Comics, daily stories

"It's okay, I like his irrational side."

"Ah."

Yukino Yukinoshita glanced at her and continued making tea.

There are many ways to classify people in this world, one of which is based on reason and kinship.

Yukino Yukinoshita believes she leans towards reason, while her unreliable husband and sister lean towards family.

They're probably not unreasonable or irrational; they're just too lazy to care and prioritize personal relationships.

Is this thinking correct? Probably not, but she understands that she can no longer change them; however, she doesn't care too much, because her husband and sister are not bad people.

"I'm sorry, I really don't know much about the tea ceremony, so I'll have to trouble Yukinoshita-san."

Kato Megumi picked up her teacup, a hint of apology in her voice.

"There's no need to understand those pretentious and useless etiquettes. They're just unnecessary skills that large families have to learn. From now on, leave these matters to me or my sister. Kato-kun, don't worry about them."

Yukino Yukinoshita picked up her teacup and took a small sip.

"Eri can do that too?" Kato Megumi asked curiously.

“She probably won’t.” Yukino Yukinoshita shook her head, a faint smile on her lips. “She’s different from us sisters. As for Sayuri, she cares more about her happiness than family matters, so if she doesn’t want to learn something tedious, she definitely won’t learn it.”

"In that sense, Eriri is the happiest one. When she was little, you and Kazehaya were there for her, and Sayuri-neechan didn't force her to learn any rules or etiquette. Now that she's grown up, you and Kazehaya are both willing to spoil her." Kato Megumi gently put down her teacup.

Yukino Yukinoshita paused for a moment, then took another sip of tea and denied the claim: "No, that's not true."

She put down her teacup, looked down at the swirling black tea, her eyes also shimmering. She repeated the statement: "No, when we were little, Eriri leaving was her choice, his choice, and mine."

"At that time, Eriri made her own choice, and so did he. In the beginning, I didn't have a chance to go to Eriri because she would run away when she saw me. Later, I almost had a chance because Eriri stopped running away when we met. But I didn't go to her subconsciously. Maybe it was because of my hidden worry."

"As for our reunion in high school, at first I arrogantly thought that Eriri would no longer affect me and him, but later, Eriri left us both speechless."

"Eri spent a long time alone."

"Kato-kun, sometimes that might be true. Only when the light truly pierces through the clouds and shines upon us will people realize that light is warm."

Kato Megumi listened quietly as she recounted events from many years ago, and as she spoke of the hidden and pure aspects of human nature.

After listening, she looked down at the tea and exclaimed, "So that's how it is."

The story begins with someone's unexpected action, and the story ends with someone's unexpected action. But perhaps it wasn't unexpected at all; it was that person who was meant to stay by the side of these two.

"I didn't expect Yukinoshita to bring this up with me, and to explain it so clearly." Kato Megumi's eyes had calmed down as she looked at the person opposite her.

“Since I initiated the conversation, we should be honest; otherwise, it’s meaningless,” Yukino Yukinoshita said calmly.

Kato Megumi's eyes flickered slightly.

This is a signal, an invitation to be honest with you, and I hope you will be honest with me in return.

Honesty...

"Actually, there's something I've always been curious about. May I ask?" Yukino Yukinoshita's calm expression gradually shifted, revealing her curiosity.

“Of course, what does Yukinoshita-san want to know?” Kato Megumi straightened her posture and replied.

Yukino Yukinoshita continued making tea. As she did so, she looked at the inside of the porcelain teacup and asked, "Why does Kato like him so much? Logically speaking, he shouldn't fit Kato's criteria for a partner."

Kato Megumi held the small cup filled with tea, looked across at the person opposite her, and softly asked, "What do you think of my criteria for choosing a partner, Yukinoshita-san?"

Yukino Yukinoshita considered for a moment before replying, "He probably needs an ordinary life. He's probably not special, at least not as special as Nomiyama-kun. In my eyes, Kato-kun has always longed for an ordinary, everyday life. Compared to something so unusual, Kato-kun probably wants something more common."

Kato Megumi remained silent, and finally nodded quietly.

She offered her opinion: "Yukinoshita is right. All along, I've preferred to think of Kazehaya as an ordinary boy rather than Kazehaya and all those other strange and unusual things."

"I hope he rides his bicycle to and from school every day, cries when he's sad, feels hot in the summer and cold in the winter, worries about what his classmates think, is happy in the spring, is troubled by the daily grind, and complains to me about his boss and the trivialities of life every day."

