Kasamatsu's black silk

After that, Kasamatsu-san sent me home.

We held hands all the way, with our fingers interlocked, holding each other tightly, even when we got on the tram, sat side by side, got off the train and left the station, and we were no exception when we were walking on the road.Because it was very late, and there was no one to see on the road, it seemed that there were only the two of us left in the whole world, which was unexpectedly beautiful.

Even if I'm silent, I don't feel awkward. I think Kasamatsu-san is just like me, just want to enjoy the time together.

In order to make up for the loneliness and pain I felt in those days of separation.

"arrive."

After being reminded by Kasamatsu, I realized that we had unknowingly walked downstairs to my house. The lights of the nearby houses were almost all off, as was my house. Only the street lights were still on so that I could see the expression on Kasamatsu’s face , I saw his gentle smiling face, the more I didn't want to let go of the hand I held with him.

But saying things like "I still want to stay with Kasamatsu-san" will only make him feel troubled.

Even I understand.

"Thank you, Kasamatsu-san, for sending me back...it's already very late."

"Huh? Well, it's very late, you should go to bed early after you go back."

"I will. Is Kasamatsu-san planning to go back by subway?

"Yeah, I just looked at it and it seems that there are only subways and buses now, right? But it's pretty fast without taking a few stops, so don't worry."

"That's right, yes..."

I'm not worried about anything, I just want to find some topics to talk to him more.

Whether it's 1 minute or [-] second, I want to delay the time to say goodbye.

But even if I turned my head hard, I couldn't think of something to chat with. I lowered my head in silence, and my lowered eyes caught the sneakers on Kasamatsu's feet. In an instant, a well-wrapped gift box Images raced into my mind.

correct!

"Kasamatsu-san, can you wait for me for a while!?"

Probably startled by my sudden speech, Kasamatsu-san froze for a moment before nodding.

"Well...the last train on the subway is still early, so it doesn't matter if it's a while..."

"Thank you! 5 minutes... no, 3 minutes will do! I'll go up and get something!"

"Ah, can, can it be...?"

After saying this, I immediately let go of the hands that I was reluctant to let go until just now, turned around and rushed up to the floor where my home is located. I prepared the keys on the way, so I arrived at the door in less than two hours. I successfully opened the door with the key in seconds. When I rushed into the room, I was out of breath but had no intention of slowing down. My mother who was sleeping in the next room was even woken up by the sound of me rummaging for things. While apologizing to her, I finally found the box that I threw in the corner and didn’t touch it when I came back that day. I was relieved that it didn’t break, and then I apologized to my mother again, and I rushed out of the house immediately. .

When I got back downstairs, the expression on the face of Kasamatsu-san who greeted me went from shock at the beginning to a helpless smile at the end.

"Welcome back... By the way, you don't have to run so fast, and I won't get lost halfway."

I was gasping for breath, bending over to support my knees. Thanks to Kasamatsu-san who kindly patted me on the back, I was relieved a little. I swallowed a mouthful of saliva to moisten my dry and hot throat, and then put the box in my hand Pass it to him.

"Here, here you are."

"For me?"

"Mmmmmmmmmmmm!"

The harm of lack of exercise is fully reflected at this time. I feel that I can't speak at all, I can only nod desperately, watching Kasamatsu-san take the things and carefully unwrap the wrapping paper with a beating heart At the same time, the beating became more violent, almost jumping out of the throat. I patted my chest with my hand, but I couldn't make it calm down even a little bit.

Kasamatsu-san tore off the wrapping paper, and was taken aback when he opened the cardboard box and saw clearly that it contained a box of sneakers. His eyes fell on me with surprise, and he smiled embarrassedly at me. Then, he looked down at the box in his hand again.

He slowly lifted the lid of the box.

Lying inside are the sneakers I picked out for Kobori-kun that day at a store in Harajuku.

Kasamatsu-san said nothing.

Since he lowered his head, I couldn't see his expression clearly through the dim streetlights, which made me feel uneasy.

"That, that! I went to buy it with Kobori-kun... I used the wages of part-time workers in the hotel, because at that time I felt that you seemed to be in a bad mood, and I wanted to say that I bought something you liked and gave it to you. You'll feel better so..."

