CH 26

Memories of That Day When We Started Over

In the end, we didn’t end up having a “light lunch and coffee at the coffee shop,” but had a hearty lunch and left Suzu-nee’s coffee shop.

“U~mu, I’m so full… I ate too much.”

“U~~~ I’ve done it… I’m scared of tomorrow’s scale …”

If you feel that way, why don’t you just eat your hot sandwich… It seems that she still has an inability to relax part as in the past.

“We~ll then… where should we go next?”

“Where…”

At Amane’s words, I realized now that neither of us had much of a plan to go out.

There was no purpose, it was just a change of mood for Amane…

And even if I wanted to go far, I don’t have that much money… I’ve been getting a lot of service at the coffee shop for the amount of food I’ve been eating, but I’ve only had a reasonable amount left in my wallet.

“We don’t have much to go on wherever we’re going, sir.”

Declaring that you don’t have money is a bit pathetic for a man, but what you don’t have, you don’t have… It’s sad, but this is the reality.

There are limits to what you can do as a student.

But Amane didn’t seem to mind and smiled cheerfully.

“Ahaha, I don’t mind about that. Student = don’t have money, isn’t it basic? Then do something that doesn’t cost a lot of money.”

“A play that doesn’t cost money? That’s…”

At Amane’s words, I tried to use my brain to its fullest, but I couldn’t come up with anything useful.

At best, playing games at home or at the arcade… Muoh, is this the only poor idea that I have?

If that’s not the case… window shopping, going to the library… ku, kuku… The only thing that comes to mind is the gal game option…

“You’re thinking too much, Yumeji-kun. You shouldn’t think too much about the appropriate playground, in this case.”

“An appropriate playground?”

I can’t pinpoint what Amane is trying to say.

But when I made a dumb face, she said with a big smile on her face.

“If we don’t want to spend money, we can lower not only the amount, but also ourselves. Mainly our mental age.”

“…………Ha?”

Can we call this… a change in thinking?

We spent the rest of the afternoon on a holiday touring a route that no high school boy or girl should ever have to take.

We went to the park, played on the playground equipment, and played catchball with a ball that had fallen.

“If you can hit my fork… try hitting it!”

“Can I hit that! We’re playing a catch ball.”

We used to go to the riverbed, pull out our shoes and splash each other in the river, and when we got bored, we would play at draining the water at the water’s edge.

“10, 11, 12, 13…… Kuh, it can’t be, once again!”

“Fuhahaha, you’re still a long way from my 20 ~”

Then, I went to a candy store for the first time in years and joined the kids in buying a candy worth ten yen each, with an extra… I was spending a day like an elementary school student.

But… Well, that’s not to say it’s not fun… Although I felt like Amane was pushing me, I was also enjoying my first holiday with her in a long time.

I was surprised to see that the old lady at the candy store remembered us both so well.

“Ho, ho, ho, when you’re a kid, you’re together, but when you grow up, you’re usually going to be separated… You guys haven’t changed~ I see, I see…”

What does that mean “I see”…

In fact, it’s today, once we’ve been estranged, so the old lady’s view isn’t wrong.

And so on… We spent the holidays together, touring the local area as if we were kids again, and… As expected, I knew what Amane’s intentions were for the course she took with me today.

We went around the playground, which was common to both of us as if we had lost our mental age… And the final place we arrived at was decided to be “we at that time.”

“He~e, now that we’re here… It is pretty small and cramped.”

“How old do you think we were when we started coming in here…”

The secret base, as we called it at the time, was a rotting steel shed that had been dumped in the mountains behind the house.

There was a window to let in some light, and we used to use this place as a secret base of justice when we were kids.

…… Until that day when Amane suddenly stopped coming.

The secret base that I hadn’t seen in years was more rusted and tattered than it had been back then, but the inside was less so, and I was able to see the super balls and glittering stickers that I had thought were treasures back then… There were items lying around that were not as valuable now as they were then.

