Goodnight, See You Tomorrow: Chapter 12
Sweet Little Life
After returning home from his morning work, Sakutaro
sat down on the veranda and began writing in his large notebook. He recorded
the day’s appointments, conversations with clients, and other general details.
It was an essential ritual for him, one that grounded his daily life. Once
everything was written down, he closed the notebook with a soft thud.
“Tsumugi, I’m done. Shall we have lunch now?”
he called toward the room.
“Okay,” came the cheerful reply.
Tsumugi never interrupted Sakutaro when he was
writing in his notebook. Whether they had planned a meal or an outing, Tsumugi
would quietly occupy himself—reading, tidying up, or working on his own tasks.
This unspoken consideration helped Sakutaro stay focused without feeling
pressured to hurry.
“The weather’s nice. Let’s eat on the veranda
today,” Tsumugi suggested from the other room.
“Good idea,” Sakutaro said, standing up to
help.
Lunch was chilled somen noodles, their first of
the season as the weather had turned suddenly hot. The noodles were served in a
flavorful sauce topped with tomato, okra, and tuna, with a drizzle of spicy
chili oil for an extra kick.
“This is delicious. I really like it,” Sakutaro
said as he ate.
Tsumugi smiled warmly. “You liked it last year
too, remember?”
“Did I?”
“Yeah. That’s why I decided to make it again
this year. We could try using pork shabu-shabu instead of tuna next time.”
“That sounds good,” Sakutaro agreed as they
discussed variations, slurping their noodles in harmony.
Even though Tsumugi had said Sakutaro liked the
dish last year, the memory was vague and hazy for him, like something faintly
familiar yet out of reach. In the past, this uncertainty would have bothered
him, compelling him to search through old notebooks to confirm. But not
anymore.
If it was a minor, everyday thing that caused
no harm, Sakutaro had learned to let it go and embrace the moment. Maybe
it’s because Tsumugi naturally does the same.
“Yeah, that’s why I’ll make it again this
year,” Tsumugi had said.
Even if I forget, Tsumugi remembers for me.
At first, Sakutaro had tried to conceal his
condition as much as possible, but over time, as they lived together, the lines
between relying on each other and coexisting blurred into something woven like
colorful threads. Their relationship had become like a quilt—stitched together
imperfectly but beautiful when spread wide. There was no need to force the
patterns to match.
“I’m glad we built this veranda,” Tsumugi said,
squinting contentedly at the backyard.
“Yeah, the greenery is especially vibrant this
time of year,” Sakutaro replied.
At the edge of summer, the vegetable garden
thrived with growing vigor. Between the leafy gaps, red tomatoes had just begun
to ripen.
It had been seven years since Sakutaro and
Tsumugi began living together on the first floor of the apartment that Sakutaro’s
grandfather had passed on to him. Their home consisted of a living room, a
bedroom, and Tsumugi’s office. The veranda was a recent addition, constructed
last autumn during repairs to fix worn-out sections of the building.
Over these seven years, the residents of the
apartment had changed.
The single father, Kanami, and his son had
moved out after successfully remarrying. Ellie, ever the romantic, had moved
out three months ago to live with a new boyfriend, though he had already moved
back in three times for the same reason. They decided not to rent out his unit
for a while, anticipating his potential fourth return.
Nira, the reclusive gamer, had been pressured
by his surroundings to start a game development company two years ago to offset
increasing taxes. He now lived in an upscale apartment in Roppongi, though he
still preferred to stay indoors. Seto, unchanged from the past, continued
living on the second floor, though he was currently in Canada scaling mountains
and wouldn’t return until the fall.
Sakutaro glanced at Tsumugi as they enjoyed the
serene, sunlit veranda, feeling an unspoken gratitude for the quiet rhythm of
their shared life.
Everyone has changed, and yet they haven’t.
Seven years is just enough time to look back
with a vague sense of longing.
A soft breeze drifted through, and a clear
chime rang above Sakutaro’s head.
It was the wind chime he had hung that morning.
Tsumugi had taken it out from the storage box
of summer items, and Sakutaro had used a step stool to hang it. The glass wind
chime, adorned with black and red goldfish swimming in a circle as if chasing
each other’s tails, was something they had bought together at a shrine market
last year. He remembered how rare it was for Tsumugi to ask for something so
directly. If it’s something like this, I’d buy you ten, twenty if you
wanted.
