I push the kid!

Thanks to [20180315210603121][天星耀晨][秋夜春樱] for the rewards.

Thanks to [Evergrande Coach] [Autumn Night and Spring Cherry Blossoms] and [Inheriting the Torch] for their monthly tickets.

Thank you everyone for your recommendation votes.

Chapter 16 If We Can Meet Again

Chapter 16 16. If we could meet again

In the next few days, Taku Makimura did not return to Tokyo immediately, but continued to stay outside to relax according to his original plan, preparing to go back to look for a job when spring came.

Although Hoshino Ai left, and left so suddenly, without even leaving any contact information.

But after all, he was just someone she met by chance on the train.

Meeting and separation are common things. Makimura Taku, who has been accustomed to loneliness since childhood, has long understood this.

Even so, it took him a lot of time to slowly adapt to the transition from traveling with someone to traveling alone.

On the evening of November 19th, Taku Makimura sat by the desk lamp and flipped through a book for a while. Then he looked at the bamboo leaves outside the door, watching them fall inch by inch at the junction of light and darkness.

There was a cooing sound coming from outside the window. I couldn't tell what kind of animal it was, but the sound conveyed a kind of quietness to the air.

He closed the book, closed the window, exercised in the room, took a shower, and fell asleep on the bed.

On November 20th, he got up at eight o'clock. He slept very deeply last night, as if something was pressing on his head.

After brushing his teeth and waking up with a wet towel, he went for a run outside the hotel.

The morning light slowly climbed up from the forest, and the streaks of white light on the tree trunks looked like they were carved by a painter with a pen, so bright that they seemed unreal.

As he ran, he breathed in deep gulps of fresh air.

Several people whizzed past on bicycles in the driveway, but the sound of bicycle bells was not as pleasant as the one he heard on his first day in Karuizawa.

Two girls in sportswear and calf socks were also running, their breathing was particularly clear. One of them was playing Miyuki Nakajima's "Riding on the Back of the Silver Dragon" on her cell phone.

The sound of birds singing came from the branches several meters high, like a cuckoo, a turtledove or a crow.

Even though Taku Makimura kept running on the road at a certain speed, the sound of birds singing was still heard.

After returning to the hotel, he took a shower, changed into clean clothes and went to the bookstore to read.

A mother in her thirties was choosing books with her child. Someone was using a cart to bring a batch of newly arrived books into the bookstore. The girl at the front desk told the person to just put them in the warehouse and said thank you, to which the person responded.

When Taku Makimura walked in, the girl glanced in his direction and quickly looked away, as if she was afraid of being discovered. Taku Makimura didn't care much.

He passed by a bearded uncle and went to the literary reading area. He found Murasaki Shikibu's "The Tale of Genji" according to the order of the fifty-sounding letters and read until noon.

When leaving the bookstore, a fifteen-year-old girl asked her companion if she wanted to buy "The Little Prince" and "The Moon and Sixpence" so that they could read them alternately. The other girl said no problem.

Makimura Taku subconsciously glanced at the two of them, then turned and left.

At twelve o'clock noon, he went to the store outside to have lunch on time, a bowl of curry chicken wings with rice and a cup of latte.

The rice bowl didn't taste very good, and the coffee was also average. Maybe he didn't have much appetite, so he barely finished it in the end.

When I walked out of the store, it was not even one o'clock yet, but the sunlight above my head had already disappeared.

The sky around me wasn’t that gloomy, at least it didn’t look like it was going to rain, but I always felt that everything in my sight was dirty.

He walked forward aimlessly, turned right at two intersections, and unknowingly walked onto the stone bridge that he and Hoshino Ai crossed for the last time.

The street lights were not on, there were no shadows on the ground, and the wind couldn't even blow the small flags on the bridge. The river water under the bridge flowed mechanically, the grass was bent into the mud, and even the sparrows were reluctant to land on the ground.

Every scene looked dead, without any life at all.

Unable to think of where to go, Taku Makimura went to the pet shop and played with the cats for a while. The cats meowed like babies learning to speak.

The store manager was not in the store. A young girl was helping to look after the store. I guess she was the store manager's daughter or something.

She specifically introduced various cat breeds to Taku Makimura, such as the tabby cat, the British shorthair cat, the calico cat, and the ragdoll cat. Taku Makimura nodded as he listened.

When leaving the store, the girl asked Makimura Taku if he was here for tourism, how long he would stay, and if he was interested in playing with cats often. He gave a brief answer, said no problem, and left.

Standing on the street, Makimura Taku looked around and felt that all the things around him were running numbly according to a certain established program:

Women in their thirties were walking and talking, carrying shopping bags, their thick platform shoes or high heels making unusually loud clacking sounds on the ground.

Boys and girls in school uniforms chat about newly released games or Sofina's beauty products.

Elderly people were taking walks, and children were noisily chasing each other.

