Creak-
"..."
"We’re here, Ai. You can let go now."
"...Ah—okay!"
Ai had never ridden a motorcycle before, and she was scared of it. So for the entire ride, she kept her eyes squeezed shut and clung tightly to Kaoru’s waist with both arms.
It was her first time, so she had been frightened, but Kaoru kept turning his head now and then to ask how she was doing, and whenever she seemed unwell he stopped right away to let her rest. Thanks to that, even after more than an hour on the road, Ai was still in relatively good shape.
She held tightly to the bag she had picked up at a convenience store on the way, filled with lunch boxes, water, and a few basic toiletries.
As soon as she got off the motorcycle, the girl recalled the warmth of the boy’s body through his coat and the solid feel of his upper body, and she hurriedly hid the pang of regret that rose in her chest as she took off her helmet.
Kaoru took the helmet from her small head and hung both helmets from the motorcycle’s handlebars.
"Whew! That was fun!"
Ai brushed her messy long hair back into place and looked up with excitement, and Kaoru gave a faint snort of laughter.
"Glad to hear it. I was worried when you started screaming at first."
"Huh... I, I did? Did I scream...?"
Ai flinched and blushed, avoiding his gaze. When he had accelerated for real, the fierce wind and the roar of the motorcycle had startled her so badly that, true to her dignity as the "ultimate idol"(?), an enormous scream had burst out through the helmet and gone straight into Kaoru’s ears.
Kaoru had no choice but to pull over immediately to check on her, only to barely suppress the laughter that kept threatening to spill out.
The boy, a smile playing on his face, walked slowly toward the two-story wooden house in front of him.
A lonely wooden house on the mountainside. The Nordic-style wooden building had a single tall chimney rising from the center, and the weeds growing thickly around it from poor maintenance caught the fading sunlight and made the place feel even more desolate.
Caw-
Caw-
The loud cawing of crows. Startled, Ai’s shoulders jumped, and she fidgeted with her fingers before quickly hurrying to Kaoru’s side.
"Kaoru, where is this place?"
At her question, Kaoru gave a wry smile and murmured quietly, "A villa. More accurately, a place that used to be a villa."
"Huh? A villa?!"
Surprised by the unexpected answer, Ai looked at him like a startled rabbit as Kaoru strode up the steps to check the front door.
"Yeah. I think they’re not using it now and have put it up for sale... but it’s locked after all. Wait here for a second, okay?"
After confirming that the front door was locked, Kaoru quickly headed around to the back of the house, following the memories of his childhood.
He passed a small annex used as a storage shed and checked the first-floor living room and bedroom windows, but they were all shut.
Going farther around the back, Kaoru looked at a half-collapsed pile of firewood in poor condition beneath a small eaves.
"Hup!"
Using a half-cut log as a foothold, he lightly sprang up onto the eaves and, like a flying squirrel, leaped to the second-floor terrace in an instant.
Without even changing his breathing, he checked the latch on the large sliding glass door connecting the terrace to the inside.
Seeing that the latch wasn’t properly secured, he struck it a few times with more force, and it came loose and fell to the ground.
When he opened the door and stepped inside, the stale, musty smell unique to an old wooden house hit Kaoru’s nose.
The furniture was covered with cloth, but the layout and structure were exactly as he remembered.
Kaoru quickly went back down to the first floor and opened the front door, then smiled at Ai, who was watching him with wide rabbit eyes and fidgeting fingers.
"Want to come in?"
"Wow... yes! Then, excuse me for a moment~"
She had no idea how he had gotten inside, but it was Kaoru, so somehow he must have managed it.
Instead of thinking too hard about it, Ai walked through the front door.
The house was very spacious.
There was a wall of floor-to-ceiling glass on one side, and a fireplace in the center of the living room.
The furniture was covered in white cloth, so she couldn’t make it out clearly, but there seemed to be a sofa along the living room wall.
When she looked toward the kitchen, she saw a dining table in the center, also covered with cloth. Because the house had been built facing south to catch plenty of sunlight, the fading glow of sunset spilled through it and gave the whole place a cozy atmosphere.
It was her first time in a place like this, but Ai realized it was the sort of Western-style house she sometimes saw on TV, and her star-bright eyes sparkled as she smiled like a little child.
"Kaoru! I’ve never been to a house like this before! It’s amazing! It feels like I’m on a trip overseas or something! And there’s a fireplace! Wow!!! Hey, is that a deer head on the wall?!"
