Tear Jerker / The Summer You Were There

"Kaori... Kaori... Kaori..."

The Summer You Were There, being about a terminally ill girl and a suicidal former bully, has its share of sad moments.

• In Chapter 1, Shizuku completes her web novel, and as she's about to delete it, has a traumatic flashback to hate comments. She then composes herself, goes through with deleting it, and thinks, "All that's left is (to delete) me," establishing that she's suicidal.
• In Chapter 5, Shizuku reaches her breaking point and tearfully confesses to Kaori that she bullied a friend in elementary school, fully believing that she will only hurt Kaori too. The trigger for this is having a good time with Kaori, since, as she shares later, she doesn't believe she deserves to be happy or have friends.
• In Chapter 6, Shizuku panics after learning that Kaori always knew about Shizuku bullying Ruri, reflexively slapping Kaori's hand away and running home. She angrily brushes off her sister's concern and goes to bed feeling guilty.
• Chapter 7 shows what happened in elementary school. Shizuku's bullying started out as backhanded comments, then escalated to yelling at Ruri and eventually pushing her while she was carrying curry. Through it all, Shizuku thought that what she was doing was acceptable, and while she came to her senses after Seri slapped her, it was too late and Shizuku ended up as an outcast.
• In Chapter 8, Shizuku elaborates on how much she hates herself for unwittingly hurting Ruri and how she feels unworthy of Kaori.
• Chapter 10 has the first hint that something is wrong with Kaori, as she apologizes to Shizuku when the latter proposes doing another fireworks outing next year, and ends up having a gasping and coughing fit when she gets home.
• Chapter 14:
  • Shizuku's Heartfelt Apology ends up being rejected, with Ruri refusing to have anything to do with her former bully. While one could argue Shizuku deserves this, it's still painful to see all of her anxieties about the apology end up being validated.
  • Ruri is still suffering the trauma from Shizuku's bullying, despite all her attempts to distance herself from it. Her refusal to have anything to do with Shizuku is less because she hates Shizuku for bullying her and more because being around her is painful to her.
  • The chapter ends with Kaori collapsing and Shizuku calling out Kaori's name in a panic.
• Chapter 15:
  • Shizuku is left in a panic as the seemingly healthy Kaori collapses in front of her. She's so shocked to hear that Kaori is suffering from a chronic disease that she thinks Seri is lying to her about it.
  • The chapter ends with Kaori calmly breaking up with Shizuku to spare her any further pain.
• Chapter 16:
  • Kaori bluntly shuts down all of Shizuku's attempts to stay optimistic. Another hospital could look at her? Kaori's family already tried several. The prognosis might be wrong? The doctor's well-known. Modern medicine might be able to make "something" work out? The fact that Kaori lived this long is that "something." It's clear that Kaori has all but given up and resigned herself to her impending death.
  • Part of the reason why Kaori wants to break up with Shizuku is her belief that in her condition, she won't be able to be anything but a burden to Shizuku. Meanwhile, Shizuku once again fears that she said something wrong and caused Kaori to break up with her.
  • Kaori mentions in passing that those who are left behind will have to live with the pain of losing the person who dies, and mentions that she's speaking from experience. Judging from other clues in the series, it's clear that she's talking about her mother.
• In Chapter 17, the doctor tells Kaori that her condition has worsened, but refuses to give a straight answer when asked about whether it's feasible for her to get discharged temporarily. Kaori, frustrated, writes in her diary that she's heard that many times before. Basically, Kaori's all too used to getting bad news and having reason to believe that even worse news is being kept from her.
• Chapter 18:
  • Shizuku feels bad enough about Ruri, but then realizes that Ruri used to be sick, just like Kaori, and had a good reason for all the absences that Shizuku complained about.
  • Seri confesses to having felt helpless every time Kaori collapsed because no one told her anything about her condition. Because of this, Seri actually feels bad for Shizuku despite hating her, since she knows she's going through the same thing with Kaori.
• Chapter 21:
  • Shiori reveals why she hates Shizuku so much. She's not only jealous of Shizuku, but blames Shizuku for causing Kaori to push herself so hard she'd collapse. To make matters worse, Shiori doesn't seem to realize that Kaori may not have long to live- she's under the impression that Kaori was planning on resting after spending her first term of high school as a normal student, not realizing that Kaori didn't expect to be alive after summer vacation- but appears to be starting to realize that she might lose her sister.
  • Shizuku tearfully acknowledges that she loves Kaori while thinking about how much she doesn't want to lose her.
• Chapter 24:
  • After Ruri protests that Kaori should worry about herself rather than Ruri and Shizuku, Kaori confesses that she'll never leave the hospital again, and is painfully aware of how little time she has left.
  • Meanwhile, Shizuku gets closer to writing the end of the story but is afraid to do so, wondering if Kaori will be gone once she finishes.
• Chapter 25:
