The next few days passed quickly, on Saturday, Qingzi invited me to her house, and then I found that Qingzi's house was already full of large and small bags, and the size of the sealed boxes were piled up, and there were no other superfluous items in the house.

"I'm sorry, but there's a bit of a mess in the house right now......

I hurriedly asked, "Sister Xia Gong, are you going to leave these days?"

Aoko hesitated for a moment, then said with a wry smile, "...... I'll ...... tomorrow."

Tomorrow......

I didn't react a bit...... Tomorrow...... I thought it would be a long time, at least a month or more...... Tomorrow......

"What...... So fast......"

I can't imagine what life will be like after Aoko is gone. Is that feeling of emptiness the first to strike, is it reluctant, is it sad, is it lonely, or is it the loneliness of being alone again......

I must be looking ugly right now...... I don't want that, but ...... Uncontrollable......

「…… Kiyono-kun, please don't show such a look...... All right...... I'm going to be sad about that......

「…… If Kiyono-kun still likes my sister, please say goodbye to me with a smile......

Aoko smiled when she spoke, her voice was so gentle, she wanted to live together forever......

It's just that reality doesn't change

I can't make Aoko sad for my own reasons.

"Well, Sister Natsumiya is right... We want to be happy and say goodbye with a smile."

Take a deep breath and adjust your mood.

"By the way, Kiyono-kun come to my room, I have something for you."

With that, Aoko pulled me upstairs to her room. This is not the first time I've entered Aoko's room, and Aoko's room always has a candy-like fragrance. Although the room was almost cleaned up, the smell was still there.

Looking at the luggage piled up on the ground, I knew, really, really, that the time spent with Aoko was very little, very little.

Is there anything else you can do for Aoko? I didn't even have the slightest idea, and the more I wanted to do something, the more I felt like I had nothing to do......

"Here, it's all for you."

Aoko handed over a cloth bag

"It's ......"

It's all music CDs, and it's a song by Aoko's favorite singer "Tsuji Amino", which I listened to together when I was a child, because the singing voice of "Tsuji Amino" is really healing, fresh, and it will be very comfortable and pleasant after listening to it. That's why I especially appreciate Aoko's taste in listening to music, and because of this, I subconsciously think that 'reading books and listening to music have similar similarities'. However, I later realized that neither books nor music have much to do with each other, and that different books and different music are very different.

I take it for granted that there are similarities, but it's just that my appreciation style is too similar to that of Aoko......

"These are Xia Gong's favorite songs... Do you want to give it all to me?"

"Yes, it's all for Kiyono-kun, please cherish it."

「…… Is it really possible?" I still said with some hesitation

Aoko smiled and patted me on the shoulder, and said softly, "Take it, it's just...... I hope that when Kiyono-kun listens to these songs, he can also remember the time when he listened to them with me......

"Well, it will."

"In that case, does Sister Xia Gong have the book she wants, I can also give it to you" Of course, I want to return the gift, and it is very important to give something that can commemorate the other party.

"In that case...... I do seem to have a book I want to read......" Aoko put on a thoughtful expression

"What is it?"

"Hmm...... Well, it's "Human Disqualification"."

「…… Disqualified in the world, is this one...... I'll get it now!"

So I immediately ran back and went up from the bookshelf to get the book "Human Disqualification", and soon I went back to Aoko's room and handed the book to her.

"Why, why this ...... Would you like to read this?"

"Why...... I probably don't know......

"Is that so...... I've read a little bit, but I still don't understand the so-called 'adult world', and I saw someone else reading it a while ago, so I guess I'll be more receptive and understanding when I grow up."

「…… Kiyono-kun really loves to read."

「…… Hehe, because there's nothing to do."

"Really...... Then you have something to ask Kiyono-kun for today, help me pack some things, and move downstairs with me."

"Well, please leave it to me."

After that, Qingzi and I started to get busy upstairs and downstairs, moving a lot of things, moving separately and together, and in the real sense, we didn't move too many things, because we were still small and couldn't move too big, too heavy objects.

In a flash, it went from morning to noon

I had just picked up a box upstairs when I heard Aoko's voice downstairs. My calf accidentally touched a beautiful box next to me, and the contents of the box spilled out without me noticing it in the first place.

"Kiyono-kun, are you going home for dinner today? If I don't go back, I'll go out and buy some food and come back and eat together."

"Well, okay, my parents won't be back at noon today, so I'm sorry to trouble Sister Xia Gong."

"Then I'm out of the house."

"Please stay safe"

Hearing the sound of the door closing, my attention returned to the room, and I was just about to move the box in my hand, but I found some spilled things at my feet, so I squatted down to clean up...... However......

…………

What is it?

I picked it up, and it was a letter, and a postcard.

…… This, my expression froze, my arms trembled, what is this......

What I saw at the time made my stupid mind seem to understand a lot of things at once, and this was the first time that my heart was shaken by my understanding of Aoko.

My body was like a fog, it was dark, and a blurred figure appeared in front of my vision, like a blurred glass barrier, so that I could not see Qingzi clearly......

……

Sunday, seven o'clock in the morning.

"Knock knock" "Knock knock"

As the doorbell rang, my mother, who was eating breakfast, and my father, who was reading the newspaper and drinking tea, stopped what they were doing. The whole family walked to the entrance.

"Good morning!"

It turned out to be the Qingzi family

"Good morning...... It's ......," Dad responded

"We're here to say goodbye......

「… Are you going to leave today?"

"Yes, thank you for taking care of my mother and daughter."

"Ah...... Ha, we are, thank you for taking care of us, may your family be safe."

"Well, we're saying goodbye, thanks."

Our two families bowed to each other and thanked each other, and then the Aoko family got ready to get in the car and leave.

My father looked at me and said to me, "Do you want to say goodbye to your best friend one more time?"

I nodded heavily, and chased out, just in time for Aoko to get into the car.

"Sister Natsumiya! Wait a minute!"

I ran to Aoko with a slight gasp and said to her sincerely

"There's still a lot I want to say, but now ...... I can only say goodbye to you."

Aoko smiled and said, "Me too."

"So ......"

We bowed to each other very tacitly and said in unison:

"Thank you for always being with us!"

"Thank you for always being with us!"

……

Watching Aoko's car disappear from sight, I realized that I had already cried, and the wind blew and the maple leaves rustled.

Originally

Late summer is coming to an end......