When it came to the question, "Who will you choose?", Kotomi Izumi might not have been experienced—but she was decisive in her own unique way. Her answer was something only she would dare to do.
She chose neither—and directly shattered the dilemma of a two-way choice.
The reason a "choose one of two" situation feels so difficult is that it's like a balance scale placed in front of you—both sides evenly weighed. The moment you make a choice, you inevitably break that balance.
You don't want to destroy the equilibrium, yet you can't make a decision without doing so. That's what makes it agonizing.
Sometimes, of course, a choice truly must be made. But in most cases, why not just choose both? Or keep things balanced as they are?
Right now, Kotomi could still choose both. But before reaching that point, she decided to fabricate a third option out of thin air—and choose that instead, keeping the balance intact.
And no, she didn't have to worry that inventing a third option would turn the situation into a "Who will you choose among the three of us?" scenario. After all, if she was creating the third option herself, she could make sure it was one she could completely control.
Like now: caught between Mai Sakurajima and Yukino Yukinoshita, Kotomi conjured up a third choice—"My mom said we're having hot pot tonight, and she already bought the sesame sauce"—and picked that one. With it, she neatly escaped their crossfire and prevented the love battlefield from escalating any further.
Of course, the main reason this worked was because neither Mai Sakurajima nor Yukino Yukinoshita was actually Kotomi's girlfriend yet. There hadn't even been a confession. If a full-blown conflict broke out now, her two real girlfriends—Megumi Kato and Yui Yuigahama—would definitely "join the battlefield."
Just imagining being surrounded by four angry girls at once... Kotomi felt a chill run down her spine.
Never mind the personalities of Yukino, Yui, and Mai—Megumi Kato, when pushed, was the type to quietly pick up a kitchen knife.
Even the gentle Megumi could turn dark in an instant. The first time, she'd used a knife. The next time, she might show up with a chainsaw!
Just remembering what it felt like to have a knife plunge into her stomach was bad enough. If Megumi came at her with a chainsaw next time... even with the power of the Clock of the Twilight Demon, Kotomi had no intention of testing it.
After all, she still hadn't fully figured out what the Clock of the Twilight Demon's power really was. There was no manual, and Kazumi remained in deep slumber. Kotomi could only explore its abilities little by little on her own.
What she did know so far was that when she suffered a severe injury—or died—the Clock of the Twilight Demon would automatically activate, restoring her body to the state it was in before the injury or death.
It sounded like a cheat skill that would forever save her from worrying about knives.
But Kotomi couldn't shake one particular concern. Anyone who's played games knows that some buff-type skills require specific conditions to trigger properly. Without meeting those conditions, the skill might not activate at all.
Kotomi had no idea if the Clock of the Twilight Demon required any special conditions to activate—or if it had usage limits.
For example, could it only be used a few times within a certain time frame?
Life wasn't something to gamble with. Until she understood those mechanisms, Kotomi decided she had to keep her survival instincts maxed out. If she got stabbed again and the clock didn't activate, she'd be really dead.
When Kotomi mentioned her "hot pot" excuse, both Yukino Yukinoshita and Mai Sakurajima blinked in surprise.
Mai was the first to react. After a brief pause, she laughed softly and said with a touch of regret:
"So you like hot pot, huh, Izumi-chan? I'll remember that. Once you're back from Kyoto, I'll treat you to hot pot. Of course, that's just my suggestion—what you want to eat, and where, will be entirely up to you."
"Thank you, Mai-senpai~" Kotomi said with a sweet smile, relieved that the tense standoff had finally diffused.
I'm amazing... Kotomi thought, chuckling to herself inwardly.
Mai's smile deepened slightly. "Then I'll take that 'thank you' as you agreeing to my invitation."
"Mhm. After I get back from Kyoto," Kotomi nodded obediently.
"No problem." Mai Sakurajima smiled and nodded, then gently wrapped her arm around Kotomi Izumi's shoulder and said to Tomomi Akada, "Tomomi, could you take a photo of me and Kotomi?"
"Shouldn't it be a photo of the three of us together? Mai-senpai, you'll join too, right?" Yukino Yukinoshita spoke up.
Mai Sakurajima looked deeply at Yukino for a few seconds before letting out a faint, emotionless smile.
"You're right, Yukinoshita-san. My apologies. I got a little carried away when I saw Izumi-chan win the Grand Prize, so I wanted to take a picture with her. But you're right—on an occasion like this, the photo should be of all three of you. I'll just have to find another time in private to take one with Izumi-chan."
