(*Raika’s point of view)
My mother died.
My mother, who was with me all the time, who laughed at me all the time, and who got mad at me when I was not doing well, died in an accident.
—That was when I was going to be a junior high school student next year.
“…..I shouldn’t have told her I wanted to be an actress.”
I thought to myself as I swung on a swing in a park far from my house.
If I had not wanted to be an actress, I might have spent more time with my mother.
If only I had enjoyed my life more, because no one could have predicted that she would have an accident.
I’ve been training, recording, and going to school…… these days, and I’ve just been coming home late.
My mom has to work, too, and there were very few days during the week when I could be with her properly.
But on Sunday mornings…
“Hey, hey, Raika chan! We won! After all, evil will be destroyed!”
This was a Sunday morning cartoon that was airing at the time.
It was an anime called “Drama☆Girl” in which a girl in the drama club stands up to an evil organization and saves people.
I remember my mom enjoyed it even more than I did because I was the actress
…… I wasn’t that into it, but my mom would invite me to turn on the TV every week.
And when we went shopping, if there was merchandise from that anime, we would stop by together,
“Raika-chan, why don’t we buy matching items together? I can’t spend much time with Raika chan because of work and such, so I want to get matching ones.”
“…..okay.”
“Really?! Then, mother should wear red and Raika chan should wear yellow!”
At that time, I thought, “I don’t have a choice.”
But now, I never thought that the keychain I bought at that time would become a memento.
“Let’s go back…….”
When I am alone, my heart inevitably sinks.
I thought I’d been able to separate the two to some extent, but in my spare time I think about my mom.
I don’t think it’s a bad thing. But if I don’t change my mind soon, I’ll make my father sad and I won’t be able to go to work…
“..H-huh?”
When I got up to go home, I suddenly noticed that the key chain on my bag was missing.
“….W-Where is it!?”
A memory of my mother. A key chain that had become a memento.
There were two of them, including my own, but they were both missing from my bag.
“….. I have to look for them.”
—I looked for them all over the park.
While other people were looking at me curiously, I kept on searching without paying attention.
On the way, I was approached by someone who said, “ You must be Todo Raika-chan!” but I ignored it.
Because right now, my mother’s memento is more important.
…… but in the end. No matter how much I looked for it, I couldn’t find it,
“……Higg, ugh……!”
I couldn’t give up so much that I kept looking in the same place over and over again, and I kept searching, shedding tears and …… not caring if my clothes got dirty.
That’s when it happened…
“Hey, are you okay?”
—I met my partner.
“Do you want to use my handkerchief? No, I thought I was interrupting something, but you are crying and I couldn’t leave you alone.”
The boy was about my age.
He didn’t have the “that kid I see on TV” look that is always directed at me, but rather the eyes of a boy who was just “worried” about me.
But at that time, I was dominated by the frustration of not being able to find it
I did not take the offered handkerchief, but just started to put my hand into the bush.
“Um,…… are you looking for something?”
“…… not your business.”
“But you and I should look for it together—”
“……I want to find it, and I want to find it fast. ……! Because that’s my mother’s memento, go away…..!”
I think I said some terrible things.
It was only when I said it out loud that I realized that I had said something terrible to the person who had called out to me out of concern.
But the kid
Without seeming irritated, he began to sit down next to me and reached for the bushes.
“No, no! Then I can’t leave you alone for an extra minute!”
“…… eh?”
“I know it’s a precious memory of you and your mother! If so, it will be quicker for the two of us to look for it together!”
I was unintentionally taken aback.
Why would he search with me if I had been so cold to him?
“…… why?”
But the boy was–
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, and you said something a little cold, and I was like angry but if there’s a girl who lost something so important that she cried,……, of course I’m going to look for it with you!”
He said this right away, without making any attempt to make amends.
I felt that he was somehow different from the boys in my class.
They say a lot of things about me, like that I have a pretty face or that I’m blunt and uninteresting,…… but I feel like this guy is different from all the other boys who say those things.
“…Thank you.”
—I don’t know.
But I had to find something else first.
With the first boy I met, I started to search frantically in the park.
