Classroom of the Elite, I Have a Life Simulator

She raised her head as if unaware of how ambiguous her current posture was. The distance was so close that Kitagawa Ryo could see his own reflection in her pupils, and her voice poured into his ears like lukewarm syrup. In that fleeting moment, Kitagawa Ryo even felt that this was a tenderness she showed only to him.

As if looking at someone else, Kitagawa Ryo realized with absolute clarity that he had been moved by Ichinose Honami once again.

It was always like this; whenever he made up his mind, he would compromise the moment he saw her. Ichinose Honami never needed any guarantees; as long as she stood before Kitagawa Ryo, he would never be able to leave her.

"It's fine now, it was just a cold."

Kitagawa Ryo shook his head, a gesture that made him look like a child acting spoiled.

Ichinose Honami leaned in even closer, her forehead gently touching his. Her soft hair brushed against his face with a ticklish sensation as she whispered into his ear:

"It looks like your fever has gone down."

Karuizawa Kei stood at the other end of the room. Even though only a few minutes had passed, it felt as if a dozen years had flowed by between these two people who were almost pressed against each other. The heaviness of this constructed time was like an impenetrable fortress wall, with memories acting as the bricks that walled them both inside.

Karuizawa Kei's tears were worthless; she had shed countless tears during her days of being bullied. It was just a pity that those hot tears couldn't overcome the bucket of cold water dumped over her head, but she was skilled at crying. At the very least, it proved she was still capable of fear and terror; those who could not feel fear or terror would only be treated more brutally.

Yet, she now felt that tears were the most precious things in the world, as if every drop that left her body took away a piece of her vitality. So she stood there, biting her lips until they turned white, squinting her eyes, and struggling to keep those crystalline things from falling.

"The day after tomorrow is my birthday, right?"

Ichinose Honami seemed to have just remembered this. She moved her right hand from the back of Kitagawa Ryo's hand and pressed her index finger against his lips, blocking the words he was about to speak:

"Then I'll make my birthday wish in advance: I hope Ryo gets better soon."

"When the time comes, let's go watch the fireworks festival together, okay?"

Kitagawa Ryo felt as though his entire rhythm had been seized by her. Like a butterfly trapped in a spider's web, he could only nod and agree.

"Since Ryo is fine, I'll head back now. If I get home too late, my mother will worry, and I still have to tell Maki about your current condition."

Hearing Kitagawa Ryo's promise, Ichinose Honami stood up. She hadn't let go of his hand yet, and she bowed slightly, her smile as bright as ever:

"It's a promise."

Her thumb pressed against Kitagawa Ryo's thumb, as if stamping a seal onto a document.

"Honami."

Kitagawa Ryo called out to her just as she let go and prepared to leave. A faint sense of danger remained buried deep in his heart, like a shipwreck resting on the deepest ocean floor. Even though the scent of green citrus still lingered on his nose, he could still smell that dangerous aura. He realized that Ichinose Honami's state was definitely not as "nothing happened" as she was portraying.

"...I'll have Izaki-san drive you home."

In the end, he didn't ask what he had intended to. Kitagawa Ryo thought that she was finally able to lie without changing her expression. It had only been a few days since their last visit to the park, and her acting skills as a performer were improving at an alarming rate.

"No need, it's not that far anyway. Plus, the rain has let up a bit, and it's better for Izaki-san to stay here and take care of you."

Ichinose Honami, who had stopped, began to move again. She didn't even intend to say another word to Karuizawa Kei.

"Don't forget your umbrella."

"How could I possibly forget? Have a little faith in my memory, okay?"

After saying this with a playful tone, Ichinose Honami left the hospital room.

For a long time after Ichinose Honami left, Kitagawa Ryo remained half-reclined in silence, neither closing his eyes nor speaking. The television had finished the evening news and was now playing a family drama—a story about a wife and a mistress pulling at each other and slapping faces. Karuizawa Kei walked over and turned the TV off.

