I Want Everyone to Be Happy

Sakayanagi Arisu groggily pressed the call button and heard a somewhat apologetic voice from the other end:

"Is that Sakayanagi Arisu from Class 1-D, Classmate Sakayanagi?"

It's me.

"We are very sorry. Due to a mistake by our Student Council, we accidentally included you in the list of students who cannot participate in the Summer Special Exam. We are truly sorry."

"... ah?"

Sakayanagi Arisu let out a small sound of surprise. She remembered the application form she had filled out a few days ago. In fact, she had signed countless such application forms since she was a child.

However, the other party was clearly unaware of Sakayanagi Arisu's confusion and assumed that it was their own mistake that had upset Sakayanagi Arisu, so they quickly apologized again.

"If that really doesn't work, compensating with Private Points is also acceptable. How about 10,000 points?"

"Oh... okay, that'll do for now."

After barely ending the call, Sakayanagi Arisu got out of bed and carefully began to move.

Her slender, frail legs, once as thin and delicate as a baby elephant's tusks, were now able to firmly support her entire weight, and her heart was beating steadily and powerfully in her chest.

Just like myself in my dream.

Will my dream come true?

Sakayanagi Arisu splashed a handful of cold water; the icy touch confirmed that she was in reality. She then turned on her phone and dialed her father's number.

Even after entering Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, she would still occasionally call her father.

"Hey, Arisu?"

"I've been feeling a bit uncomfortable in my heart lately."

She subtly steered the conversation in from the sidelines, and even at this point, Sakayanagi Arisu remained calm.

"Hmm? No way, Arisu's heart condition should have been cured a long time ago. Has she been under too much stress lately? Try to get some rest and watch your diet. If you're really feeling unwell, I can help you contact a doctor outside the school?"

"It's not that serious, it's probably just because I haven't been sleeping well these past couple of days."

"Arisu, please take good care of yourself. Your health is the most important thing."

"Okay, I'll hang up now."

Sakayanagi Arisu hung up the phone. Everything in her dream seemed to overlap with reality, giving her a sense of absurd unreality.

She suddenly remembered a question she had forgotten to ask, and quickly turned on the computer in the room to start searching for keywords:

[Congenital heart disease, cured]

The search engine quickly provided the answer:

Breakthrough in congenital heart disease research: Kitagawa Conglomerate invests heavily and spends ten years to finally conquer this major disease.

Kitagawa... cool.

Is that you?

It's you, isn't it?

A strong surge of emotion welled up inside me in an instant.

Her heart was racing, Sakayanagi Arisu clutched her chest, but quickly realized she wasn't feeling unwell.

A constant flow of blood and emotions is transported from the heart along the blood vessels to the brain.

Sakayanagi Arisu opened the dormitory door, but instead of taking the elevator, she went down the stairs.

Walk slowly, walk briskly, jog, and then run at full speed.

The movements were completely unlike anything I could recall; the swinging of my arms and the frequency of my breathing were entirely erratic.

But Sakayanagi Arisu still felt extremely refreshed. She took a deep breath and jumped down the last two steps.

She remembered the last time she saw Yamada and Miyake from her class running up the stairs, making a loud thumping sound with their footsteps, while she was using her cane to tap each step as she climbed.

"Smack!"

Sakayanagi Arisu landed steadily, which was actually only the height of two steps, but she jumped with the momentum of being several meters high.

I found the cool dorm room and took out the spare key from my pocket.

There was so much to say, my fingers were trembling slightly, and it took me several tries to insert the key into the lock.

If this were a true fairy tale, then the ending should be one where both parties run towards each other and eventually become a couple.

But that's not the reality.

"Arisu -kun? What brings you here so early, Ryo?"

Another voice came from behind, Sakayanagi Arisu turned around.

Horikita Suzune looked at Sakayanagi Arisu with a puzzled expression. She had found two clothes that seemed particularly suitable for Kitagawa Ryo while shopping yesterday and was planning to ask Kitagawa Ryo to try them on together. However, she did not expect to find Sakayanagi Arisu in front of Kitagawa Ryo's door when she got up early this morning.