“Uwaa, that’s nostalgic… Isn’t this the soft vinyl monster you got at the summer festival?”

“This is… a united robot that I thought I lost it… so it’s been here.”

I probably brought it with me back then, thinking “it would be safer to bring important things to a secret base”.

The first thing that comes to my mind when I discover this is, “Will it ever sell for a premium?” How dirty I’ve become…

“Ne~e, Yumeji-kun?”

As I was thinking about this, Amane suddenly called out to me in some serious tone of voice.

“What?”

“When… did you… stop coming here?”

“……………… Etto”

When she asked, I was momentarily at a loss for words.

It’s an innocent childhood memory, a story that could be dismissed as a common occurrence in the world… But for me, it was a bitter memory of feeling that my good friend hated me.

“Ever since Amane… stopped coming… I thought?”

After saying that, Amane sat down on the floor grasping her knees with the soft vinyl in her hands, and looked down.

Obviously, she looked depressed…

I think I mentioned that pretty early on in “that dream”, but I don’t think I dreamt about this place.

When I see Amane looking down with a gloomy face… I feel an indescribable sense of guilt.

“I’m sorry…”

“…Why is Yumeji-kun apologizing? I’m the one who unilaterally stopped coming…”

Amane returns words to me who apologizes unintentionally.

It was the same kind of exchange as in “that dream”.

In the dream, she was more blunt in her tone and even addressed me.

“…I wonder if you have any idea why I stopped coming here?”

“Ah~ Hm~m… I don’t know if “that dream” will help, but… You’ve been ridiculed…”

“…Is that what the dream or rather “the mage me” said?”

“Ah~~~, Un. Maybe I’m wrong…”

“…No, you’re 100 percent right”

When she said that, Amane let out a sigh while hiding her face with the soft vinyl.

“You aren’t with a boy today? I was told, and I unconsciously said about you “Yume-chan”… and then “Yume-chan isn’t around?” Or “When are you getting married?” I was ridiculed and became irritated… When I noticed…”

It’s just a standard development, a ridicule from a friend in childhood that seems to always happen anywhere in the world… It was exactly what I had heard in the dream before.

………… Then, what exactly is “that dream”?

I thought it was a lucid dream when I got the correct answer to Amane’s sentiment, but are you saying it’s one of those precognitive dreams or something?

“I’m sorry… I just stopped coming on my own…”

But the lonely Amane’s words made me realize that I didn’t care about any of that.

After all, a dream is a dream, and even if it can be used as a reference, it is the one who influences the actual self.

Just because Amane stopped coming doesn’t change the fact that I was definitely the one who didn’t do anything for fear of being hated.

Even now… If it hadn’t been for the “Dream Book”, we definitely wouldn’t be here together, and I would have just been living a vague high school life.

I put my hand on Amane’s head, who seemed to be crying a little.

…… I thought I did it naturally, but my heart was racing inside.

” Well, it’s okay. After all that, we can now use this day to “redo the day”…”

“…Yumeji-kun”

Today’s course was the standard course on that day when Amane and I stopped playing, and it was her way of redoing that day and ending our estrangement… I kind of knew that.

…… The fact that various actions do not come from me… what can I say?

“Ah ~~~ It’s so pathetic! The fact that I didn’t initiate the conversation with my childhood friend! It’s not very manly of me ~ !!”

I howled in self-mockery and rolled over on my back, and Amane chuckled.

Her face, lit up by the evening sun, is cute after all… A smiling face looks better on Amane than a sad face.

“What? “The dream” that triggered it was very manly, I think?”

“Guh……”

A little mean Amane is looking at me… No, I was wondering if it was time for you to stop quoting that.

“That was… that… that… It would have been best if we could have returned to our old relationship in a more natural and emotional way…”

“Hmm… This pervert”

I couldn’t help but laugh at Amane, who blushed a little and turned away.

I didn’t even bother to pay attention to the two bruises on my neck that I caught a glimpse of…