The apple that had been sliced earlier had begun to oxidize and turn brown, so Karuizawa Kei started peeling a new one. As if she had finally found something to do, she busied herself borrowing plates and toothpicks. Finally, she presented a plate of neatly sliced fruit to Kitagawa Ryo.

"Would you like some, Senpai?"

Kitagawa Ryo certainly wouldn't refuse the girl's twenty minutes of effort. He used his left hand to pick up a toothpick and spear the slices of fruit, putting them into his mouth one by one like a mechanical operation, chewing and swallowing.

"Thanks for your hard work. Aren't you planning to head back, Kei?"

Once the entire plate of apples was finished, Kitagawa Ryo finally revealed a sunny smile like he used to have, and he feigned a yawn:

"It's already very late."

In reality, the clock had only just ticked past eight.

"I already told my family I'd be home late."

Karuizawa Kei took the plate with some unease. Her cautious demeanor was exactly like a newborn animal. Even though she had the same azure eyes as Ichinose Honami, what flowed from her gaze was never the same; they were never the same kind of people to begin with.

Kitagawa Ryo watched Karuizawa Kei, feeling as if his shadow had miraculously overlapped with the girl's. He suddenly understood: the sincere and admiring feelings Karuizawa Kei held for him now were the same as the feelings he had once held for Ichinose Honami. Even the result was the same—it was hopeless.

If two people were to truly find happiness together, they should have been equals from the start. At least, for the first sixteen years of his life, he had held onto that view of love. He was like a child just like her, playing with the same toys, eating the same cheap popsicles, and raising a stray cat he'd found outside. But it was no use; he had still failed his confession.

And now, he had been pushed into the position Ichinose Honami once occupied, becoming the dominant party in the relationship.

"Can you go for a walk with me?"

Kitagawa Ryo couldn't even decide for a moment whether he should address the girl in front of him as "Karuizawa-san" or "Kei." He erased the honorific on his own, as if saying it out loud would be a betrayal of someone.

"Mm, but only a short walk inside the hospital, okay? It's still raining outside."

Karuizawa Kei agreed without hesitation. She took down the IV bag that was still dripping, moved it to a mobile IV stand, found a pair of cotton slippers for Kitagawa Ryo to wear, and walked side-by-side with him.

There wasn't much to see in the hospital at night. Aside from doctors in white coats and nurses coming and going, the corridors in this area of luxury wards were quite spacious. Kitagawa Ryo and Karuizawa Kei wound their way through several turns before passing through a courtyard and entering another building.

Unlike the relatively empty area before, this place had rows of blue chairs installed along the corridors for patients receiving IVs. The foot traffic suddenly increased, and various shouts mixed with the sharp, piercing voices typical of children, making Kitagawa Ryo's previously drowsy head feel alert again. It was only then that he noticed his left hand had been tightly held by Karuizawa Kei at some point.

"It's better to hold hands; there are quite a lot of people here."

Karuizawa Kei was like a solemn guard, shielding Kitagawa Ryo firmly behind her, even though she was quite a bit shorter than the patients behind them.

"Do you want to sit for a while, Senpai? It seems Izaki-san bought you some hot cocoa. I'll go get it for you."

Karuizawa Kei received a message on her phone. She glanced around, found a corner in the hallway for Kitagawa Ryo, secured the stand, and then trotted away.

She returned quickly; Kitagawa Ryo felt it hadn't even been three minutes before Karuizawa Kei came back holding two cups of steaming cocoa.

"I was worried that your mouth might not have much taste right now, so I specifically added extra sugar cubes!"

She placed the cup from her right hand into Kitagawa Ryo's arms. Karuizawa Kei had already inserted a straw for him before coming over. Just as she was about to put a straw into her own cup, a child running through the hallway suddenly bumped into her right hand.

The unopened cup of cocoa fell to the floor. Fortunately, the packaging remained intact, and the liquid didn't splash out, though it began to gurgle and leak out after the impact.

