"...Cough."
One cough escaped her. Her head felt a little hazy, whether from the medicine or the cold, but compared to how she’d felt before taking it, she was much better now.
Ruby sat with her knees drawn up and buried her face in them, feeling as if everything that had happened at the hospital was scattering away in her mind like a dream.
A tiny crack had formed in the heart of a young, innocent girl, but it hardly mattered. Even in the car, what she had experienced at the hospital—the sudden reunion with her birth mother from her past life, the truth she had been trying so hard to look away from, and the betrayal she had felt—had been a shock she couldn’t ignore.
But Kaoru’s gentle hand, stroking her head, and Ai’s voice welcoming her home with sparkling starlit eyes the moment they returned.
Those things made even the wounds and tears of her past-life ties seem unimportant... and filled her with a brazen kind of courage, as if nothing else mattered anymore.
She had been born as the child of her favorite and second-favorite people, and she was living while being showered with the bright, tender love they had never been able to give her before.
Whether you remembered me or not—things like that...
"......"
The egg porridge Ai had cooked by hand didn’t taste bad at all.
Kaoru—Papa—had looked a little worried, but when he realized Ai’s egg porridge was tastier than expected, relief had flashed across his face, and that made Ruby snicker again.
How much did Papa love Mama that he couldn’t even bring himself to say it tasted bad, and just fretted like that?
Both Mama and Papa.
Even when they were playing with their little children, they never managed to hide how much they thought of each other; it always showed in their eyes and expressions.
Ruby didn’t dislike that. If anything, it made her feel happy too. When Papa thought of Mama, and when Mama thought of Papa in return, the bond that only blood relatives and children could feel seemed so special.
Her parents in her past life had loved each other, but it hadn’t reached the same level of tenderness or the feeling of loving with complete [sincerity] that she felt between Kaoru and Ai.
Among the people Ruby had met in this life, her parents were the only ones who gave off the sense that they would devote everything they had to loving and protecting the person they cared for.
Come to think of it... they weren’t exactly the same, but maybe they were a little alike. Or maybe they were exactly alike. Or maybe they were just similar...
The only person she had ever felt that kind of emotion toward in her past life was...
"......"
Ruby walked over to the chair and sat down, then opened the drawer and took out all the letters she had hidden deep inside.
She counted them. None were missing. The envelopes too... she couldn’t quite remember their final condition, but there were no signs they had been opened, so she felt relieved.
As Ruby stared at the letters, a wave of aching longing suddenly rose in her chest, and she found herself biting her lip softly.
Did the teacher remember Ruby?
Longing became curiosity, and when that curiosity changed into a wish to reach out to the precious connection from her past life...
The teacher’s warm voice and hands, his gentle smile and heart—
Ruby remembered them. The feelings of Tendouji Sarina, which had gradually faded over the happy days of her life, little by little.
As the image and sounds in her head became clearer, Ruby took her eyes off the letters, gathered them all together, put them back in the drawer, and hurried out to the living room.
The longing she had carefully kept tucked away in one corner of her heart had rebounded because of what happened at the hospital and now burst out like an explosion.
If it was the teacher, he would surely remember her.
Tendouji Sarina. The happy memories of laughing and chatting with the teacher while fangirling over her favorite star, sharing the little dreams she wanted to fulfill, and the ordinary days they would build together once her illness miraculously got better and she was discharged.
The kind teacher who held her hand until the very end.
He would surely remember her, just as he always had.
"..."
When Ruby went out into the living room, she found Kaoru on the terrace beyond the veranda, talking on the phone.
Through the slightly open door of Kaoru’s private study, she could see Aqua reading a book.
Kaoru’s computer was in the study, and Ai’s laptop was in the master bedroom they shared as a couple.
Ruby trotted into the bedroom.
"Since so much time has passed... maybe the teacher moved to a different hospital."
First, she needed to search for the phone number of the general hospital where she had been admitted and call to find out whether the teacher was still working there.
When she opened the bedroom door and stepped inside, she heard the sound of running water from the bathroom at the back of the room.
It seemed Ai was taking a shower.
"Ugh!"
Ruby walked over to the vanity desk, climbed onto the chair, opened the laptop sitting off to one side, and pressed the power button.
When it powered on, the wallpaper greeted her with a photo of Kaoru, Ai, and the twins together.
