After filming for the drama ended, before long, they had entered the sweltering month of August.
Kaoru and Ai adjusted to a much more relaxed schedule after the drama shoot and spent happy times with the four siblings.
Ever since she started walking—
"Kyaaah?! Amber!"
"Ugh!"
"Kyahahat- uhehhehheh!"
There had been a small(?) commotion when Amber climbed onto the sofa, hopped around, and nearly lost her balance and plunged straight to the floor, only for Kaoru to unleash his superhuman physical ability and throw himself forward in an instant to catch her with his right hand.
But even so, the Hoshino family still spent their days in the same peaceful routine as always.
Aqua was also busy preparing for his troupe performance, which was coming up soon, and Ruby was busy too, balancing training with deciding on the high school she would attend, though she still hadn’t announced it yet.
But then.
Kaoru and Ai received word from their eldest son that he and Ruby had both decided on the high schools they would attend, and that he would tell them about it soon so they could discuss it together.
The two of them, feeling pleased, looked forward to the twin siblings holding a family meeting soon to talk about their high school plans.
Amber won the Grand Prize in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s annual nationwide elementary school essay contest, the [Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister’s Cup Nationwide Elementary School Essay Contest], which was held at every elementary school across the country just before summer vacation.
When Amber’s homeroom teacher called personally and told Ai the news in a delighted voice, Ai actually had to ask again because she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
What shocked her even more than the fact that Amber had won the Grand Prize in a contest directly organized by the Ministry of Education was the fact that Amber had never even mentioned participating in such a major nationwide competition in the first place.
Kaoru was just as surprised, so after bringing home their youngest daughter’s certificate and trophy from school, he gently asked her why.
"The teacher kept asking Amber to enter the contest. But contests are annoying, and Amber didn’t want them to take away her reading time. It also didn’t seem polite to keep refusing the teacher, so I just wrote something down and submitted it."
Who did she take after to give such a cool answer?
Kaoru and Ai had never realized that their adorable youngest daughter Amber had such a bold, self-paced side, and they could only manage awkward smiles for a while.
What were the odds that an essay written carelessly in a contest open to every elementary school student in Japan would win the Grand Prize?
Kaoru knew better than anyone that this kind of award could not simply be dismissed as luck.
So Kaoru seriously discussed it with Ai and looked into a curriculum plan to nurture Amber’s outstanding talent, but—
"Nooo~ Amber likes reading books~"
It was a hopeless task to persuade their youngest daughter, a bookworm who lay on her bed and lost herself in reading.
Without needing academy lessons or any other method, their youngest daughter had her own brilliant [talent], just like her older sister and brother, and could spread her wings however she pleased.
At the strong will of their youngest daughter, Kaoru and Ai accepted her opinion with smiles.
It was true that, despite her young elementary school age, she had excellent logic, but as she grew older she might also discover outstanding talent and interest in mathematics, science, or some other field.
If, someday, she found a [dream] she wanted to pursue and asked them for help—
The couple had more than enough wealth and free time to devote every human and material resource, not just in Japan but across the world, for their youngest daughter.
So they decided to take their time and support their youngest daughter’s happy daily life.
. . .
When the premiere of the [Rararai Theater Troupe] was less than ten days away.
The Hoshino family decided to take a two-night, three-day trip to Miyazaki Prefecture.
It was both to visit the grave of [Amamiya Goro], which they had faithfully tended every year since their family life stabilized, and to take a family recharge trip.
Of course, their precious benefactor’s memorial day was in September, but for the couple, the drama would be airing and they would be busy for a while, and the twin siblings would also be busy with high school entrance exams and their own future paths, so they simply wouldn’t have time until the end of the year.
With a busy future waiting for them, the Hoshino family decided to leave Tokyo and recharge for a while.
With its beautiful scenery and many sightseeing spots, it was objectively not a bad choice either.
Saturday morning.
After flying from Haneda Airport to Miyazaki Airport, the Hoshino family had a light breakfast-lunch in the airport lounge, then drove their pre-rented car and headed for Takachiho.
It took two hours by car from the airport to Takachiho, but the four siblings each poured out their energy and spent the time having fun without getting tired.
"……."
Ai, who had now covered over the sad memories from fifteen years ago with her daily life with her beloved family, also wore a faint smile as she admired the scenery passing by outside the car window.