"Probably... yeah."
As Ai pointed at the deer head mounted above the fireplace like a child who had discovered something fascinating, Kaoru answered with an awkward smile.
Before recovering the memories of his past life, he had just assumed it was a decoration. But now that he had them back... he recognized it immediately.
It really was a taxidermied mount.
Given Japan’s hunting culture, maybe that was only natural. Kaoru opened the window and pulled the cloth off the sofa.
As dust fluttered up, Ai frowned and waved both hands in front of her face.
"Bear with the cold for a little longer. I’m going to check whether the power’s on."
Ai, who had crouched in front of the fireplace and was looking around with curious eyes, answered in a lively voice.
"I’m fine!!"
Kaoru quickly went to the storage area and checked the breaker box, but...
"Haa..."
As expected, the electricity had been cut off long ago and there was no power. Fortunately, the water came from underground rather than a municipal supply, so when he opened the faucet installed in one corner of the yard, cold water flowed out properly.
Kaoru took gloves from the motorcycle’s small storage compartment, put them on, and walked to the place he had noticed earlier to see whether there was any usable firewood.
After clearing away the rotten logs, he was able to salvage quite a bit that was still usable.
When he went back into the house, he ran into Ai hurrying down from the second floor after apparently exploring the place.
"Kaoru! Are we making a campfire in the fireplace?!"
Ai cried out with sparkling eyes, clasping her hands together, and Kaoru answered with an awkward smile.
"...Not quite that much, but it’ll still be warm."
"Eeeek★ A fireplaceee~ My heart’s pounding because I’m so excited!"
Was it really that exciting?
Kaoru brought the firewood in and stacked it inside the fireplace, then leaned in to check whether the chimney was open.
Sunlight was coming through the chimney, so it was open.
Kaoru realized there were no matches in the fireplace, so he went back to the motorcycle, started it up, and pulled out the cigarette lighter.
"...Waaah."
Pure curiosity, heated by a new experience, shimmered in Ai’s star-bright eyes.
Carefully bringing the cigarette lighter to the dry grass he planned to use as kindling, Kaoru sparked a flame and, with practiced hands, carried it to the firewood he had already arranged and lit it.
Ai watched every moment of it with shining eyes, then looked at Kaoru and said, "Y-you’re so cool!!! Kaoru! How do you make fire?! That’s amazing!"
"I learned by watching the internet."
"Liar!"
"You got me. Sorry."
"Dummy-oru!"
"Sorry."
He had worried the firewood might be damp from the rain the day before, but it burned better than expected.
Kaoru knelt on one knee to check whether the logs had caught properly, then stood up and watched Ai, who was holding her hand out toward the growing fire.
"The electricity’s out, but the water works because it comes from underground. We can heat water in a pot and boil it here."
"Okay! Thanks, Kaoru."
"...Aren’t you hungry?"
"Mm-hmm~ Maybe a little?"
"Got it. Then—Ai?! Stop, playing with fire is dangerous!"
"......"
Unable to resist her curiosity, Ai had picked up some dry grass and started playing with the fire, only to freeze and glance at Kaoru’s reaction.
But it looked fun...
As Ai puffed out her cheeks and muttered, Kaoru couldn’t help but smile, feeling like a guardian looking after a little child.
-
Night came earlier in the mountains than in the city.
With no electricity, the only light they could rely on was the warm glow leaking from the fireplace.
The two of them ate the cold lunch boxes after warming them beside the fireplace, then sat side by side on the sofa and silently watched the flames.
Looking at the firewood burning with a warm orange light made it feel as if all the many worries that had been troubling the mind were turning to smoke and disappearing with it.
"Haaam..."
After yawning, Ai no longer seemed to have any trouble with physical closeness, and she naturally leaned her head against Kaoru’s shoulder and pulled the jumper he had lent her up to her chin.
Kaoru also lowered his shoulder a little more so she could lean on it comfortably.
For a while, the two of them sat in the quiet, as if they had agreed not to speak, and simply watched the fireplace.
Buzzz-
"...Mm."
The peaceful silence was broken by the vibration of a phone. When the phone in her pants pocket buzzed, Ai quietly sighed and pulled the jumper up over the top of her head.
"...Even if I sent a text saying not to worry... it’s impossible, right? Right?"
"Of course."
Kaoru answered quietly.
"I don’t want to go back."
Ai murmured in a voice as still as the night.
