"Hey, Ryo, where did you go?"
Horikita Suzune looked around in all directions but couldn't find any sign of Kitagawa Ryo. With no other choice, she took out her phone and dialed his number. The good news was that he picked up almost instantly, making her let out a breath of relief.
"Oh, something came up on my end. I saw you and Manabu were really engrossed in your conversation, so I didn't want to interrupt."
Ryo's tone was as calm as ever, but Suzune felt an inexplicable unease in her heart. Clutching the phone tightly, she tried to keep her tone light:
"I just asked my brother, and it turns out he doesn't play piano at all. Looks like the intel you had wasn't 100% accurate, huh?"
"No need to cover for me. That was a lie I made up from the start. And it's not the only lie I told you, Suzune."
Kitagawa Ryo shook his head, denying it outright.
That had been part of his original strategy.
From his simulation with Karuizawa Kei, Ryo had learned an important lesson:
If you intentionally exaggerate a particular kind of pain, it eventually loses its authenticity. The emotional impact becomes dulled, even numb.
So he had chosen to exaggerate Horikita Manabu's excellence. Since Suzune had already envisioned her brother as an unattainable ideal, Ryo had simply made that god-like image shine even brighter.
He painted it with even thicker layers of gold and placed it on a higher pedestal.
In doing so, he hoped Suzune would be forced to reevaluate her brother, realize the illusion, and find her own path.
"I'm waiting for you downstairs at the special building."
Some things, he realized, were better said face-to-face. With that, Ryo ended the call.
He gave a nod to the driver in the front seat. The car door opened, and Kitagawa Ryo stepped out once more into the world.
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"Suzune."
As Horikita Suzune descended the stairs, she immediately spotted Kitagawa Ryo waiting by the exit. It was midday, and most guests were inside the shops having lunch, so the area was much less crowded than it had been earlier.
But even if the place had been packed wall to wall, Suzune was confident she would have spotted him instantly.
She had once joked while working part-time at the dessert shop "Hotaru" that Kitagawa should be the one out front pulling in customers. He could probably lure in seventy or eighty percent of the female students just with his face.
"Did something happen with Manabu? I saw some of his classmates rushing around looking anxious."
Suzune didn't even have time to ask why Kitagawa had disappeared so suddenly—he had already shifted the conversation elsewhere.
"...There was a problem with their class's performance. One lead actor and the pianist have gone missing, and some stage props were deliberately damaged."
"That sounds serious."
Kitagawa was a little surprised. He didn't know much about Manabu's experience during his first and second years since, by the time Kitagawa had enrolled at Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School, Manabu was already in Class 3-A.
At that time, even Class 3-A didn't have the full forty students, which suggested his earlier school years hadn't been easy either—possibly including student expulsions.
Kitagawa himself had never participated in a cultural festival, but he had spent enough time at the school to make an educated guess: the evaluation criteria were probably tied to total revenue.
If that were the case, then Manabu's Class 1-A had likely become the target of the lower-ranked classes.
Just like in the sports festival Kitagawa had experienced, as long as one identified the key roles in an opposing class's plan and took action against them, the whole performance could fall apart.
"Because time is limited."
Kitagawa glanced toward the third floor of the special building. Many guests who had just finished lunch on the second floor were beginning to head upstairs. If Class 1-A couldn't start their performance right away, other stores would steal their crowd.
"Manabu probably won't make it."
Kitagawa made his judgment based on the time. He knew that Manabu tended to favor passive defense over aggressive tactics, which suited the image of a top-tier A-class student.
Manabu was undoubtedly talented—but that didn't mean he was immune to failure.
After this, Manabu would likely start paying closer attention to the coordinated actions of the other three classes. But that awareness would come at the cost of losing this cultural festival.
Suzune's expression was calmer than Kitagawa had expected. But given the deep conversation she'd had with her brother earlier, it made sense.
Rather than being shaken by her brother's defeat, Suzune's eyes now held a glint of frustration.
It wasn't disappointment—it was the frustration of someone who wanted to help, but lacked the power to do so.
Kitagawa smiled. That was all he needed to see to feel reassured.
"It's not like you could've predicted this would happen, and we're only here for a day anyway."
He tried to comfort her, then paused before continuing:
"After today's festival, I'll be leaving."
"Huh? Why?"
Suzune's heart clenched slightly. She turned to look directly into Kitagawa's eyes, searching for some hint in his expression.
"Because I've fulfilled the purpose I came here for."
Kitagawa wore his usual relaxed smile.
"Suzune, you've already surpassed Manabu—didn't he say so himself? What could be more convincing than that?"
"You were the first to open a new path, even if just a small one, even if it was just a single step. But you've gone beyond him."
Suzune opened her mouth to speak, but Kitagawa cut her off.
"I have to admit, I approached you at first purely to use you. I didn't expect you to beat Manabu—I just wanted to see the drama between siblings unfold. But somehow, we became friends. It's been... a surprising journey."
His words snuffed out a budding emotion within Suzune that even she hadn't fully realized.
So she simply nodded.
"I'm glad I met you too, Ryo."
"I was your first friend, right? Even if you make a lot of friends in the future, you won't forget me, will you?"
