Volume 2 Chapter 25 (1/2)

It was early morning.

The sun was only starting to rise when Mizuki woke up.  She had seen a horribly nostalgic dream.  It was a dream about when she was young, and still had her family.

She had stayed home from kindergarten with a fever, and had snuggled up next to her mother.  She had been coughing and looking up at her mother as she gently stroked her forehead with a cool hand.

Her mother’s face was vague, as if it had been hidden by a shadow.  But even still, her mother gazing at her wrapped her in a sense of security.  Clinging to that warmth, she had resisted waking up.

However, her consciousness was mercilessly dragged back to reality.  The fragmented images of her dreams began to melt away as the appearance of her younger self faded from her mind.  With her efforts to remain asleep in vain, and left with a sense of loss, Mizuki slowly starts to regain her sense of self.

She opens her eyes.  In her eyes, an inorganic white ceiling is reflected.  She was in a room on the 3rd floor of the supermarket.  Mizuki stiffens, takes the blankets off of her, and sets them beside the sofa.

(……Ah.)

The tears which had built up in her eyes, spilled out of the side.  The reality of where she was had just now fully come back to her.  Reeling from the gap between her current situation and her dream, Mizuki sits there for a while.

“……..Haa”

Letting out a sigh, she wipes the tear trickling down her face.  As she was lifting her body,

“Kushu–”  (TL: Sneeze)

As she sneezes, snot drips from her nose.

“Uwaa….”

The wet towel on her forehead also came cras.h.i.+ng down.  She looks around for a tissue, but is unable to find one.  Hesitating a bit, she blows her nose into the wet towel.  She folds it and puts it on the table.

She notices the gla.s.s of water on the table and gulps it down.  She feels the water spread through her body.

“Fuu…….”

She had removed the blankets, but the heater appeared to be on as she didn’t feel cold.  While sneezing again, Mizuki’s head starts to ache.  Beside the gla.s.s on the table was a bowl of rice porridge.  Yesterday she didn’t have an appet.i.te, so she had only eaten one bite of it.  Because of that, her belly was completely empty.

She could reheat the porridge on the stove in the hot water supply room.  Carrying the dirty towel and bowl with her, she leaves the room.

In the sink in the hot water supply room, tableware for three people were sitting, filled with water.  While she warmed up her porridge on the stove, she rinsed off the dishes in the sink.  There were no grease stains, so just rinsing them with water was fine.  As she finishes rinsing off the dishes, she stacks them one by one on a nearby dish towel.

After she was done, her hands had become cold from the cold water.

“Hekushu–”

Once again snot dripped out.  She uses face wash to clean her face.  The face-was.h.i.+ng lotion she had brought from downstairs.  She dries herself with a nearby towel and lets out a small breath.

“……”

She s.p.a.ces out, recalling the fragments of her dream, trying to make them clearer.

Worried about her brothers, she snaps out of it, and goes to look for them, and finds them wrapped up in blankets asleep in the corner of the office.  They probably didn’t sleep in the same room as not to catch a cold.  Several big books were lying next to them.  They were typical over-sized full color picture books.

She flips through a couple of them and sees pictures of mountains and seasons.  There were also animals and insects.  The photos helped kids understand the difficult to read kanji in the text.

Yusuke most likely gave it to them to kill time.  Her brothers liked these kinds of picture books.  There has hardly been any entertainment in their lives lately, so they must have been overjoyed.

(…………)

Making a some what complicated expression, Mizuki gently closes the picture book.

(Takemura-san is kind towards kids huh……)

‘Though he is cold towards me’, Mizuki takes a breath.  Even after she had surrendered her body to him, his att.i.tude did not change.

It’s not like she particularly liked Yusuke, but until now she hadn’t been treated so coldly by very many people.  Yusuke’s overly impolite att.i.tude caught her off guard.

She sets down the picture book, and returns to the hot water supply room.

Grabbing the porridge and heading to her room, she notices Yusuke asleep in a chair.  Leaning on the backrest, his neck bent back as he slept.  It looked as if his neck was in pain.  He had wrapped himself in blankets, but with the heater on, it wasn’t cold in the room.

Mizuki approaches the sofa she had been sleeping on, and folds the disheveled blankets, setting them down next to her.  Sitting down on the sofa, she begins her meal.  Using a spoon, she scoops the rice and blows on it before placing it in her mouth.  Her stomach had been aching in hunger, so the seven minute porridge was delicious.

(……..)

Mizuki indulged herself in the feeling of the porridge slowly warming her belly.

(……….)

She thought about the porridge and the towel –which had been placed on her forehead– in front of her.  The fact that Yusuke had been so accommodating for something like a cold was surprising.

Mizuki viewed Yusuke as someone who was selfish and rational.  When she caught a cold, she thought he would just toss some blankets to her and that would be it.  That he would display this kind of gallant behavior, Mizuki would have never imagined it.

Only, her pride was too wounded to openheartedly accept this random kindness.  Mizuki and Yusuke were complete strangers.  Up until recently they hadn’t even had a friendly relations.h.i.+p.  This act of kindness, as if becoming family, it was completely out of the blue.