Life, Once Again!

he is having a hard time.
That’s why I try to let him do whatever he wants.”

But I am a little afraid – she was about to continue when she put the microphone down and started wiping her eyes.
While the man was at a loss on what to do, she could see Maru pushing the man’s back.
The man, who took a step without knowing, took another step of his own will and hugged the lady that was crying.

A slow applause started.

She, who was watching the whole scene, was a little envious of the two people’s love and took a glance at Maru.
At that moment, she had the feeling that the smile on his face looked a little mature.

“Huh?”

She could feel tears dropping from her eyes.
It wasn’t that her eyes had dried out due to the wind.
It wasn’t because of the beautiful couple who would become married soon either.
The tears just fell without any reason at all.

Why was she like this? The droplets kept falling.
She hurriedly took out a tissue from her bag.
It was peculiar.
She was crying all of a sudden.

She knew that she was a girl with a lot of tears, but she also knew that she wasn’t so feeble that she would start crying for no reason.

She crouched down in panic and raised her blanket.
She tried touching the pile of plastic chairs and also tried ripping out the fluff on the blanket as well.

She thought that she had calmed down, but for some reason, she started crying again.
She really didn’t feel sad at all.
In fact, she felt jealous of the couple in front of her.
But why were there tears?

Mysterious tears flowed out of her eyes for around a minute.
She kept fidgeting as she wiped her tears off in fear that Maru on the stage might take notice.

“Why am I like this?” She muttered to herself after her seemingly endless tears stopped.

It was strange.
She closed her eyes.
Neither her heartbeat nor her breathing rate was in disarray.
She still felt good.
The tears that fell without any signs, like rain without clouds, just disappeared without leaving any meaning.

She looked at the wet tissue in a daze before taking out a hand mirror from her bag.
Her eyes reflected in the mirror were bloodshot.

‘It’s good that I didn’t put on thick makeup.’

The faint traces of tears were at a level where she could just wipe them off by rubbing with her hands.
She put the mirror and the tissue in her bag before taking a deep breath.
A soft wind brushed past her eyes, but perhaps due to the moisture from the tears, it felt very cold.

Meanwhile, the couple on stage thanked each other and were getting ready to leave the stage.
The slight unease on the lady’s face was gone now.
She didn’t know what promise the man made to her, but she felt that it was good that things turned out well.

She looked at the couple that went down after receiving presents.
She cried when she looked at the two people and Maru together.
Did she subconsciously feel sad about that scene?

“That’s not it though.”

She felt extremely fresh right now to the point that she could smile.
There was no room for any tears to butt in.
She pressed down on her eyes with her palms.
Was she tired because of shooting the sitcom? She raised her head after the light massage to find out that Maru was looking at her with confusion.

She made an awkward smile and just shrugged as though to indicate that nothing had happened.
There was no way Maru would be able to find tears which were blown away by the wind.

After watching her for a while, Maru chuckled before looking at the audience again.
It was fortunate for her.
He would’ve definitely been worried if he found out that she had cried for no reason.

‘I should get some good sleep when I get home.
I must be lacking sleep.’

Just as she thought that she caught a glimpse of a lady standing opposite to her.
That woman, who was wearing a white suit, was holding a pocket watch in her hands, and she was looking at her with eyes that seemed to be lacking something.

The figure looked familiar.
No, it was a complete stranger.
She didn’t get it.
That woman looked pretty, yet not pretty, and she felt that she had seen her somewhere before, yet it also felt like she had never met her before.

‘Who’s that?’

Since she was staring at her, she looked around to see if there was anyone around, but they were the only people there.

She wondered if the woman was looking at her, but when she turned to look at the woman again, the woman had disappeared.
She tilted her head and looked at the other side of the stage, but the woman in a white suit couldn’t be seen anymore.

No, wait.
A white suit and a pocket watch?

That kind of outfit was way too eye-catching.
She wondered if she made a mistake.

At that moment, she had the feeling that she had forgotten about something important.
What was this feeling? She felt as though she had forgotten something perhaps more important than her own life, and had just remembered it.

“What’s wrong?”

Hearing the voice, she raised her head.
Maru was looking at her worriedly.
The moment she looked at his face, the feeling that she had lost something completely disappeared as though it never happened in the first place.

“With what?”

“You were in a daze.”

“It was fun.
It was touching as well.”

“You’re not hurt anywhere?”

“I’m completely fine, thanks.”

She looked directly into Maru’s eyes that were staring at her.
When she did, Maru nodded.

“If you feel cold, just take out another blanket.
The wind is cold.”

“Oh, okay.”

“We’re going to finish soon so wait just a little more.”

“Alright,” she said with a smile.

The thoughts about the woman in a white suit, the tears, and that strange sensation had all disappeared.

[1] Not sure how to describe this, so here’s a wikipedia article instead.