Chapter 66 – Let’s take a break with a spin-off (part 4)
——Three years later.
I had no dreams.
I just inherited the house, got married by arranged marriage, had children, raised them strictly, and made them worthy heirs before I died.
That's what I thought was my mission, and I lived every day accordingly.
I started living alone on a whim.
I went to college, but all I did was research.
I was always bad at socializing because of my research, and I was ridiculed and mocked by my fellow researchers.
But I managed with this flask and this pen that I received from my dear professor.
"Senpai, good work today."
There was a junior who admired me, even though I was a research nerd.
A year younger than me, Ishino Minami-kun.
The only female in this seminar.
She was different from the others, and for some reason, she respected me.
Just like her, from that time.
"Sakurazaki-senpai, are you free for the next holiday?"
"......What if I am?"
"Do you want to go somewhere?"
"......Do you know that I'm the most unsociable person in this university?"
"So you don't want to go, huh?"
Ishino-kun puffed up her cheeks and shook my body.
"Yeah, that's right."
"Geez...... You won't get a wife even if you're smart, you know."
"Haha. Even someone like me had someone who liked me in the past. As long as I have that data, it's not zero percent."
"Oh, Sakurazaki-senpai, you had a girlfriend? Was it in high school?"
"Well, yeah. But I couldn't spend much time with her, and I didn't even know if we were dating or breaking up, and she dropped out of high school for various reasons."
"Huh? Oh, did I step on a landmine?"
"No, no. It's not a bad memory for me."
The days I spent in the usual library.
"Kazunari-san, please let me say one last thing."
"Someday, I'll come to get you."
To get me, huh.
She's still on TV, though not as much as she used to be.
She enchanted people with her beautiful voice, and enriched my heart as well.
She probably doesn't care about me anymore.
She must be dating some young actor or something.
I flipped through the gossip magazines I saw once in a while, looking for her name.
That's how I spent my days, turning my back on her.
"Ah, it's almost 12 o'clock, right? I have a favorite information program, can I turn on the TV?"
"Sure. I'm going to take a break and have some coffee now."
The moment Ishino-kun turned on the TV, a song played.
This voice......
The title of the song was "Lion" and the lyrics and vocals were by Yuzuhara Mitsu.
The lyrics expressed the sadness of the heroine who cuddled up to him, while overlapping the solitary lion and the boy she loved.
This song was her debut song, it said.
This song was what she said that time—.
The song stopped, and Yuzuhara Mitsu appeared live on TV.
As always, her beauty was intact.
But the next moment, I couldn't believe my ears.
"I, Yuzuhara Mitsu, have decided to retire from the entertainment industry."
Yuzuhara Mitsu...... retired......?
"What⁈ I was a big fan of Yuzumitsu, I'm shocked!"
My hand went crazy, and the coffee I was going to put in the paper cup spilled over my feet.
"......You're kidding."
"Senpai, you were a fan of Yuzumitsu too? ......Hey! Senpai, your coffee!"
What the hell is she doing.
+×+×+×+
"Yuzumitsu's shocking retirement!"
"Uncertain reason? Yuzumitsu's retirement"
"A friend says, a family tragedy⁈"
Amid various speculations, Mitsu didn't give a reason.
But I thought the reason of a family tragedy was correct.
She lost the reason to sing as an idol, to support her mother.
She avoided stating her whereabouts after retirement, and Yuzumitsu's retirement remained unclear, and before long, the topic faded away.
After that, I started researching Mitsu out of curiosity.
As I researched, I found out one thing.
A statement she made in a documentary she appeared in three months ago.
About the future of idols, Mitsu said,
"Times change, and people keep looking for new things."
Now, this statement was understood as the reason for her retirement.
New, things.
I'm not sure, but she probably lost her mother and her shine.
Just thinking about that pain makes my chest feel like it's going to burst.
Mitsu...... I love you.
I locked the lab door, and after I dropped off Ishino-kun at her house, I started desperately looking for her whereabouts.
Once is enough, I want to see Mitsu again.
Sure, the only memories I have of her are the smell of the sea and the smell of books in the library.
But she must be......