Yukino Yukinoshita and Yui Yuigahama stood to Kotomi's right, while Mai Sakurajima stood to her left.
Click.
The shutter sound echoed softly.
On this final day of the cultural festival, a second photo was taken—capturing Kotomi Izumi, Yui Yuigahama, and Yukino Yukinoshita together.
It was the trio's second photo.
After the award ceremony came the bonfire dance.
It was said that if two people danced together by the bonfire, their love would be blessed—lasting long and shining bright.
Megumi Kato and Yui Yuigahama were both looking for Kotomi Izumi. Ever since the ceremony ended, Kotomi had seemingly disappeared.
While searching for her, Megumi and Yui happened to run into each other.
"Eh? Megumi?"
"Yui, are you looking for someone?"
Yui Yuigahama, who wanted to find Kotomi and dance with her by the bonfire, smiled brightly and said:
"I'm looking for Kotomi. She said she wanted to eat my homemade yogurt cake, so I told her we could go to my house after the festival. But now, I can't find her anywhere."
Megumi Kato, who also wanted to find Kotomi to dance with her, instinctively tensed for a moment upon hearing Yui's words. But when she heard Yui's explanation, she quietly let out a small breath of relief.
So that's it... she just wants to invite Kotomi over for cake, Megumi thought, then said with a smile:
"Actually, I'm looking for Kotomi too. She's leaving for Kyoto tomorrow, so I wanted to go over to her house tonight and help her pack her luggage. You probably don't know this, but Kotomi's terrible at packing."
Yui Yuigahama laughed. "Haha, I see."
Megumi replied with a gentle smile. "Hehe, that's right."
After their brief but friendly exchange, the two girls went their separate ways—each heading off in a different direction to search for Kotomi Izumi.
Where are you, my wife? Megumi thought to herself.
Where'd you go, my future co-parent? Yui thought with a sigh.
While Yui Yuigahama and Megumi Kato were searching for Kotomi Izumi...
Kotomi Izumi glanced from afar at the blazing bonfire, then gently pushed open the door to Class 1-F.
Just as she expected, she saw Shizuka Hiratsuka standing by the window, gazing at the bonfire dance on the field.
"Why didn't you turn on the lights?" Kotomi said with a soft laugh as she looked at Shizuka's back, reaching out to switch them on.
"I just wanted to stay a little longer, watching the bonfire over there. Before I knew it, I got absorbed in it—and then suddenly it was already dark," Shizuka replied with a smile when she heard Kotomi's voice, turning around.
"On the very last day at Sobu High, did anything memorable happen?" Kotomi asked.
"What memorable thing could there be? That's why I don't like goodbyes. It always feels like something dramatic should happen on the final day before parting, but in reality, the last day is usually very ordinary. Still… today wasn't completely uneventful. You won the Grand Prize. In my eyes, that's something worth remembering. Congratulations, Kotomi."
Shizuka smiled as she looked at Kotomi. She wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but the Kotomi reflected in her eyes kept overlapping with the white-haired little angel from her memories.
She had mistaken Kotomi for that white-haired little angel more than once before—but never had the feeling been this intense.
It was as if the little angel she had searched for and missed all these years was standing right in front of her now, slowly walking closer.
"I… I…"
Shizuka's hands trembled as she tried to raise them. In that moment, she was convinced that the white-haired little angel she longed for was right before her eyes. She desperately wanted to reach out, pull that little angel into her arms, and tell her how deeply she had missed her ever since they parted after the fireworks festival.
The pendant carved with tree-ring patterns was still treasured by her to this very day.
A faint fragrance drifted over. That familiar scent snapped Shizuka back to reality. When she lowered her head to look, her body trembled in shock.
Kotomi Izumi had already walked up to her and wrapped her arms tightly around her, resting her small head against Shizuka's chest.
"Kotomi, what are you doing? Hurry… hurry and let go—mm!"
Kotomi leaned in and kissed Shizuka's lips.
In that instant, every sense and every shred of consciousness Shizuka had was completely overwhelmed.
The kiss was gentle, like a tender reward—yet scorching, as if it were burning.
The sensation was nothing like that of hands or feet. It made Shizuka's mind feel as though it had been set ablaze, leaving her dizzy and lightheaded.
Shizuka subconsciously closed her eyes, instinctively savoring the kiss from Kotomi.
