The hands of time crept slowly toward eight o'clock.
Akihabara at night — the streets alive with foot traffic, the glow of signs spilling out across the pavement.
Outside a ramen shop, a long queue of customers stretched down the block.
And roughly twenty meters from that ramen shop, a young man in a sharp black coat stood perfectly still.
He faced into the evening breeze, a bouquet of red roses cradled in his arms, the hem of his coat tracing a gentle arc in the wind.
His solitary, composed presence was drawing more and more attention with every passing minute.
Back straight, bearing effortlessly cool, he hadn't moved an inch.
Passersby walked past and he ignored them all — even the handful of young women who approached and tried to start a conversation were turned away with nothing more than a polite smile.
And somehow, that only made more people stop and stare.
"What's that guy just standing there for?"
"Can't you see he's holding flowers? He must be waiting for a girl he's meeting!"
"You don't wait for someone like that though — my bet is she stood him up, and he's still out here holding the spot."
"There's something weirdly moving about it, honestly."
...
...
And then, inevitably, another girl approached.
Two of them this time — high school girls in their uniforms, sweet-faced and a little cheeky as they stepped right up to Lin Ye.
"Hey, handsome," one of them said.
"Mind telling us what you're doing out here?"
These two weren't part of Haruno's arrangements. Lin Ye could tell.
"Waiting for someone," he said.
"Who?" both girls asked at once.
"A girl I like."
"Eh — eh?!"
He really is waiting for a girl! Just like everyone guessed!
"When were you supposed to meet her?" one of them pressed.
"Eight o'clock."
"Ah!" The girl glanced at her phone. "It's already eight fifteen — she's more than fifteen minutes late."
Japanese people took punctuality seriously. Even if someone was going to be late, they'd always send a message first — but from the look of things, Lin Ye clearly hadn't received any such message. If anything, he looked exactly like a man who'd been stood up.
"She'll come," he said.
"..."
The girl wasn't ready to give up on his behalf. "Do you have her number? We could try calling her for you."
She wasn't telling him to give up outright — she was pivoting to problem-solving.
"I don't have her number."
"Oh. Well — what about other contact info? LINE? Email?"
"Nothing."
The same answer, flat and calm. Both girls fell into uncertain silence — as did the growing crowd that had gathered at a distance out of curiosity.
No contact info at all. How is he supposed to reach her?
Are you seriously just waiting here?
"I have no way to contact her," Lin Ye said, "but I've already sent my wish to meet her out into the world. If she sees it, she'll come. I'll wait for her. I'll wait until she appears before me."
If she sees it?
Sent out into the world?
What on earth does that mean?
The onlookers only grew more puzzled — until, suddenly, a startled shout cut through the noise.
"You — you're — aren't you that guy? The one who was all over the internet a little while back?"
That cry of recognition drew even more eyes, sparked more thinking.
"That letter that went viral online five days ago — you wrote it, didn't you."
"Akihabara, a ramen shop, eight o'clock at night — you're actually still here. You haven't given up."
...
One person's words were enough to trigger the memories of everyone around them.
Among the crowd, the hired staff pulled out their phones and began playing the original video.
Slowly, the recollection came flooding back.
The story had trended fast and faded fast — but it had left a mark. A man, searching sincerely for pure and beautiful love, traveling far and wide for just one more chance to see her again.
At the time, countless people had been curious about the exact location. Some had even gone looking — and come up empty.
And yet here was the man himself, standing right here, flowers in hand, waiting for the girl he loved to step back into his life.
Romance. A flutter in the chest.
Feelings started surfacing everywhere.
People pulled out their phones and started filming, adding captions, and posting.
The buzz and the discourse officially began.
Several hired influencers with large followings went live.
"Hey everyone, I'm Crybaby Cat," one of them said.
"I came to Akihabara today — this holy land of otaku culture — to have a look around."
"I figured tonight would be all about model kits and cute cafés, but then something caught my eye. Take a look at this, everyone."
