Chapter 230: Despair of the Countdown Reaching Zero

“Damn it… why did it have to be right now of all times!”

Freezing rain pounded mercilessly against her face, and her vision had already been blurred by the downpour.

Aina bit her purplish lips and sprinted through the ruined street.

Cold, so cold.

But colder than her rain-soaked body was her heart, which was pounding uncontrollably right now.

[00:14]

“No… please, no…”

Although with every step she ran, the muscles in her calves screamed in protest.

But Aina did not dare stop at all.

Because on that four-inch mobile phone screen, a live broadcast was playing–

“Haa… so hot…”

In the dim apartment room.

Kaoru Hoshitani felt as if his brain had turned into boiling mush; even his breath carried an alarming heat, and his eyelids were so heavy he could not open them.

The soreness made him curl up helplessly, his body trembling uncontrollably.

‘So uncomfortable…’

‘Aina…’

‘Where did you go?’

Just as Kaoru Hoshitani’s consciousness was about to sink into darkness, an unusually comfortable coolness pressed against his forehead.

“What a troublesome child, burning up so badly.”

Kaoru Hoshitani tried hard to open his eyelids:

“Senpai Chika…?”

“Shh, don’t move around.”

Chika’s voice was like some kind of painkiller, instantly soothing away the irritation caused by Kaoru Hoshitani’s high fever.

That cool hand slid from his forehead down to his cheek, and then to the back of his neck.

“You’re covered in sweat. If you keep wearing soaked clothes, your condition won’t improve.”

‘Not like this…’

‘I can’t take it off…’

A faint warning sounded in Kaoru Hoshitani’s subconscious, and he instinctively tried to reach for the hem of his clothes.

But he was too sluggish; the high fever had robbed him of all his strength.

He only felt Chika’s fingers push open his shirt, her fingertips inevitably brushing against his burning skin.

“Nngh…”

A physiological shudder ran through his whole body, and Kaoru Hoshitani could not help letting out a soft, sweet moan.

But that touch, on his body that felt close to melting from fever, somehow brought a strange sense of comfort.

— Outside the frame.

“Stop! Stop it, you bastard!!”

Aina let out a shrill scream in the rainstorm, stumbled, and fell heavily into a muddy puddle.

Her knees–but she could not care about the pain at all right now.

On the screen, Chika had already half-embraced the weak Kaoru Hoshitani from behind.

From this angle, the female lead was already pressed close to the male lead’s back, and the distance between them had clearly crossed the dangerous red line.

[00:08]

Faster!

Even faster!

The intersection is just ahead!

If I just turn the corner…

Aina kept sprinting like a madwoman.

“Aina…”

From the screen came Kaoru Hoshitani’s unconscious murmur.

The moment she heard her own name, Aina’s tears burst out along with the rain, great big tears spilling from her eyes.

But the next second, Chika’s voice, like a demon’s whisper, completely shattered Aina’s last shred of hope.

“Aina isn’t here. Right now, the only one protecting you and taking care of you is me.”

Chika pressed close to Kaoru Hoshitani’s ear, her warm breath striking his earlobe, her fingers already slipping inside along the open hem of his clothes.

“How is measuring the temperature of your forehead enough? Since your fever is this bad, I have to check your ‘internal body temperature.'”

“No… don’t…”

Kaoru Hoshitani let out a weak struggle; that was the last bottom line of his rationality.

But in the high fever and Chika’s embrace, that refusal sounded more like a half-hearted, flirtatious rejection.

Chika had no intention of stopping at all; instead, she held him even tighter.

[00:03]

“I’m here!! I’m here!!”

The outline of the Apartment Building finally appeared in the curtain of rain.

Aina practically smashed open the ground-floor glass door, not even wanting to wait for the elevator, and plunged into the stairwell two steps at a time.

[00:02]

On the screen, Chika’s movements went completely deep.

[00:01]

Aina finally rushed to the door of her own home. She reached out with trembling hands and grasped the cold metal door handle.

At that very moment, she instinctively lowered her eyes to glance at the mobile phone screen.