  • Shizuku arrives at the hospital to find Shiori in tears, and learns that Kaori slipped into unconsciousness and hasn't woken up. Shizuku is so shocked by this news that she enters a brief Heroic BSoD.
  • Shizuku doesn't visit Kaori for a few days, due to being unable to progress on the novel, but then gets a phone call in which Kaori's façade breaks and she tearfully begs Shizuku to come and visit, not wanting to die before seeing Shizuku again.
• Chapter 26 begins with Shizuku recalling Kaori's invitation to go on an outing. By now, Shizuku knows Kaori well enough to realize that she's faking her positivity, but can't do anything other than pretend not to notice.
• Chapter 28:
  • During the return to the aquarium, Kaori has a breakdown after finding herself unable to promise anything about the future, making her realise the gravity of her situation, and when the two are alone, she can only meekly weep in Shizuku's arms about how she doesn't want to die. This hits Shizuku like a brick, making her embrace her love and wish for Kaori to be saved if she cannot take her place.
  • As she collects herself, Kaori cries again as she says that it makes her sad that she'll never have another fun day like that, as well as how many things she can't do with her body, lambasting herself as she worries about it ultimately being a painful memory. All Shizuku can do is hug her.
• Chapter 29:
  • Shizuku finally reveals why Kaori's mentioning web novels touched a sore spot for her, and reveals that her guilt over bullying Ruri wasn't the only reason she was suicidal. Writing had been an outlet for her emotions, and when she published "Girls' Love Suicide" to the web, the reception was initially positive. But then the comments suddenly turned negative, because Shizuku's story inadvertently resembled a real incident Shizuku had never heard about. Because of that, Shizuku lost all hope, believed her existence only hurt people and decided to kill herself after finishing the novel.
  • Special mention should be given to one short comment Shizuku got- "kys." Basically, an Internet Jerk inadvertently (or worse, deliberately) pushed a depressed person even closer to killing herself.
• Chapter 30 begins innocuously enough, save for the revelation that Kaori isn't eating much, but then, Seri calls Shizuku and informs her that Kaori's condition has worsened and she's gone into surgery. Shizuka rushes to the hospital, where Kaori's friends and family are waiting, devastated by the news, and desperately hopes Kaori will live to see at least one more day.
• Chapter 31: Kaori dies. Everyone knew it was coming, but it's still incredibly painful.
  • Shizuku hears from the doctor that there's a 50-50 chance that Kaori won't wake up, then is so overwhelmed with emotion that she completely shuts down and Seri has to walk her home.
  • Seri and Ruri leave the hospital early on in the chapter, before Kaori regains consciousness. While Kaori's father, sister and girlfriend were at least able to see her one last time, her friends weren't so lucky.
  • When Kaori regains consciousness, all of her cheerful façade is gone, and she can only beg Shizuku to stay even though the effort is too much for her. As Shizuku leaves, Kaori sheds a tear, knowing that she's most likely seen her for the last time.
  • Shizuku wonders how Kaori will react to the last line of her novel when they see each other tomorrow... but then the chapter ends with the Wham Line that the next morning, Shizuku learned that Kaori passed away, so Shizuku will never get the chance.
  • In a bit of a sad Surprisingly Realistic Outcome moment, Shizuku doesn't get to be there for Kaori's final moments, partly because Kaori died in the early morning(her last text was at 1:05 a.m.), and partly because she isn't family to Kaori.
• Chapter 32 has the aftermath of Kaori's death as part of the Bittersweet Ending of the story.
  • It is shown that Shizuku was absolutely devastated by Kaori's death, shutting herself in her room for days, missing Kaori's funeral and not even eating. It takes Seri coming over with Ruri and dragging Shizuku out of bed to get her out of her depression.
  • In the background of the panel with Kaori's body, you can see Mr. Asaka comforting Shiori, who's clearly devastated at the loss of her sister.
  • As depressed as Kaori was in her final summer(if good at hiding it), it was apparently even worse in the winter of her third year of junior high school. She was going in and out of the hospital, and had all but given up. The only thing that kept her going was Shizuku's web novel, but then Shizuku stopped uploading it.
  • Kaori most wanted to be Shizuku's girlfriend, but she believed that doing so would prevent Shizuku from moving on, so she never confessed while she was alive. In fact, she was most afraid that her existence would be nothing more than a burden on Shizuku.
  • In a small detail, the page on which Kaori wrote "I love you" has damp spots on it, presumably the tears Kaori shed while writing it.
  • Pictured is Shizuku's emotional breakdown upon reading Kaori's final letter, in which her mind comes to a screeching halt and all she can do is think of Kaori's name and the times she spent with her. That being said, this also provides the emotional release that allows Shizuku to start moving forward.
  • In a small moment, as Shizuku returns to school, you can hear one girl gossiping about Shizuku being "absent for like, forever," suggesting that it may be difficult for her to reach out to and befriend her classmates.