Episode 104: “Because I Wanted to Take So Many Pictures of You, Yui-san”
The next morning.
I woke to Yui-san shaking my shoulder — someone who normally never wakes before me.
“Kanata, morning. It’s already morning.”
Her voice carried that special kind of sweetness reserved only for a lover, and the sensation of her soft lips pressed against my forehead had me slowly cracking my eyes open.
Blinking a few times, I brought Yui-san, looking down at me, into focus.
She was smiling, caught in my sight — yesterday’s anxiety gone as if it had never existed, not a single cloud left on her expression.
Rubbing my eyes, I headed to the living room to find breakfast already laid out on the dining table.
I’d wanted to be the one to prepare it, on a day like today of all days, but I was a step too late — I noted the failure to myself.
We sat facing each other, said “itadakimasu,” and ate. Gentle spring sunlight filtered softly through the lace curtains.
“Oh, by the way, Kanata, your birthday’s coming up soon, isn’t it. Is there anything you want this year?”
I glanced up at Yui-san across from me as I bit into freshly toasted bread soaked through with butter.
As always, Yui-san shifts gears fast and clean. Smiling brightly, she’d fully returned to her usual self, as if yesterday’s shadow had never touched her.
Yui-san yesterday, fragile and vulnerable, had been so endearing too, but still — I always want you smiling, no matter what.
I swallowed my bite of bread and looked at her.
“…There is, actually, this year. There’s something I happened to want, just yesterday.”
“Oh, really? What is it?”
“I want a camera.”
“A camera?”
“Yeah. Because when we go traveling together, I thought I’d want to take so many pictures of you, Yui-san.”
I wanted to capture and hold onto so much of our everyday life going forward. And fill this living room with photos, packed with more memories than I could ever count.
“I see, a camera, huh. That’s nice — sounds like it could turn into a wonderful hobby.”
Yui-san said it, smiling happily.
I wanted to capture that gentle look in her eyes, the one fixed on me, inside a photograph.
Whether a total amateur like me could actually handle a camera well was a problem for after she’d bought me one.
*
I saw Yui-san off at the door, dressed in a suit without a single wrinkle.
Today, with the presidents’ meeting, Yui-san would be heading straight to the parent company’s building, so I wouldn’t be going with her.
But strangely, my heart felt calm. Because I could see, in her eyes, that there was no hesitation left in her anymore.
“I’ll be late today… so go on home ahead of me, and wait for me there.”
Yui-san said it as she put on her shoes. I nodded firmly, yes.
“Well then, I’m off.”
“Okay… have a good day, Yui-san.”
No more words were needed beyond that.
Just, layering our feelings together, we pressed our lips together with all the affection we held.
We kissed, just touching, much longer than usual.
*
A little after Yui-san, I left the house too.
Getting off at the station nearest the office, I walked my commute route with a light, sunny feeling in my chest.
The green leaves of the roadside trees swayed and shimmered in the soft spring breeze.
It had been nearly a year now since I started working at Yui-san’s company. So much had happened, truly. If I tried to list it all, there’d be no end to it.
Who could have possibly imagined a reunion that felt like nothing short of some divine mischief?
No one can know what the future holds.
But even in the middle of whatever hardship we faced, just being there, close beside each other, had always, always made us happy.
So it would be fine. Tonight, surely, Yui-san would come home smiling.
I’d wait for her at that house. And when she came home, I decided, today I’d hold her as tightly as I possibly could.
The president’s office, empty of anyone. I traced my fingertip gently along Yui-san’s desk.
The presidents’ meeting would start at ten. After that, Yui-san had the dinner planned — just the three of them, with her father and Yukiya-san.
With it being the day all the Group’s subsidiary presidents gathered together, today of all days should have been a quiet one.
Naturally, I had nothing scheduled, so there was no reason for anyone to come by here.
Every employee in the company knew today was “the presidents’ meeting” day, so there was no reason for this room’s extension line to ring either.
And yet, when the familiar ringtone suddenly sounded, I looked up with a start.
The red light on the landline blinked, flashing.
I understood immediately what that extension meant. Swallowing hard, I quietly picked up the receiver at my own desk.
“…Hello, this is Aozawa, secretary.”
If there was one person today who might have business coming here — there was surely only one person it could be.
*
When I went out to the reception desk, he was waiting for me, his eyes bloodshot red, sweat beading on his forehead.
Wada-san at the front desk kept glancing anxiously between the two of us, clearly at a loss.
I looked straight at Kitagami-san. His expression was desperate, with no composure left in him at all — his hair disheveled, as if he’d rushed here.
The mask that always sat fixed on his face had already peeled away, leaving no trace of it.
“Kitagami-san, thank you for your continued patronage. The president is out of the office today.”
I recited the line like a stock phrase. He spat back, “I know that already.”
“I’m not here for Yui. I’m here for you. We need to talk.”
“I see. I’m terribly sorry, but my schedule happens to be full today, so I’d ask that you take your leave for now.”
I said it flatly, and Kitagami-san’s eyes narrowed into a glare, sharp with anger.
I have no reason to talk with you. And besides, the presidents’ meeting should already be underway. Once that’s started, there’s nothing more he can do.
The gears had already begun turning.
Kitagami-san is Yui-san’s father’s right-hand man. Maybe — maybe he’d heard from Yui-san’s father today that she was going to dinner with him and Yukiya-san.
That must be why he’d come rushing here, to find me.
“This won’t take long. It has to be today. It’s important.”
He grabbed my arm forcefully and yanked my body toward him. Pulled hard by his large hand, my body swayed unsteadily.
He’s being awfully forceful, I thought, frowning.
I glanced over at Wada-san, still looking troubled.
