Chapter 10: Can We Do This Again?
Ichigo is first to appear at the supermarket, and as he's waiting by the front, he sees Orihime in her street clothes. He ends up staring a bit, until an oblivious Orihime notices him.
"Ah! Hi, Kurosaki-kun!"
She waves, and he smiles, waving back as she approaches him.
"Did I make you wait long?" she asks.
"Not at all. I just got here, too."
Orihime fidgets a bit. "So where are we headed tonight?"
"I thought we could catch a movie, and then grab something to eat after. How's that sound?"
"Oh, sure!"
—
The two arrive at the lobby of a cinema, and Orihime looks pumped up.
"So what are we going to watch? Will it be the one where the group of friends go out to a cabin for a weekend getaway, only to be haunted by the ghosts of a hidden village terrorizing the cabin? Or will it be the one about the boxer who had a serious injury with a dead-end job, making his return to the big ring?"
"You've sure done your research." Ichigo smiles. "Actually, none of those."
"Really? I thought you'd like those titles… Then what are we watching?"
"I thought we could watch this one."
Orihime reads the title from the movie banner: Raindrops.
"Oh, I've heard of this…" she says, following Ichigo into the theatre.
As Orihime and Ichigo find their seats, Orihime is thinking to herself:
I looked this one up too. Raindrops is about a woman who, on the anniversary of her husband's death, returns to the city where she and her husband once dreamed of building a life together.
It's rather rainy in this city, so she walks the rain-soaked streets and spends time retracing their favorite spots, even the place where he proposed to her… Each step is a painful reminder of the love she's lost.
I never thought Kurosaki-kun would suggest a movie like this.
Orihime feels her chest, her heart beating rapidly, and tears swelling at the edges of her eyes.
Doesn't it remind him of his mother? Because I also…
"Are you alright, Inoue?" whispers Ichigo, leaning toward her.
"Oh," Orihime is red now, seeing as he's closer than usual. "I'm fine. I'm just… really moved."
—
The movie ends, and the two head out of the cinema, now on the street.
"So, what'd you think?" asks Ichigo.
"I really do like international movies," says Orihime. "I think even though it was painful, Clara was able to find some real closure in the end."
"You think?"
"Yeah. I mean, I'm thinking about that last moment in the café, when the rain doesn't touch her anymore. She's soaked, sitting in her chair, sipping a warm cup of coffee and listening to the conversations around her: the mother and daughter bickering… the excited teenagers planning their next getaway… and then the reunion of two lovers sitting by the window… It was like her way of accepting that life will continue even without her husband."
As Orihime is speaking, she notices that they have come to a restaurant, and Ichigo had ordered food to-go.
"Oh, where are we?" wonders Orihime, looking a bit dizzy.
"I thought we could grab some food and head elsewhere. That alright?"
"That's fine with me."
She offers to help Ichigo carry the food, and he hands her the bottled drinks in his hands.
—
The two walk, with Ichigo leading the way, until eventually they make it to a cemetery.
"Rather spooky at night, isn't it?" Ichigo says, turning his head in several directions. "Don't seem to see any wandering souls out, though."
Orihime is a bit speechless.
"This is where your brother is buried, right?" he asks, pointing to a grave further away from him.
"Right… And that's where your mom is buried… right?"
"Right."
The two pay their respects to her brother and his mom, and as they are lingering at Ichigo's mother's grave, Orihime looks a bit confused.
"Kurosaki-kun…?"
"It's late out, but let's find a place to eat."
The two find a picnic table on a hill, and they start eating the sandwiches that Ichigo bought.
"It was really cool of you, Inoue…"
"Huh?" Orihime wipes her face a bit while eating.
"Consoling the members of Squad 11, and helping Kenpachi too…" he says.
"Ah, yes…"
"It reminded me… that I'd been meaning to make a visit to my mom for a while. Even after all that's happened in these last years, all the conflict and all the fighting… I somehow poured myself right into the next thing: College, I mean. And I haven't taken a break to see her since."
Orihime smiles.
"Oh. Well then, I'm glad you got a chance to come visit. I don't mean to brag but… I visit my brother's grave a lot," she says cheerily. "Even though I know his soul is not really here anymore and he's passed on to the afterlife… I think coming to visit a grave often is what us humans ought to do to remember them."
"I agree," says Ichigo. He puts his sandwich down.
"Inoue."
"Mm-hm?"
"Can we do this again?"
"Of course, Kurosaki-kun."
"Not just next week, or next month… but next year… and every year after that."
Orihime freezes with her sandwich. "Hm?"
Ichigo, who is sitting right next to her on the picnic table, looks her straight in the eyes.
"Of course, I'd like for us to do other things besides visiting the grave. I just…"
He turns away from her, looking to his right side. In his right hand, it seems he has the camellia that he took from Orihime.
"... I've been surrounded by death for most of my life, not just with my mom, but in recent years… and there were times when I almost died."
"Yes…" Orihime recalls the time Ichigo nearly died in front of her in Hueco Mundo, and she did everything she could, crying to bring him back.
"So after all that… I realized."
He turns back to her.
"I just want to live. It doesn't have to be a crazy life… I just want to live life."
"Yes, of course, Kurosaki-kun," says Orihime.
"But," he says, "I want to live that life beside you, Inoue."
By now, Orihime has put down her sandwich. She understands the seriousness in his voice.
"Kurosaki-kun…"
She nods. "... Me too. I've always… I want to live beside you, too… so much….
"I'm sorry, for that time I tried to reject you… I... I was just…"
Before she can continue, Ichigo ends up putting the camellia in her hair by her ear, and she looks up to him.
"You know… don't take this the wrong way, but I never really thought that you rejected me." He smiles. "Maybe I was just that confident in your feelings for me." Orihime smiles back at him.
"So I'll make it the same for you," he says.
"I'm in love with you, Inoue. Please… always stay beside me."
Orihime, smiles widely, laughs, and eventually cries happy tears.
"... I will!"