The amber-like gaze never left his eyes.
Toyokawa Shoko's expression did not change at all. She placed her hands demurely in front of her belly and spoke these words calmly and seriously, as if she was greeting her family every day.
"Narumi-kun, I like you."
"I know."
Narumi returned her gaze.
A girl's feelings are more complicated than seven-flavored powder, and certainly cannot be simply summarized with a single word "like".
Sensibility and rationality, dreams and reality - countless contradictions are intertwined to form the ambiguous relationship that is difficult to describe today, and the emotions that are more twisted and heavy than those of ordinary lovers.
Even though, this is just a one-way arrow.
If you want to say whether you like it or not, then the only option is "like".
and so……
Toyokawa Shoko likes Ming Hai very much.
I like him so much that I think about him every day, and my face is full of smiles when I think of him.
I like him so much that I can’t imagine a future without him. The future is full of imagination as long as he is in it.
I like him so much that I gradually forget the purity and reserve of a girl. I just want to be held tightly in his arms, to possess each other's skin and body temperature, and to let the pure white paper be dyed with his color.
I like him so much that even now, I still don’t know how to hate him.
"I like you."
After a brief pause, he repeated it again in a clear and solemn voice.
Toyokawa Shoko just looked into his eyes and quietly told him her feelings in the simplest way.
——Then, I hope he can also answer me in the simplest way.
Don't say unnecessary sweet words, and don't express your affection in a roundabout way.
Just say it like yourself.
"It's your turn, Narumi-kun."
He completely ignored the gazes of others and even forgot that this was part of the restaurant's activities.
Toyokawa Shoko silently clenched her fists, waiting for his answer that he seemed to be able to see through at a glance.
As if admitting defeat, Ming Hai sighed.
"……I like you."
He looked at the girl's pupils that slowly shrank and trembled slightly, and repeated seriously and affectionately:
"I like you, Xiangzi."
"..."
The amber pupils began to shake, and the eyes that reflected the boy's face gradually became hazy like mist.
Toyokawa Shoko opened her mouth slightly, as if she wanted to ask a question, but it seemed as if she had even forgotten how to breathe and could not make a sound.
The dizziness caused by suffocation made her feel dizzy and she felt that she would fall to the ground if she took a step.
So, I could only stare at him blankly, and it took me several seconds to come back to my senses and see the scenery in front of me clearly again.
——That reluctant yet helpless expression now seemed more hypocritical and glaring than anything else.
She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths.
There was no crying or anger, but she calmly told herself the cruel answer that she had always been unwilling to believe in with a hoarse and dry voice.
"big liar."
She said softly:
"Narumi-kun, you don't like me at all."
-
"Mu, you guessed it right... I was so confident back then, but now it seems that I am just a wishful clown."
Her clenched hands were unable to loosen and Toyokawa Shoko laughed at herself in her heart.
There is no room for remission.
The moment he said "I like you", the moment I knew it was a lie.
There is no need to maintain a relationship based on false pretenses any longer.
"Our feelings are just rootless duckweed, castles in the air... It only takes a simple lie to completely destroy them."
Shoko Toyokawa couldn't deceive herself, and was unwilling to turn a blind eye to such an obvious lie.
Despite the tearing pain in my chest, despite the fact that I had to clench my teeth to stop the trembling; despite the heat in my eyes and the soreness in my nose, I felt as if I was about to burst into tears at the next moment.
She still raised her head stubbornly, freezing those overly turbulent emotions, suppressing them deep in her heart, and stood in front of him coldly and calmly.
——The more you are hurt, the more proud and stronger you should be than anyone else.
"Where's the evidence?" Ming Hai's voice was also very soft, as if he didn't want to disturb the already injured rabbit, and a helpless smile appeared on his face, "This time, there shouldn't be anything unnatural about my tone and attitude, right?"
"Hiss..." Taking a deep breath, from trembling to steady, Toyokawa Shoko took great effort to keep every word she said at a normal tone, without crying or choking, "You, next time before you say you like someone...don't just have a deep affectionate tone, but your eyes don't even have the slightest emotion, making people feel that you don't have the slightest sincerity and true heart. It's strange that people can believe such love."
"Eyes?" Ming Hai frowned, and subconsciously touched his eyelids with his fingers, seeming to be troubled. "Although I can't compare, I feel that my eyes just now were still quite affectionate... After all, I really like you, and sometimes I have the urge to fall in love with you... If this doesn't work, it's a bit too much to ask."
“…That’s a really lofty statement.”
Seeing that he was still trying to get away with it with a relaxed attitude, Toyokawa Shoko couldn't help but cross her elbows and sneered coldly: "With your poor acting skills, let alone me, any normal girl can see the flaws... Or do you think girls are stupid and can't tell whether your 'love' is sincere or not as long as you coax them into submission and confuse them with false happiness?"
"I don't look down on you, nor do I look down on any girl."
Ming Hai shook his head, arranged for the rain to be delayed, and said to her sincerely, "Xiangzi, didn't you realize that until the end, the feelings I expressed to you were not mixed with any lies."
"Because I know that I can't lie and I'm not good at acting, I have been trying my best to be sincere to you since the day we met... You should be able to sense it."
“——Stop joking!”
His fists clenched unconsciously and Toyokawa Shoko glared at him fiercely.
