Love Comes After Simulation

【You carried Nakajima Reina up the remaining steps, and you dined at the mountaintop, staying until sunset.】

【Under the pale moonlight, you revealed your name and kissed her lips in her dazed state.】

【As the kiss ended, tears streamed down the girl’s face.】

【The glistening tears, shimmering in the moonlight, fell one by one onto the gray cement floor.】

【You weren’t sure why the girl was crying. When you asked her, she didn’t tell you.】

【It was already very late, and you carried her down the mountain. Just as you arrived at the hospital room, the front desk nurse sent a message that Nakajima Yohei had arrived.】

【With no time to change clothes, Nakajima Reina lay under the covers, pretending to be asleep. You hid in the wardrobe and listened to the sounds outside.】

【Nakajima Yohei knocked twice, received no response, and then entered the room. The curtains by the bed were open, and the night light and moonlight illuminated the girl’s face. Nakajima Yohei looked at her sleeping face for a moment, gently closed the curtains, and quietly left.】

【The front desk nurse sent a message that the target had left. You emerged from the wardrobe, and Nakajima Reina sat up in bed. You looked at each other and laughed, your laughter echoing in the dim hospital room.】

【You waited outside the door while the girl wiped herself down and changed back into a blue hospital gown.】

【The dress she changed out of was stuffed into your backpack. She watched you with a flushed face as you did this. The dress had her sweat on it, and she wanted to ask you to clean it, but she was unable to do so.】

【You teased her, saying that the dress was your treasure and would never be washed again, making her face turn even redder. The girl’s shyness carried an air of grace, different from Asano Nao’s mortification or Ibuki Yuko’s indifference.】

【You sensed that the princess’s spirits were low. Did the journey to Mount Azuki make her melancholic? You weren’t sure, but you thought about the girl’s crystalline tears under the moonlight.】

【You tried to cheer up the girl, but your efforts only had a fleeting effect.】

【Visiting hours were about to end, and you said goodbye to the girl before taking the subway back.】

【A nurse came to check the room, and one of them quietly inquired about the girl’s romantic life. Her companion immediately pulled her away, and the room fell silent once more.】

【Lying on the pure white hospital bed, Nakajima Reina looked toward the window, seeing only a dim gray— the curtains were drawn.】

【She turned to the hydrangea at the head of the bed. The flowers had long since withered and decayed, turning into a gray-black mass floating in a paper cup.】

【As night fell, at the mountaintop of Azuki, beneath the silver moon, she heard the boy’s name. She realized that the boy of summer and spring was the same, and her heart fluttered, feeling that fate, which had consistently ignored her, had finally cast a gentle glance her way.】

【She thought of a dream from long ago, where the boy of spring leaped out of her heart and landed before her. Now, that dream had become reality.】

【The proximity of the boy’s face, the warmth of his lips, and the heat from his breath gave her external sweetness, while memories of spring and summer, nightly fantasies and longing, and the joy of their time together gave her internal happiness. The external and internal, the material and the spiritual, seemed to converge, making her feel that her happiness was like the vast night sky overhead, enveloping the whole world.】

【Yet, fate’s favor was merely an illusion. What she had forgotten lurked behind the door of her happiness, and when she was lost in self-satisfaction, it emerged, casting a cold glance at her.】

【The boy’s lips loosened, about to part from hers. She wanted to chase after him, to continue their intimacy. At that moment, a sharp pain in her heart struck.】

【The brief, slight pain was a common issue, fading after a moment. The pain itself did not bring sadness, but it ruthlessly pierced through her illusion of happiness. She recalled that she was going to die. The night sky quickly darkened, the cold wind chilled her heart, and exhaustion and weakness overwhelmed her body.】

【On the hospital bed, she raised her hand to touch her cheek, and tears began to flow again.】

Minami Yuuki paused the simulation, feeling somewhat oppressed.

His mind was entirely occupied by the girl he had yet to meet. He wondered if his simulated self could provide her with a future filled with happiness.

Nakajima Yohei loved his daughter deeply, and he must have tried every medical option available with the girl, but she still left this world in the future.

Could he change the future?

Feeling the warmth of Asano Nao’s profile, Minami Yuuki lifted his hand and hugged her waist, resting his face on her soft abdomen.

Asano Nao, startled, thought the boy might have had a troubling dream and placed her hand on his head.

After finding some comfort, Minami Yuuki returned to the simulation interface.

【After the trip to Mount Azuki, the girl seemed to have changed, or perhaps not. She still often gazed into the distance, but her eyes did not linger anywhere.】

【The first month of summer vacation passed, and Chitose Kazumi’s cousin was discharged. With the help of Nurse Kawauchi, you registered a new patient, an elderly lady on the fifth floor.】

【News of your activities spread through the sanatorium. In the entertainment room on the sixth floor, residents often pretended to pass by, peeking through the transparent glass on the door. Nakajima Reina felt embarrassed, so you covered the glass with newspapers and tape.】

【You often kissed in the corners of the entertainment room, by the bedside in the hospital room, and in the garden pavilion. Your relationship grew closer, but each time you expressed your love to the girl, she never responded.】

【After summer vacation, your meetings with Nakajima Reina decreased. You came every evening and stayed until the sun set.】

【At the end of September, Nakajima Yohei married Ibuki Honoka.】

“……”

“……?”

Minami Yuuki was shocked by the news.

Why had Nakajima Yohei and Ibuki Honoka suddenly gotten married?

He hadn’t done anything!

Wait, could it be……

He looked further down and, sure enough, it was Ibuki Yuko’s doing!

【It was only after Ibuki Yuko appeared in the hospital room that you learned the news. You “happened” to meet Nakajima Honoka, congratulated her on her marriage, and then pretended to be curious about her and Nakajima Yohei’s relationship. Nakajima Honoka, with a happy smile, told you everything.】

【After breaking up with her ex-boyfriend, her emotionally indifferent daughter suddenly had a change of heart and introduced her to Nakajima Yohei. After spending the summer together, they smoothly got married.】

【You hadn’t expected Ibuki Yuko to go this far, and you found it troublesome.】

Minami Yuuki looked at the simulation text with a mixed mood.

On one hand, he marveled at how cunning Mama Yuko was; on the other, he was anxious about Yuko’s potential interference.

The shut-in big sister in his arms was still the most obedient!

He tightened his embrace a bit more.

Returning his focus to the simulated life, he thought there shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Last time, with no substantial progress in his relationship with Nakajima Reina, Yuko took advantage of the gap.

This time, since he and Nakajima Reina were already in love, Yuko certainly wouldn’t be able to break them apart!

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