"Please keep an eye on your child. There are patients in this hallway who need to rest."

Karuizawa Kei frowned and shouted at the child, but since no one came over to apologize, she could only sigh and go find a nurse to borrow a broom and mop to clean up the mess on the floor.

A woman nearby, who was holding her child while they received an IV, leaned over to comfort her:

"It's a blessing that no one got scalded; otherwise, they might have even tried to make you pay for it."

"Hmph, that would still be his fault. There are security cameras all over the hospital anyway."

After Karuizawa Kei finished speaking, she returned to Kitagawa Ryo's side and said:

"It's fine, it's fine. If I want to drink some, I'll just go out and buy more later. You drink yours first."

Kitagawa Ryo hadn't really intended to drink the cocoa anyway. Since he hadn't taken a sip yet, he wanted to pass his cup to Karuizawa Kei.

"What's wrong with a young couple sharing a cup?"

The woman heard their conversation and said with a smile.

"We aren't in that kind of relationship yet, though I guess it counts?"

Karuizawa Kei's face flushed red instantly, and she waved her hands to deny it.

"Oh, you kids are always so secretive these days anyway. Dating isn't something to be ashamed of."

Having found a topic, the woman began to talk endlessly about her own romantic history, momentarily captivating both the bored Karuizawa Kei and Kitagawa Ryo.

"Goodbye then."

It wasn't until a full half-hour had passed that the woman finished her story. Just then, the child in her arms finished the IV drip, and Karuizawa Kei bid farewell to the woman as she stood up.

As she spoke, Karuizawa Kei noticed that Kitagawa Ryo, sitting beside her, had already leaned his head onto her shoulder. Sensing her movement, he leaned even closer into her embrace.

"IV drips make you feel cold, and you can even get the chills."

The woman handed the small blanket she had been using for her daughter to Karuizawa Kei:

"You weren't originally supposed to be getting an IV in the hallway, right? This is what the nurse gave out at the start. Use it to cover him; the air conditioning is set so high."

Karuizawa Kei thanked her and took it. She knew she should take the sleeping Kitagawa Ryo back to his hospital room, but she felt a strange, impulsive desire to stay here a little longer.

She wrapped the blanket around both him and herself.

The cocoa left on the chair beside them was half-full. Karuizawa Kei took a light sip through the straw; it had gone cold, but it was still very sweet.

A while later, Karuizawa Kei saw Izaki return carrying that large black umbrella. Judging by the speechless look on his face, Ichinose Honami had truly forgotten to take the umbrella. If no one had come to pick her up, she might have walked home in the rain.

Izaki seemed to want to tell Kitagawa Ryo about this, but he saw Karuizawa Kei hold a finger to her lips in a gesture for silence. She signaled to him with a dissatisfied look in her eyes:

"Hey, he's asleep."

"Don't you dare wake him up."

Chapter 19: Fireworks Are Cold (Part 3)

Kitagawa Ryo felt as if he were nestled in some warm burrow, like curling up into a heated kotatsu in the dead of winter. He had always been fond of that unique sense of stability and lethargy found within a kotatsu; even peeling an orange felt slow and deliberate. Time inside the kotatsu felt frozen and isolated, like a segment of time cut out from the long river of history.

He burrowed deeper. At this moment, Kitagawa Ryo's heart was as quiet as an estate abandoned for years. There were no human voices or footprints; lush plants grew and withered on their own, and the light of time flowed slowly along the veins of the leaves, inch by inch.

A tremendous sense of freedom and peace enveloped Kitagawa Ryo. In this vast, empty, and comfortable illusion, he could think of anything, or nothing at all. But as he lay there, the memories stacked deep within his heart unfolded layer by layer like oil-paper parcels. After looking at them, he would fold them back up layer by layer, much like a farmer turning over his wheat to dry in the sun, feeling a faint sense of satisfaction.

Karuizawa Kei stroked Kitagawa Ryo's forehead, watching his peaceful, childlike sleeping face. For some reason, she leaned in close, observing him bit by bit, starting from his brows and eyes.

