Chapter 3 Let's Write a Letter

Let’s Write a Letter

Two days before I left my hometown, I decided to write a letter to Chika.

At first, I thought about leaving without saying anything, but I decided that, unlike Chika, I should at least make a proper closure, so I decided to send her a proper farewell message.

However, I realized that there were some inconveniences in sending a message via smartphone.

I was planning to cancel my old smartphone contract the day I left and sign up for a new one, but if I sent a message now with the old one, there was a possibility that I would get an immediate reply, and since I’m leaving in secret, that would be inconvenient and annoying.

However, if I sent a message after receiving a new one, my new contact information would be revealed, so it would be pointless.

After thinking about it for a while, I suddenly had an idea.

Right, let’s write a letter.

Letters take time to arrive, so by the time Chika reads it, I’ll be long gone.

I’m feeling sharp today.

My brain got me into my first choice national university, so it’s not just for show. Fufufu.

However, I’ve never written a proper letter in my life, so I don’t have any letter paper or envelopes.

I asked my sister if she had some, and she did, but it was a light pink with a cute pattern, and it didn’t feel at all serious for a farewell letter.

“That’s not the kind of letter paper I need right now!” I pushed it back to my sister, and then I asked my mom, and luckily she had some real, plain letter paper and envelopes, so I decided to use that.

I was sitting at the desk left in the room, where I had already sent most of my stuff for the move. With the letter paper in front of me, I began to think about what to write.

Unlike smartphone emails and chat apps, letters have strict manners and etiquette.

Should I start there?

I think writing a letter is a great idea, but now that I’m aware of how badly I studied, I decided to look at it as a life experience, so I looked up how to write a letter on my smartphone and started studying.

I’m probably the only former student who just finished the entrance exams and is still studying seriously at this time of the year. I’m so great. Fufufu.

So what should I write?

Take a different path than Chika.

An apology for not being able to keep a promise.

The reason why I decided to break up.

Memories and thanks.

Cheers to a new life.

I think that’s about it.

I picked up the mechanical pencil I had used for the entrance exam and started to write, remembering everything that had happened, but after writing just one line, my hand stopped, and I remembered the scene when Chika confessed her love to me in my second year of junior high school.

It was during summer vacation, and I think it was about a week after the field trip.

The Kendo club has club activities every day even during summer vacation, and that day I spent the whole day at the school dojo. I was drenched in sweat, and when we finally finished in the evening, I changed into my uniform and walked to the school gate exhausted with my friend from the club. I noticed Chika standing alone in her uniform in the shadow of the gate.

After the incident at the camp, which would later be called “The Curry Crying Incident,” Chika and I had become somewhat friendly and had been talking.

So when I saw Chika standing at the gate of the school, I asked her, “Koda-san, are you involved in club activities as well? It was hot today, wasn’t it?” I called out to her.

When I called out to her, Chika’s face turned red, and without any preamble, she confessed, “Sakamoto-kun! I like you! Please go out with me!”.

It was so sudden that I froze and just stared at Chika’s face, which was bright red up to her ears, looking down, unable to respond right away.

By the way, my friend from the Kendo club who was with me burst out laughing.

I didn’t know how to respond to someone who confessed to me for the first time in my life, and my throat was dry, so I took out the water bottle I had in my bag, took a sip of the remaining barley tea, and then, “If it’s okay with someone like me,” I managed to respond.

Chika was my first love, and from that moment on I began to be attracted to her and to like her more and more.