Chapter 2 The end of the present, perhaps the starting point
Looking at the transparent fonts that gradually dimmed again in front of him, Raku Sakakihara tried to revive the interface, but it was just like a month ago, nothing happened.
"We have to wait another day."
He was not surprised by this result. He had been waiting for it for a month, so how could he care about this day anymore?
He folded his Tianhai Jiuliuli student ID card and put it into his trouser pocket. He raised his head and looked out the window of the tram at the city scenery that was gradually fading away.
My thoughts drifted into the distance between the lush cherry blossom trees.
After dying at the age of eighteen, I was reborn in a small family in rural Japan.
My father is a dishonest country man, but my mother is a famous and beautiful girl in the village.
In the countryside, because he always wanted to work in the big city, his parents took him and his sister to Tokyo to work ten years ago.
My mother became a restaurant waitress, and my father continued to work as his maintenance electrician.
Although a family of four has no money or status in Tokyo, they are still doing well.
My father has never gotten rid of his drinking habit. He always likes to get drunk alone at night. When he comes home, the family always has trouble sleeping at night.
He is neither a good nor a bad person.
Hobbies include drinking, pachinko, and horse racing.
What I love most is drinking.
Even if there was only 500 yen left in his trouser pocket, he would still spend it all and run out to buy a can of beer.
He even used the excuse of "children don't need pocket money" to borrow the 500 yen pocket money their mother gave to the brother and sister.
At that time, the father patted his chest and vowed to the two siblings: I will give you 1,000 yen to buy takoyaki tomorrow!
But Pachinko won't reason with him.
The 1,000 yen is gone, and so is the takoyaki.
That night when his mother went out to look for him, he even bought the rice balls for dinner with coins scooped out from under the vending machine with a wooden stick.
When I went to work the next day, I had to take a few hundred yen from my five-year-old daughter’s hand for lunch.
His colleagues all laughed at him because he had to live on his daughter who had never even attended kindergarten.
Sigh...I don’t know if it’s because my father has been unlucky all his life. Who could have expected that just two months later, he would encounter something that ordinary people would never encounter in their lifetime.
It was mid-July and he had just received his salary.
When he was passing by the racecourse, he heard the enthusiastic horse racing commentary inside. He got angry and did something that he had not dared to do in ten years of horse racing:
[Put one month’s salary on the horse that no one expects the most.]
Destiny favored it, and it was an upset.
He won a grand slam!
God actually allowed him to win the horse race with his newly paid salary!
A huge profit of one hundred and fifty times.
Forty million yen!
But this guy not only failed to share the money with his family members who were sharing the same hardship, but instead walked away with a huge amount of money.
Disappeared without a trace.
So far there is no news.
Sakakihara Raku still remembers the 500 yen his father owed him and his sister.
A dignified adult actually defrauded a child out of 500 yen.
Even though Sakakibara prides himself on being calm and approachable, he can't stand this temper.
However, this is all in the past.
Now, he has his own goals, and has a new goal of making his family happy and living in a big house.
Faced with this goal, I studied day and night and asked the teacher for advice day and night.
He has never thought of himself as a protagonist in his life, because when he has to share a piece of tofu with his sister who eats more, what kind of bullshit protagonist is not as reliable as 500 yen in cash.
In order to get rid of such a life, he retained his faith. Even after his family's financial situation improved a lot in junior high school, he was admitted to the best No. 1 high school in Tokyo.
His goal in this life is to graduate from high school and then be admitted to the Department of Finance at Tokyo University, and it doesn't matter whether he works as a bank clerk or opens a company after he saves enough capital.
As long as I can buy a big house that I can live in without the musty smell, that's fine.
There are home appliances, the Internet, and fans that squeak and spin without constant maintenance.
Ah, the fan should be replaced by an air conditioner by then.
Mom, Aling, and the family had a dinner in peace in the evening, laughing and talking about what happened during the day.
This is the end of life.
Since my father ran away and before my mother took up her current job, the family has suffered too much.
Every time I think of it, I feel deeply moved.
Put away the memories of the past.
The tram arrived and he got off.
Sakakibara went to a nearby convenience store and bought two nori rice balls for lunch, and then went to a flower shop to buy a bouquet of roses as a gift for meeting Ashiya for the first time.
Even the boss lady praised him for being handsome. Although it was true, it somewhat increased his confidence.
"Is it a date? Do you want to write a card?" The landlady was very enthusiastic, with a smile on her face.
"Card?"
"Isn't there a small card inside the roses? There are some messages that I want to say on it." The proprietress standing in the flower shop handed him the roses.
"It's a love story..."
"Young people often come to me to buy roses, and most of them can't write. I help them write them. Do you want me to write one for you too?"
I can’t tell that the boss lady is still an expert in love affairs.
"That's...okay...?" Raku Sakakihara tried his best to smile, "But don't write too intimately, it's the first time we meet."
The flower shop owner had an expression that said I understand, I completely understand.
Then I went to the front desk and picked up a pen.
"What's the other person's name?"
"Ashiya Suzuki."
......
The place to meet is in the most famous commercial street in Tokyo, Akihabara.
