Akari's letter

Those unsuppressed feelings remained with me as the new junior high semester began.

I had to face those uncomfortable new days alone even if I didn't want to.

Even though I should havebeen attending the same school with Akari, I began attending alone, slowly making new friends,joining the soccer club and working hard.

The days were a lot busier than my elementary schooldays but that was good for me because it kept my mind occupied.

When I had time alone I would feel very uncomfortable just like in the past and clearly I couldn't bare the feeling at all.

That was why I tried to stay proactive by spending most of my time with friends, went straight to bed as soon as I finished my homework and woke up early so that I could focus on training at my club.

I was sure Akari too was busying herself every day at her new home. I wished those days would help her forget about me. I was the one that hurt her when we parted after all.

I tooshould have forgotten about Akari. We should have learned how to do that by now after all our

experiences of transferring schools so many times and being separated from others.

Then one summer day, during the hot days, a letter arrived from Akari.

I remember when I saw that light pink envelope stuck amongst the row of apartment mailboxes

I had felt more confused than happy.

I thought to myself, why now? I had been so determined to get used to a world without Akari. The letter from Akari made me remember just how much

I missed her.

Yes, instead of trying to forget about Akari, my mind was suddenly filled with nothing but her.

I had made many friends but every time I was with them, they made me realise just how special Akari was to me.

I would confine myself in my room reading her letter over and over again.

Even during classes I would secretly slip it in between my textbook so that I could gaze at it. I read it so many times I could almost remember the letter by the heart.

"Dear Takaki Tohno," the letter began. It was such a nostalgic feeling seeing Akari's neat handwriting again.

"It has been such a long time. How are you? The summer weather is very hot here but I'm sure it's a lot easier to bear than Tokyo.

But now that I think about it, I prefer the humid

hot summers in Tokyo more - the hot asphalt that looks as if it's about to melt, the high rise

buildings in the heat and the almost freezing air conditioning of the apartments and underground

stations."

Funnily enough, in between the mature writing were tiny little illustrations (like the sun or cicadas) which made me imagine what the young Akari I once knew was like now as she was growing up slowly.

It was a very short letter that told me how she was doing. She told me how she went to her new school by the four carriage trains,

how she joined the basketball club to keep fit and how she decided to cut her hair short so that it was now only down to her ear.

Surprisingly, it all unsettled me. She didn't write that she missed me and from her words I could

tell that her new life was going well and she was getting used to it.

But somehow, I had no doubtthat she would have felt very sad if she wrote that she missed me or wanted to talk to me.

If that wasn't so, she never would have written a letter to me. I felt exactly the same way towards

her.

Since then, Akari and I exchanged letters once a month. I felt it was a lot easier going about my life than before.

For example, I could clearly admit boring lessons were boring. Since being separated from Akari,

I had just thought all the harsh training and unreasonable instructions that my senior trainers gave me were just the way things were but now I could feel it was all a little unbearable. My feelings were back.

Strangely, it was because I could feel that way that it all became easier to endure.

We never wrote about our displeasures or silly things that happened during our days but we could strongly feel that there was only one other person in this world that could understand us.

The understanding between two souls. Can it be changed or be broken. What we know and what we don't know , the love for eachother and being not to show it will hurt .

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