Volume 25 Chapter 7 Part2 (2/2)
”You said it again”
”It's got nothing to do with you, right? I' about myself”
”It does have so to do with me You're the one I chose as my petit soeur I don't want you to be arbitrarily devaluing yourself”
But that inally Why couldn't Yumi-sama understand that?
”I interpreted Yumi-sama's offer of her rosary at that time as a fantasy And I accepted it as such So all this talk of soeurs should be over So why do you still care about me?”
Touko glared at Yumi-sama
”You don't know?”
Yu and looked calh to say, ”You really don't know?”
She didn't know
She was afraid of knowing
At this ht at Touko alone Like she was drawing her in
In truth, Touko knew
For whatever reason, she knew the answer Yumi-sama had prepared
But Touko just couldn't believe it That hy she couldn't take the offered hand She couldn't leap into those outspread arms
”You know, ever since you turnedabout it”
Yu after her
”Wondering ould happen between me and Touko-chan”
They walked along the path lined with ginkgo trees, just half a step separating them
”But then I thought I should think about what I wanted to happen between us, rather than wonder about ould happen Since then, that's what I've been thinking about”
Touko had no obligation to follow her like this She didn't have to silently listen to her talk She could just say, ”That's enough,” and stop walking
But Touko followed her She had to confir
”Ulti as Touko-chan is Touko-chan”
Yu before Touko did They had arrived at the statue of Maria-sama
”As long as I'm me”
This phrase didn't exactly make Touko feel happy But Yumi-sama didn't notice Touko-chan's subtle shi+ft in expression, because she had her head bowed in prayer
”So while I'd be delighted to be your soeur, it see it as a prison”
Yuotten to pray, repeating a single phrase over and over
”You said, ”As long as I'm me - ””
Her hands were shaking She knew she shouldn't dig too deeply into this topic But now that the lid had been opened, she just had to look inside There was no way she couldn't
”That's right So no e If you don't want to tell me the real reason you ran in the student council election, I won't force it out of you If that's the conclusion you came to after careful deliberation, then it must have been important to you Sas, like what sort of people your parents are, what kind of childhood you had, what your relationshi+p with them is like now - all those are cos I have for you, Touko-chan”
As she listened to Yumi spout her pet theory, Touko's temper flared
Parents, childhood, relationshi+p How could this person talk so innocently to Touko about these things?
”So that's it?”
Ah, she knew it
”So that's how it is?”
”Huh?”
”As long as I' to do withlike that”
Still silent, her eyes glistened She hadn't realized her own mistake yet
”I don't kno long you've known, but I knew it had to be pity that made you offer me your rosary at that moment You just wanted to pay a visit to Sara[1] on Christmas Eve Oh how happy you must have felt when you held out your rosary”
Even so, for a moment she'd wanted to believe, like an idiot
On that Christmas Eve
It had been here, right in front of Maria-sama
”I thought it was strange There was no way Yumi-sama would want this fool as her petit soeur But, finally, the mystery is solved”
”I don't knohat you're talking about”
”If you're not willing to ad to make it hard to move forwards”
”Hey, isn't this so?”
Yumi-sama took a step towards Touko
”Stay away from me!”
Touko screaht
”Don't come any closer!”
”Touko-chan”
”I don't want to hear any of your excuses”
Maintaining a distance of about a metre between them, they looked at each other
”Alright”
Eventually, Yumi-sama started to speak
”It looks like your blood's boiling, so no matter what I say you won't hear”
With that, Yumi-sama turned her back and walked away from Touko One metre became two, then when she was about three metres away, she looked back over her shoulder like she'd forgotten so and said:
”Touko-chan Stay there and count to 100 Nountil you're done”
Then she kept walking
Without knohy, Touko followed those directions and counted, ”One, two” Even as she wondered why she should follow the orders of soainst, she followed them because of the power of those words
Her blood was indeed boiling And her s properly She didn't knoouldto do
In that unsettled state of mind, it was easier to follow someone else's instructions Even if they ca she found unpleasant Although, obviously, counting to 100 was a simple and harmless task, so she had no qualms there
”Twenty-three, twenty-four”
She hadn't been told to close her eyes, but at some point her eyelids had fastened shut Now, Touko was ”it” in a game of hide-and-seek
”Forty-nine, fifty”
Part way through her legs became unsteady, so she crouched down
”Seventy-six, seventy-seven, seventy-eight”
The nu, there were all these hts wrapped around her mind as the numbers visited one by one But now, there was only the numbers there The numbers flowed in an orderly fashi+on
”Ninety-one, ninety-two”
Her boiling blood had cooled considerably
”One hundred”
Touko opened her eyes
She looked around, but couldn't see Yumi-sama anywhere
The only one there was Maria-sa her performance from the Christmas Eve party, where she played the role of Sara Crewe from A Little Princess