Distance until your boyfriend Kaoru Hoshitani is taken away
—————
Ninety-nine days
…….
The next morning, warm sunlight filtered through the half-closed blinds, casting mottled shadows on the light wooden floor of the living room.
Aina Saiten sat at the dining table, leisurely finishing the breakfast carefully prepared by her boyfriend, Kaoru Hoshitani, before setting off to work with a refreshed spirit.
The crowded train was like a sardine can, the air filled with a mixture of various perfumes, sweat, and breakfast scents.
Aina was swept into a corner by the crowd and barely managed to pull out her phone.
The cold glow of the screen reflected on her focused face.
She skillfully opened her email app, her fingers swiftly scrolling as she replied to the backlog of work emails accumulated overnight.
The shaking of the train and the station announcements became background white noise until the train gradually stopped at her destination platform.
As the announcement echoed, she just finished the last email and let out a soft sigh of relief.
Aina worked in an administrative position at a Big Insurance Company.
For a University of Tokyo graduate, this job was rather average, but among her peers, it was still enviable.
However, behind the polished facade lay the strict hierarchical order of the neon-lit workplace.
Having joined just over a year ago, Aina’s experience was limited, and her position and salary were at the bottom of the pyramid.
The promotion path was narrow and long; it was foreseeable that she would be slowly enduring the “newcomer” status for years to come.
Her fixed monthly salary, after paying off the heavy mortgage and covering the couple’s daily expenses, left barely anything, often forcing her to budget tightly.
【Sigh, this is what a truly miserable corporate slave life looks like!】
At the thought that it was precisely because of her tight salary that Kaoru had to take on a part-time job to supplement their income, Aina couldn’t help but sigh helplessly from the bottom of her heart.
“Aina, don’t start the day with such a gloomy mood.”
The Supervisor patted the shoulder of the team member who had just sat down and smiled kindly as he spoke.
“Good morning, Supervisor.”
Aina quickly composed herself and greeted him with spirit.
The Supervisor, who was probably in his thirties and also a University of Tokyo graduate, was Aina’s senior alumna.
Perhaps because of this, he paid her special attention.
“Everyone’s been under a lot of pressure lately. It’s not good to be so tense all the time. How about after work today, want to grab a drink? Relax a bit.”
Leaning forward slightly, lowering his voice, the Supervisor extended an invitation to Aina.
But Aina didn’t really like participating in these team-building activities.
After work, she only wanted to go home early to be with her boyfriend.
Though… even if she went home now, she couldn’t accompany Kaoru since he worked evenings at the Kawasaki Family Izakaya.
“Thanks, but no, Supervisor, at home…”
Although Aina left the sentence unfinished, the Supervisor clearly understood the meaning.
“So you have a husband? Why haven’t I heard about him before?”
The Supervisor’s voice was not low, and his words were inevitably overheard by nearby colleagues, who all looked on curiously.
“No, we’re not married yet…”
Seeing the coworkers eagerly inquire about her Kaoru, Aina felt very uncomfortable.
This was why she had never revealed much before.
The Supervisor also noticed Aina’s reluctance and quickly ended the topic:
“Alright, enough prying about people’s boyfriends. Let’s get back to work.”
After saying this, he patted Aina’s shoulder again and returned to his own desk.
Aina then began her day’s work, mostly dealing with finance and contracts.
Before long, the morning passed, and at lunch break, Aina took out the Bento her boyfriend Kaoru had prepared for her and happily ate it at her desk.
Her colleagues, aware that Aina had a boyfriend, gathered around to admire the well-presented Bento and offered compliments.
After finishing her meal, Aina picked up her phone and started chatting with Kaoru.
Since Kaoru’s shift began at five in the afternoon, he was still at home now.
Unfortunately, the precious leisure time of a corporate slave didn’t last long.
Before resuming work, Aina made a final stop at the restroom.
But inside the stall, she almost dropped her phone into the toilet.
Because the strange APP with a yellow background and white clock icon — the one she had uninstalled and confirmed deleted just last night — had somehow brazenly reappeared on her phone screen.
“What the hell?”
Aina’s pupils shrank sharply, her brows furrowed into a tight knot, and a flame of anger instantly ignited in her eyes as she cursed under her breath.
Suppressing the unease rising in her heart, she pressed and held the glaring icon again, watching it tremble before fiercely tapping the “Delete” option that popped up.
After completing the action, she held her breath and stared intently at the phone’s home screen as if willing to see through it.
Sure enough, thirty seconds later, that persistent APP icon, like a sentient being, bizarrely reappeared in the vacant spot, as if mocking her futile efforts.
“Damn it! Did someone implant some kind of Virus on my phone?!”
Aina refused to believe it was a supernatural event.
Her intuition told her it was definitely a despicable technical trick by the hidden mastermind behind the scenes, planting a malicious program in her phone that was impossible to remove.
【I’ll go to a phone shop after work to get it checked…】
Aina thought to herself.
Yet, for reasons unknown, perhaps out of curiosity about whether the so-called Countdown would actually change, she opened the APP again.
The interface remained simple, displaying a few lines of text:
Distance until your boyfriend Kaoru Hoshitani is taken away
—————
Ninety-nine days
Seeing the number clearly decrease from “one hundred” to “ninety-nine,” indisputably down by one day, Aina’s heart suddenly dropped with a jolt.
A strange panic washed over her chest like an icy tide.
She didn’t want to admit it, but at this moment, she truly began to lose control and worry—if this Countdown really reached zero, what exactly… would happen?
Like yesterday, beneath the text was a video play button.
【Tch… It’s probably just that AI-synthesized video from yesterday again…】
Aina thought disdainfully, as if to confirm her suspicion and break the suffocating anxiety, she tapped the play button with a reckless impulse.
To avoid repeating the embarrassing scene on the train, she had already put on her earphones.
However, Aina was wrong.
The video playing now was completely different from the one yesterday. Most noticeably, the scene…
The scene in the video was none other than the Kawasaki Family Izakaya…
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