In the image, Chika, who had been focused on “taking care” of Kaoru Hoshitani from beginning to end, suddenly stopped moving.

She slowly raised her head, her gaze eerily crossing over Kaoru Hoshitani’s shoulder and looking straight at the “camera” in the corner of the room that should not have existed at all.

It was as if she were, at this moment, looking through the screen and meeting Aina’s eyes outside the door.

The corner of Chika’s mouth curled into a horrifying, victor’s sweet smile. Her lips moved silently.

The instant she understood that lip shape, all the blood in Aina’s body froze–

[Too late.]

[00:00]

The Countdown Reaching Zero.

The Old Mobile Phone let out a harsh burst of static, and the screen plunged completely into darkness.

Only Aina’s rapid, despairing gasps remained in the corridor. Beyond a single door, everything inside already belonged to another woman.

…

“Haa! Hah!”

When she came back to her senses, Aina was still standing in the very place she had started–outside the cold Anti-theft Door of the apartment.

“So dark so dark so dark so dark so dark so dark so dark so dark so dark so dark so dark so dark————“

She immediately hugged her own shoulders tightly, rain continuously falling along her hair.

She was terrified to the extreme; it was an indescribable sense of despair.

Watching her boyfriend held in another woman’s arms, watching him go from weak resistance to submission, that piercing sense of immorality and helplessness nearly made her collapse on the spot.

She was just an ordinary girl desperately trying to protect her boyfriend; this Punishment of watching everything be taken away right before her eyes was truly too much!

In the cold corridor, with soaked clothes clinging to her body, Aina repeated those eerie words about the darkness before her eyes.

Because this was exactly the portrait of her inner world completely collapsing when the Old Mobile Phone screen went black.

She did not know how long passed before Aina barely managed to soothe her violently pounding heart.

“I’m… still outside the door?”

She raised her head with a tremble and looked at the familiar Anti-theft Door before her.

No sound came from inside the door, as if nothing had happened at all.

“But everything in the video just now was real…”

Aina recalled Chika’s provocative eyes on the screen earlier; that was absolutely not some hallucination caused by a high fever.

Chika really had been inside, and she had done those things to Kaoru Hoshitani.

“Could it be that if I rush in now, I can still stop something? Haha, how could that be…”

Her understanding of the current situation was very clear, but the clearer it was, the more disgusted she felt.

‘If I break down the door and rush in now…’

‘Catch them red-handed! Drive that vicious woman out!’

‘Damn it! If I really do that, how is Kaoru Hoshitani supposed to face it? His fever is so severe–if he knows he was… he’ll break down!’

Aina leaned against the door panel, somewhat drained of strength.

‘Does that mean I can only pretend I know nothing?’

‘And just watch that woman stay by Kaoru Hoshitani’s side under the name of ‘taking care’ of him?’

She immediately began guessing the consequences if she exposed everything now.

If she exposed it, a madwoman like Chika would absolutely throw caution to the wind.

Under the pressure of avoiding Rika Kawasaki, Kaoru Hoshitani was already on the verge of collapse; he could not withstand this double blow at all.

‘But… since it has already happened, without solid evidence, that woman will definitely bite back…’

Aina felt her logic had fallen into a dead end; rushing in now would not only fail to save Kaoru Hoshitani, but would instead trigger an irreversible explosion.

‘Ahh, there’s really no helping it. I can only go in and take a look first–no matter what, I have to go in first!’

She did not want to leave Kaoru Hoshitani alone with that monster again; that was not a demon the current Kaoru Hoshitani could handle at all.

‘Yeah, as long as I stay by his side, Senpai Chika can’t do anything else, right?’

Aina comforted herself in her heart like this.

Since she was the official girlfriend, she absolutely had to be like those food-guarding lionesses and take back her territory!

‘By then, with a fake Senpai like this, I’ll definitely shut her down with one sentence, see through her tricks at a glance, and drive her out directly!’

Aina completely forgot the heart-rending fear she had felt before the screen just now, patted her cheeks, and placed her hand on the door handle again.

This time she was going to open the door directly.

…………

With a soft “click,” the door opened.

The foyer still drifted with an indescribable sense of oppression.

