Chapter 31: The Day of the Summer Festival
The chapter begins with Taki's sister, Yuki, sleepily entering the kitchen and finding that Taki is obstructing the doorway. As she starts to ask him what he's doing there, she realizes that he's sitting on the floor with a clock he's disassembled. Taki explains that, even though the batteries work, the display isn't showing the time, so he thought he'd take a look inside... Yuki points out that disassembling it is one thing, but can he put it back together? He replies that he isn't generally interested in machines, but if he can disassemble it, he can probably put it back together. Yuki starts to think out loud, that it was a year or two ago... Something clicks, and she brings up when Mio came over. It felt like they were in a sensitive situation. Did they fight? Break up? She realizes from his reaction that she's right, and muses that when he feels down over a woman, he retreats into taking things apart. She sits down, and tells him she sees... She thought [Mio] seemed like a girl who could patiently go along at his pace, but she broke up with him, huh? Taki starts to reply, “Well, umm...” Shocked, Yuki says, “That's not it. Then, you dumped her!?” Looking away, Taki explains that he told her that she didn't have to force herself to stay with him, if she likes Marui.... He didn't intend to break up, but maybe that was a break-up? Yuki tells him she can't follow whatever that jumbled up mess he just told her was, so explain from the beginning. He tells her he doesn't want to, so she grabs him by the ear and demands again that he explain things to her.
The chapter cuts forward to after Taki has explained the situation to Yuki, and she summarizes, “So, because Mio-chan was unfaithful, you were unhappy and dumped her.” Taki replies that wasn't right at all, and Yuki gets frustrated. So, does that mean he thinks he got out of the way [of Mio getting together with Marui] for Mio's sake? She decides that must be the case from Taki's expression, and waves it off. That isn't true at all! Taki looks up, surprised, and Yuki breaks down what happened: Based on Taki's observations, Marui confessed to Mio; it looked like he was about to kiss her [when she feel on the stairs]; he heard him whisper that his chances with Mio weren't zero; and Mio was gazing down at a group of guys containing Marui from a window. Just from that, Mio loves Marui? What did Mio herself tell him? Taki starts to explain that she stayed quiet about the time it looked like Marui kissed her, and Yuki interrupts to point out that they were all part of the same group of friends. Mio was probably reluctant to do something that could cause problems for everyone. Taki puts his head down, and says, “I could tell... from how she was acting...” Yuki asks him what he's talking about; you can't tell what a person is thinking just by looking at them. Without really talking to them, you won't understand. It seems he's feigning that he broke up with Mio to get out of her way so she could be with Marui, but the truth is that he was afraid that if Mio-chan chose Marui and broke up with him, he would be hurt, right? He did it for his own sake. Because he didn't want to have his feelings hurt, he hurt her first and ran away. Taki doesn't respond, and Yuki continues. Might Mio really like Marui? By running away, it doesn't really have to be of any concern to him, but he should stop acting like he was being charitable by breaking up with Mio. Yuki crouches down next to him and asks, “So, from the way I'm acting, Nao-kun, can you tell what I'm thinking right now?” Taki replies, “Talk... to Mio?”
The scene changes to Mio arriving at the festival. She looks around for Yuni and Shii-chan, and concludes that she's arrived first (and that her shoes are a little uncomfortable). A person in the crowd who looks like Taki catches her eye, and Shii-chan and Yuni arrive as she turns to look. They greet each other and compliment the others' yukata, then Mio takes another look at the crowd. Shii-chan notices, and asks Mio if something's wrong. Mio waves it off; it's not like Taki would be there, anyway. When Mio looks up, she sees that Marui has arrived, and Shii-chan launches into an explanation of how she ran into him. She explains how right after their club activities ended, they talked about how there were fireworks and he should try to meet up with them. It was a total coincidence! Marui looks away in embarrassment, and Mio thinks that she'd better not say that Marui already talked to her about coming, given Shii's over explanation about how coincidental it was. (Side note: A google image search for “big fat dance hall” turns up pictures of a guy wearing the shirt Marui has on in this chapter.) Just as they're all about to move along together, some girls in the crowd call out to Yuni and Shii. They all greet each other, and question how long it's been since they've seen each other. Around last summer? Mio figures they must be friends from middle school. They mention that they saw some other friends around, and how much they've changed [since middle school]. Would Yuni and Shii like to come see them? Shii starts to agree, then looks back at Mio. Marui asks Shii if she wants to know if she can go, then turns to Mio and offers to look around the festival with her. Before Mio can respond, Shii and Yuni start to rush off. Shii apologizes, and says to message her to meet back up. She gives Marui a look, and it seems to dawn on him that they're leaving him alone with Mio.
