Complicating Love – Chapter 8

TL: Single TL Translations

Chapter 8

 It’s been a week since then. Even when I try to contact her, the messages aren’t read, and she doesn’t answer my calls. Naturally, I tried to put up with it, but in the end, I continued contacting her. After all, though I was considerably hurt from her words, she was probably hurt even more.

That I want to talk to her, apologize to her, tell her I don’t hate her, I want to contact her and convey these feelings to her. I looked at the calendar while reminiscing the call from last time.

Before she became busy, she told me it’ll take about 2 to 3 weeks before everything settles down. It’s been exactly 2 weeks since then. I plan on immediately taking action.

If I could, I wanted to meet with Aoi even before a week passed, but that diligent Aoi stopped contacting me during that week. Even if I went, I most likely won’t be able to meet her because of work, it’ll be impossible unless I’m there both day and night. Sadly, I also have my own life. While the week was frustrating, I did nothing but only contact her.

I wanted to quickly meet with Aoi and apologize as well as listen to her story. I couldn’t leave Aoi alone, even though she’s older than me, beautiful, cute, and has a good style, on the inside, she’s adorable, a little jealous, and has a low evaluation of herself.

Society would probably label her as heavy*. She herself also said the same, although most would find it an accurate term since she gets jealous of her friends, gets hysterically angry and often cries. But, I won’t be put off by it or come to hate her for it.

*Heavy – in this context, it’s the weight of her feelings towards someone else. I couldn’t find an appropriate term in English, so I used ‘needy’ last time, but from now on I think I’ll just use with heavy and needy interchangeably (would depend on the context). FYI it’s not like she’s heavy in terms of her body weight or anything. If you have any suggestions, I’m open though 😀

She has enough charm that I won’t be concerned by that and I don’t feel any pain myself, rather it’s adorable and I find myself wanting to listen to it more. If anything, I want her to tell me more about her feelings. Maybe it’s my meddlesome personality that can’t be helped.

Nevertheless, I never get tired of her abundance of facial expressions she shows and there was always something that attracted me to them. Maybe it’s because expressions aren’t something I have an abundance of. Getting angry, crying, and acting spoiled to someone, it’s not something I usually do. That might be why I’m attracted to her.

A few days after the week started, the day before my holiday, a Wednesday. My work has a national holiday on both Thursday and Sunday, so I’m planning to stay at Aoi’s house until the last train today.

When I finished work at the regular time, I quickly headed towards Aoi’s house. As always, she wouldn’t answer my calls or read the texts, but just in case, I texted her saying I’m heading to her house today.

I went to the closest station to her house and walked to the convenience store. Let’s buy a bunch of stuff to give her when I meet her, since Aoi prefers sweet things, I quickly bought sweet snacks and drinks.

Even though it’s almost spring, the wind is chilly and it’s still very cold out. I quickly walked and arrived at Aoi’s apartment.

It’s currently 8 PM. While I was a little nervous, I pressed the doorbell to her room number, but as expected, there was no answer.

Of course, it won’t go that smoothly. I chucked and left the entrance of the apartment. Though there’s quite a few people walking, I couldn’t see anyone resembling Aoi. I took out my phone and texted Aoi about how I’m waiting at her apartment. I prepared myself for this long battle that’s to come.

From then on, time passed, and it was currently 10 PM. I was able to endure the cold and sat down on the steps, waiting for Aoi. While there’s still some time before the last train, I don’t think I can meet her today. I stared at the station I came from and was dejected that the pathway was less crowded.  

I need to quickly apologize and listen to Aoi’s story when I see her. But I wonder what I should say first. Will she listen to my story? I thought long about it but, in the end, just stopped thinking. Even if I were to think about it, I can only do it in my own way. I will naturally be able to speak when I meet her. Though it’s the end of everything if she gets turned off or starts to hate me for my stalker like actions. I looked at my watch to get rid of this uneasiness and continued waiting.

Immediately afterwards, I heard something like an argument from the direction of the station and it looked like one between a man and woman.

“Hey, can you invite me to your house? It’s a good coincidence, isn’t it? I like you after all.”

“It’s something that ended. Kazunari-kun,* I think there’s someone who’s a better fit for you. …Don’t follow me.”  

*-kun – an honorific used mainly for boys. Counterpart for -kun is -chan, an honorific usually associated with girls.

“C’mon, don’t say something like that. Like I said, I like you after all. Do you want to try again? It wasn’t all bad, right?”

“I… don’t like you, so…!”

I couldn’t see because it was too dark, but I recognized the girl’s voice. It’s Aoi’s. From her voice it seems like she’s troubled and the guy is grabbing her arm to stop her from walking. From what they’re saying I think that’s her ex-boyfriend. I hurried a little and headed towards Aoi’s direction.

“There you go again, when I say this, everyone’s usually okay with it, plus you’ll start to like me again so what do you say, want to go out?”

“No… um, like I said, I… don’t like you. I don’t feel like going out… with you either.”

“I’m pretty serious, you know. I’ll definitely take good care of you, you don’t need to worry about anything. Just treat it as like a trial or something.”

“That’s, just stop… I don’t want to.”

I walked up to Aoi who clearly sounded troubled and called her name. Her head that was facing downwards looked up at me with a surprised and sad expression and then once again lowered her gaze. I slightly smiled when I heard her softly call my name and then turned around to face the man. He was a tall, what you would call a handsome guy, but his speech was awful.

“Huh, what is it? Aoi’s friend?”

“…”

“Yes. I’m Aoi’s friend. Sorry, but Aoi seems troubled so could you stop?”

I answered in place of Aoi who was silent. I stopped smiling and, near the end, said in a stronger tone. For these types of people, you need to be clear or they’ll misunderstand. But it seems like this guy is pretty slow.

“No, well, you see, we just finished work and thought it was a good time, so I began talking to her. During this job, I thought we had a good vibe going on, so I wanted to ask her if she wanted to try it out again.”

He wasn’t listening and started grinning while trying to peer into Aoi face while still grabbing her arm, as though he was strongly denying it with a ‘no.’ Right away, Aoi tried to shake off his arm by walking a few steps back. She must hate it a lot since she’s biting into her lip, strongly grabbing her own arm, and showing an aura of her disgust towards him. My heart was not calm thinking how he made this girl do that.

“Ahh, sorry, my bad, Aoi. Oh yeah, that’s right, if you’d like, how about the 3 of us go to a club my friend owns? It’ll definitely be fun!”

It seems this guy hasn’t given up yet. I sighed.

“We won’t go. Besides, the fact that you’re forcefully following someone who clearly hates it is very stalker-like. I’ll call the police, you know?”

“Huh? Don’t do that. That’s not funny. I just saw her for a moment and wanted to talk her, that’s all. Besides, she’s someone I know.”

I saw a little impatience in him. I won’t give him any leeway and will just continue. I took out my phone answered indifferently.

“I’m not joking. Aoi hates it and is scared, plus I’m a witness, won’t the police be able to do something about it? If you don’t have any plans on leaving, then I’ll just call the police.”

When I tapped my phone screen and expressionlessly tilted my head to the side, he seemed to have realized the size of the matter. His face paled and he appeared to be shaken.

 “No, I’ll leave I’ll leave, sorry. I’ll leave right now, sorry about that Aoi.”

“…”

The silent Aoi’s expression was one of pure dislike. From what I’ve heard so far, this guy is probably Aoi’s ex-boyfriend and seems to have asked Aoi multiple times to get back together. Looking at Aoi, she most likely doesn’t have any intention of it, so this is a good opportunity. With this opportunity, I’ll remind him by him by giving him a warning.

“Don’t say ‘sorry.’ Aoi doesn’t like you and doesn’t want to get back together with you, so from today onwards, if you don’t stop following her around, even if I don’t report it now, I can always report it to the police and file a complaint. You understand, right? The meaning behind my words.”

I quickly said everything in a composed voice and he repeatedly nodded while saying ‘I understand I understand.’ The guy was obviously shaken.

“I said I understand! I really only wanted to talk a little. Just give me a break with the police stuff. I’m going to leave. See you.”

He said that and then left towards the direction of the station with a quick pace like he was running away. Seriously, guys like that give me a headache. After sighing, I walked towards Aoi.

“Are you okay?”

“…Yeah… thank you.”

While she averted her gaze and wouldn’t look at me, she still replied. The Aoi I haven’t seen in a while seemed a little tired and looked awkward. I started talking to her to break the heavy mood.

“Um, you see, I texted you, though you might not know since it seemed like you were avoiding me, but I was waiting because I wanted to talk to you, Aoi.”

“…”

I felt a little awkward at the silent Aoi, but I was finally able to meet her. If I don’t say anything then this situation would just continue. I started talking in the same tone as always.

“You might not want to talk about it, Aoi, but I don’t want things to stay as they are, so I wanted to you about a lot of things. Besides, the way I said it wasn’t good either, I wanted to apologize for making you experience that. So, can we talk for a bit?”

“…”

“I-Is it no good? Just a little is fine. I’ll leave right after, so… ”

I was troubled since she still continued to be silent. Did she really not want to, does she not want to even talk? Despite being anxious I was trying to think of my next words when I saw something fall onto the ground. I realized it was Aoi’s tears when she lifted her head.

“A-Aoi? W-What happened? Does it hurt somewhere? Did that guy do something by any chance?”

I was extremely confused to the point of becoming muddleheaded because she looked directly at me with an expression of sorrow in her eyes along with the accumulated tears spilling. ‘What on earth happened’, Aoi only shook her head to the side. Don’t tell me she really hated me now?

“Sorry, I guess you really didn’t like…?!”

Aoi clung to me before I could even finish what I was saying. I was surprised and at a loss for words when she strongly embraced me while crying, desperately clinging onto me.

“I’m sorry.”

Aoi said in a trembling voice. She continued to repeatedly say ‘I’m sorry.’ My heart tightened for her and thought ‘so that’s why she started crying.’ I was able to understand her with just those words of apology, and I gently hugged her. I gently rubbed her back without putting much strength in her delicate and slender body.

“Aoi.”

I talked to her affectionately to relieve the trembling girl. I talked in the same tone as always, but still holding gentleness in it.

“It’s alright, okay? I’m not angry. I’m not angry at all. So, don’t apologize. Besides, I’m sorry. I gave you some unpleasant memories, didn’t I?”

“Th…That’s…not true…”

She repeatedly shook her head, and I gently pulled myself from her and grasped her hand. I looked at her with an affectionate smile and stroked her head as she had an anxious expression. My uneasiness I just had disappeared, and I felt mischievous, so I said with gently while holding conviction in her answer.

“Aoi, do you hate me? Do you not want to be with me anymore?”

I felt truly relieved and softly chucked when she immediately shook her head to the side to deny it.

“I see. I’m glad. You see, I’m the same as you. Aoi. Hey, Aoi, can I go to your house? I want to properly talk and listen to you. Is that okay?”

“…Uh-huh…”

The appearance of her shaking her head up and down while crying was so adorable I hugged her tightly once and when I did, she stopped crying a little. When I told her ‘it’s okay,’ she nodded and strongly grasped my hand. We slowly started walking towards the apartment.

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