Editing Ghost Hunt:Volume 8 Chapter 15 (section)

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“Mai, are you okay?”

Being spoken to by Ayako, I woke up. Ugh, it’s bright.

“Mornin...”

“Are you okay? Your eyes are swollen.”

“Wow...”

“You should cool them down.”

Masako handed me a wet towel.

“I give up. My eyes won’t open.”

“You were weeping uncontrollably in the middle of the night.”

“Yeah. When I woke up in the middle of the night, I couldn’t help crying. It seems I was somehow expecting to see him in my dreams last night.”

Last night, after I returned to the bungalow, I talked to Ayako and Masako about everything. Somehow, I couldn’t keep silent.

“Here, eye drops. Put them in.”

“Thanks...”

Uuh. The eye drops, along with the morning sun, stung my eyes.

When I got out a hand mirror and peered into it, my eyes were really swollen and my wretched face was bloated.

“Ugh...”

“Here, cool them properly.”

“Hey, the concept of deep, tragic love is beautiful, but the reality of it is unseemly, isn’t it?”

“Why are you talking seriously about such nonsense? Do you feel like spending the day with that face?”

Ye~s.

I laid down and placed the wet towel over my face. It felt really good.

“I’m going to make today’s breakfast with the others. I’ll bring yours over here, so sleep for a little while.”

I heard Ayako’s voice and the sound of the entrance door open, so I fluttered my hand with the towel still on my face.

“Hey, Masako~”

“What is it?”

“I thought seriously last night, but you have a chance.”

I heard a light sigh.

“Just when I was wondering what you might say… Don’t worry. Even I thought so myself.”

“Really?”

“All I have to do is go see him. It’s not like I can’t buy a plane ticket. Although, I doubt whether he would meet with me even if I went to see him.”

“It’ll be fine.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. Until now, I’m sure Naru didn’t have any feelings to spare. He was completely occupied with looking for Gene.”

“I hope that’s so, but...”

Yeah. There’s definitely still doubt.

“I’m telling you, there’s hope. A long time ago, Masako, you would hold arms with Naru, right? He didn’t pull away from you, so I bet that means he wasn’t as annoyed as he would have us believe.”

I heard Masako sigh.

“I think that’s different.”

“Different?”

It seems that’s just Naru’s personality.”

“Huh?”

“It seems it’s extremely difficult for him to deal with being clung to.”

....Oh?

“I think he gets confused about what to do. When I first took his arm, he went rigid for about a minute.”

I sat up. The towel fell and I could see Masako.

“...Really?”

A minute would mean it’s real.

“Really.”

“...Oh. But you often deliberately take his arm.”

Masako turned her head away irritably.

“Even I thought I was being a little shameless, but he didn’t understand at all.”

“Oh, I see.”

“I realized he was uncomfortable with it. After that, I did it just to harass him.”

“Exhibiting that sort of warped regard isn’t good.”

“I know. That’s why I haven’t been doing it lately.”

“Great! Do your best~ If you don’t hurry, I’ll enter the war again.”

“By all means.”

Whoa. Such confidence.

“You don’t mind if I become serious? No matter how you look at it, their faces are similar.”

“I won’t hand him over to someone with such impure intentions.”

“Ahahaha.”

“If you intend to participate in the war, you should do something about that face. ”

She slapped the towel over my eyes.

“He~y.”

“I’m going to go over there to help, but cool your eyes properly. If you cry any further, you’ll be too frightful to be seen twice. After all, your base is your base.”

“Mind your own business. Anyway, I’m not as beautiful as you, Masako.”

“Oh, you’re just now saying such an obvious thing?”

“Damn you.”

When I removed the towel and tried to hit her, Masako was already out of range.

“Goodnight.”

She waved at me with a beautiful smile.

“Yeah, yeah. Night.”

...I’m okay. I won’t cry.

There’s no greater parting than this, but my feelings weren’t denied. I think I’ll be depressed for a while, but I’ll recover fully someday.

It hurts right now, but… it really hurts, but humans can’t always be optimistic. It can’t be helped. Surely everyone has experienced such pain as well, and I expect they got over it properly. Life is like that.

...What a brazen thing for me to say.

“I wonder what it was he wanted to say...”

That’s the one thing that bothered me.

Those words of Gene’s the last time we met.

—There was something I wanted to say, but…

Not all of the mysteries have been solved. Perhaps that’s also life.


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