[Serialized Novel] "Fragile Item Deposit Counter" is here (Episode 14)

At the incoming call from Kyohei, I hurriedly stopped the hair dryer and reached for my smartphone.

CLATTER!!

I pulled it while the charging cable was still connected, so I dropped it quite dramatically.

I hurriedly picked it up, unplugged the cable, and tapped the screen with trembling fingers.

"............He, hello...?"

<<............>>

"...Kyohei?"

<<.........U, um... Haruru-chan...>>

"...Yeah."

<<I'm glad... your number hadn't changed... Ha, Haruru-chan... I, I'm really...>>

"..."

<<I, I'm sorry...>>

"..."

<<I'm really sorry... For disappearing on my own, and calling you again...>>

"..."

《...U-um... the squirrel figurine...》

"Eh...?"

《The one I gave to Haruru-chan before... it came to me... in a wooden box...》

......!!

《...sent to me.》

"Was it fixed?!"

《Eh?》

"Is it not broken? The part with the nut, is it not cracked?"

Kyohei said in a voice that sounded a little surprised by my intensity.

《No, it's not broken. It doesn't look like there are any cracks either, but...》

...I see.

"There was a letter inside... asking me to deliver it to the client... Um... if you don't want to, if you don't want to meet, it's fine to refuse..."
...I mean, even though I don't really want to be refused, I'm being so selfish, aren't I...

..."

"Um... there was a reason I couldn't get in touch... but that doesn't matter to you, does it, Haruru-chan? I'm sorry... But, I know it's really selfish of me... I know that, but... I really, really want to meet you and talk about it..."

..."

"...U-um..."

"...Yeah, I understand."

"R-really? Oh, thank goodness... Thank you."

Since tomorrow was Sunday and we were both off work, we decided to meet at the nearby cafe we always went to, just before noon.

What could the reason be...? I had thought of all sorts of possibilities, but I still didn't know. However, my feelings were quite different from before and after going to Shodoshima. I intended to accept whatever he had to say.

After exchanging a few more words, I hung up the phone.

＊

The next day, when I saw Kyohei through the cafe window, my heart skipped a beat. This is the truth. Even though it had only been a few months since we broke up, it felt like I hadn't seen him in years.
He was always the lanky, thin type, but he looked a bit haggard.

Even if Kyohei had grown to dislike me, he wasn't the type of person to just disappear without saying anything. I was sure of that, but if you asked someone else, they might say I was "a fool who got dumped but still came running when called."

I mustered up my courage and opened the entrance door.

"Ah..."

Kyohei stood up as if he were meeting someone superior to him.
I sat in the seat opposite him.

"...Th-thank you for coming."

Kyohei sat down too, but he fidgeted uncomfortably for a while.
The waitress, who we had become familiar with, brought water while saying, "Long time no see!"
However, perhaps sensing the atmosphere between us, she returned to the kitchen without saying anything else after I ordered an iced coffee.

For a while, we were both silent, looking down or out the window. Kyohei kept his eyes cast down, so I quietly studied his face.
Hexagonal eyes with deep double eyelids. A well-shaped nose. He was restlessly licking his slightly thick lips over and over. They seemed dry from nervousness. I thought, this is the Kyohei face I love.

When the iced coffee was brought over, Kyohei waited for me to add milk and syrup before he started the conversation.

"Um... well... I'm really sorry for disappearing without a word..."

Kyohei bowed his head.

"...It's fine now. More than that, I want you to tell me what happened."

"Yeah..."

Kyohei took a sip of his iced coffee as if to calm himself down. There was almost nothing left in it, and the ice had melted. I wondered how long he had been here.

"...Where should I start... um, well, I've never invited you to my parents' house, have I?"

"My parents' house? ...Yeah."

"The reason is... I couldn't let you meet my mother. ...Ah! It's not that Haru-chan isn't good enough, or anything like that..."

His mother, perhaps because she raised him as a single parent, was apparently very strict; she was kind when he was small, but gradually became overbearing.
Kyohei said that if his mother didn't like his friends, she would make him cut ties with them, and she even decided which school he would attend without his input.

"Whenever I tried to resist... she would resort to something like blackmail."

"Blackmail?"

"Yeah.... ......She would say things like she was going to die right there, and get hysterical."

"..."

I was speechless at a story that went beyond my imagination.