My feelings for Kotomi…
In a flash, the surge of possessiveness nearly stripped Shizuka of all rational thought. She tightly grabbed Kotomi's wrist, pushed her down, and pinned her against the desk. Her increasingly heavy breathing seemed to reveal exactly what she wanted to do deep down.
Shizuka's blurred vision slowly came back into focus. She saw that deep within Kotomi Izumi's pink eyes beneath her long lashes, love was overflowing—so much that it seemed ready to spill out as tears at any moment. Before she knew it, Shizuka had already sunk into those eyes.
Kotomi Izumi's gentleness. Kotomi Izumi's innocence. Kotomi Izumi's beauty. Kotomi Izumi—everything about her—was relentlessly eroding Shizuka's reason.
"Shizuka, do you want it to be here? That's fine too…" Kotomi said softly, her eyes tender as water as she reached out to gently caress Shizuka's cheek.
...
"Onee-san, I'll eat well and grow up quickly! You have to wait for me obediently. I'll definitely marry you! You can't go back on your word—you already accepted my token of love!"
"Onee-san, this is my token of love for you. You absolutely must not lose it!"
The words of the white-haired little angel echoed once again in Shizuka's ears at that very moment.
Like a pair of small hands, they abruptly yanked back the reason that was slipping away from her.
Shizuka suddenly fell to the side, collapsing onto the floor, gasping for breath.
Just a little more… just a little more, and she would have completely lost herself to Kotomi's beauty, and then…
Shizuka didn't dare think further. She had almost done something that betrayed the white-haired little angel. Without hesitation, she raised her hand and fiercely slapped her own cheeks again and again.
"What have I done? I'm worse than an animal—worse than a beast!"
"Shizuka, stop hitting yourself! If you really feel like you need to hit someone, then hit me instead!" Kotomi Izumi shouted, grabbing Shizuka Hiratsuka's wrist. Shizuka had struck herself so hard that blood was already trickling from the corner of her mouth.
"Kotomi, I…"
Seeing Shizuka's intense reaction, Kotomi let out a quiet sigh. She had only intended to kiss her so that Shizuka would finally confront the feelings she'd been burying deep inside.
But she hadn't expected that, once again, Shizuka would choose to run away.
"Shizuka, do you… hate me that much?" Kotomi asked softly, her tone carrying quiet sorrow.
"No, I don't hate you at all—really, I don't! I actually think meeting you has been one of the luckiest things in my life!" Shizuka said quickly. She could hate anyone else in the world, but not Kotomi Izumi—not the girl who so perfectly mirrored the white-haired little angel from her memories.
"Then why did you react like that just now?"
Kotomi's voice was calm, unreadable. She lowered her head slightly, and the strands of hair that fell over her face made it impossible for Shizuka to see her expression. Kotomi's hand still held Shizuka's wrist tightly.
"I…"
Shizuka met Kotomi's eyes—and in that moment, she made up her mind to tell her everything, the truth she had kept buried for years.
"Kotomi, there's… someone who's always lived in my heart—a little angel. She's the person I fell in love with. Many years ago, I met her for the first time—and that was also the only time we ever met. Just that one meeting, and it was as if I fell in love at first sight.
"Before we parted, she gave me a token of love, and she said that when she grew up, she'd definitely marry me.
"Haha… I actually believed her childish words, and I've been waiting ever since. I guess that makes me just as naive as she was.
"I don't even know what my feelings for her truly are—or if she still feels anything for me now.
"But even if she's forgotten me, even if she no longer likes me, I still want to see her again one day—to hear it from her own lips. And then I'll return to her the token of love she gave me back then. It was a matching pair… I wonder if she still has hers?"
Shizuka spoke all of this in one breath. Once she finished, she felt strangely light—as if an invisible weight had been lifted from her chest.
"What kind of person was she?" Kotomi's voice was low and hoarse.
"She was adorable. Truly, impossibly adorable. I don't even know how to describe her properly. It feels like no amount of words could ever capture how cute she was. To me, she was like a little angel."
Shizuka let out a bitter laugh as she continued:
"She had white hair too—just like you. That's why, every time I see you, I can't help but mistake you for her. I even wondered, more than once, if maybe you really were that little white-haired angel I met all those years ago.
"If that were true, it would be wonderful. But even if you two look so alike on the outside, your personalities are completely different.
"No matter how much I want to believe you're the same person… the truth is, you and she will never be one and the same."
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