The camera swung around.
The crowd of onlookers filled the frame.
The live viewers saw all those people and immediately got interested.
"What's going on up ahead?"
"What's going on? Remember that confession letter that went around online a few days ago?"
"Yeah, vaguely — why?"
"Why? The main character just showed up, that's why!"
The person answering was visibly excited.
"He's so handsome!"
"If a guy that good-looking were standing here holding flowers for me, I'd absolutely say yes to being his girlfriend!"
"Why won't he confess to me instead?"
"Forget confessing — just hand me the flowers, and I'm his girlfriend on the spot."
...
Excited cries from the women in the crowd kept coming one after another.
The enthusiastic reactions had the live stream viewers baffled.
Just how good-looking does this guy have to be to cause this kind of reaction?
The camera shifted.
That upright, striking silhouette came into frame.
"Holy crap, he's gorgeous."
"Where did this guy come from?"
"If someone who looks like that confessed to me, I'd say yes in a heartbeat."
"The guy in the story is that handsome? Then how beautiful must the girl be."
...
More and more viewers were tuning in.
Traffic and momentum kept climbing.
So far, so good.
The two high school girls still standing in front of Lin Ye felt the weight of all those eyes bearing down from every direction. As if steeling themselves for something, one of them took a deep breath and spoke up loud and clear.
"Hey, don't bother waiting for that girl you like anymore."
"It's been so many days and she still hasn't showed. She's probably not going to."
It was a harsh thing to say.
Most of the people watching thought the same way.
This many days had passed. She still hadn't appeared. That meant she wasn't coming.
Lin Ye waiting any longer would only be a waste of time.
Better to let go now and open a new chapter.
"I know it's not my place, but — give up," the girl said.
"Thank you," Lin Ye replied.
His tone was completely calm — and that calm told every single person watching that he had absolutely no intention of giving up.
"Come on, listen to me, just move on. It's not like girlfriends are hard to find for someone like you."
She suddenly went red in the face, fidgeting a little.
"I, um — I don't actually have a boyfriend, you know."
The crowd: "..."
It wasn't that the thought hadn't crossed their minds — they just hadn't expected her to actually say it out loud. This high school girl had some serious nerve.
So that's what happens when a handsome guy shows up — women just go for it like that?
Quite a few women in the crowd quietly tensed up, afraid Lin Ye might actually say yes. If he did, they'd be devastated.
They should've been the ones to step forward first — if they had, maybe they'd be the ones with a shot.
"Um — would you, maybe — want me to be your girlfriend? You can give me those flowers."
The high school girl looked at Lin Ye with nervous excitement written all over her face.
Lin Ye smiled and declined her again with the same gracious warmth. "Thank you — for your feelings and your courage. But there's already a girl I like. I'm waiting for her. I'm going to wait right here until she walks in front of me again."
Rejected.
Naturally, the crowd understood it had nothing to do with the girl's looks — she was actually quite cute, the kind who'd only grow more beautiful in a few years.
"I — I——"
The girl's face fell, a faint shadow of sadness settling over her features.
"Both of us could be your girlfriend, you know!"
A new voice cut in — another woman stepping forward.
Lin Ye glanced over and immediately clocked her as one of Haruno's planted actors.
He was absolutely certain of it.
She was a content creator of some kind — a live-streaming influencer.
"Me and this little sis together as your girlfriends — how does that sound? The two of us combined have to be better than whatever girl hasn't even bothered to show up, right?"
The female streamer's words sent a shockwave through the crowd.
"Two girlfriends?!"
"Are you serious?"
"How is this guy's life so good — why don't I get this?"
"I want two girlfriends too! And they're both gorgeous!"
"Being handsome really does pay off."
"A devoted, handsome guy — of course he's going to attract this."
...
...
The scene had dissolved into a continuous chorus of shock and envy.
A high school girl confessing was already within the realm of surprising — but no one had expected an even wilder twist.
