Childhood Friends' Reunion?

Back then, when Ako saw herself being brought back from the brink, she could see the relief and wild joy on that child's face.

Just as she was about to say something, a loud slap rang out beside her ear.

Yes, that was right. At the time, she was already in her twenties, yet she had been viciously slapped by a child barely eleven or twelve years old.

While she was still weak and utterly bewildered, she saw the child pressing down on her shoulders, tears streaming down his face as he said, "What the hell do you think life is?!

Yuko and I worked so hard to pull you back from the Sanzu River, and what were you doing?!

Were you trampling all our efforts? If Yuko found out you chose to die like this, what do you think she would feel?

Do you think dying would make things easier for her? No! All you would do is make her, whose eyes are filled with nothing but you, blame herself for the rest of her life!"

"What does paralyzed legs even amount to? There are countless people in this world worse off than you. So many people are fighting desperately to stay alive, yet you wanted to take your own life!

Didn't the doctor say there was every possibility of recovery? So what if the treatment costs are astronomical?!

Neither Yuko nor I gave up on you, yet you had already given up on yourself?!"

That day, Seiya's heartfelt roars echoed through the hospital room. Struck directly in the heart, Ako covered her mouth and burst into tears after hearing his words.

She never imagined that, as an adult, she would be pointed at and scolded like this by a half-grown child.

And faced with his rebuke, Ako could not find even the slightest excuse to refute him. She even felt too ashamed to face Seiya before her.

Honestly, when she had first regained consciousness, Ako had found Seiya rather unfamiliar.

After all, unlike Yuko, who had already lived with Seiya for several years, Ako's impression of him remained that he was her fiancé's younger brother.

When her younger sister Yuko told her that she had adopted Seiya, that he had taken the Wenren surname along with them, and that her treatment expenses over the years had basically been paid for by Seiya's earnings as a child actor, Ako was both astonished and deeply grateful to him.

She had survived back then thanks to Seiya's emergency treatment, and her subsequent care had also depended on Seiya.

So, strictly speaking, Seiya had already saved her twice... No, including this time, he had saved her three times.

Seiya's slap and the words he had spoken had thoroughly scolded Ako back to her senses.

From that day onward, Ako regarded Seiya as her true family. The extent of her doting and concern for him even surpassed what she showed toward her own younger sister, Yuko.

After being brought back from the brink at the hospital, Ako had constantly tried to ease the tension between herself and Seiya. But ever since that day, Seiya had remained extremely cold toward her.

That state lasted for several months, until her birthday...

From that time on, what Ako feared most was Seiya suddenly getting angry and refusing to speak to her.

"Alright, let's not talk about such unpleasant things. Today is Seiya's first day at Yoto High School.

Didn't we agree to celebrate properly for him tonight?

If you're willing to come help, Sister, then I won't tell that brat Seiya about what just happened."

As Yuko spoke, she shoved the mixer and a large bowl full of egg whites into Ako's hands, making her help with the work.

"Yuko's all grown up now. You really are quite mean-hearted. If you actually get married someday, your husband will probably have quite the headache."

This time, Yuko did not get angry, because she could tell that her sister was teasing her.

"Hmph, if I really do get married, there won't be anyone left to take care of you, Sister," Yuko said, unwilling to lose out.

"I'm not afraid at all. I still have little Seiya. He's much gentler than some people." Ako spun the mixer in her hand, skillfully whipping up cream as she spoke smugly.

"Have you forgotten, Sister? Seiya is already a seventeen-year-old high school student now. He isn't the little brat who could bathe with us anymore.

And with how shy and bashful he was even as a child, do you really expect him to take care of your daily needs?"

Hearing Yuko's words, Ako seemed to imagine some sort of scene in her mind and immediately blushed bright red.

As for Seiya, the moment he entered Yoto High School, he ran into one boy and two girls wearing the same school uniform as him.

"Arima, it's been several years since we last met, hasn't it? But you don't seem to have changed much. Your height, for example."

Looking at the boy and two girls before him, Seiya swallowed the toast he had been chewing and teasingly addressed the beautiful burgundy-haired girl among them.

Twelve years had passed. Although Seiya and Arima Kana were no longer as close as they had been as children due to moving away, they still occasionally met because of work. If Seiya remembered correctly, the last time he had seen Kana should have been two or three years ago.

She had been in her third year of middle school then, while Kana was now a second-year high school student.

But forgive him for saying so: two or three years had passed, yet the girl did not seem to have changed much. Her face was still as youthful as ever. Aside from her chest having filled out a little, her height remained disappointingly unchanged.

When Arima Kana saw Seiya, she was clearly stunned as well. She had not expected to run into so many old acquaintances by such coincidence today.

That was right. Aside from Seiya before her, the boy and girl who had just been walking beside her were also people Arima Kana had known since childhood.

Arima Kana, once called a "genius child actress," had only ever been defeated by two people her age in acting.

One was Wenren Seiya, whom she had once regarded as a junior but who had now left her far behind.

The other was Hoshino Aqua, whom she had once encountered on a film set.

Yet today, she had first unexpectedly run into a rival she had only met once, and now she had encountered a former junior and childhood friend.

Compared to Hoshino Aqua, Kana was clearly more familiar with Seiya. She had only met the former once over a decade ago, and the main reason Arima Kana remembered him was that he had been the first peer she had lost to.

As for Seiya, he was truly her childhood friend. It was only that, after certain changes, she, the "genius child actress," had fallen out of favor.

Her mother had been disappointed in her and moved back to their hometown. Kana had also moved because of work, so she gradually lost contact with this childhood friend.