"Yeah." She put down the coffee in her hand and leaned against the wall.
"So how was your life after that?" I also put down the coffee in my hand and leaned against the wall.
"Well..." She straightened her hair and tucked the hair behind her sunglasses. "It's good, it's good."
She is Hashimoto Nanami, to be precise, she is the future Hashimoto Nanami.
——
I handed her the band-aid.
That was the first time she was cut by a broken plate, and I laughed.
"Why are you laughing?" She rolled her eyes and put the band-aid on herself.
"Ah, it's fun, isn't it?" I took off my apron and threw it on the counter. "Isn't it fun to get injured?"
Her face suddenly fell, and she grabbed my waist with her other hand and squeezed it hard.
"Ah!" I turned around and tried to throw her hand away, but she pinched her tighter and tighter.
"No, Nana, listen to me." I took a breath, "If no one laughs at an unfortunate thing, wouldn't it become a real misfortune?" I felt that her strength was much weaker, and I jumped quickly.
Go and rub your waist.
She paused and laughed, "That's right."
I lifted up the T-shirt and saw the red skin, "I'm more seriously injured than you now. I decided to take leave tonight and go home to recuperate." I twisted my waist and showed the piece to her.
She laughed harder and harder, "You deserve it." She took the rag and went to clean the table without paying attention to me.
——
I drove her car and took her to the downstairs of Sony Music. When we parked the car, neither of us got out of the car and neither of us spoke.
"Ah, I didn't expect Nana to leave me and become an idol." I put my head against the steering wheel, not wanting to remain quiet, and regretting what I said.
"How about you help me pay for the rent, water and electricity?" She rolled her eyes at me and touched her hair, "Is this hairstyle okay?"
"It looks good! It's the best!" I didn't even raise my head.
"Please answer me more seriously." She started to pinch my waist again.
I slapped her hand away, stared at her without saying a word, and slowly moved my face towards her. She hid back for a moment, but then slowly went back, and I watched her face getting redder and redder.
"Good-looking!" I suddenly yelled and sat back. Seeing her blushing, I started laughing, "You don't think I'm going to kiss you, do you? Hahaha."
She slammed the door and said, "There's no need to pick me up."
I shouldn’t be able to see you anymore, Nana. It’s forbidden for idols to fall in love.
——
"I was selected." I was cooking at home and she called me.
"Ah." I responded and said no more.
"There will be a training camp in a while. Please help me tell the store manager." The voice on the other end of the phone was a little excited.
"Ah, okay." I was also happy for her.
"I'll hang up now. Remember to come to the meeting." Before I could say anything, the call had already been hung up.
I looked at my phone and stared blankly in front of the stove until I realized that the food was burnt.
——
"Is there anything going on today? Can you help me move my things?" She called me.
We just haven't contacted each other for a week.
"It's okay," I threw the trash to the garbage station and held my phone against my neck, "Where are you?"
"Home, I'm moving. Call me when you get there." She hung up the phone, much like she was before.
I drove to her downstairs and helped her load her things into the car.
Then I woke up. She didn't contact me, and I didn't bother her. It's been a week.
——
I sold my car, and since I bought it as a used car, the price almost didn't change.
I didn't go to the meeting, but the store manager went and said she was still as beautiful as before.
I also resigned.
Not long after she left, I sold the car.
I took the money from selling the car and went to Hokkaido once.
I took a photo of her at Asahikawa Airport. She might have been busy and didn't reply to me.
——
On New Year's Day, I went to the store where I used to work and called her. She was on vacation.
"Guess where I am?" I picked at the sticker on the table.
"Boring, you didn't come to the meeting." She should be at home, and it was very quiet on the phone.
"Well, I was working that day. I will definitely go there next time." I put the half-cut sticker back in its original position. The store manager saw it and slapped me on the head, "This is an advertisement. It's an advertisement, you brat.
"
"You're in the store, help me pack it up." She looked listless.
"Nana wants to talk to you." I handed the phone to the store manager, leaned on the table and started picking at the corners of the table.
——
She has been an idol for more than a year.
I saw her on the cover with other girls in a convenience store.
I saw their album in the bookstore.
I saw on Yahoo that they were in the news.
But I don't want to see these things.
I think she is still the same ordinary person who went to Beijing like me.
——
On New Year's Day I went to the shrine we went to together, and I met her there, the future Hashimoto Nanami.
She threw me a can of coffee.
"Are you really from the future?" I wiped the jar and opened the ring.
