Friday morning, Nearly two weeks later. Towa woke up very early today. Last night he got a message from Sumire that with all the encouraging signs, the hospital would finally discharge her from their care. So that night he's preparing her clothes, selecting the comfortable ones to pack into a small bag.

Before setting off to the hospital, Towa was looking at a small but very fancy looking paper bag sitting there on the table, he was pretty nervous about that one. Despite it being a relatively common illness, something did get to him during Sumire's hospital stay.

Perhaps it was from this exact anxiety that made Towa go shopping, and one set of items he bought may or may not pissed Sumire off, so he went and got something else that he imagined would calm her down, quite a lot.

Towa picked up the paper bag and the bag with Sumire's clothes, before setting off for the Mito Chuo Hospital in his white Roadster. It didn't take long for Towa to get there, perhaps 15-20 minutes at best even with traffic. The parking lot was still pretty clear at 8.30 AM. Towa then quickly rushed to the room where Sumire was staying with only her clothes bag in hand.

Sumire was already awake when Towa opened the door, and she was talking to her 'roommate', an old lady who's been staying in the same room for months due to prolonged illness. The lady was telling Sumire a story which Towa couldn't catch, but it did make her laugh despite being painful to do, so she was fighting not to laugh too hard.

"Good morning!" Sumire greeted Towa as he's opening the door, very cheerful.

"You're already coming to pick her up? I'll be lonely from now then..." That lady said in a jokingly wistful tone, which made Sumire laugh again and Towa a bit blushing.

"Miyagi-san told me this morning that she actually used to work in Otawara, isn't that where you're from?" Sumire told Towa, who was surprised.

"You worked in Otawara?" Towa asked the old lady, who nodded.

"For 35 years at Otawara High School, yes!"

"That's my old high school."

Both Sumire and Miyagi-san's eyes were widened by that statement from Towa. It was a coincidence none of them expected.

"That's amazing isn't it?" Sumire exclaimed.

"But he's too young to have been there during my time. I retired and came back here more than 20 years ago. My son and his wife have a tea plantation in Koibuchi." Miyagi-san continued, to which Towa could only sheepishly smile back.

Towa nodded along with whatever Miyagi-san had to say while he walked to Sumire's bed to hand her the clothing bag.

"Thank you." Sumire picked the bag up to open it and checked her clothes.

"Are you really going home? Is it still painful to walk around?" Miyagi-san kept asking out of kindness.

Sumire smiled and gave an okay sign back to Miyagi.

"I'll be fine, Miyagi-san. I hope you'll get out of this place soon as well." Sumire replied.

Then she picked up the bag and slowly got up from the bed, clearly still not able to move exactly as she wanted. Towa put his arm around her as a support. The nurse already came to remove her IV drips only a few minutes before Towa came in.

"Have you been walking like the doctor said?" Towa asked.

"Yeah. Otherwise I won't heal. I'm craving for sashimi and yakiniku right now but I can't have those for another week or so." Sumire replied calmly, but there's an annoyed tone while speaking about food.

Towa let Sumire go into the bathroom to change, so he walked back to the couch inside the patient's room.

"You don't sound like a Tochigi guy, you know that?" Miyagi-san gave her observation, to which Towa was a bit confused.

"Do I sound more Tochigi now?" Towa replied back, changing from his generic Kanto dialect into his native tone.

"You still sound like someone from Ibaraki more than Tochigi..."

"Eh?"

"You sound exactly like your girlfriend. You must've lived together for a long time, right?"

It was an absolutely correct observation made by the old lady, although in Towa's mind he's still hearing his own voice in Tochigi dialect.

"Are you a dialect detective or something?" Towa was genuinely amazed by Miyagi-san's observation.

"I've lived with an Ibaraki person nearly my whole life!" Miyagi-san laughed, "You two actually reminded me of myself when I was young. My husband had to move to Tochigi for work and we met there. Sumire-chan told you you moved here to be with her. How sweet huh?"

Towa was blushing at that thought, and he didn't realize how much Sumire was rambling about him during her stay with Miyagi-san. It made sense to him though because the hospital stay must've been boring as hell even if he tried to visit her every day.

"I've exchanged contact with Sumire-chan, I'll send you guys some of my son's tea when I get out of here." Miyagi-san continued.

