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Don't go through the years.

The flight from Madrid to Glasgow arrived at the airport an hour and a half later than expected.

It was raining in the leaden gray sky, and the afterglow of twilight was faintly emerging from the clouds, revealing a warm color, which seemed to soften the winter rain without warning.

There were only a few passengers on the plane, and the cabin door was open for more than 10 minutes, and the cabin was already empty.

The flight attendants were checking whether any passengers had left anything behind. When they walked slowly to the end of the cabin, they found that there were still people in the corner of the last row who hadn't left the plane. They paused and walked over in surprise.

The man leaned lazily on the back of the chair, tilted his head slightly, breathing steadily, and seemed to be still deeply asleep.

The well-curved black curly hair set off her fair cheeks. Even if her eyebrows are completely covered by eye masks, she can still discern her unique oriental temperament.

"Excuse me."

She frowned for a moment.

After a while, he slowly raised his hand and lifted the blindfold.

"Welanded, madam."

Machida opened his eyes in bewilderment.

Adapting to the light in front of my eyes, my mind is still a little confused, "...Sorry."

The flight attendant asked repeatedly, "Are you all right?"

"I'mokay...just tired, thank you."

Machida Yi struggled to stand up from his stupor, and apologized again and again.

There was a thin layer of white mist on the porthole of the plane. She packed her luggage as quickly as possible, and only after she glanced out the window did she realize that it was raining outside.

The flight was delayed on the return trip, and she waited at the airport for nearly three hours, and her patience was exhausted. Coupled with the exhaustion of the trip, she fell asleep as soon as she stuck the seat after boarding the plane.

In the dining bar next to the exit of the airport hall, Machida drank a glass of latte with ice, sat on a high stool and looked out at the rain that never stopped.The latte in his hand has gone halfway down, soaked in ice cubes that are about to melt, almost tasteless.

After calling a taxi, she threw the bottomed plastic cup into the trash can, dragged the wheel box and walked out of the hall.

Taking advantage of the space where the luggage was placed, she exchanged a few words with the driver, wrapped her woolen coat tightly around her body, and got into the car before being fainted by the wind.

The driver is a local, and he began to chat with her politely and enthusiastically as soon as he got in the car. The laughter between the words warmed the raindrops on the car window.

"Oh you're an exchange student, how long have you been here? (You are an exchange student, how long have you been here?)" is a unique Scottish accent.

"Overyear."

"Cool, and what are you studying? (What are you studying)"

"Theatre, well...specificallyMusicalTheatre. (drama, specifically, a musical)"

……

Machida couldn't help but recall the scene when he first came here.

Because she applied for a three-year exchange program between Tokyo University of the Arts and the University of Glasgow, she flew from Japan to the UK after her freshman year. When she landed, the weather was not so sunny like today, and she had a friendly and enthusiastic driver.The difference is that now she no longer has the panic she felt when she first arrived, and she has gradually adapted to the new learning environment and this lovely city.

When we got back to the residence, the rain was getting lighter, and the small gardens outside the building door smelled of mud.

The house she rents is in the residential area behind the school library, and the surrounding living facilities are very convenient.

After tidying up briefly, she took a shower again. At night, she estimated that it was about the same time, and made a video call to Machida Hisahi.

"I've arrived at the apartment, let my parents rest assured." Machida leaned in the kitchen, sipping the warm milk in his hand.

"Okay, what did you have for dinner?"

"A simple meal at the airport. The Christmas holiday has just passed. I'm afraid the nearby restaurants haven't opened yet."

She glanced at the man on the screen who was wearing a tie facing the mirror, and couldn't help laughing—to be honest, she still wasn't used to her brother's appearance in a decent suit.

Machida Hisa entered Keio High School after graduating from Junior High School, and was admitted to Keio University three years later without any suspense. He stayed in the Faculty of Law for four years, successfully passed the judicial examination, and became a prosecutor after graduation.

"Has your roommate gone back?"

"No, I'll be back tomorrow." After drinking the milk, Machida put the empty glass in the sink to wash.

Machida glanced at the phone screen, frowned slightly, "Don't touch the water, put on your gloves."

She paused with the hand holding the cup, "...it's all right."

