Chapter 172 – Arisa’s Melancholy

Arisa Kawasegawa was a very lonely child.

That fact still hadn't changed throughout most of her life.

Growing up, she and her family moved around very often due to her dad's job that required him to consistently change locations.

That resulted in her having to change schools very often.

Even without accounting for her timid and shy nature, there was no way she could make long-lasting friendships if she had to move every so often.

I'm so alone...

This was the thought that replayed in her head over and over.

Every time her family would move, Arisa would grow even more increasingly weary about finding friends to connect with.

If they would eventually have to move, why should she even try to make friends with people she would soon leave?

Her parents were growing increasingly worried about their daughter, which was why they were forced to make a difficult decision.

In order to make sure their daughter would be happy, the parents sent their daughter off to her father's alma mater.

Since her father wasn't able to stay in one location for too long, Arisa was given an apartment by her parents near her father's old school.

Her parents believed that she would be able to make the friends she so desperately wanted if she was able to stay chained down to one location.

With her agreement, Arisa began living alone in that apartment and started attending Shirakawa High as a freshman.

For the first few months, nothing changed even though Arisa was finally able to stay in one location.

Her timid and shy nature still hadn't faded, which resulted in her still having no friends.

"I'm still not able to make any friends..." She muttered one day as she was walking to an empty bench to have lunch by herself.

As she sat down on the bench, she noticed that there was a black-haired boy who was sleeping on the bench behind her.

He's able to sleep like this in school?!

Arisa found it incredulous that someone could sleep like that during school time.

"You done staring?" The boy asked as he lifted his head.

"S-sorry..." Arisa stammered.

"It's fine, did you need something from me?"

"S-Sorry... I just sat down to eat lunch for a moment. I-I'm terribly sorry to have interrupted your nap..."

"Why are you apologizing so much? You didn't do anything bad..."

It was true what the boy had said, Arisa hadn't done a single thing wrong.

Then why was she apologizing so much?

Even Arisa herself didn't know the answer.

"I don't know what's wrong with me... I'm sorry..."

"Haaah... There you again," the boy sighed. "What's on your mind?"

Even though the boy had an disinterested expression on his face, Arisa could tell that he was earnestly trying to help through his tone of voice.

"I... can't make any friends..."

"Pfft."

"Why are you laughing?!"

The boy started snickering when she opened up about her troubles, which ended up irritating her quite a bit.

"Someone opens up about their problems and the first thing you do is laugh at them?!" Arisa scolded him with an annoyed expression.

"Nothing much, just testing your communication skills. If you can banter this much with someone you just met, I don't see why you can't make any friends?"

"Ah..."

He was right.

The boy was completely right.

It wasn't that she couldn't make friends, it was that she was just too scared to try.

Realizing that, it was almost like a door of new possibilities had just opened.

*Ring*

"Looks like that's the bell, see you later then. Good luck on making friends, I know you can do it. I believe in you."

Having said that, the boy turned to leave without even looking back.

"Ah... ano... What's your name?"

Arisa wanted to say many things to him, but there just wasn't enough time.

She wanted to thank him, talk to him more, and get to learn more about him.

However, lunch was ending and class was about to start.

Arisa realized this fact and decided to take the easiest course of action to get to know him better.

She decided to ask for his name.

"My name? Don't worry about it. I'm no one important."

The boy quickly answered her question and left to go to class.

In the end, Arisa wasn't able to get his name.

However, she later found out that the boy's name was Takei.

She was extremely thankful towards the boy and his help, which resulted in her being able to make some friends with her classmates.

Unsurprisingly, that admiration of hers turned into love before she had even known.

One day, several months after they had initially met, Arisa decided to confess to him.

The day that she confessed ended up being the best and worst day of her life.

Arisa was happy that she was able to convey her feelings to him, but she was ultimately rejected in the end.

Soon after, Takei got into a relationship with Akari and the rest became history.

Arisa was beyond distraught when she was rejected, she ended up crying the whole night after she got home from school that day.

After crying her heart out, she knew that she had to keep moving forward.

Eventually, Arisa reconciled with Takei and joined his friend group.

Although her heart still ached whenever she talked to him, there was already someone standing by his side that was making Takei extremely happy.

Arisa couldn't be the person who tried to take Takei's happiness away from him, so she swallowed her feelings.

She was happy to have made more friends through Takei's friend group, and that was enough for her.

Her first love didn't end up working out, but who knew what the future could hold?

Maybe there was someone out there that was more suited for her than he was.

With that notion in mind, Arisa kept moving forward to the future with no regrets.

—

Fun fact: Takei forgot about this whole scenario that he helped her in because he was half-awake at the time.