Vol. 1 Chapter 40: What He Wants
Translated and Edited by: luccayn.
Common Honorifics:
-san: A polite suffix, but not excessively formal.
-kun: A common suffix among friends and younger people.
-chan: A common suffix among people you're close with, mostly used for feminine nicknames and girls, since it's cutesy and childlike.
-senpai: A common suffix and noun used to address or refer to one's older or more senior colleagues in a school, workplace, dojo, or sports club.
-sensei: A suffix and noun that literally means teacher.
Right around the time when the slapstick happened, Haruka and Natsumi—who had no idea of such a thing—talked about the incident that happened the other day. Namely, when Haruka apologized to Tatsumi.
“So, he told you it's fine now?”
“Y, yeah…”
They both sat at a table in a small coffee shop a short walk from the station. There were only a few other customers enjoying the atmosphere apart from the two girls.
I told Natsumi about how I apologized to Aizawa—Haruka thought.
The moment I noticed that park, fond memories of all the fun days I spent with him replayed in my mind, and I wished from the bottom of my heart I could go back to that time. As that thought popped into my head, I found myself talking to him again.
But the result wasn't good…
Yeah, he did say it's fine now, but as long as I don't express how I truly feel about it, it won't be a genuine apology.
“…Hey, Haruka-chan.”
“Hmm? What?”
She gave me a quizzical look as my mind drowned in thoughts of what happened and what could.
“Did you really think about Aizawa-kun when you apologized?”
“…Eh?”
“I'm talking about what he wanted and why he was angry in the first place. Did you consider any of that when you said you're sorry?”
“…Ah.”
She gave me a “can't be helped” face, but her eyes were dead-serious. Though, in the end, she's right. At that time all I thought about was telling him how I felt, and nothing else. I didn't stop to consider his own situation.
“I, I…”
“…Well, I'm glad you realized that, Haruka-chan. It's important to tell people how you feel, sure, but this time you should really put yourself in his shoes to apologize.”
“O, okay…” I answered, my eyes dampening as she rubbed my back in comfort.
“But what does he want you to do?” Natsumi continued.
“That's…”
Shuri told me he didn't want my apology. While I still feel like I need to say I'm sorry, what is it that he wants? This is a question I can't answer, no matter how much I try.
…Come to think of it, he told me something the day we made that promise all those years ago.
“Then, will you stay with me forever?”
“I'll also stay by your side forever, Haru-chan!”
“…”
I want you to stay with me; I shake my head at such a convenient thought.
…No way, right?
“Well, I have something to do later, so I'll see you tomorrow.”
I glanced at my watch to see it was almost 7 PM. Natsumi had something to do with her family in a bit, so we called it a day after a while.
After our talk, I tried to figure out what Aizawa really wanted me to do, but I hadn't really spoken to him since then, so I have no clue what it is. But I do know one thing, at least; why he left me.
It's because I betrayed him. It's because I broke our promise…
While I ruminated over it all, Natsumi suddenly said, “I hope Suzume-chan can come next time.”
“Well, it couldn't be helped, she had to do chores.”
I'd invited her out to hang out with us, but she couldn't come because she had to go shopping for dinner. Natsumi and I heard about Suzume and Towa's situation, and we think they're both great people. Even though she's the same age as me, she takes care of a lot of children…
They care more for them than for themselves…
…I wonder if I can do as they do, and think first of Aizawa when apologizing.
“…I hope you can do it right this time.”
“…Yeah,” I nodded anxiously at Natsumi's words.
Seeing my answer, Natsumi opened her mouth but ended up swallowing whatever words she was going to say. Then, she said “bye-bye” and walked off.
I should go home soon, too. If I start walking now, I'll be back by dinner, so I tried to turn my feet and walk home, but…
“…Hey, you there.”
“Huh?”
Bzzzzzzzt—!
“Ugh?!”
The moment I turned around to see the voice's owner, I felt electricity push through my entire body. I was conscious but had no control over myself. Unable to keep standing, I fall down to lean against the one who called out to me.
“Hehe, hostage secured…”
As my consciousness faded away, I heard this putrid voice. In my last moments of awareness, I called out his name in my heart.
Ta–Takkun, help me…
As Haruka was zapped, one girl watched it all unfold from the shadows.
“I, I need to call someone for help!”
The girl took out her phone and called her childhood friend, a boy, for help.
