Chapter 16: Reset
"Yukino, you're really starting to look more and more like him."
It wasn't until her older sister said those words, watching her sigh in that same quiet, distant way, that Yukino Yukinoshita finally snapped out of the lingering haze she had been living in.
"He started enjoying reading magazines and newspapers, and watching old movies he rarely watched before. He made my lovely sister lose her appetite and sleep all day long... Ha, maybe this is the 'revenge' he wanted to achieve."
After all, that person once said: if you make him angry, he'll definitely retaliate.
Realizing that Haruno had used him like that, dragged him into something he never asked for, made Yukino unable to let go of him for the rest of her life. It created an eternal fracture between the two sisters — maybe this was exactly his malicious, silent retaliation.
"Sister, when you first brought him to see me, wasn't it because you hoped he could do something for me?"
Yukino took the whistle from where she had hung it on her lamp, slowly wiped the cold metal with a handkerchief, then carefully set it back.
"You arranged for us to meet, let us get to know each other little by little… you even deliberately created opportunities for us to spend time together. All because you hoped he could help me."
Haruno, leaning against the doorframe, didn't deny anything. She simply smiled.
"Yes. I have to admit it — from the beginning, I wanted something from him. So it's understandable he'd resent me. So in a sense… his 'revenge' was successful."
But behind her smile, there was a deeper wound she didn't show.
She still remembered the sight painfully well — her younger sister Yukino lying weakly in a hospital bed, quietly reading a magazine, while the curly-haired young man took meticulous care of her, step by step, breath by breath, as if he were afraid she would vanish between blinks.
Haruno had wished the two most important people in her life could remain within her reach forever. But in reality, one was more important than the other.
"He knows that you, Yukino, are more important to me than he is. So… losing him forever is my punishment."
Yukino didn't want to dig into that meaning any further.
After he disappeared, time flew so fast it became indistinguishable — so fast she couldn't even tell whether her interest in watching old films and reading strange short stories had been influenced by him or had been there all along.
Her weekends became routine: drifting to the bookstore, flipping through collections with odd titles that somehow carried a familiar air… or sitting alone in a near-empty theater watching re-released old movies, observing fragments of strangers' lives through flickering light.
She disliked romance movies the most, yet she couldn't avoid them.
Stories of couples who loved deeply but broke up for their careers, only to wish each other well from afar…
Stories of two people who fell in love on a train in a foreign country, then reunited ten years later when everything had already changed…
Stories of an ordinary bookstore owner and a world-famous actress falling in love…
Stories of a withdrawn boy and a bright girl dying before they ever truly began…
Every film was a "possibility" of human destiny.
And the life she lived so far… was simply another possibility.
"...Huh?"
She didn't notice when tears started streaming down her cheeks.
Sitting alone in the dim movie theater, her usual compose shattered as a wave of overwhelming emotions crashed violently against her defenses. Even someone like Yukino, who always stayed calm, composed, calculating — even she felt powerless.
Most people don't feel the reality of losing someone until long after they're gone. Only when memories return, unbidden and sharp, do the suppressed emotions finally burst free.
On the screen, the protagonists relived memories — laughter, arguments, small gestures — and these fragments overlapped with Yukino's own.
That person who teased her mercilessly.
That person who seemed lazy but was always reliable in crucial moments.
That person who brought her peace no one else ever could.
That person who risked everything to take her away from the hospital just to see a fleeting comet.
That person who promised he would wake her from that nightmare.
We'll never see each other again.
"...?"
The tears wouldn't stop.
Even when she wiped them away, they returned instantly, blurring her vision anew.
It was a kind of heartbreak she had never known.
And the person who had given her such emotions — she would never see again.
Why did it end like this…?
On the screen, the male protagonist played the piano while the female lead walked in with someone else. He forced a smile, playing the same melody from the day they met. The film then showed an alternate possibility, one where they never separated.
If we could go back… would things have been different?
Everything so far… had only been a "possibility."
Wiping her tears, Yukino stood abruptly.
Only one thought filled her chest:
The possibility of meeting him again.
I want to see him.
I want to meet him again in a world where I'm healthy, where we can live normal lives.
I want to rebuild everything from the beginning.
She pushed open the theater doors—
—and a blinding white light swallowed her vision whole.
Her senses were stripped away one by one.
When the brightness finally softened, she opened her eyes.
A familiar ceiling.
Her room.
Yukino sat up slowly, staring around at her familiar yet subtly different bedroom.
Everything was in place — but slightly shifted.
A desk neatly arranged with high school textbooks.
An alarm clock ticking quietly.
A Soubu High uniform on a hanger.
A clean lamp — with nothing hanging from it.
A brand-new, untouched calendar.
"...?"
She touched the calendar — no red marks.
She opened every drawer — no whistle.
A realization dawned on her.
She had returned from that nightmarish future.
She expected relief.
But instead, she sat on the edge of the bed, staring blankly at her floor until she nearly ran late for school. Only then did she drag her dazed body out the door.
After spending too long dreaming, reality felt unreal.
Her illness was gone.
Her suffocating family life had softened.
