When an Oblivious Handsome Older Man Went Back in Time and Was Building Harlem - Chapter 2

I woke up and lay in bed for a while, dazed.

The time was 5:30. There was morning practice, so I had to get up. But in this surreal moment, I didn’t feel like going to the club activities. Besides, the only friend I still had contact with was the one who was in the same club. I didn’t even remember the names of any of my classmates. It was while I was thinking about such things.

A sharp, piercing pain and a flickering vision in front of me, waves of memories crashing in. Memories that I would have surely recalled normally 20 years ago are flooding into my mind all at once.

“Ugh, ugh…”

What is this pain? As I writhed in pain, I fell out of bed. Then came the nausea. I was unable to withstand the sensation of something rising up from my stomach as I vomited stomach acid onto the floor.

“Akihide, there was a loud noise… Are you okay!? What happened!?”

Probably awakened by the sound of me falling out of bed, my mother comes into my room. Clutching her head, she sees me vomiting and, perhaps regaining her senses, runs over and starts rubbing my back.

“Ugh… ha, ha, I’m okay… ugh… Mom.”

I don’t know why, but I felt like I shouldn’t call her mom here, so I quickly corrected myself and called her mother which I used until I was in college.

“You don’t look fine at all… but did you at least feel better after throwing up?”

It’s a fact that I feel refreshed, so I nod. The reason I didn’t respond was simply because I was exhausted from throwing up and couldn’t speak.

“I think you should go to the hospital, but can you?”

“The hospital is fine. If I rest, I’ll get better.”

“That’s impossible! Throwing up all of a sudden… But if you want to sleep, I guess I won’t force you to go to the hospital… So for now, just rest for the day. Mom will contact the school. I’ll also clean up here, so just sleep on the living room sofa for a while. I’ll call you when I’m done… Got it?”

I used to feel the “appreciation for my parents” from time to time, but I haven’t felt it this clearly since I started living alone. It’s been a really long time since I’ve felt appreciation for my parents.

“Thank you… Mom.”

“What’s wrong? You’re being so honest, it’s creepy. Normally, you only say ‘yeah, yeah.’ Well, whatever. For now, let’s just focus on getting you back to health.”

“I know.”

While holding my still throbbing head, I made my way to the living room on the first floor. After rinsing my mouth and washing my face in the bathroom, feeling somewhat refreshed, I took my regular headache medicine and went back to sleep.

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A gentle, pleasant aroma wakes me up.

“Oh, you’re awake. Mom’s going to her part-time job now, but I made some egg porridge for you, so just heat it up and eat it. Oh, and I’ve already cleaned your room. I even used disinfectant spray and aired it out. Alright, I’m off!”

“…Take care.”

After saying that, my mother put the finished egg porridge into a bowl, placed it on the table, and left for her part-time job. The good smell of the eggs and broth indeed makes me feel hungry. I don’t know for sure since I don’t have my phone with me, but since she left for her part-time job, I must have been sleeping quite a bit.

I peel off the wrap and take a bite of the porridge. The nostalgic taste spreads in my mouth, and I think, maybe this isn’t a dream after all. Moreover, the pain and nausea I felt earlier, no, even now, are so real that I can’t possibly think this is a dream.

Thanks to the memories that just flooded in, I can suddenly recall the names of classmates whose names I couldn’t remember before. Is this phenomenon something like the time leaps often seen in light novels?

(I can’t believe something like this is happening to me…)

If I wake up again and this situation is still the same, I might as well give up gracefully and enjoy this second high school life.