Okaeri Saotome-san Chapter 29

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TL: This chapter is quite small, so I might release an extra chapter over the weekend.

Welcoming Saotome-san back

Saotome-san’s perspective

「After a long while I am feeling really tired today…..」

Once the elevator opened, seeing the usual corridor to my apartment I couldn’t stop myself from letting out a sigh.

It’s finally over.

Moderating and adjusting the workload, schedule and the number of people involved. I finally managed to bring the situation under control using every single one of my skills and connections to the maximum.

I have even devised a contingency plan, so the same mistake shouldn’t repeat again. Both the companies should now be able to get a satisfying return from the transaction.

Doing that much and coming back home, my legs feel like lead.

「Once I return, I will report to Matsutomo-san, apologise to Murasaki-san and Tsuchiya-san and then…. I guess it will only be till there」

With that it will come to an end.

It will really end.

「Will they get angry. I wonder if they will get mad at me」

Both Tsuchiya-san and Mursaki-san.

Matsutomo-san apart, I just got to know the other two but, I can tell that they are very nice people.

Once I apologise they will definitely forgive me and say it’s alright.

I am scared of that.

Even though they say that it’s alright, they will definitely have some anger and resentment in their hearts. That negative feeling would gradually accumulate. After that, there will come a day when it falls upon me in its entirety.

I mean even someone like Mika-chan whom I knew for four years did something like that and separated from me.

That’s why, I should break away by myself earlier and end it as soon as possible. That should be my responsibility as well as the correct thing to do. I did what I did and I don’t have any intentions of making excuses or justifying my actions.

What was disturbed would go back to normal. That’s all.

「Ah…….」

Burdened with such thoughts I reach in front of the No. 603. Just across No. 605, whose owner has been taken into my house is completely still and silent.

“Ding-Dong”

Once I ring the intercom, I could hear the sound of someone opening the lock.

Placing my hands on the door knob, I slightly open the door and peek inside. There isn’t much of a meaning behind this. It’s just that the memory of living by myself for so long, involuntarily induces anxiety and leads me to think that there is no one inside.

「Matsutomo-san…?」

Not in.

He opened the door, so it’s not possible that he is not here. But, there is no indication of anyone being present.

Instead, there is pure white fox plush that has been made to sit on the wooden flooring of the corridor. Looking small and cute as if greeting people.

「Why is Fubuki here…..」

No.

It’s not Fubuki, and not Fuu-chan.

「But then, this should be, should be」

I flung my shoes away and took the plush toy in my hands.

It has a form.

I can feel it’s weight.

This is not an illusion.

「『Saotome Mio』…..」

The letters written on its back scattered any notion of the obvious answer of it being a different toy of the same model. Without a mistake these are the letters that I wrote imitating others when I was five years old.

It can’t be. But there is no other possibility.

「Aa-chan……?」

Unable to believe it, I grasped it tightly. I felt something hard inside it’s stomach. Then I remembered, Aa-chan was a talking plush toy.

I thought back and recollected my memory, which I could never forget.

「That’s right, the button was certainly around this area…..」

Probing the place with the button, I suddenly remembered something that I read a long time back.

Every meeting will certainly lead to a parting. And you gradually start to forget about the person you part with.

Face.

Character.

Faults.

Smell.

The memories of such things get lost along the passage of time and before long it fades away completely.