Chapter 13
On the way home, when Ryosaku saw Mieko's house for the first time, he was surprised at how small it looked.
"Four people live in such a small house..."
The house had no nameplate, but instead had the names of the four inhabitants handwritten in small letters on a crude wooden board.
"Setsu Yamada", "Tokiko Minegishi", "Kaori Minegishi", "Mieko Minegishi"
Tokiko must be Mieko's mother. And "Setsu Yamada"" is Mieko's grandmother. After seeing Mieko enter the front door, Ryosaku looked at this board for a while.
When Ryosaku casually glanced at the garden, it seemed to be a fairly large area, about twice the size of the main house.
...Mieko must be playing here every day.
"By the way, what kind of person is her father?"
It was a natural question, but it was not yet time for Ryosaku to find out.
And this small house will eventually become the central stage of the story... Of course, Ryosaku had no way of knowing that.
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Once he knew where his house was, Ryosaku's excitement increased when he went to school.
This was because when Ryosaku's school group arrived near the house, she could sometimes be seen coming out of the front door with her sister.
Or he would find her in a row in a squad.
Although they always spent their break time and school time together, seeing each other on their way to school felt like a special event.
When the two of them went to school, the other children who belonged to the group would see them, and moreover, they would go to school side by side on the narrow road where the cars on the morning commute would come and go.
That's why Ryosaku and Mieko put up with their feelings of wanting to play around together, and only smiled when they made eye contact...that's the unspoken rule that was set in place.
And the two of them exploded the frustration they had been holding back at that time all at once during their break.
On such a day, the two of them made their "communication" even more intense than on the day they didn't meet when they went to school.
Even though they were both children, and they didn't have a proper conversation, they were able to fully understand each other's feelings.
