CHAPTER 366: CHAPTER 273: MEMORIES OF THE PAST_2

Uesugi Sakura looked at the empty plaque, reminiscing about the past, and answered Hanabi’s question:

"Later on, he succumbed to an illness that everyone experiences."

Hanamaru Hanabi turned her head to look at him and asked in confusion, "Wasn’t Grandpa Yoshitake taken away? Together with Sister Yoshitake..."

That was a lie I told you.

Uesugi Sakura didn’t want to break the childhood lie he had told her.

Back then, he didn’t want little Hanabi to experience seeing someone one day, and then never being able to see them again the next.

The sudden departure of a kindly elder leaves an empty feeling that is truly hard to bear.

Now... it’s better to let this kind lie continue.

...

When they arrived at the elementary school gate, they could see many bright signs and balloons hanging around.

From the entrance, one could see the large tree in the center of the campus, adorned with numerous ribbons and wishes, swaying gently with the morning breeze.

The school was open today, but registration was still required upon entry.

To prevent any safety hazards.

Both Uesugi Sakura and Hanamaru Hanabi were proper university students and young people, so they got in easily.

He specifically glanced at the gatekeeper to see if it was the same person who used to prop their feet up in the security room every day during his childhood.

Unfortunately, the person had changed.

Taking advantage of their free time, the two of them wandered around the elementary school, even taking turns on the slide next to the playground’s sandpit.

The slide was new, lacking many of their old memories.

Uesugi Sakura stood nearby, watching as Hanabi slid down the spiral slide, her expression quite joyful and satisfied.

When they were young, he would watch her like this, and sometimes she would pull him along, inviting him to slide together, full of little girl charm.

Hanamaru Hanabi took a trial slide and then came over.

"Not going to play a bit more?" Uesugi Sakura asked.

"Hanabi is wearing a skirt, it’s not very convenient," Hanamaru Hanabi replied after glancing at the slide, seemingly reminiscing about the tall slide from the past.

"You wore skirts when you were young too and still had lots of fun?"

"Sakura-kun, Hanabi is not a little kid anymore," Hanamaru Hanabi muttered, knowing he was teasing her.

"Yes, yes," Uesugi Sakura replied with a laugh, "Little Hanabi is now a big sister about to get married."

Continuing to stroll through the campus, the Children’s Day activities had yet to officially start, and the kids were only now gathering on the playground for the opening ceremony.

The parents sat on the benches around the playground, watching the children’s performances.

The programs included choruses, little swan dances, cultural performances, and so on...

These performances were actually quite similar to those in Chinese elementary schools, with the difference being more interactive games with the adults and student-hosted puzzle games.

If it were an international school, there might even be special activities.

The opening speeches would have five kids deliver them in five different languages.

Uesugi Sakura didn’t see Umezu Nana and the others; perhaps he and Hanabi had come too early?

This kind of exchange where university brothers and sisters come to school already had its prototype in elementary school.

—Called the School Activities, where senior students would come to teach the younger students, sometimes making lunch with them and such.

Hanamaru Hanabi didn’t like participating in such school activities during elementary school because she was shy and didn’t like senior students teaching her, often running off with tear-filled eyes to find Uesugi Sakura.

The feelings expressed by children are straightforward; if they like something, they simply like it.

Even back then, the shy little Hanabi would frequently come directly to find him, explicitly stating she wanted to play together.

Holding her favorite toys and drawings in her hands.

As they grew older, she became more tactful and bashful.

Just as Uesugi Sakura and Hanamaru Hanabi reached a classroom, they noticed Teacher Imanishi standing among the kids, watching them play bowling in the classroom.

This was a bit surprising; Teacher Imanishi was their elementary school teacher.

Language, arithmetic, school life, morals, life skills, physical education, art were all taught by her.

Back then she was 32, and now she was almost 50.

Wearing glasses, she was a very kind teacher, a bit plump.

This classroom was also where Uesugi Sakura did school activities.

Which meant—he was assigned to this classroom to interact with the children, and coincidentally met the teacher managing the class from his elementary school.

He observed the teacher who had taught him and Hanabi seven subjects, deciding to try and see if she would recognize the two of them.

"Excuse me, Teacher."

"Oh...? Who might you be?" Imanishi Shiri shifted her gaze from the children to the young man and woman standing before her.

Truth be told, she seldom saw people so pleasing to the eye, and was a bit surprised.

Uesugi Sakura: "I’m a student from the Tokyo University Literature Department; didn’t your school invite us to conduct school activities with the students? We’re in charge of your class."

"Ah, right, right, indeed," she said.

Then, she became puzzled, "But isn’t the school activity in the afternoon? The children have just returned from the playground and are still setting up for classroom activities."

Uesugi Sakura made a face like he had made a mistake on the timing: "Imanishi Shiri sensei, are you sure it isn’t in the morning?"

"No," Imanishi Shiri replied, then became puzzled again, sensing a strange familiarity with the two standing before her, "You know my full name?"

Hanamaru Hanabi: "Teacher."

Her voice, weak and distinctive, made Imanishi Shiri remember a little girl who used to follow a certain boy all the time and tentatively asked:

"Are you... Hanabi?"

Uesugi Sakura hadn’t expected her to recognize them just by speaking.

Imanishi Shiri glanced a few times at Uesugi, "Are you... little Sakura?"

Uesugi Sakura gave a wry smile: "Teacher, you don’t have to use that term, just call me by my name."

Recognizing the two of them, Imanishi Shiri smiled warmly, full of emotion, "Indeed, indeed, you both have grown up, so much taller than me now."

She carefully examined them from head to toe, having not expected the two kids who used to hang around together all day to have grown up to be so handsome.

"Sakura indeed got into Tokyo University. I used to see you reading alone, always so adult-like, not mingling with other kids. I was once worried you might have some strange illness."

It wasn’t a strange illness; Uesugi was just a bit unconventional.

Or you could say he was out of sync with the kids since he saw not only innocence in them but also immaturity.

Little Hanabi cried quite a bit over this.

Back then, Uesugi Sakura had to protect her, truly fulfilling the role of a good older brother.

The gratifying thing is, because she relied on him for everything, the emotional bond accumulated over ten years became impossible to sever.

While Imanishi Shiri was observing the two, she also noticed two identical rings and the still-intimate feeling when they stood together.

She asked:

"Could it be, you two are married?"

Seeing the two kids she had taught from a young age walking side by side, even to the point of marriage, was truly moving.

"No, we’re just engaged."

Imanishi Shiri looked back and forth between the young couple before her, revealing a gentle smile:

"Engagement is happiness too. I remember joking that you might become a couple after ten years or so, and it’s wonderful how things turned out."

"I still remember Hanabi was both happy and shy when she heard me, folding a paper crane to give to you, truly like a little wife."

Uesugi Sakura recalled this event; that day little Hanabi was particularly shy, handing him the paper crane she held in her palm before scampering away bashfully.

He wondered back then why she was so shy over a paper crane.

Looking back now...

Perhaps she had taken the elder’s joke seriously, thinking she could marry Brother Sakura when she grew up, filled with the purest thoughts of a little girl, folding the crane with all her likes and hopes sent to him.

Thinking of her small, shy figure now, it remains truly touching.