Chapter 10- Ninomiya’s POV

It was just before midnight when Ohno-san said that he would leave soon. Apparently, he still had a lot of work to do and had to go to his company early next morning. Ma-kun was making a drink for one of the customers so I walked Ohno-san to the door. Before we reached it, he stopped abruptly and took out his phone to register my number and told me his own phone for me to register it. I did as I was told and inserted his number and handed him his phone back.

“Thanks.” His grin naturally brings up the corners of my lips.

“Please come again soon.”

“Of course. Next time…”

“Another request of a song?”

“Next time, can you tell me more about yourself?”

“…”

At the time, I didn’t even know if I was even smiling properly. But no longer how long we waited, the word “yes” didn’t come out of my mouth. It couldn’t. Because… I didn’t want to talk to him about myself. Was I being self-centered? There was a long pause while we stared at each other for a long time. What I finally forced out of my mouth was, “…Good night, Ohno-san.” He smiled sadly.

“…Good night, Nino.” And he turned his back on me to slowly walk away. I had to fight the sudden surge of sorrow from flowing through me as I watched his back getting smaller and smaller as he walked. It’s not right to feel scared of being rejected by someone when you rejected him yourself first. This is not right. I clenched my fists and went back into the shop.

“Thank you Kazu-kun. Did Oh-chan go home?”

“Yeah.” Ma-kun notices everything about me, so it was hard for me to act as if everything was normal.

“…Kazu-kun, let’s close the shop now.” See, you noticed something different about me in less than a second. And at such times, he always smiles kindly, and I always feel like crying when I see that. Ma-kun. Why can’t people live by themselves? If I could live alone, no one would suffer this much. If I were able to live alone, then Ma-kun, Jun-kun, the master and Ohno-san… no one would need to feel so troubled all the time, don’t you think?

Aiba’s POV

I closed the shop and sat next to Kazu-kun who was staring into space by the counter.

“…Kazu-kun, can you talk to me about it?” Everything. Yes, from we were little, we told each other everything. There was only one time when we were separated from each other and I regretted it so much afterwards: Why didn’t I stay by him? Why didn’t I ask him what happened? That’s why I’ll never leave Kazu-kun alone like that again.

“…Ma-kun, Ohno-san said… he wanted to know more about me…”

“Yeah.”

“But… I didn’t really want to tell Ohno-san…”

“Yeah.”

“It wasn’t like he had a deep reason to ask me, he just wanted to know more about me…”

“Yeah.”

“But I didn’t know what to say…”

“Yeah.”

“What should I do…? Maybe he’s angry at me, maybe he hates me now…” Kazu-kun’s eyes become more watery after every word he said.

“I don’t want Ohno-san to hate me.” A small tear escaped from the corner of his eyes and ran down his cheeks. Oh. This was what he was worried about. I held Kazu-kun’s hands to reassure him.

“Now tell me Kazu-kun, what kind of person do you think Ohno-san is?”

“…A kind person.”

“Yeah, I think so too. And I think he is someone who would value people’s feelings.” I pictured Oh-chan’s face in my head. All of his smiles were for Kazu-kun, just like Jun, the master, and me.

“Why don’t you want to tell Ohno-san about yourself? Are you scared that he’ll hate you?” Kazu-kun’s shoulders twitched. Was that a yes?

“….I’ll put weight on his shoulders…” His words surprised me as they sunk into my brain and settled at the bottom of my stomach. Do you always think like that? Were you always feeling guilty whenever you interacted with other people? …Right. That’s why you always build a thick wall between other people.

“Well, Kazu-kun... I want to carry it.” I want my message to be delivered to your heart. That you’re not alone.

“People who love you, we all want you to be released from your past, and we want to carry your weight on our shoulders.” Kazu-kun’s eyes were open wide.

“Watching you carry all of your weight by yourself… that pains me even more.” Kazu-kun reached out to wipe the small tears that rolled down my own face, and I smiled at him gently.

“Thank you, Ma-kun.”