"Want to do something fun?"
"Miss Yukinoshita Haruno really loves making dirty jokes regardless of the occasion."
"Just like Kiyono loves joking around."
But I'm not joking.
Behind his back, Yukinoshita Haruno wore a complicated smile.
A soft sigh came, followed by the sound of water quietly shifting, and two slender arms wrapped around him from behind. A fuller, yielding sensation, completely different from his back, pressed against him.
A whisper brushed his ear.
"It's going to end, isn't it? No matter how willful I am, I can't keep the future great writer wasting his life on me."
Kiyono fell silent. He didn't dare move a muscle, only staring at the night sky in the distance.
"Miss Yukinoshita Haruno, could you not test a high school boy's self-control while trying to have a serious conversation?"
"We're adults now. We both understand what this scene means, don't we?"
Haruno's tone was light and calm, yet carried a languid seductiveness.
"Let me tell you something. Ever since just now, the demon and angel in my head have been going at it. For one second there the demon was already stomping on the angel's head. You were this close to getting your CG unlocked by me."
"Hmph, little brother only knows how to talk big, doesn't he? In reality he's just a useless man who doesn't even dare eat the delicacy that walks right up to his mouth."
Haruno gave a small snort, bit his shoulder lightly, then stuck out her tongue against his skin.
"If you dare go one step further, the entire world is going to flip upside down!" Kiyono warned, trying to sound fierce but clearly rattled.
Can't stand you.
Haruno's hands slipped away and simply rested loosely around his middle, her forehead gently leaning against his back.
After a long silence, she murmured:
"What do you think I should do?"
"You're Yukinoshita Haruno. You're supposed to figure that kind of thing out yourself."
Kiyono didn't give her an answer. He knew what she needed right now wasn't advice, but someone who would stay and listen.
Haruno reached out again, this time looping her arms properly around his waist.
"Honestly, I still haven't settled it inside. That woman has only ever made demands, demands, demands of me since I was a kid. I lived up to all her expectations, and now she tells me none of it was necessary. How am I supposed to just swallow that?"
Kiyono hummed quietly in response.
Behind him, the girl kept talking, her voice drifting with the steam.
"Would it be easier if we just cut ties completely? If we just grew old like that, never seeing each other again, would I regret it? It sounds satisfying in my head, but it's actually really hard to do, right? We're family, after all."
"What exactly holds a family together? The heaviness of blood? Or just shared interests?"
Haruno looked at the dark-green outline of the mountains in the distance.
Kiyono wondered, Is Yukinoshita's mother asking herself the same question right now?
Maybe the Yukinoshita family could hardly be called warm or harmonious, and in some ways was even autocratic—but he was sure she loved both her daughters very deeply.
"I know that woman isn't as cold and ruthless as I made her out to be, and family interests aren't actually the most important thing to her. That's what makes it so annoying and so ambiguous. If she were that kind of person, I could just run away with you without feeling guilty."
She pressed her cheek tighter against his back.
"Mother bowing her head and apologizing to me? Me bowing my head and apologizing to Mother? Then we reconcile all smiles and I go back to having a 'healthy competition' with Yukino? Haha… I can't picture that at all."
Kiyono listened quietly.
He lifted his hand, scooped up a strand of her black hair that had drifted forward on the hot spring's surface, and said seriously:
"Just do whatever you want to do. Don't worry about family matters. I'll handle everything for you."
So that's how it is.
Haruno's heart gave a sharp, unexpected tremor.
She understood what that sentence meant and pulled him fully back into her arms. His body was wrapped in her soft warmth and intoxicating fragrance.
Through the veils of steam rising from the hot water, he saw her eyes sparkling with starlight beneath the inverted night sky.
"Then go help Yukino," she said. "But don't get the wrong idea—this doesn't mean I'm handing you over to her, okay?"
"Miss Yukinoshita Haruno, you're awfully heavy right now."
"Give me a little more time. Maybe a week, maybe a month. I'll try talking to Mother again."
"Mm."
"Let's kiss."
The night was calm and still. The memories of the past few days felt almost like a dream.
Stars glittered in the sky, the moon nestling quietly among them—like lovers holding each other.
Pure snowflakes drifted down, covering everything: the far-off mountains, the rocks by the pool, the gently swaying lanterns—and the two of them as well.
Their entire world turned a sacred white.
Their journey was nearing its end.
For the first time in her life, she thought winter was beautiful.
---
The cold wind in Chiba carried the scent of the sea. It was different from Tokyo's cutting chill or Hokkaido's desolate snowfield cold—a unique kind of cold with its own memories attached.
Kiyono and Yukinoshita Haruno sat side by side on a park bench.
They weren't far from the water, but thanks to the trees lining the area, the sea breeze wasn't that harsh.
Another week had passed since their return. That evening, Haruno had suddenly called him out, and he more or less understood why—she had decided to go home.
They sat quietly, listening to each other's breathing, gazing at the tranquil night.
A thin layer of silvery snow reflected the moonlight and the street lamps.
The pure white surface glowed faintly orange, almost warm-looking.
Even so, it would still melt and disappear at the slightest touch.
No matter how beautiful it is, snow will always melt.
Haruno stared at the snow, then naturally slipped her hand into Kiyono's coat pocket.
"What do you think Yukino's doing right now?"
"She's lazily drinking tea and waiting for you to come home," Kiyono answered.
"And what has she been doing these days?"
"When she wakes up in the morning, she picks up her phone on instinct and hesitates over whether to message you. Then she remembers that it was because of her that you stormed out, and loses the nerve every time. She sulks, then calls me. From noon until afternoon, she studies programs at Todai. In the evening, after tea and a bath, she repeats her morning routine and ends her perfectly proper little day like that."