He still didn't say anything.

Are you unhappy?Or is Kasamatsu-san still angry that Kobori-kun and I bought gifts without telling him?

"I'm sorry... You really still made Kasamatsu-san unhappy?"

"No, I'm not unhappy." Kasamatsu shook her head and closed the shoebox again, "Is that so... what I saw the other day was this..."

"Eh? What?"

"It's nothing."

He raised his head, and the smile on his face was almost exactly the same as I imagined that day.

"But... these shoes are what I've always wanted to buy. The price is very expensive, right? Is it really okay to give it to me?"

"Of course!" I nodded vigorously, "I bought it for Kasamatsu-san, if you don't accept it, I will feel troubled!"

Although it is a valuable item bought with almost all the part-time wages, it is the same as useless garbage to me if there is no one to send it to. It also takes up space if it is not because I have not I accepted the fact that I broke up with Kasamatsu-san, so I let it go, I probably threw it away long ago.

When I think about it this way, it's great that I didn't throw it away...

"Really..." Kasamatsu-san repeated softly again.

Then soon, he freed one hand and stopped my shoulder. Before I could recover, he brought me into his arms.

"Thank you."

A soft thank you came from my ear.

——This man is really...

I also stretched out my hands and wrapped Kasamatsu-san's back.

"As long as you like it."

——Showing a gentler reaction than I imagined...it was a foul.

The next day was a two-day rest day in a row, and I resumed school on the next Monday.

When I saw me at school, my friend's first reaction was not to rush over and give me a hug with tears in his eyes, but to punch me with a furious expression on his face.

"Are you so courageous that you left me in the store and ran away!?"

"Okay, it hurts!" I covered my face to avoid her second punch, "You didn't complain about anything on the phone that day, but you said to me very gently, 'It's okay, I will help you clean up here. Well, you can just do what you want to do, right!? How is today!"

"I regret it." My friend answered me simply.

"regret!?"

"Well! I regret it! Afterwards, I felt that you were such a jerk for leaving me like this. The more I thought about it, the more angry I became, so I decided to vent my grievances when I saw you today."

... No, this person, I want to break up with her!

"But..." When I was covering my face in despair, my friend's tone suddenly softened a lot. I let go of the hands covering my face a little bit, and saw the rare expression on her face that seemed to be With a relieved expression, "If you can come to school, it means that the matter has been resolved smoothly? It's great..."

"Tomoeda, you..."

My heart seemed to be softened by something.

Of course, it doesn't mean that my heart was frozen or something. It's hard to describe the feeling, but it suddenly became very soft and warm.

I really want to hold her and cry.

During this period of time, she must have worried a lot, and she must have done a lot of things in places that I can't see. Kobori-kun will go to Kasamatsu-san to say those words, and she must be credited for it. Fellowship Too……

"That's right! Over there...that, Honma-kun and the others..."

It must be troublesome for me to run away in the middle of the friendship...?

"Ah...don't worry about that."

A slightly subtle expression appeared on the friend's face.

Huh?what happened?

"Could it be that they did something to embarrass you?" A terrible picture appeared in my mind, which made my hands and feet turn cold all of a sudden, "Yes, I'm sorry, it's all because of my fault...!"

"That's not true, don't just misunderstand and push people into the position of victims."

"Isn't it...?"

"Well, what happened that day was different from what you thought."

...is different from what I thought?

I always feel that what my friend said is getting more and more strange, something is not right, but I can't tell what is wrong.

So I tried to ask "what the hell is going on?".

My friend looked at me for a while, then laughed at me.

"I won't tell you, just think about it slowly, idiot~"

... The truth of this matter was not known until we graduated and went to university, or we only heard the truth from Kobori-kun during a certain class reunion when we were adults... Of course, this is a story after many years.

On the long-lost school day, in addition to being punched by a friend, I was unlucky enough to be called to the office by the class teacher to give me a good lesson.

Because I am already in the third year of high school, I still dare to ask for leave continuously in the last semester, and I should continue to go to school even if I am sick. Let me go.

But it was also because of this that I remembered about the university entrance examination, so when I had lunch with Kasamatsu-san after a long absence during the lunch break, I also brought up this topic to him a little bit.When we were together before, we never talked about this matter, so Kasamatsu-san, who was asked by me, fell into a brief silence while chewing the rice in his mouth.