Towa was thinking, hey now, are they getting to know each other this well during the short hospital stay? But Miyagi-san did tell good stories from time to time, and she seemed like a very kind old lady that he wouldn't mind Sumire keeping in touch with her.

Not long after, Sumire came out of the bathroom in her casual clothing, leaving the hospital attire behind. Towa quickly rushed to support her again, but Sumire could still walk, if a bit slowly, so she just smiled and waved her hand to tell him it's alright.

"Right, I have to go to the cashier next, right?" Sumire was wondering aloud, to which Towa nodded in reply.

"Should I call for the wheelchair?" Towa asked, Sumire shook her head again.

"I'll be fine. Walking more is better anyway." Sumire replied.

Sumire walked to Miyagi-san, who's looking at both of them and bowed down, even if she couldn't do it well due to pain from surgery.

"Thank you, Miyagi-san. I hope you get well soon." Sumire said, while Towa also bowed down after she said that.

"It's fine. I'll definitely send some tea to you!" Miyagi-san replied.

At that moment, the hospital room door opened again and made everybody turn to look who's coming in. It was a girl around the same age as Towa and Sumire. Short bob hair and wearing glasses, she's also wearing jeans and a simple t-shirt. Her appearance was tom-boyish and surprisingly rugged. Towa may have seen her once or twice, but Sumire had seen her pretty much every morning.

"Oh, Komiya-san is leaving now?" said the girl, looking surprised.

"Mimori-chan!" Miyagi-san said as soon as she saw her granddaughter there.

"Yes, Mimori-chan, I'm going home now." Sumire replied with a friendly smile.

"That's very good, innit?" Mimori said, holding a bag full of stuff for Miyagi-san, "Hope to see you two again someday."

Towa and Sumire bowed down one last time as a goodbye, before getting out of the room to go on with their day.

"Mimori-chan is cute, isn't she?" Sumire mused, as she's walking slowly down the corridor, Towa holding by her arm.

"Is that the girl who you said her boyfriend is in a band or something?" Towa eyebrows were frowning from wondering.

"That's the one. Miyagi-san kept grumbling about how her son doesn't approve of the relationship. She said the guy's extremely nice."

"Interesting, isn't it?"

"Not really, but oh well."

Sumire got to the cashier to sort out her insurance, which her work had provided and was extremely good insurance. She had to pay nearly nothing. Although it did take quite a bit of time to sort everything out correctly, Towa could only sit there and wait.

Once everything was completed, the cashier sent Sumire and Towa to another part of the room, where the nurse scheduled the next meetup to administer more medicine next week. Then soon after Sumire will have to come back again to remove the suture.

Now, she could go home, safe and sound, and everything was sorted.

Towa and Sumire walked out to the front of the hospital. She was ready to walk a bit to the Roadster in the car park.

"Just wait here, I'll drive to you, alright?" Towa stopped Sumire, who looked a bit perplexed, but then understood his concern and with her pace it'd be faster to drive around.

"Alright."

Sumire was contemplating if she should go and sat at the nearby bench, but decided against it because it's harder for her still to get up from it. Towa probably would get here in no time anyway. That was correct, the Roadster approached quickly.

Immediately, Sumire noticed something suspicious about it.

Sumire observed the white Roadster for a moment, while Towa was getting out to walk around and open the door for her.

"Is something wrong?" Towa asked, kinda knew he was in trouble at this point already.

"Have you done something to the Roadster?" Sumire asked back, very suspicious.

"Ehh..."

At this point, Towa was contemplating if he should tell the truth, since Sumire noticed extremely quickly that something was indeed different.

"Hmm." Sumire started getting in, slowly as any bending motion is painful to her, "It's your car anyway, I don't care."

Towa was a bit suspicious as to whether that comment meant he's got away with it or he's absolutely and royally screwed.

The Roadster started driving away from the hospital, and at the exit there's a bump on the road. Towa slowed down to go over it normally as he'd done the entire time of Sumire's stay.

"It IS different!" Sumire suddenly shouted as the Roadster went over the bump, "What have you done to this car, really?"

Yep, no way Towa could get away with that one, he had to come clean.

"Eh... I... changed the suspension and tires." Towa replied truthfully, although not the full truth as he'd done more to it than that.