"..."

Sakayanagi Arisu froze for a moment, but quickly regained her composure.

What is there for me to worry about? Horikita Suzune isn't Kitagawa Ryo's girlfriend, so why should she worry about her seeing me enter Kitagawa Ryo's room?

The fact that her heart condition disappeared proves that the things in her dreams were real.

In that sense, she, Sakayanagi Arisu, is the one and only one --

Alice's gaze sharpened.

Chapter 123: I Want Everyone to Be Happy

Having figured this out, Sakayanagi Arisu felt more confident, and her fingers gripping the keys became steady again. Instead of immediately answering Horikita Suzune's question, she turned to her and asked:

"Is there something you need from Horikita, coming to see Ryo so early?"

"I saw some nice summer clothes at the Keyaki Mall a few days ago. Now that the weather is getting warmer, I'm planning to have Liang try them on."

Horikita Suzune didn't pay much attention to Sakayanagi Arisu's slightly questioning tone. In another part of her life, Sakayanagi Arisu was her sister-in-law, so she was quite familiar with the other's slightly barbed words and thought it was just like a child being coquettish.

"Arisu coming along too?"

"Ryo is the type who won't move unless someone tells him to. If you leave him alone, he can wear the same two uniforms all summer long, just like he did in junior high."

Sakayanagi Arisu felt that the other person's tone carried a rather natural air of being the master, and that mentioning things from middle school seemed like showing off some seniority.

Thinking of this, she walked straight into Kitagawa Ryo's room without saying a word.

Horikita Suzune herself didn't know what was wrong with Sakayanagi Arisu today, and could only attribute it to the fact that Arisu was in a bad mood because she couldn't participate in the Summer Special Exam due to health reasons. She shook her head with some distress and followed her into the room.

Although her relationship with her brother Horikita Manabu has returned to normal, and she has learned a lot in the Student Council, no one has taught her about romance, since Horikita Manabu himself is clueless when it comes to love.

"Arisu's here? Hmm? Suzune's here too."

Kitagawa Ryo seemed to have just woken up, rubbed his eyes as he gestured for the two people who entered to sit down. He didn't seem surprised at all that someone had come to visit his room so early in the morning; in fact, he seemed completely unfazed, simply picking up his toothpaste and brushing his teeth.

Horikita Suzune nodded, found a sofa and sat down, intending to wait for Kitagawa Ryo to finish washing up before revealing her purpose.

What bothered her was that Kitagawa Ryo seemed to be in a bad state today, even worse than before, with a rather unpleasant complexion. However, somewhat paradoxically, she could sense that he was in high spirits.

Early in the morning, just woke up, looking terrible, but full of energy.

Just as Horikita Suzune was lost in strange fantasies, Sakayanagi Arisu spoke first, staring intently at Kitagawa Ryo in the mirror as if trying to confirm something:

"Ryo... did you dream about it too?"

"Perhaps it's a dream for Arisu, but it's not for me."

Kitagawa Ryo put down his toothbrush, rinsed his mouth with the last of the water, and said very seriously:

"Those are all me, and they are all my real experiences. To be honest, they are like parallel worlds."

"Just as I predicted, it really is cold... no, it should be cold."

As Sakayanagi Arisu answered, she inadvertently glanced at Horikita Suzune's expression, guessing that the other must look puzzled or at a loss.

To say something that others don't understand, but that you and he have a perfect understanding of, is essentially a form of retaliation.

It was as if I was announcing to you that we had been through so much together in places you didn't know, and that we shared secrets that belonged only to the two of us. It was almost like fate, a match made in heaven.

But for Horikita Suzune, everything Sakayanagi Arisu prepared was like a Tai Chi move thrown into the air; she couldn't catch it at all, or rather, she never intended to catch it in the first place.

Horikita Suzune, sitting on the sofa, nodded as if suddenly realizing something, and said to Sakayanagi Arisu was smiling, as if she had found a kindred spirit:

"So you also had a dream about Liang, the kind of dream that's so vivid, like it really happened?"