Once the others are gone, Mio is flustered, thinking that when Marui said he might stop by on his way home from practice, she figured that everyone would be together. With just the two of them, it seems like she's on a date with Marui... She asks him if [he and Shii] planned on Yuni and her running off like that, and Marui says no. They guess that running into those girls was really a coincidence, since Shii didn't seem to be faking her reaction. Mio laughs about the story Shii told to explain how she ran into Marui, and he looks over at her. When he suddenly turns away, Mio asks him if something's wrong, and he tells her she looked really grown up and he felt a little embarrassed. Mio isn't sure what to do, and just responds that he looks that way because he was at practice, right? Those look like practice clothes. Marui tells her of course not; he hit the showers and changed. He sort of understood that the girl he likes would be wearing a yukata, but he's still not over his nervousness about whether or not it was all right to come in his sweaty, post-practice state. Mio blushes and turns away, mumbling, “I, I see...” and thinking that honestly, she still doesn't want to think about what's ahead. They decide to look around, for now. Mio thinks that, even though she turned him down when he confessed to her at the aquarium, he seems to be talking as if they'll be going out soon.
The chapter switches back to Taki, who is recalling what Yuki said to him before, about how he was afraid of being hurt if Mio chose Marui and so he ran away. As he starts up the stairs, an old woman recognizes him and tries to get his attention. When he doesn't seem to hear her, she grabs his shirt, and asks if he's a friend of the girl who's been searching for something around the area. She apologizes for suddenly approaching him, but she lives nearby and noticed the two of them. She talked to that girl before, and she thinks she found what she's been looking for. The woman reaches into her purse, and pulls out Mio's somewhat battered whale charm. Taki starts to ask where she found it, and she explains that the neighbor's dog is always collecting things, and it seems to have found Mio's charm. The woman tells him that [Mio] was looking for this every day, so she thought she'd give it to her as soon as possible, but she hasn't seen her since. Even on a Sunday, she thought she'd come... Taki just asks, “Everyday...?” and the woman tells him yes. If it had been her, she would have given up, but this must have been something precious [to Mio]. The woman smiles and wonders what beloved person must have given this to her. Hearing that, Taki recalls Yuki telling him he can't know the truth without talking about it, and his eyes well up. The woman hands him the charm, asking him to take it to Mio, and he starts running towards the festival.
Back at the festival, Mio is buying cotton candy, and Marui laughs. She looks over at him quizzically, and he says, “Didn't you eat that when we went flower viewing, too? You like it, huh?” Mio says that there's something about the preparation and the shape of it that looks fun. As they look around and play games at the festival, Mio recalls flower viewing. It was during spring break, and it's already been about four months since then, hasn't it? She sort of misses it... Everyone was happy that they'd advanced to the next year, and they had fun. The sakura blossoms were beautiful... But, at the time, Taki was acting a little strange. Mio recalls Taki saying that he wanted to be more reliable and cool, like Marui. She also remembers how, after that talk, he smiled brightly and said, “I love you.” Thinking back on that, Mio starts to cry, and Marui asks what's wrong. She tells him it's nothing – it's probably just from walking around in the heat. As she rests against some railing, she thinks there's no going back. A bit later, Marui returns with a strawberry ice for her to eat, and she stands up to take it from him. He tells her to sit back and relax, but she says she already feels better. He says that he'd also like to sit back and eat. Once they've settled, Marui looks at her shoes and asks her if her feet hurt. Should she take them off for now? She's impressed and asks how he knew, and he says, “Well, my past...” He stops himself and looks away, as Mio puts together it's from experience with his former girlfriends. Mio thinks that Marui really is a sweet guy. Right now, if there was a cute girl who only had eyes for him, to love and cherish him... That would be expected, even. Given that, should she be more or less taking advantage of his kindness? Mio gets up, and Marui questioningly calls her name. She tells him that having something cold made her feel much better, and he smiles. Mio thinks that she mustn't let it go on like this.
As they head back to the festival, a group of girls call out to Marui. Mio thinks that they're from classes 5 and 6. One of them tells Marui that they ran into Shii and the others, but he wasn't there and they figured he went home. He asks if they needed something, and they tell him it's not that, but the fireworks are about to start. Does he want to watch with them? He brushes them off, and says he's with Mio. One of the girls asks, “But isn't Ootaka-san just a friend?” He tells them that may be for now, but... Sorry, can they take the hint? The girls look pretty surprised as he walks off, and Mio yells after him. He offers to take their cups to the garbage, and as he does, Mio overhears the girls talking about how she pisses them off. She dumped her boyfriend to switch over to Marui!? Disgusting... Don't push your luck, dog! They laugh at her, and Marui returns, asking if they should find a spot to watch the fireworks. Mio doesn't respond, thinking that she's losing her nerve...
