Second Ending: Phantom Dream

The girl in her arms pleaded in a faint voice. She sounded so weak and shaky that she seemed about to collapse at any moment.

Karuizawa Kei smiled bitterly and shook her head.

"No. I have to say it. Ichinose can't run away, and she can't escape the reality she's avoiding, either. The truth she's trying to cover up will be uncovered someday. It's best to let someone unrelated to you, like me, play the villain."

After all, this was the role she'd given me.

Suffocating misery wrapped tightly around Ichinose Honami. Unease seeped into her body and pierced deep into her bones.

"Kitagawa-senpai has always wanted you to believe in yourself. He wants to hear what you think. If it isn't the real Ichinose Honami speaking, then accepting or rejecting him is meaningless. You're just instinctively running away and lying."

Like a knife slicing open an abscess, her sharp words hurt more than a blade. Ugly, repulsive negative emotions welled up like pus.

"You've never told him what you really think, not once. That's why you acted that way."

"...I know."

The words that slipped from her pale lips were just as pale, filled with despair.

"...I've known for a long time."

Everything. All of it.

Ichinose Honami could be honest with everyone else, yet she could lie to him again and again.

"Wouldn't it be better for you if you acknowledged this reality sooner?"

"...Stop."

Her courage and resolve were drying up. Her conviction and hope were fading.

She bit down on her lip, desperately holding back the feelings surging up from within.

"You knew a year ago, didn't you? Deep down, you knew there was no chance. You tried to comfort yourself by giving up, but you kept hoping there might still be a possibility. You've been tormenting yourself all this time."

"I..."

She wanted to argue, to say she hadn't been harboring any other thoughts, to admit that she'd given up as soon as she learned the truth.

But the words just wouldn't come. Perhaps, just as Karuizawa Kei had said, even now, Ichinose Honami still clung to a little hope—to that faint possibility.

Was that a terribly shameful thought?

"Ichinose, if senpai confessed to you again at the Fireworks Festival in two days, would you accept?"

No.

The answer had gradually become clear in her heart, yet she couldn't say it aloud. It was as if admitting it would bring the fortress inside her crashing down like a line of dominoes.

Her feelings were burning and restless, reaching out into the void to touch that faint possibility.

"He..."

"He probably wouldn't, right? He knows me. He would understand."

She was making excuses, struggling, begging.

Karuizawa Kei mercilessly shattered the last of Ichinose Honami's defenses.

"I think this is simply a matter of priorities."

Cruel words crept up behind her. For a moment, Ichinose Honami even wanted to cover her ears. She was afraid to hear what came next.

But the voice continued. This was a reality she couldn't change.

"If Ichinose Honami had put Kitagawa-senpai first in her heart, this situation wouldn't have happened."

"If Ichinose Honami had put herself first and trusted her own heart when making a decision, this situation wouldn't have happened, either."

Her breathing was heavy and bitter.

Karuizawa Kei's voice grew calmer and calmer, as if a judge were passing sentence.

"Someone who can't love herself or anyone else has no right to fall in love."

She showed no mercy.

"I like to think that we had it all"

"We drew a map to a better place"

Karuizawa Kei's phone suddenly rang, forcibly interrupting their standoff. She tapped the screen and saw Kitagawa Ryo's profile picture. Since she and Karuizawa Kei were still in a False Love relationship, his profile picture matched hers: a photo of them sharing a cup of shaved ice at a ramen shop.

"Hey, hey, what took you so long to answer?"

At Ichinose Honami's pleading gaze, Karuizawa Kei still put the call on speaker. Kitagawa Ryo's voice came through the next second.

"Ryo, how about you? When did you wake up? How are you feeling? Are your injuries serious?"

Karuizawa Kei, who had just been so forceful, suddenly stumbled over her words.

"Hey, I'm fine. I only inhaled a couple of mouthfuls of smoke. It wasn't much of a fire to begin with. Once that quilt burned up, the fire was almost out."

Kitagawa Ryo sounded full of energy, making his words all the more believable.

"Oh, right. I finally managed to convince my mom to let me go out tomorrow for the Fireworks Festival. How are things on your end? Are you ready?"

Then he lowered his voice.

"Honami isn't beside you, is she?"

"...No."

"Good. I'll call her later, too. I want to tell her I only just found out that the paper crane she gave me had the same twelve 'I love you's written inside it. Haha, she's such a tsundere, but she won't admit it."