"..."

Also.

Sakayanagi Arisu's smile froze on her face. She tried to raise her finger, attempting to regain some composure.

There are two matches.

"So you dreamt that you were with Ryo twice?"

Recalling the Matoba in her dream where Confessions to Kitagawa Ryo at the end, Horikita Suzune asked subconsciously.

"... perhaps?"

In the first dream, he bid farewell to Kitagawa Ryo, who died of ALS, and lived alone with a healthy heart. As for the second dream, until the very end, Kitagawa Ryo never truly gave up on another girl.

However, considering their Marriage Contract, if we round it up, they can be considered together... right?

Horikita Suzune didn't notice the strangeness in Sakayanagi Arisu's tone. She just looked at Kitagawa Ryo sitting in front of them, then glanced at Sakayanagi Arisu, and couldn't help but shake her head.

"So, Ryo also solved Arisu's heart condition?"

She finally noticed the subtle difference she had felt since meeting Sakayanagi Arisu. Not only was the other girl not carrying her usual cane, but her complexion was also rosy, completely different from the fragile girl she used to be.

If Kitagawa Ryo really is as he says, then that means that from the time she began that memory, he was already researching topics related to heart disease.

Now Horikita Suzune understood why Kitagawa Ryo had gone abroad to study back then, and why he had stayed to work at Massachusetts General Hospital, affiliated with Harvard Medical School, after graduation, even forcing her to take a special trip to the other side of the ocean on Christmas Day to Confessions her love at the hospital entrance.

Instead of caring about why Sakayanagi Arisu's heart condition was cured in real life, she started obsessively dwelling on it again, pursing her lips and staring at Kitagawa Ryo with an unfriendly gaze.

"Yes, I took care of it."

Kitagawa Ryo readily admitted it. His great sacrifices, unknown to others, are excellent material for tragedy, but there's absolutely no need to play that game in reality.

He didn't intend for someone to discover the truth later and then burst into tears, heartbroken, filled with regret, and facing a nightmare of chasing after her husband.

I have indeed devoted a great deal of energy and effort to solving Sakayanagi Arisu's heart disease, and even experienced a part of life as a patient with ALS.

Striving and achieving your goals is nothing to hide; it's something to be proud of.

Sure enough, Sakayanagi Arisu's eyes lit up again:

"I still like Ryo the most..."

Sakayanagi Arisu recalled Kitagawa Ryo's last words to her:

"I was also deprived there, no, I voluntarily deprived myself of an entire segment of my life, perhaps even more than just time. But of course, I don't have the habit of holding tea parties, nor do I have the inclination to give you a riddle like 'Why is a crow like a writing desk?' I just kept thinking, thinking about one question."

"The way to keep Alice (Arisu) healthy."

Sakayanagi Arisu is not a girl who believes in fairy tales, but girls can hardly resist fairy tale-like stories.

What's more, the male protagonist of this story is Kitagawa Ryo, whom she has long had feelings for.

But Kitagawa Ryo's words brought her back to reality.

"Actually, no."

As Kitagawa Ryo said this, another line he had once read in a martial arts novel suddenly popped into his mind:

"Zhiruo, I have always respected you; I am grateful to the Yin Family Sister; and I feel pity for Xiao Zhao."

Just as liking is different from love, having a good feeling about someone is also different from liking them.

Respect, gratitude, and pity are all positive feelings, but they are not necessarily all liking.

In fact, Kitagawa Ryo had already told Karuizawa Kei about this before the simulation of Horikita Suzune, and during this simulation, he asked Amasawa Ichika similar questions again.

Is it happier to be the one who loves or the one who is loved?

His answer to Karuizawa Kei at that time was that he hoped to respond to everyone's feelings, because from beginning to end, whether in simulation or reality, everyone's feelings were only directed at him.

Those who are favored are fearless, while those who cannot have are always restless.

But in reality, he was the one who was always favored, which is why Kitagawa Ryo wanted to respond to them, or rather, he absolutely had to respond.