Although she knew Kitagawa Ryo was very handsome, observing him at such close range still made her marvel at the boy's features.

The hospital bed was large. Even with Kitagawa Ryo lying in the middle, there was still plenty of space on both sides. Karuizawa Kei slowly lay down on the very edge. There was about twenty centimeters of distance between her and Kitagawa Ryo, but she had no intention of moving any closer.

Karuizawa Kei quietly closed her eyes, adjusting her breathing to the same rhythm as the boy's.

That was all.

The time was ten o'clock at night.

At the same time, Ichinose Honami had just finished another argument with her mother. She dragged her body back to her room and collapsed onto the bed. Her mind felt empty, yet somehow too full. A strange sensation surged from the bottom of her heart, stuck in her throat—she could neither spit it out nor swallow it. She tossed and turned on the bed in frustration like a fish. Outside the window, there was no moonlight, only a pitch-black expanse. Ichinose Honami resigned herself to her fate and pulled the blanket over her head.

Half an hour later, Ichinose Honami realized she was suffering from insomnia. She got out of bed, quietly opened her bedroom door, and then carefully opened the front door of the house.

Whenever she felt uneasy, she would go to "his" room—or rather, his former room.

Using a spare key to open the door, she stepped into the quiet room devoid of human presence and lay flat on the cold, hard floor.

She stared up at the low ceiling, curled her limbs into a ball, and let her consciousness drift into sleep bit by bit.

This behavior was completely meaningless, wasn't it? Because after Kitagawa Ryo moved out, this house where he had lived had become empty, with no furniture left behind.

In terms of living standards, this room was terrible to the extreme. There were no quilts, no blankets, and no pillows. Aside from the advantage of being indoors, it was no different from sleeping out in the wild, though she did come by often to clean, so it wasn't too dirty.

It couldn't compare to sleeping in a bed at home. The princess in the fairy tale would toss and turn because of a single pea under a hundred mattresses; most people probably couldn't imagine letting a girl sleep on such a cold, hard floor.

However, for Ichinose Honami, it was simply because this had once been the room of Kitagawa Ryo.

But having said that... if she were truly clinging to his scent, why not just stay at the hospital? She clearly had the standing to do so.

One had to realize, sleeping here was by no means comfortable; she remembered that the first time she woke up here in the morning, her entire body felt as if it had been rattled apart, aching all over.

Because... of what?

Ichinose Honami could not find the answer.

This feeling had been born from that moment on.

It was when she saw the scene of him and Karuizawa Kei holding hands at the cafe while she was out, or rather, the ambiguous scene of their fingers laced together.

No, perhaps it was even earlier.

It must have started from the moment she first learned that Kitagawa Ryo had accepted someone else's confession. Even though she knew full well it was a "fake romance," she still couldn't help but show off her understanding of him in front of Karuizawa Kei that day—something that would have been unimaginable in the past.

When the emotions conveyed by his gaze seeped into someone else, when his lips touched the other end of that straw shaped into a heart, perhaps some perception within Ichinose Honami had already changed, as if someone had invaded her territory.

Ever since then, the impulse deep within her chest had never faded.

Whether she was sleeping or eating, this emotion constantly brimmed in her chest, growing stronger with each passing day.

However, Ichinose Honami still did not know the name of that impulse.

A powerful force without a name, like a magnet, pushed all her thoughts and actions in the same direction.

In this empty room, there was only the girl sleeping quietly, and that pile of neatly folded paper cranes in the corner.

Those were the ones Ichinose Honami had started folding a few days ago when she learned that Kitagawa Ryo was going abroad; she intended to give them to him on the day of his departure.

The current count was... six hundred and ninety-eight.

The next morning, Kitagawa Ryo felt that his body had recovered much more than it had the day before. He still remembered the birthday wish Ichinose Honami had made last night, which suddenly gave him the idea of being discharged before tomorrow—Honami's birthday.