Because the old man really hadn't changed at all.
So he'd forgotten that he himself hadn't stayed the same.
Twenty years had left their mark on him in every possible way.
The man raised a hand and gestured.
"Old man."
"You probably don't recognize me anymore."
"When we met back then, I was only this tall..."
The man measured out a height—
The man stopped.
He'd forgotten how tall he'd been when he first met the old man.
"...About this tall?"
Never mind.
After hesitating for a few seconds, the man gestured at an approximate height.
It was still taller than the old man.
Ahem.
After thinking it over, the man decided not to mention that.
The old man watching his gesture should be able to tell.
The man lowered his hand.
Describing it like that... didn't seem very useful.
Unless he could produce a photo of himself from back then.
The man sighed.
This situation was truly a predicament he'd never imagined.
"...You said I ate two of your peaches."
The man repeated the sentence.
The old man had reacted to it.
"But those two peaches of yours were sitting on a rock beside the stream."
The man tried hard to provide more details about the peaches.
"I thought nobody wanted them."
"I explained it to you at the time."
"I didn't eat your two peaches on purpose."
"If I'd known you hadn't thrown them away, I definitely wouldn't have eaten them."
The man once again explained what he'd done back then.
Whether the old man had believed him...
He didn't know.
The old man hadn't said anything...
Then he'd disappeared.
The matter had been left unresolved.
Though he'd told himself that if the old man hadn't believed him, he wouldn't have stayed away