“I want him to cry, because only when he cries can I truly feel that he needs me and that he is just an ordinary boy. But he doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want to show too much sadness. Even about what happened between you two, he still kept it to himself, worried that I would have a problem with you.”

“I don’t blame him. I know that’s his personality. I know he’s not as omnipotent as I imagine. I also know he won’t have any complaints about you. He’ll just think that he’s been negligent and thought that he caused all of this.”

"I no longer want to think about or judge these rights and wrongs. I just think that if he could talk to me about it, I wouldn't mind. Whether he is fragile or strong, whether he is smiling or crying, he is still the Nomiyama Kazehaya I love."

“I’m just afraid that if he doesn’t say anything, it will only make him feel bad and like he owes me even more.”

Yukino Yukinoshita received an unexpected answer, so she was momentarily stunned.

She looked across at the other side and fell into a brief silence.

On the back mountain, Nomiyama's gaze, which had been calm on the lake, gradually began to ripple. Amidst the ripples, he turned his head and looked down at the house below the mountain.

Yukino Yukinoshita was quiet for a while, because she didn't expect the other person to say these words and express such frank and obvious love.

She thought for a moment and replied, "You're probably right."

This time it was Kato Megumi's turn to be stunned: "Right?"

"Yes, that's right." Yukino Yukinoshita nodded, drank the tea in front of her, and did not pour any more.

"Years ago, I thought similarly to you. I thought that rather than those strange events, I would rather go to work with him, make breakfast and lunch together in the morning, help him tie his tie before leaving home, spend time together at the company, and then go to the supermarket to buy groceries after work in the evening, cook dinner together when we get home, and then go to bed together after dinner."

"At the beginning, this was my idea: to grow up, go to work as usual, earn some money, and as long as we were together, nothing else mattered."

Kato Megumi looked at the person opposite her for a while, then let out a soft sigh: "It seems that Yukinoshita-san, like me, did not achieve her wish."

Yukino Yukinoshita thought about the current situation, her expression fluctuating: "Sometimes I want to just stab him and make him come with me, but seeing how happy he is every day, I can't help it."

"I really can't bear to part with it."

Kato Megumi picked up the teacup with her fingers, took a sip, and asked, "Don't you feel it's a waste?"

Yukino Yukinoshita picked up the small teapot again: "Time cannot be turned back. Compared to what I am unwilling to accept, he is indeed becoming more and more cheerful. I am probably just an ordinary person in the end. Compared to those other things, I hope that my husband will be happier in the future."

Kato Megumi reached out and took the black tea that Yukinoshita poured for her, offering a different perspective: "Yukinoshita is too modest. The word 'cliché' needs to be associated with the mundane world. With Yukinoshita's current thoughts, she is already completely unrelated to the mundane world. It is said that ordinary people prioritize the other person's preferences and hope that the other person is doing well, but in reality, just considering this thought alone is already extraordinary. Most people's considerations never stray from themselves from the beginning. Thinking of oneself is what makes people ordinary in relationships, something that is commonplace."

Yukino Yukinoshita sighed slightly and put down her teacup: "Should I thank him for his transformation of me?"

Looking at her, Kato Megumi couldn't help but smile slightly: "Maybe we should blame him more. Yukinoshita could go and beat him up a few times to vent her anger. I'd love to see that."

There will be opportunities later.

Yukino Yukinoshita did not reject the suggestion, but looked at the person opposite her and asked the question: "Kato-kun, aren't you angry with him for causing trouble everywhere?"

Kato Megumi pondered for a moment before answering, "What kind of trouble are you referring to, Yukinoshita-san?"

She sat up straighter: "You mean Shiyu and Yui?"

Yukino Yukinoshita didn't say anything.

Kato Megumi smiled faintly as she touched her teacup, feeling the scalding heat of the tea: "I'm different from Yukinoshita. I find it really hard to refuse Kazehaya. In this matter, I just knew that I still couldn't refuse him in the end, so I chose to remain a quiet observer in advance."

"Yukinoshita-kun, this house is actually run by Kazehaya."

Yukino Yukinoshita disagreed with his claim of making the decision. She raised an eyebrow and said, "What about Senpai? She could have joined me in rejecting his nonsense. If we objected, he would have kept those thoughts to himself."