Coming here had been, if impulsive, then certainly impulsive.
After hearing Kaoru’s declaration that he would shoulder everything for her, she had begged him to leave with her, anywhere was fine, and had spilled out cries that were half scream, half sob.
Anywhere, please, anywhere—somewhere nobody knew her.
The boy had accepted her absurd request without asking a single question.
Ai was afraid of every passing second.
She didn’t know how things would unfold again tomorrow.
And yet, even though she was afraid, she trusted Kaoru, who had silently offered her shoulder beside her.
Because the only thing she could do right now was trust Kaoru.
She didn’t want to do anything else.
So Ai decided not to resist the urge to show all of her "sincerity" to the Kaoru who was sharing his warmth with her right beside her.
"...Hey, Kaoru."
"Yeah."
"Can I tell you one boring story?"
"...As much as you want."
"I... It’s connected to what I said yesterday."
"I’m listening."
"My real name is, 『Ai Hoshino』."
"...That’s a beautiful name."
"Thank you."
"And?"
"Yeah....... I grew up in a public childcare facility far away from Tokyo... and my father... yeah, I don’t know who he is. I remember my mother’s face... but I don’t want to remember it, so I don’t. She didn’t come to pick me up...."
"...I’m listening."
"......I’m an 『idol』, and I always shout 『love』 to my fans and ask them to 『love』 me, but... I’ve never once truly 『loved』 my fans."
"...Is that so?"
"...Yeah. Ai doesn’t know how to do things like 『love』. It’s all a 『lie』. I... I think I’m not someone who could do something that amazing.... I wouldn’t be forgiven for things like remembering fans’ faces or the gifts they gave me..."
"......"
"I’m a lonely nobody with no one beside me, and I can’t even remember people’s names or faces very well, and I’m not good at studying either. I was just scared of facing people. Yeah... I couldn’t make friends, and the only thing I was good for was being like a leftover lunch box nobody had picked up and eaten?"
Kaoru turned his head and looked at Ai.
She still didn’t take her eyes off the fireplace.
Gone was the brilliant light; in the flickering depths of her eyes, darker and lonelier than the night sky, a deeper, murkier starlight shimmered.
Without even shedding tears, Ai continued speaking in a flat voice, as if it didn’t matter whether Kaoru was listening or not.
"I couldn’t get close to the other members either.... I knew they were jealous of me and talking behind my back.... But I pretended to be okay, pretended not to care, and lied. Even when I wanted to say it wasn’t true—that they had misunderstood me... I didn’t. I came this far while lying from the very beginning. Ai has to keep acting as 『Ai』 all the time.... I couldn’t even say a single word about what my 『sincerity』 really is."
"......"
"...I’m scared of being abandoned again... scared of getting hurt... Whether I’m an 『idol』 or whatever else, once I take off the costume and step down from the stage, Ai becomes nothing in this world....
A loner who wouldn’t be strange if she disappeared at any moment.
......A tasteless, odorless leftover lunch box that goes straight into the trash, that’s all."
"......"
"Even if I complain and act sad like this... I know it’ll just be the excuses of a liar who deceived everyone in the end. But... what does any of that matter?
I don’t care.
I don’t care what anyone says about Ai....
Because from the very beginning, I was already a hopeless bundle of misfortune.
Everyone else didn’t even try to notice Ai, and before they could, they’d already lost interest."
Her eyes looked as though they were screaming.
Probably.
This was the dark "sincerity" Ai had wanted to hide, the one she never wanted anyone to see.
The girl who had been abandoned by her mother, who had grown up in an orphanage and had never been loved by anyone, had put on a false mask and stepped onto the stage in order to love.
Kaoru couldn’t even begin to imagine how much pain she must have endured there.
But he understood.
Kaoru understood.
She was never a leftover lunch box, never a nobody.
A girl who carried in her eyes the brilliant starlight he did not have, and in her heart the infinite love he did not have.
The boy had finally met the girl and gained hope to live again.
With all of those feelings, Kaoru took Ai’s cold hand tightly and brought it to the left side of his chest.
Ai, startled by his action, turned to look at him.
The hot beat of his heart and his body warmth traveled through her hand.
Even seeing Ai’s trembling eyes reflected in the firelight, Kaoru only smiled quietly.
The instant Ai met his eyes—
She could feel again that all the trials ahead suddenly seemed ridiculous.
And yet, this was clearly a lie.
