Kiyono's hand was held very tightly, and the warmth of his palm was incredibly comforting.
Ah… Yukinoshita Haruno suddenly had a strange thought. Perhaps she hadn't come to this church to curse anything at all, but to pray—to pray that she too might welcome her Prince Charming.
She narrowed her eyes slightly.
"This 'world' you're talking about sounds way too grand. For now, how about we just buy a house in some little southern town, plant vegetables in the garden… and then have a daughter?"
"Aren't your goals a little too clear?! And isn't the plot moving way too fast?!"
Kiyono shook off her hand and stood up.
"Would you really be willing to stay with someone as troublesome as me?"
Haruno looked up at him, her tone ambiguously playful, but her pupils were unconsciously filled with doubt.
She realized she hadn't lost her head just yet.
Even though she hated this sort of thing, even though she wanted to erase her past self and sink into the gentleness of this night, these thoughts still rose up instinctively.
She would doubt. She would deny. She would weigh truth against lies. She wouldn't believe so easily.
She was afraid that Kiyono was only this kind to her because he owed a debt of gratitude to the Yukinoshita family.
Even the feelings between them right now—could they really escape the influence of that façade?
She wasn't just questioning Kiyono.
She was questioning her own heart.
She couldn't control it at all.
Annoyed, she dug a fingernail into her palm.
Kiyono looked down at her as if he could see straight through her thoughts.
To be honest, Yukinoshita Haruno was a troublesome woman. She had her own firmly rooted sense of values, liked to restrain herself, liked to analyze everything to death…
But he only smiled.
"Whether it's the troublesome Yukinoshita Haruno, or the Yukinoshita Haruno who's always rational and hiding behind a mask, or the Yukinoshita Haruno who gets jealous of her little sister—no matter how troublesome or 'impure' she is, I'll accept her completely."
"Other than the part about having kids, I'll go with you all the way—whether it's eloping or traveling."
Haruno's expression softened for an instant. Then she dipped her head slightly, suppressing her emotions. When she lifted her face again, she wore a smile as bright as a bouquet in full bloom and held her hand out to him.
"Then… take me away with you."
"Mm."
Kiyono clasped her hand firmly. His eyes were gentle, like a great lake overflowing with sunlight.
—This was surely a once-in-a-lifetime night.
For the first time in her life, she had argued with her family, exposed an ugly, jealous side of herself, then run away from home, hidden in a place closest to God, and eloped—more or less—with the boy she liked, setting off on a journey without a destination.
She wanted to carefully, quietly, gently etch this moment into her memory.
As the two of them stepped out into the curtain of snow, Haruno looked back one last time.
In the darkness, the Virgin Mary's eyes shimmered faintly in the stained glass, as if offering her blessing to this ridiculous elopement.
Moonlight shone on the snowy ground, bright as day, and their footprints wound off into the distance.
---
The people you want to see will be hidden in your heart.
The places you want to go will also be hidden in your heart.
Because the mundane world is full of trouble,
and the lonely city a thousand miles away is both unforgettable and unreachable.
Yukinoshita Haruno had always suppressed herself. Even if you asked her where she wanted to go, she would only vaguely say she wanted to see the snow.
So they decided on Hokkaido—like a runaway heroine saying, on a whim, that she wanted to see the snow in the northern frontier, while the taciturn swordsman had already silently packed their bags and saddled the horse.
As for why Hokkaido?
Even she wasn't sure. Maybe it was because of the beautiful, dreamlike snowscapes. Maybe it was because it was far and remote enough that her family's shadow couldn't reach. Maybe it was because it was the filming location of Love Letter…
In any case, she went because the thought struck her.
And she had an idiot by her side who would follow without asking why, and without asking when they'd be back.
They first took a train to Tokyo, bought a camera, and then set out for Hokkaido. This northernmost region was extremely far from home. Most people would have chosen the Shinkansen or a plane, but Haruno bought tickets for an old train that would take a full twelve hours—because this slow train offered rare, beautiful scenery all along the way.
The train was filled with university students and young couples—faces close together, two people sharing one large blanket.
Even though Haruno had decided she would no longer hide herself, she wasn't as high-spirited as she'd imagined. For the most part, she sat quietly, staring out the window, calm and yet subtly changed, as if she might vanish if touched. When Kiyono glanced over, she would smile and fuss over him like a proper big sister.
The train pulled away from Tokyo.
Haruno leaned her head on his shoulder, lavender scent tickling at his heart.
Outside, mountains and rice fields were buried under a vast blanket of white. The scenery shifted from snowfields to sea.
Did they look like a couple on a long journey together now?
Clatter, clatter—the train carried them farther and farther away.
---
Their first impression of Hokkaido was simply: cold.
They rented a car and began wandering around the surrounding areas.
In truth, Kiyono had never been so far from home before. There had never been enough money for travel when he was younger. After he became rich, his days were filled with work and noise, and when he finally had free time, he only wanted to play games.