The early summer breeze blew again, brushing Sakutaro’s
cheek and the wind chime, filling the air with its delicate, clear tone. From
inside the house, the sound of Tsumugi washing dishes accompanied the peaceful
moment. Sakutaro closed his eyes, basking in the contentment.
“Sorry, it’s just… it still feels like a
dream.”
Tsumugi’s bashful smile and voice floated into
his mind. He pictured a slightly younger Tsumugi. When was this? He
chased the memory in his mind and realized it was from their first night living
together. Those two years when they couldn’t be together despite loving each
other had finally ended, and on that night, Tsumugi had said those words.
What did I say in response? He couldn’t quite remember.
But now, Sakutaro realized he felt the same way
Tsumugi had back then.
This life is so blissful, it feels like a
dream.
Since being diagnosed with amnesia as a result
of the accident, Sakutaro’s life had changed drastically. His collection of
notebooks had grown steadily, but there was no way to reread all of them every
day. He couldn’t tell whether past events still existed in his mind or had been
lost entirely.
The doctor had recommended a sleek tablet—it
was compact and allowed easy searches by date or keyword. Yet for Sakutaro, the
intricate human brain, despite its flaws, was far more precise than any
machine. And knowing that his own was broken, he found himself mistrusting not
just machines and data but even people.
No, it wasn’t others I couldn’t trust—it was
myself.
When the diagnosis first came, it had terrified
him. What’s going to happen to me? He imagined memories slipping away
like coins through a hole in his pocket. No one would notice or tell him what
he had lost because memories weren’t tangible. And when he dropped the last
one, would he lose himself entirely?
The moment that thought crossed his mind, his
legs gave out. He collapsed in the hospital corridor, his strength drained.
Nurses moved around him, bustling with purpose, as he lay on the bed in the
treatment room, staring at them with deadened eyes.
I’m still alive, but I feel like I’ve been
killed.
Life ahead seemed like a slow, inevitable march
toward the gallows. Every step would bring him closer to a terrifying
destination. He wished someone would walk beside him, and as soon as that
thought surfaced, tears began to fall.
But he realized something cruel: he no longer
deserved a partner. Asking someone he loved to walk this dark, frightening path
with him was unthinkable. Even if he did, they would refuse. How could they
not?
In the face of such bleakness, having family
offered some solace. His parents and grandfather would pass before him, but not
right away. In the meantime, they could support each other, prepare for the
inevitable, and face the loss together. He could brace himself for the time
when he’d be left alone with his illness.
I’ll live on my own.
Even when he managed to smile again, that
resolve remained at the core of his heart.
Sakutaro had met Tsumugi during that time of
his life.
He had encountered Tsumugi’s novels much
earlier.
One story had featured a protagonist grappling
with mental illness, a character barreling toward ruin. Yet, within the pages
of that novel, the protagonist wasn’t condemned. The sick and the healthy, the
good and the bad—they all floated together within the same vessel, never once
cast out.
When Sakutaro read that story, he felt as
though he had been forgiven. It’s okay for you to stay here, it seemed
to say. He had wished fervently to meet the person who had saved him through
those words. He wanted to tell him how his story had given him hope. That
writer had been Tsumugi. And now, Tsumugi was by his side, his partner in life.
“Sorry, it’s just… it still feels like a
dream.”
In his mind, a younger Tsumugi smiled
sheepishly once again.
If this is a dream, I think I might cry when I
wake up.
Sakutaro narrowed his eyes against the vibrant
green of the vegetable garden.
◇:-:◆:-:◇
When Sakutaro finished his afternoon work, he
stopped by the supermarket to buy ingredients for dinner. Walking through the
aisles with a basket in hand, he flipped through his “meal notebook.” Unlike
the journal he used to chronicle the events of his day, this notebook held
notes on Tsumugi’s likes, dislikes, and the dishes he had complimented. Lunch
had been somen noodles—what should they have for dinner? Tsumugi preferred
lighter meals.
Sakutaro usually cooked dinner. Since Tsumugi’s
writing flow picked up in the afternoons and evenings, it naturally became Sakutaro’s
role to prepare meals, except on days when his handyman work kept him late. At
first, Tsumugi had hesitated to leave the responsibility to him, but once
engrossed in writing, he couldn’t pull himself away. Eventually, he began
leaving it to Sakutaro without protest. In this way, day after day, their two
gears turned smoothly and harmoniously together.
At the meat section, Sakutaro picked up some
pork loin for ginger stir-fry, which was on sale. Tsumugi had always been
slender, and the summer heat tended to wear him down further. Sakutaro wanted
to help him stay strong and healthy.