Ruby’s eyes sparkled, and she smiled.
"As expected—Mama♥"
Ruby, who had decided that this was the first thing she would brag about the moment she met the teacher, placed her tiny index finger on the laptop touchpad and clicked the web browser.
〔 JAHOO! JAPAN 〕
Nervous excitement surged through her pounding heart. She quickly typed the name of the hospital in Miyazaki Prefecture where she had been admitted with her small hands and pressed the search button.
Then—
"Huh? There’s no lotion!?"
A flustered voice came from the bathroom.
Ruby turned her head toward it, and just then the bathroom door opened. Through the pale mist of steam, Ai peeked her face out with a towel wrapped around her hair.
Not wanting to miss the chance, Ruby waved and shouted at her.
"Mama!"
"Ah! Ruby~♥ When did you get here~?"
"Just now! Mama, are you looking for lotion?"
"Yeah. The lotion—ah! Ruby, Mama’s vanity... um... could you open the first drawer? There should be a small cosmetics box in there."
"Okay!"
Ruby opened the first drawer as Ai had said. Among the neatly arranged items, there was a small box made of a luxurious material.
Seeing the small Korean and Japanese characters written in elegant script, Ruby guessed this must be the cosmetics box Ai had mentioned.
She took out the cosmetics box and set it on the vanity, then froze when she spotted a familiar keychain goods item inside the drawer.
"Huh?"
Ruby’s gaze wavered for a moment. She had never dreamed that the exact same goods she had given the teacher would be sitting in this drawer by coincidence.
With a puzzled look, Ruby picked up the goods and examined it from side to side. It had been cleaned, but because it hadn’t been properly cared for, there were patches of discoloration and muddy stains spread across it.
Was there any reason to keep a damaged keychain goods item tucked away in this drawer like this... unless it was a treasured gift from a precious fan?
Ruby opened the box, took out the lotion, and trotted back to Ai with it.
"Mama! Here!"
"Thanks, Ruby~"
"Hey—Mama! This is the limited-edition keychain goods from the album, right?"
When Ruby held up the keychain and asked, Ai’s starlit eyes wavered once.
"Ah... yeah~ That’s right. Mama got it back from her [precious fan]."
No matter how well she hid it, Ai’s smile still carried a trace of sadness, and Ruby tightened her grip on the keychain.
She knew it because she was a fan. She felt it because she was the child of that fan.
The precious fan Mama was talking about... was no longer someone who existed in this world.
—A precious person.
All at once, the gears that had been misaligned in Ruby’s mind clicked into place and started turning.
Come to think of it—
Ruby’s eyes darted wildly for a moment.
Why had last December’s press conference suddenly come to mind?
Ruby walked toward the vanity as if possessed, a cold, chilling sensation brushing down her spine.
Kaoru’s sorrowful eyes as he gave a brief, regretful answer about the obstetrician who had died in a fall while helping with Ai’s delivery came back to her.
Ruby shook her head and stared at the laptop with trembling eyes.
The exact same goods she had given the teacher, found in the drawer.
Mama, who had been admitted to the same hospital as Sarina in her past life in order to give birth.
Why... if it was Goro-sensei... surely...
【 Me? Well, Sarina-chan knows what an obstetrics and gynecology department is, right? I majored in obstetrics and gynecology, and I’m a resident now. 】
Thump, thump, thump—her heartbeat grew more violent with every passing second. Clutching the keychain goods tightly in her left hand, Ruby clicked the "News" tab instead of the general hospital’s homepage that had appeared on screen, and—
she kept telling herself over and over that it wasn’t true, that it was a lie, that her bad feeling had to be wrong, waiting anxiously until the homepage finished loading.
Please—please let it be wrong.
【 Missing man found... general hospital obstetrician Amamiya Goro 】
"Ah."
A short cry slipped out of her open mouth.
Ruby’s eyes lost their light and turned dull. At the same time, she felt the blood in her whole body go cold. A sound she couldn’t tell was tinnitus or noise ringing in her head washed over the hearing of the little girl.
Staring blankly, she clicked the article from last December, and as if mocking Ruby’s desperate hope, a large photo of Amamiya Goro appeared at the very top.
She looked at the article in a daze. It said he had been presumed dead in a fall four years ago, and the missing person was actually the doctor in charge of the famous idol singer [Ai].
