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I looked at the photo of a beautiful girl who appeared few years younger than me and the flowers surrounding the picture.

Minami was dead.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know about what happened," I said and turned to them.

The woman went into the kitchen and came back with a tray in her hands that contained tea and some snacks.

"Its not a surprise. Even that boy doesn't know about it, there's no way you would come to know about it," she said sadly whilst filling up a cup of tea.

"What happened?" I asked and she started the real story behind this everything.


"There was a day she got a ring from Akito kun. She was so happy, she thought she was going to marry him after graduating high school and happily ever after. But she had very weak heart condition ever since she was a little kid so she already had very short lifespan ahead of her. The day she got the ring, coincidentally her mobile was not working that day and I still remember she was nagging all the while regretting not remembering his number so she could call him. But still, she looked ever so happy at the time.

I got curious and looked at the ring, it didn't look like some ring a guy would gift to a girl because it was a man's ring. I didn't know what was the meaning behind him gifting the ring to Minami but one look at the ring and I knew it was very very expensive one. I thought we might be able to afford her a better treatment we couldn't afford for a long time. But when I talked about it, she completely denied and said the ring was more important to her than anything in her life; even more than her life itself, she said. I got so angry, she didn't value her life and I snapped at her..."

She got teary and paused for a moment. Her husband gently stroked her back with sorrowful expression and she continued further.

"The next morning, I saw she was gone. She was not in her room, not in the bathroom, not in the house at all. She was never the kind of girl who would run away like that. I was getting so panicked if I should call police or something but before that, she just came back with unusually pale face, her hands full of dirt. She mumbled something inaudible and just passed out there. We quickly called ambulance and took her to hospital and the doctor said she was in critical condition. He could have treated her, but all because we couldn't afford it, her treatment was not operated on time and it was just the next day, she just left all of us. She passed away, just like that," she said and started to weep.

"It is so funny, how it is so expensive to just live a life. And look at us now, we are not very rich, but we could have afford her treatment if it was now. Only if the books I wrote was accepted by publisher by then, I could afford to make her lifespan longer but now that its too late, no matter how much I pay, I cant afford to bring her back," finally uncle spoke up.

Me, sitting here, I was shedding tears with them too. That was so tragic and here I was, in misconception of the girl being a gold digger or even thinking of the family in that way. I am such a terrible person.

"And we were in so much shock, and I was not in stable state for few days and that's when Akito kun came to our house. He asked if Minami was home because he couldn't contact her. He was really sweet kid, and all I did was blame everything on him at the moment. I shouted it was his fault she left us, I said it was because of him when it was definitely not. I feel so guilty of what I said to him in that state of mind, but I was not being myself. I just needed to put the blame on someone or something and he just happened to be there on the wrong timing. I really felt bad later on and tried to find him through every means possible but we didn't know his full name and even Minami's phone had gone useless since the day she got the ring.

I feel really terrible on how I behaved with Akito kun and I really wanted to correct myself but he never showed up again and we could never find about his whereabouts. I had already given up on the hope of having that chance up until you showed up. By the way, may I ask you what is your relationship with Akito kun? Are you his girlfriend?" She asked me taking me by surprise.

"His girlfriend!? No way, I'm just his classmate," I said and felt glad to come here in Matsuzaka appearance.

"Oh, I thought you are his current girlfriend who came here, curious to know about his earlier girlfriend," she said in confused tone. "How did you come to know about Minami then?" She asked curiously.

"Actually I came here because I thought I might find a way so Hagi... I mean Akito would stop his bullying nature," I started and noticed both of their eyes go wide. "Bully? Are you talking about Akito kun?" she asked not being sure.

I nodded and started to explain.

"I'm not really too close to him so all of this I came to know from people around him, but it seems ever since he gave her the ring, he lost contact with her and after the incident when he met you, he thought she ran away with the ring and you blamed him. And after all this, he started hating on every poor people around him and started bullying them and I was one of the victim recently. I somehow got to hear about this and I thought I might get to resolve this by confronting the culprit, that's what I thought. I'm sorry, I didn't know the real story behind it. I really feel bad for thinking that way," as I said, she started crying once again.

"Oh god, what have I done! Only if I had stopped myself from being such a cruel mouth at the time!" She wined and hid her face into her palms and sobbed. "It was not your fault, auntie," I said reassuringly. "We had all been misunderstanding for long enough. Now that we all know the truth, everything is going to be fine. Can you give me the address for Minami chan's grave, if you don't mind?" She wiped her tears and nodded. She stood up and went to kitchen counter to take memo pad. She quickly wrote it down and came back with the paper.

"This is the address," she said handing it to me.

"Thank you so much. I will have to get going now. By the way, the cheese cake was very tasty," I said and thanked her. "Thank you so much, dear. It was Minami's favorite too," she said and came with me to see off at the doorstep. "Oh wait!" She suddenly said when I was going to go out.

"Minami's last words was for Akito kun. She said, 'go to our memorable place, you will find everything of me'. This was one of the main reason I wanted to meet Akito kun. I had to convey this but I could never do. And please ask him to visit us if he doesn't mind, he is always welcome here. It would be better if I get the chance to apologize to him face to face, if that is not too much to ask for," she said with apologetic smile. "I will convey the message to him, he will surely come here. I'll make sure of that," I said with a polite smile and was about to go out.

"Aya chan!" she suddenly stopped me. I turned back to her and she smiled warmly. "You would make a good couple with Akito kun. Have a safe trip," She said and I gulped. That gave me a weird tingle in my stomach.

But I could say, that was not a bad tingle.


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I hope you like it so far!

I'm really sorry for terribly late updates. Thank you for keeping up with my late updates.

I love you all!

~snickers

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