“Since I started eating the same meals as Sakutaro-san,
my summer fatigue hasn’t been as bad.”
Tsumugi, now 42 years old, had said that with a
gentle smile. When he smiled, faint lines formed at the corners of his eyes,
softening his already kind expression. On nights when he seemed especially
delicate, Sakutaro would fill the table with meat dishes. Tsumugi would laugh
and say, “I can’t eat all this,” while Sakutaro, embarrassed, would smile back,
silently praying for him to stay healthy and live a long life.
After dinner, they spent their evenings
together. Sitting at the low dining table in the living room, Sakutaro wrote in
his notebook about the day’s events while Tsumugi worked on his manuscripts.
Though Tsumugi used his computer for professional work in his office, he wrote Sakutaro-san
no Koto by hand. Whether it was before or after they started living
together, Tsumugi continued to write short, personal stories every two or three
days and always let Sakutaro read them first.
Sakutaro wondered what Tsumugi was writing
about now. Could it be about the somen noodles with okra, tuna, and tomatoes
they had for lunch? While he thought about it, the wind chime on the veranda
jingled. Its cool, clear sound caught his attention.
“Feels like a classic Japanese summer. When did
we put it up?”
“This morning,” Tsumugi replied.
Glancing at his notebook, Sakutaro saw that he
had indeed written about the wind chime. A wave of disappointment washed over
him. I forgot again. But he didn’t apologize. Across the table, Tsumugi
continued writing with his fountain pen, unbothered.
Lately, Sakutaro felt that his symptoms were
worsening. The pattern of memory loss was unpredictable. Sometimes he vividly
recalled events from long ago, while other times, like now, he forgot things as
recent as that morning. Precious memories slipped away, while trivial ones
lingered. No matter how much he tried to laugh it off or agonize over it, the
forgetting happened suddenly, without warning. When it came to his illness,
there was nothing he could control.
Amid this, there was only one thing Sakutaro
could do: not make the person beside him sad. He couldn’t mourn what was lost
or pretend it didn’t matter. He had to accept himself as he was now, difficult
as it was. How could he embrace a flawed version of himself, one so different
from who he used to be?
And yet, Tsumugi said he loved the Sakutaro of
today. Each day, Tsumugi picked up the coins that fell from the holes in Sakutaro’s
metaphorical pocket, holding them gently in his hand as they walked forward
together. When Sakutaro forgot, Tsumugi remembered. When Sakutaro asked the
same question over and over, Tsumugi patiently answered it every time. Each
repetition deepened Sakutaro’s affection for him, piling up like the stack of
handwritten short stories that Tsumugi lovingly crafted every evening.
"Shall we start peeling the peaches, Sakutaro-san?"
Tsumugi put down his fountain pen and stood up.
"Yeah, they should be chilled by
now."
In the kitchen sink sat a stainless steel bowl
filled with icy water, where large peaches floated. They were a gift from a
house Sakutaro visited for work earlier that day—peaches from Okayama, famed
for their quality, sent by a relative. Their fuzzy skin glistened as the ice
water repelled the moisture.
"Peeling peaches is always fun."
Tsumugi made a precise cut along the natural
seam, splitting the peach cleanly in two, much like an avocado. The half
without the pit was sliced into pieces, while the half with the pit was
sectioned further until the flesh separated. Only then did he peel away the
skin.
"Here you go."
A glass dish filled with neatly arranged peach
slices was set on the low dining table.
"Impressive. Peeling peaches is one thing
I’m no good at."
"Peaches are delicate. You press too hard,
Sakutaro-san."
As they chatted, Tsumugi speared a slice with a
toothpick and handed it over with a soft "Here."
A tiny insect buzzed close, drawn by the sweet
scent.
"Looks like we need to start using
mosquito repellents. Do we have any left in the wicker chest?"
"Nope, the one we had—the pig-shaped
one—broke last year when it fell."
"Anything flat, like a saucer, will
do."
"No," Tsumugi said firmly, which was
rare for him. "It has to be the pig."
"Why the pig?"
"My grandmother used to use one at her
house," he explained.
"Ah, I see."
Sakutaro was sure he’d heard this story before,
probably several times.
"Okay, let’s pick one up next weekend. Oh,
and let’s get you some new sandals while we’re out."
"That’s fine. These can last a bit
longer."
"No, they can’t. Sandals leave your feet
exposed—you’re more likely to get hurt."
"You're such a worrier, Sakutaro-san."
"Is it annoying?"
