Trip 6, No Regrets

The Fireworks Festival, it had been held in the area during the end of the year for nearly over a decade, Miyako and the old woman walk through the Festival past many people which made Miyako nervous around them, the old woman asks Miyako to continue following her as they went away from the crowded area and into a more empty area of the festival which was more silent, "What is it?" Miyako asks.

The old woman signals for Miyako to sit down with her on the bench, they both sit on the bench and the old woman asks in a friendly tone, "Do you feel nervous around crowds?" Miyako turns to look at the bright lights of the festival, "Yes, and I feel Asahi does too but I'm not too sure, do you know if he is?" The old woman smiles, "Yes, he told me that once." The old woman thinks about the conversation she and Asahi had that day, "I just feel tingly around any crowd larger than ten people, but that's quite common in the city now, you can see it everyday." The old woman laughs and asks why he feels that way, Asahi rubs his chin and replies, "I don't know why... maybe because I don't have that many friends?"

The old woman turns to look at Miyako, she was still facing the lights in the festival

"Did you have many friends when you were young?"

"No I didn't, I grew up in the countryside so all of my childhood friends left for the city."

"Have you met any of them now?"

"No I haven't seen any of them in the city, why?"

The old woman wanted to hear about Miyako's past as Asahi had told her his past, "I just wanted to know." the old woman looks back down at the ground, Miyako looks around the area and stands up, "I should go back to the stall now." She starts walking back before the old woman stops her "Wait, I have something to ask you." Miyako turns around, "What?" The old woman had noticed it earlier when Miyako stood up hastily, "Your voice is emptier now than when we talked back at the shop a few days ago, it feels like something is bothering you, may I ask what?" Miyako looks down and decides to sit back down to tell the old woman.

Miyako and the old woman sit back down on the bench and Miyako starts talking, "It feels like I suddenly don't have any time left to do anything I want, it felt great at first, but now that I only had today left, It feels like I should have done more with Asahi, I should have talked to him more about things that I kept silent about, I told him that anything small was something big when we had a such a short time, but I still kept silent about things, after we went to a museum and talked at a restaurant, I had a cold because of rain, I wanted to talk to him more that night but couldn't as I was sick and made him do all the planning for the next day himself."

"Do you regret going on this trip with Asahi?" The old woman turns to face Miyako as her voice starts becoming shaky, Miyako covers her face with her hands and starts crying, "I do, but I don't want to say that to Asahi directly since he was kind enough to go along with me, I know he might still hold a grudge against me but I can't help but enjoy being around him as well." The old woman turns to face the lights, "You should talk to Asahi about it, I'm sure it'll work out between you two, as you said, he's kind after all, I know that too."

The old woman hands Miyako a tissue and she wipes away her tears to steady herself and go to talk with Asahi, the old woman smiles and hopes that she fixes the problem of Miyako still holding regrets as they would only get in her way later on.

Back at the stall, Asahi talks to the old man, "How many more toys do we have?" The old man returns to Asahi "twenty." Asahi thanks the old man and goes back to answer the customers, when they leave, the old man invites Asahi for a talk behind the stall, he pulls out two chairs and sits down with Asahi infront of him, Asahi is confused about why the old man would ask him to go behind the stall when there could be customers arriving, he confronts the old man about it to which he replies, "Don't worry about it."

The old woman had previously spoken to the old man about Asahi and Miyako before, she talked about their whole situation and how she felt that something like that happening to them was something she felt very saddening, the old man pondered their situation for a day before the festival and when he heard their names from the old woman he felt that he needed to do something, so he decided to talk to Asahi about it.

"That girl... Miyako was it? she's very nice, quite beautiful too." Asahi sarcastically laughed, "She is..." The feeling of awkwardness sat with Asahi for awhile until he hears Miyako's voice in the stall talking to customers who just arrived, "Did the old man know she was coming?" He thought to himself, "What do you think about her? What made you want to be with her even after what she did to you." Asahi wonders if Miyako can hear them from inside the stall but throws that thought away and talks to the old man, "That's quite harsh, but what made me want to be with her was when I first spoke to her in the hospital, her voice was gentle and refreshing, she spoke calmly and formally."

