Chapter 78: We can be happy.

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Translator: Soafp

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About two hours had passed since Sora began working on the finishing touches. She picked up a fine brush and signed her name in the lower right corner.

When she turned around, the room’s lighting cast her in a soft glow. From the shadows, Ginji took a step forward.

“Wait!”

Sora thrust her hand out in front of her. Ginji stopped in his tracks.

“…There's something I want you to see. About me and Aika.”

She stood up from the chair and placed her hand on the aluminum box sitting on the desk.

“You know, Aika and I used to be really close. After Mom disappeared… and Dad stopped coming home… I was always behind Aika. I know it's selfish, but I thought of her like a big sister. But eventually, she started getting angry at me more often, and asking me for more and more… Even so, I was okay with it.”

Her back trembled slightly.

“I wanted to support Aika—the girl everyone said was amazing—and more than anything, I wanted to say ‘thank you' to her for giving me a place where I belonged… That's why I painted this for my last middle school art competition.”

She opened the box. As she carefully pulled it out, Ginji instinctively wanted to close his eyes at the sight of the slashed painting.

What Sora held… was a portrait of Aika. Even though it had been cut with a knife, it still clearly showed admiration and pride for her cousin. Sora hugged the painting tightly and sank to her knees. With her head bowed, she spoke as if confessing.

When the painting was finally completed, after months of work, Sora showed it to Aika first. In the middle school art room, she removed the cloth in front of her, revealing the painting. Their relationship had grown strained by then, but Sora had hoped to make up through this single act. She thought it would make Aika happy.

“Aika looked at my painting and said…”

Tears fell. It hurt. She didn't really want to talk about it. She wished she could just ignore it and stay by Ginji's side. But…

“…Now I understand, you ugly child. Your mother… ran away because she was afraid of you, Sora.”

Because she didn't understand, she wanted Ginji to know—before “I” hurt him, she wanted him to know.

Sora shared her pain with Ginji.

That pain was something she would never forget. A memory from long ago, when she was so young she couldn't even speak, when both her parents had reached out to her with smiles. They had been close. She was sure of it. And yet it was her existence that tore them apart. After Aika left the art room that day, Sora grabbed a knife from the table and stabbed it into the canvas.

“I don't know why. Why is Aika so mean to me? Why did Mom leave? Why won't Dad come home? I can't ask. I don't understand… I'm scared…”

Ginji could understand, to some extent, how Aika felt. When he saw Sora's painting, it became clear. Sora's talent surpassed Aika's. And… Sora would never forget the moment Aika shone the brightest. That's what Aika feared—that one day, in the future, she'd be compared to her own past.

The accolades that once lifted her up had turned into a heavy burden. More than the gaze of others, more than the judgment of her parents, what Aika feared most was Sora's unwavering memory. One day, she would be surpassed by Sora—and crushed by her own past.

So before that future could arrive, she denied Sora's present.

She denied the painting, denied the talent, denied the appearance, denied the gender, and finally… pushed Sora away.

She tried to reject the self that feared this girl named Sora.

“Ginji…”

The rejected girl looked down and softly called the name of the one she loved. She didn't understand, she was afraid to hurt him—so she couldn't ask for help.

“Sora!”

But Ginji had heard it clearly all along.

Even now, he could hear her.

And he would answer—again and again.

He tore through the curtain of shadows, stepping confidently into the light.

Stronger than when they first met, filled with conviction, he embraced Sora.

“It's okay. We can be happy.”

With his usual bright grin—

Without hesitation, straight from the heart, he declared it.