Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and The Inexperienced Me - Volume 7 - Chapter 4.4

“Ryuto!”

Runa had been sitting on a chair in the lobby. When she saw me, she sprang up. She was wearing a mask too, as well as a warm coat and long boots. There was a paper bag in her hands.

“Wh-What’s up?” I asked, really not understanding the situation.

Runa smiled. “It’s Valentine’s Day, so I brought you some chocolate.”

“Oh...” It was only then that I remembered that the entrance exam fell on the day after Valentine’s Day. “Right...”

“Here you go.”

Runa handed me the simple paper bag as if pushing it into my hands.

“Thanks...”

“Open it when you get upstairs. Oh, but don’t eat it until after your exam tomorrow!”

“What? Why?”

“Well, it’s homemade.” Runa lowered her eyebrows apologetically. “I tried to keep things clean, but I’m not a pro. It would be bad if there ended up being germs or viruses on it and you got a cold or an upset stomach...”

“Runa...”

She even considers things like that?

“Okay. Thank you.”

“No problem. And I should be thanking you—for letting me see you when you’re so busy.” Runa then took a step back.

Is she leaving already...? A part of me wished she would stay for longer.

“Do your best,” she told me. “I’m really rooting for you.”

“Right... Thanks.” I waved at her.

“Okay, see you...” She turned around, but just as she got near the front door, she said, “Ah!” and came back.

Runa stopped before me, took my hands, and stood high on tiptoes. Her face approached mine, and I felt the rough touch of my nonwoven mask on my lips.

She’d kissed me through our masks. As I stood dumbfounded at the sudden turn of events, Runa once again walked to the entrance, turned around, and smiled radiantly.

“Go get ’em, Ryuto!” she cheered excitedly. She’d sounded like a cheerleader. Runa then waved again and walked away.

When I got back upstairs, the first thing I did was take the paper bag to my room and open it. Inside was a round chocolate cake with a message on it written in thin white icing.

Do your best

Love you ♡

I could feel my face heating up. I was glad I hadn’t just carelessly taken this to the fridge. This had to be kept in a place where it wouldn’t stand out.

“Runa...”

I was filled with love for her—it was intense. Going against her instructions, I helped myself to a bite of the chocolate cake. It was sweet.

All of a sudden, I felt like my ability to think had gotten a tremendous boost. Maybe it was the sugar.

Not wanting to waste this opportunity, I snuck to the fridge while avoiding my mother, returned to my room, and worked my hardest to study for my exams.

After it was all over, it was hard to say whether I’d passed my exams or not. My first thought was that I had, but as time passed, I grew more and more nervous.

Before I got my results for Houo, I heard back from other universities. I’d passed some and failed others. After consulting my parents, I paid the enrollment fee for one of them, just in case, while waiting for my results for Houo.

Nine days later, Houo’s results were announced. Those had been the longest nine days in my life, and I had spent them in a state of constant terror.

The exam results were to be posted online at 10 a.m. I couldn’t sit still that day. I met up with Runa at a café in front of a train station so we could check the results together.

We sat at counter seats, facing the wall. I held my breath with my phone in hand, an untouched cup of coffee before me. I went to the university’s home page, logged in to my account, and was greeted with information about the exams for the department I’d applied to. When the appointed hour came, a confirmation button appeared. Pressing it would let you know if you passed or failed.

Even when the clock struck ten and we could access the results, I just couldn’t bring myself to press that button.

“Sorry, I can’t do this,” I said. “You do it.”

Runa got flustered as I put my phone in her hands. “What?! Me?!”

“Yeah... I feel like you’re luckier than me.”

Whether I’d passed or failed had already been determined, and I didn’t really think that luck had anything to do with where my efforts had taken me. But if Runa was any luckier than me, I wanted to take advantage of that.

“O-Okay... I’m pressing it, then...”

“What?! Already?!”

“Huh? I shouldn’t?!”

“Wait, let me prepare myself...!”

We repeated that exchange several times.

“Whatever, I’m pressing it! There’s no way you didn’t pass. There!” Runa said, having lost her patience. She tapped on my phone’s screen with an exaggerated motion.

The page seemed to have finished loading. When Runa looked at the screen, the expression on her face underwent a transformation. Her eyes opened wide, and tears welled up in them.

Seeing Runa start crying without a word, I said, “Wait, so which is it?! Show me...!”

Prepared to see that I’d failed, I looked at the screen. That was why, for a moment, I couldn’t believe that the word written there in a large font was “Passed.”

“Huh...?”

“Ryuto... Congratulations...” Runa said, struggling to get her voice out through her tears. “You worked so hard... It’s amazing... You’re amazing...”

Hearing her say it while sobbing almost moved me to tears too. “It’s thanks to you...” I said.

I truly couldn’t have made it here without Runa’s support.

She stared at me with moist eyes. “Really? Is it because I pressed the button?”

