What was this feeling?!
Reiko's mind went blank with a buzz. She instinctively tried to push him away, only to sink into Tetsuhiro's broad chest.
Clutching his shirt tightly with both hands, Reiko unconsciously clenched her teeth.
Leave it to me.
"Mmm..."
Reiko simply closed her eyes and let him do as he pleased, looking ready to surrender herself to him.
The sun blazed, warming them both and stretching their shadows long, so very long...
The camera pulled back. Such a beautiful, romantic scene could have made a wonderful painting...
The young man in the sports car casually snapped a photo of the scene, intending to commission a painting as a keepsake.
Who could have known that, just a few short years later, someone would offer five billion for it?
But that was a story for another time.
Meanwhile, Kintaro had slowed his bicycle down, but when he looked back...
"Good grief!"
The two of them cast incredibly long shadows.
"Damn it! Even Lady Meteor..."
"That old guy's at it again! How many does this make?!"
"I'm so jealous I could hate him!"
Yet he kept cycling farther and farther away.
"No!!! Lady Meteor!" Overcome with grief, Kintaro let out an anguished wail. "How could he steal even you away?!"
"Was it heaven's will? Or man's doing? Alas, woe is me!"
He shouted through his sobs, "If Kintaro had to be born, why did Tetsuhiro have to exist? If~ Kintaro was born! Why~ did Tetsuhiro have to exist?!!"
Kintaro wiped away his tears, a resolute gleam flashing in his eyes.
He decisively turned away, stopped looking back, and began pedaling furiously.
"If my ass hadn't been... I would've definitely come first. Maybe Lady Meteor would've seen me in a new light, and I'd be the one holding her now."
"Ah,