After that, I still went to the hospital every day to see my grandfather. However, even this grandfather's condition is getting worse and worse. In the end, it seems that I can't even speak. Only fragmented syllables can be uttered with a faint sound.

"I'm sorry, it's all my fault—" I don't have time to come to the hospital because I have to go to school to finish my schoolwork. So I can only go on weekends...... At this time, I would stop by a convenience store not far from the hospital to buy some fruit and go to the hospital.

My grandfather loved bananas, so I bought more every time. "Natsu-chan? Same as usual? The clerk looked up behind the counter and beckoned to me, who was hesitating at the door of the store to enter. Come on in......"

I slowly raised my head and looked in the direction of the source of the sound. "Hmm." Then walk into the convenience store. I put the shopping bag on the counter next to it, and I moved a chair from the corner and sat down. "What's wrong? Did something happen? ”

An older clerk came out from behind the counter and walked up to me and asked. "Grandpa's condition doesn't seem to be optimistic." I looked up at her. The voice couldn't help but cry...... "On the way here just now, my mother called me and told me to be mentally prepared. ”

"Really?"

As she spoke, she slowly squatted down, stretched out her hand, and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes with her fingers. "The thought of this made me hesitate. I don't know if I should go to the hospital or not—" At this point, my expression was a little dazed. The moment my eyes met, I immediately turned my face out of her sight, pretending to be staring at the shelf next to me.

There's a basketball on it.

To avoid making eye contact with her, I pretended to be interested in basketball. All that was left for her was the side face. But in fact, I haven't watched a basketball game since I was born. In an instant, we all fell silent.

There is only the sound of the clock hands hanging on the wall above the shelves behind them turning in circles. Luckily, there weren't many customers at this time. After a while, she stood up, passed me, and walked towards the shelf I was looking at.

He took the basketball off top and turned around and threw it at me. Suddenly, I hurriedly reached out to catch it. "Want this?" As he spoke, he smiled from me, but his expression was a little meaningful. "Then I'll give it to you—"

In the moment when I didn't have time to answer because I was surprised, she pointed to my face and said. The expression is not like a joke, it is serious. "Even if you give it to me, I don't know what to do with it?" I looked down at the basketball in my hand and said in a somewhat troubled voice.

"It's my gift. Besides, it's not too late to start practicing, right? ”

"Practice? What......? ”

I was stunned for a moment, looked at the basketball in my hand, and then at her who had moved a chair and sat down next to me at some point. "Basketball, of course!" She looked at my face and said with a serious expression.

"Huh?"

Suddenly, I tilted my head with an incomprehensible expression.

"Why?"

The voice was also a little muffled. "I don't have that time......" he said, sighing. Sneak a look at the nameplate she wears on her dress, near the collar - "apricot". That's her name. It's printed on that nameplate.

"How long are you going to use such an excuse to escape?" As she spoke, Xing bumped me on the shoulder. Like, a little dissatisfied. "I'm leaving—" I got up from my chair and ignored her. Turning around, he reached out and picked up the shopping bag on the counter, and left the convenience store at some point.

Immediately after, I couldn't help but raise my head and look at the sky......

Xing's voice sounded behind him again at this time, and it was getting closer and closer. The moment I turned around, she reached out and grabbed my shoulder. "That ......" At this time, she looked at me with a little hesitation on her expression, and the way she wanted to say nothing couldn't help but make me a little irritable.

"What?"

As a result, the attitude also cooled down. "Well, if anything happens, try to tell me as much as you can. I will definitely help if I can! It took Apricot some time to organize the language and said to me. Then he smiled very naturally. It's the same as before......

"So, don't carry it alone!"

At this time, her expression suddenly became very serious. "If Natsu-chan were still my friend—" With that, she turned her back to me and went back to the store. I didn't look back, I just said thank you to her in my heart.

"Grandpa? Hey......? ”

When I rushed to the hospital and walked through the second-floor corridor to the room at the end near the floor-to-ceiling window, there was no one inside. — Grandpa, who was supposed to be in the hospital bed, was not there. Suddenly, I hurriedly ran out of the room and came to the corridor again, stopping a doctor passing in front of me.

"Excuse me, where's my grandfather?"

Anxious, I grabbed her arm, and my nervous voice trembled slightly. "His words, now in the operating room. Don't worry......" The doctor said as he reached for his glasses and patted me lightly on the shoulder. "Calm down."

As soon as he finished speaking, I breathed a sigh of relief, and the shopping bag I was holding also fell to the ground. Bananas rolled to the ground at his feet...... "I'm sorry! At a loss, I hurriedly bent down to pick it up. I felt very embarrassed for a moment......

At this time, he also put the stack of papers he was holding in his arms on the chair next to him and helped me together.

"No need! I'll do it myself! ”

At this time, I felt even more embarrassed, and I didn't even dare to look at his face. But even so, the eyes still meet from time to time. — He helped me put the bananas back into the bag one by one and handed me the shopping bag. Then take out your glasses from the inside pocket of your jacket and put them back on.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

With that, he walked around me and walked past me. After a while, it disappeared around the corner a little in front of the hallway...... After that, I waited outside the operating room. As a result, Grandpa's surgery was a great success. However, this is only one of the means to prolong life. Grandpa himself knows this very well.

"Grandpa, it's your favorite banana!"

I walked into the room, held up the shopping bag in my hand, shook it, and placed it on the chair next to me. Then he brought another chair from the corner and sat on it as before.

Grandpa was wearing a light blue hospital gown, and reached out to pull out the somewhat wrinkled neckline. "Thanks, actually, it's good for you to come, you don't need to be special—"

"Didn't you ask me to buy it, grandpa!"

In an instant, I said in a voice that overshadowed my grandfather...... "Besides, I'm embarrassed to come empty-handed!" Then, with a serious expression, he added. All right. Grandpa admitted in a somewhat embarrassed voice.

Then, my expression suddenly became serious, and I couldn't help but cringe. "What?" Then sit back in your chair. "How's that thinking—?" At this time, grandpa no longer beat around the bush, but asked directly. This is, of course, a matter of work......

Last week, he offered to let me take over. I left the answer for now...... "I'll continue......" I said quietly, but seriously. "Grandpa didn't finish it, let me finish it......!"

So, the following month, I still received the news of my grandfather's death. But I never imagined that that conversation in the hospital room would be the last conversation between us. And, in fact, I hate the fact that the starry sky is ......

I started from the last page of my diary and turned forward, but I didn't expect my grandfather to even write these things down in it. — Really meticulous in doing things! Grandfather...... While thinking about this, he closed his notebook and adjusted his breathing and mood before turning back to face Lola.

"Teacher, that ......"

At this time, Lola seemed to want to ask something, but her expression was a little hesitant, and she wanted to stop talking, so she knew that she was worried about my emotions, right? After all, I saw the contents of the diary just now, and I saw it next to her. "It doesn't matter, right?"

I reached out to wipe away my tears with my fingers when she reminded me, but it wasn't long before they scrambled to overflow from the depths of my eye sockets, across my cheeks, and onto the floor at my feet. I can't stop it......

As a result, right in front of her, crying like a child. As if he was going to pour out all the unhappiness in his life over the years and the thoughts he missed his grandfather, he cried loudly......

Then the next day, we continued to look through the diaries left in the house, and when we were done, it was slowly getting dark. But it wasn't for nothing—according to the clues in the diary, I had to go to another place tomorrow, and I was there...... Maybe there will be the answer we want.