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As she ran to the bookstore, the orange-red sunset cast a warm glow, stretching her shadow long.
"Th-that, excuse me, the signing event held today…"
The next moment, she rushed in, stopping before a staff member, hands on her knees, asking breathlessly.
She knew her current appearance must look terrible and embarrassing. Under normal circumstances, she would never initiate a conversation with anyone, but she couldn't care less now.
"I'm so sorry, the signing event ended an hour ago," the staff member explained.
"Oh… is that so…"
The world before Komari seemed to lose its color. She lowered her shoulders and eyelids, silently walked out of the bookstore, found a corner under the eaves, and hid in the shadows, hugging her knees.
"Huh, did I just see some gloomy girl?"
Kiyono, who had just walked out of the bookstore, raised his eyebrows.
Komari felt that today was truly unlucky.
After making breakfast and lunch for her younger siblings in the morning, she was full of anticipation, ready to meet her divine lord. However, a call from the consul sister pulled her into the restaurant—Kiyono and Yanami had both taken the day off, and the store was severely understaffed.
Since the signing event would last until four or five in the afternoon, she thought it over and reluctantly agreed. Although she wanted to support him immediately, she was indeed needed here.
At noon, she deliberately left work half an hour early, then received a call from home—her second sister cried, saying that she and her brother had been playing hide-and-seek outside and her brother had gone missing. This instantly scared the girl out of her wits, and she rushed home, finally finding her brother climbing a tree to catch rhinoceros beetles in a small woods near the park.
Originally, Komari wanted to vent her anger and resentment, but looking at her younger brother, who was twisting his hands together and didn't dare look up, she fell silent. She still didn't blame him; she only patted his head and told him not to climb trees again next time.
Perhaps because of their family's poverty, her brother had always been the weakest and most bullied among his peers. Other children didn't even want to play with him, which was why he ran off to catch rhinoceros beetles by himself… As soon as she thought of this, she couldn't say anything more.
After bringing her siblings home, the hands of the clock had already turned to four o'clock. Even if she rushed to the station at the fastest speed, took the train, and ran over, the outcome remained unchanged.
"W-well, that's right… my life has always been like this…"
She looked at the sunset gradually sinking on the horizon, sinking into self-pity.
Just then, she suddenly heard footsteps approaching from a distance. Someone stood in front of her, blocking the twilight of the demon hour.
The girl vigilantly raised her head.
Immediately after, she saw a familiar face.
"You—why are you here?" the boy said her line.
"D-don't copy what I say!" Komari glared at him in dissatisfaction.
Kiyono carefully observed Komari in the corner. At this moment, the girl exuded an aura of depression and decadence—if she were in a white nightgown and placed on a TV, she would be a petite Sadako. It was clear she had encountered something sad.
And, combining that with her being curled up next to the bookstore…
"You came for the signing event? And you were late?"
Kiyono raised his eyebrows, not expecting this gloomy, unlucky girl to be his reader.
Komari just nodded with an almost imperceptible movement. She hesitated for a while, but ultimately couldn't suppress her longing and quietly looked up at Kiyono.
"Did you—did you see Fuyutsuki-sensei?"—that was the person's pen name.
"I did," Kiyono said seriously. "He's as handsome as I am, like a gentle man from a shoujo manga walking into reality. If he were a bit colder, he'd be the strikingly handsome, ascetic second male lead in a romance manga…"
He kept hinting.
However, Komari just let out two cold laughs, fully expressing her disdain and mockery.
"Do you want his book and autograph?" Kiyono asked.
"Th-the signing event is over, isn't it…?" She answered in a roundabout way.
"It's over, but I know the editor. Come with me."
"R-really? Is that true?"
Komari blinked suspiciously and subconsciously stood up, but her mind couldn't help imagining the scene she would face next: in the deserted store, without the cover of passersby, facing the editor and staff alone…
She instantly shrank back.
"I… I'd rather not go."
"Alright then, you can wait here for now, or go inside and sit for a bit."
Kiyono didn't force her. He said so and turned to walk into the bookstore—although all the paperback editions prepared by the publisher for the signing event had sold out, there must still be plenty of stock for regular sales.
Could he be serious?
The gloomy interior gradually became colorful.
After a while, Kiyono reappeared before her, with the slowly setting sun behind him.
Komari took a deep breath, trying to calm her emotions, but her efforts instantly vanished.
A small book appeared before her.
It was dazzlingly beautiful, even more captivating than the sunset at that moment.
With just one glance, she was absolutely sure this was her favorite book.
Komari dazedly took the book, looking down at the cover. Her usually lifeless eyes sparkled, and the corners of her lips unconsciously curved upward.
This cover is absolutely perfect! So many details—and the autograph is incredibly beautiful and elegant, perfectly matching her imagination. Oh, and a message, too!
So, so…
"So amazing—thank you!"
She suddenly looked up, giving Kiyono a rare smile, like the bright sky after rain.
Kiyono was stunned. Usually, Komari either sneered or gave a gloomy, eerie smile. This was the first time he had seen the girl show such a smile.
He smiled back. "You're not stuttering anymore."
"Wh-what…"
Under the glow of the sunset, Komari's pretty face instantly turned red. Her skin had always been very fair, even giving a crystal-clear impression, so the blush that spread across her cheeks was exceptionally noticeable at this moment.