Kato Megumi blinked: "But Yukihana-nee doesn't care about this. Ever since she realized that Kazehaya was beyond redemption, she's been too lazy to care about Kazehaya's overthinking."

Yukino Yukinoshita looked across at the other side: "Kato-kun, aren't you resentful?"

Kato Megumi picked up her teacup and took a sip of the expensive black tea: "Of course I'm not reconciled."

"So, shouldn't I take this opportunity to make him feel even more indebted to me?"

Yukino Yukinoshita was stunned for a moment, then her brows furrowed slightly.

You've got so many plans in mind?

The story begins in chapter 303 with a young girl all alone.

I didn't want him to feel indebted, so I made him feel even more indebted to me.

Kato Megumi said two contradictory things.

Yukino Yukinoshita felt a little tired. She suddenly realized that perhaps from the very beginning, everyone except herself had tacitly agreed to stand by or hold her back.

They remained silent, their tacit understanding as if they had conspired beforehand. They were convinced they couldn't stop him, so they simply let him pass unimpeded, deepening his sense of indebtedness.

Taking a deep breath, Yukino Yukinoshita didn't want to talk about this topic anymore, and instead continued to ask the previous question: "Kato-kun, you didn't actually answer why I like him just now."

Thinking back to her non-answer, Kato Megumi chose not to say anything more romantic and gave a simple reply: "Because Kazehaya will always be watching me."

"For Yukinoshita, the gaze of others is something she's used to, but for me, who's growing up, it's actually a rare sense of security. As long as I'm by Kazehaya's side, no matter what I'm doing, he'll be watching me."

"That kind of gaze that leaves others nowhere to hide is a great source of satisfaction and peace of mind for me."

Looking at the person in front of her, whose expression was much more lively than before, Yukino Yukinoshita thought of that corridor many years ago, where she was squatting by the wall of the next classroom, carefully looking up from her arms to observe her and him.

If it's true that I could always watch over her, I could too, but unfortunately, I wasn't in Chiba during junior high school.

"Fate is a very mysterious thing, isn't it?"

Kato Megumi suddenly said this, a hint of reminiscence in her eyes. She didn't look at Yukino Yukinoshita, but at the smooth, white porcelain rim of the teacup. Her gaze lingered on it as she said, "If we go back in time to the second day of our second year, Yukinoshita would never have imagined that she would fall in love with Kazehaya, the boy who made her stand as punishment. And I, who had nothing to do with your story, would never have imagined that one day I would step into the story."

Eriri never imagined that one day she would part ways with you all for a while, Yumiko never imagined that in high school she would be sitting next to Kazehaya, and Mai never imagined that one day she would find herself in a situation where only one person in the whole world was watching her.

Kato Megumi looked up and met her gaze, and continued, "If we push this further, Yang Nai wouldn't have imagined that the reason he came down the mountain wasn't because of her, but because of a mysterious fish. Xue Wan wouldn't have imagined that she didn't have to die, and that he would abandon the happiness she had arranged and return to a thousand years ago."

"Fate is an unconventional thing that intelligence cannot predict."

Yukino Yukinoshita listened quietly to her finish speaking, reviewed all the words in her mind, and after a moment of contemplation, said, "It depends on the situation. For example, right now I can be sure that he will always love my destiny."

Kato Megumi shook her head and offered her own perspective: "This is no longer fate. In my opinion, this is the fruit of fate."

Yukino Yukinoshita replied thoughtfully, "Perhaps."

She then asked, "What is Kato trying to say by bringing these things up?"

Kato Megumi said softly, "It's just casual conversation. Casual conversation is about saying whatever comes to mind."

Looking at the other person who did not refute the statement, she asked a question she was curious about: "I heard from Haruno that in the winter when you were twelve years old, Kaze had suggested that you go together, but Yukinoshita refused. At that time, was Yukinoshita ever tempted?"

Yukino Yukinoshita recalled, then nodded: "I was tempted, but I couldn't simply abandon the Yukinoshita family and leave. The education I received from childhood didn't support me running away at that time."

At this point, she seemed to become interested as well, poured herself another cup of tea, and shared some thoughts: "Later in London, when I occasionally thought about that night, I would fantasize about whether leaving him meant embarking on a life of wandering."

Kato Megumi interjected at the opportune moment: "It seems that in your eyes, like Kazehaya's, wandering or adventure is always particularly attractive?"

