I Planned My Escape Because I Knew Her Secret - Episode 3

Once Madoka also received her job offer without any issues, we were able to spend the rest of our student life together peacefully.

I went to school a few times a week to attend lectures and participate in seminars, and on other days, I worked part-time.

It seemed that Madoka was also enjoying various activities, such as attending driving school to obtain a driver’s license, hanging out with friends in her free time, and increasing her part-time job hours.

***

The year we graduated from university, during our first year as working adults, we were both incredibly busy.

I think both Madoka and I were working a lot of overtime and were physically exhausted.

Madoka worked at a regular company, so her schedule followed the calendar, but since I worked in the service industry, I worked on regular holidays when it was peak earning time, and my days off were mostly on weekdays.

And at the time we joined the company, neither Madoka nor I could take paid leave, so if we wanted to meet, we had no choice but to meet after one of us finished work on their day off.

During this time, I was given Mondays and Fridays off instead of working every weekend shift. Naturally, Madoka had work on both days, so we would meet after her shifts ended.

On Mondays, Madoka hardly had any overtime, so we could meet for a short time and have meals or go to the hotel, but on Fridays, although not every week, there were often days when Madoka had to work late and we couldn’t meet.

On my end, the number of customers varied from day to day, and I often had to do sudden overtime, so I didn’t question the existence of overtime itself. However, while spending a day off alone, I thought to myself, “Come to think of it, Madoka was always busy with her tutoring job every Friday when we were students, so we couldn’t meet.”

After becoming a working adult and spending two or three years, I was able to take plenty of paid leave and got the hang of my job, so we started coordinating our days off to spend more time together than we did in the first year.

However, Madoka still often worked late on Fridays as usual.

According to Madoka, “On weekends, a lot of tasks that can’t be carried over to the next week pile up, and since banking tasks also tend to end up on weekends, I often find myself too busy during the day and have no choice but to work overtime.” Since my job is different, I didn’t think much of it.

***

Even though we were both busy, we managed to find time to spend together, and if we could take a long weekend, we would go on a little trip. Our days continued as usual, happily spending time together, and finally, when we were both 26 and in our fourth year of working, I officially proposed to Madoka.

Without doing anything particularly elaborate, I proposed on a day off when we were spending time together, saying, “It’s been ten years since we started dating, and I want to start seriously thinking about marriage. First, I want to buy you an engagement ring, so how about we go look at some stores together?”

Madoka shed tears of joy at my proposal, which had neither charm nor flavor.

That day, the two of us went to a jewelry store in the local shopping mall, and I had Madoka choose what she wanted without telling her the budget.

Madoka chose a pearl ring with a very simple design.

I thought it was typical of her to be serious and composed.

At that time, I requested a size fitting and paid with a card. Later, after work, we met up and went to the store together to pick it up. After receiving it, we returned to the car parked in the lot, and inside the car, I put it on Madoka’s ring finger.

At that moment, Madoka, with a completely relaxed and beaming smile, looked at the ring on her finger, then hugged me and said, “I’ll cherish it for a lifetime.”

Looking back now, I can only say that I was really foolish back then.

He only saw what was visible, took Madoka’s expressions, attitude, and words at face value, and even felt joy from Madoka’s smile.