Tonari no Seki no Satou-San chapter 68

Turns out this chapter is pretty short. But it’s also pretty deep.

Translator: butterreader

Editor: butterreader

raw

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Title: Our Days Apart (2)

Satou-san was waiting for me outside the shop. I was sure she was alone, but for some reason, everyone at her work was with her. As soon as the ladies around me saw me, they made a cold voice. They shouted goofy phrases like ‘It’s nice to be young’ and ‘I used to be like this too’. I wondered if Satou-san said something about me to you, and if so, what kind of description did she give? As I was thinking about this, that Yankee-looking man asked me, with a bashful look on his face, 

“Is that Sato’s boyfriend?”(Yankee)

“Yes.”(S)

Satou-san nodded to me without hesitation, but with a bit of embarrassment. Then she came running towards me, and I was somewhat embarrassed to greet her. The ladies are more cheerful, and the Yankee-looking man bows to me.

“Thank you. Thanks for all the help you’ve given me, Satou-san.”(Yankee)

“Hi. Nice to meet you.”(Y)

I also lowered my head to the ground, but I don’t know how to greet people in this situation. It’s strange to say, ‘I’m the one who’s indebted to you,’ or something like that. If it were a family member, it wouldn’t be the same with Satou-san.

“Thank you all for your hard work! See you next week!”(S)

Satou-san bids everyone farewell. Then she turns to me, without hesitation.

“Well, let’s go. Yamaguchi-kun.”(S)

I asked her to come home with me, so it’s only natural, but we’re going out, so it’s not that unusual for us to go home together. Satou-san didn’t ask me, didn’t confirm, and asked me if I wanted to go home with her. I was strangely happy about that, and I agreed right away.

“Yeah. Let’s go home.”(Y)

From what I heard on the way home, tonight’s gathering was still a drinking party at work.

“You’re just going to come all the way out here to do it?”(Y)

“Yeah, they don’t have a lot of places to drink over there. It’s an office district.”(S)

Satou-san’s workplace is located in a somewhat inorganic neighborhood of buildings and small factories. I know this place because I once went there to check it out when I had some free time on my hands. As expected, I didn’t get to see Satou-san working there – though I’m not sure I’d like to.

“It was a great coincidence. I didn’t think I’d ever meet Yamaguchi-kun.”(S)

Satou-san’s face as she spoke glistened in the light of the mercury lamp that illuminated the street at night. Maybe she’s happy about this coincidence, to a point. Well, I’m not happy about it either. I’d like to say that I’d be happy to see you at all costs, but I’m not sure what to do because I was feeling a bit bogged down.

“Is that person who greeted me earlier also from work?”(Y)

I casually inquire about that Yankee-looking man. Then Satou-san smiled.

“That’s right. He’s a delivery man.”(S)

“Huh….”(Y)

Looking down at that smile with mixed feelings inside, Satou-san said in a casual tone,

“He’s one year older than us, but he’s got a wife.”(S)

She adds. Probably, she said it without thinking about it. I don’t think she has the slightest desire to reassure me, and in the first place, there’s no way a witless girl like Satou-san could have seen what I was thinking. But for this moment, I was grateful for Satou-san’s well-timed follow-up.

“……..I see.”(Y)

Satou-san is still oblivious. She continues in a good mood as she walks away.

“It’s amazing. He’ s only one year older than me, but he’s so solid, I always feel like I have to learn from him.”(S)

When she praises the man in this way, she gets hazy again, just after she realizes that she needs it. This time, however, it’s a little more hazy, but in a different way.

I wonder if I’m the kind of person that Satou-san would say to me, ‘That’s great’. I did not become more serious after entering a higher education, and all I do in earnest is work and drink. At the parties I go to, I enjoy chatting with cute girls, but I don’t like seeing Satou-san talking with other guys and I get jealous in a childish way. I felt like I could be an adult when I went to college, even though I was in high school. In fact, when I became one, it wasn’t like that at all. I wondered if you were able to work and become an adult. On the outside, Satou-san looks exactly the same as she did in the past, plain and unrefined. But she seems to be getting along well with that man and his aunts, and somehow she’s still working, so maybe she’s grown up in a way that I don’t know about. We’re so far apart now that we’re not even aware of those small changes and growths. In high school, when we were in Class C, we were able to stay close to each other. Will we be able to stay together in the future? Even if we are separated, even if we are in different environments, even if one of us grows up faster than the other.

That anxiety was suddenly transformed into other words in my head.

“…shall we get married too?”(Y)

After I blurted it out, I chided myself for saying such a stupid thing. In contrast to me, who was still rather calm and collected, Satou-san stopped dead in her tracks at the edge of the street and froze for about three seconds. After a period of stillness where she didn’t even blink, she finally spoke up.

“Eh……..eh! Really?”(S)

“Of course not.”(Y)

I’m inwardly taken aback by the fact that I can’t react in a cuter way. I think that’s kind of funny, though, because Satou-san turns bright red and starts fumbling.

“When you’re older, you can’t do it right now. I can’t do it right now.”(Y)

“Oh, I see, I see…”(S)

Satou-san is patting herself on the chest. She seems to be really surprised. I want to complain about the fact that she seems to be a very open and honest person, but I personally want to complain about the fact that she was relieved.

“Besides, I just thought it would be a better way to spend time together.”(Y)

I also make a curt excuse, but really, I wish that much could happen right now. I still want to be next to you forever. I don’t want to be apart from you. I don’t want there to be anything about you that I don’t know, and I wish you could laugh at my words instead of laughing next to someone else. I thought the best way to make all of that happen would be to live together. Also, like before, when someone from your office greets you, I could say, ‘It’s nice to meet you too’.

“Maybe you’re right.”(S)

When I turned my gaze towards her, she turned her head down and reached out her hand to me in a cursory manner. Maybe she was trying to hold my hand.But there is no way she could be so skillful as to catch my hand without looking at me, and the only thing she could grab was the hem of my clothing. Still squeezing, she said,

“I hope that will happen someday. Yamaguchi-kun.”(S)

The absent-minded Satou-san has such a subtle way of answering. So I force her hands to untie her hands from their grip on the hem of my clothes and silently grab them with my own hands to reconnect them. As it is, instead of answering, I start walking down the street at night. Satou-san followed me without saying a word and didn’t even try to shake my hand off.

You have to grow up fast. Not someday. Not when it happens. That’s what you have to do. I’m sure it will happen, so I pulled Satou-san’s hand away and hurried on my way home. Even if we hold hands like this, we will be separated again when we arrive at her house. I’m going to hurry up and become an adult so that the day when I don’t have to leave her will come sooner.

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