"...Speaking of which, I haven't told you."

"Yeah, so I want to ask Kasamatsu-san about her plans."

"my words……"

Kasamatsu-san seemed to be planning to go to a university in Tokyo. When I told him that I wanted to go to a university in Kanagawa Prefecture, Kasamatsu-san and I were both stunned for a while, but neither of us said anything to change the other's mind. After Kasamatsu-san muttered, "I won't be able to see him often after graduation", I said that I would go to Tokyo by car every week to see him. Kasamatsu-san smiled wryly and said, "Don't take away what I should say."

There is a little distance, and it doesn't seem to matter.

I also went with Kasamatsu-san to the club training after school that day.Seeing me appearing at the entrance of the gymnasium, everyone was quiet for a moment, but soon there was a commotion. Kasamatsu, who was attacked intensively, suffered immediately, although I couldn't hear them hooking his neck and attacking him. He said something, but seeing Kasamatsu-san's blushing face, he can probably guess what happened.

During the break, I found Kobori-kun who hadn't come to talk to me.

Of course, I consulted Kasamatsu-san beforehand.

"...I made up with Kasamatsu-san."

I thought about thanking you carefully, but after thinking about it for a long time, I still felt that the simple report of the results was the most appropriate. Kobori-kun stopped holding the hand that wiped the sweat towel, and after a while, he suddenly laughed out loud.

"Well, congratulations."

"Thanks to Kobori-kun's help, and..." I looked at the figure of Kasamatsu-san who was still directing everyone on the court, "The gift that Kobori-kun accompanied me to buy that day, I also gave it to him, Kasamatsu-san Very happy, really...thank you very much."

"I just want to thank you." Kobori-kun took off the towel on his head and said with a smile, "Thank you for restoring our general's spirit."

Woohoo, Kobori-kun, you are really a good person.

After I finished talking with Kobori-kun, I felt that the whole thing was finally over.

Life has also returned to the right track. The past few days of breaking up with Kasamatsu-san have been like a dream-like experience. Even the sadness at that time has been gradually diluted by time. When the weather turned cold, I dug out my coat, scarf and When I got the gloves, I can hardly recall how I felt at the time.

In the past few months, I have also buried my head in the pile of books and become a good student. Kasamatsu is also studying hard and strengthening the intensity of after-school training, saying that it is to make up for the regret of losing in the summer. The last game a member of Chang can participate in must win the national championship.

Although in the end, he missed the championship.

Even so, since I didn't miss a single game, I can guarantee that Kasamatsu-san's heroic performance on the court will never lose to others. I thought I could see his blushing when I wanted to comfort him and spoke the truth. expression, but the result was very regrettable—Kasamatsu-san hugged me and I couldn't see his face at all.

After the competition, we entered the final exam preparation period, followed by the entrance exam.

Wielding my pen desperately in the examination room, when everything was over, all the accumulated fatigue surged up in one breath, which made me feel a sense of exhaustion.After walking out of the examination room, I took out my mobile phone and sent an email to my friend. After reporting the situation to her, I walked towards the school gate.

Kasamatsu-san was already waiting for me there.

"It's been a hard few months."

"Each each other."

I don't know what we were nervous about, but Kasamatsu-san and I exchanged unnatural greetings, but the moment we looked at each other, we couldn't help but burst out laughing.Kasamatsu-san came over and took my hand, and he took a deep breath.

"Let's go?"

"Ah."

Before the exam, I made an appointment with Kasamatsu-san.

Although after the exam, you should not relax until the results come out, but both I and Kasamatsu-san feel that the part that should be worked hard has already been done, and the rest is just a process of waiting for the results, there is no need to keep nervous Stretched.

So the day before the exam, I made an appointment with Kasamatsu-san.

"After the exam...do you want to come to my house that day?"

I still remember that Kasamatsu-san was wearing a blue scarf that matched his skin tone that day. As the weather was very cold, as long as he opened his mouth to speak, he could see white mist in the air. It has a red color that is not known to be from freezing or other reasons.

But the expression is more serious than ever before.

"I have something to tell you."