Chapter 10: The Puppy He Took In

Chapter 10: The Puppy He Took In

Yatsuno Gen’s hand holding the beer paused.

The white mist drifting from the oden floated beneath the lamplight. Flowers seen through fog, people seen through fog.

He said softly.

“I’ll take you home.”

The girl, who knew her boundaries very well, did not go mad by borrowing the courage of alcohol.

She clearly knew that she had already troubled this young man a great deal, and she could not ask for more.

She nodded lightly.

“Mm.”

Yatsuno Gen walked through the night with the girl leaning beside him. Even the moon in the sky seemed veiled by dark clouds.

Their footsteps were close yet distant. Because she had drunk alcohol, Kazama Sakura had plenty of reason to occasionally bump into Yatsuno Gen’s arm and shoulder, as though she could not hold her liquor.

Yatsuno Gen did not find it strange either, and kept walking very steadily, like a soft wall.

“Tell me, is it really true that once you grow up, everything will get better, and you’ll be able to solve all your troubles yourself?”

“Not necessarily. After all, every age has its own troubles, and there will also be problems you can’t solve. It might even be that when you look back at that time, everything now will seem not worth mentioning.”

“Then why do my troubles now seem impossible to solve?”

She troubledly shook her slightly dizzy head.

Her instinct made her move closer to the warm boy beside her. It would be best if her whole body could press against him.

Yatsuno Gen raised his head, feeling the warmth on his shoulder. He could clearly feel her slightly rapid breaths brushing against his profile and near his neck.

Carrying the unique sweetness of a young girl, they made one feel even hotter than the summer wind.

He was not some moralist. On the contrary, in many moments, he actually understood romance quite well.

Whether or not so-called true feelings were added did not matter. One simply did suitable things in a suitable atmosphere, so there was no need to feel conflicted over it.

Thus he simply reached out and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

He clearly felt Kazama Sakura’s body tremble.

She looked up at him in disbelief, her cheeks and even her ears burning pink.

Those moist, tender red lips looked like delicious jelly inviting Yatsuno Gen to taste them.

Yatsuno Gen’s gaze as he met her eyes was steady and deep, like the night sky above them.

“Because every age is destined to have things beyond your power, you should never be harsh on your past self. No one can live without regrets. Even if you do everything you can, there will still be things to lament.”

“...That seems true.”

She lightly rubbed herself into the young man’s arms, wanting to lean even closer.

Wanting to melt into his body.

“So, what you said to me this afternoon was actually goodbye, wasn’t it?”

Suddenly, Yatsuno Gen’s question pierced the softest bubble in Kazama Sakura’s heart.

She immediately panicked, but she could not break free from his embrace at all.

She could only pitifully raise her head and look at the young man whose expression seemed somewhat cold, making even her heart tighten.

“You noticed...”

“Did hardship make you feel like you had nowhere left to go, or was despair about to drown you? Or did you feel that only by leaving the school, leaving this place, and leaving my side could you get better?”

The young man’s words were like one bone-piercing dagger after another, stabbing into her heart, hurting so much that she could barely breathe.

But she could only turn her head, clutch the young man’s shirt tightly, and murmur apologies in a low voice.

“I’m sorry... I’m really sorry.”

“You don’t need to say sorry to me.”

Yatsuno Gen held her shoulders more tightly and strode forward.

They walked through the darkness of alleyways, through streets filled with cars and people.

They walked past one colourful neon sign after another.

She could clearly feel the summer night wind howling, blowing past her fringe and the hem of her skirt.

Pushing the dark clouds away from before the moon.

When Yatsuno Gen released his hand, only then did she realize they had arrived downstairs at her home.

Yatsuno Gen, who had taken a step back, bent down slightly and looked into her eyes.

“Did you cry again?”

Being looked at by Yatsuno Gen like this, Kazama Sakura felt somewhat embarrassed, but she still gathered her courage and glared at him.

“I didn’t cry... the wind was just very strong.”

Indeed, the wind was too strong.

The cypress trees in the residential complex were swaying from it, their branches and leaves rustling.

“Mm, then do you want me to blow the sand out of your eyes? Wait, it might be a brick.”

”Pfft. What are you saying?”

Kazama Sakura was once again easily amused. Usually, in front of him, her emotions were already hard to control.

Now that she had drunk alcohol, her mentality seemed even more fragile.

Yatsuno Gen commented.

“Crying and laughing at the same time, like a poor little puppy.”

If he had said this normally, the girl would definitely have blushed and retorted.

But now, she no longer avoided his gaze.

The lingering warmth left by that embrace, which seemed still to rest on her shoulders, made her very bold.

“If you’re willing to take me in, I can be that poor little puppy.”