A strikingly beautiful woman had just offered to share him as a boyfriend alongside the high school girl.
It completely shattered the assumptions of everyone there.
Sure, two-timing existed in this world, and multi-person arrangements weren't unheard of — but two women voluntarily and eagerly offering to share one man as a couple? That was a different level of impact entirely when it played out right in front of you.
"Ahem, ahem——"
A third female voice suddenly rang out.
"Mind if I join? I have a real weakness for devoted men. They're absolutely my type."
From somewhere in the crowd, a woman raised her hand and called out.
The moment he heard that voice, Lin Ye knew exactly who it was. Haruno.
She'd mixed herself into the crowd and was now stirring things up.
But her entry did exactly what it was meant to — it sent the atmosphere rocketing into yet another peak.
Online, one short clip after another started appearing in rapid succession.
[SHOCKING: A Third Woman Enters the Picture.]
[Has the world changed? Is the devoted man now every woman's ultimate fantasy?]
[Devoted + Handsome = Absolutely lethal combination.]
[Miss Sakurajima, where are you? If you don't show up soon, the devoted man who's been waiting for you is about to get snatched by someone else.]
...
...
Post after post kept flooding the Trending search.
The hook was irresistible — the hype was at full throttle.
And with Haruno Yukinoshita running her influencer-and-astroturf operation behind the scenes, the wave of attention kept building and building.
In under half an hour, the story had swept across all of Japan.
Internet communities across the rest of Asia were picking it up too, and it was carving out its own space on their Trending searches as well.
The internet moved fast.
The viewer count was growing exponentially.
Women who shared the name "Miss Sakurajima" began appearing across the feeds in droves.
And then,
A wave of playful, joking content started emerging around the name "Miss Sakurajima."
Commenters were weighing in with their theories.
"You never know what you have until it's gone."
"When she sees him ending up with another girl, Miss Sakurajima is going to be bawling her eyes out, drowning in regret."
"She's probably already regretting it just from seeing this on Trending."
"A man this good has been waiting this whole time, and Miss Sakurajima just ignored it."
"That kind of guy should've been left to us! Why wasn't I in Akihabara today!"
...
...
Plenty of people were kicking themselves for not being there in person.
And more than a few who were already in Tokyo, with no real hope of making it in time, set off for the destination anyway — they wanted to see it with their own eyes.
Wave after wave of arrivals.
The excitement had well and truly peaked.
At the center of it all, Lin Ye faced the cluster of girls and the chorus of voices calling out to him from the surrounding crowd. He smiled again, warmth directed at everyone present.
"Thank you — truly, all of you, for your kind feelings toward me."
"I mean it — thank you, from the bottom of my heart."
"But your feelings for me — I can only accept them in spirit alone."
"Right now, in this moment, there is only one person in my heart. She has taken up every space inside me, and there is no room left for anyone else."
Haruno, somewhere in the crowd, let out a quiet scoff.
Technically accurate, she thought. 'Right now, in this moment' — even a single second counted as 'this moment.'
"Her radiant presence, her breathtaking figure — they are still carved into my heart even now," Lin Ye continued.
"I cannot forget her."
"After losing her, my world went dark. Cold. I fell into despair — and then I realized: I cannot be without her. I have to find her. I have to bring back what I lost."
"So that we can walk together, side by side, down the road that leads to our future."
The live stream ran uncut.
An enormous audience was watching.
The crowd around him gave a respectful berth of roughly ten meters, leaving enough open space.
Mai Sakurajima was in the crowd. She hadn't made a sound. She was standing silently less than three meters behind Lin Ye.
She stared at the back of his figure, and for a moment she genuinely could not tell — were these words sincere? Were they coming straight from his heart? Or were they nothing more than lines from a script, crafted purely for the purpose of 'breaking her out of her abnormal state'?
She wanted it to be the latter.
And yet, she was desperate for it to be the former.
