Rinna set down the cup, holding the paper cup that had lost most of its heat with both hands.
“I feel like my life is hopeless… Life is really… full of bumps.” She thought for a moment, then replaced “troubles” with “bumps”—she felt that “bumps” sounded a bit more solemn. Sway.
Hisaki’s pupils contracted.
It wasn’t the kind of contraction from being caught off guard like last time when Rinna asked “Who are you chatting with?” It was a contraction somewhere between “worry” and “panic.”
Her lips parted slightly, closed, then parted again.
Her brain was rapidly scanning through every detail from this morning until now, trying to find the reason why Rinna suddenly felt hopeless.
Was the porridge too hot? Didn’t the painkiller work? Was the mattress too soft? Was she uncomfortable from that finger flick? Did she open the car door five-fifths of a second too slow, making Rinna wait a little?
“It’s okay, Rinna.”
Hisaki moved half a step closer to Rinna, and the distance between their shoulders shrank from twenty centimeters to five.
“The doctor will be at home at five this afternoon. The one Dad mentioned will definitely cure Rinna’s physique.”
When Rinna heard this, a warmth surged in her chest that she couldn’t quite describe.
Her earlier dejection from the system only giving her a 0.1 physique boost was lightly poked by Hisaki’s “five this afternoon,” and it deflated.
She looked up at Hisaki.
Hisaki’s eyebrows were slightly furrowed, the crease between them a little deeper than before. Her lips were pressed together, the corners turned down in a small arc.
She was worried.
Not the kind of worry where you say “Are you okay?” just to be polite because your best friend seems down. It was the kind of worry where Hisaki’s heart aches whenever Rinna frowns—genuine, substantial worry.
Habit.
Rinna suddenly found it a bit amusing.
Every time she had even the slightest emotional fluctuation, Hisaki would get flustered like this, looking utterly lost.
Rinna lifted her head, her amber eyes meeting Hisaki’s dark brown pupils.
She could tell that Hisaki was still hanging on those four words “life is hopeless.”
“Do you want a hug?”
Rinna’s voice was very light when she said this, but there was no reluctance, no shyness, no stubbornness about not wanting to trouble Hisaki.
Hisaki didn’t answer.
To be precise, the moment her brain finished processing the phrase “Do you want a hug?” her hands had already gently lifted from her sides, circled around Rinna’s shoulders, and pulled Rinna into her embrace.
The curve of her arms was just right. Her fingers spread slightly at Rinna’s shoulder blades, pressing against the soft fabric of the red shawl, and then she gave a very restrained, gentle squeeze.
Not tight, no gaps, but no feeling of constriction or pressure either.
Hisaki was half a head taller than Rinna, so this position allowed Rinna’s face to naturally bury itself in the hollow of Hisaki’s neck.
Exactly as Hisaki had imagined.
In the scorching heat of two o’clock in the afternoon in June, Rinna’s body, through the thin black long-sleeved T-shirt and a simple pair of jeans, felt like holding a smooth, cool crystal freshly retrieved from a spring when embraced.
That faint coolness that wouldn’t easily melt away in summer seeped from inside out through the fabric of the T-shirt, gradually penetrating Hisaki’s skin, gently absorbing the thin layer of sweat on her back caused by the heat.
So comfortable.
Hisaki closed her eyes in her mind.
Although her eyes were actually still open, vaguely staring somewhere past the top of Rinna’s right shoulder into the depths of the corridor, her sensory nerves had pinned her entire being into this position.
‘I don’t want to let go for even a second.’
“Rinna’s body is so cool, so comfortable.”
Hisaki murmured against Rinna’s ear.
Her voice was softer than usual, softly wrapping her words into the air between them.
“Can I hold you a little longer? Will standing like this tire you out?”
Rinna buried her face deeper into Hisaki’s neck and shook her head gently.
No shyness, no blushing, no racing heart.
‘After all, I am a sickly person.’
Hisaki tightened her arms just a little, but before the shape of her arms could leave any indentation on Rinna’s back, she immediately remembered Rinna’s physique stats and forced herself to return to that gentle, light touch.
‘I can hold her a little longer. No need to rush.’
Just then, Hisaki’s closed eyes opened.
Her gaze passed over Rinna’s pure white hair, through the gaps in the corridor’s glass railing, and landed on the ground of the plaza below.
Then she saw them.
Not a handful, not a dozen—a huge patch… densely packed sunhat tops, white and dark coffee alternating, converging from the entrance of Building 6 at the North Gate and from the directions of Buildings 1 and 3 facing the fountain pool.
The group wore casual summer clothes similar to ordinary tourists, and everyone’s hat had the same tour group logo that Hisaki had never seen before.
But the way they walked was nothing like tourists.
Tourists scatter in a mall.
They look around, their steps uneven, stopping and starting. Some look at windows, some take photos, some lag behind, some look for restrooms.
These hundred-plus people flowed along the walkway outside the second floor, but they automatically split into two streams, converging from the north and west sides toward the center.
Hisaki’s posture holding Rinna didn’t change. Her arms were still around Rinna’s waist and back, her fingers still gentle and restrained.
But the ends of her eyebrows lowered by a millimeter, and her lips pressed together lightly.
She didn’t show any visible panic… having lived in the Kurose household for over a decade, she had seen bigger scenes than a hundred-plus people… but she had to confirm the intentions of this group immediately.
She held Rinna tighter, leaned forward slightly, and tightened her arm around Rinna’s waist, pulling her toward the inner part of the corridor.
Before Rinna could react, Hisaki had already used half of her body to block the outside, shielding Rinna securely.
But the density of the crowd was too high. The movable space on the second-floor platform was already extremely limited.
Hisaki didn’t clash head-on with the crowd. She moved a few steps sideways with the push of the crowd, holding Rinna while looking for a safe corner to slip through.
But at every possible exit, men in hats kept passing by silently, as if they had already calculated which route Hisaki would choose.
Eventually, Hisaki, still holding Rinna, was carried by the crowd to the northeast corner of the second floor near the emergency exit.
It was a dead end.
No surveillance.
No shops open nearby. The dark gray rolling shutters were tightly closed, and a thin layer of dust had settled on the door handles.
Behind them was a solid concrete wall, no windows.
The only exit was the alley-like walkway they had come from on the second-floor platform, and now that walkway was completely blocked by over a hundred people.
Just as Hisaki adjusted her center of gravity and was about to speak, the hundred-plus people suddenly parted to both sides, creating a narrow passage just wide enough for one person.
A man wearing casual trousers and a light summer shirt jacket walked out slowly from behind the human wall.
He looked to be about thirty, with an unhurried demeanor and an air polished by good education and affluent circumstances.
High nose bridge, slightly upturned lips. His smile made people instinctively feel friendly rather than wary.
“Good afternoon, beautiful and lovely young ladies. Please allow me to sincerely apologize for my rude way of inviting you.”