The complex emotions in her chest were like a volcano, ready to erupt, but they were suppressed by the cold anger in her heart, allowing her to maintain the calmness and rationality that a noble should have.
"If you don't like me, just say it directly. Why do you still have to lie to me like this after all this time——"
"Really, is it a lie?"
Volume 81: Chapter Chapter : No Echo Can Be Received from the Empty Valley
Ming Hai interrupted her directly and glared back without giving in, as if she was the one who should say sorry.
"Then let me ask you, other than not falling in love with you, have I ever done anything to let you down or our relationship down? Can't you give me some time to slowly fall in love with you?"
"I've said several times that you are very important to me. Just because I don't mean it, you're going to deny our previous promises, the feelings that are heavier than anyone else's, and the feelings that you think are beyond those of ordinary lovers?"
"Even if I don't like you, I've already made up my mind to stay with you until the end of my life - is such a promise not better than a simple "I like you"? "
Ming Hai stood in front of the girl, staring straight into her eyes, and said word by word:
"Toyokawa Shoko, who on earth is making fun of our relationship now?"
"I……"
Toyokawa Shoko was struck by lightning. She opened her mouth, but could not utter any words of rebuttal. Her body began to tremble unconsciously and tears gathered in her eyes.
Ming Hai didn't want to accuse the girl like this.
I don't want her, who is already as pitiful and helpless as a wet puppy, to have to endure such accusations.
Be it sophistry or specious arguments... What we should do now is not these things, but to try our best to comfort the heartbroken Xiangzi in order to become the white moonlight.
…Even so, he couldn't help but say those words.
I pursued Toyokawa Shoko for the mission assigned by the system, but now my ulterior motives have been exposed - even if there will never be any chance of reconciliation from now on, I can only blame myself for being a big fool who doesn't know how to adapt, right?
Why, now that things have come to this, instead of admitting his mistake to her who loves him, why does he have to argue with her like a child?
"..."
After noticing the lingering panic in his chest, Ming Hai knew the answer to this question.
He just didn't want to admit the reality.
He didn't want to admit that just because of that one sentence, he had to part ways with the girl who was both cheerful and heavy, strong and fragile, and that they would be strangers from then on.
So what if I like it? So what if I don’t like it?
It was obvious that every word he said seriously was filled with the same sincerity as hers; he was obviously not the top prostitute in a gigolo club, and he couldn't say sweet words to rich women.
Then why——
For Shoko Toyokawa, this relationship, which should have been mired in the quagmire, shackled, and ended up in hell together, was so fragile that a lie could completely destroy it and sentence it to death in her heart?
Were the words she said in the mansion garden, at Ikebukuro Station, at the aquarium, and in the KTV all just random lines from a soap opera when the atmosphere was just right? !
Because I couldn't understand, I couldn't help but ask her.
Although this is only out of trivial selfishness, the most impulsive and incorrect way to deal with it.
He still had no regrets and had no intention of taking back his words.
——Because until now, Ming Hai still wants to tell the truth to Toyokawa Shoko.
"If this is the answer you want, then I..."
In front of the girl who lowered her head and hugged her arms, her fingertips were so tense that they turned white, but still couldn't make any sound.
Ming Hai opened his mouth slightly, and the words he wanted to say were gradually swallowed up by a helpless smile and turned into a silent sigh.
...Forget it, let's leave it at that.
After all, why take a 15-year-old girl who is in love seriously?
As expected, my body has become younger, and my mind has also become more youthful and delicate...
Sighing like this, he hid the tenderness and compassion in his eyes, then shrugged as if nothing had happened.
He was no longer aggressive, but spoke in a relaxed tone, as if he had given up something:
"Well, the fault is all mine... I'm sorry, Toyokawa-san, I can't respond to your affection."
There is no echo from the empty valley, only the sound of the lonely wind blowing through the hair.
Ming Hai took a step back, and seeing her shoulders suddenly tremble, he subconsciously raised his hand slightly.
But he still did nothing, just hung by his side and left a sincere thank you.
"I'm really happy that you like me."
He turned around and went back to his seat, ignoring the awkward expression of the waiter next to him who was hesitant to speak, took out the meal money for both of them from his wallet and put it on the table, then went back to Toyokawa Shoko who was still standing stupidly on the stage.
He casually produced two candies, as if nothing had happened, and handed one to her with a smile.
"Eat candy?"
"..."
Toyokawa Shoko still kept her head down and did not respond. Ming Hai withdrew his hand without caring, opened the package and ate one himself, with a satisfied smile on his face.
"Forget it. Mm, it's still just as sweet~"
Then he turned his back to her, bared his teeth, and almost spit out the candy.
...Damn, it's obviously the same peach-flavored candy as last time, why is it so bitter?
The ability is to conjure up any candy, but the price is that you can't control the taste? This kind of problem has never occurred before...
Thinking of this, Ming Hai slung his cross-body bag over his shoulder and was about to leave the restaurant, talking to himself.
"…I hate you, big liar."
The eldest lady's stubbornness began to crack, and the girl's fragility was revealed.
Ming Hai stopped and listened to the faint sobbing sound. He closed his eyes in distress and bit the bitter candy in his mouth.
——Turn around and hug her?
No, the moment she decided to respond directly, he lost the qualification.