Moreover, that aura was clearly coming from the direction of the bedroom.

But walking toward the bedroom was the reality she had to face–

Regardless of right or wrong, she now had to confirm Kaoru Hoshitani’s condition.

Because continuing to escape outside would only make that tragedy of being forcibly taken away happen again; she did not want to taste that pain a second time.

‘Ahh, whatever, maybe Chika just took his temperature and then backed off! That was just the Old Mobile Phone exaggerating!’

Aina encouraged herself like this, setting aside her fear.

The air was clearly heavy, and next she had to step into the most disgusting crime scene.

Going deeper into the living room, it was not much different from when she had left, but that unpleasant feeling was still there, as if her nasal cavity had already caught a certain sweet, cloying scent that belonged to neither herself nor Kaoru Hoshitani–Chika’s scent.

Her steps were clearly slower than when she usually came home, much slower than when she had been sprinting back.

‘My body feels so heavy… damn it, why is there not even a single sound…’

Aina silently swallowed her saliva and took a step as if pulling a heavy foot out of a swamp.

Her stamina was still there, her legs were not weak, and she was not unable to move; it was just that her limbs would not obey her.

Only her body, defying rationality and her instincts as a girlfriend, showed resistance to the truth and hindered her progress.

For a corridor of just a few steps, it took twice the time, stamina, and mental energy just to do this, and Aina could not help feeling a kind of despairing exhaustion.

Finally, the bedroom door appeared before Aina’s eyes. It was not fully closed; a crack was left open.

“Senpai Chika… are you still in there?!”

Aina’s anger reached its peak, negative emotions almost about to destroy her rationality, and she violently pushed open the bedroom door–

What she should have seen–disarray and intertwined bodies–did not exist.

The instant her eyes fell on the scene, she saw another picture entirely.

“What… what’s going on…”

Aina stood frozen in place.

Chika was neatly dressed, even the buttons at her collar fastened tightly.

She was sitting by the bed, gently wiping the fine sweat from the forehead of the sleeping Kaoru Hoshitani.

The kotatsu’s temperature had been adjusted to a suitable level, and a calming incense was even lit in the room.

Hearing the door open, Chika turned her head.

Seeing the bedraggled Aina, Chika showed not the slightest panic; instead, she slightly furrowed her brows.

“Oh my, Aina, you’re finally back.”

“Why have you gotten yourself into such a state? And… you left Kaoru Hoshitani alone at home for far too long. He was burning up so badly just now and kept saying he felt awful. It broke my heart.”

“You…”

Aina pointed at Chika, her fingers trembling uncontrollably.

‘She knew!’

‘She knew everything!’

A few minutes ago, in this very room, this woman had done something to Kaoru Hoshitani!

‘Can’t… can’t I break through that disguise of hers? Damn it, it was clearly just on the video…’

Aina tried hard to shout out a question, and did not even notice that her nails had already dug deeply into her palms.

Her eyes carried intense hatred and despair.

‘Damn it damn it damn it damn it damn it damn it!!’

But no matter how she roared inside, it was useless.

Exposing it would mean mutual destruction.

After seeing Kaoru Hoshitani’s peacefully sleeping face, Aina could only grit her teeth and forcefully swallow all her humiliation back into her stomach.

“I… I’m going to change clothes.”

Her already unstable mind completely crumbled before Chika’s “perfect Senpai” mask; negative emotions crushed her, and she turned around, not daring to look at the two on the bed again.

‘Damn it, why don’t I even have the right to accuse her anymore!’

‘So tired, so disgusting, I want to drive this woman out!’

‘She’s just pretending well… as long as I wait for Kaoru Hoshitani to wake up…’

Thud.

Aina leaned against the back of the restroom door and slid down to sit on the floor.

Because her stamina had drained far too severely, the cold brought by the rainstorm pressed down on her–cold… a cold that seeped into her bones.

Her heart hurt so much…

She tightly hugged her soaked legs.

This was not a Dream; this was real, everything had truly happened, all of it was real fact.

And there was only one despairing fact…

‘My boyfriend…’

‘Has already been eaten by her…’