I don't know which store came from, but the song "Together Forever" by Sojiro was so soft that it seemed to be floating on the clouds.

Is this the same scene I've seen before? Thinking of this, Makimura Taku sighed.

He looked ahead, and vaguely seemed to see Hoshino Ai, who was wearing a skirt, turning around and smiling at him, but that smile eventually faded away. What on earth was this?

In the evening, Taku Makimura ate some oden at a convenience store and bought a bottle of MAX coffee, which tasted very good.

After returning to the hotel, he watched the news and checked the weather forecast for tomorrow.

It's mostly sunny in Tokyo, but it's been cloudy for about three days in a row in Karuizawa, which is really unpleasant.

After turning off the TV, it got dark outside. Taku Makimura turned on the light and took out "The Great Gatsby" from his bag.

He didn't read the book, but just unfolded the letter inside again.

He had read the letter many times, but every time he finished reading it, he felt something was missing.

He felt that the letter ended too abruptly, as if it had come to an abrupt end somewhere, similar to the sudden cutting of the telephone line.

It's a very subtle feeling. I always feel that there should be a long memory behind every sentence in the letter, but there is nothing, which makes people feel uncomfortable.

After reading the letter this time, he picked up the pen and prepared to write something, as if only by putting the thoughts in his mind into words could he calm down.

He looked at the quiet twilight, as if he wanted to look at every bamboo, and finally lowered his head to write:

Hello, Hoshino Ai, I will remember your name.

After this sentence, the author probably wanted to write about the sunset, the moonlight, the maple leaves in autumn, and the snow in winter, but in the end he didn't.

Without the other party's address, it's just a letter that can't be sent.

Forget it, Taku Makimura thought. He crumpled up the paper he had just written on and put together all the things about Hoshino Ai - letters, sunflowers.

What else is there? Apart from the light memories, it seems that not much is left.

He threw all these things away.

The photos should actually be thrown away. He felt that he couldn't continue to stay relaxed with such things. He would always feel a little sad.

If you feel sad, doesn't that defeat the purpose of traveling?

He hesitated with the photo in his hand, but finally put it back on the table.

At around ten o'clock, Taku Makimura prepared to go to bed, so he turned off the desk lamp.

The remaining glimmer brightened the photo for a moment, as if the moonlight was shining on it, but there was no moon tonight.

Early the next morning, he threw all the contents of the trash can outside.

Thank you all for your tips, monthly votes, and recommendation votes.

I saw that many people mentioned the issue of updates. How should I put it? I am not a full-time worker, which is not a big deal. It’s mainly because I’m busy this month and I’m afraid of getting lost in the writing, so the updates are a bit rare. I would like to update more when I have time. I won’t reply to other questions.

——Miko

Chapter 17 Later

Chapter 17 17. Later

"Thank you for your hard work." He said to the kind uncle who was transporting the garbage.

"It's nothing." The uncle smiled and waved his hand, loading the garbage into the car.

A sweet voice came from the side: "Emi, there is a letter for you~"

"Oh! Come now."

Someone came to pick up the mail at the nearby green mailbox. After the girl left, Makimura Taku turned around to take another look and quickly left.

After that day, Taku Makimura gradually got used to traveling alone.

Go out and read during the day, and go to the pet store to play with cats in the afternoon.

If it's not raining, walk around and enjoy the scenery near dusk.

When I feel tired, I sit in a coffee shop, order a cup of mocha coffee, listen to music and read cheap magazines that can be bought on the street.

After exercising in the evening, I took a shower and went to bed. The journey was quite leisurely. Although I felt empty occasionally, that feeling was fading day by day.

November 26th, the third day of the sun.

After the weather improved, Makimura Taku's mood became more relaxed, although he was not yet happy.

After running in the morning, he went to a small restaurant at noon and had a cheese pizza and half a bowl of natto.

He originally wanted to buy a can of MAX coffee at a nearby convenience store, but when he passed by a pet shop on the way, he was stopped by the girl who was watching the store.

"Makimura!"

Taku Makimura looked in the direction of the voice and saw the girl waving at him vigorously, then changed her gesture to signal him to come over.

When Makimura Taku walked up to her, the girl said to him, "Good afternoon, Makimura!"

She had long black hair that barely reached her shoulders. She wore a red hooded sweatshirt on her upper body, a black pleated skirt underneath, white socks that didn't reach her knees, and New Balance sneakers. She looked very cute.

Makimura Taku responded, "Good afternoon, Ms. Ogura."

"That's fine, Ms. Yuki."

"Ms. Ogura Yuki."

"Come in?"

He nodded.

The two walked to the swivel round chair near the counter in the store, Taku Makimura sat on it, and Tomoki Ogura handed him a half-asleep fat orange and yellow cat.

"It's early today."

"You didn't call him in?"