......The smell of the sea......
After that, I started going to that sea every day.
I had my first date with her at that sea.
I still remember her perfume that smelled so good.
She was so attractive, and yet, what was I thinking?
In the end, I couldn't confess to my senpai, and I kept a vague distance with Mitsu.
I'm an idiot, a big idiot.
I sat there, looking at the sea that came and went from the embankment.
When I got bored, I read books or thought about the next research topic.
That became a habit, and a year passed.
I got tired of the sea.
What's so great about being blue, or being beautiful?
What's so good about the sea being blue? Beauty is only from a distance, isn't it a pile of garbage when you open the lid?
I started to make excuses all the time.
One night, when I was lying on the embankment, looking at the starry sky and the sea, a taxi stopped in the distance, and a woman in a white kimono got off.
I couldn't tell anything but that she was wearing white clothes from afar, but at this time of night, in a white kimono, I wondered if she was going to do some kind of test of courage, and I laughed to myself as I watched, but something was wrong.
She took a step, and another, towards the sea.
Her shaky steps were very ominous.
"No way."
I got up quickly and ran along the embankment, towards the seaside.
My leather shoes were soaked and covered with sand, but I ran towards her, who was calming herself down in the sea.
"Hey! You! What are you doing?"
I couldn't believe my eyes.
It was the biggest shock of my life.
She used to be next to me, but now she was an existence in the back of the TV.
No, now...... she's gone from the TV.
"......Mitsu, is that you?"
She was herself, from her hair to her beautiful posture.
What decided it was the white kimono she wore.
There's no mistake. This is the one I bought that day.
"......Oh, I'm already dead, aren't I. A hallucination, as if Kazunari-san is in front of me......"
"It's not a hallucination! I'm here!"
"...... Kazunari, san?"
"That's right! I've grown a little beard since then, but I'm Kazunari, Sakurazaki Kazunari!"
"......Kazu, nari...... san"
Was it the sea breeze, or was it the emotion?
Beautiful, clear tears flew in the wind from her eyes.
"Kazunari-san...... I wanted to see you."
I wrapped her cold body in both arms.
Her body was much thinner, and her hug was weak.
I could tell how much she had weakened.
"Mitsu...... do you remember me?"
"Of course...... I never forgot you. I'm your...... girlfriend."
In the quiet world of just the two of us, the hug lasted forever.
Under the sparkling night sky, we felt the greatness of fate, blessed by the stars.
"Mitsu...... don't leave me anymore. Don't disappear all of a sudden!"
"......Yes."
"Support me, rely on me, and...... be my wife."
"......I understand."
A year later, Mitsu and I got married when I graduated.
+×+×+×+
"It feels nostalgic, doesn't it, Kazunari-san?"
"Ah"
As we watched Nako and Himahara-kun embrace in the snow through the window on the second floor, Mitsu and I were immersed in our memories.
"We're still the same as we were back then, aren't we?"
"......Yeah"
......Except for the fact that you became a fujoshi.
"Um, Kazunari-san"
"What is it?"
"I got hot when I saw those kids"
"You know, we're both over 50 years old, old man and old woman. Think about your age a little"
"Muu...... But, Kazunari-san, you haven't been paying attention to me lately, so I'm sad"
Well, no matter how old she gets, she's more beautiful than anyone else.
Nako is cute, but Mitsu is still more beautiful.
"I understand. Come on, close your eyes"
"Yes"
I kissed Mitsu with a hot embrace that didn't lose to the two outside.
A lot of things happened after we got married.
The unfamiliar life of the two of us.
The days of endless quarrels.
We couldn't have a child for a long time, and we felt the pressure from Sakurazaki's relatives, but Nako was finally born safely.
We regret the parenting policy that we continued awkwardly with each other, now that we think about it.
But it's thanks to Nako that we were able to return to this relationship where I can kiss Mitsu for the first time in years, and still......more than anything.
Himahara Kou, he gave Nako......no, this family a big light.
We'll never let go of this thread that he held together.
(Spin-off Sakurazaki Kazunari End)
Translator: Janaka
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Note: so far, this is the best chapter I've read in this series.