"Ah, that's why." Sumire calmed down quite a lot after Towa admitted to it, this made him a bit more relieved. She didn't say anything further.

Towa was driving way more carefully than usual, both because Sumire was not fully healed yet, and also because he wasn't sure if he's still on thin ice. Sometimes Sumire didn't express her true emotion out to him, which scared him a bit.

"It seems more stable, isn't it?" Sumire suddenly commented, but this time it surprised Towa quite a lot.

"Really? You felt it?" Towa asked for elaboration.

"Yeah. It doesn't... I guess... Move as much?"

"Right?" Towa excitedly told Sumire, "It doesn't have a secondary motion like before, right?"

"Secondary motion? I don't understand what you're saying at all!" Sumire laughed, which made Towa laugh too but a bit nervously

It seemed that Towa did indeed get away with it, right up until he got to the first traffic light, and he was braking to stop, the loud squealing noise piercing both their ears.

"Are your brakes working correctly?" Sumire asked with a concerned tone.

"They are, don't worry about it."

After that, the drive home was uneventful throughout.

Towa parked the Roadster at the designated spot outside their apartment, like usual. Towa was going to get out immediately to open the door, but Sumire pulled him by the arm.

"Hey. Towa-chan." Sumire said, her voice was clearly showing displeasure that made Towa absolutely scared again.

"What is it?" Towa asked, shaking voice.

"Well..." Sumire paused to contemplate, but decided to go ahead, "I don't mind you spending money on things you like, okay? What I don't like is you being cagey about it, acting like you've done nothing and that I would not know."

Shit shit shit, this was very bad, was what was going through Towa's mind.

"Sorry." Towa said with a low, guilty voice, almost murmuring.

"Don't worry about it." Sumire smiled, trying to show that she's not that angry, yet.

Towa was now thinking about the paper bag which he put in the center console compartment behind the seat, and he decided that maybe it isn't the best time to bring that out yet. He definitely didn't want Sumire to know he'd just blown 800,000 yen of his savings in a span of a few days.

Oh well.

—

The yellow Swift Sport of Norio Hattori came in pretty hot into the driveway of his house, kicking up the dirt from the wheels much more than usual, and it stopped abruptly besides the small truck his mother usually used.

His mother, like she usually did in the evening, was preparing dinner in the kitchen. But the noise from the outside today disturbed her enough to come and peek through the front window. By that time nothing much could be seen. The bright yellow car was in the usual spot, and Norio hadn't got out yet.

Norio's mom was a bit worried, but without knowing what or why it happened, she couldn't do anything other than going back and preparing dinner.

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Norio indeed wasn't doing anything in the car. He's just sitting there looking aimlessly, not at his phone, not to the field of cauliflower which was the nearest to the house.

If you ask him right now, he didn't know the answer either as to why he's pissed off about something. It's weird. It's probably the stress from work. Thinking back was there even any particular reason as to why he's like this? Even Norio himself doesn't really know and couldn't recall anything.

After 20 minutes, Norio got out of his car and walked into the house.

"I'm home." Norio announced, trying to sound as normal as can be.

Norio walked into the kitchen, seeing his mother still preparing food.

"How was work today?" Norio's mom asked, like usual.

"It was fine." Norio answered.

Even if Norio's saying it's fine, his mom knew that it was not. From the tone and the expression, Norio was clearly upset about something.

Norio did start helping prepare the dinner for both of them, preparing the dishes and getting some rice from the cooker to put on the table. Not long after, his mom followed with the rest of the food. She noticed Norio was still tense.

"Thanks for the food." Norio said, almost a whisper, before started eating.

His mother was also eating at the same time, but her mind was more worried about Norio, but she wasn't sure if she should try to find out the true reason for his clear gloominess today.

"This weekend, are you free?" This question from his mom made Norio a bit afraid again. He's wondering what his mother got in plan this time.

"I probably will be, yes." Norio couldn't give any excuses.

His mother was clearly nervous about what she's saying, this actually made Norio nervous by proxy as it's probably something she has doubts about.

"Well an old friend of mine, Sayori, is visiting." Norio's mom started explaining.

Sayori? There's a few of his mother's friends that have that name. He's had an inkling as to which one that is.

