The idea was to let everything around her sink into her mind at the moment. To relish the place that once held some sort of importance for her. But in Hammie’s case, doing exactly that would only open the wound that had made it the reason for her to leave town.
And yet, here she was, looking around the station as soon as she got out of the train. She might not be aware of it, but a part of her was hoping for something... familiar. Perhaps see a familiar face? Feel a familiar feeling? Recall a familiar memory?
"You're late!"
That shout coming from a familiar male voice made her heart skip a beat. But she did her best not to show it. She turned to the source of it, only for her to see a grinning Banjou Ryuuga just about a hundred meters from where she was standing.
"Banjou-kun?" She still couldn't believe that this guy was here. And wait! Was he even pertaining to her when he said rather loudly that she was late?
"Of course, it's me. Who else would be excited enough to meet you here the moment I heard that you'd be coming back?"
"Eh?!" Of course, Hammie was surprised to hear that. But... she only told her mother about her decision to return to that town.
So how in the world...?
"I was at your house when you called your mother. I was helping her fix the sink when she received your call," he explained and started approaching her.
"Even so...!" And yet she couldn't find any words that she would deem better to say to this guy who surprised her on her arrival.
And yet, why?
Why does it feel like… she was happy with the idea that he really waited for her, regardless of his reasons for doing so?
“You’re really unfair, you know that?” was all she could say as she started pulling her trolley suitcase and walked away. Walked past Banjou, even.
She didn’t see him smirk, but she did hear him chuckle and not long after, followed her and took her trolley suitcase from her hand.
“Hey!”
But he just turned and smiled at him, enough to both catch her off-guard and to stop her on tracks.
“Just let me do this. Okay?” he said before doing another surprising thing for her.
He took her free hand and started pulling her away from there.
“Wait, Banjou-kun!” But it seemed that he wouldn’t listen to anything she would say.
She would’ve been happy that he was doing all this without a care in the world. But confusion overtook her, especially since she knew that she left the town with things between her and Banjou ending on a bad note. So she couldn’t understand why he was acting like this.
“This is just like before, you know?” he started, snapping Hammie out of her musings. “Your hands are still as warm as I remember them.”
It was then that Hammie finally raised her head and faced Banjou. He was just looking straight ahead of the path that both of them were traversing at the moment. And yet the smile that she could see on his face was definitely enough to make her heart go into frenzy again.
Just like before…
“Aren’t you supposed to be angry at me?” Hammie ended up asking as they continued to walk hand in hand.
“Hmm? Me? Angry? I don’t think I could stay that way if it’s about you.”
“Huh?” What was that supposed to mean?
But before she could voice out her confusion, Banjou stopped walking and faced her without removing his hold on her hand. Soon after, he inched his face close to hers, instinctively moving away. And yet, it seemed that Banjou didn’t want that since he pulled her closer to him.
She could look at him and revel at that one action with wide eyes.
“Banjou-kun…” Even with that, she still couldn’t help uttering his name.
“Don’t ever think I could ever stay angry at you for so long, Hammie. And I know… you have your reasons for leaving here.”
Hammie could only meet his statement with silence, however. Does that mean… he knew? All this time?
Moments later, he continued. “I wouldn’t be waiting for you here as you arrive if I’m angry at you. I wouldn’t be visiting your mom almost every day since you left if I have ill feelings towards your decision to leave and pursue your dreams somewhere else. All this time, I kept telling myself to wait. That’s all I can do. And I think it’s worth it.” After that, Banjou smiled and started walking away from that spot, pulling her hand and soon forced her to walk alongside him.
Without a doubt, his words had surprised her. But at the same time, it made her heart flutter.
She missed this.
All this time.
And now, she couldn’t help but to admit that. Of course, it was enough to make her smile. Perhaps a smile that she hadn’t shown towards any guy other than Banjou in such a long time.
Hammie chose not to say anything to respond to Banjou’s words for now. But one of these days, as she would spend more time back in her hometown, maybe she’d be able to.
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