But he obediently put on a dishwashing glove, washed the cup, drained it and put it back in the cupboard.

"When will I go to the hospital for a reexamination?" He held the phone in front of his eyes, as if confirming.

"……tomorrow."

"I told you to take good care of it during the holidays, and then run away."

"The course is needed, I still have to go out and take a look. You can't always be trapped in the characters of the script, and you don't know that I don't have much vacation." She picked up her phone and walked back to the bedroom, urging her slightly, "Go to work quickly Let's talk to you tomorrow."

Machida looked at her through the slightly shaking screen at the other end, sighed lightly, and said nothing more, left a sentence of "rest early" and hung up the phone.

It rained in the middle of the night, and I don't know when it stopped.

When I woke up the next morning, the sky was sprinkled with thin sunlight.

When Machida arrived at the hospital by bus, it was much earlier than the appointment time.The outpatient building was still a little deserted. She was sitting in the waiting room of the surgery, looking down at her mobile phone casually.

The Facebook interface shows a gap in loading, and there is a faint voice of conversation next to him, which is deliberately lowered but still unable to hide the excited tone.

She didn't pay much attention to it at first, until she heard a few substandard Japanese syllables "RyomaEchizen" mixed in the words, and she stopped swiping her phone.

Looking up, I found that the TV program in front of the waiting room had changed channels at some point, and was broadcasting the ATP Finals more than a month ago.

When the familiar face appeared on the screen, she froze for a moment, and the corners of her mouth raised a little unconsciously.

It was obvious that the match had just started and the first set hadn't even been finished yet, but Machida knew that the one who won this set was Echizen Ryoma.

She watched the replay of the ATP final.

In fact, she originally wanted to fly directly to London to watch the live show, but at the end of the period, she was busy with performance rehearsals, and she chose film and television production as an elective course in the last semester of her junior year, so she needed to record some empty scenes in private. On the day of the live broadcast She also spent an afternoon at George Square to record the twilight shots.

But later, I accidentally saw the moment of his winning the championship through the TV in the bar, which can be regarded as catching up with the end of the live broadcast.

Although he has not entered the professional net yet, he has become a new tennis star that has attracted worldwide attention with his superb skills, and even won many wild card opportunities.

In recent years, Echizen Ryoma has won several Challenge Championships one after another. In addition, he won the US Open the year before, and before that, there was the French Open Grand Slam—also because of watching the live broadcast of that game, It made Machida finally firm up his idea of ​​studying in the UK.

One year before...

She unconsciously pushed forward along the timeline, and countless memories about Echizen Ryoma emerged in her mind one after another.

His games, his interviews, and their infrequent contact.

In the days after Echizen Ryoma left Seigaku, Machida tried many things that she wanted to do but never had the chance to do.

For example, during the holidays, she would often practice calligraphy with her grandfather, and while smelling the faint fragrance of books and ink while writing, the whole person would calm down without distraction;

For example, every weekend she would take vocal music and guitar lessons outside the school. When she had enough energy, she then went to learn the piano. Later, she would occasionally publish some music works on the Internet, and gradually accumulated a lot of fans. ;

If there is a movie she likes, she will borrow a DVD or go to the theater to watch it; if there is a concert she wants to hear, she will go to it with her family.

Except for the substantial spare time, she still threw herself in the pile of books when she was in school, and tried her best to stabilize her grades at the top of the grade, but she would no longer stubbornly push herself.

She seemed to be able to think that her life would become more and more busy in the future, and she needed to have her own rhythm, so that when it really came time to adjust herself to a very tight clockwork, she would not completely collapse due to a broken part.

It's just that in the dead of night, she still couldn't help but think of Echizen Ryoma.

This kind of miss is not only because of liking for him and missing the time spent with him, but also because Machida found that every attempt and change she made contained traces of Echizen Ryoma.

Less than two years after he left, news came from across the ocean that he had won the four Grand Slam junior championships.

She watched every game of his on the Internet, and the all-English commentary was mixed with a lot of technical terms, and she could barely understand it.

She doesn't quite understand tactics and the like, but she understands the style of play and scoring very clearly.

Because all the rules and competition system about tennis were taught to her by Echizen Ryoma.