"It’s sweet."
Tsumugi smiled and playfully pinched Sakutaro’s
nose. A soft, sweet scent wafted between them.
"Oh."
"What?"
"You smell like peaches."
"Well, I was peeling them just now."
Tsumugi brought his fingers to his nose,
sniffing lightly. His slender, long fingers bore a delicate platinum ring on
the fourth finger of his left hand. Naturally, an identical ring adorned Sakutaro’s
own left hand.
The faint fragrance of peaches lingered in the
air, mingling with the gentle chime of the wind bell on the veranda.
Time passed with idle, happy conversation, so
sweet it made Sakutaro want to cry.
──What if I made you even happier?
If god offered to turn back time, to before the
accident, Sakutaro would refuse. That accident, however painful, had led him to
meet Tsumugi. If undoing it meant losing Tsumugi, then the life he had now was
far better.
But if he could ask for one thing, just one
request to god, it would be this:
God, please, let me spend as much time with
Tsumugi as possible.
Losing my memories is nothing compared to
losing Tsumugi. That is the greater sadness.
◇:-:◆:-:◇
When Sakutaro sat on the veranda, listening to
the sound of the wind chimes, Tsugumi called to him from the living room,
"It's time for lunch."
Today's lunch was somen noodles. The humid heat
had been relentless, and the chilled noodles sliding smoothly down his throat
felt refreshing. White noodles floated in a bowl of water, cooled with ice, and
the dipping sauce was accompanied by ginger and scallions. He vaguely recalled
that their somen usually had more toppings every year... or maybe he was
mistaken.
“Is it good?” he was asked from across the
table.
Sakutaro nodded with a smile.
“If there’s anything you’d like to eat, let me
know.”
“Anything you make is delicious, Tsugumi.”
Tsumugi’s eyes softened, though his expression
seemed tinged with sadness. Just as Sakutaro was about to ask what was wrong,
the wind chime on the veranda rang again.
“Such a lovely sound…” Tsumugi murmured,
tilting his head slightly to listen.
The breeze ruffled Tsumugi’s hair. Lately, he’d
been growing it out and now tied it back in a single ponytail with a scrunchie
that looked like a polka-dotted fabric coiled into a circle. When Sakutaro said
it was cute, Tsumugi had smiled modestly and explained it was called a shushu.
When Sakutaro joked that it made him look like a young girl, Tsumugi had
laughed softly.
The afternoon heat was stifling, so he spent
the time leisurely. The heat had been especially harsh lately, sapping his
energy. A couch was brought out to the veranda, shaded by bamboo blinds, where
he could relax in the natural breeze.
“Here’s some water.” Tsugumi said, carrying a
tray with a glass on.
“I’m not thirsty.”
“It's that kind of carelessness that leads to
heatstroke. You need to drink water regularly.”
He placed the cold glass, beaded with
condensation, on a nearby side table where it was easy to reach. Tiny bubbles
floated in the glass. Noticing Sakutaro's gaze, Tsugumi smiled reassuringly.
“It’s unsweetened soda water. The doctor said
you need to watch your sugar intake.”
“Thank you. Sorry for the trouble.”
Tsugumi smiled gently and returned to the
living room.
Honestly, drinking water when he wasn’t thirsty
felt like a chore, but there was no avoiding it. With a small sigh, he sat up
and reached for the glass. Floating in the soda water was a green leaf. As he
brought the glass closer, the refreshing scent of mint tickled his nostrils. It
was a summery aroma, though...
Didn’t Tsumugi dislike mint? He never used it
much…
Sakutaro vaguely remembered hearing that during
an important conversation in the past. But he couldn't quite place when or why.
Sakutaro no longer kept the notebook where he
used to jot down daily events or the one where he recorded Tsumugi’s likes and
dislikes. He couldn’t even remember when he stopped using them. Why did I
stop? The reason had slipped away as well.
He had been living with this disease for so
long now, losing memories like loose change falling through a hole in his
pocket. Perhaps he had adjusted too well. The world around him—happiness,
sadness, and everything in between—now seemed to blur into a hazy, dreamlike
state.
It wasn’t just forgetfulness; he also
misremembered things more often misunderstandings. Yet, unlike before, he no
longer felt panicked or disheartened. Events and time seemed to flow by gently,
almost beautifully.
Once, forgetting had only been sorrow. But
now... perhaps forgetting is a kind of salvation.
Sakutaro couldn’t quite pinpoint why he felt
this way, but the thought lingered as he sipped the mint soda.
