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Eri just followed them from the back, while her eyes locked to Erina who kept holding to Harima's arm all the way to the festival. They soon arrived without Eri knowing how long had they had been walking.
As soon as they arrived, a group of tough men came to them and carried Harima away and Erina went to join her friends, so Eri had been left alone at the entrance.
That stupid Hige! How dare he left me here all by myself?
"Eri!" A familiar voice was calling for her. She saw Serina waving at her and walked towards her.
"You're here! You must be hungry. Come and eat with us!"
"I'm not that hungry anymore," Eri said but it seemed Serina didn't here her and dragged Eri to a table full with food. She felt like some kind of all-you-can-eat-buffet with all various types of food on the table from a simple kind to very luxurious one but that still couldn't initiate Eri's appetite.
"Help yourself!" Serina said.
"O-okay," Eri ate some of the French fries to please Serina.
"Why do you eat so little? You're not hungry, are you?"
"Not really,"
"Are you sick? You don't look that well,"
"I'm fine, really,"
"Ooo, I know. This must be something about Kenji left you at the entrance all by yourself, right?"
Eri almost choked of the fries she tried to swallow.
"He….didn't leave me. He just…been carried by a group of … tough and muscular men. So, I don't know where he went,"
"Ooo, that must be his friends from the ship company. He works part-time there as a ship builder. He's pretty popular among them,"
"I thought he works at your place,"
"He works with us at night and the ship company in the morning till afternoon,"
"Wow, he works hard for money, isn't he?"
"Actually, he wants himself to get busy with works so that he could at least not to think about 'someone' that is hard for him to forget,"
"Oh, I see," Eri said with a sad expression on her face. She knew who Harima was referring to.
"You knew about it to?"
"Yeah. Because that 'someone' is a friend of mine. Best friend to be exact,"
Eri started to tell about Harima and Tenma. How Harima had loved her but Tenma had chosen someone else and went to America with him. How Harima wanted to forget about her so much that he went away without telling anyone about it.
"That's why you had come here to look for him?"
"I'm…not. I was…happened to be here. That's all," Eri tried to hide her stuttering by drinking a glass of juice.
"He told me the same story too. About that Tenma girl,"
"He did?"
"And you missed something,"
"I did?"
"He mentioned about this one girl. She was a rich and beautiful young lady. She never thought about anything else except for herself. She was popular among boys and many had told her their feelings but they all got turn down. She thought she was all high and mighty she can play with all the boys' feeling that confessed to her. At least, that's what he thought about her at first and turn out she is actually a very different person,"
There was a pause before Eri asked Serina again.
"So, this girl, actually what kind of person is she?" Eri asked curiously.
"It turned out that she is actually a very kind person,"
There was another pause.
"That's it? He told you that? Nothing else?"
"Yeah,"
Eri finished up her juice with a depressed feeling shown on her face.
"You look disappointed," Serina said while looking at Eri's face.
"No, I'm not," Eri tried to deny it.
"He did say that he really appreciate what the girl had told him. If she didn't appear that day, he might become the same old delinquent he used to be,"
What Serina just said had make Eri went deep into her thoughts. Does he really think like that? If he really is, why he ran away? After all these years, he can just tell me about it, Eri thought.
The conversation between them had stopped for a while before suddenly Serina started to speak again.
"Can I say something to you, Eri, if you don't mind?"
"Yeah, sure,"
"You better not waste your effort like that,"
"What…do you mean?"
"You had come all the way here, to finally meet him but it seems that you didn't take any action. Are you okay with that?"
"I…really don't understand what you mean,"
"I saw you the other day, when you were talking to him at the restaurant. You had that expression and that voice. It was love, wasn't it?"
Eri went speechless. Her face had turned very bright red. She really couldn't say anything to someone that had more experience about this matter.
"I don't know how long you had been looking for him and I don't care. He's now in front of you. Tell him your feeling. You might lose this chance and you'll be regretting it by that time. Be brave, Eri. Trust your instinct,"
Serina was right. Eri was scared. If she tells him her feeling, what might he said? What could be his answer? She is a woman with pride but she knows that she has to let her pride go this time so she will not live later in regrets. Regrets about things she couldn't do when the chances are there.
Eri finally made up her mind.
"I have to go and look for him. Thank you for the advice, Serina," Eri ran before Serina said 'You're welcome'. Serina just smiled while looking at Eri disappeared into the crowd.
Eri went all over the festival. She promised herself that this will be her final search for Harima, and a final confession.