“Kaoru…”
Aina Saiten’s voice was so hoarse it was almost indecipherable, sounding as if her throat had been crushed by something and then soaked in tears for far too long.
There was no anger in that voice, no interrogation, only a bottomless exhaustion and emptiness.
She raised her hand, her fingers trembling slightly as they touched the face in front of her.
On that face was worry, fear, and confusion—an expression she had looked at for over ten years, yet it had never felt so foreign.
Her fingertips gently traced his brow bone, his eye sockets, the bridge of his nose, and his lips.
The touch was warm and soft, exactly as it was in her memories.
But at this moment, she felt like she was stroking something she was about to lose, a treasure she desperately wanted to hold onto but could never quite grasp.
“Starting tomorrow…”
Her voice was very soft, as if she were talking to herself.
“You won’t be going to work anymore. Stay at home, just like before, okay?”
Kaoru Hoshitani’s pupils constricted slightly.
“I—”
He subconsciously wanted to ask for a reason, to ask why.
But before the words could leave his mouth, he realized it himself.
His brain spun rapidly at that moment, connecting all the clues:
Aina’s abnormality tonight, that rough kiss, those silent tears, the suppressed sound of crying as she hid alone in the restroom… and now, the way she was looking at him.
It wasn’t anger, it wasn’t disappointment, but a kind of… look as if she were looking at a precious thing she was about to lose.
‘So… Aina found out after all…’
This thought was like the coldest ice pick, stabbing ruthlessly into his heart.
His entire being instantly wilted, as if all his strength had been drained away.
He lowered his eyes, his thick eyelashes casting trembling shadows on his pale face.
His body began to shake slightly, from his shoulders to his fingers, from his fingers to his lips; every part of him was trembling uncontrollably.
He waited.
He waited for his girlfriend’s anger, for her insults, for her interrogation—
“Are you with another woman?” “Why did you lie to me?” “How could you do this to me?”
He had even prepared himself to face the possible, worst-case scenario.
If Aina hit him, if Aina cursed him, if Aina vented all her rage on him—he would accept it all.
But the wait was in vain.
There were no insults, no beatings, not even a single question.
Aina just gently stroked his cheek. The movement was so tender, so slow, as if she were stroking a piece of fragile porcelain, as if she were… reminiscing about something.
The temperature of her fingertips was warm, but that silence was more terrifying than any words.
Compared to facing his girlfriend’s anger, facing this eerie silence now made Kaoru even more panicked.
That silence was like a bottomless abyss; he didn’t know what was hidden inside, and he didn’t know what would surge out of it the next second.
‘Does Aina… not want me anymore…’
This thought was like the sharpest blade, instantly shredding his final line of defense.
“No! No… don’t break up with me! Waaah —”
Kaoru hurriedly stepped forward, his hands tightly and desperately hugging the girlfriend in front of him.
His arms were clamped so tight it was as if he wanted to embed himself into her body, as if she would disappear forever if he let go.
He buried his face in her embrace, his forehead pressed against her clavicle, the tip of his nose touching the familiar scent of home on her pajamas.
“I’m… I’m sorry… I didn’t want it to be like that… hic…”
He sobbed, desperately trying to explain, but by the time those broken words were squeezed from his throat, they no longer formed sentences.
His tears quickly soaked the fabric of Aina’s chest; that small patch of cloth became warm and moist, clinging to her skin.
His fingers gripped the hem of her clothes in a death march, his knuckles turning blue-white from the force.
His whole body was shaking, like a young animal abandoned in a storm, desperately trying to catch the last glimmer of warmth.
Aina Saiten looked down at her boyfriend, who was crying uncontrollably in her arms.
The top of his head was right under her chin, his soft black hair rubbing against her skin with the familiar scent of shampoo.
His body was so small, so soft, so fragile, as if it would break if she used too much force.
At that moment, her heart ached so much it almost split open.
But at the same time, a sour feeling spread through her heart, a feeling she couldn’t control and that made her loathe herself.
Even though she understood that all of this was caused by Chinatsu Ayase’s conspiracy.
That girl had been setting the stage from the very beginning, targeting Kaoru from the start.
That seemingly selfless help, the proactive approaches, those carefully designed “chance encounters”—they were all premeditated traps.
But…
Perhaps in her heart, her expectations for Kaoru had always been too high.
She always felt that Kaoru was perfect, that he wouldn’t make mistakes, that he would always belong to her.
