Haha.
The truth was, the pressure Soyo put on her was truly enormous.
After gritting her teeth and dealing with her for two days, she was really about to fall apart.
Not being able to share the utterly familiar everyday life with the very person she knew inside and out...
It was like exiling Chiose into the desert and making her stare at a bottle of mineral water without ever letting her drink.
And the more tormenting part was that she still couldn't openly accept the other girl's heavy feelings.
Years of the Simulation had built many habits into Noshiro Chiose... and among them was caution.
Reason told Chiose that Soyo's affection came from an unknown source, and that The System's words might be half true, half false.
But emotion was strangling reason every single moment.
She wanted to spend their youthful everyday days properly with Soyo.
She wanted it so badly...
She, Noshiro Chiose, had only twenty-some years left to live; if the Simulation suddenly vanished, she really wouldn't survive past forty.
Chiose knew she had a duty to live each day as if it were the last of her life.
That was exactly why it hurt all the more.
What she needed was a youthful everyday life! Not scheming and deceit, not clinging to a cautious, wretched survival.
If she didn't break through this strange barrier between herself and Soyo soon... Chiose was going to suffocate.
Especially today, Taki and Tomori's arrival had made Chiose realize even more clearly that this was the life she wanted.
Enjoying every second of sunlight together with a whole crowd of girls was one of the very things that kept her, Noshiro Chiose, alive.
Chiose had to admit she was truly lucky.
Because Nagasaki Soyo happened to fall for exactly this sort of thing.
[Faced with my heavy words, an address nearly as heavy as yours that day... Nagasaki Soyo, your choice is!]
"Sure... friends for a lifetime... I want to be friends with Little Chiose for a whole lifetime..."
[Hooked.]
[Just as I thought, Soyo. I really am the one who understands you best in this world.]
[This time, 'a lifetime' won't be short. It won't be.]
Chiose smiled, unburdened, the golden rings in her pupils shining strangely bright in the dim room.
That was how it was.
That evening, the Noshiro residence never turned on a single light.
"Tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther... And one fine morning—"
"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
The image on the television faded gradually, until at the end only the title remained against a white screen.
"The Great Gatsby."
The white light shone on the faces of Chiose, Soyo, and Kyoumoto, laying bare Nagasaki Soyo, who had cried her face into a blotchy mess.
Ah, what a familiar scene. Hadn't she been through this with someone else before, too?
Chiose tilted her head. She knew the answer to that question.
It was that adorable girl with the tear mole.
"So, little Soyo, Little Kyoumoto! Chiose's taste in movies is pretty great, isn't it?"
Kyoumoto couldn't see the screen, so Chiose would narrate it aloud for her.
Some feelings were hard to grasp, so Chiose would help Kyoumoto parse them with dark humor and hellish jokes.
They often watched films together, and every time they finished a good one, Chiose would end up parched.
"It was wonderful. Little Chiose has good taste."
Soyo—
She didn't even dare imagine the situation she was in now.
After the dining-table talk ended, the two of them had chatted a great deal, deepening their understanding of each other enormously.
Their relationship was getting better! Soyo was more than happy to see such a change.
That experience of truly melting into another person's world couldn't have been more blissful.
While Soyo was still immersed in the feelings the film had stirred and the warmth Little Chiose had given her, Noshiro Chiose spoke.
"Little Soyo, shouldn't you go check on Nagasaki-nee... your mother, I mean? She must be so lonely, all by herself in the hospital."
"Ah... I..."
When did my mom get admitted to the hospital?
Soyo froze for a moment.
Uh, no—right, it really was a lie she'd blurted out that day, her head all muddled, leaning on her earth-shattering wit.
"I'm just saying... making friends may be a novelty for little Soyo, but please, do pay a little more attention to your own family."
Chiose didn't look at Soyo; holding Kyoumoto, she stared straight ahead at the television screen.
The screen was rolling the credits now, a long string of names dizzying to look at.
"But Chiose—"
But Chiose is my family.
"It's different, Soyo, it's different. I know what you want to say, and I'm grateful for your feelings. I like you too, my new friend. But... please, take good care of your parents. They're the ones in the whole world who long to see you most. Friends and all that—"
"—can wait a while. I'm not going to run off anyway, and Taki and Tomori will be waiting somewhere you can see them too. To all of us, Soyo is a friend who will never be cast aside."
"Eh? ...Yeah."
"Off you go now, Soyo. I've taken you in for two whole days; your mood should be all set right by now."
In any case, Noshiro Chiose's own mood had been set right.
She had returned to that former state of a [person without pressure].
"Then... can I come stay over at Little Chiose's house again sometime? I... I really love this feeling, but growing up, no one ever let me do this."
"Sure, why not. Kyoumoto and I don't have parents, and the relative who was supposed to be our guardian ran off, too."
Noshiro Chiose propped both hands behind her head, her tone flat and offhand, as if she were recounting some trivial little thing.
"Little Chiose's family... I'm sorry."
"It's no big deal. Life still has to go on, doesn't it—just like Gatsby in the movie."
Chiose pointed at the darkened television, and at that moment Kyoumoto beat her to the answer.
"I know, I know! Even though that idiot protagonist lost his best friend, he keeps living on, carrying the other's will and spirit... Is that what Sis wants to say?"
"That's right, that's right. As expected of my very own little sister, Noshiro Chiose's kin—clever and quick-witted."
The sisters' back-and-forth was so heartwarming, and Soyo envied it.
But she already understood what she needed to do now.
"I've been such a bother to Chiose these two days. Thank you for helping me put myself back together."
Nagasaki Soyo rose to her feet and bowed deeply.
"Hahaha, little Soyo, I thought you were about to~ drop to your knees. Honestly, all that bowing nearly triggered a stress reaction in me."
Her own high stress might well have had something to do with certain forceful measures of Soyo's... though putting it that way sounded like passing the blame.
Chiose saw Soyo out the door, and as they parted she gave her a brief hug.
"Then... can I come find you again on Monday? Chiose... I want to... with you..."
Live together.
"All of that's fine. But little Soyo, remember to bring some groceries—my fridge is completely empty."
"Okay!"
Soyo had taken barely a few steps when she hurried to turn back around:
"Oh, right! No vegetarian food, no poultry! Bye now."
"Bye."
Happy weekend, my brown-haired, blue-eyed girl.
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