"Sayori Aochi?" Norio asked, to which his mother excitedly nodded.

"That's the one! She's coming down from Hitachi." Norio's mom replied.

"Does Marina-chan happen to be with her on that day as well?"

"Funny you should say that..."

Norio immediately smashed the table with his palm quite hard, which shook his mother to the core with how unexpected that was.

"I'm finished!" Norio shouted, jolting up from the chair.

"I'm sorry, if you don't want to go you don't have to!" His mom pleaded.

"We've been here before right?! I told you I'm fine. I don't need this arranged dating crap from you! Why are you doing this anyway when I've told you time and time again?"

Norio's mother started crying, which made Norio tears rolling down as a result.

"Norio, you're 32 this year. Never once have you mentioned anyone. You have a well paid job, but you're miserable all the time. I just want you to have a life more than... whatever you have." Norio's mom was fighting the tears that keep coming as she's saying.

"I'm happy with where I am, mom, don't worry about my life."

"Just quit your job, come back and help me with the farm, and find someone that makes you happy, can't you do that?"

Norio's grinding his teeth at the thought. He really didn't need his mother meddling in his life like this, especially as she'd said, he's already 32 with a stable job. Why was she pleading with him to come back and work on his father's farm again?

The father's farm that he hated growing up. It's suffocating. There's a reason why he decided to fucked off to Shizuoka for more a decade before he came back, and right now, he's thinking if he could revert time, he wouldn't accept the invitation to come back home at all.

Although even he himself didn't realize in the heat of the moment, that retrospectively maybe it wasn't entirely by choice.

Without his mother being able to stop. Norio stormed out of the house, picking up his Swift key, and drove off immediately without even knowing where he's going. He knew only one thing, and that he wanted to get away from there.

Who was there for him to call in the moment like this? No one. He's truly alone in this shitty life he never wanted to choose, but was forced to, like everything was forced onto him all life long.

Well, maybe, there's one person he could call. A person on top of the phone directory on the Swift Sport infotainment screen.

Iori Yamada.

"Hello?" Iori greeted him, she seemed to be in some quiet place, probably already home.

"Yamada-san, are you free tonight?" Norio asked in a curt tone.

Iori thought that it's too early for a run on the Fruits Line, there's something weird about this.

"Ehhh? Well. Give me a sec."

Iori then went quiet for a moment, Norio didn't know what she's doing exactly, but it probably involved her husband, Masayoshi.

"Yeah, as long as I don't get home later than 10PM... Wait." Iori came back, but she went a bit quieter, although not completely muted this time, clearly speaking to Masayoshi, "What if I take the N-One?"

"The N-One? Oh fine. I just don't want to get awakened by the noise of your car at 2AM."

Norio could hear Masayoshi speaking with Iori, albeit from quite a way away, but clear enough for him to hear it as well.

"Yeah I could go, but I'm not going to run tonight, is that alright?" Iori came back to Norio fully and asked him.

"It's fine... I just need to... Yeah. Talk."

"Right. Where?"

"Famimart in Oshito."

"Okay, so do I have to go now or...?"

"It's okay. Just come when you can. If you don't see me I'm probably coming back from the run so I'll be there in 10 minutes at most."

"Isn't it too early for a run?"

Norio glanced at the car clock, it's 8 PM and a bit.

"Nope. Probably all clear now." Norio was clearly rushing. He hadn't even checked if the police would be present tonight via the Geo Timer app.

"Alright. See ya."

Norio got to the FamilyMart parking lot at 8.30 PM, and the traffic was clearing up now so up on the mountain there's likely not to be any car, especially on Friday when most people are at home or out somewhere. There were some cars in the parking lot but all of them were normal cars.

If there's going to be other racers on the Fruits Line, they're likely to get here after 10 PM, and he very much would like any of them, especially Geo Timer users, to appear. He wanted to battle someone with all this emotion brewing.

Norio got into FamilyMart and ordered a pack of Winston Red and BIC lighter. The same cigarette he'd smoked before when he was still in Shizuoka, but stopped a while after he got out of University. He couldn't even remember what made him quit as it was so long ago. Smoking in public was illegal now, but Norio didn't care one bit. It's the countryside, who's gonna stop him?

