Kimi no Na wa. Rediscovering the Future

2. Reunion with the past

After leaving her office, Mitsuha sat on the bench for several minutes with the phone in her hand. She couldn't decide to make the call. After a while, she took Taki's paper, enter the number in the phone and carefully put it back in her bag.

If she had to know what was going on between them, she had to know it today. She took a deep breath and dialed the call.

She felt her body begin to sweat, despite the cool breeze of the early April evening blowing around her.

The phone called without any answer. She was regretting of made the call and was about to hang it up when, on the other end of the line, it was answered with a hesitant "Hello?". It was Taki's voice.

For a couple of seconds, she couldn't get her own voice out.

"... Taki?... I'm Mitsuha. We met this morning... Sorry, I didn't want to bother you, but I need to talk with you... if it could be today... Eh, yes, now it would be fine. Do you know in Shinjuku area...?"

At the end of the call, she felt relieved and lighter. He said he would come! She closed her eyes and put the phone against her chest. It had to be today. She would not be able to sleep today without knowing the truth, without understanding what was going on, and who that boy was.

The next minutes seemed like an eternity. She stood up and sat down on the bench over and over again.

In her nervousness she looked towards the building where she worked, and saw that Noriko was watching her from her office on the fourth floor, and waved to her. She knew that Noriko was protective as a mother with her. She had been like that since she met her as soon as they arrived Tokyo, and sometimes Noriko treated her as if she were her own daughter. But she had a bad feeling.

§

Noriko had had a restless day.

During the day she tried to be close to Mitsuha to see that everything was in order, but she felt that, although the girl tried hard to appear calm, she was still not well. This man, whoever he was, was affecting her badly. She didn't know who that man was, or what intentions she had had with Mitsuha, but seeing how Mitsuha arrived to office, she feared the worst. Seeing her so nervous made her relive the memories and emotions of the incident she experienced with her daughter. That was why she preferred to let Mitsuha come home early that day. That would help Mitsuha recover and return to normal, she thought.

The late afternoon sun was beginning to flood her office. Noriko stopped to close the curtains. From the glass window she looked out onto the street and she was surprised to see that Mitsuha was still outside the building, sitting on a bench. It seemed strange to her; she imagined that at that time she would already be on her way home. She realized that Mitsuha saw her too. She waved to her, and returned to her chair.

She continued to work for several minutes on the e-mail she was answering to with details for the meeting she will have early Saturday morning with the North American affiliate. When she finished it, she hit the send button with relief.

She leaned back in her chair and turned to the window. The afternoon light illuminated the trees in the park. Suddenly she remembered Mitsuha, had she already left? She stood up and walked over to the window again, opening the curtain. To her surprise, Mitsuha was still there.

Noriko then thought that something was wrong. She noticed that Mitsuha seemed nervous. Mitsuha stood up and sat down from the bench she was on, over and over again. What was happening to her? Suddenly, she remembered that the girl commuted by train. If she hadn't done it yet, was it because she was afraid to go back to the station? Was she afraid of running into that guy from the morning again?