Chapter 104
Moving to the training building, Ryosaku showed Rika to one of the training rooms he regularly uses.
The room was a sort of temporary "study room" for students to use when writing records for training etc.
In the messy room, the two of them sat on round chairs... and Ryosaku began by talking about the "roasted suckling pig" that they had talked about earlier.
"...But anyway, Rika-chan, that piglet thing from earlier...it looked delicious! I'm sure it's also being served to the general public, so let's go eat it after this."
"No. Sorry, Ryosaku-kun. I'm not interested in roasted pigs...I don't even want to eat them."
"Rika-chan...did I do something to upset you? You seem really grumpy today..."
"Ryosaku-kun...what do you think of me?"
"Oh...what do you mean?"
"Ryosaku-kun, you've really changed...where did the kind Ryosaku-kun who loved me back then go? Did you?Since then, I've been waiting for Ryosaku-kun to contact me. But you never contacted me. Every time I called you, you pretended not to be home..."
"...Rika-chan, I'm sorry. I was going through a lot at the time too. You know, my studies were a complete mess, weren't they...? So..."
"Ryosaku-kun, if you had those kinds of worries, I would always have listened to you. Why didn't you come to me for more advice... I'm your girlfriend, right? Am I not?"
Ryosaku was worried.
Rika didn't know that the situation surrounding Ryosaku had changed drastically since then...
Just like Lisa, he wondered if it was okay to make Rika, who cared about him, feel the same pain and loneliness as Lisa.
But he made a decision.
Just like in Lisa's case, he realized that he could no longer tolerate a hanging, half-hearted attitude, and that he had a duty to officially report to Rika the information about his and Mieko's repaired relationship.
To continue to hesitate, be indecisive, and ambiguous would be disrespectful to Rika, and above all, as a person and as a man, he had to draw a line under it.
After a long, long consideration, Ryosaku finally made the decision to tell Rika the truth of what had happened.
