For Karuizawa Kei

"But when I became that kind of person, I didn't feel happy at all."

Kitagawa Ryo was well aware that the reason he was negotiating with Koenji Rokusuke was because of the zaibatsu behind him, a power that had finally approached him half a year ago, thanks to the talent of being a "Heir of the Wealthy Family."

However, he also knew that he and Koenji Rokusuke were definitely not the same kind of people, or rather, he couldn't do that.

"I lived in a basement for a long time before, one of those very small rooms where the living room, kitchen, and bathroom were all in one place."

Ichinose Honami did not interrupt Kitagawa Ryo. She realized that this was what Mr. Izaki had mentioned that night, but which Kitagawa Ryo had never told them.

"Rainy days like this can be very troublesome; everything gets moldy very easily."

"There are no windows at all, so naturally there's no sunlight."

"Water seeps into the gaps in the wall panels, making it impossible for me to sleep."

"When it rains on nights like this, Hotaru is prone to getting cramps, and the pain can last all night."

Kitagawa Ryo once glimpsed all of Ichinose Honami's futures through a dream during Ichinose Honami's third simulation.

In a timeline where she doesn't exist, Ichinose Honami, in the third semester of her first year at Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, chooses to accept the dating request from Student Council vice president Miyabi Nagumo in order to accumulate 20 million Protection Point.

The cost is four million points.

Four million (approximately 200,000 RMB, subject to exchange rate fluctuations) is roughly the average annual income per capita in this country.

Despite the fact that Ichinose Honami's mother had spent over a decade teaching and educating her, she could never have imagined that her daughter, Ichinose Honami, would even agree to date someone for four million yen.

However, I can understand Kitagawa Ryo.

Because if someone were willing to offer four million, he would sell himself without hesitation.

At that time, Kitagawa Ryo simply regarded Ichinose Honami's story as just another story.

But Ichinose Honami was real now; her body temperature and heartbeat emanated from their touching skin, and Kitagawa Ryo could feel her soft body and the faint, refreshing scent of oranges.

In this sense, his most shameful aspect is the same as Ichinose Honami's.

Ichinose Honami had her mother try to hide it, but Kitagawa Ryo openly, or rather, was forced to reveal it.

The large umbrella blocked all the rain, and under its protection, the two of them, like children, recklessly and with a touch of pleasure, tore at each other's wounds.

Or rather, they are licking each other's wounds.

Ichinose Honami reached out to wipe away Kitagawa Ryo's tears, and as her fingertips touched the corner of his eye, Kitagawa Ryo lowered his head and kissed her.

[I&K]

Having experienced similar hardships, both had suffered the bitterness of life, witnessed family quarrels, and despaired at the desolation of their home. But like the popsicle they once shared with joy as children, they knew that one day, they would be lucky enough to win another one.

Let's do it one more time.

The moment their lips parted, Ichinose Honami stood on tiptoe again.

Chapter Sixty: A Gift for Karuizawa Kei

"Thank you all for your hard work."

Karuizawa Kei bowed slightly to the staff below the stage. Her slightly mature makeup and bright, confident smile, combined with her graceful demeanor, showed that if Karuizawa Kei initially chose to enter the theater industry just to get closer to Kitagawa Ryo, then now Karuizawa Kei has become accustomed to and even enjoys the atmosphere of the stage.

For a long time, Karuizawa Kei would occasionally notice and touch a non-existent scar on her side. That grotesque, centipede-like scar, which remained clearly visible even after stitches, would always flash before her eyes, but in the end, all she saw was smooth, fair skin.

"I'm really looking forward to the actual performance."

"I will try my best to perform at my best."

Backstage, Karuizawa Kei smiled and nodded, exchanging pleasantries with the other Actor who greeted her. She may indeed have a talent for acting, to read between the lines, to be humble and submissive, and then to be unrestrained and flamboyant, turning past memories into nourishment for the present, revisiting past emotions, and gradually making herself better.

From her rebirth until now, Karuizawa Kei is quite satisfied with her life so far, except for one wish.

"Hui is back. Her emotional expression was very delicate today."

In the backstage dressing room, Kitagawa Ryo was leaning against the wall looking at his phone. The sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy was tall and slender, and just standing there gave people a sense of security and comfort.

"Um."

Karuizawa Kei reply. She remembered the wish she had made before. "I hope that one day I can stand in front of Ryo and become his protector." But since she met Kitagawa Ryo, she had not had the opportunity to fulfill this wish.

Kitagawa Ryo had also shown a vulnerable and dependent side to her, but at that time Karuizawa Kei merely played the role of a companion, gazing at his sleeping face, silently counting his breaths, and tightly holding his right hand.