So at this moment, a voice in her mind whispered:
Even if all of this was Chinatsu Ayase’s premeditated plan, just like the video she had just watched—
If Kaoru had chosen not to accept Chinatsu Ayase’s invitation, would those things have still happened?
If Kaoru had chosen not to drink, would he have been forcibly kissed, and would he have eventually lost consciousness and been taken to a hotel?
If he could have resolutely refused at the very beginning, drawn a clear line, and firmly returned to her side—
Would none of this have happened?
She knew she shouldn’t think this way; she knew the victim shouldn’t be blamed.
She knew Kaoru was also forced, also innocent, also targeted by that yellow-haired woman and this black-haired girl in turn.
But she couldn’t control it.
Those thoughts were like venomous snakes; once they poked their heads out, they could never be pulled back, coiling, biting, and injecting venom into her mind.
Aina Saiten’s head hurt more and more.
A series of stabbing pains came from her temples, as if someone were striking them over and over with an awl.
She closed her eyes, wanting the images to stop, but every frame of the video was clearly engraved in her mind—
The sight of Kaoru crouching by the roadside and crying.
Chinatsu Ayase’s hand wrapped around his waist.
Those overlapping lips.
……
However, one question lingered in her mind like a ghost, refusing to go away:
When exactly did that video happen?
In the video, Kaoru was crying so sadly on the side of the road instead of going home, most likely because he had fought with her.
But the problem was—she had never had a violent argument with Kaoru, let alone one that drove him to run away from home.
Kaoru wasn’t the type of person who would run away from home, and she wasn’t the type of person who would push him to that point.
So where did this video come from?
A scene suddenly flashed through Aina Saiten’s mind—
Fifty days ago, the first time she saw a video on this eerie APP.
In that video, a tattoo appeared on the inside of Kaoru’s thigh that shouldn’t have been there.
She had never seen that tattoo to this day, yet it appeared so abruptly and clearly in that scene.
An unbelievable possibility that could explain everything suddenly appeared in Aina Saiten’s mind, like a bolt of lightning cutting through the fog before her eyes.
Her eyes widened instantly.
“Those videos…”
She murmured blankly, her voice so soft it was almost inaudible.
“They’re from the future…”
They were from the future.
This thought exploded in her mind like a thunderclap.
The future videos, the future scenes, the future Kaoru, the future Chinatsu Ayase, the future hotel, and… the countdown that heralded the future.
[NTR Countdown: 49 Days]
It wasn’t counting down some unknown threat.
It was telling her when it would happen.
It was telling her how much time she had left.
Aina Saiten instinctively wanted to deny this idea.
It was too absurd, too beyond common sense, too anti-science.
The future? Precognition? A countdown? This wasn’t some science fiction novel or a suspense movie; this was her life, her Kaoru, her solid, crumbling reality.
But the deeper she thought about it, the more impossible it was to shake the idea.
Why did that eerie APP appear on her phone? Why were those videos so real? Why did Kaoru appear in scenes she had never seen? Why did the countdown decrease day by day?
If those videos were from the future, then everything made sense.
That countdown was telling her how much time she had left to stop it all.
Aina Saiten’s breathing began to quicken.
Her heart pounded wildly in her chest, so fast it almost broke through her ribs.
Her fingers began to tremble, not from fear, but from an uncontrollable, almost manic excitement.
The future could be changed; the future could be stopped.
As long as she knew what was going to happen, as long as she prepared in advance, as long as she—
“Ugh… Aina?”
A tentative, tearful voice came from her embrace.
Aina Saiten looked down and saw Kaoru raising his tear-stained face, looking at her timidly.
Those little deer eyes were red and wet, with tiny tears still clinging to his eyelashes.
His lips trembled slightly, as if he had much to say but didn’t know where to start.
He tentatively called her name, his voice so soft it was as if he were confirming whether she was still willing to listen to him.
But for some reason, he felt that Aina’s eyes at this moment were a bit… strange.
It wasn’t sadness, it wasn’t anger, it wasn’t even the despair he had expected. It was a kind of… excitement?
An almost fanatical gaze, burning with a light he didn’t understand.
That light was so strong and so hot that it made him feel dazed for a moment.
“Aina…”
He called again, his voice filled with confusion and unease.
“What… what’s wrong?”
Aina Saiten didn’t answer.
She just looked at his face, the face she had looked at for over ten years and thought she would look at for a lifetime, and the corners of her mouth slowly curled into a very slight arc.
In that arc, there was heartache, bitterness, and an almost fanatical determination.
She still had forty-nine days.
She still had forty-nine days to prevent all of that from happening!
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