“Yeah. I’m sure it would’ve said I failed if I pressed it.” After answering Runa’s joke with my own, my face turned serious. “Thank you, Runa. For always being by my side.”

Tears welled up in Runa’s eyes again. The love I felt for her was overwhelming.

There, in that café that morning, with plenty of adults around who were about to head off to work, I gently embraced Runa. “I love you,” I said quietly into her ear. I couldn’t say such things normally, but that was how overcome with emotion I was.

“I love you too.”

When we pulled away from each other, I saw tears spilling from her eyes once more.

Smiling at me, Runa said through her tears, “You did such a good job, Ryuto... Really...!”

Spring had finally come, and I was sure that my spring with Runa was about to come too.

At our high school graduation ceremony, we exchanged parts of our uniforms—her ribbon and my tie—and entered the part of our lives where we would never wear school uniforms again.

A few days after graduation, it was White Day—March 14. Runa and I had spent the preceding days discussing what we’d do that day. Some ideas we’d had were watching a movie and having dinner together afterward, or going to a café for limited-edition drinks.

It was almost lunchtime. I’d gotten dressed and was waiting for the right time to leave when I got a call from Runa.

“Hey, Ryuto, there’s a problem over here... Misuzu-san’s been saying that her stomach’s been hurting since morning, and there was blood just now. But she’s only seven months along.”

“What?!”

I had no idea what to do about this.

Last year, when Misuzu-san had gotten pregnant, she’d moved into the Shirakawa residence. Runa was getting along great with her and kept updating me about her pregnancy in detail. That said, I wasn’t knowledgeable about the female body and the mystery of reproduction, so honestly, none of it had made any sense to me.

“I called the hospital, and they got angry and told us to come immediately. Dad’s at work, and my grandma said she’s dropping what she’s doing and coming home, but I’m the only one here right now. Do you mind if I take a taxi to the hospital with Misuzu-san?”

“Oh, that’s okay...”

“Sorry about our date.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

It couldn’t be helped, especially if her children’s lives might’ve been at stake.

Thus, Runa took Misuzu-san to the hospital.

She kept me updated on the situation. Misuzu-san was going through threatened premature labor and was urgently admitted to the hospital. Runa went home to get Misuzu-san’s things for her, and she still had to explain what was going on to her father and grandmother.

By the time Runa was finished with everything and got home, it was almost 9 p.m. I waited for her to be done and paid her a visit.

“Here, your present for White Day,” I said, handing her a paper bag at the entrance to her house. Inside were the chocolate candies I’d meant to give her on our date today. “I wanted to choose something more permanent for you when we were out together today, so I went with candies for this...”

“Wow, thanks! I’m happy with these! Oh, huh, I just remembered I’ve barely eaten anything since breakfast today.”

Runa’s voice was energetic, but her exhaustion showed on her face. Even in the dim light of her porch, I could see that her makeup was a mess around her eyes. Given how much she always cared about her appearance, that was proof that today had been just that hectic for her.

“Wanna come in? My grandma’s home, though.”

“Nah, I’ll pass. You’re tired, right? Take it easy.”

“Yeah... Thanks...” Runa smiled in relief. “Can I make it up to you sometime?”

“Sure. It’s no rush.”

With that, I left her house.

From that day on, Runa’s life suddenly became extremely busy.

Misuzu-san was discharged from the hospital after a few days and was ordered to stay in bed at all times except to eat and to go to the bathroom. She remained on bed rest until the final month of her pregnancy.

Runa had to fill in and pick up Misuzu-san’s share of chores. As Misuzu-san couldn’t take baths either, Runa also had to clean her hair with dry shampoo, wash her up in her bed, and otherwise take care of her. Runa did all of this voluntarily.

Even when we saw each other, she would sometimes leave early, saying she needed to make food for Misuzu-san soon.

As that went on, I became a university student, and Runa got a full-time job.

Each of us had our own spring.

***

I’ve been thinking about my third year of high school a lot recently, huh.

Unlike the second year when Runa and I had just started dating and everything looked radiant... Honestly, I didn’t have that many good memories of that third year.

I’d set my sights on a goal that’d been too high, suffered many setbacks, and spent my days studying without knowing if it would ever pay off. It had almost broken me.

But on the rare occasions my heart had sparkled like a jewel, they had always been when Runa had been by my side.

She’d eagerly desired me with eyes burning like the sun at the height of summer. Together with Kurose-san, she’d waved to her mother with a radiant smile on her face under the autumn sky. Runa had suppressed her feelings and done her best to support me over the winter, putting up with so much. And when the cherry blossoms had bloomed for me, she’d celebrated it with me with tears of joy before starting down a new path in her own life.

All of these were memories of days gone by, but each of these Runas was still there in the present one. They lived on in my memory too. But compared to all the Runas of the past, I loved the one in front of me, with her beautiful smile, most of all.

“Hurry up, Ryuto!” said Runa, waving at me from the cobalt-blue shore.

That’s right—we were on our long-awaited trip to Okinawa at last.