Chapter 19: One Year, Suspicion, and a Destitute Hayasaka
Haruka opened his mouth.
The complexity of his emotions was beyond words.
But in the end, he let go of those unnecessary, distracting thoughts.
"It's okay. Just don't say 'I'm sorry' anymore in the future, alright?"
Haruka looked at Shoko and spoke with utter seriousness.
Shoko nodded vigorously.
"Let's go. Let's go home."
***
In reality.
Haruka looked at the simulation interface with an expressionless face.
At this moment.
His heart was as still as water.
From the rejection he expected when meeting her parents, to the discouragement of his simulation self making that promise.
To the joy of getting into Meiji University.
Then to the disappointment of his resources plummeting after rejecting Ai Hayasaka and failing to seize the opportunity properly.
And now.
To the bad news regarding Shoko's hearing.
His emotions no longer fluctuated much.
Anyway.
The behavioral logic of the "him" inside was already different from his current self.
What could he do about it? Heh. All he could do was shrug.
"It doesn't matter. Anyway, the value of this simulation is enormous. Getting into Meiji University, and even gaining experience in opening a company—this is already barely scraping the edge of high society. Moreover, the evaluation for this simulation shouldn't be too bad, so the rewards should be quite good."
"Thinking about it that way, it's a full harvest. My mood instantly feels better."
Haruka nodded secretly to himself.
This was the art of self-consolation.
A person shouldn't make things hard for themselves.
"By the way, I remember in the last simulation, Shoko Nishimiya's grandmother passed away not long after I started working, right?"
The third simulation continued.
***
[Only two years remaining.]
[In two years, you will face even harsher challenges.]
[After a night of careful consideration, you decided to inform Shoko's family.]
High-end Apartment.
In the bright and pristine living room.
Haruka sat on the sofa.
Opposite him were Yaeko Nishimiya and Yuzuru.
As for Grandmother Nishimiya, she remained in her room due to mobility issues.
"..."
"...That is the situation. Shoko only has two years of hearing left. When that time comes, I'm afraid Shoko will become completely deaf."
Haruka finished speaking.
Opposite him.
Yaeko, who had remained silent throughout, felt her cheek twitch. Her entire body radiated a suppressed, low-pressure aura before she suddenly went calm.
"Happiness and the like... simply won't exist for Shoko..."
She looked at Haruka and said, somewhat dazed, "I will take Shoko and leave. You should stop showing your face."
Beside her, Yuzuru looked at Haruka. She felt that her brother-in-law probably didn't mean it that way.
"Did you misunderstand something?" Haruka glanced at her indifferently.
Yaeko looked at Haruka with eyes full of suspicion. "Isn't that exactly what you mean? I won't let Shoko know about this. She will only know that I ruined her happiness, and she will hate me for it."
Her general meaning was to preserve Haruka's image in Shoko's heart, leaving Shoko with a glimmer of false, beautiful memories.
"Oh, so because of your own experiences, you still don't trust men. I really don't know how someone with a flawed personality like yours managed to raise such cute girls like Shoko and Yuzuru," Haruka said coldly.
"You..." Yaeko frowned at the man in front of her.
Wasn't that what he meant?
In fact.
Haruka wasn't wrong.
She had held a skeptical attitude toward Haruka from beginning to end. Of course, this was actually an improvement; she trusted him at least a little. But now that this had happened, her first thought was still that Haruka, facing difficulties, would abandon Shoko just as expected.
Yuzuru, on the other hand, rolled her eyes and nudged Yaeko.
"Sigh. I'm sorry. It was my fault."
Yaeko stood up and bowed deeply.
Haruka didn't dodge; he accepted the bow.
Even if she was Shoko's mother.
"No need for that. Everyone just wants what's best for Shoko. I told you these things so that you could help Shoko together with me."
Subsequently, Haruka revealed the fact that Shoko could vocalize through training.
"Shoko has felt inferior about her voice for a long time. Don't you want to hear Shoko's voice?"
Yuzuru shook Yaeko vigorously again.
She knew her sister's dream. She had always wanted to speak, to integrate with others. She remembered that when they were little, her sister even wanted to sing...
As for Yaeko.
To this day, she couldn't forget the shock of that night a few years ago when Shoko spoke to her for the sake of this man.
"Alright. What do you want to do?"
"I need Yuzuru to help out a bit. She's trustworthy..."
[With the help of Shoko's family, Yuzuru moved in.]
[You began to have Shoko follow the training plan, supervised by Yuzuru.]
[You also began to accelerate your work at the company. You hope to have more time to accompany Shoko in the future, but you cannot give up on the financial aspect. Life requires money, so you can only increase your workload to earn more money in these two years—unless you can find a trustworthy, capable assistant to whom you can entrust the heavy responsibility of the company.]
[Unfortunately, you do not have such a person. So you can only try your best to speed up the pace of earning money. Of course, you have already started to entertain the idea of recruiting people.]
[Six months later.]
[Shoko was already able to speak some short, simple sentences.]
"Haruka, cold outside. Wear more."
"Haruka, eat more."
"Haruka, you're famous. Be careful."
"Haruka, this is... scarf... I knitted."
"Haruka, I..."
[Shoko loves to talk, especially to you. She can barely go three sentences without mentioning you; the name 'Haruka' inevitably appears.]
[After Shoko learned to speak simple sentences, she decided to apply to be a teacher at the sign language class. As for her dreams of singing and music, she seems to have long since let them go.]
[She was successfully hired.]
[Another six months passed. On your way to the company, you accidentally saw a figure from behind. It looked very familiar. When you got closer, you discovered it was Ai Hayasaka.]
[Only, the current her looked destitute. She was squatting in a corner, her eyes dull and lifeless. The clothes on her body were dirty and messy. She looked in very bad shape.]
[You have a deep impression of Ai Hayasaka because you felt that the special treatment during your internship was due to her. Since you knew her identity, you had always been grateful to her in your heart, even if that special resource treatment was canceled not long after.]
[After hesitating for a long while, you greeted her.]
In a corner of the street.
Ai Hayasaka, looking down and out, was squatting there.
"Hayasaka?"
She tilted her head slightly.
When she saw Haruka, her eyes moved slightly, as if she recognized him.
"What happened to you?"
Hayasaka opened her mouth, but didn't speak. She simply lowered her head again, burying her face between her knees, not wanting Haruka to see her like this.
Seeing her in this state, Haruka's expression calmed. He walked straight over, forcibly pulled her up by the arm, and walked forward.
Aside from a struggle at the very beginning, Ai Hayasaka had absolutely no strength to resist after that.
***
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