Kitagawa had carefully avoided doing anything ambiguous during their time living together. Even though they shared a roof, Suzune's memories of him were filled only with the mundane details of daily life.
It was perfect.
Suzune did feel something strange in her heart, but she followed his lead and placed that emotion into the safe category of a "first friend."
After all, she'd never known what love felt like, never even thought about it before.
"I'm planning to visit other countries after this. I might not be able to contact you for a while, but I'll call when I can."
Like something from a novel—the parting of friends. Suzune, unaware of the true nature of her feelings, simply pushed them down.
"Okay, I understand."
Now that her world had expanded, she knew there were countless paths ahead of her. And this wasn't goodbye forever.
"How long will you be gone?"
"Let's just say... Merry Christmas in advance."
Suzune's shoulders sank slightly.
"So you won't be back until after Christmas?"
"Maybe. I'll be traveling far. I want to open dessert shops all around the world."
His familiar playful tone made her smile. His breath formed soft white puffs in the air—then disappeared without a sound.
And just like that, they parted ways.
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Another Christmas.
Horikita Suzune listened as nearby children excitedly shared stories about Santa Claus—a white-bearded old man in a red hat, riding a sleigh pulled by reindeer and climbing down chimneys to leave gifts in red stockings by the bed. From their excited voices, she could tell how eagerly they awaited that magical sleigh's arrival.
She brought her hands together and exhaled warm breath into her palms. As midnight approached, the crowds on the street visibly thinned.
What met her eyes was a landscape of pure white snow and starry skies—a world filled with silence and serenity.
It was a crystal-clear night, like one preserved inside a glass bottle.
She thought she had probably fallen in love with this holiday when she was fourteen. In that sense, today was a day for remembrance.
After all, ten whole years had passed.
Suzune stood up to stretch and warm herself. She had declined invitations from both friends and family for Christmas gatherings. No one would have guessed she was wandering alone out here.
The thick snow beneath her feet crunched as she carefully made her way along, bundled tightly in her winter clothes like an awkward little penguin.
Some stores on either side of the street remained open. Rows of brightly decorated Christmas trees, adorned with tiny gifts, stood before each shop, forming what looked like a small forest.
On the windows were colorful spray-painted messages of "Merry Christmas," and store clerks dressed as Santa Claus energetically called out to passersby.
It was the day after Kitagawa Ryo had left that Suzune learned of his background from her parents. In truth, there was no blood relation between Ryo and the Horikita family—he was adopted.
His biological father was none other than the chairman of Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School, Sakayanagi.
In other words, Sakayanagi Arisu was Ryo's biological younger sister.
Ryo's departure was simply a return to the Sakayanagi family.
Suzune didn't see it as bad news. In fact, she felt that with the Sakayanagi family's support, Ryo might be able to achieve his dreams even faster.
Maybe one day, she really would see his dessert shops spread across the globe.
At first, they stayed in touch like ordinary friends. What annoyed her a little, though, was that Ryo didn't choose the same high school as she did—he didn't apply to Advanced Nurturing High School. After some consideration, Suzune also gave up on enrolling there.
She knew that even without the school's resources, she had enough confidence in herself to achieve her goals. That school was merely a springboard.
Ryo later enrolled in a prestigious medical-affiliated high school, while Suzune attended another top-ranked high school in Tokyo. Her goal was to major in literature at the University of Tokyo.
Suzune still kept her long hair. As she matured, more and more boys confessed their feelings to her, but she never accepted a single one.
She sometimes pondered her feelings toward Ryo. Was it really just because he was her "first" friend?
Many had complimented her hair over the years, but no one else had ever made her feel that subtle, skin-deep joy—so delicate and real.
Eventually, she realized it was because he was the first.
He had been the one to first see the softest, most vulnerable part of her, and helped her change.
After entering university, Ryo spent more and more time on his research.
He was the most gifted among them. You'd never believe he used to be a pastry chef.
Complicated drug formulas, experimental results, chemical equations—he seemed able to memorize them after just one glance.
Suzune knew well what Ryo's true goal was: to completely cure Sakayanagi Arisu's congenital heart disease.
He was obsessed with curing his sister's illness, almost to a pathological degree.
So much so that he often missed Suzune's calls.
Like now.
With a sigh, she ended the call and stood in front of a massive building.
A man in a white lab coat stepped out to get some air. A security guard bowed politely to him.
This was Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, officially affiliated with Harvard Medical School.
Ryo spotted a familiar figure and, after a moment of surprise, smiled.
"Merry Christmas?"
"Merry Christmas."
It was a visit from across the ocean, a reunion from thousands of miles away.
Ryo found himself at a loss for words.
"...Your hairstyle today is lovely."
"Mm."
Suzune stepped forward, her long hair dancing in the snowy Christmas night.
"I styled it for you."
As she affirmed her feelings, she spoke softly:
"I think... what I feel for you might not be friendship."
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[Congratulations, player. You have unlocked the ending: "Travel Companion"]
[Travel Companion: Life is like a journey against the current. I too am but a traveler. Let us not fail those we first meet with sincere hearts.]
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