Tonari no Atashi [Chapter 9-10]

Summarized by: Maggie

Chapter 9
The chapter starts with Nina‘s Mum going over to Kyousuke’s Mum to have some tea with her. Nina doesn’t want to go over as she quickly wants to settle the dispute with her feelings.Yuiko then comes to pick up Kyousuke at his house, but his Mum informs her that he just woke up so she has to wait a bit. Nina’s Mum excitedly notices Kyousuke’s pretty girlfriend. Someone points out that usually Nina would come over to this house a lot but recently she doesn’t show up anymore… Yuiko then enters Kyousuke’s room. Kyousuke excuses himself telling her to wait a bit longer, while his younger brother is playing a computer game. Yuiko wants to help him out with a few things and asks: “This is the luggage you have to take right? Should I collect it for you?” Kyousuke thanks her and unconsciously calls her Nina… He then looks a bit shocked-surprised and, in a very tiny voice, says: “Sorry”. She however doesn’t look concerned at all and tells him she couldn’t be bothered by it. She then walks to the door looking really happy and says: “Hurry up!”. After the kids have left the house, Nina’s and Kyousuke’s mothers continue their conversation. Nina’s mum has taken a liking to Yuiko and believes that Nina is actually restraining herself because Kyousuke found himself a nice girlfriend. She had always been worried a bit because Nina was frequently sleeping over in Kyousuke’s room although he is her childhood friend he is still a boy…. She then talks about how great it is that Kyousuke had always been so reliable and how she would have liked to have a son like him. Kyousuke’s Mum joins in and says that she sometimes doesn’t understand Kyousuke at all but she would really have liked a daughter like Nina also. The scene changes to Nina who is called out by her Mum to bring Kyousuke his lunchbox which he had forgotten to take with him. Nina then brings the lunchbox to the baseball court, although she looks a bit displeased. The weather is sunny and it’s pretty hot. Yuiko is still helping out the baseball team when she sees Nina and goes over to her. She asks whether she should call Kyousuke since it is his lunchbox but Nina declines. Nina tells her that she wanted to talk to her (Yuiko=Asou-san) anyway: “If Asou-san honestly likes Kyousuke, then I won’t go near Kyousuke anymore” she tells her firmly. Yuiko looks a bit surprised when she hears Nina saying: “Please take care of Kyousuke”. The girls hold hands. Yuiko then blushes and looks down: ”I’m sorry (for you) okay?”. Kyousuke sees them and calls Nina’s name. Nina however just says that she’s going to leave now. Some other boys from the baseball team then come rushing in to, for fun, hose the three of them with water. Yuiko is surprised, laughs and has fun until… she sees that Kyousuke had protected Nina from the water. Her eyes widen and she looks a bit unhappy. Kyousuke looks at her and asked whether it was because of the lunchbox that Nina had come, and adds that he had already realized that he forgot it. Nina just runs off as fast as she can but is caught in the process by Kyousuke that puts a cap on her head. He tells her to wear it while walking home and return it to him at home. While Yuiko is silently watching them, Nina’s face is blushing really red although she still looks unhappy.

The scene changes to Yuiko cleaning the floor. She blushes while remembering that cap incident earlier the day… she thinks how she didn’t yet have him put a cap on her... her phone rings and she answers. She then looks displeased because it is her ex-boyfriend that wants to know how she’s doing. She tells him that it’s none of his concern. He replies with a “How cold. How mean…”. This makes Yuiko angry so she shouts at him that he was the mean one as he had never ever called her when they were still going out. “Don’t concern yourself with me anymore!!” …It became quiet then so Yuika wondered if he hung up. However her ex was still on the phone:” Don’t say something so desolate….” The scene changes to the classroom in which Nina is in. Her classmates are deciding which sport to join for “the beginning of the summer holidays ball game” on the last school day. Nina herself is absent-mindedly looking at the cap she received from Kyousuke earlier the day… until she hears that the now remaining girls are all to be playing softball. She starts complaining that she has never even played that game before, so her classmates tell her to take lessons from Tachibana-Senpai (=Kyousuke) as they are close anyhow. On her way home she thinks that it’s impossible because she has just decided to not get close to him anymore. She is wearing the cap and blushes when thinking about how he put it on her head. She looks down and asks herself if Keisuke (Kyousuke’s little brother) could actually teach her softball. When she then sees a car next to her she thinks about how nice it would be to get a lift in this hot weather when… she realizes the girl talking to the car driver is actually Yuiko talking to her ex-boyfriend… When Nina came home she went to their veranda that she hasn’t been to for quite a while. She looks at the cap and is reminiscent of her asking Yuiko to take good care of Kyousuke and also the car scene she just watched. She presses the cap against her head and looks down the veranda while telling herself again that she has already decided not to get close to Kyousuke anymore, that she has already given up, but… : “Is that really true?” Suddenly Kyousuke comes to their veranda also. Both look surprised at each other. Nina wishes him a good evening and he, with a big smile on his face, does as well. She blushes and thanks him for the cap. They first small talk a bit but then Nina thinks that after such a long time they can have a proper talk once more, so….”should I tell him that Asou-san met with another man?” She looks a bit helpless when she starts talking:”Asou-san is fairly easy right?”. Kyousuke’s former happy face starts to look unhappy-surprised. Nina continues talking although she thinks that this is not what she wants to say:”Just directly before she started going out with you she had another boyfriend right? That she is able to change the one she likes so easily makes it seem like she somehow just half-heartedly dates various people”. Kyousuke looks disheartened: “Were you actually someone that speaks about people like that??” He then turns around and tells her that he’ll go sleep. Nina yells at him that it’s because Asou-san met a man with a beard this day. She then runs off after throwing the cap into Kyousuke’s face while calling him an idiot. Surprised Kyousuke is left standing on the veranda. Nina hides behind her curtains while thinking that she, herself, is an idiot also.