Haruno hadn't been to many places either. Most of her life had been spent in Chiba.
Once they reached this snow country, Haruno's mood seemed to rise like the clear winter sky. She jumped out of the car into the endless white, then, standing by the window, wrapped a scarf around her neck and tied on matching earmuffs, the two fluffy pom-poms swaying adorably.
Kiyono followed her out. Everything around them was white; the sky was low and heavy. They stood in an endless snowfield like a pair of country bumpkins, looking around and saying, "So white~"
There were no houses nearby, only rows of white birch trees glazed in frost.
The wind whistled as it swept over the field, carrying snowflakes—a primitive kind of music.
In front of him, Haruno spun around, smiling, like a miko performing a ritual dance at a shrine.
She scooped up snow in her gloved hands and flung it into the air, or tugged at tree branches to send heavy clumps down. Her pale cheeks were tinged pink from the cold, but her smile was dazzling.
On the road, she stopped and started as she liked. She no longer checked her makeup in the mirror or fussed over her appearance.
Hokkaido was full of wildlife—deer, foxes, squirrels. She'd even heard there were monkeys that bathed in the hot springs.
She would gleefully chase after deer, carefully photograph foxes, and warn him in all seriousness to be careful of brown bears.
Water coursed down between the mountains, a deep, clear blue. Standing on the bridge, Haruno said solemnly,
"If you threw someone off here, no one would ever know, right?"
"This isn't a film set for a crime thriller," Kiyono replied.
The air was sharp and clean, filled with the scent of snow and pine. But nature also meant underdevelopment. It grew dark before four in the afternoon.
Empty streets. Scattered houses. A convenience store here, a grocery there. The rumble of a distant train cutting through the snow…
Desolate.
Lonely.
The ceaseless falling snow only added to this feeling of solitude.
They returned to their guesthouse—a small wooden cabin sitting quietly in the forest. The fireplace crackled, devouring firewood. Outside the window, snow swallowed the world.
Haruno sat by the window with a guitar in her hands, playing a song of one-sided love. Through the reflection in the glass, she watched the boy behind her.
Halfway through, she decided the song wasn't very good and started improvising.
"How's this love I'm trying to convey?"
"It's beautiful."
"Don't just keep reading," she complained, her fingers pausing on the strings. "Look at me too."
Those words reminded Kiyono of another girl, and a vague sense of guilt rose in his chest.
In Hokkaido, the nights were long. Their words bloomed and faded like fireworks in that long darkness.
---
The next day, they went to Otaru, a famous tourist town. To be honest, to the two of them it didn't feel that different—everything was still covered in snow, only old streets and quiet houses.
They rode a bus, taking in the town's scenery with no particular goal.
They saw the disused railway that had operated from 1880 to 1985.
They saw the vermilion torii of Tenguyama Shrine crowned with a thick cap of snow.
Climbing the mountain made Kiyono feel hot, so he took off his scarf. Just then, as Haruno rang the enmusubi suzu—the bell for matchmaking—a fierce mountain wind swept through, carrying snowflakes, whipping her hair and snatching his scarf from his hand.
He started to chase after it, but Haruno simply untied her own scarf and looped half of it around his neck.
Sharing one scarf, the two of them took the cable car to the town's highest point.
Haruno swung her legs idly, a faint smile on her face, looking out at the pale mountains in the distance, eyes full of yearning and expectation.
"Next summer, how about going to Onomichi with me? Lots of movies are filmed there. They say if you ride the cable car to the top like this, you can see the trains running along the sea. The rooftops of the town, stained red with coal, line up like lanterns. You can see the red pagoda of Senkoji Temple, and red-sailed boats moored in the green water across the strait."
Right now, this was good, too.
Below them stretched the snow-covered town hugging the winding coastline.
But her heart quietly grew greedy.
She wanted to see the colors of summer as well.
"Sounds like someone's heartbreak is healing nicely if she's already thinking about next year," Kiyono teased.
—To be precise, about next year in another world.
Haruno narrowed her eyes and smiled, keeping that last thought to herself.
When the cable car ride ended, the two of them wandered down through the snow again. Guided by an invisible thread, they found themselves standing at the edge of an open snowfield.
Kiyono stopped and pointed to the serrated silhouette of mountains beyond the open white.
"Look familiar?"
"Mm… is this from Love Letter?"
Haruno remembered too.
It was the scene at the end of the movie. Hiroko Watanabe stands in the wide, empty snowfield and calls out. Her lonely, full, nostalgic voice echoes back from the mountains.
The peak she faces is this very "Akamine" rising before them.
Kiyono lit up, interested, and tilted his head toward her.
"Since we're here, you might as well try shouting a few times."
"What am I supposed to shout?"
"For example: 'I want to become human!'" he suggested, completely serious.
Haruno burst out laughing.
"I didn't think Little Kiyono would have such a girlish heart. With sparkly eyes and everything. You really are suited to being the young master of the Yukinoshita family."
"The correct line here is—"
She drew in a deep breath.