Not long after, a car turned into the parking lot. A cream Honda N-One with black roof. Norio didn't notice it at first, except for the fact that it drives in more briskly than usual small car and it parked right next to his Swift Sport. His suspicion was indeed proven true when Iori stepped out of the silly looking car and started looking for him. She's still in her work clothing, business shirt and black pencil skirt, she's wearing a camel color overcoat because it's starting to get chilly at night.

Iori turned around to find Norio, and noticed him smoking a cigarette around the building, he quickly dropped it and ran to her.

"Is everything okay?" Iori immediately asked.

"An N-One? Is that your daily car?" Norio tried to appear to hold his laughter in.

Although it didn't work. Iori could clearly see his eyes were still bloodshot to hell and it's clear that the façade of trying to appear normal was breaking with every passing second.

"You didn't come here just to mock Masayoshi's car. What's wrong?" Iori asked again, wanting Norio to be honest.

"I got into a bit of a row with my mom..." Norio admitted it, choking as he's trying to say, "silly stuff, when I think about it."

To be honest, Iori was extremely surprised considering how she imagined Norio as a very sensible and stable person from what she'd seen. It's almost weird to think, but she didn't imagine him to be a person who's easily broken by simple things.

"I'm sorry," Norio continued, "I just needed to see someone, anyone, and I didn't know anyone else."

"It's alright." Iori said, understandingly, "It's nice to get some mountain air right?"

Iori had seen something like this before, but it's with her teenage students. Sometimes with stress they could do unpredictable things like this, or lashed out at people around them, and even if most don't want to admit it, even adults can get emotional like this sometimes and they need a getaway.

"Do you want to go up the mountains?" Iori asked, a bit nervously considering the state of Norio's mind.

"Yeah," Norio replied, "but I don't want to drive right now."

"I can drive you if you want. It's okay."

At that point, Norio held his hand out to Iori, in his palm was the key to his yellow Suzuki Swift Sport.

"Eh?" Iori was confused by this gesture, as she meant in the N-One.

"You can drive my car." Norio kept holding out the Swift key.

Iori considered it for a moment, she's not only wondering why, but also if she should. Should she drive Norio's car for him?

"I want to see you driving. I want to know what you think." Norio explained, which Iori understood but still had reservations about.

"On one condition, if that's okay with you." Iori said, holding her arm out but not taking the key just yet.

"Sure."

"I'm not going to hold back. I will go full speed. If that's alright then okay."

Norio chuckled a bit, and put the key in Iori's hand himself.

Iori was still a bit nervous, but on the way up the mountain, she would get to feel the Swift first hand with Norio in the passenger seat. Not going too fast yet as there's no point.

Immediately after turning out of the parking lot, the feel of the Swift was completely different to her FN2, mainly the steering which felt extremely light and made the car feel extremely agile, more so than her car. Another thing was that the steering didn't fight when turning in tight space, and the clutch was extremely light also, comparatively to the red Honda she's used to, this car was very easy to drive normally.

Iori was wondering something though, now that she's thinking about it for a while.

"Why did you start street racing?" Iori asked, to which Norio didn't answer immediately.

"Hmm..." Norio contemplated, before replying, "to be honest, it was a really long time ago I couldn't recall exactly."

"But you must've been influenced by something, right?"

"Yeah. It was during my University days in Shizuoka. That must've been what? 2010?"

"Why did you move to Shizuoka anyway? Aren't you from Mito?"

"Isn't it like asking why you moved here from Osaka?"

"Yeah, I moved up here because I got into Tokyo U and met Masayoshi so I settled. What's your reason?"

Norio went quiet for a moment, but he continued.

"I didn't like it here. I wanted to get away from my dad. He was judgmental." Norio replied with surprising composure compared to before.

Again, this was something Iori got to hear from time to time about her students. So she's very understanding even if Norio didn't go into details.

"I bought a used Swift there. A yellow ZC31S. I loved that car. I loved driving it. That's why I got a ZC33S when it died." Norio continued explaining, although it didn't really answer Iori's question.

"Yeah, but, was someone close to you like cars or racing?" Iori asked again, more clearly this time.

"Well... Maybe a friend here or there."

"You have many car friends then?"

"Well... Not really, and I haven't really talked to any of the people in Shizuoka since I've moved back."