The weather was hot and the sunlight was fierce—but her heart felt much lighter.
"The weather’s clear, Kaoru. It looks like the teacher knew we were coming."
"Yeah. I think so too."
After [Amamiya Goro]’s remains were discovered, the general hospital showed special kindness and, for the sake of the deceased who had no family or close relatives, placed his remains in a spot in the columbarium reserved for staff.
Even after the story of the Kaoru-Ai couple stirred up all of Japan, no one came to pay respects to the spirit of [Amamiya Goro]—except for the couple themselves.
According to the hospital, since he was from Miyazaki Prefecture, a few relatives had visited once, but that had only happened one time, and no one had come since.
"……."
People are easily forgotten.
The dead are forgotten even more easily.
[Amamiya Goro] was, more than the couple had ever imagined, a lonely and solitary person.
To keep remembering the dead.
That was the way to keep them from being forgotten, to let them live on in the hearts of those still alive.
Of course—fortunately, the couple somehow failed to notice Aqua’s very complicated(?) expression.
And also…
"H-hic-hic- Senseiiiiiim- hic, hwaaaah! Ru, Ruby has... Ruby came... Sensei..."
"……."
"Ruby-chan..."
"Hwaaaah- Sensei. Sensei. Hic hic!"
Every time they came here, they still hadn’t discovered why Ruby cried so heartbreakingly.
Was it because she knew that if it hadn’t been for Goro, her dearly beloved mother would never have safely given birth?
Seeing the twins understand, empathize with, and grieve over their gratitude toward [Amamiya Goro] together with their parents, Ai’s starry eyes filled with tears as she gently patted her beloved daughter’s shoulder.
"Ruby."
Aqua also silently comforted his sobbing younger sister by holding her hand tightly.
He knew that the truths they could not tell their parents were melting into Ruby’s tears.
Even though the warmth of [Amamiya Goro] no longer existed, as [Hoshino Aquamarine], he would always hold your hand with an even warmer warmth.
At the place where the bond from his previous life lay asleep.
Aqua carved the resolve he had repeated countless times into his heart.
. . .
After returning from Miyazaki Prefecture, Ruby decided to take her first real step toward her dream.
Not simply the invisible [effort] of receiving training from the B Komachi aunts and entering high school, but—
Uploading her dance cover video to her own YouTube channel and Instagram, and proving her [ability] to the public, was the [first step] Ruby was taking with great courage.
She was scared, and she was nervous.
She hadn’t never filmed anything at all until now. She had filmed practice videos of herself for evaluation, and sometimes only very short clips or GIFs for her aunts to post on social media—
Or to show her dance to her friends, and so on. Most of the time it had been for private reasons.
But filming for the purpose of showing it officially to other people... this was her first time.
The good thing was—
She still had her gentle, kind heart, but unlike her father and brother, she had inherited from her mother a natural talent for wanting and enjoying people’s attention and love.
"Phew."
What she would have to bear because of this choice was... inevitably, the pressure and anxiety of other people’s harsh evaluations.
There would definitely be baseless criticism in the comments, and there would definitely be people who, just for fun—or simply because they were in a bad mood—would tear down her effort and skill.
But Ruby did not want to stop walking toward her [dream] for something as pathetic as that.
[Favorite]—[Mom] was right beside her, supporting her with all her heart and holding her tight with loving hands.
Her beloved [brother], her always reliable [dad], and her too-cute, affectionate [younger siblings] too.
Unlike in her previous life, she was not alone. She had family who would take her hand when she stumbled and support her so she could stand back up—
Ruby, whose star-bright red eyes shone brilliantly, gathered her anxious, tense heart and made up her mind.
"...Haa."
Before filming the video, she stayed alone in the practice room, looked in the mirror, and carefully checked each part of the choreography.
The red flush on her cheeks and the beads of sweat running down them were the fruit of her effort and the determination she held inside.
Her beautiful, full blonde hair tied in a ponytail sparkled under the ceiling lights, tracing lines through the air as it followed her dancing movements.
♩♬-
The song she had carefully chosen for the first video, played on her smartphone, filled the practice room.
Usually, in a song that ran three to four minutes, the highlight section was about forty to fifty seconds per verse. If she included the bars right before the highlight section for the choreography, the video for YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels would be about a minute long.