"Mm. I've prepared what senpai asked me to. Are we still going ahead with the plan?"

There was a brief silence on the other end. Then Kitagawa Ryo gave a laugh that sounded deliberately carefree.

"Actually, what I wanted to tell you, Kei, is that there's no need to prepare anything. Kitagawa Ryo's confession plan has been canceled."

"Huh?"

"My mom came back to take me overseas. I only managed to delay her by a day. I'm leaving Tokyo the morning after tomorrow."

"There's no need for either of us to confess right before we part."

"Until I can be sure I can make her happy, I'll put the confession plan on hold for a while. Either way, all we can do is wait."

"So..."

"So?"

"So Karuizawa Kei's acting career is coming to an end, too. We haven't known each other for long, but you've done so much for me."

"Not at all. I'm the one who... who was taken care of by senpai."

"Then, Karuizawa, please be sure to come to the Fireworks Festival tomorrow. That's where we'll end our relationship."

"Breaking up and getting dumped beneath a sky full of fireworks... It feels a little... cruel."

Ichinose Honami saw that Karuizawa Kei was close to tears, but she was still joking with a smile.

"Then let's treat this Fireworks Festival as a date. The last one for the two of us."

[Story CG: Fireworks Are Cold. Reading complete.]

Chapter 22: Second Ending: Phantom Dream

[Day 14: At last, you no longer had to worry about the confession plan that had been troubling you for over a year. In truth, sticking with something for many days always took a long time to build up, but giving up only took one particularly awful day. Yesterday, after you dragged Ichinose Honami out of the burning building, you realized that the birthday card you'd written was still in your room. At the time, you barely even thought about it before rushing back inside. Unfortunately, even before the billowing smoke knocked you unconscious, you still hadn't managed to find it.]

[By the time you woke up again, it was already July 21. Ichinose Honami's birthday had passed for good. Unfortunately, you wouldn't have another year to wait. Your mother was determined to take you away early. If yesterday's incident hadn't happened, perhaps you could have delayed her for another two days, but what had happened couldn't be undone. The reality you faced now was that this time tomorrow, you'd be boarding a flight out of Tokyo.]

[You got up and paced over to the window. The hospital room your mother had arranged for you was even more spacious than the one you'd stayed in before, but it felt even emptier with only you in it. A neatly arranged fruit platter sat on the bedside table. You'd only managed to eat a few slices of apple before losing your appetite.]

[It was still drizzling outside. According to the weather bureau, the rain would stop before noon, and the chance of precipitation would stay close to zero until tomorrow evening. That was one reason the Fireworks Festival had been moved up to tonight.]

[The area outside the window was filled with greenery. The closest plants were a stand of emerald bamboo. You'd barely opened the window before the drizzle-laden breeze dampened your cheeks. You watched the raindrops pass between the treetops and bamboo leaves, as if they had grown from there, turning from transparent water into emerald rain.]

[You heard footsteps outside the hospital room. A short while later came a gentle knock. You closed the window and sat back down on the bed. Only two people would come to your room at this hour: your mother or Mr. Izaki. You called out to let them in, and the elderly butler opened the door. He seemed to have just come back from outside; the distinctive damp, earthy smell and chill of a rainy day clung to him.]

["Young master." He greeted you respectfully, then closed the door and teased you with a somewhat mischievous smile.

"You look like you've been dumped."]

["...Even you care this much about something like that, Mr. Izaki?" You were much more relaxed around Mr. Izaki than around your mother. After rolling back and forth on the bed for a while, you buried your face in the covers and mumbled.]

["I just thought giving up so suddenly didn't seem like your style, young master. A journey of a hundred miles is half complete at ninety. You might succeed next time."

You listened quietly. He was probably the person who knew best how much effort you'd put into winning Ichinose Honami over. Just a few days ago, you'd been discussing with him whether the fireworks spelling out "I love you" or "Be mine" would be better for your confession. Now, all of a sudden, you were saying you'd decided to stop the plan.

"Don't gamblers who lose everything at the table all think the same way? The more they've sunk into it, the more they feel that stopping now would mean taking a loss. So they keep going, losing more and more until they have nothing left."]

[He seemed dissatisfied with your answer and furrowed his brow.

"Feelings aren't sunk costs."

"Don't you know that already?" You rolled your eyes, understanding why your family's butler was still single in his fifties or sixties.]