It used to be a place where electrical appliances were sold, but now it has become a gathering place for ACG culture. As soon as you enter this cutting-edge electrical appliance street, the unique advertising posters will immediately attract the attention of tourists.
Many electrical appliances duty-free shops constantly announce in fairly standard Chinese Mandarin: "There are desktop computers, laptop computers, computer accessories, digital cameras..."
The store is full of tourists, with various banner advertisements, installment coupons, duty-free promotions... Coupled with the colorful signboards and product price tags, it is dazzling.
This is just to deceive Chinese tourists. Those who can come here are rich people.
Raku Sakakibara glanced sideways at the clerk who spoke in Chinese to the Chinese tourist wearing a large gold chain, and moved on.
The two had exchanged lines for a month through the contact information on the black confession letter. Currently, they only know each other's names.
Ashiya Suzuru sounds like she should be a pretty pretty girl.
For female netizens who have never met in person, they can't help but fantasize about her appearance.
But the other party just sent me two photos, and before I had time to appreciate them, my phone flew away.
Alas...
It’s also bad luck.
However, although the phone was gone, Raku Sakakibara clearly remembered that Suzuru Ashiya said he was waiting for him under the red Sega One Building in Akihabara.
If you see a girl wearing a beret, a gray pleated skirt, and holding a cup of milk tea, that's her.
When he thought about meeting her, Sakakihara Raku couldn't help but hesitate a little while walking on the crowded street?
He didn't know if he should describe it this way, but he even began to think of her appearance.
Does it look good or not?
Isn’t it cute?
What does she like and what are her hobbies?
When we meet later, do you want to take her to a movie?
It’s really sad to think about it, I have been a person for two lifetimes.
Having your first love at this time is also a strange thing.
Regarding love, Sakakihara Raku actually doesn't care. Isn't it possible to live a good life alone?
He believes in love, but he does not believe that love will come to him.
But if a girl who is like a close friend appears in life...
She will say hello to you in the morning, and say good night to herself after chatting in the evening... She seems to be enveloped in an unreachable dream.
Even though the conversation lasted less than a month.
Sakakibara thought, at least, he should meet her once.
For this first time in my life...
......
Noisy market.
Sakakibara Raku, who was holding the rose, suddenly stopped because he was opposite Sega Hall 1, through the endless flow of people and the passers-by passing by, and saw a girl who was exactly the same as the description in the message. p>
Beret, gray pleated skirt, wearing a cat mask, and holding a cup of milk tea...
The girl turned her back to him, facing the huge "Yakuza 7" advertisement in Sega Hall 1.
The beautiful back of the girl flickered vaguely among the crowds. Isakakihara stood across the street. The moment he noticed the girl, the shadows of passers-by seemed to become blurry in an instant.
The silhouettes of pedestrians became more and more magical, and the noisy intersection suddenly fell silent.
In his eyes, it seemed that there was only the back of the girl opposite.
I found out that she was that girl, the first girl who made me feel interesting...
Even though she has never met, judging from her back, she gives Raku Sakakibara a feeling that is not inferior to the two beautiful twin girls with unique temperaments whom she met just now.
"It's coming."
Raku Sakakihara felt that his heart became a little nervous. He breathed a sigh of relief and calmed down. When the traffic light on the opposite side turned green, he held the flower and walked slowly over.
Among the surging crowds, on the zebra crossing, the backs of Sakakihara Raku and the girl slowly approached.
Finally, his footsteps stopped one meter away from the girl.
"Hello."
Sakakihara looked at the girl's back and her hair swaying lightly in the wind.
......
When the beret girl in front heard this voice, she stopped drinking milk tea to kill the boring time, and looked up at the Sega Hall 1, which was painted with Coke colors, with a bright smile on her face.
She pulled the cat mask on her face, deliberately did not turn around, but put her hands behind her back, cleared her throat, and asked behind her in a cute voice:
"Yes, Sakakibara Raku...?"
The voice has the youthfulness of a girl, a slight reserve, and the melodiousness of a lark.
The same as the voice in the chat history.
Sakakihara nodded, trying to make his voice less nervous, "Yes."
The girl put her hands behind her back and weighed her toes:
"So...Sakakibara-kun, do you know what to do on a date?"
"...Shopping?" Raku Sakakihara tried to ask.
"Shopping, that's right. Shopping is definitely part of a date, but... that's not all. Before I tell you the final answer, does Sakakibara-kun remember one thing?"
"What?"
The girl chuckled lightly and continued in a cute voice: "Two days ago, that is, the afternoon after school, you made a promise, an agreement that you were willing to accept defeat."
Two days ago, in the afternoon, a promise, an agreement to accept defeat...?
What is that?
However, he seemed to have thought of something, and the keywords were connected one by one in his brain.
Sakakihara looked at the girl's back with one hand raised as if she was snickering, and suddenly felt that the feeling she gave him was becoming more and more familiar.
He frowned.
What exactly is this familiar feeling?
He thought carefully about it in his mind, and seemed to realize something, and the smile on his face instantly fell.
Like a bolt from the blue, it hit my forehead.
Holmes said to Watson: "When you eliminate all impossible situations, what is left, no matter how unbelievable, is fact."