This is something that other people, Ichinose and the others, can also do.

Are you tired?

Sensing that Karuizawa Kei wasn't in high spirits, Kitagawa Ryo stepped forward and asked her with concern, handing her a bottle of mineral water that had already been opened.

"No, where Ichinose and the others?"

Shaking her head somewhat nervously, Karuizawa Kei pretended to take a sip of water while quickly changing the subject.

"... I'm not feeling well, let's rest at the hotel."

Kitagawa Ryo's expression was a bit strange. He himself was quite skeptical of Ichinose Honami's story, but he had indeed been in a rare emotional breakdown last night. In fact, the two of them fell into an awkward silence afterward.

After the rain gradually calmed down her fever caused by the rush of blood to her head, Ichinose Honami hurriedly ran back to her room, even forgetting to take her umbrella.

Kitagawa Ryo himself doesn't have a good solution for the time being. It's not that he doesn't have feelings for Ichinose Honami, but rather that the gap between their current statuses is even greater than it was in the second simulation of her.

The golden talent [Heir of the Wealthy Family] gave him a background that was almost more profound than that of the Koenji Rokusuke, to which Koenji Conglomerate belonged. This was the only reason that he was able to communicate with the other party and even make an agreement with him.

More importantly, Kitagawa Ryo admits that he is a very greedy person. He cannot give up his feelings for other girls. Just like the decision he made in the beginning, he wants to reciprocate everyone's feelings.

The numerous simulations had entrenched him like a thorn in their hearts, making it a relationship that couldn't be easily abandoned.

"Yeah, it rained heavily last night, he probably caught a cold."

Karuizawa Kei sat on the sofa in the lounge, hugging her knees and curling up with her head slightly lowered. Her carefully styled bangs had a fluffy beauty, and below them were slightly raised, revealing sky-blue pupils as shimmering as the sea.

"Liang hadn't acted in a drama for two years, but when she returned to the stage, she didn't seem awkward at all. Lots of people were cheering from the audience!"

"Even though he's playing a scumbag like Valya."

"This script is quite good, and its small scale makes it perfect for our Drama Club."

Kitagawa Ryo sat down next to Karuizawa Kei and reached for the script on the table in front of him.

<Youth Taboo Game>.

The play, written by Soviet female writer Lyudmila Rasumovskaya in the 1980s, has only five characters and a simple setting. However, even so, the Drama Club could not complete it on its own, since there are only two female characters in the entire play.

The play is short and the plot is simple: four students, three boys and one girl, visit their homeroom teacher's house on a snowy night and ask for the key to the safe containing the school's exam papers. They hope to replace their exam papers with another set of papers with the correct answers to pass the exam.

In the early part of the story, the four students mostly tried to persuade the teacher with reason and emotion, even offering various bargaining chips and terms of exchange. However, the teacher was unwilling to hand over the key. Then, the students, in a frenzy, cut the telephone line, restricted the teacher's freedom, and began a large-scale search of the house, but still found nothing.

Ultimately, the student leader, Valya, chose to exploit the homeroom teacher's professional ethics and care for the students, threatening to force one of the girls in front of everyone, which eventually led to the teacher's compromise.

In reality, Valya was the son of a high-ranking diplomat. He had no need to switch the exam papers. Everything that happened tonight was just a game of human nature that he orchestrated. After triumphantly announcing his victory, he casually threw the key on the ground and walked away. The story ends abruptly after the homeroom teacher, heartbroken, went into the bathroom alone.

The most important roles in this play Valya and the class director, are naturally played by Kitagawa Ryo and Karuizawa Kei.

"Thinking about it carefully, Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School is no different."

"Deceiving, threatening, and exploiting other students to obtain a treasure that is actually worthless in the eyes of others."

Kitagawa Ryo's lips curled into a mocking smile:

"The exam paper represented by the key concerns the future of three people, but it's just another person's game."

"Alright, let's not talk about this anymore. Who do you think is better suited for the remaining female role Honami or Airi?"

Kitagawa Ryo pursed his lips, turned his head, and asked seriously.

Aside from the homeroom teacher, there's only this one female character in the entire series, and Ichinose Honami and Sakura Airi are actually quite suitable for the role, and they've both practiced their acting skills. It feels like either of them could have played the part.

"Actually, both of them are a good fit. Whoever is in better form can play."

Karuizawa Kei wasn't concerned about the casting; she was already the lead actress in the play. So, she enthusiastically moved closer, pointed to a line in the script, and said:

"Actually, I quite like this kind of class teacher who has principles and a bottom line, and isn't the kind who's rigid and inflexible; ultimately, it's all about protecting the students."

