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Chapter 255: Where the Stars Reside
🕑 Added 2025-03-31 17:18:42 +0000 UTCReading the simulated text, Minami propped his face with one hand and lightly shook his head.
Some might find this contradictory.
If Matsuzaka Satou didn't understand what "love" is, then why did she cling to him and perform so many acts that only lovers would do?
But to Minami, this was perfectly natural.
It was precisely because she didn't understand love, nor how to express it, that she did so many excessive and irrational things.
Originally, Minami had hoped that his simulated self could somehow succeed—
Help Satou attain the emotion called "love" and bring her back onto a healthy path.
But in the end—
"Still a failure, huh."
Minami sighed.
But that simulated Minami wasn't the real him, so failing was to be expected.
He didn't dwell on it and instead continued watching.
Now that the simulation had reached this point, Minami felt obligated to see it through.
Simulation continues—
[She never understood what "love" meant, nor how to express it properly.]
[These would be lifelong regrets.]
[Yet even so, being by your side brought her a warmth she had never felt.]
[And that, perhaps, was enough.]
[Time moved on—]
[As you predicted, Matsuzaka Satou's guardian did not appear at the wedding.]
[The only person connected to her who showed up was her friend, Hida Shouko.]
[Compared to the familial and social circles of your other brides...]
[She seemed lonely at the ceremony.]
[But Satou didn't mind. Surrounded by other brides for the wedding photos, her gentle smile remained unchanged.]
[You married them all—]
[The members of Kessoku band, the two girls from Lycoris, Shinjou Akane, Futaba Rio, and Matsuzaka Satou—all officially took the surname Minami.]
[Suddenly gaining such a large household, as the head of the family, the pressure was immense.]
[But for you, pressure became motivation.]
[Within two years, you grew your small business into a well-known enterprise in Tokyo.]
[With your exceptional talent and communication skills, your success in business was smooth and rapid.]
[That success extended to your personal life.]
[In these two years, except for Satou, all of your other wives became pregnant. Hitori and Ryo even gave birth to daughters last year.]
[You named them Shouji Miyuki and Shouji Yuna.]
[The growing family made the other wives a little envious.]
[The joy of motherhood was something they longed for.]
[They doted on Miyuki and Yuna.]
[Yet in this circle of affection, Satou was absent.]
[Not out of bias against the girls.]
[As a woman herself, she was deeply curious about the little ones.]
[She wanted to interact with them, hold them.]
[But in the end, she always hesitated, withdrawing her hand.]
[There was nothing physically wrong with Satou or you; the choice not to have children was hers.]
[She told you that since she didn't understand "love" or how to express it, she couldn't be a proper mother.]
[Just looking at Miyuki and Yuna reminded her of her own childhood.]
[Having lost her parents early, she couldn't comprehend emotions, let alone how to express love to a child.]
[She kept her distance from Miyuki and Yuna, not wanting to pass on her emotional void.]
[So whenever she saw Miyuki and Yuna playing with your other wives, she would quietly, enviously watch from afar.]
[Only when you personally asked Miyuki and Yuna to get close to her would she show a childlike, pure smile, gently, very cautiously, stroking their heads.]
[In daily life, she was neither as quietly reserved as Bocchi nor as loud and lively as Chisato.]
[She simply always watched you and would appear when you needed her.]
[To compensate for her regret over not having children, Satou was particularly active in your nightly intimacy, even going so far as to ask you to treat her more roughly.]
[But you never complied with such requests; instead, you cared for her in silence.]
[After all, she was one of your wives.]
[To help her with her emotional deficiencies, you specially sought out renowned psychologists, hoping they could guide her out of the shadows of her childhood.]
[But all of these efforts failed.]
[The only person she ever looked at was you.]
[And likewise, you were the only one who could influence her.]
[She remained by your side as always, obediently fulfilling your every request.]
[She often told you that just being by your side was enough to make her happy.]
[But after years together, you understood—]
[Every time she said that, her pink eyes carried an indescribable regret.]
[She wanted to love you in a way that belonged solely to her, but she could never find the right way to express that love.]
[And that, to her, was undoubtedly the cruelest thing of all.]
...
In the simulation.
Fragments of memory began to scatter.
"Minami-senpai, you shouldn't have married me."
Night had fallen.
The pink-haired girl lay in bed, murmuring almost emotionlessly.
"Still talking nonsense."
Minami looked at his wife's profile as she gazed out the window, affectionately stroking her cheek. "Weren't you the one clinging to me back then, begging to get married? Now you want to back out? Too late."
"I was too immature back then."
Shouji Satou murmured softly, "After getting married, I realized I couldn't offer you anything."
