Chapter 73
Ryosaku walks slowly while pushing his bicycle.
After crossing the pedestrian bridge and walking a few meters, there will be a candy store on your right.
Once, when Ryosaku and Mieko were on their way home from school, the two of them would eat ice cream, sweets, and, in winter, oden together on the small bench inside the store. .
Although they didn't have much conversation, they used to spend some relaxing time together.
Mieko herself must have been on her way home from school with Lisa before becoming intimate with Ryosaku, so she must have stopped by here as well.
Ryosaku suddenly remembered that...he parked his bicycle and walked into the small shop.
...Although he hadn't been inside the store in years, nothing had changed from back then.
While the circumstances surrounding Ryosaku, Mieko, and Lisa have changed dramatically, time seems to have completely stopped here.
The sweets lined up in the store, no one buying them, water guns and menko toys all covered in dust... If Ryosaku looks closely, he notices that even though it's still autumn, the store is already stocked with "winter oden" is on sale.
When Ryosaku saw the chikuwa, konnyaku, and boiled egg skewers being served warm in a pot even though it wasn't even cold, he felt very nostalgic and ordered them from the elderly lady at the store.
The shop owner's name was "Chii Omori," and all the children affectionately called him "Chii-chan, Chii-chan"
Aunt Chii remembered Ryosaku.
After talking for a while, the topic of Mieko came up.
As expected from a customer business, Chii-san clearly remembered that she and Ryosaku had only visited this shop a few times.
"You... you ate ice cream here a few times with Mieko-san from that house."
"Yes. Did you remember? I had completely forgotten that I had eaten with her either..."
"After all, I'm in the customer business. I remember all the customers who stopped by my house even once."
Chii-san said that and laughed, then started talking about the situation at Setsu-san's house on her own.
"There's a lot going on at that house...Mieko-chan's mother, Tokiko-san, and her husband, Isao-san, were once on the verge of divorce and lived separately...but it seems like they've gotten back together again.
So, I heard that Mieko and Kaori have started living with their father again. "
Ryosaku thought.
(Teacher Yoshiko said that Mieko-chan returned to her father due to "work reasons", but was that actually not the case?)
（I'm sure she thought that even if she explained the terms "divorce" and "separation" to me as a child, I wouldn't be able to understand, so she told me that... . )
"The grandmother who lives there, Setsu-san, doesn't really like socializing with people.When I visit her, even though we're supposed to get along well, she says, "I'm sorry, but please go home today." I was turned away from the door more than once or twice."
"...Chii-san, I'm talking about Mieko-san... From your perspective, what kind of girl do you think she was...?"
"Well, that's the way you say it, as if she's already dead. She's doing well. Last year and the year before, she always came to my house for ice cream and sweets during Obon during summer vacation. "
"Eh? Mieko-chan came here last year...? Is that true!?"
"Yes, that's right. Ryosaku-kun... right? Haven't you met Mieko-chan? She's grown a lot taller. That's... I'm sure she inherited it from her father. "
That was a surprising fact.
...Mieko stopped by this candy store last year and the year before!
Chii-san continues.
"She...she loves her grandma. Probably even more than her mother, Tokiko-san.When she came here alone from Setsu-san's house during Obon, she always said about her grandmother, Setsu-san. I always wondered if there was anything else to talk about."
(Mieko-chan...didn't you even bring up the subject of me? That's right. I'm just a traumatized person, a "monster" that you don't even want to remember... That's right. ...)
Ryosaku suddenly felt sick, put the half-eaten oden on his plate, paid the money, and was about to leave the store.
Then, Chii-san speaks to Ryosaku's back...
"Ryosaku-kun... if you want to meet Mieko-chan, she'll probably come here again for Obon...
I can't tell you exactly when, but why don't you come as much as you can? On that day, a white car with an Omiya license plate, probably owned by his father, Isao, was parked in Setsu's garden, so I'm sure you'd recognize it right away. Anyway, come and check it out during Obon. "
Ryosaku felt like he was being pushed back by the kind Chii-san...he thanked her obediently and left the store.
On the way home, he thought.
(I see... there's a possibility that I'll be able to meet Mieko-chan during Obon. Even if she doesn't like me anymore... that... that sinful act I did back then... I want to apologize. I sincerely want to apologize to Mieko-chan. Even if we don't get back to our original relationship...!)
In this way, Ryosaku shifts the purpose of meeting Mieko from the near-impossible goal of "restoring their relationship to the way it was" to the lower, more achievable goal of "apologizing and making amends."
