Having readjusted his mental state, Aqua Hoshino lifted his foot, preparing to step out of the rest room.
But before he could even take that step outward, a voice came drifting in from behind him first.
“Hold on a moment, Aqua Hoshino.”
“Ugh—”
The habitually cold-tempered Aqua Hoshino, for once, let out an odd-sounding noise.
But there was really nothing to be done about it.
Through that exchange he’d just had with Minami Yuji, it had become genuinely impossible for him to hold up his usual indifferent, cold-shouldered facade.
It was just like a child who had only just been scolded by an adult.
Terrified that some careless little movement of his would draw another scolding from the other party — and the crucial thing was, that other party also happened to be devastatingly correct…
That was exactly the kind of mental state Aqua Hoshino was in right now.
He swallowed nervously, and couldn’t help subconsciously running back over what he had just been doing.
Wasn’t he just…
standing up, then getting ready to walk out the door?
Surely it couldn’t have been him stepping through the door left foot first that had set Minami Yuji off, right?
It shouldn’t be that, right?
“Is there something else…”
Aqua Hoshino drew in a deep breath, forced himself to brace mentally, then turned his head sideways to ask.
But very quickly, that question got stuck right there at the edge of his throat.
Because there was no blame, no scolding at all.
The Minami Yuji in front of him had merely lowered his own body slightly while at the same time reaching out a hand.
“What are you doing?”
He couldn’t help asking.
“Are you planning on going to see Miyako with that face?” Minami Yuji didn’t say anything more — he just casually pointed at the full-length, body-height mirror set up beside the rest room.
“Eh?”
Aqua Hoshino froze for a moment.
He reflexively turned his head to the side.
Only now did Aqua Hoshino realize that the marks left on his face were an absolute, complete mess.
Setting aside, for now, the dappled tear tracks all over that cute, childish face of his.
His clothes were also wrinkled and creased all over, and his collar was in complete disarray — calling this miserable appearance ‘unfit to look at’ wouldn’t even be an exaggeration.
Only at this point did he understand that Minami Yuji calling out to stop him hadn’t actually been to take him to task at all.
He turned his gaze back around.
Minami Yuji had already extended his palm.
Very seriously, very meticulously, he wiped the marks clean off Aqua’s face — while at the same time, bit by bit, straightening out the collar and the wrinkles in his clothes.
“…” Aqua Hoshino.
Honestly speaking, as an adult himself, watching the other party perform these kinds of motions — as if caring for a genuine small child — left him feeling a touch embarrassed too.
But…
If you looked carefully, Minami Yuji’s calm expression seemed to carry a certain kind of magic to it.
Under Aqua Hoshino’s hazy, indistinct gaze, that expression…
seemed to overlap with the expression of his late mother…
Ai Hoshino.
For just an instant, the originally still-uncomfortable Aqua Hoshino went suddenly quiet — in this very moment, he actually felt as though he didn’t want to disturb the other party.
And on the other side—
Minami Yuji, having tidied away every last trace, let out a small breath — finally got him cleaned up.
He didn’t have nearly as many thoughts swirling around as Aqua Hoshino did.
He simply thought that Aqua Hoshino was, after all, the foster son of his own top superior, Saito Miyako.
If he let Saito Miyako catch sight of Aqua Hoshino weeping like ‘pear blossoms in the rain’ and on top of that looking visibly like he’d been beaten up…
then he’d probably get a great big hat slapped onto his head right there on the spot — the ‘likes to bully fellow koyaku on the filming set’ label.
That wouldn’t do at all.
The reason a reliable adult was reliable was precisely that he didn’t let slip a single detail that needed checking on.
He carefully swept his eyes over Aqua Hoshino’s face.
Handsome and adorable; though his forehead was a touch red, it was covered up by his bangs — so it shouldn’t show.
Apart from his eye sockets still being a bit swollen, he was basically the same as usual!
Good!
Minami Yuji nodded in satisfaction, lowered the hand that had been arranging Aqua’s bangs, stood back up again, and prepared to fully wrap up this heart-to-heart meeting with Aqua Hoshino.
Then…
He heard, coming from behind him, Aqua Hoshino’s hesitant voice.
“Minami Yu…”
The voice paused for a moment, but very quickly grew firm.
“No…
can I call you Yuji-nii?”
“Hm?”
Hearing this, Minami Yuji turned his head back in surprise.
The Aqua Hoshino behind him was looking at him with utter seriousness.
Although the gaze hidden beneath that golden hair was awkward and ill-at-ease, he was nevertheless making a real effort to lift his head and lay his expression fully bare.
“Why so suddenly?”
Minami Yuji stopped in his tracks.
There were, in fact, no shortage of Japanese words that could convey the meaning of ‘older brother,’ but what Aqua Hoshino was using here was the half-nickname, pet-name variety — one that carried both a strong intimacy and a strong respect.