Seeing him shining on the road she dreamed and pursued, she felt sincerely happy for him through the screen.

During the rest of the middle school period, Machida didn't feel that Echizen Ryoma was far away from her, maybe it was just a distance in space. She thought that if she could manage the jet lag and keep in touch with him, even if it was intermittent, They can also be as friendly as before without alienation.

When she graduated from junior high school, she received the admission notice from the Qingxue High School, and the students also determined their destination for the next three years. Almost half of the class did not stay in Tokyo, and the rest were promoted to the Qingxue Headquarters. can count on one hand.

On the day of graduation, a strong parting and reluctance shrouded everyone's heart, and she suddenly realized that this farewell, when we meet again, we don't know when it will be.

There may be some people, once they turn around, it is a lifetime.

At the dinner party at the Kawamura Sushi restaurant in the evening, the seniors from the junior high school tennis club were not present.

Machida Kazu made an excuse to go out to get some air, and stood outside the sushi restaurant in a light woolen coat.

At the end of winter, the night is thick, and the street lights along the road extend forward one by one, and gradually merge into a line in the distance, with two sporadic lights.

The mighty wind blew over and covered his face in an instant, and the hem of his coat was blown up by the wind, as if he couldn't keep out the cold at all.

She breathed a sigh of relief and raised her hands to wrap her coat tightly around her body.

As soon as it touched the material, the movement stopped.

With his head down, the tears couldn't stop falling down.

She didn't cry the day she learned that Echizen Ryoma was leaving, she didn't cry on the New Year's party, even on the day he actually left Japan, she sat in the classroom looking at the blue sky outside the window, and the two years after that Here, she didn't cry.

The choked voice was swept into the wind and instantly blurred.

At that moment, Machida realized a fact deeply.

People are walking in waves.

And Echizen Ryoma has already walked out of her world.

Tears condensed on the face, and it hurt raw by the wind.She knelt down, buried her face in her clothes, and broke down in tears.

I don't know when the door of the sushi restaurant was opened, but someone kept calling her and shaking her shoulder lightly.

Machida looked up with tears in his eyes, and saw Yuta squatting beside him, obviously shocked by her confused expression.

She couldn't speak a complete sentence, Yu Tai didn't ask any more, hesitated for a moment, then hugged her and patted her on the back lightly.

Machida didn't quite remember what happened that night. At noon the next day, she rolled up from the bed in the bedroom with swollen walnut-sized eyes, feeling weak, and reacted to the scene in front of her for a long time.

Subconsciously went to look for the phone and saw two unread messages.

One was sent by Yuta, saying that only her brother knew about it, and she was relieved that no other seniors were disturbed.One last sentence, take a good rest, if you want to talk about something, you can talk to him.The rest didn't ask much.

Only then did Machida vaguely recall the scene where he went crazy in front of the sushi restaurant last night, and his mouth was dry with a headache.

I replied to Yuta's message and clicked on the next one.

When she saw the sender, she was slightly taken aback.

It's Echizen Ryoma.

The time of sending was last night, a very short sentence - I am fine, congratulations.

The last one was sent by her yesterday morning - I have been promoted to the headquarters of Qing Xue.How are you?

Machida stared at the screen and lost his mind for a moment.

Putting the phone aside, he got up to look for water to drink, and turned around to see a glass of water on the table next to him.

Those few days her parents were away on vacation, and there were only her and Machida at home, so he should have let her go.

He didn't say a word about her abnormal behavior the night before, he only cooked a bowl of noodles for her after she woke up, and while applying ice packs to her eyes, he asked her what she wanted to eat at night.

What Machida didn't know was that last night Machida Jiu dragged her, who was a little tired from crying, to the bathroom, wiped her face, poured another glass of water, and dragged her to the bed. When he helped her cover the quilt, he heard her crying. Too sober, said in a hoarse voice, "...I miss him so much."

Machida paused, and looked up at her.

Only a small light was turned on in the bedroom. She closed her eyes and her breathing gradually became even.

For a moment, he reached out and stroked her forehead, and said gently, "Then study hard and live hard, stand in front of him with your best self, and tell him how you feel."

Perhaps it was because he had vented all the emotions that had been pent up for a long time. After that day, Machida felt a lot lighter.

