Sure enough, less than half a minute after Kitagawa Ryo sent his message, Shiina Hiyori replied:
"I've read it. I read the Japanese version when I was eight and the English version when I was twelve. I haven't read the French version yet."
Shiina Hiyori wasn't in the habit of using stickers or emoticons. Her messages were usually just as concise and clear as this one.
"What do you think of the rose in The Little Prince, Hiyori?"
The rose was the only rose on the Little Prince's planet. Before she bloomed, there had been nothing but nameless little flowers on the planet. The Little Prince had never seen a flower so beautiful, and he fell in love with her, tending to her with care. During the time he spent with the rose, he believed she was unique, the only one of her kind, found nowhere else. But the rose, loved by the Little Prince, proudly tested him again and again. This was one of the reasons the Little Prince left his planet and began his interstellar journey.
"The rose? She's a character who really tugs at your heartstrings."
Whenever Shiina Hiyori talked about books, she grew animated, and her messages soon poured toward Kitagawa Ryo like a rapid-fire barrage.
"There are generally four common ways to write a tragedy about love:
"First, a romance that ends before it even has the chance to begin.
"Second, a forever-missed connection that could have been avoided with just one small change.
"Third, a major sacrifice that means nothing to the other person."
"And..."
Shiina Hiyori paused for a while before slowly sending her final point:
"Much later, realizing what you truly lost back then."
"Looking at it that way, the rose actually fits all four."
"She and the Little Prince had feelings for each other, but she didn't truly say 'I love you' until he decided to leave. He watered her and made her a glass dome, while she carefully dressed herself up for him every day, but neither of them thought the other had done anything for them. In the end, it wasn't until the Little Prince came to Earth and met the fox that he realized he had already formed a bond of mutual taming with the rose. They were each other's one and only, each other's whole world."
"But the Little Prince couldn't return to his planet to see the rose again."
It seemed Shiina Hiyori still hadn't said enough. Almost without thinking, she turned her thoughts into a message and sent them to Kitagawa Ryo:
"Would it be convenient for you to talk on the phone, Kitagawa?"
"It's convenient enough."
Kitagawa Ryo didn't think much of it. He got up, took his earphones out of his bag, plugged them into his laptop, and started a voice call with Shiina Hiyori.
"You're up early today, Kitagawa. Or did you not sleep at all last night?"
Shiina Hiyori's voice came through soon after. Perhaps because it was already past ten at night where she was, she spoke a little more softly and seemed to be holding her phone close. Kitagawa Ryo happened to be wearing in-ear headphones, so he could even hear her breathing and the faint rustle of her bedding.
"Maybe it's the time difference."
Kitagawa Ryo eased one earbud partway out, and the intimate sound of her breath grew fainter. Lying back on the hotel bed, he asked softly:
"You should be going to sleep soon, shouldn't you, Hiyori?"
There was a faint rustle of fabric and a small shift on the other end.
"I'm under the covers."
Shiina Hiyori honestly reported her situation. Perhaps she found it novel to be talking on the phone with someone under her covers in a dark room. Kitagawa Ryo could even sense that her voice had drawn a little closer.
"Ah... Don't worry. I took a proper nap today, so it's fine if I stay up a little later tonight."
Only then did Shiina Hiyori realize what Kitagawa Ryo had meant, and she belatedly replied.
"Mm."
Kitagawa Ryo answered softly, too. He was still looking at the four ways of writing love tragedies that Shiina Hiyori had sent him, when he suddenly remembered the way Karuizawa Kei had leaned against him last night and begged him not to leave.
Lost in thought, Kitagawa Ryo didn't hear Shiina Hiyori call, "Hello?" and then, "Hello, Kitagawa?" a couple of times. Holding her phone under the covers, she grew a little annoyed and called crisply into the microphone on her earphone cord:
"Ryo."
Only then did Kitagawa Ryo come back to himself. He quickly apologized to Shiina Hiyori.
"Sorry, I got distracted just now."
"Were you going to keep talking about the rose, Hiyori?"
"I was at first, but now I'm a little angry."
Kitagawa Ryo could almost picture Shiina Hiyori's puffed-up cheeks through the screen. Something like this had happened before. When they'd been discussing the plot of a mystery novel, Kitagawa Ryo had gotten distracted without meaning to, and he'd ended up having to agree to a rather strange rule:
He wasn't allowed to think about anything else while discussing books with Hiyori, and he absolutely wasn't allowed to get distracted!
It had been less than a month since they'd made that rule, and Kitagawa Ryo had already broken it.
"...All right. I promise I won't do it again."
Kitagawa Ryo could understand how frustrating it was to talk enthusiastically while the other person kept their head down and didn't listen at all. He quickly tried to think of a solution.
"I'll have to keep a close eye on you, Kitagawa."
Shiina Hiyori came up with a condition before Kitagawa Ryo could.
"A voice call isn't enough. You have to turn on your camera."
"Am I the only one who has to?"
"Because I'm under the covers."
Shiina Hiyori rustled her bedding to show him her current predicament.
"All right, all right."
Kitagawa Ryo had no choice. Since he was the one who'd broken their agreement first, he turned on his camera.
"Can you see me?"
Since only he had turned on his video, Kitagawa Ryo could only wave toward the dark screen on the other end.
"A little closer."
Shiina Hiyori's reply came through the earpiece. Kitagawa Ryo set the laptop on his knees and bent his legs up. The girl seemed satisfied with the result.
"Mm, that's good."
"I feel strangely nervous. Is this some kind of job interview?"
He couldn't see the other person, but she could see him. The awkward situation left Kitagawa Ryo looking stiff.