"Kiyono is an iiidiot—!"
Her voice rode the snow-laden wind into the distance.
It was late at night when they finally left the snow country.
Haruno lifted a finger and wrote Goodbye, Hokkaido on the fogged-up train window. Then she closed her eyes and wished that, in the other world, she could still stand with this boy in a snowfield someday and laugh.
---
And so, they returned to Tokyo.
Unlike the cold, silent beauty of the countryside, Shinjuku's night sky was always aglow with neon. Ginza was a swirl of color. Shibuya was forever crowded and loud.
Even when the long railway tracks were buried in snow, trains tore through the white curtain at lightning speed.
This city was full of endless noise and light, and Kiyono and Haruno melted naturally into it.
They hunted down hidden restaurants tucked in side streets and alleyways.
They even snuck onto the campus of Tokyo University.
Sitting side by side on a bench, they freely imagined the future that would arrive in a few months.
They had always been just slightly out of sync—when he was in middle school, she was in high school. When he made it to high school, she was already in university.
Now, they would finally both be university students. But her campus was in Chiba, and she could only come to Tokyo on her days off.
So they cherished the limited time they had, sitting side by side like this and talking casually about which classes they might take.
Haruno took him to a secondhand bookshop and searched for the footprints of past literary masters.
When they stepped out of the shop, they happened to run into a university art student who shyly asked to sketch them.
Haruno agreed right away, hugging Kiyono's arm as she posed, and later praised the painting to no end.
After the artist had gone, Kiyono grumbled that he could draw too, and quite well at that.
Haruno just smiled and patted his head, saying, "It's different," and that night, she became his model.
In the evenings, they shared a double room at a hotel.
Kiyono protested strongly at first, but Big Sister easily overruled him.
They were both adults now, so… it should be fine, right?
In the end, nothing happened.
After her bath, Haruno simply flopped down on the bed, grabbed his hand, and held on as if it were proof that she truly existed in this world.
She also started experimenting with her fashion. Some days she'd wear a tomboyish outfit; other days she'd choose a softer, more feminine style.
At dusk, Kiyono would pedal his bike to take her to the shore.
They would sit on the breakwater, legs dangling, watching the enormous sun sink into the horizon.
Waves broke against the rocks. The sea shimmered under the winter light, which somehow always felt warm.
It was truly a wonderful journey.
They had left everything else behind.
With only the person beside them, they had traveled to the cold and distant north, then returned to the bustling city, lodged in the crack between fairy tale and reality.
It was a trip—and also, in its own way, an elopement.
Kiyono turned his head to look at Haruno. The sunset gilded her profile, wrapping her in a gentle halo.
They had been forced to act like adults before, and likely would have to again in the future—
But in this tiny, dreamlike kingdom, he hoped Yukinoshita Haruno could find the girlhood she had never gotten to enjoy.
---
At the end of this story, they went to a hot spring.
Stone lanterns burned around the outdoor bath. Their flames swayed in the evening wind, turning the water amber. The moon silvered the distant mountains.
Overhead, a bright field of stars. Before them, dark green slopes.
The hot-spring pool was surrounded by rough stones, irregularly placed, forming an old-fashioned, elegant shape.
Kiyono sat alone in the middle of the water. The surface rose to his collarbone.
His thoughts drifted to Haruno.
She was just on the other side of the fence, likely soaking in a bath just like this one.
As a normal high school boy, he couldn't help but imagine the scene:
Her black hair wet and clinging to the porcelain-white nape of her neck.
Steam turning her milky skin slightly flushed…
Presumably, the next step would be for them to sit back-to-back with only a thin wall between them, speaking of their thoughts in low voices—right?
Just then, he heard a splash.
The sliding door to the men's side of the outdoor bath opened, then softly closed.
Wait… wait, wait! Even if this place has mixed bathing, that woman shouldn't—
Before he could stop her, he heard the soft thump of a towel being dropped and the faint sound of water swaying behind him.
Someone slipped into the bath without hesitation, water splashing as she walked toward him, and finally stopped right at his back.
A warmth spread across him that was ten, no, a hundred times more intense than the hot water.
They sat back-to-back in the center of the pool.
Kiyono felt the temperature spike in an instant.
Haruno's voice, livelier than usual, reached his ears.
"Kiyono, don't you think soaking in a hot spring together at the end of a journey is really romantic?"
"Don't use that as an excuse to gloss over the crime of trespassing into the men's bath."
Still, in the end… using that reason was too unfairly effective.
Even he found himself moved.
Other people matured on journeys like this.
They, on the other hand, had used this journey to turn from "adults" back into children.
After today, they would put the fairy tale back in the closet and take out formal suits instead.
Haruno stared up at the stars, as if recounting the memories of the last few days.
"Thank you. This trip was really fun."
"That's good."
"But that's only because you were with me."
"I know."
"Kiyono."
"I'm here."
"I just wanted to call your name."
"I'll answer you no matter how many times you call."