Six years have passed since the incident at the graduation ceremony.Hirugami, lost as an artist, devoted himself in business affairs and tookcharge of the company after his father’s demise. A rumour had spreadamong the employees of the company that their CEO, Hirugami, had a secretaffair with his secretary. Hirugami couldn’t care less about these rumours.But, as evening came, the secretary came into his office just to prove thetruth of the rumour.
She brushed her lips against Hirugami’s, expecting him to return the kiss,but instead, Hirugami breaks the intimate moment between them bypushing her away. He takes off from his office and after running for sometime, finds himself in the balcony. This relation with his secretary wasn’tsomething he was proud of. He felt something missing in this relationship.He didn’t feel like this when he was around Kitomi. There was something inher that he admired, something that he loved. But, all of this was destroyedin that one moment. Reminiscing about all this old memories, Hirugami puta cigarette in his mouth and was about to light it, when he felt tears rollingdown his eyes. He remembers the beautiful face of the person, who used tocare about him, loved and adored him. He was the one to take the decisionof turning her away, when she tried to become something more than afriend to him. This pained him and supposedly, cigarettes were his only wayto escape from this scar of the past throbbing in his insides. He manages tolight his cigarette and takes a soothing and long puff.
The next day, Hirugami gets a letter. It’s from Mitori! He hasn’t heard fromhim in six years. But, he knew that Mitori had become a famous andsuccessful photographer who clicked photos of famous people, famousplaces and whatnot. Hirugami opened the letter but the moment he openedthe letter and read its contents, his heart sank. Mitori wanted to meet himnext week for a collage reunion. Hirugami became scared to face Mitori andthe others after the events of that day. But, he decided otherwise and in thefirst day of the following week, he took the first flight to Kyoto.
As Hirugami walks through the front gate of their collage gate, he could feelthe tension of meeting with Mitori and the others. Suddenly, he feels a paton his back and turns around to find Mitori waving at him. He had changedin the past two years and has gained some height and a little beard on hischin. He was wearing a white coat over a black shirt and a white pant tomatch his set of clothes. He looked more like a guy on his wedding day thana friend who has come to attend a reunion. He smiles at Hirugami and tellshim that the others will also be there soon. Although Hirugami knew that itwould be a reunion and that the others will be there too, he couldn’t controlhis unwillingness to come face-to-face with Kitomi. Seeing his reluctance tothe reunion, Mitori mentions to him that Hayako, Ada, Ichiko and Kitomihave also been invited.
Hearing her name, Hirugami tries to escape from there. He definitely isn’tprepared enough for this. But, his escape is foiled by Mitori who takes holdof his shirt and blocks his way of escape after pushing him into the campusand making him sit on a nearby seat. Mitori searches for a seat and findingone, asks Hirugami to sit there and cool himself down for a bit. He goes to anearby vending machine and hands him a cold coffee to keep himself cool.As Hirugami and Mitori argue about the whole reunion being a dumb idea,they hear the front gate open and a lady of Mitori’s age walks in. She iswearing a blue bodycon dress with a beautiful flower pattern printed on it.Her green eyes shining through the round-framed glasses she is wearing.The eyes of both Hirugami and Mitori go to the lady and Mitori immediatelyidentifies her and walks towards her and surprises her by calling out,“Ichiko!!” Hirugami was shocked to see the vast change in Ichiko after thetwo years they haven’t met. Ichiko was a bit surprised to be called out by atotal stranger like that, but after inspecting Mitori’s face for a while, she alsoidentified Mitori. Her cheeks flush a bit when she identifies Mitori andengages in a conversation with him, when he points out Hirugami sitting onthe bench. Ichiko goes towards Hirugami and they exchange greetings. Shetells that she had arrived with Kitomi and she was currently parking her caroutside and would be here within a minute.
