20th Piece — The Story of Unrequited Love

This one’s still from Rinka’s perspective. But wow, a lot of you guys thought that Rinka was going to hop on the Oshio train. Let’s see if that’s the case, haha.

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「Thank goodness—can you stand?」

Saying that, he reached out with his hand.
It was white, thin, and slender, completely like a girl’s, however if you look, you can tell it’s clearly a guy’s, that sort of hand.

「Y, yes……」

I, not understanding what I was doing, stand up after taking his extended hand.

—for the first time, I noticed that asphalt was rubbed into his right arm, and he was in a terrible state.
Such things like blood that was running, thin skin that is curled up like lint, were painful to look at.
However, it was completely like he didn’t experience any pain…

「Sorry, it’s because I pushed quite vigorously…… is there anywhere that hurts?」

「Eh, no…… I, rather than me…… that……」

It’s impossible to be worried about myself, I thought, mumbling ambiguous words, but my eyes were glued to his arm.
He slowly looked over—surprisingly, there he finally noticed the terrible spectacle of his arm.

「Uwaa, disgusting…… ah, but, it’s okay, it doesn’t hurt as much as it looks.」

Saying that, he smiled at me.
The truth, you don’t have room to worry about people and yet, to bring me peace of mind, laughed—

「—Rinka-chan!」

「Waa!?」

Suddenly, I was embraced from behind.
I was confused and then looked, seeing Koharu incessantly pushing herself onto me. [TN: Literally “pressed her face onto me.”]

「Ko, koharu……!?」

「I’m sorry, I’m really sorry, you know…… I, I was so scared that I couldn’t move……! I’m glad, I’m so happy…… thank you so much, Ojio-kun……!」 [T/N: Yep, Sato blubbering again for a mispronunciation.]

「No, it’s only a little…… Koharu! Instead of me, it’s him……!」

「—really, I’m fine, you know, there’s no injury.」

He made light of his injuries, using his words to cover it up.
I was surprised to see this gentleman, as he secretly concealed his right arm’s injury, then as if it was nothing at all, was smiling.

With this series of actions, I immediately understood his intentions, however to that extent…… at that time I tried to raise my voice and say it shouldn’t be like that.

「Are the two of you okay!?」

Late, Mayo-san comes running to us.
Mayo-san is the only one of us who was able to calmly overlook the situation, it seems.
Confirming that I didn’t have any injuries with a glance, she immediately turned towards the gentleman.
At the last moment, he hid his injured arm while saying such things as—

「I’m okay.」

—while smiling.
Mayo-san looked at his appearance, then she froze up for a moment, but immediately her usual gentle smile appeared on her face. 

「—I see, that’s good, but the dust has made your face all dirty. Over there is the shop I work at, but at the very least, we can wash your face in the back?」

「……Thank you very much, I humbly accept your offer.」 [T/N: The vocab Oshio uses here is very formal in Japanese, so I tried to convey that here.]

「Yes, then, let’s go, Rinka-chan and Koharu, you too.」

「H…… ugu…… y, yes……!」 [T/N: The raw doesn’t have much either, it’s just a bunch of hiragana that doesn’t form a lot, so I got nothing.]

「My, my, we’ll have to wipe your face, Koharu-chan, I’ll lend you a towel.」 

Mayo-san lightly stroked the sobbing Koharu’s face while saying 「there, there」 as she guided us to “hidamari”.

An uncertain feeling was starting to gather in my chest.
I don’t know what I should do, I feel like crying like a baby.

「What’s wrong, Rinka-chan? Come along, quickly.」

「…..Ma, Mayo-san…… I……」

I finally can’t stand it, and then when I try to complain, Mayo-san comes close to my ear,

「……try to understand his feelings.」

「……!」

Mayo-san sweetly smiled.
As expected, Mayo-san understood everything—

「Rinka-chan, truly, thank you.」

Saying that, she looked down at the potted plant held with her left arm.

—I’m not so different! [T/N: This one’s hard to translate, the raw is more like “Different, I’m not!”]
I, as much as him, thoughtlessly rushed out and caused trouble!
Because of me, I not only hindered the mood between the two of them, but Koharu’s first love has such a terrible wound……!
The one to blame, greatly and unsparingly, to shout angrily at……!

It was obvious to me that it was no good, but my sobbing leaked out.
In an uncontrollable whirlpool of emotions, despite trying to act like an adult to that much, I realized ultimately that it couldn’t be helped, I could assuredly say I was still a child.
My field of vision blurred and my chest tightened.

