Arima Kousei had received a letter from the government that his father had perished in an unimaginable earthquake in Japan. It was a very painful moment for him as it had only been a month after Miyazono Kaori passed away. Due to his father's death...
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He stood up and cried on Seto's chest quickly as well. She smiled at him and touched his head. She hugged him back. "Seto-san!"
He also hugged Tsubaki. "Thank you for visiting me here. You don't know how hard I felt in my first days here."
"Kousei, I'm sorry if I wasn't able to visit you quickly and I was only able to go today after a week," she told him.
He just kept on crying happily. "No. It's okay. I'm just so happy that you're here."
While he was crying, Hiroko and Tsubaki can't stop imagining his old self when he was still very little. Tsubaki felt happy, too. Even so, she noticed that Kousei's right wrist hurt. She looked at it and of course, she noticed the scar on it. She felt shocked to see a scar on it which meant, he did try to kill himself by cutting his wrist. She wanted to ask him about the cut but even before she ask about his wrist, Mikoto had read her and said, "Thank you for the short visit."
Kousei looked at him and smiled. "Can't I stay here for a while?"
"You haven't been going to your classes this past few days and your grades are failing. You know you have a scheduled tutorial today. Even if we're studying informally here, it's still recognized outside. You have to pass your schooling here and graduate middle school," Mikoto reminded him.
Kousei breathed in and out. He understood and so, he told her, "I have to go. Thanks for the visit."
He quickly walked out of the canteen and while he leave, Mikoto's friends also went out to leave while he stay with Seto Hiroko and Tsubaki. After most people had left the canteen and only the three of them were left behind, the three of them sat together.
"Why do you want us to stay here?" Seto Hiroko asked.
Mikoto stared at Tsubaki who's looking at the canteen where Kousei would usually eat breakfast and lunch now. It's actually a large canteen that looked like a school canteen. Most of the kids wear similar colors depending on their age. When she saw Kousei, he was wearing a blue t-shirt and his eyes still looked painful. It looked dry and he doesn't seem to be really looking on her. He was looking farther ahead.
"He's still hurt. He still can't believe he is like us already," he told them. "Even so, I hope you prevent asking him anything about what had happened to him here for a while. It might aggravate him."
Tsubaki understood and so, she felt sad that Kousei had been enduring so much sadness inside him. "How can I help?"
"Visiting him is good enough but the institution only allows you to be here every Saturday," he told them.
She smiled. "I think that's good enough. Can I know where Kousei is now?"
Mikoto grinned. "Of course. He's in Teacher Rika's office."