"As I spoke to her more, I found out more about her past and it made me feel that our conversations were filled with enjoyment, I didn't regret talking to her or regret saying something I shouldn't have said, I just wanted to be a friend to her, who didn't have many if any at all, she is the kind of person that I've always wanted to meet and get to know."

Asahi was speaking wholeheartedly and none of his words felt like a lie in any way, "Even so, do you still regret anything?" Asahi replies, "Yes." This answer surprised Miyako after hearing what he said just moments before, she wondered what he could be regretting, "At the start I didn't care much, but now that it's the end, I feel like the time I was given wasn't enough, it feels like I haven't done enough yet to be satisfied." This answer also surprised Miyako as it was how she felt as well.

The old woman walks around the corner to call the old man back to the stall and asks Miyako to go and have a walk around the festival with Asahi, "Is she saying that to spite me for not being able to handle crowds?" Miyako wonders, as Asahi and Miyako walk off in silence, this time instead of a cold feeling between them, it felt awkward, "I could hear you and the old man talking behind the stall." Miyako says as she looks away, is that really how you feel?"

"You did? that's kind of embarrassing..."

"You don't have much of a reputation to maintain right now, you can talk about whatever you want." Miyako says, they reach the front of the Festival but decide to go off to the side on their own instead of entering the crowded area, they go towards a darker side of the festival to walk around and have a chat, "The show should be starting soon." Miyako is looking at her phone which showed that the show was starting minutes from now, "I have to go to the toilet be right back." Miyako says, Asahi stands outside the public toilet waiting for Miyako to come out so they can watch the show together.

But when Asahi hears the door inside the toilet shut, he starts hearing Miyako sobbing, she'd already heard everything she wanted to know from Asahi's earlier conversation with the old man, so she felt that all the regrets she had about going on the trip with Asahi were gone so she was relieved, but Asahi talked about how his only regret was that the time they had was short, too short for them to be able to become good friends, she couldn't control her feelings anymore and decided to let it all out, she went into the toilet so that Asahi wouldn't see her.

But Asahi could still hear her from outside and also thought more about what they'd done with each other in the past few days and started thinking that it was all something he doesn't regret experiencing, though they didn't have much time, they still had a great experience with each other which left them with no regrets in the end.

Miyako walks out of the toilet after washing her face, and sees Asahi wiping away a stray tear, "The show should be starting about now." They both rush to the railing where they see a firework rise into the sky followed by many more, there are people sitting on the grass with blankets under them, there are people standing and taking pictures, but they were the only ones watching from the railing, but Asahi and Miyako don't realise it as they were focused on the fireworks, they shined brightly in the sky for a brief moment before disappearing, they both smiled happily and were genuinely enjoying the moment, the old man and woman stood behind watching them before they went back to pack up the stall.

Miyako straightens herself to face Asahi and he does the same, "It was great knowing you." They both say to each other as they walked back to the stall, the old woman is smiling much to the confusion of Asahi but to the knowledge of Miyako she understood why, "You were watching us weren't you." Miyako confronted the old woman, "No, no, now why would I do that, you two were having your moment together during the show."

"So you were watching us."

Asahi goes to help the old man pack everything into boxes and Miyako along with the old woman join as well, after awhile they manage to put everything back into the truck, Miyako seemed to be enjoying herself as she laughed while talking to the old lady and old man while they carried boxes back to the truck, the young man that the old man was talking to earlier comes by and tells Asahi, "Tell the old man I said bye and that I'll see him tomorrow."

Asahi finishes packing up the last box and rushes to the old man after placing the box in the truck, "A young man came over to me earlier and asked me tell you that he said bye and that he'll see you tomorrow." The old man sighed, "Guess I'll have to tidy up then."

Miyako and Asahi wave goodbye to the old pair as they drove off in their truck, Miyako sighs "Now we only have one thing left to do."

"Visit your family again right?" Asahi sighs as well but Miyako doesn't notice, they walk across the sidewalk as the wind picks up making both of them shiver, "It's quite cold now that it's late isn't it." Asahi knew the meaning behind her words but couldn't bring himself to say anything, he had forgotten it when the show started but now he was reminded again of what little was left to be done, he didn't want it to end but still accepted it as did Miyako.

"The station is over here, let's go."