After entering high school, she continued to juggle her studies and her hobbies, and joined the school's drama club.

It's just that for a long time, she subconsciously stopped thinking about Echizen Ryoma.

It's not that she doesn't like it, it's that she no longer indulges in the feeling of missing him. She puts away those concerns about gains and losses, concentrates on how to improve her academic performance and hobbies, and tries her best to improve herself.

She hoped to see him in her best form when she saw him again.

For nearly two years thereafter, Machida did not pay much attention to the news of Echizen Ryoma.

But she knew that he was safe and was making steady progress, because at that time Echizen Ryoma had already become popular in the ATP, and there were often sports reports about him in Japan, and his classmates were talking about him every day at school, so She can somewhat understand some of his current situation.

That's how Machida learned about Echizen Ryoma's injury in the final of the New York Open.

At that time, her second year of high school was about to end, and after the exam at noon, a classmate in the class took out her mobile phone to check the news, and suddenly shouted in horror: "Echizen Ryoma was injured in the competition!"

The atmosphere in the class was chaotic for a while, and Machida's mind went blank when he heard the words, and after realizing it, he hurriedly took out his mobile phone.

There was almost no need to search specifically, and several news items popped up one after another. The number one most searched item on Yahoo was all headlines about injuries in the Echizen Ryoma competition.

It had happened hours ago, and the picture of him chasing a ball and falling and hurting his left arm went straight into her eye.

Machida's head was buzzing, and he dialed his cell phone while running out of class.Halfway through, she thought that the late hour would affect his rest, so she hung up again before connecting.

Running to the school roof, whining wind.

She sent a text message to ask him, clutching her phone tightly, and after a while, she couldn't help sending a bunch of notes.

The whole person was in a panic, and after a long while, he remembered that he obviously had a professional medical team.

A few minutes later, Echizen Ryoma sent back a message, saying that he was in the hospital, his arm injury had been treated, and he would be fine after a period of recuperation.

Said he was fine.

The news of his broken arm flashed through Machida's mind.

She'd be damned if she believed that he was fine.

But somehow he was relieved.Since then, she has been paying attention to his news and recovery from injury, even when she was busy preparing for cultural and professional exams in the third year of high school.

Echizen Ryoma rested for nearly a year, and broke into the semi-finals of the Australian Open men's singles in January of the following year.

A few weeks later, Machida received an acceptance letter for the music performance major at Tokyo University of the Arts.

University life is still busy and fulfilling.But in the first few months of the year, apart from learning that Echizen Ryoma was admitted to Cornell University, there was no new news about him on the Internet, and the update of his personal official website also stayed during the Australian Open.

The last time I contacted him was when the two congratulated each other on their admission to university, with only a few words.

Echizen Ryoma returned to the public view when the media reported that he was preparing for the French Open in the middle of the year, and at that time Machida was hesitating to go to the UK as an exchange student.

In fact, it happened to be a chance.The professional teacher heard that she was interested in musicals, and proposed to her the school’s exchange program. Musicals already belong to the category of drama. It would be beneficial for her to suggest that she can study in Europe to feel the atmosphere.

At that time, she already had a solid foundation in vocal music, as well as stage performance experience and English ability. With her background in Dongyi University, as long as she submitted the application work, she was very sure of getting a place.It was only a three-year study, and the course was predictably busy and intense, which meant that she rarely had the opportunity to return to Japan during the three-year period.

The French Open was held as scheduled. In the warm and humid summer, Echizen Ryoma's final on the clay court can be described as stalemate.

Machida watched the live broadcast of the game. Under the transparent sunlight in Paris, he hit the ball hard and ran, sweating profusely.

The same firm and sharp eyes, the same majestic posture, but now he has stood in a wider world, and the dream he had when he was young is now within reach.

He is indeed getting stronger step by step.

Then she can't just stand there forever.

The stalemate continued until the fifth set finally came to an end. Cheers and shouts instantly resounded throughout the stadium, and the dusk over the Roland Garros stadium was a gentle grape color.

When Echizen Ryoma won his first Grand Slam at the French Open, Machida applied for an exchange student program at the University of Glasgow.

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