"Whether it's how I love you or how you love me… I just don't understand it."
She suddenly turned her head.
Only then did Minami notice the tear stains on her face.
Under the moonlight, the tears shimmered.
"I thought that being near you would let me do something for you. But after seeing how the others treat you… they can do so much more than I can."
Satou realized it.
Compared to herself—who didn't even know how to express love, Hitori and Ryo and the others were far more perfect.
At the very least, they could pour out their love for Minami like rushing rivers.
And for someone like her, unable to express her feelings, just watching from the sidelines was agonizing.
Minami didn't respond.
He simply wiped away her tears.
Satou turned her head away, showing only her smooth back.
Silence filled the room.
Then Minami heard her voice again.
"Maybe… it's time to let you go, Minami-senpai."
Her pink eyes looked at him, like stars shrouded by clouds, dim and pained for the first time.
Minami simply wrapped his arms around her.
"I don't agree."
He gently caressed her back. "We've been together too long. I can't live without you anymore. After making me this way, don't you dare think of running away. You think that's allowed?"
He lowered his head and pointed outside, at the night sky where two morning stars shimmered brightly.
They flickered like twin lighthouses in the dark, as if trying to synchronize with each other.
"Just like those stars, if we keep shining in our own ways, even hearts that seem distant can eventually understand each other, come closer to each other."
He softly combed her pink hair.
"Satou, just keep being yourself. One day, you'll understand how to express love—just like how I feel about you right now."
[Your gentle words in the night sky were like crushed gold sugar, seeping into her heart, forming a protective layer.]
[Under your comfort, she temporarily let go of her inner burdens.]
"Temporarily let go, huh…?"
In real life, Minami sighed and tapped on the simulation screen in front of him.
Originally, Matsuzaka Satou already had significant psychological issues.
Now it seemed that his interactions with the girls might have even worsened her condition.
After all...
"In that kind of environment, where everyone else is living happily and she alone feels like an outsider... like she doesn't belong—that would obviously intensify her mental distress, right?"
He continued reading.
[Time is impartial and merciless. It does not extend for those in joy, nor shorten for those in pain.]
[Another two years passed.]
[Apart from Bocchi and Ryo, your other wives also gave birth to daughters, who soon reached the age of toddling around.]
[Only Satou, still burdened by uncertainty about the future, had yet to bear children with you.]
[She envied how the others expressed their love for you.]
[And she hated her own confusion and helplessness.]
[Her heart was a tangled mess, pulling at emotions of depression and overwhelming pressure.]
[Under this strain from both within and without, Satou's condition worsened day by day, until she eventually collapsed.]
[It wasn't a major illness.]
[But treating a psychological illness is far more complex than a physical one.]
[Though she soon recovered and was discharged, her complexion grew paler by the day.]
[You tried to improve her mental state, even moving away with her for rest and recuperation away from the children, but it was no use.]
[She was, in truth, slowly fading away.]
"Minami-senpai... did you ever love me?"
"I did. I still do."
Minami gently stroked Satou's cheek as she lay in bed.
"Really...? I'm sorry, Minami-senpai..."
She blinked her pink eyes, reaching out to touch Minami's face. "I really am too stupid… I never understood your love. But—"
Her gaze shifted to the empty ceiling.
She smiled softly, as always: "Mhm. If Minami-senpai says so… then it must be true, that you love me very much."
Leaning on her sickbed, she murmured: "Do you remember what you told me about those two stars, Minami-senpai?"
"Yes. Of course I remember."
[She told you—after you spoke about how two stars could come closer by shining at the same frequency, she had secretly gone to look for those stars.]
[They weren't stars. Just two lamps at a guesthouse.]
[From afar, they looked like stars in the night sky.]
[They were two parallel lights—no matter how much they moved, how hard they tried, they could never cross the parallel distance between them.]
[But she never told you that.]
[Because she never understood how to love someone, nor how others might express their love for her.]
[Yet just hearing your words made her believe unconditionally.]
[She believed that the stars you spoke of truly existed.]
[That if they kept shining at the same frequency, someday—even two different hearts could draw closer.]
[She thought... maybe that feeling, too, was a form of love.]
[Matsuzaka Satou passed away one month after her 46th birthday.]
[You had been by her side for five years.]
[It was a day in early Tokyo winter, when the sudden cold finally took her already weak body.]
[In her final moments, did she ever understand what love meant?]
[You don't know.]
[Only that sometimes, when you look up, you see a lone red star shining softly in the night sky.]
[A lonely red star, shining gently—as if searching for a star whose frequency matches her own.]
[Simulation End]
