Before My Memories With You Melt Away in Tears - Episode 25

The shouting voice that came from somewhere made Ayaka’s body tremble. She and the boy turned their gazes toward the sound, and there, standing before them, was a man drenched from head to toe.

He looked like an adult, though it was hard to tell exactly how old he was. He seemed younger than Ayaka’s parents, though.

“Tch.”

The man clicked his tongue in irritation, looking around before doing so again.

“Dammit, why do I have to go through this crap?”

The moment the man kicked a stone at his feet, a drop of water hit Ayaka’s forehead.

“Rain…”

“What!?”

Ayaka murmured softly, and the man snapped back at her.

“Are you kidding? It’s raining. What the hell do we do now!?”

“H-huh…?”

Ayaka had always been surrounded by kind and gentle adults. This was the first time she’d encountered someone who shouted like that.

Fear and anxiety began to wash over her, and before long, something other than rain started to trickle down her cheek.

“Ugh… hic… I’m scared… Daddy… Mommy…”

Once fear gripped her, it didn’t take long before it completely took hold.

“Ugh… Huh… Waaaa…”

Ayaka cried out loudly, tears streaming down her face as the boy looked at her with concern. The man, however, glared at her with frustration.

“Shut up! Don’t cry!”

“H-huh… I’m scared… Waaah…”

“I told you not to cry!”

As the man shouted, he took step after step toward Ayaka. The sound of him stepping on gravel grew louder.

“I hate the sound of kids crying. If you cry more…”

When he was right in front of her, the man grabbed Ayaka by the collar.

“I’ll throw you into the river right now!”

“Y-You…”

The man’s much larger hand lifted Ayaka’s body off the ground. She felt her feet lift and her body began to tremble uncontrollably. She didn’t even have the strength to scream.

“Stop!”

At that moment, the boy’s voice rang out.

“If you do that, you’ll be a murderer!”

The word “murderer” seemed to stop the man in his tracks. He released Ayaka’s hand, and she fell from about waist-height, landing hard on the gravel with her bottom. But it was better than being thrown into the river.

Relief flooded her, but as the terror of what had just happened hit her, her tears flowed uncontrollably.

“I won’t let her cry, so please don’t do anything scary!”

The boy’s voice was shaking, and she could tell his hands, gripping his pants tightly, were trembling too.

“Are you really going to keep that promise!? If you make her cry, I’ll throw both of you into the river!”

The man threatened. The boy nodded quickly and crouched beside Ayaka, firmly holding her hand.

“Smile.”

The boy whispered softly, but Ayaka couldn’t stop her tears. She shook her head, but the boy smiled gently at her.

“It’s okay. Smile, alright?”

His voice was cheerful, but his face was pale. Ayaka remembered what had happened earlier—the boy’s parents had been swept away right in front of her.

He was just as scared and anxious as she was. In fact, after losing his parents, he was probably suffering much more than Ayaka could even imagine.

Yet, despite his own grief, he was trying to make her stop crying, smiling to protect her.

“Heh, heh…”

Ayaka couldn’t stop crying, but she could at least try to smile.

With her face still covered in tears, Ayaka kept smiling, and the man seemed satisfied.

“Good. That’s better. If you cry again, I’ll throw both of you into the river. So be ready for it.”

At the man’s words, Ayaka could only keep smiling. No matter how terrified she was, all she could do was keep smiling.

Since that day, whenever Ayaka felt fear or anxiety, she would smile. Even if her heart didn’t want to, she couldn’t stop herself from flashing a smile.

Over time, that fear grew into something else—a worry that if she didn’t keep smiling, people might dislike her or think she was strange. It slowly began to invade even the smallest things.

The only thing left in Ayaka’s mind was the instinct to keep smiling. It wasn’t that she refused to be honest, or that she smiled just to please others. It had become a habit—a way to protect her heart. She smiled because it was the only option left to her.

Wiping her tears away, Ayaka looked at herself in the mirror.

There she was, smiling her usual forced smile, the same one she wore every day. She didn’t want to see it, so she splashed some water on the mirror. The image of her forced smile was wiped away by the water droplets.

“I should probably get back to class.”

She pressed a damp handkerchief to her eyes. Fujino and Shuri might be worried about her.

Sighing softly, Ayaka left the restroom. Her steps felt heavy, but she also felt a bit calmer. Maybe now, she could talk to them about what Hibiya had said to her.

She wasn’t sure if she could sort through her emotions, but she felt like they would listen.

The door to the classroom was blocked by some students from another class talking, so Ayaka decided to enter from the back.

“By the way—”

Ayaka heard the voice just as she was passing near Fujino’s seat. It was Fujino’s voice, unmistakable, coming from just beyond a slightly opened window.

“Even after being rejected by Ikeda-senpai, you didn’t cry, huh?”

There was no mistaking who she was talking about.

“Maybe… you weren’t that serious about him after all?”

Fujino, unaware that Ayaka was nearby, kept talking.

“I guess I worried for nothing.”

There was no malice in her tone, which was casual and nonchalant. Fujino wasn’t trying to hurt Ayaka; she was just speaking what she thought. But still…

Ayaka’s lips trembled as she tried to smile, but her smile twitched uncontrollably. Her face, reflected in the window, looked like a distorted, forced grin.