♦♦♦
—- In the end, when the night sky opened up, we couldn’t find it.
I went to the police station, I retraced the path we had walked today, but in the end I couldn’t find it anywhere.
“…… Enough. Shall we go home now?”
Resignation and sadness spread through me as I walked on the bridge.
After all this searching, I still couldn’t find it. It was already getting dark, and it would be hard to find the little keychain.
So I can’t do it anymore.
But the boy was searching hard on the bridge, which was dark and lit only by streetlights,
“…I have to go home, or they’ll get mad at me.”
“I understand! Then I’ll keep looking and you can go home!”
“……, why would you do that?”
“Eh, but you’re going to get mad, aren’t you?”
“….. I’m worried about you.”
Sure, I’ll be pissed off too.
But I’m sure my father get mad at me too. I can tell by looking at my phone that it’s about that late.
“I’m fine – I’m sure my parents already pissed at me anyway. Oh, but it’s not a good idea for a girl to be out at this hour. …… Yeah, I’ll walk you home! And I can come back again!”
“……Why?”
“Hnn?”
“….Why are you doing this to me?”
When I asked that, the kid put his hand on the bridge fence and started looking at the flowing river.
“I’m just doing what’s natural. If a girl is crying, a boy tries his best not to make her cry. It doesn’t matter if we know each other or it’s the first time we’ve met, I just think that’s what a boy has to do. …… Well, in short, it’s just my selfishness.”
“……….”
“As long as you’re laughing, it doesn’t matter to me that you’re angry at me—”
He was just about to say that.
The child’s eyes suddenly widened as he looked towards the river, and he immediately began to run with great vigor.
“I found it!!!”
“… eh, eh?”
Although I was puzzled by the fact that he suddenly started running and shouting, I followed behind him so that I wouldn’t be left behind.
From the bridge to the riverbed, the boy stepped into the river, which was illuminated by streetlights, without hesitation, and…
“I found it! Thank you for my eyesight! I’ve never been so proud to be complimented on my eyes as I am today!”
-…he picks up a familiar red keychain.
“………….ah”
Maybe it’s a different commercially available one.
But since I’ve had it for a long time, I can tell by the scratches…that’s my mother’s.
Happiness floods my chest all at once.
But more than that… why…
“I did it,…… this will make that girl laugh,……!”
He, too, was happy.
He even clenched his fist for me, even though it was supposed to be about me, he was smiling happily.
I can’t take my eyes off of him.
When I see him smile and be happy for me, my heart pounds and my face turns red.
But it doesn’t seem uncomfortable at all.
It makes me want to keep looking at him
“I wonder if someone threw it in the river? If it wasn’t caught on a rock, it would have been washed away. ……, huh? Just one?”
The boy looked around in a panic, but eventually came to me with a gaping shoulder.
“…… sorry, I only found one.”
The boy looks apologetic, perhaps because I told him I had two.
But for me, finding this one was the best thing I could do.
“…. this is the one I want.”
“But…”
“……, this is all I need.”
Mine is fine.
As long as I have my mother’s memento, I will remember her from now on.
Tears begin to fall from my eyes, perhaps from relief.
Then his hand slowly reaches up to my cheek…
“I’m so glad,”
He smiled softly and gently wiped away my tears.
“〜〜〜〜〜!”
At that moment, I was made to understand, even if I couldn’t deny it.
The reason I couldn’t take my eyes off his face.
Maybe this must be…
“Oh, sorry! I had a phone call—ugh”
He looked at the screen of the phone in his pocket and suddenly began to be frightened.
Then he puts the phone, which is trembling with fear, to his ear.
“Ah, how do you do, Mother?——– I’m going to run home now!!!!!”
The child saluted respectfully, hurriedly took out a security buzzer from his pocket, and handed it to me along with a key chain.
“My life is in danger all at once, so I can’t see you off, but if anything happens, feel free to pull it and run to a random house or something!”
“….. Oh, um…”
“bye! I’m glad you found it!”
Saying that, he rushes off.
He didn’t tell me his name, he didn’t let me thank him, and he ignored this feeling I had about him…
“……idiot”
You should have at least told me your name.
Because you are my…first love.
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