Chapter 10 starts with Nina getting softball training from Keisuke. Nina basically misses every ball while Keisuke is telling her to not be afraid, to not run away, to not lose sight of the ball and to hold the bat correctly. Mayu-chan happily watches them. Nina looks exhausted while thinking that Keisuke is pretty strict and asks for a break. The three of them then happily eat some sandwiches that Mayu-chan and her Mum made beforehand. Keisuke tells them that he is quite surprised that Nina wants to be taught baseball (he actually says baseball not softball) because before she only used to watch them. Nina explains the situation and adds that her class is in high spirits so she also thought about winning. Keisuke tells her to leave it to him. …it is then shown that Kyousuke has been silently watching them. The scene changes to Kyousuke and Yuiko on a date. They just watched a movie in which Yuiko apparently cried 4 times. Kyousuke suddenly asks Yuiko whether she had recently met Kumegawa-san (her ex-boyfriend). She turns around and looks at Kyousuke firmly, telling him she had but explains that she met him by chance and he gave her a lift and that that was all there was to it. Kyousuke wants to say something but is interrupted by Yuiko who is, with a big smile on her face, asking him: “Worried?” Back at Nina’s softball training, Nina is still as bad as ever. Keisuke thinks that in order to have Nina improve it might be better for them to have a catcher, and since that would be impossible for Mayu-chan he suggests asking his brother. However, Nina is totally against it: “It’s fine. Kyousuke doesn’t need to be here!! Even if he isn’t…”,”…is it so bad when I’m here?” Suddenly Kyousuke stands behind Nina which surprises her. When Nina looks into Kyousuke’s sad face she is reminded of what he had told her the other night: “Were you actually someone that speaks about people like that??” Keisuke is happy his brother came at a good time and asks him to become the catcher. Nina blushes slightly and looks away. She is quite stiff when she talks with Kyousuke about why she’s practicing softball: “I have never properly played this before, although I have watched it so often….” Kyousuke asks her while looking away but blushing: “Nina. Is it ok if I become the catcher?” Although Kyousuke became the catcher then, Nina still doesn’t hit a single ball. Kyousuke angrily tells her the exact words Keisuke had told her earlier that day: “Don’t be afraid, don’t run away, don’t lose sight of the ball and hold the bat correctly!!” After a while they call it a day and Kyousuke and Keisuke accompany Mayu-chan home. Right before leaving though Kyousuke turns around to tell Nina that he will practice with her again the next day after his club activities. Nina is fairly surprised when he adds: “…I said too much the other day… I’m sorry”.

The scene changes to Yuiko who is sitting on a bench text messaging. She looks really surprised by something in her mail just when Kyousuke comes along: “I’m sorry. Did you wait?” She closes her phone, looks happily at him and tells him she didn’t wait long. When they are about to go home, she asks him if they could go to some place right then, any places that they can be in high spirits in or where they’re not supposed to think much. Kyousuke tells her that it isn’t possible as he already has a promise with someone else. Although she obviously really wants to go, she tells him it’s ok and waves him a good-bye. She then immediately takes out her phone and looks at it. She got a message form her ex-boyfriend saying: “I’ve caught a cold. It’s painful. Save me.” and asks herself what to do about it. The scene changes to Nina failing to catch the ball again. Kyousuke reminds her to not close her eyes but she says she is afraid of the ball. She starts thinking about how often she had actually seen Kyousuke play baseball, yet she never thought it was this difficult, she never understood anything at all. While she sees Mayu-chan and Keisuke happily practicing baseball together, she thinks that she can never become like this even if she tried hard or practiced a lot. Still facing the ground she asks herself why she has become so hollow… Kyousuke asks her whether she wants to stop already. However, she determinately looks at him, takes up the ball and throws it at him: “I’m going to do it!” Kyousuke is surprised. Nina starts thinking that even if it doesn’t become like with Mayu-chan and Keisuke, she doesn’t want to be miserable or without will-power, she doesn’t want to become a disappointment again. Kyousuke then gives her a really high ball. At first she is really afraid and doesn’t open her eyes but then remembers Kyousuke telling her to not avoid them and then she, surprisingly, catches it. She is really really pleased and happily starts laughing with the children. She then suddenly starts thinking whether Kyousuke would make fun of her for being so happy over one caught ball and gives him a blink. He happily shows her his fist, rubs her head and tells her to not forget what she just learned because she will definitely become great at it. She is so overwhelmed by her feelings that she starts blushing and then crying… She looks away and tells an utterly surprised Kyousuke:”Kyou-chan I love you… I won’t tell you to answer me… so at least let me continue to love you *big smile*” She then runs off to the children while Kyousuke keeps standing rooted to the spot for a bit. Nina and the little ones decide to go home, leaving Kyousuke in care of tidying up and searching for lost balls. He is surprised when someone calls out to him asking whether this was the business he had to take care of. It turns out to be Yuiko on her bike. She explains that she was just loitering around a bit since she didn’t want to stay home alone and asks him to be his partner for baseball. Kyousuke realizes that she is really good at it and wants to know if she had played before. She tells him she didn’t but was trained a bit before by her ex-boyfriend. Kyousuke asks her if she is going to meet him again and tells her she shouldn’t because of the way he treated her back then. She answers that she honestly doesn’t know if she is going to see him again but if not he should also stop meeting Nina-chan then. Kyousuke shows a somehow desperate face and tells her:”I can’t make a promise like that”.

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