Originally posted @ tatsukida.pitas.com on December 22, 2011
Narration: “From that day on, I thought that my heart had stopped beating.” 2-4 Ooba Ai [櫻庭系] got a letter from school wherein she will be suspended for a month from school, as punishment. In her room, Ai gets a call from her friend, Mayumi [真由子] who invites her out. Ai wants to refuse but her friend tells her not to always refuse or else, she will have fewer friends. Mayumi asks her if she is planning to always stay at home. Mayumi tells her that she isn’t forcing her to go to school but don’t refuse their invitation. Ai agrees with her and accepts the invitation. She thinks that she also knows that even if she is always depressed, nothing will also change. She goes out the next day and passes by some women neighbors. They start talking to each other that it is the rarely seen Ooba girl and, did she know about the rumor about that girl. And, maybe she is going to work because she is wearing casual clothes. Ai casually walks by and thinks that she isn’t in uniform because today is the school’s foundation day. Soon, she is waiting at the bus stop. It is freezing cold and she hopes bus number 16 arrives soon. Then, a guy passes by, shouting for the bus to wait for he is going to ride on it. Ai suddenly screams that it hurts. Her long hair got entangled on the zipper of the guy’s bag. The bus driver calls out to the guy to be quick. While the guy tries to remove the hair, Ai tells him to let go of his hand else it will be dangerous. She takes a pair of scissors. The guy tries to tell her to wait but she already cut off the entangled hair. While letting the stands of hair fly, Ai apologizes for it. The people in the bus wonder if it is alright for her to just cut her hair like that. As Ai walks away, the guy looks at her.
At the meeting place, Ai is surprised that it turns out to be a group date with some college guys. Her two friends tell her not to be angry. They say that even if they know why Ai doesn’t want to go into this kind of thing but they think it is almost time for her to have a new encounter. They tell her that they are not forcing her, but they only want her to be a bit happy. Ai is touched by her friends concern. She thanks them. Glasses guy, one of the college guys, comments that Ai is a very rare name. While walking with the others, the glasses guy tells Ai that she looks very mature that she doesn’t look like a high school student. Ai looks away and wonders if that meant she looks old. She is surprised when the glasses guy comments about her want to go steady with older guys. He tells her that thing that has happened is quite well-known, that Ooba Ai is a girl whose love affair with a teacher has been exposed. Flashback: Ai had been going steady with her modern language teacher, Saitou-sensei but it has been discovered at school. Saitou called Ai on the phone to apologize Ai for giving her so much pain. Ai told him that she isn’t in pain because she has him with her. She thought that it is enough for her to have him at her side. To her shock, Saitou apologized and said that he cannot be with her anymore because he, as a teacher, cannot destroy her future and so from today on, they are going to break up. Afterwards, Saitou quit working at the school. Then, Ai couldn’t contact him on the phone anymore. She cried for she thought that her future is about them being always together, and she always believed that, but now that she has been abandoned, she is in a total loss of what to do and where to go. She is in total darkness.
After getting off the bus, Ai is surprised when the guy earlier called out to her and said that he was thinking that he’ll see her again in that place so he was right about waiting for her. Ai turns away and says that she refuses to get her hair caught again[?]. The guy holds her hand and tells her to wait, he isn’t. Ai shivers because his hand is so cold. The guy says that he is quite bothered about what happened this morning. Ai realizes that he has been waiting for her at the bus stop and is it about the zipper. The guy holds her cut hair and says that it is crudely cut. Ai blushes for what kind of person would suddenly touch someone else’s.., what he is thinking. To her surprise, the guy calls her an idiot. She pulls away and reprimands him for being rude. The guy tells her that he got quite a shock when she suddenly cut her own hair. Ai thinks that she is causing problems again. She apologizes for making him feel uneasy about it. She is surprised when he asks if she has [free] time. Later on, Ai looks speechless over a meat bun, and wonders why he is treating her with a meat bun. The guy says that it is his compensation for her cut hair, and sorry that the only thing available is from a convenient store. Ai wonders if it is just because of this that he has been waiting for her, and he obviously doesn’t have anything to apologize to her about. She wonders if he let his hands be frozen stiff while waiting, just to apologize. Ai gives her partly meat bun and says that he must be cold. He holds her hand and says that he waited for her the whole day. “Can we see each other here again? I still want to know more about you.” At home, blushing Ai drops her bag on the floor. She is still in disbelief that it is the first time someone is very direct with her. Flashback: Ai told him that this perplexes her and she won’t always come to ride this bus so she cannot promise that they will meet again. The guy replied that he’ll just always wait for her. “My name is Okamura Izumi [中村和泉]. For the meantime, first remember it. *smiles* I will always wait for you to come.” End flashback Ai wonders if that guy will truly do what he said, since it is troublesome.