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5 Comments
Okay folks. I read the rest of volume 1 and will drop a summary of what happens after this cliffhanger the translator left us with. For some reason, the chapter numbering has changed, Chapter 40 here corresponds to Chapter 33 in the raws for some reason, the plot should be the same though.
Ch34
Tetsu, Towa and Tatsumi were on their way home, Towa and Tetsu were talking about how to defeat Hiiragi-sensei together, Tatsumi recorded their convo just in case but then Towa’s phone rang. Suzume informed them that Haruka got kidnapped. Tatsumi identified a certain group and suspected them to have found a link between him and Haruka, deciding to take her as a hostage. Tatsumi was thinking about asking Hikaru and the rest of the White Dragons for help, was worried about his reputation, how Towa and Tetsu might ruin his life like that K guy in the past. Then he chuckled and got in touch with Hikaru.
*
Ch35
Hikaru’s POV, he laughs to himself because it’s been a long time since he had seen Tatsumi being this desperate. He also understood that both Tatsumi and Haruka were victims and that they should just make up properly instead of dragging this further, it was obvious that both still cared about each other. An informant guy came by, told him about the gang who had kidnapped Haruka and her location. Hikaru planned to raid them with the Two Headed Dragon gang and shouted that Tatsumi was like family to them, so what was important to him was also important to them. By the way, I can’t be fucked to translate damn gang names…
*
Ch36
Tatsumi waited for Hikaru. Tetsu was mad because Tatsumi wasn’t doing anything and got even angrier upon finding out that Tatsumi knew Haruka’s location. Tatsumi told them he was waiting for someone and asked Towa and Tetsu to go home for tonight. Tetsu grabbed his collar but Towa stopped him and asked Tatsumi to be careful. Both Tetsu and Tatsumi were surprised. Tatsumi promised to come to school tomorrow like usual. Suddenly, Hiiragi-sensei made her appearance and right then Hikaru arrived with his motorbike, urging Tatsumi to get on. Tetsu and Hikaru greeted each other. Hiiragi confronted Hikaru, asking where he was taking her student. Hikaru recognised Hiiragi and urged Tatsumi to hurry. They managed to quickly drive away before Hiiragi could catch them. Hikaru was surprised that Hiiragi had become a teacher and wished Tatsumi best of luck. (Probably former delinquent huh)
*
Tetsu and Towa talked about Hikaru and Testu murmured about the white Hikaru and black Tatsumi, hence the two-headed dragon.
*
Ch37
Haruka found herself trapped by Muto (I guess that’s the guy Tatsumi shooed away from the school, then those three guys tried to get in and Aoi stopped them). It seems that Tatsumi and Hikaru’s gang beat the shit out of their gang and handed them over to the police. Tatsumi and Hikaru were somewhat infamous in this underground world and Muto gathered a lot more people to deal with them. He was using Haruka as bait. Haruka didn’t think it’d work, insisting that she was just a classmate. Muto didn’t buy it, because she was calling him “Takkun”. He started to strip her one by one. She resisted, shouting that her body is only for Takkun but that made him just go wilder. Eventually, she realised that it was over and it ends with: “I love you, Takkun.”
*
Ch38
Tatsumi made his entry by throwing the guards inside and mocking Muto for putting so many people out, because that just helped them to track them faster. Hikaru introduced himself and Tatsumi as the Two Headed Dragon, Tatsumi sighed. Tatsumi then declared that he’d solo Muto and his whole group. Hikaru and the others were surprised, Hikaru made Tatsumi promise to cook hamburg steak for him tonight and Tatsumi okayed. The stores would close soon, so Tatsumi had to hurry up and clean up this mess. He provoked Muto’s gang, calling them small fries, as they can’t do anything by themselves and have to gang up on one person like that.
*
Ch39
And at this point, I can’t take this seriously anymore. So we just read about Tatsumi beating up Muto’s member. The best moment is when one guy slams Tatsumi’s head with an iron pipe and Tatsumi just shrugs it off. Here, the novel turned into full shounen for no reason, lol. I guess maybe this was the reason why the TL dropped it. I wouldn’t wanna read such a novel either, baiting me with betrayal and moving on but then turning full shounen…
Anyway, Tatsumi told Mutou to come forward himself but then added that it wouldn’t matter as they had harmed Sakurai as a collective, so all of them would get their turn. They called him a monster and Tatsumi wondered if that was actually correct.
