Chapter 3: Sunset and Cherry Tomatoes

Chapter 3: Sunset and Cherry Tomatoes

“How’s the pressure? Does it hurt?”

“...I can’t feel anything.”

“Still being stubborn. What about here? Does it hurt?”

“...Stop touching me!”

“If it feels good, just cry out. It’s fine.”

There were many things Kiyono Mitsuki did not understand.

She did not understand this world.

She did not understand why, when she had clearly never done anything bad, she would end up in such a state today.

Nor did she understand why this orphan neighbour, whose own background was even more miserable, had become the only person she could rely on now.

What she understood even less was why, when even the hospital had been helpless and she had been sentenced to never standing again for the rest of her life, his touch on her legs could produce a sensation that should not exist.

Although it was extremely faint.

It truly existed.

Ordinarily, even when she touched them herself, there was no sensation at all, nor any sense of strength. The fact that her muscles had not yet atrophied was already something to thank heaven for.

But as long as he did this.

As long as he used those slender, beautiful hands with clearly defined joints to grip her legs and begin massaging them.

A strange, indescribable warm current would arise, giving her the illusion that her legs were still alive.

Was it really an illusion?

Once might be, twice might be, but what about now?

She could not even spare any attention for so-called shame.

It was not only a little sensation. That warm current was also unusually comfortable... making her pretty face flush, and even forcing her to bite her teeth hard so she would not make a sound that would definitely be embarrassing.

“Tell me honestly. Do you feel anything or not?”

Yatsuno Gen raised his head and looked directly into her gradually misty eyes.

Kiyono Mitsuki could not help pressing down on Yatsuno Gen’s hand. Only at times like this would she reveal such an innocent, soft gaze, almost pleading like a little deer.

“A... a little.”

“Then try seeing if you can move.”

“...I can’t.”

Finally, Yatsuno Gen released his fragrant hands.

He even openly sniffed them in front of her.

“What are you doing?!”

Kiyono Mitsuki anxiously tried to stop his perverted action, but she could only make the wheelchair creak and groan. She could not stand up at all to stop him.

Only then did Yatsuno Gen lower his hand.

“So you really can’t move even a little.”

“...What?”

So he had been trying to force her to move her legs?

She withdrew her hand, lowered her head with a flushed face, and began messily tidying the hem of her skirt, covering her beautiful, well-proportioned legs again, legs whose muscles were still firm for now.

Her toes lay neatly arranged inside her slippers. Although she could not control them, they still possessed a crystalline quality.

Like sleeping white silkworms.

Yatsuno Gen muttered to himself, “Looks like this world’s spiritual energy is still too thin... the cultivation method has to recover by a few more tenths before there will be any possibility. But as long as there is sensation, it means there is a chance of standing up.”

Kiyono Mitsuki raised her head and looked at Yatsuno Gen strangely.

“What are you saying? Was what you said just now in Yanxia?”

“Mm. I’ve been studying that language recently.”

Kiyono Mitsuki’s eyes, which had dimmed again, glanced at the handsome young man.

“Yatsuno-kun really is diligent. Studying Yanxia, are you thinking of leaving Neon?”

That made sense.

He was an orphan, a capable, outstanding, unrestrained young man in the prime of his youth.

A young man like him should never have appeared in her world to begin with. Perhaps even her original self would have felt ashamed of her inferiority, let alone her current self.

She was already hell. She did not want to become his cage.

But Yatsuno Gen looked at her with a smile.

“If I leave, what will you do?”

“...I told you, none of that is your concern. Just do what you want to do. I won’t become a part of your life, and I shouldn’t be in any of your plans.”

Kiyono Mitsuki put that cold, hard mask back on and spoke as harshly as she could.

But she was like a hedgehog with spines growing even on its belly, one that did not even dare curl up with force, much less truly prick him.

Yatsuno Gen did not preach any grand reasoning, nor did he offer any gentle comfort.

He simply picked up an orange, peeled it lightly with those attractive fingers, then asked casually,

“Does Older Sister Kiyono really want me to leave this place? With my personality, once I leave someone, I will never appear again. Not even on the day you die.”

“I...”

It should clearly have been such a simple thing to say.

The cold words she should have been able to say so easily were lines she had planned for a long time, a choice she believed would be better for him.

But when they reached her lips, she could not say them no matter what.

As if once she said them, everything would come true. That intense stabbing pain of losing the most important thing felt like countless holes opening in her heart.

Inside her chest, something seemed to howl as wind leaked everywhere.

And everything she could not say could only turn into dense self-reproach. She realized her own weakness and selfishness.

It became tears at the corners of her eyes, falling one by one.

They wet the hem of her skirt.

They wet the back of her hand.

But within her vision, blurred by sobs, the young man’s clean, fair hand appeared.

He used the pad of his thumb to gently wipe away the tears at the corners of her eyes, then looked at her with a smiling expression.

“I originally thought you looked beautiful when you smiled. Now I think you’re even more beautiful when you cry. I’ll work even harder to bully you in the future.”

“...You wicked-hearted jerk!”

Kiyono Mitsuki could not help scolding him softly.

But it was no different from acting spoiled.

Yatsuno Gen found it extremely satisfying. Tsundere should be both tsun and dere, that was what gave it flavour!