Watching him, Kitagami-san seemed genuinely furious — arguing with him here probably wasn’t the wisest move. Thinking that, I had no choice but to let him pull me along, following him in silence.
I wondered where he was taking me, only to be shoved into the landing of the emergency stairwell — I let out a sigh.
I hadn’t intended to sit down and have a proper conversation anyway, so in a way, this suited the situation just fine.
“…Kitagami-san, that hurts.”
At that, he released my arm, shoving it away roughly. I gently rubbed my upper arm, where the sensation of his grip still lingered.
“I heard it from President Ichinose. That you two are inviting him and Yukiya to dinner after the presidents’ meeting. You’re planning to tell him today. Aren’t you?”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Don’t play dumb. Stop Yui, right now. Do you even understand what the two of you are about to do!?”
He shouted it, veins bulging on his forehead, and I instinctively took a step back. My heel touched the edge of the stairs.
Since almost no one ever uses the emergency stairwell, the fact that he was shouting this loudly here at all told me just how desperate Kitagami-san really was.
“…Yui admitted it, that day. Admitted the relationship with you. She said she’d pay whatever amount in compensation I named. In exchange, she made it very clear I was never to have anything to do with you again.”
That day — he meant Valentine’s Day.
Then why are you here right now, I wanted to say, but I bit my lip and held it back. There was no point arguing with someone whose blood had already rushed to his head.
“But I won’t accept that. Running a company isn’t some children’s game. If your father weren’t President Ichinose’s close friend, I’d have already sued you.”
I looked, coldly, at his dark brown eyes, clouded with anger.
“Still — if you absolutely refuse to step aside, then… let’s call it a trade.”
“A trade?”
“…I could be your cover. That would settle everything neatly. There’d be no need to go out of your way to tell President Ichinose about the two of you at all.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“I mean I’ll turn a blind eye to your relationship. On one condition: I marry Yui. That’s the deal. That’s the one thing I won’t budge on.”
I remembered what Yukiya-san had said.
This man can’t believe in his own effort, and just keeps trying to be the person his father wants him to be. He has no self of his own. He had no choice but to become like a puppet — a pitiable person.
“…Are you really all right with that, Kitagami-san? Living a life where none of your own effort is ever acknowledged, just running along the tracks laid out for you?”
His face twisted, as if I’d struck him. I’d said it knowing full well it was the one thing he didn’t want to hear. But I couldn’t stop myself from saying it.
“Don’t you actually already realize that too, Kitagami-san? That nothing you say will change anything now. If you want to sue me, go right ahead. I’m prepared to accept whatever punishment comes, if it means being with Yui-san.”
“…I see. So you have no intention of accepting the terms.”
I could see his clenched fist trembling with fury. Being loomed over by a man so much larger than me, I won’t pretend some instinctive fear didn’t flicker in me — but I just kept looking at him in silence, saying nothing.
With fingers trembling in anger, he pulled a white envelope out from inside his jacket. He held it out to me without a word.
“…What is this?”
I took it and opened the envelope. Inside were — several photographs. I froze in shock at first glance.
They showed me and Yui-san.
A photo of us walking hand in hand, gazing at illumination lights. A photo of us laughing together over dinner at a hotel.
Every single one showed the two of us gazing at each other, unmistakably conveying that this was no ordinary relationship.
These were — from Christmas…
“…Consider this the final notice. If you have no intention of stopping Yui, that’s fine too. I don’t know how President Ichinose will judge it, but if I don’t get an answer I can accept, I have no intention of quietly stepping back. I’ll expose your relationship with Yui. This isn’t a threat.”
His voice, low and crawling along the ground, made me lift my face from the photos.
I caught my breath at the sticky, persistent gaze, like some venomous snake. A wave of suffocating dread and revulsion crept up from my feet, like something slowly coiling around me, tightening.
“Now that my engagement to her is public knowledge, do you understand what happens if your relationship comes to light too…? You might be fine. You could just quit this company and be done with it. But what about Yui, standing in the line of fire? Infidelity with her female secretary, while engaged. A massive scandal. It’ll cause an uproar, obviously.”
My breathing grew shallow.
Kitagami-san was serious. I couldn’t decide, in the moment, what I should do. I felt cold sweat trickle down my back.
Should I contact Yui-san first? But she was in the meeting. Should I try Yukiya-san instead?
But what would stopping Yui-san right now even accomplish? Yes, Kitagami-san had leverage over me now — but was I supposed to just keep obeying him, threatened, forever?
“All you have to do is tell Yui to marry me. Then everything goes back to how it was, and you two can go on living as if none of this ever happened.”
No. I couldn’t do it — I couldn’t possibly stand by and watch Kitagami-san and Yui-san get married. There was no way.
I could never accept the terms Kitagami-san was laying out. Absolutely not. Never—!
Kitagami-san let out a mocking laugh at me, standing there stunned.
“…I can’t accept those terms. There’s no way I could.”
“…Then there’s only one thing left for me to do.”
He turned to walk away. Could I really just let Kitagami-san leave like this? No. I had to stop him.
“Kitagami-san, please wait—”
I grabbed his arm in a panic, and he shook it off. The force of it threw off my balance, and I stumbled backward. Reeling, the foot I’d stepped back with — failed to find the floor, cutting through empty air.
Oh, I thought, and in that instant my vision tilted sideways. Only then did it come back to me — that I’d been standing right at the edge of the stairs.
The scene slowed, like watching it in slow motion. I saw Kitagami-san’s eyes go wide with shock. He reached out for me instinctively, but it was too late.
My body plunged straight down, headfirst.
Not understanding what was happening, I felt a sharp impact against my body — and then my consciousness cut off, abruptly, right there.