Gohtaro had some memory of this happening. At the time, he had not paid much attention, but he was pretty sure a woman who seemed to be the girl’s mother would soon emerge and he turned and looked toward the back room.

“Stop, wait for me, please!”

A woman appeared. She had beautiful jet-black hair and a complexion so pale it was almost translucent. Probably in her late twenties, she was wearing a pale peach tunic and a beige frilly skirt.

“Oh, what to do with that child. The new students’ welcoming ceremony is not even until tomorrow,” she mumbled, throwing her hands up though not quite in dismay. Her expression revealed joy more than anything as she let out a sigh.

Upon seeing the woman’s face, Gohtaro felt startled.

Could it be?

He had seen her face before. She totally resembled the woman in the white dress who had been sitting in this very chair reading a novel before he came to the past.

Perhaps they were two different people who just happened to look alike. Human memory is a vague thing, after all. It was someone that he had just been looking at, but his head was confused.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” asked young Nagare to the woman as he unfolded his arms and squinted. His expression was difficult to read but his tone of voice revealed that he was concerned for her.

“Of course, I’ll be fine. We’re just going out to look at the cherry blossom in the neighborhood,” she said reassuringly with a smile and a nod.

Based on the conversation, one would think the woman was in poor health, but from what Gohtaro could see, she didn’t appear to be in any discomfort. Having brought up Haruka as a single father, Gohtaro knew all too well about making sacrifices if it would bring a child joy.

“So, thanks for taking care of the café, Nagare, it really helps,” said the woman as she moved toward the entrance. She turned to look around one last time, nodded to Gohtaro and left.

clang-dong

As if switching places with the woman, Shuichi Kamiya came back from the toilet.

Uh...

All thoughts about the woman vanished from Gohtaro’s head the moment Shuichi appeared. The memory of his original mission flooded back.

Shuichi looked like the young man he remembered. Or in other words, he must have looked startlingly old to Shuichi.

“What?”

The Gohtaro that Shuichi had just been talking with had suddenly aged while he was in the toilet. He stared at Gohtaro with a baffled expression.

“Shuichi—”

As Gohtaro spoke, Shuichi held both hands up.

“Wait, wait, wait!” he said, cutting him short. Staring at Gohtaro with hostility, he seemed to freeze like a figure in stop motion.

This doesn’t look good...

Gohtaro had thought Shuichi would surely grasp the situation immediately if suddenly he appeared as his older self—after all, it was Shuichi who told him you could travel back in time in this café.