He spent the afternoon napping until he woke to
someone gently calling his name.
“Sakutaro-san, it’s three o’clock.”
“Three o’clock?”
Confused, he tilted his head as if the words
made no sense. The young woman—one he didn’t quite recognize—smiled as if to
say, “Don’t worry about it”. She took his hand and helped him stand from
the couch. She led him through the living room, past the bedroom, and into the
adjacent room. It was Tsugumi’s workroom, a place Sakutaro rarely entered.
What awaited him there felt like stepping into
a different world.
"Take your time and chat with Tsugumi-san,"
the young woman said this, releasing Sakutaro's hand before leaving the room.
Left alone, Sakutaro stood there, dazed for a
while. In the quiet room, a small Buddhist altar stood, and above it, Tsugumi's
memorial portrait was displayed.
──Ah...
A gentle wave rolled through his heart.
──Ah, that's right. You are no longer here.
Tsugumi had passed away two years ago, at the
age of 86.
──Sakutaro-san, thank you for living longer
than me.
──Thank you for keeping your promise.
──I was so, so happy.
Those were Tsugumi's final words, bringing to
mind the promise they had exchanged in their younger days.
──I will absolutely live longer than you, Tsugumi. I
won’t leave you behind. I won’t let you be alone.
How many years had passed since then? So much
time had flowed by that he could no longer calculate it, and yet, what remained
in his unreliable mind were only memories of happiness. On that night, they had
made a promise to each other, and now he realized that Tsugumi had kept his promise
as well.
──I’ll make you happy too, Sakutaro-san.
Letting those gentle memories wash over him,
Sakutaro slowly lowered himself onto the cushion. For a while, he gazed
vacantly at Tsugumi’s portrait before lighting a stick of incense.
"Once again, I forgot today. I'm
sorry."
He spoke aloud to the empty room.
"But I remembered, so it’s okay now."
Every day, he forgot that Tsugumi was gone.
Every day, he mistook the young female caregiver who came to visit for Tsugumi.
And every day, at three o’clock, the caregiver would lead him to the Buddhist
altar as he had requested, and he would be forced to face reality.
Every day, he forgot.
Every day, he remembered.
Before the unrelenting sense of loss could
overwhelm him, Sakutaro reached for a book placed on the altar.
Its title was Sakutaro-san no Koto
(About Sakutaro-san).
Tsugumi had initially refused to publish it,
insisting it was only for Sakutaro. But after three years of persuasion by his
editor, the first volume was released long ago. A collection of everyday,
tender moments, Sakutaro-san no Koto had unexpectedly become a quiet
hit, steadily selling and continuing as a series for eleven volumes.
Even as his workload grew year by year, Tsugumi
himself never changed. He kept writing diligently until the day before he lost
consciousness, always letting Sakutaro read his drafts first.
In the daily ebb and flow of forgetting,
Tsugumi's novels helped him remember.
His stories, gently tied together through his
compassionate perspective, became like charms or a cane, continually supporting
Sakutaro when he was about to stumble.
“...Tsugumi.”
Saying the name aloud, Sakutaro slowly stroked
the cover of Sakutaro-san no Koto. He looked at his wrinkled hands and
smiled faintly.
There were no tears.
The longing was now deeper than the sadness.
Even so, every day, his thoughts turned to
small, futile wishes:
If I’m going to forget, maybe it’s better to
just stay that way, without remembering.
But if my memory does return, I wish it could
go back to when Tsugumi was still alive.
If such a miracle won’t happen, then at least
let this all be a lie.
If only someone—anyone, even God—could tell me
it’s not true that Tsugumi is no longer by my side.
His thin, withered arms reflected his years,
but his heart stubbornly refused to age.
Tsugumi, I want you here with me.
Every day, at three in the afternoon, the same
longing cycled through him.
Love and longing mingled, merging into a depth
that defied comprehension.
◇:-:◆:-:◇
In the evening, after it had cooled down,
Sakutaro went out for a walk, asking the caregiver who accompanied him to keep
an eye from a short distance behind.
The route was always the same, a familiar path.
Since some time ago, he had been discouraged from walking alone, but there were
still times when he wanted to wander outside, lost in thought.
At his age, Sakutaro had come to realize that
any desire to do something independently would inevitably inconvenience someone
else. After that realization, he stopped saying, “I want to do this, or I
want to do that”. Some days, he could accept it as a simple fact of life.
Other days, he felt unbearably restricted. It varied from day to day.
Today, he stopped by the supermarket.