“I can’t really explain it either…”
Aqua Hoshino pressed his lips together.
“If I had to put it into words, I think…
Yuji-nii…
your life experience from your past life is probably a fair amount richer than mine.”
He unconsciously slipped into honorific speech.
And on top of that—
Aqua Hoshino drew in a deep breath and put his thoughts into words.
“Didn’t you say it earlier, Yuji-nii?
To pay attention to the thoughts and feelings of the people around me.
I think — changing how I address you — this is my first step toward changing.”
Honestly speaking, being already at not-a-young-man’s age, saying these kinds of things did make Aqua Hoshino feel a little embarrassed.
But he felt he absolutely had to say them.
He absolutely had to convey his thoughts to the person standing in front of him.
And besides…
“From any angle you look at it, I’ve received all kinds of care from you — addressing a senior in life this way should be no problem, right?”
“…” Minami Yuji.
Silence.
A long, drawn-out silence.
In all of Aqua Hoshino’s life, there had never been a moment quite like the present where time felt as though it were stretching out so long.
His heart was thumping like a drum — a kind of inexplicable tension welling up inside.
He had to admit — human beings really were a curious sort of creature.
Even though he knew perfectly well that there was a high probability Minami Yuji wouldn’t refuse his proposal, the tension in his heart still couldn’t be suppressed.
And it was precisely at this moment, while he was sitting there uneasy—
—Minami Yuji’s voice suddenly rang out.
“Whatever you like.”
Aqua Hoshino’s pupils gave a slight tremor.
The result was obvious.
But the joy in his chest still, in this very moment, came welling out in a way impossible to disguise.
He forced himself to steady this surging emotion, and those sea-blue, jewel-like pupils of his turned toward Minami Yuji, carefully opening his mouth to speak.
“Yuji…
nii…”
“Mm.” Minami Yuji responded, then nodded.
“After all, going by age, I really am older than you…”
After saying that line—
—his hand, too, extended outward under Aqua Hoshino’s watchful gaze.
“Please look after me from here on at [Ichigo Pro], Aqua.” Get faster updates on g.com.
“…Mm!”
He, too, extended a hand.
Gone was the needle-against-thorn confrontation from earlier.
Aqua Hoshino wiped at his eye sockets.
Then.
He took the initiative to grip the other party’s palm.
…
The time arrived at a bit past three in the afternoon.
Since the scenes that had to be shot here were already done, “The Uninhabitable House” props crew was already in the middle of packing up the set.
Aqua Hoshino, having stepped out of the rest room, looked up at the deep blue summer sky overhead, and for a moment actually went somewhat lost in his thoughts.
Although it had only been a single, short morning spent with Minami Yuji—
—for some reason, his state of mind carried an illusion as though several years had passed.
He adjusted his mental state a little.
Aqua Hoshino walked outward, his thoughts replaying the exchange he’d just had with Minami Yuji.
Yes.
Just a moment ago, when he had been about to leave the rest room, Minami Yuji had specifically called out to stop him.
“Aqua, when you head out in a bit, make sure to take a look at the expressions on Miyako’s and Director Gotanda’s faces, got it?”
“Expressions?
Why…?” Aqua Hoshino, not quite understanding, turned his gaze over.
But all Minami Yuji gave him in response was a gentle wave of his hand.
“You’ll get to see something quite interesting.”
Time returns to the present.
“Something quite interesting…?”
Aqua Hoshino quietly muttered that line under his breath, then lifted his face and scanned all around, searching for the figures of Saito Miyako and Gotanda Taishi.
The props crew was packing things up.
The camera crew was calibrating and checking the equipment.
The actress, too, was in the middle of removing her makeup.
During a stretch of time as cluttered and bustling as that on a filming set, finding two specific people should, by rights, have been a rather difficult task.
But Aqua Hoshino did find them.
And on top of that, he located these two people extremely quickly.
The reason was actually very simple.
Because these two people, mixed in among the crowd, had in fact been secretly observing him this whole time.
Saito Miyako would carefully lift her head, then lower it again — her gaze full of concern, and tinged with a touch of guilt.
Gotanda Taishi, in the spaces between his puffs of smoke, would pretend casualness and shoot a couple of glances his way.
But however they did it—
—those two of them had, all this time, been caring about him in their different ways.
Ahh…
Aqua Hoshino closed his eyes.
Only now did he understand exactly what Minami Yuji’s line about ‘you’ll discover something interesting’ really meant.
So…
had he really been that stupid all this time?
The people right beside him had been paying attention to him this whole time, had been caring about him this whole time…
and yet he himself had turned a blind eye, sunk deep inside his own world.
Thinking up to this point, he drew in a heavy breath and turned around.
Facing the rest room where Minami Yuji was.
Deeply, with all his strength…
He bowed.
This was, for him, the very first time — apart from Ai — that he had ever respected another person this profoundly.
____
👻🔥Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Arknights Endfield: