10th Piece: “As For Today, Thank You”

Translator Pre-Chapter Notes:

Hey everyone!
So, I started reading this as it was on NovelUpdates, and then found out they had dropped it. Thus, I decided to pick it up as practice for Japanese. Please be warned that I’ve maybe taken one year of actual Japanese classes and did some light studying on my own in terms of grammar and kanji, so these translations will be rough in some places. I’m trying my best though, and hope that you can bear with me.

Additionally, I am translating the Web Novel. There is an official book that was published about a year ago in late 2019, which you can find HERE.

I may get around to purchasing the book, but I’d like a physical copy as opposed to a PDF, so I’m looking into how I can do that. If you enjoy this story, please support the author by getting a copy of their book if you can.

Anyways, I haven’t been studying Japanese for too long so a lot of these translations mostly done by using Translation Aggrator for its kanji identifying and grammar parsing when I can’t do it myself, jisho.org for kanji identifying further, and when push comes to shove, a Google translate to get the “soul” of the identification before I try to pull what the grammar actually says.

But, with that out of the way, welcome to my humble translation efforts. For these I’m looking more for comfy stories, things you can relax and smile at while reading. Hopefully you’ll enjoy them too.

Chapter, start!

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「…」

「…」

In the middle of the evening, in front of the bench by Tea Pearl, two people sat down next to each other and drank their respective teas. 

However, the silence, the time spent, little by little, little by little they respectfully drank. With the decreasing amount of milk tea, there was a time limit to Sato-san and I’s silence.

……Thus, it soon ran out.

Sato-san and I’s straws ran out at the same time, making a zuzu sound.

「…」

「…」

……This is awkward.

I don’t look at Sato-san’s face.

Have I never felt a moment this awkward before…?

Sato-san also must be feeling the same way, as she is fiddling with her drinking straw.

Her face… I won’t look at it.

It’s obviously unnatural, from her head down she’s facing the other way.

…I hated this.

I’m certainly, absolutely certain, I hated  this.

That’s very much what it is, with such a thing having occurred… [T/N: Oshio is referring to catching Sato-san in the last chapter]

Strangely, my body was growing cold; surely from the cold milk tea I drank, I guess.

「…」

…I’m such a coward.

It’s too late to be hating things such as this; although I understood that, I didn’t say anything.

I felt so sad that I didn’t want to be dislike anymore. This miserable feeling, with words that couldn’t leave my throat.

It was only a few words.

「Sato-san, about that, I’m sorry.」  were those words.

「Sa…」

I resolved myself and stiffened, something like a word tried working its way out of my throat. However, it stopped there as I gulped down those words.

Somehow.

That is, I saw Sato-san’s shoulder, shaking a bit.

「Sato-san…?」

「Osh…」

Sato-san’s shoulders stiffened suddenly as she called out my name. Sato-san… is crying?

「……I’m sorry, I really am…… I’m really sorry, you know, Oshio-kun…..」

Sato-san’s voice trembles, fraily putting together an apology..

「I…… as expected, it’s no good…… no matter what I do, it’s always a failure.」

The girl’s thin finger traced over the straw, making a sound.

「It’s no good, you know? I… especially Oshio-kun who is helping me as well, it’s the same with everyone, I can’t do it…… the tapioca milk, yet I can’t take even one picture, and drinking it…」

Her finger, tracing the straw, trembled, as her head looked slightly down.

At any moment, from her widened eyes tears would fall. At that time—

「Sato-san.」

My body was moving before I thought. I close the distance between us in one step, coming closer to Sato-san.

「E-eh, wait, Oshio-kun, now is…」

Sato-san tries to cover her face.

I take her hand, and lift the empty tapioca milk tea high up over her head.

「What… what is it…」

For the embarrassed girl, I take my other free hand and hold my smart phone.

Snap. [T/N: The actual sound effect was “pikon”.]

My smartphone makes an idiotic sound and cuts off the scene in front of me.

「……A bit ago, you said, it isn’t the milk tea itself, but the place of tapioca milk tea that matters.」

Sato-san looks at the smartphone’s display and lets out a small gasp.

There—Tea Pearl’s sign as the background, sun glittering through the middle of the ice, reflected in the transparent cup. 

「So pretty…」

Sato-san mutters in a dreamy state of mind.

I let out a laugh at her innocent reaction.

「Don’t put yourself down so much, I’m sure there are people who like Sato-san.」

「……There aren’t, you know.」

「There are. Absolutely, there are a lot.」

At least, here, there’s one. [T/N: My heart.]

「I don’t need a lot, you know… I, I only…」

Sato-san only says that much, something like a pained but brave expression on her face as she stops talking and ends it there.

In the middle of the silence, the sound of evening cicadas feels loud. Then, after a short while, Sato-san slowly opens her mouth.

「……This time, on Saturday.」

「Huh?」

「This time, on Saturday……」

She repeats herself one more time, taking a deep breath, and then turns to face this way.

「—th, this time on Saturday, I’m going out to eat rolled ice cream! I wonder if Oshio-kun wants to come along!」

She speaks quickly and turns her head away, rambling on either due to thinking she might be refused or out of embarrassment. It’s such a compelling wish that I can’t think of it as something you’d give to a friend. [Original sentence was それは友達に向けるものとは思えないほど、切実な願い。, but I couldn’t find a good way to translate it smoothly.]

She’s anxious, hopeless, isn’t she? Her thin shoulders are shaking a little bit.

When I saw such a thing, my chest tightened, however—

「……I’m sorry, that day, I have an errand to do.」

This time, what kind of face did Sato-san make? I couldn’t understand. But, one thing I knew for certain… her shoulders didn’t stop trembling.

「But, don’t worry. Sato-san can surely take a photograph in this way, even if I’m not there to help……」 [T/N: Even Oshio can’t believe what he’s saying lmao]

I had better stop there, I understood that. My mouth though, said those words again. From there, Sato-san suddenly raised her head, sweetly smiling back.

「……yes, I’m sorry, it was a little sudden, wasn’t it?」

The red sunset’s color dyed her smile that I saw at that time, and I memorized the crushing feeling in my chest that made me sick.

That smile…

Thus, in that state of mind, knowingly or unknowingly, Sato-san leapt up from the bench and then said—

「Thank you, Oshio-kun. Shall we go back?」

In the middle of the setting sun, Sato-san walked forward with a hop in her step, then looked back over her shoulder. That kind of thing was extremely beautiful, extremely fleeting, and then…

Sato-san and I exchanged goodbyes, and that was the end of it.

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