"I would try to calm her down somehow. Then she would cry and cling to me, and after that, she would become incredibly gentle. Thinking about it now, I should have taken her to a doctor sooner, but I was just a child and didn't understand... It's been like that for a long, long time, so I could never tell her that I had a girlfriend. I didn't know what she might do. I really thought she might hurt herself, or perhaps even hurt Haruru-chan."

"..."

"You remember how I once took you on the motorcycle I had just bought? But do you remember how I got rid of it right after?"

Of course I remembered it well.

"Actually, I had no choice because my mother opposed it. I was angry because I had just bought it, but... the next day, the tires were slashed with a knife. I was worried that she might even do something to herself... so I gave up on the motorcycle."

I was speechless to learn there was such a reason.

"About half a year ago, it seems my mother entered my apartment without permission... When I came home from work, she was sitting in the dark without the lights on, crying. She asked, 'Who is the woman in this photo?' I told her some excuse about Haruru-chan being a colleague at work, but naturally, she didn't believe me."

No matter how much she asked, he had never given her his key, but it seemed she had secretly taken Kyohei's key when he visited home and had a duplicate made without his knowledge.

"She started saying things like, 'Are you going to abandon me?'... I desperately calmed her down by saying I was going back to my parents' house to live with her from now on. I thought if she found out where you were, I didn't know what she might do."

"That's..."

That's why he disappeared from my life without even sending a message. I thought he could have at least talked to me about it... but I immediately understood that he didn't want to get me involved. It was just like Kyohei, after all.
His mother was dependent on her son. I think Kyohei himself knew that too.
But Kyohei is kind; I know he had his weaknesses, but he is painfully kind, so I was shocked, and frustrated.

"And then, shortly after that, we found out my mother was ill. When they told me she only had a few months to live... I... I..."

Kyohei looked down and didn't say anything for a while.

"I... felt relieved. Of course, I was shocked, but before that, I felt relieved. Even while I was seeing you, Haru, I thought that if my mother was gone soon... then maybe I could finally marry you, Haru. Thinking that made me feel so miserable, and I felt like the worst person..."

I realized once again that I knew nothing about Kyohei.
And this was the first time the word "marriage" had come from Kyohei. He said he had wanted to say it all this time but couldn't.

"I told you before that I have an older sister, right? She hadn't been back to our parents' house since she had a fight with our mother. Because of the lease, my parents moved, but since my mother moved out of the old house without telling my sister, it seemed like she couldn't come back even more. I told her about the illness right away, but even so, it was difficult..."
"But the other day, my sister came home for the first time in a long while. And then, the situation changed dramatically. From that time on, for some reason, my mother suddenly became calm... It was like she had returned to the mother I knew when I was little."
"This had never happened before, so I was very surprised. Even the doctor she was seeing was puzzled..."

I didn't know how much of Kyohei's painful past that had been able to heal.

"In her final days, the three of us as a family spent time very peacefully. I could even say we were happy. And then, a month ago, she passed away."

I wrapped Kyohei's hand, which was resting on the table, with both of mine. Tears fell onto the back of his hand.

"And then, yesterday, a box suddenly appeared at my house..."

Kyohei wiped his tears with his shirt sleeve and placed the small wooden box that had been in the paper bag onto the table. It was that same box I had left at the "Fragile Items Reception Counter" in Shodoshima, the one that never came back. A mark of a crossed hammer and wrench was engraved in gold on the front.
When I unlatched the clasp and opened the lid, I saw the squirrel figurine.
Looking closely at the place where the nut had been broken, there didn't even seem to be a crack.

"And then, there was a note inside with it..."

Kyohei placed a small slip of paper down. It was written as follows:

This is the "Fragile Items Reception Counter." The repair of the item we received in Shodoshima is complete, so please check it. We kindly ask that you deliver this to the client.

Fragile Item #102: Squirrel Figurine Client: Haruru Yunoki
(Payment: Sea glass, Received) March ○, Reiwa ○

"Haruru-chan... did you go to Shodoshima on this day?"

"...Yeah."

I remembered that day in Shodoshima. I haven't been in contact with Fumi since then.
I wonder how Takano-kun is doing, too. Since we haven't reached out, he might be feeling anxious. But the fact that he doesn't ask us various things in the group chat is just like him.

"Haruru-chan... I know this is very selfish of me, but..."

Kyohei went to drink his coffee, realized it was empty, and took a sip of the water next to him. Droplets fell from the condensation-covered glass, blurring the receipt placed nearby.

"Once more... um... could you, c-could you stay with me?"

Kyohei said. I nodded while staring at Kyohei's slightly thinner face.

(Continues to Episode 15 《Final Episode》)

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