On hearing Kitomi’s name and knowing that they were about to meet afterthat dreadful incident six years ago, Hirugami’s face became dark. After aminute, the college gate opens again and another lady walks in. As shewalks in, it felt like that a gentle, sweet breeze entered in the restaurantwith her. Hirugami felt a chill running down his spine as he saw Kitomiwalk inside. Her brown eyes glowed like a thousand stars glittering throughthe beautiful night sky. Her face was as sweet as honey and her hair lockswere all the more alluring when she moved them from her face to her ears.It was as if the time had stopped around Hirugami and Kitomi was the onlyone he could sense. His face became red when he saw Kitomi noticing themsitting and walking towards them wearing her green dress, which gaveHirugami the idea that Mother Nature herself has embroidered the gownshe was wearing.
Kitomi walks upto them and greets Mitori and with a sort of angry and sadlook on her face, greets Hirugami too. She puts her eyes on Hirugami andasks how he was doing. Suddenly shot with a question from Kitomi,Hirugami became a bit unsettled. He takes a sip of the coffee and with mucheffort, musters enough courage to talk with her. He tells her all about hisascension to the CEO of his father’s company after his untimely demise.After talking about his job, he asks Kitomi how she was doing and what wasshe doing at the time. Kitomi responds by telling her that she has achievedher dream of becoming a manga artist. She has published three romanticcomedy mangas, all of which were quite popular. But, she tells him that thisdidn’t give her the joy she had looked forward to and gave a long side lookat Hirugami. Hirugami understanding her reference felt a bit hurt andsaddened by her remark.
As Hirugami and Kitomi were having their conversation, Mitori askedIchiko if Ada and Hayako would also be present in their reunion. At this,Ichiko became a bit saddened and took out a small letter from her purse. Itwas posted by Ada. Ichiko takes out the letter and all of them hear it withutmost attention.
“Hey guys, sorry for Ichiko to be the bearer of the bad news, but I won’t beable to show up for the reunion. I’ve got a family now which I’ve to takecare and give time to. Sorry again that I didn’t invite you guys to thewedding. It was so sudden and early and the responsibilities came rainingdown on me hard. It’s not like that I don’t want to meet with you all, but itjust isn’t a good time for me attend this reunion, leaving my family. I hopeyou guys can forgive me.So long,Yours lovingly,Ada”
On hearing about the contents of the letter, everyone became silent for abit. It was unnatural for someone like Ada, who valued her friends verymuch to pass on the idea of a meet-up. This out of the blue apology for herabsentness was a bit surprising. Mitori broke the silence and decided towait for five to six more minutes for Hayako. After waiting for a bit, Hayakodidn’t arrive too. So they decided to head to the nearest café.Mitori talked freely with Ichiko, who was now a fashion expert, about hisphotography. He even asked her if he could use Ichiko’s fashion knowledgeto make his photos look more beautiful. Ichiko, happy to even talk freelywith Mitori was overjoyed at this remark and when Mitori commented onher beautiful dress, Ichiko felt her cheeks flush. Her whole face became redand she had to take out her handkerchief to hide the sudden flush of red onher cheeks.
As it was to talk with Ichiko for Mitori, it was as hard to talk with Kitomifor Hirugami. Things were awkward between them and both of them didn’tspeak anything on their way to the café. Kitomi breaks the awkward silencebetween them and asks Hirugami if he still draws. At this, Hirugami hardlyreplied that due to his father’s demise and the sudden pressure which fellupon him as the CEO of the company, he had to leave all his hobbies andpassions and on the things he held close to his heart. Hirugamicomplimented Kitomi by saying that she had achieved what she haddreamed of. Kitomi acted a bit sad upon hearing this remark and onnoticing the sadness in her face, Hirugami steered the subject. Theyreached the café and sat together in their seats.
Everyone ordered cups of teas and pastries for themselves and talkedabout how their lives have changed in these past two years. Then, Mitoriwho had remained silent up until now, put a hand up signalling them tostop. All of them became silent and awaited the announcement. Mitori hada black bag round his shoulder. He opened the bag and took out a very oldcopy, which was folded on the corners and in the sides.
On seeing the copy, Hirugami and Kitomi eyes bulged out and theyrecognized it. It was the copy where they had planned their manga anddrew their drafts. Noticing the surprise in their eyes, Mitori tells them thatthey were going to complete their manga together. On hearing it, bothHirugami and Kitomi shouted at the top of their voices, “WHAT!!!!!!!!”
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