.’”
“Why do you remember that?”
“That’s because, in our middle school no other person wrote to the same extent as yours. Everyone wrote ‘Stay healthy’, but no one wrote ‘Be happy’ on mine.”
“Maybe they just haven’t wrote it. Nagatomo-san, even you want Tachibana-san to be happy, right?”
Makoto, who was asked such question, made a face like she’s in a little bit of a bind.
“Nn—–? Well, I do, but I won’t write something like ‘I want you to be happy’. It’s embarrassing after all. I haven’t even said that to someone before. What was written before it again?”
“It’s ‘I’m really glad that I was able to meet you’, right?”
“I wouldn’t be able to write something like that. That already sounds like a love letter.”
“Is that so? I think of everyone here that ‘I’m really glad I was able to meet you’ though.
First, there’s Natsuki of course, I’m glad that I met her?
Ninomiya-san and Hirose-san listened to me when I asked them for advice yesterday. They also accompanied us here today in meeting up with Tachibana-san. I’m glad that I met the two of them.
It was thanks to Nagatomo-san that we’re able to reunite with Tachibana-san without any trouble. I’m glad that I met Nagatomo-san.
That I was able to meet Tachibana-san today and listen to your story, that’s also a case of ‘I’m really glad that I was able to meet you’, isn’t it?”
“You don’t have anything to say about me?”
Iida, whose name didn’t come up, asked in complaint.
“From Iida, I received the most help in the most trivial situations, though…… Ah, if Iida didn’t invite me to apply for that part-time job, then maybe I wouldn’t be able to reach out to Natsuki that well in the first place.
Once I got used to greeting and talking with people at my part-time job, I became able to give a bow to Natsuki or give way to her whenever we pass by each other at school.
Also, the women who accepted my kindness and concern without doubting my sincerity. That there are many people like that, I got an actual feeling of it at my part-time job. I think that’s the reason why I was able to reach out a bit to Natsuki and Tachibana-san.”
“Ah—-, that could certainly be the case. When I listen to you today, you’re really sound ore of an adult than me now.”
Iida was satisfied with Naoto’s answer.
Naoto once again looked around the table.
“Well, because of that, I really owe it to everyone here. If me being alone wasn’t good enough, then everything wouldn’t turn out like this today, so I’m so thankful I really want to treat everyone to what we ate here, though. I did maybe eat about 2,000-yen worth of food today.”
“You went out of your way to come here to meet up with me, so at least let me pay for what you ate. This is one of those times you should say ‘I’m glad I met you’, right?”
When Haruka said that, laughter reverberated from their table.