Chikasugiru Karera no, Juunanasai no Tooi Kankei [LN] V2 Chapter 4.3

Chapter 4 - Something That Lingers In Them

The next morning, I woke up at 7:00 AM. When I looked out the window, I saw that the gutters had overflowed with rainwater, and a little bit of soil had gone out onto the road. The road glistened in the sun, as if there were glassy particles mixed in as well.

As the people in the surrounding houses were doing, Rina and I swept the dirt in front of our house with a broom and tidied up the corner of the street.

It was a cold morning, and I could see my breath turning white. I was wearing normal clothes and sneakers, and Rina was wearing rubber boots and a dark red school jersey. After about ten minutes of clearing away the dirt around our house, we were greeted by the man across the street who said, "Good work," Rina and I returned the greeting.

"Let's go back," I said to Rina at the front door.

She replied, "Yes." Then a voice called out, "Kenichi, Izumi-san,". It was Yuriko. She was wearing jeans, a gray hoodie, and a white scarf.

"Were you all right? I heard that some houses are flooded," Yuriko said.

"Yes, we are fine," Rina replied.

When I asked her, "What are you doing, Yuriko?", Since I was out cleaning, I thought I'd come by and check on you," Yuriko said.

"I see," Rina said, smiling at her.

"You two were cleaning too?"

Yuriko looked at me.

"Yeah. Because when I woke up, the neighbors were doing it."

Then, as if something had happened, Rina suddenly let out a small "Kyaaa" and lost her balance, almost falling down. Reflexively, I reached out and supported her back. Rina also grabbed my other wrist, perhaps unconsciously, and held it tightly.

"Are you okay?" I said, "I'm sorry," and she smiled bitterly and let go of my hand. The place where Rina slipped was on the metal cover of the gutter. There was still some water on the surface, which made it slippery. She may have slipped when she moved.

"You okay?" Yuriko said to Rina, who had stood up.

"Yes."

Yuriko continued, "But it's as expected of you to have such a cute voice in such a spur-of-the-moment situation," to which Rina somehow apologized, "I'm sorry."

"Kenichi-kun, I'm sorry too. I almost got you involved." 

"No.......I'm glad I was standing nearby."

Rina stepped away from me, looking at her feet. Suddenly when I looked over at Yuriko, she was looking at me blankly.

"Then, I'm going back to my house."

I thought she had to say something, but before she could say anything, Yuriko was walking toward her house.

When we entered the house and were preparing breakfast, my mother drove home. "Welcome home," Rina, who was making coffee, said happily to my mother as she walked into the living room.

My mother uneasily questioned me for calling Rina by her name, saying, "You didn't do anything strange, did you?" My brother called her "Rina-chan," so why just me------I thought it was unreasonable.

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After the test, club activities lasted from late afternoon to early evening. Entering December, the trees had lost their leaves and were reduced to only their branches. The season was already winter, and our breath turned white. 

After the three-hour club activity menu ended a little after 4:00 p.m., the club members began to do their own stretching. I sat down on the ground, folded one knee, and stretched my thigh. I was wearing a jersey on top but shorts underneath, so the dirt felt cold against my skin. The sky was a pale blue at dusk. The setting sun was weakly illuminating the area, and thick gray clouds were floating in the distant sky.

Then a shadow against the backlight peeked out at me.

"Are you dead?"

The shadow said, shaking its long hair.

"I'm alive."

I replied, raising my upper body.

"The first-year members are going to start maintaining the field, so if you want to do your stretches, you'll have to do them outside."

"Ah, yeah."

I got up and walked out of the field with Yuriko. Yuriko, like me and many of the other club members, is wearing shorts on the bottom and a blue jersey on top.

As I sit on the bench and stretch my calves, Yuriko begins to fold up a stack of bibs beside me.

"Did you do good on the test?" She spoke to me while moving her hands.

"Yeah. I'm a little more confident this time."

"It looks like you've been studying hard since the summer."

The first-year students were standing in a row, maintaining the field. The sunlight is weak and it is dimly lit, making it difficult to see far into the distance.

"By the way, Kenichi, will you continue to play soccer after you get out of high school?"

"I probably will. I don't know if I'll be on a team that's going to play in an official game. I think I'll keep playing soccer."

"I see. Well, that's good."

"But why all of a sudden?"

Then Yuriko mumbled a little.

"Well. A woman who used to be on the women's soccer team got married a while ago, and now she's going to have a baby, so she's stopped playing. Maybe that story stuck in my head."

Yuriko said, as if making an excuse. Then,

"I just heard some very serious words......."

A voice came from behind.

There was Tachibana, wearing soccer socks and training shoes, looking much more like a soccer player.

"Akari!?"

"What in the world were you two talking about, just the two of you, looking out over the field at dusk, senpai?"

"It's about a friend of mine."

"Is that so? I'm sorry, seems I intruded on you somehow."

Tachibana put her hand on her head, saying "Tehee," with her mouth. There it is, I thought. This is the type of gesture that Yuriko doesn't like. Yuriko also expressed her feelings with her mouth, "How annoying."

Tachibana ran to the ball that was lying outside the field and kicked it toward us. The kick was weak, but the way she kicked it was pretty good. Yuriko lifted the rolling ball with her toes, held it in her hand, and tossed it into the metal ball basket by the bench.

"Yuriko, let's go home together today."

I said to her back.

"Eh?" Yuriko looked back at me, puzzled.

Come to think of it, though we've often gone home together, I've rarely asked her first.

"Yeah."

After a short pause, Yuriko nodded and went back to cleaning up.

It took a while, but many things, including what I thought of Yuriko, had finally been sorted out in my mind recently. I felt that it was time for me to give Yuriko an answer regarding that time.

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