"Well, I want to meet you." We found a street with not many people and talked while walking.
"Are you no longer an idol? Have you graduated?" She didn't lie to me, and she did seem to have matured a lot.
"I'm quitting the entertainment industry." She held the coffee in one hand and passed the other hand across the park wall, with a thin layer of dust on her fingers.
——
I didn't see her for a while after that day, and I wondered what she was doing.
Finally I turned on the TV and bought a magazine.
That she is not who she is now.
I'm sure.
I sent her an email and asked her if she had gone to that shrine during the New Year. She said no, maybe because it looked similar.
That was the first time I contacted her after having dinner with her.
I bought their CDs and saved up some handshake coupons. Only then did I realize that the handshake coupons are time-limited.
When I went downstairs to take out the trash, she appeared again.
I invited her upstairs and got her a new mat. When she sat down, she was very slow, as if her waist was injured.
"Have you been pinched by someone too?" I poured a glass of water and pushed it to her.
She rolled her eyes at me, the same as she did the year before.
"I still can't believe that you came back just to see me." I dug at the corners of the table with my hands, "Why don't you see me in the future? What's wrong with me?"
She stopped about to drink water and put down the water glass, "I can't find you."
"Did I change my mobile phone number? But I feel like I haven't contacted you for a long time." I was still digging at the corner of the table without looking at her, "But I sent you an email yesterday."
She raised the water glass and took a sip of water. I looked at her and stopped moving my hands.
——
She seemed to only come for five minutes at a time. When I looked up again, I couldn't find her and disappeared out of thin air in front of my eyes.
I suspected I was sick, but the doctor said I might just be confusing dreams with reality.
I held the groceries I bought, with my little finger still hooking the sleeping pill prescribed by the doctor, and opened the door with my elbow.
She is in the kitchen, her future self.
"I can have dinner with you today." She put on her apron and didn't look back.
I put the medicine in the drawer by the door and the vegetables in the refrigerator.
"What are you eating today?" I sniffed and glanced at the stove. She covered my glasses with one hand and pushed me out of the kitchen.
I only ate the rice she cooked once, because at that time I happened to have only rice and soy sauce at home. She didn't cook much, but she shared half of it with me.
——
After eating, I sat there and stared at her, always feeling that she would disappear in the next second as if in a dream, but she didn't.
"Aren't you going to wash the dishes? I cooked today." She took out a book from her bag, just like she did in the store before.
"Ah." I quickly turned around and went to the kitchen, turned on the faucet, and picked up the bowl soaked in the sink.
I looked back and she was gone. I looked down at the bowl in my hand. I went to the entrance and took out the sleeping pills from the drawer.
Eat it half an hour before going to bed, just after washing the dishes.
——
I haven't seen her again for more than a month. Maybe the sleeping pills have taken effect. She sleeps better.
They released a new CD and I bought a few.
I went to the handshake meeting at the end of March. She was very popular.
I waited in line for a long time, and she held my hand there for a long time.
"Long time no see, Nanamisama." I held her hand, this was the first time.
"Ah, long time no see." She was a little surprised, "Don't you have to go to work today?" She whispered to me, maybe because she was afraid that the staff next to her would hear her.
"Well, I found a job on weekdays." I replied in a low voice. "It's hard to be an idol."
"But I earn a lot." She whispered, still holding my hand, "Then I will come next time." I was shocked, she let go of my hand, and I was invited by the staff
go out.
——
She appeared again, and I had just poured a glass of water and prepared to take medicine.
She snatched away my medicine, threw it in the trash can, and opened the window.
"Although I know this is outrageous, I am true." She took a breath of the air outside the window.
I looked at her and put down the water glass.
"When did you start smoking?" She came over and emptied my ashtray, and threw the cigarettes and lighter on the table into the trash can. "It stinks."
"I went to a handshake meeting last week." I felt a little guilty because I used to hate smoking.
"I remember." She stretched out her hand, but I didn't realize what she was going to do. "Like this." She took my hand and held it tightly.
This is the second time I hold her hand.
"I like you." I blurted out.
"I know." She also looked at me.
"Always like it." I squeezed her hand tightly.
"I know." She still looked at me like that.
"Can you stay now?" I asked her.
"Then all my efforts over the years have been in vain, idiot." She let go of my hand, hugged me, and then let go.
"Can I go talk to you now?" I didn't move, still standing in that position.
"No, I couldn't do it at that time." She took my hand again and pulled me to sit on the mat.