["I don't think it's a pity that you're giving up on Ichinose Honami. I do think the conflict between your personalities is irreconcilable. Miss Ichinose's temperament simply doesn't suit her to be someone's girlfriend. A relationship is about two people adjusting to each other, but she's never been able to change. There's something dangerous in her personality."

"But..." He changed tack.]

["I still think you should confess to Miss Ichinose, just as you planned."

"Do you want to see her dump me again, Mr. Izaki?" You looked completely baffled.

"Exactly." Mr. Izaki smiled, then added:

"To put it plainly, I want you to be rejected by her openly one more time. Better yet, I want you to lose utterly and cry your eyes out. Only then will it mean something."]

["Wow. How come I never noticed how ruthless you were about romance?"

"That's not it. Love isn't some pure, fresh, gentle thing to begin with. You should have realized that by now, young master."

Mr. Izaki wasn't done with you. He went on:

"Love is a feeling born of humanity's most primitive desires. It's full of deception, possessiveness, and betrayal. That makes it the most complicated and dangerous thing of all."

"That's why you keep making up lies and using them to pressure Miss Ichinose's heart, forcing her to make a choice. The two of you just keep hurting each other."

"Still, love is nothing more than this selfish, hateful, hopeless thing."]

[Then he came closer and patted your head with the tender concern only an elder could show.

"That's precisely why—because it's so cruel—people pursue the light that shines through it: the feeling of loving someone."

"It's only after enduring pain and sorrow that happiness comes."]

[You'd understood what he was saying for a long time. To make this love come true, you'd used many people and many things. Even now, you couldn't tell what kind of feelings you truly had for Ichinose Honami. You traced those feelings back to their source and remembered giving her a winning ice pop when you were children. You'd made a promise back then, after all.]

["That's why I can't see her again, let alone confess to her," you replied.]

["We're definitely leaving tomorrow morning, right? So I can't see her." You rolled over and stared up at the snow-white ceiling.

"I told you before. If I see her, I won't be able to bring myself to leave. I won't want to go."

"But... but yesterday, I saw a lot of burning paper cranes in the room I used to stay in. She must have been preparing a farewell gift for me."

"See? She was the one who... was willing to let me go first."]

[You took a paper crane out of your pocket. It was the one Ichinose Honami had given you for your twelfth birthday. It was the only one you had left. Of all the things she'd given you, the only ones still with you were this and the Buddhist prayer beads on your right wrist, which you never took off, even to bathe or sleep.]

[What Ichinose Honami had never understood was that folding a thousand paper cranes could grant a wish, and birthdays could grant wishes, too. But as long as she stood in front of you, she could make ten wishes, a hundred, a thousand.]

[Unfortunately, summer was coming to an end. At tonight's Fireworks Festival, you were meeting Karuizawa Kei.]

[Night fell. You'd already put on the yukata your mother had prepared for you. The summer breeze was cool and pleasant. The forecast had been right: there wasn't the slightest sign of rain. The festive atmosphere was gradually building, and you were meeting Karuizawa Kei in about half an hour. Even so, you decided to arrive early. As you passed the stalls set up nearby, it suddenly occurred to you that you didn't really know what Karuizawa Kei liked. Sweets or savory food? A candy apple, cotton candy, or takoyaki?]

[As you wondered, you called Karuizawa Kei to ask what she wanted to eat so you could bring it to her. It sounded as if she were surrounded by people; their laughter and chatter made the call noisy. Karuizawa Kei quietly told you she didn't have anything particular in mind. A candy apple would be fine.]

[After confirming where she was, you bought two candy apples and turned off your phone. You didn't want to see anyone's calls or messages. You didn't want to see Ichinose Honami or think about her. Tonight, your only task was to say a final goodbye before leaving to Karuizawa Kei, the girl you'd been using all this time. You carried the candy apples toward your destination.]

["No way. Kitagawa-senpai really said he was going to propose to Karuizawa tonight?"]

["I heard he even had special fireworks made for the proposal. One of my relatives is working behind the scenes at this Fireworks Festival, and the Kitagawa Family really did buy a section to set off their own fireworks."]

["Isn't sixteen a little young? And in the first place, Karuizawa and Kitagawa-senpai have only been dating for a couple of weeks."]

["They're in love, so what? Aren't rich young masters like him the type to do whatever they feel like?"]

["Hey, if he really proposes with fireworks at an event like this, that girl's name will be in the news tomorrow."]

["I'm so jealous! That Karuizawa girl has a boyfriend like that, and she even bragged about it by messaging all of us."]