Kiyono fluently recited the second young lady's daily schedule.
Haruno raised her brows high, pinched his neck between her fingers and shook him.
"That's way too detailed! Confess! Why do you know so much? Did you secretly plant a bug on my little Yukino so you can collect both sisters and complete your harem?"
"We've lived together for so long. You can tell just by guessing, can't you?" Kiyono said, utterly composed.
"How could that possibly be the same?"
She muttered under her breath, and their conversation lulled.
Before, Haruno could easily steer any conversation wherever she pleased. Now, in front of Kiyono, she didn't bother, because after their hearts had finally aligned, there didn't seem to be a need for so many words.
If they wanted to talk, anything would do—today's weather, wildflowers by the roadside, little events of the day.
If they didn't, silence itself was enough.
"Ah~ Kiyono, look~ There's a UFO in the sky!"
Haruno tipped her head back and exclaimed at the beautiful night sky.
"…There's nothing there."
Kiyono followed her gaze and saw only a huge, bright full moon hanging there.
Haruno turned her face back toward him, completely serious.
"Actually, I just awakened a superpower that lets me predict the future. In fifteen minutes, a UFO will crash right here, and we'll be right under it. So now we have no choice but to head home and avoid disaster."
"Then, Miss Yukinoshita Haruno, can you predict my future too?"
"You'll devote your entire life to Yukinoshita Haruno and have a child with me."
"That future is way too dark!"
"Actually, it's two children."
"Even darker! Am I some noblewoman who's been kidnapped by a demon king?!"
They bantered back and forth.
Then Kiyono fell quiet, thinking it over, and finally said:
"…You don't want to go home. That's why you're forcing these random excuses, right?"
"Honestly, you're not allowed to just casually read your big sister's mind."
She didn't deny it.
Kiyono understood.
He could understand perfectly. When you stand before something important in life, there's always a part of you that wishes some accident would swoop in, letting you escape without having to make a choice, shifting the responsibility onto fate.
Especially after a clash as intense as the one between Haruno and her mother, it was perfectly normal to have no idea how to face each other again.
Let alone Haruno—he himself couldn't picture how they were supposed to get along now.
To outsiders, Yukinoshita Haruno was a flawless beauty who charmed everyone without exception.
To her little sister, she was someone to admire and chase after.
But in front of her mother, she was just a slightly difficult daughter.
Even so, what needed to be done still had to be done.
Haruno leaned against him, slapping his thigh dramatically with her palm.
"Ugh, so annoying! I don't want to go home! I want to keep living my sweet couple life with Little Kiyono! Let meteors or blizzards or whatever block our way back forever!"
"Since you called me out here, there's no running away. I won't let you."
His voice carried a quiet, steady strength.
Haruno's eyes curved into crescents.
"Little Kiyono just now sounded like the male lead in some romance drama. Say that last line one more time?"
"No."
"What a shame."
She sighed exaggeratedly, then rested her head on his shoulder and hummed:
"It's not like I'm the one who wronged that woman. Why should I be the one running away?"
"But right now, I've got a whole mess of emotions swirling around in here—frustration and unease, guilt and remorse towards Yukino, and a lot more. That's why I don't want to go home. I don't know how to face any of it…"
She seemed to want to disappear entirely into his arms.
"Honestly, the day I ran away from home, I was prepared to never go back to that house."
It had felt like a crucial decision—almost like a prophecy.
She couldn't help imagining if.
If Kiyono hadn't come after her, she might've drowned herself in alcohol, sunk into debauchery, let the twisted emotions of more than a decade completely strangle her heart.
Envying her little sister, pitying herself, hating her mother—dragging each other into the abyss.
In that state of mind, she might have run abroad, never seeing them again, or stood against them as an enemy…
She pictured another possibility as well.
If Kiyono were willing to fall together with her, their world would shrink to just the two of them, forever indulging, forever adrift.
Maybe that wouldn't be so bad either.
"But in the end, you came back."
Kiyono's hand tightened around hers as he spoke.
"—Ah."
Haruno slowly curled her fingers around his, confirming the warmth between them.
The 'what if' didn't matter anymore.
What mattered was the scene that had been carved out from it—the present moment, here and now.
"Yes, I obviously love Yukino the most, and Yukino obviously did nothing wrong, but before… I still harbored such ugly feelings toward her. I think that must have been my fault. I didn't have the face to stand in front of her."
She thought quietly for a while.
"But now, I feel like I can stand upright in front of Yukino. In front of Mother too. I can look her in the eye without guilt. How should I put it…"
She lifted her gaze to the bright moon slowly slipping out from behind thin clouds.
"I think I've accepted myself. Because you accepted me."
Haruno turned her head. In her eyes flickered a light like starlight.
"My soul hasn't become pure and spotless or anything. There are still lots of dark and murky places. But even if it's dirty, I'm not afraid to let those parts see the light anymore."
Kiyono smiled.
"Sounds like this trip was worth it, then."
"Mm. It's a memory I'll never forget."
Haruno smiled sweetly, gently swinging their linked hands. Her gaze was syrup-sweet, like someone who had just been given the most precious candy in the world.
"You don't have to remember it for a lifetime, though."
This girl's gravitation stat was getting out of control…
Before he could complain aloud, he closed his mouth, lost in thought.
Haruno's smile was so beautiful.
Her crystalline eyes seemed to draw him in, and her voice was softer than ever.
"Thank you for bringing me here."