Chapter 24
Eh? They meet on the street, have no idea what the other is saying, and suddenly… they are together? Right after that meeting I was like “So… they will meet again, and somehow they will form a relationship? I’m curious how that will happen”, but I guess they’d rather skip all that. Phew. Fair enough…
I guess family isn’t too bad a reason too get into more seedy business. At first I thought he gets a taste of money there and that’s that, but it seems he would rather be home more often actually.
「だったら人を雇えば良いだろ？」
…why should 江 hire people? I thought he only works there, and it’s 林さん’s business?
So, in the end they grew apart from each other. He was barely home, and she felt not understood and lonely. They separated - and she died, and he drowned himself in work.
And back to the present… it seems he might still have a heart after all? I guess he wants to keep face in front of his client, but also wants to give Sakura-san a fighting chance (and would actually personally rather that the building stays for longer too)?
Chapter 25
Chapter 25, or “different groups of people talking on a bench” 
It’s really been a while since Kanna and Jin sat on that bench, hasn’t it? It’s nice to see them both so relaxed and at ease with each other.
And… I really hope that Oniisan’s mother isn’t just coming to yell at Kanna again.
Maybe she just really oblivious here? I fully expect Kanna to have just born it by herself, as usual, and not even breathe a word of being abused by Oniisan’s mother.
Chapter 26
Oh man, Kanna is still carrying this “Am I allowed to be happy after having caused a death?” with her. I completely forgot that she was feeling like that, which is perhaps understandable considering that it was never mentioned again after like chapter 2 or whenever that happened. But it’s not surprising that she’s not really getting over it, that’s such a heavy thing to carry.
On another note, there are some extremely specific parallels in this VN between Jin and 江 that are so close that they don’t feel like they could be coincidental. Like for example how he’s now told by his father to “search for a dream or goal”, which is exactly what 江 wanted to do himself. Or all the ones we had earlier, like how Jin wanted expand the business and got into a fight with Kanna in front of a child about it, just like 江. I’m not quite sure what to make of those, to be honest, because apart from those parallels they seem to be too different to be considered “another version of each other” or something like that, and the super specific parallels themselves just feel a bit… random and pointless, to be honest.
So the sad story of Jin’s father also ends on a sad note. I agree that it seems just as like that it’s a suicide or that he (literally or figuratively) drank himself to death, but I’m glad that he had enough self-awareness to finally send Jin back to the city so he could have a better life.
Oh, was that the implied reason? Grief over his father being dead? Or did I somehow miss the reason completely? I don’t remember it being mentioned…
Chapter 27
I guess we can’t have a story with a little sister with a heart problem without the situation getting rapidly and quickly worse, right? Emi 
And the foreshadowing by 江 and the preview images for the next chapter don’t look too good…
Chapter 25 grammar question
正直言って、あの人には良い思い出がない。 かつて酷く罵られたことは、今でも心に残っていた。
「明日には行くと思うから、会うだけ会ってあげて」
「うん、わかった……」
Is the 会うだけ会って something like “at least” here?
The Handbook of Japanese Grammar defines that pattern as “doing something instead of something they should rather be doing”, but if it’s that - I wonder what Kanna’s mother would be implying that Kanna should rather do? And considering that Kanna’s mother has so far been a staunch supporter of Kanna having done absolutely nothing wrong, in the first place implying that meeting is the least Kanna could do sounds really out of place.
(Visual Novel Reading Club)