*
Ch40
Muto tried to hold Haruka hostage, didn’t work as Tatsumi just slowly approached him and dared him to lay a finger on her. He couldn’t, because if he did, he’d be dead. Tatsumi then slamed him away after getting close enough. He apologised for getting her involved and Haruka thanked him for saving her. Like in any good shounen manga, he then gets hit once again by the iron pipe while protecting Haruka, Muto comes back and slams Haruka away to land a punch on Tatsumi. Tatsumi desperately looks for her and confirms if she had just lost consciousness. He felt like a thread within had just been broken.
*
Ch41
Tatsumi finds himself punching Muto to dead, Hikaru stops him and tells him that Haruka was okay. Tatsumi calms down and Hikaru takes care of the clean up. Tatsumi carried Haruka home, was giving her a piggy-back ride. They passed by an intersection (the one with the trains, typical in Japanese romance shows), Haruka says something that ends with ‘-ki’ but Tatsumi didn’t hear it. (Yeah, she said she loves him but he didn’t hear it. This is such a trope show now…)
*
Ch42
Shounen trope continues. His sister and mother were worried but didn’t pry in too deep, the mother asked about the the guy with the motorbike and Tatsumi said it was a good guy, so the mother believed him. Shuri hugged Tatsumi tightly, saying she was worried and Tatsumi suffocated a bit since she had grown up quite a bit.
Next day, he goes to school, Hiiragi confronts him, he can’t come up with a smart excuse and Hiiragi accepts it, revealing that she too had a past and didn’t think it was right for her to treat him like that, she was also told by the headmaster and other teachers to not pry in further.
*Note: Hikaru’s parents seem to be connected to the cops and their groups are vigilantes which seem to be accepted by the cops, so I guess Tatsumi can actually get away with his stuff. Shounen story after all.
*
Ch43
Then it turned from Shounen to harem, as Tatsumi goes through some lucky pervert moments I guess? He enters his classroom, sees Sakurai being hugged by Suzume and Hinata (Natsume). Both girls were crying, Suzume apologised for not being able to do anything and Hinata was probably just super empathetic. Towa and Tetsu were like per usual, Tetsu tensed up when Tatsumi mentioned that he only got some cerebral damage from this whole event. Suddenly, Aoi entered the classroom when the bell rang and hugged Tatsumi tightly. It seems she had heard about him being kidnapped yesterday by a motorcycle guy. Shuri came to Tatsumi’s rescue or not, she pulled him away from Aoi and hugged him herself. Hiiragi came and shooed those upperclassmen away.
Before the lesson started, Sakurai asked Tatsumi to come up to the rooftop.
Long story short, she apologised for real this time, no empty apology, she threw her feelings at him, how she had been afraid, how she thought she had not rights to be with him but how she also loved him.
*
Ch44 (End of Vol1 (presumably Prologue)
The prologue repeats but the reveal is this one: “I don’t understand love. (No, I threw it away). That’s why… “I don’t love you.” But that line was in quotations and not in the Japanese brackets, so it wasn’t actually something he said out loud! He remained silent for a bit, wondered what he was actually feeling and eventually finished his sentence with: “That’s why, please teach me how to love again. Make me fall in love with you again.” After that, he pretty much confirmed that he had a crush on Haruka in the past and that he wants to feel that way again. Haruka gives him back his bracelet and they make up.
Later on, he was part of a chat group called “Aizawa-kun and Friends”, casually revealed to Tatsu and Towa that he had loved Haruka so much, he couldn’t imagine a world without her in the past and then realised that Haruka was part of the chat group and had read that message.
Last but not least, the full title of this story is actually:
“Aizawa-kun Can’t Love ~A Boy who was Betrayed by his Beloved Childhood Friend wants to Fall in Love with her One Mote Time~
So everyone who was happy that Haruka wouldn’t win. Welp, she will win, since that’s part of the story. The title is misleading because you couldn’t predict this shounen like development. I can’t be bothered to read through Vol2, so I hope this little summary gives you some closure.
Thanks ynlucca for translating this. I more or less have okay-ish Japanese reading skills and started recently to translate short stories and one shots myself. So I kind of respect people who spend their time translating novels like these and make them readable and enjoyable for us readers. Translating is easy for me but making it actually an enjoyable read is harder than expected. Thank you so much!
buen capitulo
Thanks for the chapter.
Thank you for the chapter !