Let's do it again, Yukino.

……

"Didn't they say they'd be back for dinner together tonight?"

Junko looked around the living room, but although she found nothing, a childlike smile still lingered on her lips.

"Or are they doing something shameful behind my back, somewhere I don't know but very close to me?"

In an instant, she leaped into the bathroom.

"Here?!"

Then she skipped and hopped into the bedroom.

"Or perhaps here?"

"..."

"Hehehe, it seems like none of them are here. It seems like I really am going to give up."

Junko scratched the back of her head shyly, and in the process, the delicate cell phone fell out of her pocket.

She hurriedly picked up her phone from the floor and accidentally touched the menu button. The glowing screen first flashed a photo of her with a childhood spring day, and then, as her fingertip accidentally touched a button, it jumped to a photo of Junko with a handsome young man.

In the photo, Junko is standing close to the somewhat aloof young man, with a cherry blossom tree behind them. However, at the moment the photo was taken, the seemingly aloof young man revealed a smile as cold as an iceberg.

Unconsciously, Junko, looking at the photo, suddenly stopped her silly grin and instead smiled like the young man in the photo.

As if she had forgotten to search for the whereabouts of spring and light snow, she sat cross-legged on the floor, gazing at the photos on her phone.

Junko stared blankly as she touched the photos of herself, the young man, and the spring day from her childhood.

In the quiet living room,

After a long while, Junko's voice, which was usually a bit silly in Haruhi's ears, inexplicably revealed a faint sadness.

“Hey, Yan’an, our son has grown up completely. Before we knew it, he didn’t need us to worry about him as much as we used to.”

The woman touched her long, curly hair that covered half of her face, murmuring softly.

"Although this day was bound to come sooner or later, it's come much earlier than I expected."

"Ever since I left the Shinomiya family with Haru, my only reason for living in this world has been to raise him to adulthood. While thinking only of that, I unintentionally hurt that child. And now, when I come to my senses, I'm almost a forty-year-old old lady! Hehe, even though I'm so old, I'm still the beautiful girl who once captivated countless young men!!"

"However, even as we get older, many things cannot be changed because of our age."

"Did you set a good example as Xiaoqing's mother? In order to prevent Xiaoqing from becoming disillusioned with life at that time, you deliberately drank and smoked in front of her, and made a scene and went out to play wildly."

"Later, Yukino and Shizuka really helped us a lot. It was the two of them who gave Haru the motivation to truly live."

"Especially Xiaoxue, the moment we first saw her, we knew why Xiaoqing wore those silly glasses and why she changed herself. Even we couldn't help but be moved."

"However……"

She continued to stroke those few curly strands of long hair, but her chuckle seemed somewhat forced.

"Without realizing it, they abandoned us and disappeared. Just thinking about it makes me feel a little lonely. When I turned around, I was all alone."

“Leaving Junko behind is absolutely unacceptable! Haru needs to be well, Yukino-chan needs to be well, Junko needs to be well, and as for you, Karian… well, that’s it.”

Haruhi, hiding behind the curtain: "..."

"Hey, so Yan'an, if you're watching from heaven, you must support Junko, Haru, and the other two being together forever!!!"

"The lost time is over!!!! Amen!!"

With her hands clasped together, Junko's carefree voice rang out again.

Hey, Junko, play is play, joke is joke,

The tears that my mother had almost brought me to in the spring were forced back down again.

But our cheapskate father isn't dead yet!!!

Errors in Chapters

There was a sudden problem with the backend; one chapter's content wasn't displaying correctly and couldn't be uploaded. After that, it didn't upload, so I changed the chapter title and uploaded it again, only to find that an extra copy had been uploaded. For Chapter 7, you only need to subscribe to one copy; don't subscribe to the other one. I'll talk to the editor tomorrow and have one copy deleted. I'm really sorry; it wasn't intentional. Sorry.

Chapter Eight: May all the good things in the world be intertwined with your future.

"We can't just leave Junko behind! Absolutely not! Haru has to be okay, Yukino has to be okay, Junko has to be okay, everyone has to be okay."

With her hands clasped together, the woman, who was nearly forty but still possessed an undeniable allure, knelt on the floor, as if praying to the night sky.

She couldn't help but gently close her eyes.

He seemed to be recalling something.

……

"Junko, I love you more than anyone else in the world."

The young man, dressed smartly, stood in the park, gazing at the young woman standing in front of him.

It smells like suffocating grass.

The dust that rose into the air

And then there is the voice that represents the most sincere and pure.

Mingming could feel boundless joy rising in her melancholy heart just by recalling the scenery of that time.

They were both so happy back then, and their smiles didn't look as fake and gloomy as they did later.

The woman was a little shy, and whispered in the young man's ear the news she had just received from the doctor.

"You're pregnant... then let's have the baby. I will be his father, and I have the obligation to raise him to adulthood."

"..."

but,

Then, in response to the man's solemn promise, the woman couldn't help but smile and shake her head. She gently extended her right little finger and tenderly took the man's little finger in her hand.

"Of course I know your current situation, Yan'an, so there's no need for you to lie to me. I will naturally help you give birth to this child, but I will also take him with me when we leave Tokyo."

"There's no need for that, Junko. As for family matters, at least I can make the decision about marrying you... At worst, we can just elope together..."

"I don't want to elope with you! If you weren't the eldest son of the Shinomiya family, I wouldn't have fallen for you in the first place. You should just stay happy being the eldest son. I saw your fiancée last night; she's quite pretty and gentle."

The woman smiled, her gaze fixed on the young man before her. After she spoke, the young man looked as if he were afraid of something, and beads of sweat trickled down his forehead.

I never expected him, who is usually so calm and collected, to have such an expression.

That's true, both she and he were bound by an inescapable fate.

She couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, and she let go of his palm with the pinky promise.

The young man still wanted to hold the woman's hand, and a conflicted expression appeared on his face.

"Junko...I..."

"Well, goodbye... Yan'an."

Under the sunlight, Junko, who was giving the young man one last look, revealed a smile even more radiant than the sun as the spring breeze blew by.

Even without this young man, there will be another boy to accompany her throughout her life.

At that moment, Junko's heart was also filled with another kind of happiness.

She thought to herself.

……

……

…………

The scenery of memories continues to unfold.

The flag with the black and white cross pattern fluttered quietly in the wind.

The way the flags waved was truly indescribably beautiful.

However, when Junko looked at the exceptionally beautiful whale flag, she felt no joy at all. Her mind was in complete chaos, and she couldn't even imagine that it was a whale flag.

Around her, a group of people dressed in black moved around like goldfish.

Everyone was looking at her with pity.

Looking down, Junko realized that she was also dressed in black, just like the other group of people, except that she wasn't moving around like them.

She walked blankly to the front door like a dead tree.

"aunt."

The woman, who looked somewhat familiar and aloof, walked over from a distance and stood in front of her, her face expressionless. She only bowed slightly the moment Junko appeared before her.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

Not only this woman's voice, but also the voices of others that were more or less familiar to her, appeared in his ears.

Moreover, this young and beautiful woman was also wearing a black dress, just like her.

Why did she apologize to me?

why?

"Auntie, could you let me in to see his face? Please."

She said it calmly.

"Why? I trusted you so much before entrusting him to you, and yet this is how it ends! Yukino-chan!!"

As if remembering something, her gaze towards the woman in front of her gradually turned cold.

"I absolutely will not allow you to go in!!"

Junko seemed to realize something and burst into tears.

"Waaah...waaah...waaah...give him back to me."

……