Ruby, who had inherited her mother’s natural intuition and her father’s sharp analytical ability, carefully devised a [short-form] strategy: grab the public’s interest and views in a short amount of time, then upload the full version of the dance cover later.
Considering her parents’ fame and the star power of the Hoshino family, it would have been fine to upload the full version from the start—but Ruby wanted to be as thorough as possible and have her first video appear in as many people’s algorithms as she could.
♩♬-
"Hah! Haa—"
Unexpectedly, the theme song for her first video was not a song by her [favorite], the legendary idol [Ai Hoshino].
It was not a song by B Komachi, the legendary Japanese female idol group either.
The reason she did not choose the songs of the people she loved most and was closest to was simple and clear.
'Hehe. A lot of people will probably expect me to choose Mama’s song for my first video.'
It was all about reversal and surprise.
She judged that the best move was to deliberately frustrate people’s expectations and present her first video with a more diverse and fresh song.
And... although it wasn’t official, if you searched online there were already mountains of short videos and GIFs of her singing along to songs by her mother or B Komachi when she was little, weren’t there?
One of the basic qualities of an idol was...
'You have to go in with a surprising twist that even the fans won’t expect!'
For Ruby, who had been devoted to her [favorite] from her previous life to her current one, every single day for over a decade without a single break—
Figuring out what the best [idol] should possess was easier than eating cold rice porridge.
So then, what exactly was the song Ruby had chosen?
〔 Oh, You're the only one- Yeah~ only one, baby. 〕
This song, sung not in Japanese but in a familiar yet foreign language, was [You're the only one].
It was a song by the famous female solo dance singer [VoA], who had sparked the “Hallyu” wave in the early 2000s with her excellent vocals, dance, and voice color that blended well with J-POP.
The reason she didn’t choose songs by her mother or B Komachi was reasonable enough—but why had she also chosen not to pick songs by female singers who left legendary marks on the Japanese pop scene, such as [Hamasaki Namie], [Amuro Ayumi], and [Komikuda], and instead chosen a song by [VoA], who was a little unfamiliar to today’s teens and twenty-somethings?
"Haa!"
As the sweet piano accompaniment flowed and the medium-tempo R&B melody and drum beat played, Ruby’s sharp, dazzling dance moves continued.
Ruby had a special reason for choosing [You're the only one] as the theme song for her first video.
"……."
The difficulty of the street-dance concept choreography was high even by recent trends, and of course she also simply liked the song, but—
The aching lyrics, which confessed that even after parting from the person you loved and sending them away, they were still your one and only love because they had given you happy memories, struck Ruby’s heart like an arrow.
Her teacher from 『me』’s previous life, [Amamiya Goro], whom she had thought she would never be able to meet again.
And yet, a miracle happened, and she was reborn together with him as her twin brother, 『Hoshino Aquamarine』, allowing them to reconnect their precious bond.
Thus, 『Hoshino Ruby』 came to live a second life as brilliant as starlight and as beautiful as a song of hope.
However.
That did not mean the short but unforgettable, beautiful and happy memories of [Tendouji Sarina] had disappeared.
[Amamiya Goro].
Her beloved teacher. The only person who, with a warm smile and voice, had cared for her as she fought alone against the illness of death.
『Hoshino Aquamarine』.
The new memories she was building with her beloved brother were precious too, but the happy memories she had built with her teacher in her previous life were still fully alive and breathing in her memory and heart.
"...Sensei."
This was truly, finally... a heartfelt confession and farewell from [Tendouji Sarina] to [Amamiya Goro].
If 『Brother』... knew what she truly felt...
He would probably pretend not to, wear a gentle smile just like Dad’s, and yet still pull her into a hug without being able to hide the sadness and pity in his blue eyes.
"I’m not sad anymore."
This isn’t a dance I’m doing to cry.
It’s the song I chose for the precious teacher who taught me [love].
Just as the lyrics of this song say.
Because, to me in my previous life, the teacher was the one and only precious person.
『Hoshino Ruby』 can keep moving forward, even if it’s hard.
"Then..."
A greeting to a precious person, and the song for the first video she would present to her fans.
So that she would have no regrets about this choice, which carried so many meanings.
She set up a tripod in one corner of the practice room, then carefully adjusted her position and movement so they would be properly captured on camera.
"……."
And then she touched the video button.
The familiar melody began to play—
And Ruby’s dance, with her red starlit eyes shining, began in time with the piano accompaniment.
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