Chereads / A Dimly Lit Green / Chapter 10 - Trip 4, Dusty Coin

Chapter 10 - Trip 4, Dusty Coin

Miyako leaves the hotel in the morning by herself to go out on a walk around the area, she sees not many people traversing the streets this early, she lifts her hand above her head to cover herself from the sun, as she walks, she looks around at the shops and how they look as the employees rush to set up the store to get ready for when the area becomes busy, restaurants are setting up their tables and cleaning the kitchen ware.

She walks around and after a few minutes, she turns around a corner and spots an old woman putting flowers up for sale at a small shop alongside the road, she walks towards the shop, the old woman notices Miyako approaching her shop and pats herself down to look her best, she tries to straighten her back but cannot, she sighs as Miyako reaches the shop looking around at the flowers, she spots a purple flower and asks the old woman, "What flower is that?" The old woman slowly walks to the flower and takes it out of the basket and shows it to Miyako, "I-It's an Orchi- Orchid." The old woman stutters on her words.

"Are you ok?" Miyako asks, the old woman coughs a little and smiles, "I'm fine, now do you want to buy this flower?" Miyako looks at the flower again and decides to buy it, "May I ask who It's for?" The old woman asks with a bright smile, "Not many people buy my flowers anymore, I know they are all busy with their work and have better things to spend their money on, but It's still very lonely especially in the morning." Miyako looks at the old woman after paying for the flower, "It's for a good friend of mine." The old woman widely smiles, "I see, there used to be a young man who would come back often to buy a flower from me as well." As Miyako continues walking with the Orchid in her hand, she looks back at the small shop and the old woman is waving goodbye as she continues smiling happily, "It's good to know that some of the people in this city still enjoy the little things in life." She puts her hands behind her back and walks back into the shop.

Miyako walks past a vending machine and decides to buy something to drink before she heads back to the hotel to meet up with Asahi about where they will go next, she notices something round next to the vending machine and squats down to take a closer look, after blowing a bit of the dust off she realises it's a coin used for a arcade that was nearby, she thinks about going to the arcade but puts off the idea as she felt Asahi wouldn't agree with her, she buys a cold water.

As she walks back to the hotel, she looks up at the buildings as she wasn't facing the sun anymore, she sees the sky is somewhat orange, the windows on the tall buildings reflecting the light making them shine bright, a hint of light passes across Miyako's gaze making her flinch, she scratches her eye and nearly drops the Orchid, she decides not to look at bright objects again.

She thinks back to all the nights and early mornings she spent walking through the city like this, alone with nobody to talk to about her life, the whole time she kept quiet about everything, even at work, even at home with her parents, she had never earnestly spoken to anyone ever, and she thought she never would be able to, until she met Asahi, she remembers the accident again and tries to forget it.

Meanwhile in the hotel, Asahi waits for Miyako to return as she had told him she was going to go on a walk around the area, he struggles to find something that would be fun and a good experience online, he was looking through places like theme parks, aquariums and festivals, he sees a festival that would happen two days from now and put it as a maybe.

Asahi hears the sound of the key being put into the door and stands up to get a cup of water, Miyako walks in taking off her shoes she goes into the room, she sits down taking off her jacket and scarf, Asahi walks in from the other room with a warm cup of water he had heated up earlier, he sees the flower Miyako had bought on the table, he hands her the cup and goes to sit down on a chair infront of the bathroom, "What flower is that?" He asks, Miyako sips her water and puts it down on the table where the flower was and picked up the flower, "It's an Orchid I bought from an old woman on the side of the street, It was quite near the hotel." Asahi realises that the old woman was someone he had helped in the past, he had visited the flower shop quite often to buy a flower.

Asahi says, "I visited that flower shop of hers about a few times every month." Miyako thinks back to what the old woman had said about a young man who regularly bough flowers from her, "She said something about you also I think." Asahi wonders if anyone else had regularly visited the small shop and doesn't think there were anyone else, "Oh so she still remembers me."

"By the way, do you have any idea where we could go for our next destination?" Asahi asks having not found anything he thought was worth going to, "I did see an arcade on my walk, what do you think?" She asks nervously as she had thought Asahi wouldn't agree that it was a good idea, "That sounds like a good idea, I always went to arcades when I was a kid as well." Miyako relaxes and breathes a sigh of relief, "I wanted to try going to one too."

Miyako walks over to Asahi and hands him the flower, "You can keep it, you bought it after all, and I still have quite a few." Asahi smiled and Miyako was surprised he didn't take the flower and just prepared to go to the arcade.