The next day, Ai rides on the bus and is shock to see the same guy sitting on the bench of the bus stop. She quickly hides away from him by pulling her hood on her face. She thinks that there is no need to do that as if his life depended on it, so could it be just a coincidence or.. Soon, it is night, riding in the bus, Ai is glad that she manages to ride the last bus because she finished work, late at night. She notices that it is quite cold tonight. While getting off the bus on her bus stop, she looks at the bench and sees Izumi sitting on the bench. She approaches him and tells him that there will be no bus coming anymore. Izumi smiles and tells her that it is alright for he isn’t waiting for the bus. “You’ve finally look towards my side.” She blushes when he touches her warm face with his icy cold hand. Ai thinks she couldn’t refuse him, for it seems that there is finally a light in the darkness, and perhaps, she can now finally move on. She is surprised when Izumi suddenly leans on her shoulder. He apologizes and tells her to let him do that for a while. Thinking that he must be feverish from waiting for her, Ai asks him where his house is since it would be troublesome if he faints midway on his way home. He blushes when she offers to bring him to his house. Inside the house, Ai tells him to call his family but she is surprised when he said that they are not there since he is already working. Ai backs away in shock for she thought that he is around her age. She blushes when he said that no wonder she easily offered to bring him home [thinking that he lives with his family] and he had a bit of anticipation about it. Just when embarrassed Ai is about to leave, Izumi kneels down the floor. Worried, she goes to him and asks if he is alright. Izumi says that if she doesn’t care about him, he’ll die. Ai angrily shouts if he is a kid.
Soon, Ai checks his temperature to be 37.9C. She tells him that he has a fever so he should properly sleep to get better and drink lots of water. Then, she bought him Pocari Sweat [popular Japanese soft drink and sports drink], cold pack, and some food. He giggles and says that she can really take care of someone. “This side of you.. *smiles* In the end, I really like. Go steady with me.” This surprises Ai and tells him that it is impossible for she cannot like someone again. “I had an unforgettable love. (Regretful and disappointing first love) *covers face* So, I beg of you.. Please don’t like someone like me. (I already.. do not want to get hurt again..)” Holding her hair, Izumi says, “Is that so. ..but it is too late. You, who have already tried to love, ought to also understand, right? This is something that cannot be stopped so I’ll wait for you. Always, until the day when your feelings match up with mine. I’ll always wait for you.” And from that day on, they will meet each other on the way home from work at the bus stop. He would just talk, and she’ll listen. Scene 1: He says about asking his colleague to buy pudding for him and she thinks he likes sweet. Scene 2: He says that he had a paper cut from a revision paper and she thinks that it must have hurt. Everyday, they talk about trivial things and within her heart, he gradually become someone important to her. When Ai smiles over what he said, Izumi says, “..Ai-chan, I like you. I’ll definitely properly cherish you so come to my side.” Ai thinks that even if she is afraid of getting hurt but within her heart, she already feels that this is the person whom she wants to be in love with. They kiss. So, she thinks that she should abandon her past self because she wants to continue, moving forward.
Ai decides to go back to school. Within the school, she passes by people who are gossiping about her and that she even dare to come back. Her two friends happily welcome her back for they are always waiting for her since they are lonely. They assure her that they will treat her, the same just like before, even if everyone around them are whispering things. Ai is touched by what they said. Then, they ask her to help them with school duties as Perfect [student on duty], in exchange for always lending her notes while she isn’t in school. Ai laughs and says that it can’t be helped. She felt the world had become bright and warm again. A teacher calls out to the Perfect today to get the map for fifth period’s class. Ai goes to the material room and asks for the map for her world history’s class. A teacher tells her to wait for Modern Language’s Okamura-sensei who is coming soon, to return it because he used it for his fourth period class. Ai felt a sharp pain for it reminded her that Saitou-sensei had already left and is replaced by this Okamura-sensei. A moment later, the other teacher calls out to Okamura that a student wants to use the map. While Ai is facing away, Okamura slightly hits her head from behind and apologizes for arriving late since he ate lunch. When she is about to grab the map, Ai says that it hurts. Then, she turns around to apologize but she stops midway for it turns out that Okamura-sensei is Izumi. They both look surprise at each other. Ai couldn’t breathe nor hear anything. As the rolled map falls on the floor, Ai remembers the time when he confessed and kissed her. Ai felt her whole body and heart has been immersed into an icy cold water. “Once again, I had fallen in love with a ‘sensei’..”
Scans by 離境漢化組.
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