On his face, however, he deliberately sighed in helplessness.

“No choice. In order to stop Older Sister Kiyono from thinking I’m some indiscriminate good Samaritan, I’ve put in a lot of effort.”

Kiyono Mitsuki clenched both hands, her fingers tangling together.

She looked at the young man in slight frustration.

“You’re always like this. You say things that make it impossible to tell what’s true and what’s false. Do you know that’s really wicked of you?”

“So that’s why I made you cry?”

“...Mm.”

She felt that not only were her legs deteriorating day by day, but her heart was the same.

It was becoming increasingly fragile, increasingly unable to resist relying on him, like a child before him.

Even though she was clearly older...

“I’m sorry for making you cry this time. But what’s even more unfortunate is that this may not be the last time. Because when you can stand up, you’ll definitely cry even harder than this.”

“...Stop joking.”

She did not want to fuss over the young man painting her a rosy picture.

After all, such things were very common. To give hope to someone in despair, was it not necessary to describe a beautiful future?

In truth, she very much wanted to say it.

She would rather die right now, in this very moment, before his eyes.

Death was meaningless, and as it happened, her current self was also a meaningless product.

At that moment, Yatsuno Gen stood up and reached out to lift Kiyono Mitsuki’s chin.

Caught off guard, the young girl raised her head, looking up from an extremely humble angle at Yatsuno Gen, who seemed perfect from every angle.

When his finger slid clearly and precisely from her jawline to the corner of her mouth.

Her cheeks could not help heating up, and her gaze began to turn timid.

She did not know what she was expecting at that moment.

But that pounding in her heart, that impulse as if something was about to burst through her chest and make her lips and tongue moisten ahead of time, was more intense than ever before.

He parted her lips.

Wet and soft.

Then he stuffed the peeled little orange into her mouth.

“Finish it.”

Kiyono Mitsuki:???

She had a sentence... forget it!

What was she fantasizing about? This was exactly how wicked-hearted he was.

That was why she was so helpless against him. She did not want to get close, yet could not bring herself to be cruel.

As Kiyono Mitsuki began chewing and carefully tasting the sweet and sour flavour in her mouth.

Yatsuno Gen had already taken a brand-new fruit knife out from beneath her sofa cushion.

Then he looked at the girl, whose expression instantly became awkward and perfectly guilty, and said,

“I’m confiscating this knife too. I already told you not to prepare this sort of thing, didn’t I?”

The orange in her mouth had not yet been swallowed, so she could not speak.

She could only puff out her fragrant cheeks like a pufferfish, glaring with wide eyes to express her dissatisfaction.

Yatsuno Gen lightly patted her puffed-up cheeks with his palm. It was not a slap, yet it could still make someone blush.

He placed the remaining fruit before her as well.

“Alright, I’ll head back first. If you don’t want to waste my money, eat the rest of it.”

“Gulp... Gen!”

She finally swallowed the orange in her mouth.

In her panic, Kiyono Mitsuki called the young man by his given name for the first time.

Yatsuno Gen stopped beneath the light and looked back.

The dim yellow light shone on his clean white shirt. His perfect jawline and the side of his neck were beautiful to an unreasonable degree.

“What is it?”

“Why are you so good to me? You clearly said you aren’t an indiscriminate good Samaritan. You said you never hand out kindness carelessly, and you don’t covet my body either. Then why exactly are you so good to me?”

This seemed to be the matter Kiyono Mitsuki had been brooding over the most.

As if, so long as she received this answer, she would willingly die at once.

Yatsuno Gen fell into thought.

It was torment for her.

Fortunately, this torment was not an impassable harsh winter, but a stream flowing gently over a riverbed.

He smiled warmly.

“Do you still remember, after I moved here, the first time you knocked on my door, holding a bag of fruit? There were apples, pears, and cherry tomatoes. That day’s sunset happened to shine into the corridor, falling on your hair and shoulders. You said to me: When living alone, remember to get more vitamins.”

He remembered even the types of fruit with perfect clarity.

Tears once again broke through the girl’s defenses unreasonably.

She tried her best to hold them back, but the floodgates still burst.

“J, just that?”

“Just that,” he answered.

“But what does that even count as?! Anyone could clearly do that. It was clearly very simple, something not even worth mentioning at all. Why would it be worth you helping me so much?!”

Kiyono Mitsuki sobbed so hard she could barely speak, tears running wild over that beautifully sorrowful face.

But this time, Yatsuno Gen did not wipe them away.

He merely said,

“There is a line in The Outsider: I killed a man only because the summer sun was too dazzling. Then my reason is this: I helped you because the sunset that day was too beautiful.”

“But... but...”

An enormous sense of absurdity enveloped her whole body.

Yet what surged in immediately afterward was an indescribable happiness.

Why could someone like her also feel happiness?

Yatsuno Gen looked at Kiyono Mitsuki in disdain.

“Crying again. You really are too disobedient. This time, your punishment is to wipe your own tears. I’m leaving.”

Bang.

When the door truly closed, he also took away the rubbish from her room.

Kiyono Mitsuki’s tears stopped as well.

She looked at the fruit on the table and slowly reached out.

She lifted a beautiful cherry tomato before her eyes, holding it beneath the light.

Hoping she could imitate.

The sunset from that day.