She leaned against me. Although I don't know if this is a dream or unscientific reality, I am very happy.
"Did anything happen to us after you graduated?" I also leaned against her.
——
I graduated from college. She is still working as an idol.
I joined the company where I had been working part-time before, and was soon transferred to the head office to be in charge of Kanagawa Daidai's business.
I also moved because living in Yokohama is more convenient and the rent is cheaper. I only go to the head office a handful of times a week.
The train only takes a short distance to reach the branch, avoiding the flow of people heading towards Tokyo.
She dropped out of school because she was very busy with work and could not complete her coursework as required.
I never saw her in the future after that. I went to the handshake meeting the day before the defense, and she was still like that, standing all day long.
——
She was about to graduate, and I moved back to Tokyo from Yokohama.
I almost forgot about that future her, and even now I can’t tell if it’s real.
I called her in the evening.
"I can help you pay the rent, water and electricity now, Nanamisama." I said something when I hung up the phone, but I don't know if she heard it.
I went downstairs to take out the trash, and the person next door was smoking in the hallway.
I held my breath and felt stinky.
——
Her birthday was her graduation concert, so I sent her an email on the train home and agreed to go to that yakiniku restaurant for dinner in early March.
I looked at the scenery passing by outside the window, and it was so fast that my eyes couldn't catch it.
I'll see her soon.
She is waiting for me downstairs, her future self.
She and I held hands and went upstairs.
"I haven't seen you for a long time." I still couldn't tell whether this was true or not, so I dug the corners of the table with my hands.
"Yeah." She sat on the other side of the table, holding a water glass in her hand.
"Shouldn't we see you soon?" I filled her with water from the teapot.
The last time I saw her was about four years ago. I asked her about our affairs, but she disappeared before she could answer.
"Come with me to the rooftop." She put down the water glass.
I still held her hand and pushed open the rooftop door.
Light pollution in high-rise apartments is not that serious, and it is also far away from the city center.
I held her from behind and looked at the stars.
"You must remember to pay the rent, water and electricity for me." She said suddenly.
"Yeah." I smelled her hair, and it smelled the same as when she was sweating and wiping the table 6 years ago.
——
I don't know which one of her I like.
I took a shower, changed my clothes, and drove to the barbecue restaurant.
There was a serious traffic jam on the road, so I reluctantly moved to the intersection.
"Boom." The taxi in front was hit by a speeding car on the other side.
The car that was hit rolled twice and lay over in the middle of the intersection.
I got out of the car quickly, and so did everyone else.
They started calling the police, and I ran over and lay on the ground to see if I could rescue the people inside.
The glass was shattered, but still held together.
I kicked open the passenger window and saw the bleeding driver. I climbed in and tried to cut off the seat belt to pull him out, and saw the passenger in the back seat. The father was holding the child, and the child seemed to be conscious.
"Kid, can you hear me?" I asked him while cutting the driver's seat belt.
He was a little confused, "Can you unbuckle your and dad's seat belts?" He froze there and said nothing, but tried and couldn't unbuckle, "Can you get in here? Uncle will carry you out."
The middle position between the front and rear seats was still big enough for him to get out. I cut open the driver's seat, twisted around to help him unbuckle his seat belt, and moved him out of his father's protection. "Can you crawl over here? Follow uncle out."
.”
I slowly retreated. He climbed out slowly after me. I handed him to a passerby beside me.
The car started leaking oil.
The child was still frightened and looked dumbfounded, so I turned around and got into the car again.
I pulled the driver out first, although I didn't know his condition.
The child recovered and shouted for his father,
The deformation of the back seat door was not that serious, so I kicked open the window on one side, got into the car lying on the ground. I pushed open the window on the other side first, and his father’s head hit the glass, so I pulled
He pulled the seat belt and started cutting with the knife again.
"Fire!" passers-by shouted. I became even more anxious, and finally the barrier was closed. I pushed him out, and the people around him dragged him out, and then wanted me to drag him out.
I held a hand and said, "The fire is coming!" The hand let go again.
I tried my best to crawl out.
Did not have time.
The car was on fire.
I'm stuck in the car.
I endured the pain and tried to climb out quickly, but the car collapsed a little further.
I know why she came to me.
I was lying on the rear canopy of the car, with the back seat pressed against my back. When the ambulance came, I saw them all getting into the ambulance. The firefighters took fire extinguishers and started to put out the fire.
I closed my eyes.
In my mind, I saw Nana Hashimoto who cut her hand on a broken plate and wiped the table with a band-aid.