The way Norio was saying this, made Iori wonder about many things. Like, why did he move back here if he didn't have any reason to?

Iori didn't ask any more questions after that. Because the car was now approaching the Prefectural Flower Park sign.

"Your phone, or mine?" Iori turned to Norio and asked.

"Your phone would be logical, isn't it? The meat behind the wheel is more important than the machinery, right?" Norio replied.

"Well... I find that cliched as hell. A good driver in a shit car wouldn't be fast down here."

"You think so?"

Iori didn't say anything, she pulled out her phone from the coat pocket, went into the Geo Timer app, and set up everything ready for a run.

The countdown started, and the engine revs went up, the noise wasn't exactly awe inspiring like her FN2, but that shouldn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Once the countdown reaches zero, and the timer started, the small yellow Hatchback launched away down the Fruits Line south section.

It's an odd sensation to have, sitting in the passenger seat of your own car, being driven by someone who you didn't really know all that well. They just met a few weeks back. Somehow, Norio had enough trust in Iori's ability to let her do it.

Norio was surprised by how smooth Iori was. It's almost as if she didn't fight the steering at all. There was very little correction happening as she inputs the steering wheel way less than he does.

As the Swift tried to get out of the corner, however, Iori pushed the accelerator pedal way too early, and too much, making the front wheels break traction and understeer out a little bit.

"Hmmm." Iori hummed, as she controlled the car around the second corner, like she was contemplating a lot about it, but didn't say anything yet.

Norio didn't say anything either. He just observed. The only trait he's good at.

Once the Swift approached the finishing line, the result came in. 2:23.1. Not a bad time for someone who'd never driven this car before.

"That's pretty good," Iori mused, "the low end torque is excellent, although the traction is limited on exit, and turn in is poor on deceleration."

"You're just used to your fancy 2-way LSD! This car has only Helical LSD. It's ineffective if there's no throttle input." Norio replied back explaining.

"Right. It's incredible huh. A 2-million yen car with a million yen in modifications..."

"That sounds about right."

"You know how much I actually spent on the Civic?"

"I wouldn't have a clue."

"Well... I didn't spend all of it. My dad did for the majority." Iori started, but then paused as she's a bit embarrassed by this, "At this point it's probably closer to 5 million just for the mods."

The amount shocked Norio so much he couldn't say anything for a whole minute and stared at Iori. 5 million yen?! Granted, it's an extremely nicely tuned car at this point, but that much? He wouldn't dream of dumping that much in anything other than maybe a house renovation.

Iori drove the car gently back to FamilyMart, where her N-One was still parked.

"Well, thanks for giving me the opportunity." Iori smiled and handed over the key, which was in the cup holder, back to Norio.

"It's my pleasure. It's great to see how differently you drive from me."

"You know," Iori continued, "I didn't imagine you to be someone like this when I first saw you."

"What do you mean?" Norio asked with raised eyebrows.

"Well. I thought you'd be a train or idol geek or something. Someone with disposable income and no life. You couldn't even speak to Isao properly."

That comment did make Norio laugh out loud. It's too forthright, but completely true he couldn't deny it at all.

"Well, cars bring people together, isn't that something old farts would say?" said Norio, to which Iori also chuckled.

Iori noticed that it's clear Norio was much calmer than before, which made her quite relieved.

"I have to say sorry to my mom. I actually stormed off." Norio continued, and it made Iori's eyes widened.

"It was that bad?" Iori was quite surprised to hear that.

"Yeah," Norio was hesitating if he should go into the details, as he's thinking it's a bit stupid, "well. My mother is pretty old fashioned right? So she's always asking me to quit my job and continue the family business. Preferably with a wife so I could settle down. She kept trying to set me up on a date."

Huh. That's not what Iori expected to hear at all. It did seem like a pretty difficult situation, but she's never been on the same boat. Maybe some people are still like that these days?

"Why did you move back from Shizuoka, if you don't mind me asking?" Iori asked. Norio eyebrows raised.

"Eh... well..." Norio thought back to when his father passed, "my father died in September 2019. My mother asked me if I wanted to come back, so I did."

"Leaving the place you've been staying for a decade?"

"Yeah."

Iori was suspecting something from the way Norio's retelling this story. There's something he's not revealing, although she wasn't sure if she should ask about it.