It had to be a lie.
Ai denied the courage rising in her heart once more and, avoiding the tears about to spill over, said, "You’re disappointed, aren’t you? I’m the worst, right?"
As if she wanted Kaoru to feel that way, she asked in a sulky voice.
But Kaoru only gave the same indifferent smile as before and said, "No. Not at all."
"...Kaoru, that’s a lie. Tell me the truth. Just looking at my face... it’s disgusting, isn’t it? If you want to throw up, you can. You don’t have to hold back. You’re disappointed because I’m only this much..."
"You know I won’t do that."
"Ugh—hngh... please... okay? Please just say it is... okay? Kaoru, please... sob..."
At last, after dragging out all of her own lies and exposing her pathetic sincerity, Ai covered her face with trembling hands.
Her sorrowful sobs leaked through the gaps between her fingers.
Without saying a word, Kaoru took hold of Ai’s small shoulders and pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly.
At last, with her emotions bursting apart, Ai clutched Kaoru’s shirt like a baby and cried out, "I like you... I love you... Kaoru! I love you!"
"!"
At last, when Ai’s sincerity reached his heart, the tingling sensation that swept through his whole body made the hands of Kaoru, who was holding her, twitch.
Even in this moment, Ai didn’t want Kaoru to move away from her by even 1 mm.
Ignoring the way Kaoru’s skin was being scraped by her nails, she gripped his shirt so tightly it seemed it might tear and buried herself against his chest like a little puppy begging for affection.
"I... I wanted to say this so badly... but I was scared and afraid... I thought the 『love』 I felt for Kaoru might not really be love! I was too scared to even say it, afraid my feelings might be lies!"
"..."
"I like you. Please don’t leave me. Love Ai. Look at Ai the way you do now. Even if Ai throws a tantrum, pouts, cries, or gets jealous—keep—keep—keep loving Ai the same way."
"......Ai."
Kaoru slowly pulled Ai away from him.
Even though she used all her strength to cling to his shirt and tried to keep burying her head against him because she didn’t want to be separated, she couldn’t overcome Kaoru’s strength.
As if she had never expected to be pulled away from his arms, Ai’s eyes instantly filled with despair as she looked at him.
But Kaoru seemed to want to calm her anxiety, so he brushed her tangled hair into place and gently wiped the tear-streaked face with careful hands.
At Kaoru’s incomprehensible behavior, Ai tilted her head slightly and said in a voice full of doubt, "...Kaoru is hiding something too, isn’t he?"
A woman’s tears are stronger than any weapon.
And a woman’s intuition is sharper than any radar.
Remembering that absolute truth once again, Kaoru gave an awkward smile and lowered his head, avoiding Ai’s gaze that seemed ready to pierce through him.
At that moment, he heard an auditory hallucination like a gunshot in his ear.
"...『Love』 and 『the desire to protect』 are different. I... I’m not someone who can do things like 『love』."
"......Kaoru loves me too. You like me too."
"...Ai."
"Liar. I can tell every time Kaoru lies. You’re not speaking from the heart, but because of me you keep pretending it’s not true, pretending you’re not, lying to yourself and repeating the same strange words over and over! There’s no way I wouldn’t know, since I’m the one who likes Kaoru."
"......"
Ai lifted her watery star-bright eyes to look at the boy, as if she had never been crying at all. It was the unwavering gaze of someone absolutely certain that her intuition had been right all along. It had been nearly impossible from the start to break Ai’s stubbornness.
The boy let out a sigh and opened and closed his mouth several times.
The boy was a loner. A different kind of loner from Ai. It had been decided from the moment he remembered his past life in this world.
There were times when a suffocating gloom and helplessness surged up in his chest, so strong that if he didn’t grab hold of the first person he saw and tell them everything, he felt like he would go mad.
Whether they believed him or not.
"Kaoru. Tell me."
But the boy had escaped, like a miracle, from the dark thoughts that had gripped his mind and dragged him toward the abyss.
The girl’s warm hand caressed his cheek.
The boy finally realized it.
That this was the moment to reveal his sincerity, fully and truly, before 『Ai Hoshino』 as 『Kamiki Kaoru』.
"I have... something to confess to you. I have a secret I haven’t told anyone either."
"Then tell me. I can accept anything if it’s Kaoru."
"You might call me insane. Even I still can’t believe it, even though three years have already passed. Even now, I’m so anxious that all of this I have to explain might be a dream that it feels like my head is about to split open."
