5 Centimeters per Second
Akari: Hey, they say it's 5cm per second.
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Takaki: What do you mean?
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Akari: The speed at which the sakura blossom petals fall...
5cm per second.
Maybe we tried to leave as much memories of ourselves with each other because we knew one day we wouldn't be together any more.
Every minute felt like an eternity,
clearly as if it had malicious intent, slowly ebbing away from me.
I clenched my teeth, and keeping myself from crying
was the only thing I could do…
I love you.
I can't remember when I fell in love with you but very naturally,
I had fallen in love with you before I knew it.
The first time I met you, you were a strong and kind boy.
You always protected me.
Like the rocket shooting off into space,
on the loneliest journey to the far end of the solar system.
Because he's always looking at something beyond me.
He can never see me
But I'm sure that even if we had
written 1,000 text messages back and forth...
our hearts probably wouldn't have moved even 1cm closer.
I still don't know what it really means to grow up.
However, if I happen to meet you,
one day in the future,
by then,
I want to become someone you can be proud to know.
I probably just want to leave a trace of myself behind in this world.
One day, I realized that my heart was withering,
and in it there was nothing but pain.
And then, one morning, when I realized that I had completely lost my earnest and acute feelings from long ago...
I knew I was at my limit.
I wonder when I got into the habit of writing messages to nobody.
The things I had to tell her... and the things I hoped she would listen to. There were so many of them.
Yesterday, I had a dream.
A dream of long ago.
Within the dream, the two of us were still 13…
Standing upon the vast field blanketed in snow
as far as the eye could see.
In the distance, the lights shimmering in houses were set sparsely, far and wide.
All that was left upon the newly fallen snow were our footprints.
Just like that, we wished, without hesitation, that one day…
the two of us would be able to see the cherry blossoms together again.
I strongly felt that if I looked back now...
she would look back as well.
The feelings were still fresh as if it all just happened yesterday.
Do you know?
The speed at which cherry blossoms fall…
It's cm per second.
At what speed must I live... to be able to see you again?