Volume 1 - CH 67

“”Thank you for your hard work!””

“Yes, good work. See you tomorrow.”

Today, too, my part-time job ended without incident. Himekawa supported me well because I could not use my fingers freely.

After leaving the coffee shop, Himekawa and I headed for the arcade.

“Himekawa, thank you for your help today. I’m sorry, but please look out for me tomorrow, too.”

“No problem. Please leave it to me. Oh, there are more decorations than this morning, aren’t there?”

There are more decorations in the shopping arcade than there were this morning.

This year’s Tanabata Festival is going to be a spectacular one as well.

“Hey, you two! Would you like to write something down?”

A staff member in front of a general store is looking at us and waving his hand.

In front of him is a large long table with paper and pens on it, and a booth has been set up.

“Are you talking about us?”

“Yeah, yeah. How about it? Lovers, why don’t you write your wishes on these tanzaku and hang them up?” [TLN: A strip of paper to write your wish as a custom of Tanabata]

Lovers? We are lovers? Well, no way.

But, well, if a man and a woman were walking together in the arcade in the evening, they could be seen as such.

“We’re not like that.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. Then, why don’t you write a tanzaku so that your love will come true?”

Suddenly, I look at Himekawa, who is standing next to me.

For some reason, she is staring downward, fidgeting with her hands.

Ahead of his line of sight is a strip of paper. Oh, does she want to write on it?

“Well, I’ll take two strips for the time being.”

“Yes, thank you very much. Here is a piece of paper and here is a pen.”

Himekawa and I sit with our chairs slightly apart so that we can’t see what each of us has written on our strips of paper.

It’s a kind of wishful thinking, but will our thoughts and wishes be heard?

Hmmm, what should I write?…

Do I wish for a good score on a test? May I get a raise in my hourly wage?　May my injuries heal quickly? May my mom be more well-behaved?

Hmmm, I wonder if I have a better wish…

I glanced at Himekawa and saw that she was already running her pen.

Has she already decided? Okay, I’ll make my wish this one!

“I’m done!”

Himekawa seems to have already finished as well, holding the strips of paper tightly in both hands.

I don’t think we need to hold them so tightly, do we?

“Well then, let’s check each other’s wishes and tie them to the leaf bamboos over there together.”

What? Do we have to confirm the contents with each other?

“Do we have to confirm the contents of our wishes?”

Himekawa spoke up before I did.

It’s just a coincidence. I was thinking the same thing.

“Of course. Even if you’re not lovers, if you know the thoughts and feelings of the person you’re with, that wish might come true, right?”

Well, that is convincing or maybe not?

Well, it’s not something I’d be bothered to be seen with, so I’m okay with it.

“I don’t mind, but what about Himekawa?”

She silently hands me a strip of paper with her own writing on it.

I take the strip of paper and hand mine to Himekawa.

“I wish you happiness, Tsukasa-kun.”

What, you’re talking about me? It’s not about you, it’s about me…

I wonder what’s going on in my face now?　

Am I grinning? Am I expressionless? Or am I smiling?

I look at Himekawa, who is looking at the strips of paper I wrote on without blinking.

She is gripping the strip of paper firmly with both hands and looking at it intently.

“Tsu, Tsukasa-kun… What’s this?”

“Hmm? I’m supposed to make a wish on a strip of paper, right? I can write my wish on it, right?”

My first goal is to take over the boarding house. That goal will never change.

For this reason, Himekawa is currently staying at a boarding house. No, she is staying with me, but that is a more accurate description.

I need Himekawa to stay with me until graduation.

As Mom said, all the residents are family. I would like Himekawa to become a temporary family as well.

“Yes, but ……”

“Okay, now that both of you have confirmed each other, let’s get on with decorating.”

The receptionist led me to the place where I was to place the strips of paper as high as possible.

I think it will come true if it is closer to the sky.

My strip of paper is light blue. Himekawa’s strip of paper is peach.

There are not many strips of paper swaying in the wind. If wishes come true in order of earliest to latest, mine and Himekawa’s wishes will come true earlier.

Next to the peach-colored paper, a light blue strip of paper with the words “May Himekawa and I become a family” is swaying.

After decorating the strip of paper, we headed for the station together.

“Hey Tsukasa, Orihime and Hikoboshi can only meet once a year, right? “

“Oh, that’s right.”

As I recall, they were originally a married couple, but when they got married, they stopped working, so they were forcibly separated.

And then, when they were separated, they stopped working even more, so they were allowed to see each other only once a year, right?

“It must be lonely to only see each other once a year.”

“Maybe so, but not if they stopped working. If they’d done their job properly, to begin with, they wouldn’t have been separated.”

“Tsukasa-kun, do you have a dream?…”

“I have a dream.”

“No, forget about it. ……

Himekawa was a little depressed. I’m sure she wanted to talk about something more romantic.

But romantic stories don’t bring out the food. This is reality rather than a dream.

“Well, if it were me, I wouldn’t cut corners on my work even if I got married. Then I would see her every day instead of once a year.”

“I’d work hard, too, because I’d want to see him every day.”

“Well, if we worked as a couple, we’d be a dual-income family.”

By now the station was approaching and the ticket gate was in sight.

But Himekawa stops in front of the bench.

“Tsukasa-kun. Why don’t you call me by my name?”

Ah. She hit me where it hurts.

Indeed, Himekawa has been calling me by my first name ever since my mother’s comment.

But I still call her by her last name. Because it’s a little embarrassing…

“I am doing my best to call you by your first name, even if it is a little embarrassing.”

That’s true. And she was calling my name like a prayer.

“I, I want to be called by my name too. Call me by name right here, right now.”

The time had finally come, hadn’t it? I knew it would come someday, I had a feeling that it would.

I had decided that if Himekawa told me, I would say it. A man never goes back on his word!

“Yes, here and now? There are a fair amount of people around, though?”

“It doesn’t matter what’s around me to call you names, okay? In my eyes, I see only Tsukasa-kun. Is there anyone else in Tsukasa-kun’s eyes besides me?”

Himekawa is alone in front of me. There are many people passing by, but Himekawa is the only person I know.

The only acquaintance I see and recognize is Himekawa.

“Anri. All I see is Anri.”

Immediately, Himekawa covers her mouth with both hands. And in her eyes, there are a few tears.

The tears are also a little red in the cheeks, and at any moment, the tears that have accumulated in the eyelids are about to fall down the cheeks.

“Oh, thank you…”

“Don’t look at me like that! Why are you all teary-eyed?”

‘Yes, because… Tsukasa-kun doesn’t like me, that’s why you don’t call me by name.”

That’s not it, I was just a little bit embarrassed.

I don’t hate you or anything like that.

“No, it’s not like that. I don’t hate you.”

“Good… Let me see your finger…”

I showed her my injured finger. It’s not completely healed yet, but it’s on the verge of healing.

I expect it to heal soon.

‘It doesn’t hurt anymore. Anri doesn’t have to worry about it.”

“Do you mind if I hold it a little?”

“Oh, no problem.”

Himekawa squeezes my fingers, and by extension, my hand.

If this world were a fantasy, Himekawa might be a saint.

She would probably heal your wounds with her hands.

No, even in this world, which is not a fantasy, Himekawa might be a saint.

Himekawa heals my heart, I feel like that

“Shall we go home?”

“Let’s go home. Mom is waiting for us.”

We started walking slowly toward the station, holding hands.

There was no pain. Instead, I felt a warmth.

A warmth I could never feel alone.

Perhaps the wish I wrote on the strip of paper might not come true.

Why? Because Himekawa and I can see each other every day.

Because those two in heaven might get jealous of us.