Taking a worn-out meal notebook from his bag,
he walked past displays of tomatoes, okra, and other summer vegetables. Inside
the notebook was a note about the somen Tsugumi used to make every summer.
The caregiver always kindly said, “Please tell
me if there’s anything you’d like to eat,” but after asking once and finding
the taste different, he hadn’t made another request. It felt ungrateful to
complain when someone else was cooking for him.
Tsugumi, how did you make that broth?
When Tsugumi had been by his side, he’d never
thought to ask. The somen he made wasn’t just food—it was that somen,
with that flavor and those toppings, inseparable from his
presence. It had simply existed, taken for granted.
For someone who thought he understood the ease
with which things could be lost, it had been a careless mistake.
Reflecting on his memories with Tsugumi,
unraveling them like a skein of yarn, he wished to try different broths. But
they had already forbidden him from using the stove, calling it dangerous. The
constant restrictions left him feeling helpless. With a sigh of resignation, he
bought two peaches labeled as being from Okayama, intending to place them on
Tsugumi’s altar.
Leaving the supermarket, he walked home slowly.
"Sakutaro-san."
He thought he heard someone call his name and
turned around.
In the fading summer light, he caught a glimpse
of a slender figure that resembled Tsugumi’s. It looked like Tsugumi’s back,
just as he had appeared in his mid-thirties, around the time they first me.
Without thinking, he tried to follow, but his
legs faltered, and his hands struck the ground. The asphalt, warmed from the
day’s heat, felt faintly comforting against his palms. The caregiver rushed to
his side.
“Kouya-san, are you okay?”
“Yes... I’m fine, sorry,” he replied, but his
gaze darted around, searching desperately for Tsugumi’s figure.
Yet the vision of his back, which had seemed so
clear just moments before, had vanished entirely.
Sakutaro felt as though he were a child lost in
a crowd, hopelessly adrift.
"Shall we hold hands? Let’s go home
together."
"No, no, it’s okay. Thank you."
Holding the plastic bag with peaches, Sakutaro
bowed his head in embarrassment to the young woman. He stood with difficulty on
legs no longer capable of quick movements and resumed his journey home.
In the summer twilight, the orange blossoms of
trumpet vines adorned the gardens of passing houses. A soft, delicate orange.
"Beautiful, aren’t they?"
As they walked together, Tsugumi would always
narrow his eyes, savoring the sight as he spoke. Even in the apartment he now
lived in alone, without tenants or others to care for, flowers still bloomed in
the garden. Where the vegetable patch had fallen into disrepair, he had planted
marguerites and cosmos. In winter, the white sasanquas in the front garden
would let their petals fall gently to the ground.
“See, the petals have fallen.”
“That’s the easiest way to tell camellias and
sasanquas apart.”
Having forgotten so much, every time Sakutaro
reread Sakutaro-san no Koto, he discovered something new. Forgetting,
remembering, then forgetting again. He occasionally wondered how long this
would go on.
Reaching into the twilight air, streaked with
deep pink and blue, Sakutaro stretched out his hand.
“Sometimes, if you hold your hand out like
this, you can feel your fingertips melt into the air.”
Tsugumi’s voice echoed in his memory. Back
then, they were so young.
As he walked through the evening streets, arm
outstretched, passersby turned to look. "What’s that grandpa doing?"
a child’s voice rang out. Sakutaro couldn’t hear how the mother responded.
In a world where everything seemed to be
slipping further and further away, he suddenly felt his fingertips dissolve
into the blue.
──Ah, Tsugumi.
In that fleeting instant, Sakutaro always felt
as if Tsugumi had taken his hand. As if Tsugumi, now part of the faintly rosy
and blue-tinged air, was melting him away from his fingertips and drawing him
somewhere else. But the illusion lasted only a moment. His fingers remained
stitched firmly to his body, anchored to the ground beneath his feet.
──Not today either, huh.
Like a child losing a game, Sakutaro felt a
faint pang of disappointment. Then he raised his head and began walking again.
Tomorrow. I’ll try again tomorrow.
It probably wouldn’t take much longer for all
of him to dissolve into the air. Until then, he would keep walking through each
day, accompanied by Sakutaro-san no Koto, the book Tsugumi had left
behind for him.
Though I’ll probably forget this thought by tomorrow.
And then I’ll remember it again.
Each day, every single day, love and longing
layered upon one another.
Until one day—likely not so far from now—he
would meet Tsugumi again, somewhere beyond this place.
THE END
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