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An Unforgettable Rainy Day

Otani, now a second-year student at the university trying to get his teaching degree is starting to gain more traction in his relationship with long-time girlfriend, Risa Koizumi. They had been living together in an apartment on the outskirts of Osaka's city limits since the summer after high school graduation. Risa on the other hand has been making ends meet by recently enrolling into a technical school while still working at the same restaurant that she started in her third-year of high school. However, both Otani and Risa barely kept contact with their closest friends in the two years since they parted ways at their high school graduation ceremony. Otani and Risa did not have much time to keep talking to their friends due to extremely busy they were in their prospective lives.

It was on a rainy day and Otani had got to his first class on time like he always does. Upon entering the classroom, Otani sees a note hanging on the door which had been written by his instructor stating that he would be gone for the week. There was a two-hour break from the time his first class ended until the next class began. Since it was pouring outside, Otani found a bench in the hallway near the classroom that he was supposed to go to for the next class and sat on it. This gave him some time to check up and see how Risa was doing since she had no work or classes to do on that day. An hour and a half passed by, Otani had read that Risa was doing alright and made a couple of jokes about him which he ignored them. Then he proceeded to enter the classroom which surprisingly Otani was the first person to show up.

Suddenly, an instructor had peered into the classroom to see Otani was the only one there and started to get notes ready for lecture. "This is very surprising. I thought everyone else would show up by now." The instructor stated as he was looking around the classroom. This did not bother Otani who had drawn a blank stare at his instructor while putting his phone on silent. In that moment, the instructor had asked Otani if he had prepared for an exam that was to be taken that day. Then Otani barely pulled his book out to do some studying before the class began and the rest of his classmates which was about five other people showed up. The instructor greeted the other students and got ready to pull out the papers for the examination.

"Ok, class. This examination you guys are about to take is composed of 40 multiple-choice questions, 4 short answer questions, and 1 essay question over the material that was discussed over the past two weeks. Once you get finished with the exam, you are free to go." The instructor briefed his students before handing out the exams. This instructor tended to issue out exams every two weeks; that barely impacted Otani since he mostly studies on the days that Risa has either work or school going on. The exam took Otani an hour to complete since the essay question had him thoroughly write out the best answer he could give.

That ended Otani's day at the university, since he has two classes scheduled two days a week. His overall schedule had been very light opposed to the three semesters since being enrolled in the university which had been crammed full of general classes. Before heading back to the apartment, Otani had decided to briefly visit his family who lived three blocks south of the university. This was merely because it had been raining most of the day and Otani had not seen his family in the past couple of months.

"Isn't Koizumi expecting you back at the apartment?" Otani's mother asked Otani once he stepped foot into the house.

"I think she is, Mom. But I wanted to see how you guys are doing and have not seen you in a couple of months." Otani responded with a sigh underneath his breath.

That had Otani's mother make a baffled looked on her face since she was not expecting to see Otani for a while. However, she was relieved that her son came to visit her and catches up on what was going on in Otani's life. Near the end of the visit, Otani had received a message from Risa wanting him to come back to the apartment. With that Otani said goodbye to his mother and rushed back to the apartment out in the drizzling rain.

Upon entering the apartment, Otani had noticed that Risa was very upset about something but could not figure out what. Both Otani and Risa were sitting on the sofa that was situated in the living room at the front of the apartment. While Otani had, a calm look on his face, Risa almost got angry for him being calm.

"What's wrong, Koizumi?" Otani stated out of curiosity.

"I had gotten some very depressing news about some of our old friends. It had bothered me for a little while now." Risa stated with a sad look on her face.

Otani had started to wonder what Risa was talking about since the only time he had talked to her was before his second class at the university. Before putting his books on the table, Otani wiped off a tear that was coming down from Risa's right eye.

"What was the news that you were talking about, Koizumi?" Otani stated in response to the situation.

"I found out that Nobuko and Nakao had called off their relationship. It was sad since they were the ones that brought us together." Risa responded with an honest look on her face.

This however did not surprise Otani at all since he knew about the recent problems between Nobuko and Nakao's relationship. The reason was that the last time Otani had talked to Nakao he had stated about the relationship problems; which Otani had kept it secret from Risa until now.