Her hopeless future had reset entirely.
She had returned to the life she always wished for, yet—
"Hmm… ex-boyfriend? Haha, how could you not know if I've dated someone before, Yukino~ Why are you suddenly asking about this? Are you missing your older sister?"
"…It's nothing, I just asked out of the blue."
After ending the call with Haruno, Yukino Yukinoshita returned to her seat just as the bell rang.
For the first time in a long while, she sat through class without actually listening. Her gaze drifted toward the window, her focus slipping again and again. Between one heartbeat and the next, she searched—hoping for even a trace of the person she remembered so vividly.
She searched through the list of past graduates.
She flipped through old club photos.
She asked teachers, casually and indirectly, if they remembered someone like him.
But in the end, she found nothing.
That familiar emptiness clawed at her chest again.
This should have been the world she wanted. A world free from illness, suffocation, and despair. Yet the one person she longed for most didn't exist here—not even as a shadow.
Love doesn't exist in the real world.
Human relationships are merely connections between individuals.
Love is no more real than vampires or dragons—something people romanticize because movies taught them to.
He was exactly that—something unreal. A character created by a simulation.
Someone unforgettable.
Someone unreachable.
"You will wake up from this dream."
His voice—so close back then—still lingered like a whisper just beside her ear.
"We… will meet again."
No.
Liar.
He was like a Mentos dropped into a bottle of soda—appearing suddenly, fizzing up her entire life, and leaving her to clean up the overflowing mess alone.
Maybe it was always meant to end before it truly began.
It's fine.
She was already beginning to forget what he looked like.
Really, it was fine.
He was just an unreliable, infuriating man who loved talking nonsense. Someone completely impossible to deal with. Even if such a person didn't exist in this world at all… what difference would it make?
Some encounters happen only once.
Some farewells happen before you even realize it.
All you can do is carry the memories with you.
Move forward.
Pretend it doesn't hurt.
Yukino forced herself to accept reality, buried the ache deep within, and went through classes as perfectly as ever—or at least, that was how she thought she appeared.
Eventually, she made her way to the Service Club's activity room, absentmindedly sitting down and opening a paperback book. Hiratsuka-sensei had said a first-year boy would be joining today. If everything unfolded as the simulation had shown, it should be Hachiman Hikigaya.
She flipped through a few pages, trying to steady her breathing.
Reading and movies—only those could bring her the slightest peace now.
It's time…
Time to leave that dream behind.
He would have told her the same thing if he were here.
But Yukino knew she wouldn't be able to do it so easily.
Her thoughts drifted like that until—
The door slid open.
"Hey, Yukinoshita! Come meet your first club member!"
Hiratsuka-sensei's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She lifted her head—and froze.
"…?"
The boy stepping into the room had slightly younger features, a thinner build, and a more youthful impression than the man in her memory.
But the atmosphere—the presence—was unmistakable.
It was him.
"Let me introduce you. This kid is Narumi Toru, a classmate from your year. Try to get along, okay? …Eh? Yukinoshita?"
Yukino didn't answer.
Only when a drop of warm liquid fell onto her paperback did she realize—
A tear had slipped down her cheek.
It hit the page beside the title:
"The Song of the Pyramids."
---
Prologue – Boy Meets Girl
The underground live house was thick with heat and humidity, the air heavy with sweat and excitement. The cramped space pulsed with the roar of the audience's voices.
On stage, the band was giving everything they had.
The vocalist leaned into the microphone, singing like he was confessing to it, fingers sliding fiercely along the guitar strings.
A blue-haired girl stood near the wall instead of squeezing into the center. Her eyelids were lowered, her expression indifferent, but she absorbed every beat and riff with sharp clarity.
Music filled the room and poured into her senses.
She closed her eyes, letting the sound crash over her.
When the chorus ended and the crowd's shouting softened for a moment, she opened her eyes—
—and noticed a quiet figure at the other end of the hall.
A curly-haired boy stood with his arms crossed, not swaying with the music like the others. He stared at the stage with a calm, serious profile—standing out sharply in the chaotic venue. Just like her.
Before the next verse began, as if sensing her gaze, the boy turned his head. Their eyes met.
Then the next surge of rock music exploded from the speakers.
They stayed locked on each other despite the thunderous noise.
It could have been the start of a textbook "boy meets girl" moment—but their thoughts were far from romantic.
"…Uh, is this guy an idiot? Why is he staring at me instead of the stage?"
"…Is this girl insane? Why is she staring at me instead of the stage?"
They both complained inwardly at the exact same moment.
And that was Narumi Toru and Yamada Ryo's first meeting.
——
Shimokitazawa – backstage of a small underground venue.
"This is a mess… the guitarist spot is empty again. Where am I supposed to get a stand-in now? Should I beg my sisters…?"
A blonde girl with her hair tied in a ponytail sat behind the drum set, tapping the tom drums gloomily.
"You can rely on me too."
The short-haired blue girl unplugged her bass, speaking in a flat tone.
"Ryo, can't you introduce someone to help us? You know anyone who's available…?"
End of chapter.