Yatsuno Gen sharply sucked in a breath.

“That sentence was far more perverted than anything I’ve ever said before.”

The girl’s cheeks burned hot, but her eyes shone even brighter, glimmering with moonlight.

She reached out and slowly gripped Yatsuno Gen’s wrist, using her meagre warmth to feel the broadness of his palm.

“A puppy... being a little perverted isn’t really a problem, right?”

She could hardly believe those words had come from her own mouth.

Although her grades had been declining recently, Kazama Sakura had always had proper conduct, with no bad hobbies, and she would not even search for shameful material online.

Yet because she had said those words, she felt a hidden excitement in her heart.

When Yatsuno Gen frivolously reached out and lifted her chin, she raised her head from a humiliating angle.

Looking up at the young man like this, she was like a puppy having its chin stroked.

She felt her legs trembling faintly, and her scalp tingled.

“Pervert.”

Yatsuno Gen’s undisguised cold gaze seemed as though it could pierce directly into her heart.

It made her almost unable to stop herself from kneeling.

She even felt that from this angle, Yatsuno Gen could easily kiss her.

He did not have to be gentle.

He could be a little rough.

He could be even colder.

Only then would she have the ease of completely sinking, of sinking together with her own despair, of letting everything shatter and giving up to the very end.

Even pleasure.

But Yatsuno Gen let go and looked at the girl whose eyes did not hide her regret in the slightest.

“Don’t worry. Even if the sky falls, it won’t crush a puppy.”

“Go back and sleep well tonight. Tomorrow, everything will get better.”

Would it get better?

In truth, Kazama Sakura was not that optimistic. She was long past the age where any enormous problem could pass after a single night’s sleep.

But she was willing to believe that tonight.

Before him, she did not hide her trust and dependence at all.

She nodded hard.

“See you tomorrow.”

“Mm, see you tomorrow.”

Yatsuno Gen waved his hand and vanished easily beneath the moonlight.

As though he had never come.

And after returning home and hiding back in her room, the girl hugged her blanket tightly and buried her face in her pillow.

This time, it was not suppressed, wailing sobs.

She first took out her phone and sent Yatsuno Gen a message.

[Remember to tell me once you get home safely.]

Then she opened the camera and filmed her own face.

One hand held it up, while the other lightly gripped her fair, tender neck.

Tightening bit by bit.

Tightening bit by bit.

Until she felt that faint sense of suffocation.

A layer of flush covered her cheeks.

But very soon, she dejectedly released her hand.

“It would be better if it were his hand...”

She collapsed weakly onto the bed and began letting her imagination run wild again.

Tonight had been wonderful, but tomorrow’s troubles would arrive in the end.

Would things get better?

Would there be a so-called miracle?

It seemed utterly impossible, because miracles were things only those who had given up on themselves would pray for.

If even she was about to give up on herself, how could she talk about things getting better?

The next day.

A cloudy day that seemed to have no sun.

It was as if a layer of black gauze covered the sky, and even more like the embodiment of her terrible mood.

Kazama Sakura, who needed some makeup to conceal her tear-reddened eyes, had already prepared herself.

She would find Yamazaki Jihei and tell him.

If she lost her place for the grant, and there was no way even if she promised to improve her grades, she would choose to transfer schools.

She did not even dare look back at the young man who had already arrived in the classroom, nor what expression he would have while looking at her.

Because he was so clever. He would definitely find a flaw on her.

But class was about to begin, and Yamazaki Jihei still had not appeared. It was not until the year-group leader hurried into the classroom with a solemn expression.

He said to everyone.

“Teacher Yamazaki had an accident last night. He lost his footing and fell from a building. He is still in the hospital and unconscious. Therefore, he temporarily cannot serve as your class teacher. The school is currently arranging another teacher to come over, so I will temporarily teach you for the next few days...”

?

???

Kazama Sakura thought she had heard wrong.

When she heard the discussion that arose in the class, she finally understood that this was not an illusion.

A strange impulse, or rather, intuition, surged within her heart.

It made her turn her head directly and look toward that incredibly familiar seat.

At what angle she should turn her head to happen to see him, yet not attract too much attention from others, she seemed to have practiced it thousands upon thousands of times.

She saw him.

Just then, he was looking at her too.

He smiled, as always, calm and ordinary.

And at this moment.

In the sky, a golden ray of light broke through the dark clouds.

It fell upon his beautiful face and short black hair.

Were there really gods in this world?

Yet he stretched lazily beneath that sunlight and, amid the noisy discussions of those around him, said,

“On a day like this, one ought to eat red bean rice.” [NOTE: Red bean rice is a Japanese celebratory dish of rice steamed with red beans, traditionally eaten on happy or auspicious occasions.]