The girl lightly brushed her hair, hiding her shyness.
That evening, Kiyono and the editor took the Shinkansen together to Osaka, preparing for tomorrow's second signing event.
Through the clean glass window, one could see the city at night—colorful neon lights, towering utility poles, and the rhythmic, steady sound of the train on the tracks.
Kiyono propped his chin and watched for a while, and at some point, as if he had thought of something, he took out his phone, filmed a night-view video out the window, then opened his chat with Yanami and sent it, with the message:
"We'll be in Osaka soon."
On the LINE interface, the girl's message from earlier was displayed—a picture of a steak covered in sauce, followed by the comment "Delicious."
After his message was sent, it showed as read within a minute.
"That's so nice, I want to travel to Osaka too. I've only been there during a school trip," Yanami sent an envious bunny emoji.
"I'm not going for fun."
"You'll have some time to play, right! And you can eat some local delicacies!"
—The latter sentence is your real purpose, isn't it…
Ding-dong. The girl quickly sent another message.
"So… when you get there, and when you're eating delicious food, remember to share it with me. I need to prepare for the future. Oh, but compared to Osaka, I actually want to go to Kyoto more…"
—Why don't you just look up guides online yourself!
Muttering a complaint inwardly, Kiyono still replied with "Got it," adding an emoji.
It was already nine o'clock at night when they arrived in Osaka. This tight schedule didn't allow for any sightseeing. The two simply had a quick yakiniku dinner and then hurried back to the hotel to rest—the yakiniku was treated by the editor, who paid with great generosity, clearly seeing a bright future in Kiyono.
The hotel wasn't overly luxurious, but it was much better than where he used to stay. After Kiyono returned to his room, he lazily lay down on the soft, large bed, not even wanting to move a muscle.
His eyelids grew heavy, fighting each other. He yawned and, in that position, took out his phone from his pocket and sent a few photos he had just taken to Yanami—these were the Osaka night view taken just after leaving the station; the décor and dishes of the yakiniku restaurant; and the current hotel room.
"They're all free, you know," he added happily.
This time, Yanami's reply was even simpler: she directly initiated a video call.
The buzzing of the phone made Kiyono raise his eyebrows. After a moment's hesitation, he pressed the accept button.
The next second, the girl's face appeared on the screen.
When he saw the scene on the other end, Kiyono's eyes widened involuntarily.
In the bright, cozy room, Yanami sat on a pink bed, her pink-and-white T-shirt collar loose, faintly revealing her slender, fair legs and feet. Most striking, however, were the silver-rimmed glasses perched on her nose.
Intellectual and cute—these two distinctly different qualities blended wonderfully on the girl.
"What kind of outfit is that?" he couldn't help but ask.
"Hmm? Are you talking about the glasses? I was studying just now, so I put them on," Yanami tilted her head, explaining.
…That's only part of it!
Of course, it's normal for a girl to dress casually at home, but don't just casually start a video call! It's not like you're a young couple in a long-distance relationship!
"Little Senior is already at the hotel, right? Can you walk around and show me? One picture isn't clear enough."
Yanami leaned closer to the camera, and then both the intellectual and cute aspects disappeared, leaving only goofiness.
Kiyono picked up his phone and satisfied her curiosity.
"Little Senior, can you stand by the window?" Yanami said again.
Kiyono, like a puppet, was maneuvered to the designated spot.
"Point your phone at the moon in the sky."
Kiyono scratched his head and did as he was told. Then he saw the video camera, which had been filling the screen, shift to also show a bright, white moon.
Yanami made the same gesture.
The small phone screen simultaneously displayed two moons from different angles.
"Are we looking at the same moon right now?" the girl's voice was like the night itself.
"Probably… yes, since we're not that far apart," Kiyono replied.
"It feels truly incredible, talking to Little Senior like this, across a city."
Yanami turned the camera back to herself. She sat cross-legged on the bed, leaning slightly against the wall, her voice bright.
"Maybe in the future, we can even communicate across worlds…"
Kiyono yawned and also lay down on the bed, casually staring at the girl's pretty face in the video frame and the plush toy in the corner, his gaze gradually unfocused.
"Kiyono looks like a penguin about to fall asleep right now."
Yanami propped her phone on a tissue box and used her hands to trace the outline of a wobbly chick, which made Kiyono laugh.
—Are you a blue baby dragon!
"I'm going to hang up the video, okay? If you're sleepy, go to bed quickly."
The girl's smiling voice made Kiyono's sleepiness surge. He hummed in response, not caring whether the girl had actually hung up the video. He placed his phone by his pillow, connected the charging cable, closed his eyes, and instantly fell into a peaceful, baby-like sleep.
What he didn't notice was that in the pitch-black room, the phone screen continuously displayed "Video connecting."
The warm yellow desk lamp illuminated Yanami's pretty face, coloring her features with the sweet hue of a honey cake. She took off her glasses, hugged her knees, rested her chin on them, and held her phone to her ear.
Listening to his even breathing, her expression softened.
In truth, she had felt a sense of emptiness in her heart all day—a bewilderment at seeing those around her leave her behind and gradually drift away. However, these emotions slowly dissipated with each of the boy's words and each photograph.
Although the distance between them hadn't closed, and the sadness hadn't completely vanished, she had, incredibly, settled down.