"What was your job before you moved back?" Iori decided to ask something less direct instead.

"Huh? My job? Uh... I worked for a trading company... You probably have never heard of the name."

"Which department?"

"I worked in agricultural export, why do you ask?"

"It's weird for you to go into university administration isn't it?" Iori got more curious as Norio revealed his past.

"Well it was by chance, to be honest. They had an opening."

It's very unusual, Iori thought, why was he so adamant about returning if he didn't really want to? He'd been away for ages. It's almost like Norio tried to run away from something.

"Did something happen in Shizuoka?" That question from Iori made Norio go completely quiet.

Iori was still observing him, seeing if he's going to go into a rage like with his mother or not. It did make her a bit nervous again, but he didn't. He just stay quiet. This pretty much confirmed to Iori that something did indeed happen in Shizuoka that Norio's not telling, because he didn't trust her, and it surely was something even his mother didn't know, or something that didn't travel through to Kanto.

"It's fine if you don't want to tell me. I don't know you well enough to give any advice." Iori continued, "But you know... If there's anything I could do, I would be glad to help."

"I appreciate that." Norio replied, he was appreciative of that offer.

One thought kept cropping up in Iori's mind though, ever since he first met Norio. She didn't know why at first, but it's there. Once she heard about the issue today that made Norio stormed off, a more concrete guess came up.

As a young, attractive female, she's obviously wary to be around any stranger male, of course it couldn't be helped. She's savvy enough to know what situation she should, or shouldn't be. Being in a car, at night, in the quiet countryside with a sad, slightly older man, was not something she usually would be willing to do even if someone paid ten million yen.

Somehow, with Norio, that feeling wasn't there. At all.

Iori wasn't even sure, and she didn't know how to approach this either. She's had an inkling, a pretty good inkling at that, from the way he's acting sometimes, maybe, along with the fact that someone like him would turn down a set up date, even by his mother.

"Ever been to Minamimachi?" Iori suddenly asked, which made Norio completely befuddled.

"Minamimachi? Central Mito City?" Norio asked back, very confused about it.

"Yeah."

"Huh?"

"Oh I'm just trying to recall something, there's a kimono shop in that area..."

"What are you talking about?"

Norio didn't have a clue at that point, until it clicked. Yes, he's been there before. Not often, but yes.

"Hah? How did you know?!" Norio immediately went full red, which actually was kinda funny to Iori, she couldn't help but chuckle.

"Well, don't ask, it's a long story." Iori patted Norio's shoulder while saying that.

"I mean, how did you know... about me?"

"There's nothing wrong with it, isn't it? It's 2024." Iori couldn't help but chuckle.

"Is it that obvious?" Norio's really flustered at the moment, because of how subtle and unexpected the question was.

"Well, not at all."

Even if Iori did confirm that Norio was indeed, 100% gay. It didn't really answer why he moved back to Ibaraki after spending a lot of time in Shizuoka.

"Are you a wizard or something? Even my mother doesn't know that." Norio was both amazed and confused, his mind was pretty blown at this point.

"Well... being a teacher, you need to be observant, okay?" Iori replied.

Norio couldn't help but laugh along with Iori. It's silly that he got out of the closet with the only person he considered a friend in Ibaraki this way.

And yet, that thought made him think back to Hamamatsu again, which made him sad, but he conceded that there's nothing he could do. But was it really? Was running away the right decision at the time?

It's a 5 hour drive, quicker if you take some liberty with the speed limit.

Iori then glanced at the clock, it was 10 PM now, and both her house and Norio were quite a distance away from where they were.

"It's getting a bit late. We should go home. You definitely have to." Iori said.

"Oh right, yeah." Norio agreed, "Sorry for bringing you out here."

"Don't worry about it!"

"Thanks again for listening to me. Maybe I should treat you to dinner or something?"

"A date? I thought you were gay."

"Pfffff" Norio couldn't hold his laugh as soon as that comment hit, "It's not a date!"

"Well, if you insist... Just message me whenever you want, okay?"

They might be strangers a few weeks back, but somehow, after 5 years of solitude, Norio found someone who he could confide his worries to without fear. And it came up in the most unexpected way.

Yet, it did make Norio realize that maybe this town wasn't as bad as he's been led to believe...