Chapter 91: Confession (1/2)

When the waiter brought a new cup of coffee, Masashi dared not to drink again. He looked across the table at teacher Naoko who had silently hung her head

“Em, could you repeat that sentence? I might have heard it wrong.” After a while, Masashi a bit awkwardly said some words.

After what seemed like a long time, Naoko slowly raised her head and looked at him, then faintly said: “I am sorry, I have scared you. I….excuse me.” With that, she stood up in a hurry to leave.

When passing him, the youth almost instinctively grabbed her hand.

Suddenly, he felt like a drop of liquid fell on the back of his hand, looking up, he can’t help but stunned.

“Please….let me go…okay?” With eyes filled with tears, teacher Naoko tried to cover her face with her hand while the other hand struggled to get away from the youth’s firm grip.

“Naoko, would you please sit down?” After taking a deep breath, the youth sincerely said.

After a while, teacher Naoko finally stopped struggling, then looked at him with an incomparably complex look and slowly sat at her original seat.

“If, I mean if, if I am not mistaken, the meaning of your words is, you like….em, have a certain degree of favorable impression toward me, am I right?” Masashi still not used to say those words.

Teacher Naoko looked at him in the eye, then with full of sadness but firm tone said: “Masashi, I….like you.

If these words create difficulty for you, I am sorry. I won’t bother you anymore. I….I want to go back, please don’t block me.” Then, she wanted to leave.

The youth didn’t let her stand up. Instead, he grabbed her hand. Then he turned it over to expose her wrists and put two fingers on top of her veins or arteries to check her pulse.

Looking at the youth who did not say a word even after a long time, teacher Naoko gently sighed. She did not try to shake off his hand, just quietly watching him.

“How much time?” After a while, the youth said a sentence.

Teacher Naoko did not react for a time, just looking at him with confused eyes.

“I mean your heart’s problem.” The youth looked at her.

“You….how did you know?” Teacher Naoko was very surprised.

The youth sighed, “You probably have some level of goodwill toward me, but with your character, you would not take the initiative to say those things toward a high school student like me. Only a person whose days are numbered would be eager to do such a thing. Am I right Naoko?”

After listening to Masashi, teacher Naoko’s face went white, and her whole body felt increasingly cold.

Suddenly, she felt her right hand tightened, looking up she saw the youth had wrapped her hand tightly in his hands.

“I won’t let anything happen to you.” The youth gently said some words.

This sentence seemed like a spell, teacher Naoko suddenly felt the chill flew away from her and, all of a sudden a warm feeling passed through his clasping hands and into her heart. At that moment, she knew, crystal-clear, how badly her attachment toward this youth is.

“Just a month ago, because of a sudden burst of angina, I was sent to the hospital. According to the doctor’s diagnosis, there’s a sign that my heart disease started to get worse. I forgot to tell you, I have a congenital heart disease, it belongs to the family of hereditary disease. My grandmother, at 26 years of age, died because of this illness. The doctor told me that if it continues to deteriorate, I might have a sudden death.

In that incidence, I really thought I would die. Fortunately, I survived that period. During that time in the hospital, I thought about a lot of things. But most of those thoughts was about you, do you know why I suddenly resigned from my teaching job to go to Nagoya?” Teacher Naoko looked at him with eyes as soft as the water.