The chapter begins with Taki's sister, Yuki, sleepily entering the kitchen and finding that Taki is obstructing the doorway. As she starts to ask him what he's doing there, she realizes that he's sitting on the floor with a clock he's disassembled. Taki explains that, even though the batteries work, the display isn't showing the time, so he thought he'd take a look inside... Yuki points out that disassembling it is one thing, but can he put it back together? He replies that he isn't generally interested in machines, but if he can disassemble it, he can probably put it back together. Yuki starts to think out loud, that it was a year or two ago... Something clicks, and she brings up when Mio came over. It felt like they were in a sensitive situation. Did they fight? Break up? She realizes from his reaction that she's right, and muses that when he feels down over a woman, he retreats into taking things apart. She sits down, and tells him she sees... She thought [Mio] seemed like a girl who could patiently go along at his pace, but she broke up with him, huh? Taki starts to reply, “Well, umm...” Shocked, Yuki says, “That's not it. Then, you dumped her!?” Looking away, Taki explains that he told her that she didn't have to force herself to stay with him, if she likes Marui.... He didn't intend to break up, but maybe that was a break-up? Yuki tells him she can't follow whatever that jumbled up mess he just told her was, so explain from the beginning. He tells her he doesn't want to, so she grabs him by the ear and demands again that he explain things to her.
The chapter cuts forward to after Taki has explained the situation to Yuki, and she summarizes, “So, because Mio-chan was unfaithful, you were unhappy and dumped her.” Taki replies that wasn't right at all, and Yuki gets frustrated. So, does that mean he thinks he got out of the way [of Mio getting together with Marui] for Mio's sake? She decides that must be the case from Taki's expression, and waves it off. That isn't true at all! Taki looks up, surprised, and Yuki breaks down what happened: Based on Taki's observations, Marui confessed to Mio; it looked like he was about to kiss her [when she feel on the stairs]; he heard him whisper that his chances with Mio weren't zero; and Mio was gazing down at a group of guys containing Marui from a window. Just from that, Mio loves Marui? What did Mio herself tell him? Taki starts to explain that she stayed quiet about the time it looked like Marui kissed her, and Yuki interrupts to point out that they were all part of the same group of friends. Mio was probably reluctant to do something that could cause problems for everyone. Taki puts his head down, and says, “I could tell... from how she was acting...” Yuki asks him what he's talking about; you can't tell what a person is thinking just by looking at them. Without really talking to them, you won't understand. It seems he's feigning that he broke up with Mio to get out of her way so she could be with Marui, but the truth is that he was afraid that if Mio-chan chose Marui and broke up with him, he would be hurt, right? He did it for his own sake. Because he didn't want to have his feelings hurt, he hurt her first and ran away. Taki doesn't respond, and Yuki continues. Might Mio really like Marui? By running away, it doesn't really have to be of any concern to him, but he should stop acting like he was being charitable by breaking up with Mio. Yuki crouches down next to him and asks, “So, from the way I'm acting, Nao-kun, can you tell what I'm thinking right now?” Taki replies, “Talk... to Mio?”
The scene changes to Mio arriving at the festival. She looks around for Yuni and Shii-chan, and concludes that she's arrived first (and that her shoes are a little uncomfortable). A person in the crowd who looks like Taki catches her eye, and Shii-chan and Yuni arrive as she turns to look. They greet each other and compliment the others' yukata, then Mio takes another look at the crowd. Shii-chan notices, and asks Mio if something's wrong. Mio waves it off; it's not like Taki would be there, anyway. When Mio looks up, she sees that Marui has arrived, and Shii-chan launches into an explanation of how she ran into him. She explains how right after their club activities ended, they talked about how there were fireworks and he should try to meet up with them. It was a total coincidence! Marui looks away in embarrassment, and Mio thinks that she'd better not say that Marui already talked to her about coming, given Shii's over explanation about how coincidental it was. (Side note: A google image search for “big fat dance hall” turns up pictures of a guy wearing the shirt Marui has on in this chapter.) Just as they're all about to move along together, some girls in the crowd call out to Yuni and Shii. They all greet each other, and question how long it's been since they've seen each other. Around last summer? Mio figures they must be friends from middle school. They mention that they saw some other friends around, and how much they've changed [since middle school]. Would Yuni and Shii like to come see them? Shii starts to agree, then looks back at Mio. Marui asks Shii if she wants to know if she can go, then turns to Mio and offers to look around the festival with her. Before Mio can respond, Shii and Yuni start to rush off. Shii apologizes, and says to message her to meet back up. She gives Marui a look, and it seems to dawn on him that they're leaving him alone with Mio.