"However, her own values were completely shattered by this incident, and many people believe that the final blank space represents the teacher's suicide."

"For a teacher, it must be the biggest blow when students they personally taught completely abandon their principles in the face of self-interest."

"I wonder what our Mashima, thinks of our class?"

"He still sees himself as the homeroom teacher of Class 1-D, and that's enough."

Kitagawa Ryo smiled slightly, making Karuizawa Kei somewhat dazed. In her mind, she could already roughly guess how many audience members would be captivated by his portrayal of the scumbag during the official performance tomorrow.

"For most students at Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, they are here to learn. As Mr. Mashima said, many of them are still students, and their duty as students, such as following classroom rules, should be something they can do without being reminded."

"Even if you don't make it into Class A in the end, if you can gain something from this school, that's good enough for most students, or rather, that's how it should be."

"Actually, it's the same in this script. Regardless of whether the homeroom teacher ultimately chooses to commit suicide, the other three students must have grown through this experience, just like none of them chose to pick up the bunch of keys that Valya dropped."

Karuizawa Kei really enjoyed listening to Kitagawa Ryo talk, so she often forgot to answer or interrupt, and just listened quietly.

No matter what role Kitagawa Ryo plays on stage, offstage, the other person becomes the Ryo she knows.

Moreover, you can feel that the coolness today is a little different.

Karuizawa Kei understands Kitagawa Ryo very well. This doesn't mean she knows all of Kitagawa Ryo's past, but rather that she knows everything about Kitagawa Ryo now.

Whether it's daily routines, dietary restrictions, tone of voice, or behavioral logic.

Therefore, she keenly noticed that Kitagawa Ryo was different today; he was talking more than usual.

"To be honest, the role I most want to play is that female student."

After a slight pause, Kitagawa Ryo slowly began to speak.

"The despair after being bullied and the complex emotions after being Salvation are things that neither Honami nor Airi could necessarily portray."

"Honami should be able to understand the inferiority complex brought about by her family's poverty, while Airi can understand the cowardice of being uncared for. However, neither of them has ever been bullied. Even Airi, back then, was only isolated on her own; she never experienced physical violence."

"Is Liang very confident that she can play this role well?"

In the past, Karuizawa Kei might have teased Kitagawa Ryo about whether he wanted to try cross-dressing, but now she sensed something was off.

"Hmm, that should work."

Kitagawa Ryo propped his head up and answered earnestly.

"The most serious form of school bullying, and the one that people are least willing to talk about, involves sex and life."

"Both can actually cause victims both physical and psychological trauma, and they may be tormented by this shadow for the rest of their lives."

"Therefore, I never look down on any student who is bullied, nor do I criticize them for not fighting back."

"Because I've tried it myself, and I know how difficult it is."

Kitagawa Ryo's tone began to drift, as if he were telling a fictional story:

"For a period of time, a new form of bullying emerged among the boys at our school: they would pull down the pants of the bullied student in front of the whole class, exposing his naked lower body to everyone, and then pin him down on the table in a very humiliating position."

"One student dropped out of school because of this incident. Since there was no violence involved, the victim wasn't injured, and none of the bullies were punished, this incident later became a topic of conversation among them."

"Perhaps for some students, this is more painful than being stabbed twice or punched twice."

"This script will likely focus on this type of bullying."

Kitagawa Ryo stretched and winked at Karuizawa Kei:

"Later, I found an opportunity and, on graduation day, I ambushed the leader and kicked him hard."

"I wonder if they're having a good time in Thailand now."

"Perhaps it was because I witnessed such things that I had the courage to rebel when I was in junior high school."

"Of course, although it sounds impressive now, it was just bluffing back then."

"Neither their lives nor their sex were ever truly threatened."

"At most, you might get splashed with water, hit with a ball, have a dead rat stuffed in your desk, or have to go to the toilet during breaks to play some kind of real-life Kombat."

Although Kitagawa Ryo sounded very relaxed and at ease, Karuizawa Kei herself had memories of being bullied, so she naturally knew that it was definitely not as carefree as he described.

"But the biggest regret at that time was that I couldn't fight off several people by myself, and sometimes I could barely protect myself, let alone help other victims of bullying."

Kitagawa Ryo pursed his lips in exasperation. His current stats showed talents like [Martial Artist], giving him a feeling of having strength but nowhere to use it, wanting to beat someone but finding no opponent.

"That's why I really enjoyed listening to Hui tell me about how you protected others when you were in school."

"I'll never get tired of listening to it, no matter how many times I listen to it."

"That's just because it's cold..."