Act 63 * Apart from You
Source: February 2002 Lala
Summary by: didi
First of all, there are probably numerous different ways to translate "kimi wo hanare"... One of which is "Letting You Go", but I didn't think it seemed to fit the chapter somehow.. Maybe it's a sense of being apart? I picked the most ambiguous at "Apart from You".. ^^;;
The story basically starts with Asapin approaching Arima on the roof of the school building, asking him again about not having shown Yukino his true self yet. That maybe Arima thinks he could save Yukino from it, that he could perhaps be happy. Some time later, Yukino glomps onto Arima. Not having seen him in the morning, she thought he had skipped school. And he wonders if maybe he really should have. So he gets this great idea of actually skipping school. "We've been honors students all this time. I wanna do something bad. Cuz it's gonna be too late when we've become college students (/point/ fairly ordinary) and professionals (/point/ boring adults). I have a feling that skipping class in high school will be engraved in our hearts as the glittering memories of youth forever." And with that, he gets Yukino to go with him.. ^^;;
They hide away in a small room as the classes go on through the school. Eventually they get out to get some food, where she remarks on how much he can eat.. and about their futures.. (with Yukino thinking how nice Arima would look cosplaying in a white lab coat.. to which he responds that it won't be a cosplay ^^;) They get out into the open area, feeling free with nobody else around, reflecting that if it felt this good, maybe they should have skipped school more often. But what would they do if they did that... Arima says he's content enough to just sit there staring off into space with her, which earns him a kiss. And they reflect again about how busy they're going to be soon enough, but for now they can be a regular high school couple.
She gets thirsty so she goes to buy something... leaving Arima to his dark thoughts.. About how he thought they could change together, but found that only she could do it so well.. And he couldn't do it at all. Flash back to the Dark-Arima-in-the-Mirror's words from Volume 8... But he's accepted that there's another part of him.. though he didn't want Yukino or his parents to know about it.. And this was enough for him.. He wouldn't tell her about it. But he definitely wants to be with her. No matter how far his heart may be, he'll always show her his face filled with love.
Flash over to his house where his dad had just gotten home to find his mom looking through Arima's old clothes, being all nostalgic. They know he's closed off a part of himself but they're not going to give up, and someday he'll show them his true smiling face.
The dad reflects back to his brother, Arima's real father... looking beat up. Where ever he may be... while his own son was unhappy.. But he'll never forgive *that woman*. He wonders if she was still alive.. somewhere..
Flash over to a woman looking high-class.. presumably *that woman*. She walks into a room full of women gossiping about a business failure of one of the stores, saying that "Mama's Papa" took over the store. She yells at them about what they were yammering on about, hurry up with the preparations. One of the girls says she'll quit someday. They gossip on about how Mama had a missing son.
"Mama" thinks "You can't be happy"... Tosses the remote control at the TV, which turns on to Arima's TV interview.
Everywhere else: Arima's parents watch the TV starry-eyed. Yukino's dad yells out for everybody at work to watch his daughter's boyfriend on TV. Kano and Miyako (Yukino's mom) watch TV with their dogs. Tsukino's with her club watching the TV, as she tells them that that's her sister's boyfriend, who's gonna be her real brother soon. Kazuma watches TV, blushing, though their Live is about to start.. The others from school skip class to hover about the TV. Yukino and Arima continue to walk outside, as Yukino tells him she knows why he wanted to skip school: because he was gonna be on TV.
Flash on to "Mama", still watching Arima on TV. Then a frame of a baby (presumably Arima), and then a man (presumably Arima's dad). The girls who were preparing in the other room come out, fawning over how cute Arima was on TV. And they're all joking and making noise, but she just breaks down crying. And she tells them that it's her son.. She had left him while he was still very little. That she's never forgotten, her only son from the one man she truly loved. They told her she wasn't fit to raise him and they made her leave him behind... And now he's grown up to be quite a fine young man under that house...
Ending note: That was just the beginning.
To be continued.......