This evening, Akiko could not fall asleep immediately after arriving home. She wanted to go to sleep early so that she could forget about the stress and relax at least in her reverie, but her worries about what had happened today had not stopped haunting her. When she returned home, she instantly fell headlong into bed without undressing. From the look on her face, she was wrung out like a fruit, but she didn't know quite how to react.
As she unfolded her body, she sloppily placed her palm on her pubes and contemplated Tomoyuki's harsh words, thereby looking up at the chandelier bulb that illuminated her modest but feminine furnished room. Her humble, darkish red eyes did not take their stare away from the light bulb, which for her seemed at this moment to be the only light moving her forward.
"Tomoyuki-kun, you overreached," she said, calming down slightly, and laying lightly on her side. Her previously styled hair spread out between each other and fell over her face, but Akiko didn't dare to fix it.
"My feelings... are they wrong?" the maiden muttered to herself. "And when I saw Hayashi-kun on the roof, did I really fall in love with him?"
Blinking slowly, Akiko was overwhelmed with emotion, which she didn't have the strength to splash out. She only moved her fingers, and continued to stare aimlessly at one unremarkable point.
"Yumiko Sato is a good person? You're kidding..."
Doubting her previously declared assertions, she quietly closed her eyes. What a pity it was for her when the door to her room opened after a few light knocks on it. A female silhouette with medium-length dark hair and the same face shape as Akiko's looked out of the door.
"Attyan, would you like to have dinner?" came the woman's polite and gentle voice.
"No, mammy, I don't," replied Akiko, slowly.
"Did you wash your face after you came, I hope?" asked the mother, with no less politeness to her daughter, to which Akiko shook her head without getting up from her seat.
"Oh! Did the boy actually reject?" she asked with playful confusion, covering her mouth with her hands. "Well, did I guess?"
There was a brief pause, but the mother was in no hurry for her beloved daughter. Finally, the daughter's mouth moved.
"Maybe."
"That's right, straight on! Your mom is brilliant!" she said, to which Akiko agreed.
"You're the best, mammy," Akiko said with an equally loving tone. Her voice no longer seemed depressed, which made Mama feel warmer in her soul.
"Okay! I guessed it, but where's my prize?"
Akiko looked up and their gazes met. Their eyes the same color and the same hand gestures – Akiko was an exact replica of her mother, trying to cheer her stay.
"Okay, but what prize does my mammy want?"
"Um…" put her mother's hand to her chin. "Your prize is action."
"Okay, but what action?"
"Wash your face and tidy yourself up, daughter," Mother said, with warmth in her words. Akiko could not refuse, and she had no reason to. She trusted her mother completely.
"And then… tell me what new things have happened. Sometimes it is said that nothing is better than a mother-daughter conversation."
"Okay," Akiko said, nodding. "I will. But I'll be frank, mammy, would you be okay with that outcome?"
"More than okay," Mom replied, lovingly.
Akiko needed those exact words in a moment of concussion from Tomoyuki's shocking words that fuzed her mind. An ordinary heart-to-heart talk in the kitchen, alone with a loved one in front of whom crying was commonplace. It was then that she did not have this person, but when she came home, she realized that Akiko had no close girlfriends or boyfriends at all.
On the next school day, well before school started, Akiko walked into her classroom and sat down at her desk. She relaxed her head on the hard, wooden desk and had light cushions under her eyes. In the morning, when she powdered that spot, she based her appearance on their appearance in the process of sobbing in front of her mother yesterday.
"Tomoyuki-kun is an idiot," she muttered, frowning. "He made me cry yesterday. It's infuriating!"
As she looked up, she remembered an important thing, and silently began rummaging through her purse. Akiko thought, how could she forget such an important thing in her life. Finally finding it, the maiden pulls her personal diary out of her purse and puts it on the table. She thought how long it had been since she had written new notes and thoughts in it.
Opening the first page, she began to slowly read a quote that played an important role for her.
Be loved and love others. Only then will you become needed by yourself.
"That's right…" she whispered, coming to her senses. "How could I have forgotten my own words. The hardships I've been through… can't just go away."
Rising gracefully from her chair, her inner confidence gripped her. Or rather, it was she herself who brought it back, for she had enough confidence as it was.
"I have to keep moving. Further and further."
***
In the middle of the study, Yumiko urged Glenn to go to the circle with him. Left alone in silence, the young man asked if she was concerned about anything, to which Yumiko went to the window and put her clasped hands to her chest and stared thoughtfully out into the distance.
"I don't know, I can't express it. Glenn-kun, how am I supposed to be in these situations?"
Glenn had only to guess what she meant by her concerned words.
"Is it to do with the boys?" the young man asked, reflecting on the look in her eyes that was looking at him.
Yumiko nodded. "Since this kind of situation hasn't happened to me before, I don't know how to relate to something like this or how to act."
Glenn wondered if something really serious had happened that was also noteworthy to Yumiko.
"I really don't know," Yumiko complemented, not taking her gaze off him. "For one thing, I think I don't even know what kind of face I should be taking right now to make you realize the gravity of..."
"In that case, try to calm down and tell me as it is."
Yumiko nodded, and for the next brief moment she explained to the young man the whole situation she had managed to see. Sitting thoughtfully and listening intently for every line of her words, Glenn eventually closed his eyes and began to ponder.
"As much as I hate to scare you, Yumiko-chan…"
"I want the truth," Yumiko said, confidently.
"It's probably all about you."
"Me? But why… me?" she leaned back slowly against the window and pressed her back against it.
"My guess is that Tomoyuki-san and Akiko-san are hiding something that only they know about. Do you, by any chance, have a hunch about anything?"
"No," Yumiko replied, folding her fingers. "I don't guess anything at all. What a bad friend I am."
"It's not your fault. I think there are some things they're not telling you. After what happened, have you noticed a shift in their communication?"
"Not at all… Akiyama-chan seems fine, though she seemed too upset yesterday. But I haven't met Tomoyuki-kun, he only sometimes comes to our class room himself."
"I see, so there's nothing else I can do," Glenn said. "I'm sorry," he added, bowing his pitying eyes, to which Yumiko waved her hands and shook her head.
"No need to be sorry! Thank you, for opening my eyes. Really, thank you."
Hearing the thanks, Glenn made his way toward the exit of the room. Taking his eyes away from Yumiko, his gaze hardened at that moment, and his dark eyes darkened as if they had lost their vivacity.
When the door closed and the office quieted, Yumiko was alone with her thoughts. Glancing again at the view from the window, she gently placed her hand on the window sill.
In her thoughts, Yumiko apologized to Glenn for hiding her feelings, but this way she thought the young man should not know about such facts. Akiko's pretending to be near Ryou, Yumiko couldn't help but know, for she had an indirect part in it. Nevertheless, she never imagined that Tomoyuki could have upset her longtime friend and classmate so shrewdly. Yumiko began to wonder about Tomoyuki's deceitfulness and secrecy.