A secret he would probably never tell anyone and carry for the rest of his life.
For the first time, Kaoru’s heart pounded with anxiety and trembling at the thought of confessing it.
"Will you listen... without running away?"
Not the indifferent, mature face he always wore, but the gaze of a fragile 15-year-old boy, full of fear and confusion and so close to breaking, looked up at her.
But Ai was resolute. Steadfast. She did not waver and trusted only Kaoru.
"Yeah. Tell me. Tell Ai your story."
After hearing Ai’s words, Kaoru quietly began to speak.
Three years ago, when he woke in the hospital after an unexplained accident on the stairs that left him with a head injury, the memories of his past life returned as if forgotten fragments were being reassembled, while his memories of this life remained incomplete.
That his past life had been as an American born in Missouri, and though he couldn’t explain every detail, he had served in a special unit known externally as Delta Force and, while there, participated in a program called [Treadstone] under the CIA.
And that the [Treadstone] program was ultimately about becoming a dog of the CIA after having one’s emotions cut away, assassinating people deemed a threat to the CIA under the pretext of national interest.
"......"
The more Ai listened to Kaoru’s story, the more violently her eyes shook.
But he understood.
It wasn’t that she couldn’t trust his words; she was simply shocked that he had been able to keep his sanity after going through something this absurd.
Kaoru knew that, and feeling his trembling body gradually calm, he continued in a steady voice.
"I... did something unforgivable.
I carried out an assassination mission on a Russian politician named Vladimir Nesky, who was the father of a girl. I killed him in a hotel. With a pistol. I killed them. The couple were staying in the same room, so I disguised it to look like an accident caused by marital discord.
But it was a trap. Ward Abbott and Alexander Conklin, who had embezzled 20 million dollars in CIA operating funds to buy Russian oil company bonds, deceived me and had me assassinate Nesky under the pretext of my first mission.
In the end, I killed innocent people. The fact that I made a little girl... all alone, can never be changed."
"Kaoru."
As if confessing things that had happened yesterday, Kaoru said it while staring blankly into space with empty eyes.
"I planned the assassination of the target, made contact, and then hid inside a yacht for five days. When I finally thought it was time and went in, the target’s children were there too. The kids were sitting on his lap.
They looked at me in shock. The moment our eyes met... I hesitated to pull the trigger. Because of that brief moment, I failed the mission and ran. I got shot. I lost consciousness and drifted at sea, then was miraculously rescued by a fishing boat.
I lost all my memories.
I remembered who I was, what my name was, everything else was normal, but only who I had been was gone.
All I had was the bank and account number written on the laser marker implanted in my body, and I went all the way to Germany with just that. But even there, I drifted. I had nothing left after losing my memory.
I found the safe at the bank and opened it, and there was cash and a passport. In the lower compartment there were pistols and forged passports too. The police started chasing me because I looked suspicious, and when I ran to the American embassy they immediately tried to arrest me, apparently because information had gotten in.
I ran. I kept running. And there was a woman who helped me. At first, I just wanted a ride. She looked like she needed money, so I tried to sweet-talk her by offering money and planned to ride with her to another country.
But she ended up on the CIA’s list because of me. She—Marie—gave up her ordinary life because of one incident dragged into by me and ran away with me.
Then two years later, while we were fleeing together in India, she was shot and killed. Because innocent people died because of me, and I even lost the person I loved. I wanted the truth, and with nothing but revenge against them in my heart, I killed Marie and went to Europe to find the people who had been chasing me.
And finally I found out. To hide their embezzlement, they framed me and, at the same time, tried to eliminate me so they could bury everything for good... that was why they were after me. But do you know what’s even more fucked up?"
Kaoru paused and looked at Ai.
The blue eyes that looked as though they might collapse at any moment met the star-bright eyes already shimmering with tears.
"I. I was the one who volunteered for that damn program. In the end, all of this started because I went to [Treadstone] at 415 West 71st Street of my own free will and volunteered."
"...Kaoru."
At last, Kaoru spilled tears and looked at Ai with a pained expression that was impossible to tell apart from laughter or crying.
Ai ended up crying too.
It was a story too heavy and terrifying for her to fully understand, but she could finally see that Kaoru was suffering because he could not escape the memories of his past life.
The girl could at last understand the indescribable sense of strangeness she had felt from Kaoru, the loneliness and emptiness that sometimes showed through, and even the mature gentleness he showed her, the resolve to sacrifice himself without hesitation in order to protect her.