Right now, she existed in a state of pure contradiction.
She didn't know what to do with herself.
"This place,"
"is where we first met."
"This place is where we spent time together."
"I'll wait for you here."
"I believe you will hear my voice. I believe you are right here."
And then Lin Ye turned around.
He looked toward the girl standing behind him.
His expression opened in surprise — eyes wide, a joy he couldn't contain breaking across the corners of his mouth — and at the edges of his eyes, the faintest glimmer of tears.
"I knew you would… come."
The words landed, and silence fell over the entire crowd.
She came. Miss Sakurajima actually came.
Holy — holy—!
The other person in this story just showed up!
Where? Where is she?
Every single person in the crowd spun their heads, scanning desperately, hunting for that figure.
The direction Lin Ye was now facing drew the most searching gazes of all.
Several young women who happened to be standing directly in that direction suddenly found themselves being stared at from all sides — everyone was trying to figure out which one was "Miss Sakurajima."
But none of the candidates fit.
She wasn't there.
No one could find her.
Where was she?
That question rose up in everyone's mind simultaneously.
And at this very moment, facing the full force of Lin Ye's deeply felt, trembling gaze — even Mai Sakurajima herself was being pulled in.
Her heart was accelerating, completely out of her control. Something wordless and warm had taken hold of her body.
Thud——
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Her heart was no longer listening to her.
She knew. She knew all of this was a script. A setup. A carefully engineered performance from start to finish.
From Lin Ye's outfit to every word of his confession — it was all a script. It was fake. As fake as fake could be.
And yet — why? Why did the trembling inside her keep insisting on something?
She wanted all of this to be real.
She wanted everything Lin Ye had said to be genuine feelings he truly felt from the bottom of his heart.
But...
"Student Lin," she finally said, after a long internal struggle, "you've become a very convincing actor."
The girl with long black hair wore a faint smile on her lips.
At the very least, for that single performance just now — even Mai Sakurajima, a major star in her own right, had to acknowledge Lin Ye's acting ability.
If he ever decided to pursue a career in the entertainment industry seriously, becoming a top-tier actor wasn't out of reach.
Lin Ye ignored Mai Sakurajima's refusal to play along.
He could tell that Senpai still hadn't accepted it — somewhere deep inside, she was still holding out.
Part of his plan had been not telling her in advance — a surprise attack, hoping to catch her off-guard, to let the emotional tide sweep her into the beautiful, devoted story he'd woven.
But it hadn't worked.
No — wait.
Lin Ye's eyes caught a sudden gleam in Senpai's gaze.
She had definitely been moved.
He'd succeeded at least halfway. One final push, and it would work.
Lin Ye took a step forward. The black coat swayed with the motion.
Every eye in the crowd shifted with him.
They understood — he was going to her. He was going to walk right up to Miss Sakurajima.
They were finally going to see this legendary Miss Sakurajima with their own eyes.
But just two seconds later, they watched Lin Ye stop.
He stood there, motionless, flowers held in both hands — the vivid roses looking almost luminous against the night.
Why did you stop?
Why aren't you walking?
You're doing this on purpose, aren't you!
We want to see Miss Sakurajima — give us Miss Sakurajima!
Just walk over there already!
But Lin Ye's feet remained rooted, locked in place as if the ground itself had claimed them.
"Getting to see you again…" he said softly, his voice carrying the same gentle warmth as flowers blooming on a spring morning.
"I knew you'd come. I always knew you'd show up here."
"Whatever we had — whatever tied us together — it isn't finished."
"Our future… it continues."
The smile on Lin Ye's face grew even more brilliant.
Moonlight and lamplight wove together around him, and the brightness only deepened.
"I love you,"
"Miss Mai Sakurajima..."
"Go out with me."
Simple. Unadorned. Utterly sincere.
The confession rang out and echoed into the night.
Silence fell over the whole scene — so complete, you could have heard a pin drop.
...
...
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