Once the others are gone, Mio is flustered, thinking that when Marui said he might stop by on his way home from practice, she figured that everyone would be together. With just the two of them, it seems like she's on a date with Marui... She asks him if [he and Shii] planned on Yuni and her running off like that, and Marui says no. They guess that running into those girls was really a coincidence, since Shii didn't seem to be faking her reaction. Mio laughs about the story Shii told to explain how she ran into Marui, and he looks over at her. When he suddenly turns away, Mio asks him if something's wrong, and he tells her she looked really grown up and he felt a little embarrassed. Mio isn't sure what to do, and just responds that he looks that way because he was at practice, right? Those look like practice clothes. Marui tells her of course not; he hit the showers and changed. He sort of understood that the girl he likes would be wearing a yukata, but he's still not over his nervousness about whether or not it was all right to come in his sweaty, post-practice state. Mio blushes and turns away, mumbling, “I, I see...” and thinking that honestly, she still doesn't want to think about what's ahead. They decide to look around, for now. Mio thinks that, even though she turned him down when he confessed to her at the aquarium, he seems to be talking as if they'll be going out soon.
The chapter switches back to Taki, who is recalling what Yuki said to him before, about how he was afraid of being hurt if Mio chose Marui and so he ran away. As he starts up the stairs, an old woman recognizes him and tries to get his attention. When he doesn't seem to hear her, she grabs his shirt, and asks if he's a friend of the girl who's been searching for something around the area. She apologizes for suddenly approaching him, but she lives nearby and noticed the two of them. She talked to that girl before, and she thinks she found what she's been looking for. The woman reaches into her purse, and pulls out Mio's somewhat battered whale charm. Taki starts to ask where she found it, and she explains that the neighbor's dog is always collecting things, and it seems to have found Mio's charm. The woman tells him that [Mio] was looking for this every day, so she thought she'd give it to her as soon as possible, but she hasn't seen her since. Even on a Sunday, she thought she'd come... Taki just asks, “Everyday...?” and the woman tells him yes. If it had been her, she would have given up, but this must have been something precious [to Mio]. The woman smiles and wonders what beloved person must have given this to her. Hearing that, Taki recalls Yuki telling him he can't know the truth without talking about it, and his eyes well up. The woman hands him the charm, asking him to take it to Mio, and he starts running towards the festival.
Back at the festival, Mio is buying cotton candy, and Marui laughs. She looks over at him quizzically, and he says, “Didn't you eat that when we went flower viewing, too? You like it, huh?” Mio says that there's something about the preparation and the shape of it that looks fun. As they look around and play games at the festival, Mio recalls flower viewing. It was during spring break, and it's already been about four months since then, hasn't it? She sort of misses it... Everyone was happy that they'd advanced to the next year, and they had fun. The sakura blossoms were beautiful... But, at the time, Taki was acting a little strange. Mio recalls Taki saying that he wanted to be more reliable and cool, like Marui. She also remembers how, after that talk, he smiled brightly and said, “I love you.” Thinking back on that, Mio starts to cry, and Marui asks what's wrong. She tells him it's nothing – it's probably just from walking around in the heat. As she rests against some railing, she thinks there's no going back. A bit later, Marui returns with a strawberry ice for her to eat, and she stands up to take it from him. He tells her to sit back and relax, but she says she already feels better. He says that he'd also like to sit back and eat. Once they've settled, Marui looks at her shoes and asks her if her feet hurt. Should she take them off for now? She's impressed and asks how he knew, and he says, “Well, my past...” He stops himself and looks away, as Mio puts together it's from experience with his former girlfriends. Mio thinks that Marui really is a sweet guy. Right now, if there was a cute girl who only had eyes for him, to love and cherish him... That would be expected, even. Given that, should she be more or less taking advantage of his kindness? Mio gets up, and Marui questioningly calls her name. She tells him that having something cold made her feel much better, and he smiles. Mio thinks that she mustn't let it go on like this.
As they head back to the festival, a group of girls call out to Marui. Mio thinks that they're from classes 5 and 6. One of them tells Marui that they ran into Shii and the others, but he wasn't there and they figured he went home. He asks if they needed something, and they tell him it's not that, but the fireworks are about to start. Does he want to watch with them? He brushes them off, and says he's with Mio. One of the girls asks, “But isn't Ootaka-san just a friend?” He tells them that may be for now, but... Sorry, can they take the hint? The girls look pretty surprised as he walks off, and Mio yells after him. He offers to take their cups to the garbage, and as he does, Mio overhears the girls talking about how she pisses them off. She dumped her boyfriend to switch over to Marui!? Disgusting... Don't push your luck, dog! They laugh at her, and Marui returns, asking if they should find a spot to watch the fireworks. Mio doesn't respond, thinking that she's losing her nerve...
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