"It's okay, Kitagawa. Don't worry about it."
Shiina Hiyori laughed sweetly and reached out a finger, tracing Kitagawa Ryo's face on the screen from his eyebrows to his nose to his mouth, as if she could really touch him through it.
"Actually, at first I thought the rose was fussy, always sulking and getting into a huff, never content with what she had, and even lying to the Little Prince by saying she was the only rose in the world."
"But later, I felt that the rose couldn't help it, either. A lot of people say that she and the Little Prince didn't give equally to each other, but she was only a flower, after all. The only thing she could do for the Little Prince was bloom—bloom beautifully—and stay by his side."
Shiina Hiyori recited the passage about the rose blooming into her earphones:
"She carefully chose her colours. She slowly put on her dress, adjusting each petal into place.
"She didn't want to appear all rumpled like a poppy. She wanted to bloom in all her beautiful glory. Yes, she was very fond of dressing up.
"She had been making herself beautiful in secret for many days. Then one morning, just as the sun was rising, she suddenly showed her true colours.
"After taking such great care with her appearance, she yawned and said:
"'Oh! I've only just woken up... I'm sorry... I haven't even washed yet.'"
"Don't you think that's very girlish, Kitagawa?"
Shiina Hiyori chuckled softly and continued:
"Wanting to show your beloved the very best of yourself—the rose is no different from an ordinary girl."
"..."
Kitagawa Ryo fell silent for a while, then asked Shiina Hiyori:
"But the Little Prince still left in the end."
"Mm."
Shiina Hiyori rolled onto her side and rested her phone over her heart. She closed her eyes as she answered:
"The rose was so sensitive inside, and so insecure, but she insisted on putting on a proud front. She had to show the four little thorns around her to the tigers—though perhaps there weren't any at all—to prove that she could protect herself."
"She wanted the Little Prince to water her and make her a glass dome to shield her from the wind. Those were ways of testing him."
"Why test him?"
Kitagawa Ryo answered without thinking:
"A lot of love stories end in tragedy because the lovers keep testing each other."
"Because they want to know whether they're... the one and only in the other person's heart?"
Shiina Hiyori pressed her lips together, trying to find a reasonable answer.
"Some people might think it's a tragedy written just for the sake of tragedy, but people who are truly in love really do torment each other in these silly, silly ways. If they could just be sure, they could stay together forever."
"You seem to know a lot about this, Hiyori."
"I've just read a lot of books with stories like this. I suppose I only know enough to talk about it in theory?"
"The rose only wanted the Little Prince to dote on her. Ever since she was a seed, the Little Prince had been the only person in her world, so she hoped that his world would have room for only one rose: her."
Shiina Hiyori let out a soft sigh.
"After leaving the rose, the Little Prince saw five thousand roses exactly like her, but he didn't fall in love with any of them."
"Do you know why, Kitagawa?"
Kitagawa Ryo nodded toward the camera.
"Because he was the one who had watered her. He had protected her with his own hands, and he had picked off every single one of the caterpillars on her."
"He had listened to all her worries and self-pity, and to all her silences and unspoken thoughts."
"That was my rose, my one and only rose."
As she listened to Kitagawa Ryo's answer, Shiina Hiyori unconsciously tugged at the hem of her pajamas.
She looked straight into Kitagawa Ryo's dark eyes through the camera, as if he were saying those words to her.
But Shiina Hiyori knew that Kitagawa Ryo was only looking at a black screen. And the rose he spoke of...
Wasn't her.
"It seems you like the rose a lot, too, Kitagawa."
Shiina Hiyori felt a little pang in her heart. She thought it might be because she didn't want Kitagawa Ryo's love life to take away from their book discussions.
After all, she really did need a friend who could talk books with her. Just a friend.
"So, do you have any other questions about The Little Prince, Kitagawa?"
Shiina Hiyori's lips curled into a smile. It was already past her usual bedtime, but now she seemed to have endless things to say. She rested her phone lightly against her forehead. Whenever she opened her eyes, she could see Kitagawa Ryo's face right there on the screen.
"Nope. Your analysis of The Little Prince was spot-on, Hiyori. Should I say I'd expect nothing less of you?"
Kitagawa Ryo glanced at the sun that was slowly rising outside the window and suddenly remembered Hotaru.
"Hiyori, I gave Hotaru to Kei. I probably won't be able to share pictures of Hotaru with you like I used to anymore."
"...?"
There was the longest silence yet from the other end of the call. Kitagawa Ryo knew that Shiina Hiyori liked Hotaru a lot, but he didn't know how to explain or defend himself, so he could only gaze pitifully into the camera.
"Maybe I can get Kei to take some pictures and send them to me, then I can send them to you. How about that?"
Kitagawa Ryo stumbled over his words, and the last few came out almost inaudible.
"I think you should sound a little more sincere when you apologize, Kitagawa. Maybe make a heart with your hands or something?"
Shiina Hiyori's tone was so cool that Kitagawa Ryo instinctively formed a heart with both hands in front of the camera.
The next second, he saw that Shiina Hiyori had changed her profile picture to that very photo of him.
"Good night. We can video call again when we're both free."
Shiina Hiyori's voice held a little satisfaction and the glee of a successful prank.
Kitagawa Ryo could only watch as Shiina Hiyori hung up. Her profile picture quickly turned gray, showing that she was offline.
"What was that about?"
He leaned back against the headboard, amused. But as soon as he closed his eyes, he remembered the way Karuizawa Kei had pleaded with him last night.
"So, so... Ryo, don't leave, okay?"
Before you continue