Why hadn’t she realized it?
Why. Even though every clue had pointed to the same truth—
Why.
"..."
Tears spilled from Ruby’s eyes. Only after she noticed them running down her cheeks did she hurriedly shut off the internet and close the laptop, as if fleeing.
No. No, that can’t be.
The teacher... the precious teacher who remembered Sarina... there was no way. There was no way.
The person Ai had called her precious fan.
The teacher who had been an obstetrician.
The exact same keychain goods she had given the teacher.
Ruby hugged the keychain goods tightly to her chest and walked out into the living room with a blank face.
Holding it so tightly she wouldn’t lose it, she turned her gaze and met Kaoru’s eyes as he came in from the veranda.
"Hah... Ruby? You should be lying down in your room if you’re sick... what’s wrong, Ruby? Why are you like this?"
Seeing Ruby’s deathly pale face and the tears streaming down it, Kaoru immediately sensed something was wrong and rushed over to check on his daughter.
"......"
If it was the teacher, he would surely remember her.
Tendouji Sarina. The happy memories of laughing and chatting with the teacher while fangirling over her favorite star, sharing the little dreams she wanted to fulfill, and the ordinary days they would build together once her illness miraculously got better and she was discharged.
The kind teacher who held her hand until the very end.
He would surely remember her, just as he always had.
But now he no longer existed.
The precious person. The teacher. The teacher who remembered Sarina.
Now, no longer—
At her father’s startled voice, at the warm hand touching her face—
and from that rebound.
The young heart of Ruby, who had realized the despairing truth that the teacher no longer existed in this world, shattered to pieces.
Overwhelmed by pain that felt as if her heart were collapsing, Ruby sank to the floor and finally burst into the tears she had been holding back, sobbing out loud.
"Waaahhhhhh!!!"
"Huh—?! Ruby!"
Startled by Ruby’s sudden wail, Ai came running out of the bedroom.
Seeing their little daughter collapsed in Kaoru’s arms, crying her heart out, Ai was so shocked that she hurried over to check Ruby’s condition too.
"No—nooooo—!!! Sob—sob! Waaahhh! It’s a lie! It’s a lieeee!!! Ugh—waaahhh!!!"
Ruby screamed until her throat felt torn apart, thrashing in Ai and Kaoru’s arms as she tried to deny the horrible reality.
But was it too much pain for such a young girl to bear?
"......"
Even by evening, Ruby had barely touched her egg porridge and was lying back in bed again.
She should be taking her medicine and getting better. She shouldn’t be making her parents worry.
But Ruby, dazed and crying, couldn’t get out of bed.
The smile of her birth mother in her past life kept circling in her mind.
Goro’s smile kept surfacing in her head too.
Two smiles of opposite colors that she would never see again.
Betrayal, and the longing and despair that had grown overwhelmingly in proportion to it.
'It hurts so much.'
The fact that she had to endure this pain and hurt alone, without being able to tell anyone, hurt so badly.
Her chest burned with a searing ache, painful as if it were melting.
Even after taking medicine, her head was spinning and her body felt hot.
With a burning headache and dizziness—deep in the dark pre-dawn—
"Ugh—bleegh! Ugh—bleegh! Hrk—"
Overwhelmed by nausea, Ruby suddenly lurched up from bed and vomited onto the floor.
She had gotten up too quickly and lost her balance, slipping and falling straight down from the bed. As she let out a pained groan—
"Ruby?!"
Aqua, who had been unable to sleep because he was worried about his little sister and had stayed awake, hurriedly got up, turned on the light, and checked Ruby’s condition.
"Huff—haa... haa..."
Ruby’s face was flushed bright red. Aqua forcefully held onto his sinking heart and did his best to stay calm and rational.
Looking at the vomit, the egg porridge hadn’t been digested at all, and Ruby’s condition was clearly bad. Above all, her fever was far too high.
Since the medicine she’d taken at noon had clearly been working, a sudden worsening like this was a very rare case.
As for side effects from the medicine, infants and young children were far more sensitive to medication than adults, so if that had been the cause, she would have started reacting immediately after taking it at noon.
'This is bad!'
But it was dangerous to make a hasty judgment without knowing the exact mechanism.
Aqua bit his lip and, holding Ruby tightly in his arms, shouted with all his strength.
"Dad!!!!! Mom!!!!!!!"
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