"I’m someone who can’t be forgiven.
I’m not the kind of guy who deserves love like this from you. Every time I see your smile, the memories of the past keep overlapping. I’m so confused about whether I’m even someone who should be by your side.
No matter how different this world is, my memories are as vivid as yesterday! I’m afraid of losing you, who gives 『love』 like this to a murderer like me, all over again in an instant.
I keep hesitating because I’m scared it’ll happen again, even as you come into my heart.
I’m terrified that you’ll get caught up in me just like in my past life, and that you, who should have lived an ordinary and happy life if you had never met me, will disappear again like that.
Ai. Ai. Ai... am I... really someone who deserves to live an ordinary life like nothing happened? Am I—am I—!"
Having shared the pain and secrets they had wanted to hide, they had become the most intimate and at the same time the one and only relationship in the world.
Listening to Kaoru’s confession—his pain and sorrow exposed to her for the first time—Ai unconsciously realized that a crack had opened in her own persona, in the darkness of her heart.
She wanted, fully and truly as 『Ai Hoshino』, to embrace 『Kamiki Kaoru』.
『Love』, 『affection』.
The warm, selfless embrace Kaoru had once given her.
"Kaoru. Look at me."
Ai cupped Kaoru’s face with both hands and lifted it so he would look at her.
Within her eyes, once so clouded with sorrow and confusion, a bright starlight now shimmered with certainty.
"You’re Kaoru. Kamiki Kaoru! The Kamiki Kaoru I love, and who loves me! Whatever you were in your past life, that means absolutely nothing to me! The person in front of me is a 15-year-old boy, younger than me, whose birthday comes later, and who comes to check on me first and asks if I’m okay when I’m feeling bad. He’s the kind and gentle Kaoru who hugs a wounded, lonely girl tightly like an adult and comforts her!"
"...Ai."
"Don’t blame yourself. Kaoru didn’t do anything wrong. Okay? It’s not Kaoru’s fault. The past life is just the past life, right? Whether Kaoru was some scary agent guy back then or whatever else— the person who is with me now is you, Kaoru. The Kaoru I love."
"......"
Kaoru, who had been staring blankly at Ai, felt his heart settle as if by magic at the warmth of her hand caressing his face.
Was this how it felt?
Only then did he finally understand why Ai had wanted and loved him so much.
Carefully, Kaoru raised a hand, took hold of the one stroking his face, and drew her into his arms.
Warm, soft, and gentle skin pressed against his hand.
She was small and slight enough to fit neatly in his arms, yet he could feel a vastness in her heart that he could not dare to measure.
Ai responded in kind, hugging Kaoru tightly and wrapping her arms around his back.
His trembling breath settled over the top of Ai’s head. Just like her, he was straining to feel even a little more of the girl he held in his arms, and she could feel his arms around her.
The solid upper body and muscles pressed with a force that seemed unwilling to consider the circumstances of the girl’s small, delicate frame, and Ai surrendered herself to that strength, feeling fullness and safety swell in her chest.
The only light to rely on was the orange glow of the fireplace.
Because she had finally pulled out all the heavy stones she had been carrying alone in her heart and felt light again—
Into that emptied space, 『Ai Hoshino』 began to squeeze in anew, filling it with her own color.
In this place with nothing but the crackle of burning logs inside the fireplace, not even the sound of insects outside.
Suddenly, a strange sensation surged up from deep inside Ai’s heart. She slipped out of Kaoru’s arms and firmly clasped the back of the boy’s head with both hands.
With her breathing slightly quickened before she even realized it, from a feeling she had never experienced before, Ai finally opened her mouth.
"Kaoru... do you remember what you told me at the workshop...?"
"...What?"
"【Feel what it is you most want to do right now. Throw away the false mask you’re wearing... and... enjoy yourself, exactly as you are now....】"
"......"
Like the flames roaring in the fireplace, hot and vivid in color.
Looking at the crimson starlight blazing brilliantly inside Kaoru’s blue eyes, Ai said, "Is that still valid?"
"Yeah."
Kaoru answered, and at that instant, he had no choice but to go rigid at the sweet scent of Ai filling his entire field of vision.
So close.
And warm, soft, and tender.
At the unfamiliar sensation on his lips.
Kaoru stared blankly at Ai, who had closed her eyes and pressed her lips to his.
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