[Life is always like this, success is only ever a coincidence, while failure persists to the very end.]
[Fate is like a perfectly balanced scale, always placing a heavy weight on your side the moment you reach the peak.]
[You stood there, staring blankly at Toru Kitahara as he collapsed once again. It wasn't until the audience started calling for an ambulance and the judges rushed onto the stage to surround him that you finally reacted, your boyfriend had fainted again.]
[The ambulance soon arrived at the theater entrance.]
[As his girlfriend, you accompanied him to the hospital.]
[Throughout the entire ride, he showed no sign of waking up, though his body was burning with fever. You held his hand tightly. The suddenness of it all left you unable to think. You could only murmur his name over and over.]
[When you reached the hospital, the initial examination results came out quickly, it was inflammation.]
It didn't sound too serious.
Kita's heart, which had been clenched tight, eased a little.
[The inflamed area was the pancreas. For now, the doctors would treat it without surgery, but if things worsened, he would need intensive care and possibly an operation.]
[As expected, under the hospital's careful treatment, Toru Kitahara regained consciousness after a few days.]
[Seeing your worried face, he wanted to comfort you, but the words wouldn't come out.]
[Because Toru Kitahara understood his own condition better than anyone.]
[You couldn't understand why he had suddenly collapsed.]
[So Toru Kitahara told you the truth, his pancreas had been problematic for quite some time, and his health was steadily declining.]
[That was when you finally understood why he had once turned down your confession.]
[Toru Kitahara looked miserable. He told you that he had lied to you for nearly a year, but the most important lie, the one time that truly mattered, he couldn't make you believe it. For a liar, he said, that was a complete failure.]
"…You're not a liar."
Kita hurriedly pulled out her phone, ready to call Kitahara-kun.
No, that wouldn't do. He had to go to the hospital for a checkup immediately. So many illnesses could be cured if caught early, delay only made them worse.
But when she tapped on his name, she didn't know what to say to him.
Helpless, she continued her simulation, searching for ways to help him.
[Toru Kitahara even regretted accepting your confession. It had only brought unnecessary sorrow.]
[He had planned to use his brief life to weave a lie that he didn't love you. But his heart had softened, and he couldn't resist your affection.]
What a fool.
To be sick and still hide it.
Love isn't wrong. Do the sick not deserve to love?
Besides, I was the one who confessed.
Kita could understand his feelings, but she could not agree with his actions.
Because she believed that love was the only thing humanity could feel that transcended both time and space.
[By late April, after half a month of rest, Toru Kitahara was discharged from the hospital.]
[He kept his illness secret and told no one else.]
[To him, if his sickness interfered with his daily life, that would be unacceptable.]
[During the two weeks he spent in the hospital, you once asked him if he still had any unfulfilled wishes.]
[Toru Kitahara only shook his head lightly.]
["Every day holds the same value," he said.]
[Hearing that, you never brought up words like "last wish" again.]
[You thought that if the person suffering the most wasn't showing] sadness, then for others to shed tears for him was nothing but needless pity.]
[You couldn't help but recall that trip to Enoshima, when your boyfriend had said that if possible, he wanted to live another ten years.]
[Perhaps…]
[Toru Kitahara wasn't nearly as strong as he appeared.]
[After being discharged, he returned to his usual routine. At school, he was sociable and well-liked.]
[In private, he spent his free time with you, taking you to see new and wonderful things, always making you smile.]
[Toru Kitahara was like a treasure chest as each time you opened it, it filled you with countless moments of joy.]
[It felt as though nothing had changed, except that among his belongings were now numerous medicines, a glucometer, and a lancet.]
[Under the toll of illness, his body had only grown slightly thinner.]
[You did your best not to dwell on his condition, and Toru Kitahara never showed weakness before you.]
"What should I do?"
This approach was nothing but self-deception, treating the symptoms without curing the cause.
Was she really supposed to just watch Toru Kitahara die, little by little?
[As spring ended and the days grew hotter, half a year had passed since you became a couple. The diary that recorded your moments together had grown thick. Every time Toru Kitahara wrote in it, his pen moved slowly, as if he wanted to imprint every second you shared into his memory.]
[A few days ago, you secretly looked up medical information and discovered that the survival rate for pancreatitis wasn't low at all. Mild cases were hardly fatal, and even severe cases had a 70 percent survival rate. Moreover, if the patient remained stable four months after onset, it generally meant the danger had passed, all that remained was to recover properly.]
"Huh?"
Kita's eyes widened.
Had she just worried for nothing?
Then…
Had Toru Kitahara lied to her all along? All that talk about his worsening condition and imminent death...
[When you realized you had been deceived, you stormed over to confront him. But that culprit, Toru Kitahara , actually laughed, saying that his illness had mostly healed and he wouldn't die so easily.]
Liar!
A complete liar!
"I…"
Ikuyo Kita was angry, but at the thought that Toru Kitahara wasn't dying, she felt her eyes sting with relief.
To trick her like this, he wouldn't get away with it.
She rubbed the corners of her slightly sore eyes and kept reading.
[With her boyfriend's health restored, she could finally put her heart at ease and devote herself to the piano. After such turmoil, her music reached a new height.]
["True mastery requires understanding of life."]
Kita steadied herself, trying to grasp the logic behind this artistic growth.
[That same September, Toru Kitahara participated in the Paganini International Violin Competition.]
[You accompanied him to Genoa, Italy - a city steeped in history, birthplace of the violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini.]
[By then, Toru Kitahara had already gained international recognition, his original piece at the Towa Music Competition had made him famous.]
[At the same time, many in the music world knew about his fragile health and the fact that he had fainted twice during performances.]
[During the Paganini competition, the organizers even prepared a team of highly specialized medical staff, fearing something might happen to the young prodigy.]
[But things took an unexpected turn.]
[Unexpectedly, nothing happened at all.]