I remember the memory of the first time I lost sight of my parents when I was a young child.
Something like that, it couldn’t be helped, inside my chest was a feeling of hopelessness, so much it felt like it was going to burst.
Ahhh, this isn’t good, I’m at my limit—

At that time, a hand was placed on my shoulder.

「Eh……?」

A pretty hand.
I turn my head to look over my shoulder, and there is his figure.
He, in a different tone than not long ago, said.

「Rinka-chan…… right? Sato-san’s sister, right? Maa…… at any rate, thank you, for not saying anything to Sato-san about my arm’s injury.」[T/N: Yep, this is also intentional, makes sense since Oshio wouldn’t know, but just in case you were curious this isn’t a mistranslation.]

Receiving those words, the terribly miserable feeling I was shouldering came to an end.
After all, that’s it, right? I don’t have such things like the capability to be thankful for being blamed.

「N, no, wrong, that’s wrong, re, really, thank you, I, um……」

In front of his painful-to-look-at right arm, already my honest words won’t come out.
Incessantly, it’s shameful, it’s shameful……
Again, the corner of my eye becomes hot.

To my current state, he first looked down at me strangely, and before long, he sweetly smiled,

「As for the time people do something for you…」

「Eh?」

At that sudden prompt, my thoughts froze.
He, slowly crouching, and our gazes were now at a similar height once again.

「The time you people do something for you, what do you say?」 

His smile was mysterious.
Somehow, by looking at it, my heart calmed down.

「Eh, um…… thank you, very, much…….?」

「Yep, don’t mention it, by the way for me, to you, there’s one more thing I have to thank you for.」

「What is it……?」

「Thank you for making me look good, in front of Sato-san, I absolutely don’t want to show her anything uncool.」

Saying that, he ruffled my hair like I was a child.

Normally, it should be a scene where you spit out abusive language such as, 「To the hair I went through great troubles to style, my goodness, your fat hand is rubbing against it, you misunderstanding guy, how filthy.」 [T/N: Translating this made me have to take a 10 minute break from how pesky it was to translate.]
……It’s supposed to happen……
It’s supposed to happen, and yet……

「Well, I’m also going, so some other time.」

He, finally saying that, then inhaled and went towards “hidamari”.
In the end, not even once did his smile fade. [T/N: The verb used here is “destroy” or “change”, but “smile change” doesn’t fit what the general feeling is as well.]

I also immediately had to return to “hidamari”, but my feet wouldn’t move.
Instead of that, finally I noticed my heartbeat was unusually noisy……

「Haa!?」

I felt myself slap my cheeks.
I was having a terrible fever.

「No, eh, it’s a lie, it’s a lie, it’s a lie!?」 [T/N: OH NO RINKA DON’T DO IT]

The throbbing is crazy, my thoughts aren’t coherent, that smile just now, doesn’t go away at all.

「It’s wrong, it’s wrong, it’s wrong, it’s wrong, because!!」

I immediately crouched to silence my body, which was noisily making such a claim to that extent.

It’s impossible to admit, absolutely it’s impossible to admit.
After all…

「I, towards Koharu’s first love……!?」

I had a feeling that if I said anything beyond that point, I can’t turn back, and with that being the case, I let out a groan of 「Uuuuu!」, and for the sake of overwriting that sensation I crumpled and stirred up my hair.

Sudou Rinka.
—as for this, this is the first page of the start of my unrequited love I never reach.

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Oh no here we go. Rinka don’t do it, oh no she’s got airpods in—!

I realized what was about to happen around that Translator Note where I yelled 「don’t do it, Rinka」, though that feeling was settling in around when Rinka’s heartbeat was unusually noisy. It only took a few more lines for it to settle in. Heroine Number Two Getto!

This chapter was pretty fun to translate, same for the next one. I’m slowly getting better at getting ahead on translations, so I’m hoping we might be able to go weekly around the April timeframe. No promises.

I also was looking into another novel to translate, but no luck so far. I did want to say though, that if I pick up a new novel, that it will not affect the pace of this one. I think I’d rather make it that this one stays bi-weekly or weekly, and the other novel would start off as monthly as not to overload myself. I still have work, after all. If you have any suggestions for a new one to translate, feel free to toss them in the comments. Personally I’d be looking for more slice of life ones, and recently I’ve been binging Reika-sama. It’s so hard to stay focused at work when I’m reading it lmao

Anyways, I hope you guys are continuing to enjoy this story! See you all next time!

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