When Shinji woke the next morning, he found that Rei Ayanami, who had slept beside him the night before, was gone.
His heart lurched. Before he even put on his shoes, he rushed downstairs.
He found Rei Ayanami making breakfast, while their daughter Riko sat in her special baby chair. When she saw Shinji come downstairs, she opened her little mouth in a silly grin.
"You're up. Come have breakfast." As she always did, Rei Ayanami gently called Shinji over to eat the breakfast she had gotten up to make. She picked up their daughter and settled her gently in her arms, carefully feeding Riko thin rice porridge with a little spoon.
Shinji ate slowly. Usually, he wolfed down his breakfast and left for work, but today...
He had requested leave from the company. He did not care whether his hot-tempered boss approved it or not. No matter what, he was not going in today.
Not every Japanese person was polite and well-mannered. Of course, you all knew what I meant.
Shinji sat beside Rei Ayanami and held her hand tightly. After a moment of silence, he made up his mind and said, "Um, let's go to the beach... on our last day."
Rei Ayanami did not refuse. She nodded gently, then turned back to feeding Riko.
Rei Ayanami unfastened the Star-Shaped Necklace Huang Zhetian had given her and personally put it around Shinji's neck. "When I'm gone, wait until you get home to look at it, all right? Let me leave happily over these next few days, okay?"
Shinji held back the grief in his heart and forced a smile as he nodded hard. But that smile looked painfully strained and pitiful.
"Okay... okay... I understand."
"Thank you. Wait a moment."
Rei Ayanami went back to their room and