Sounds of Winter (冬のなんかさ、春のなんかね)

What?

Ayana.

Oh.

Sorry. I'm leaving right now.

No, I'm sorry too.

I only came to check on her since I heard that she's not feeling well.

So, please don't leave for my sake.

No, I'll be going now.

Well,

I don't think I should stay here alone with her,

so please stay.

Are you serious?

But you came to see her, right?

Yeah,

but really,

please stay.

Sorry for coming all of a sudden.

Not at all.

Nice to meet you. I'm Yamada.

Nice to meet you.

I'm Kotaro Hayase.

Mr. Hayase.

Yes, that's right.

You're a hairstylist, right?

Ah, yes.

How do you know that?

I heard about it from Ms. Tsuchida.

Oh.

Ayana told you?

Ayana talked to you about me?

Yeah.

I see.

Well, I've never really

heard much about you.

Oh, sorry.

That makes sense.

I'm her colleague,

and I'm also a writer.

I write novels.

Oh, I see.

The thing is, she doesn't tell me anything.

I guess it's hard for her to talk about it.

She probably doesn't want me to get jealous or anything.

Jealous?

Yeah. It would be no good for me to get jealous.

I mean, I'm in no position to be getting jealous.

But I get jealous easily.

Can I ask you something a little weird?

What is it?

What do you like about Ms. Tsuchida?

Or rather, what about her do you like?

Huh? Why?

Oh, sorry.

I'm just simply curious. There's no deep meaning to it.

Huh?

Um… excuse me.

What has Ayana told you about me?

I'm sorry for asking.

You're probably thinking I'm in no position to be asking.

I don't care about that at all.

Ms. Tsuchida told me that…

How should I say this?

She said

that when she's with you, time flows by peacefully.

And that she feels at ease.

She said you're precious to her.

What?

Did Ayana really say that?

Yeah, just now, in fact.

Just now?

What's wrong?

Are you all right?

Yeah.

I'm sorry.

She said that, huh?

I really had no confidence in myself.

I thought I was nothing but a nuisance to Ayana.

That's not true.

But you know…

Hearing those words really saved me.

- Um… - Yes?

I think I'll head out now.

What?

Please stay with her.

I'm sure there are things she wants to talk to you about.

- What? But… - No, I'm serious.

Mr. Yamada.

You must really trust Ayana.

Trust?

I don't really understand what you mean…

Well, I'll be going.

Ayana.

You're finally awake.

What's going on?

Why are you here?

Why are you inside my house? You're scaring me.

When I went to the shop, En told me that you took a day off

because you came down with a cold.

Did you see anyone here?

Was someone here when you came?

Yeah, I think so.

What? Did you talk to that person?

Did you say anything?

No, I didn't say anything. Nope.

Are you serious?

- This is the worst possible situation. - Just calm down.

Just be quiet and listen to me for a second.

What?

I'm going to stop telling you

how much I like you.

I won't contact you anymore either.

Although I won't reject you, if you choose to contact me yourself.

I like you

but you're also very precious to me.

And I've also realized

that your boyfriend is a very nice person.

It's not right for me to be jealous of the happiness

of someone I like.

You're such a drag.

So you two talked, didn't you?!

Well, I'll be going now.

- Hey, Kotaro. - What is it?

Well… Um…

Well…

As long as you know that we can only be friends,

you can feel free to contact me.

Let's go out to eat or something.

I don't think we should cut ties or anything.

When you're being a nuisance,

or when I can't deal with you, I might ignore you like I've always done.

Okay, but I won't contact you myself.

Because I still have feelings for you.

That remains unchanged.

I don't want to give your boyfriend the wrong idea.

How much did you hear from Mr. Yamada?

Don't worry about anything.

You know,

I'm pretty happy right now.

Bye.

Just show it to me.

You said you had a picture.

Just show it to us. It's that simple.

So dumb.

It's not like I wanted to see it that badly anyway.

Who cares about your girlfriend anyway?

Seriously.

We're just trying to have a conversation. It's a form of communication.

Stop putting up a wall. It's so dumb.

Then let's talk

about something other than my girlfriend's picture.

Huh?

What the hell?

You think she's cute, right? You should show her off.

Hey.

Hey!

Don't you realize that you're being rude?

Mr. Kawamura says he wants to see it, so just show it to him.

You're no fun.

Everything you do is always half-assed.

And what was up with that document you prepared yesterday?

Are you making light of our traditions and history?

- Thank you. - It's not something

that can be changed so easily.

You're just spouting your ideals.

Yeah, what's your deal?

- Thank you. - Seriously.

Seriously, what's wrong with you?

Thank you.

Hey.

Hey.

Excuse me.

Yes? What is it?

Well, um…

I know this is none of my business,

but I don't think you should hit people over the head like that.

Huh?

I don't think it's right to hit people like that.

You guys were talking to him very rudely,

and it just made me feel uncomfortable listening to it.

So, yeah…

He was looking uncomfortable too, so I thought I'd mention it.

Oh wow, here's a Good Samaritan!

Miss, this is all part of training, got it?

It's friendly banter. We're good friends, okay?

But yeah, Miss, thank you for your concern.

All right.

TORA

What? You said something?

Yeah, although I was prepared to make a quick escape.

Wow, you're so cool.

But you shouldn't do that from now on.

Your momentary sense of justice can get you into trouble.

I don't want you to get hurt.

You're right.

I was just getting over my cold,

so I was a bit dazed, which probably made me even more angry.

But I think it's amazing.

I'm sure that guy was happy too.

Yeah.

- Are you worried? - What?