Three Days of Happiness

If he had arrived just a few dozen seconds later, I’m sure I would
have done it. But before I’d firmly decided upon it, I saw Naruse
entering the restaurant. I reluctantly went over and greeted him.
After he sat down, he showed exaggerated joy over our reunion. He
indeed didn’t seem to notice Miyagi beside me at all.
“Long time no see. You been doing good?”, Naruse asked.
“Yeah, I guess.”
Not the kind of thing for a guy with less than six months left to say, I
thought.
---
By the time we were done telling each other how things were going
for us now, we started to speak as if returning to high school days.
I don’t concretely remember what we talked about, and the
contents of our conversation definitely didn’t matter.
We tore into everything, and that was our intent. Naruse and I said
trivial things we’d forget immediately and laughed together.
I didn’t say a word about the lifespan thing. I wasn’t sure if he’d
believe me, and I didn’t want to spoil what we had going.
If Naruse knew I had months to live, he’d probably at least act
differently, try not to be rude to me. He’d cut down on the jokes,
and become obsessed with finding comforting things to tell me. I
didn’t want to think about that nonsense.
Until that came out of his mouth, I’d say I was having fun.
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