"Maybe it's because they think it's romantic?" Yukino Yukinoshita mentioned other people, "like Mai, Utaha-senpai, they sometimes think about specific romantic events, like an embrace in the rain, or renting a house with a balcony where you can see the ocean, the beach and the sunshine."

"This kind of romantic fantasy of artistic youth, when manifested in him and me, is wandering and adventure. If I had to sum it up in one word, it would probably be 'brave'. Whether it is wandering or adventure, they are just manifestations of 'brave'. What we yearn for is bravery and freedom."

"Brave...?" Kato Megumi took the teacup, curiosity flickering on her face. "In Yukinoshita's eyes, is wandering a story for the brave?"

“Of course.” Yukino Yukinoshita took a sip of tea and gave a definite answer. “Wandering is not a short vacation, but a long period of freedom. Freedom means abandoning things like family, friendship, social conveniences, and interpersonal relationships. Wandering is something to look forward to, but only a few brave and even resolute people can do it, bear the price and enjoy it.”

“It sounds amazing that someone could do something like that,” Kato Megumi praised, then added, “Unfortunately, Yukinoshita couldn’t do it back then.”

Yukino Yukinoshita tacitly acknowledged this, only responding softly, "Perhaps I'm not as brave as I imagine myself to be."

Megumi Kato denied this statement: "I think courage cannot be simply summarized like that. Choosing to accept one's own responsibilities is also a way of expressing courage. Going on a journey regardless of everything is also courageous, but it inevitably carries a cruel and ruthless connotation. Perhaps it is precisely because of Yukinoshita's sense of responsibility that she must uphold that it appears so beautiful."

Yukino Yukinoshita fell silent after hearing this, and after a while she looked at her with a strange expression: "I never thought that one day it would be Kato-kun who would say such a thing to me."

Kato Megumi sipped her tea naturally, looked at her for a while, and then smiled slightly: "In my eyes, Yukinoshita has always been beautiful. It's a beauty that sets her apart from most people. That beauty is powerful."

She drifted into her memories: "In my life of more than ten years, Kazehaya was undoubtedly an unusual person, but Yukinoshita was not far behind. In terms of appearance, Yukinoshita had a figure and appearance that everyone in the world envied. In terms of talent, Yukinoshita was only slightly inferior to Kazehaya. You seem to be good at everything, and you uphold the concept of 'right' and will help the weak."

"Compared to Kazehaya's seemingly casual but actually indifferent demeanor, Yukinoshita is truly cold on the outside but warm on the inside. At that time, I even wondered what other weaknesses Yukinoshita might have."

“His weakness lies entirely in him.” Yukino Yukinoshita replied after a moment of silence. “I believe I have enough ability and a strong enough mindset. No matter how I think about it, I feel that as long as I am with him, none of the problems in this world are problems. Even if I am alone, I can face those troubles.”

"But I didn't expect him to cause so much complicated trouble."

Yukino Yukinoshita no longer wanted to talk about this matter. Instead, she looked at the other person, pondered for a moment, and then spoke of the past: "When I was sixteen, he caused trouble for me because of you. I've always been curious about how you did it."

Kato Megumi put down her teacup, her expression calm: "It's about companionship. Although Yukinoshita-san has been sending letters back, she's not actually here. Kazehaya was initially difficult to approach, but once you get close, his defenses will fall down. Year after year of companionship, eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner together, his heart softens very quickly."

"In other words, under these circumstances, Kazehaya is still waiting and insisting that Yukinoshita-san will come back before he is willing to date, which makes me feel a bit helpless. Otherwise, I would have been Kazehaya's official girlfriend in middle school, instead of waiting until high school."

Yukino Yukinoshita ignored the statement he had been insisting on, because it was the natural order between him and her.

She marveled at something else: "Kato seems to have always been good at this: spending time with him, softening his heart, making him feel indebted, and thus gaining more from him. Even years later, this approach still worked on him."

Kato Megumi thought for a moment and gave her answer: "The premise for doing all this is that Kazehaya is fully aware of the situation and is willing to accompany me through this process."

Yukino Yukinoshita looked at her and finally said, "Perhaps Kato-san understands his thoughts better than I do."

Kato Megumi lowered her eyes and served tea.

"Have you thought of a name for the child?"

Yukino Yukinoshita suddenly broke the casual conversation by dropping a bombshell.