I have a life simulator.

Only then could the girl lean against the blue chair in the lobby and catch her breath. Her eyelids drooped as if weighed down by a thousand-pound weight, her lips were slightly pale, and her shirt, which was first soaked with sweat and then evaporated by the air conditioner, clung to her body with a sticky feel. Ichinose Honami stood up unsteadily, preparing to go home and have Maki come and take care of her mother for a while. She needed a hot bath and a good night's sleep.

Forced to stay awake, Honami Ichinose returned home and explained the situation to Maki Ichinose, who had just woken up and was unaware of what had happened. She also told Maki the location of her mother's hospital room. Only after seeing Maki hurriedly leave for the hospital did Honami breathe a sigh of relief, rub her temples, and feel a wet, slippery sensation on her fingertips.

On the living room table sat a small cake, the size requested by Honami Ichinose herself. Because it was too small, only three candles were stuck on it.

"Take a shower first, then go to sleep."

She walked into the bathroom, talking to herself.

"Wow—"

Hot water poured down from the showerhead, flowing from the girl's hair down her body to her toes. The obvious temperature difference made her shiver. She quickly rinsed herself off, and just as she was about to wash her hair, she discovered that the shampoo on the shelf was empty. She shook it repeatedly, but in the end, only a little bit remained in her palm.

"Phew, forget it."

The half-mirror on the washstand was blurred by the steam, and Honami Ichinose reached out and wiped it, leaving a noticeable bright mark that reflected her snow-white neck.

Honami Ichinose wiped away the water vapor from the mirror little by little, and her features in the mirror began to become clearer.

She reached out and gently touched her reflection.

"It's okay, it will get better."

The words of comfort she had used to comfort others seemed to have little effect on her own, and she saw a bitter smile on her face when she looked in the mirror.

The glass felt cool to the touch, a sensation that made her feel somewhat comfortable, so she rested her forehead against it.

A slight chill stimulated the skin pressed against the mirror, and Honami Ichinose closed her eyes.

Her fair, smooth breasts were pushed out in a mesmerizing way, and her hot, moist breath created a new mist on the mirror.

"Growing up..."

Honami Ichinose lowered her eyes and muttered to herself.

After getting dressed, I walked out of the bathroom and went straight into the bedroom. I buried myself in the blankets, feeling extremely exhausted, but I just couldn't fall asleep.

Go sleep in his room.

Once such a thought appeared in her mind, it swept over her body like a flood breaking through a dam. Ichinose Honami, carrying a quilt, opened the door to Kitagawa Ryo's former home.

Sure enough, just lying here brings peace of mind.

"Birthday, the day your mother suffered?"

Kitagawa Ryo's words inexplicably popped into her mind. Ichinose Honami struggled to get up and walked into her living room, where she found the cake on the table with a dazed look in her eyes.

The lighter for lighting the candles was placed nearby. She took the cake and the lighter back to Kitagawa Ryo's room, where she sat down and lit the three candles.

"Next, it's time to make a wish, right?"

"I hope...my mother gets better soon."

She groggily blew on the three flickering flames in her field of vision.

........................

I don't know how long I slept, but when I opened my phone with my eyes half open, there were about ten missed calls and unread messages, all from one person.

"Hey, it's cold."

She didn't even bother to look at it; it would be more convenient to just call and say so. Despite her somewhat unstable mental state, Ichinose Honami still made this decision.

"Hanbo?"

A familiar voice came from the other end of the receiver.

What will he say? Inquire about his mother's condition? Show concern for my current situation? Or perhaps give me a birthday gift?

“I’m right at your doorstep.”

The voice on the other end refuted all of Ichinose Honami's assumptions; it was not a question but a short statement.

"Eh?"

After a moment or two of subconscious hesitation, Ichinose Honami stammered her reply:

"I'll open the door for you now."

Standing outside the door, Kitagawa Ryo held a black umbrella in his left hand. Ichinose Honami didn't know when he had arrived; if you counted from the time the first phone call came, he seemed to have been hesitating in front of the door for quite a while.

"You forgot to take your umbrella the night before last, and you didn't pick it up yesterday either, so I brought it back to you."

Kitagawa Ryo raised her eyes, and Ichinose Honami, neatly dressed in pink pajamas, presented a completely different and beautiful sight.

Her body and personality are approaching the future her mother envisioned, but the rest of her remains detachedly in the past.

"Are you feeling unwell?"

Noticing the unnatural flush on Ichinose Honami's face, Kitagawa Ryo reached out his hand, but then put it down again, as he could already feel the heat and moisture emanating from the other person.

"Aren't you coming in?"

Honami Ichinose did not answer Ryo Kitagawa's question; she seemed fixated on why he was still standing at the door without taking off his shoes to come in.

"Does this mean they want me to leave?"

She swayed as if she really was about to step outside in her slippers.

"Uh, okay."

Kitagawa Ryo felt that Ichinose Honami was acting strangely today. He had just changed his shoes and stepped into Ichinose's house when, in the next second, Ichinose Honami pressed his body against the door. The girl's fully developed body came close, her chest resting on his chest, her toes slightly raised, her slender and graceful body like a fully drawn bow at this moment, her arms outstretched and wrapped around his ribs, embracing him from behind.

The scorching breath was pressing against Kitagawa Ryo's chest.

"Hanbo?"

Despite it being an extremely suggestive position, Kitagawa Ryo's first reaction was a strange sense of panic. He looked down and met Ichinose Honami's moist eyes. The sight of her azure pupils shimmering with moisture almost made him lose his composure.

Honami Ichinose learned to put her mother at a young age, so her cries were always silent.

Tears fell drop by drop, like pearls from a broken string, one by one, down her cheeks, wetting Kitagawa Ryo's clothes.

Some people cry out of fear, some out of sadness, and some out of joy.

Crying is always given all sorts of meanings.

But right now she's just crying, silently, quietly shedding tears.

Perhaps it is only now that Honami Ichinose realizes that even though she is already sixteen years old, she is still just a child who has not yet reached adulthood. It's just that she never wanted to see herself as a child before, so she forgot that she was still a child. Since she has already cried, she might as well cry more heartily and be a child again more thoroughly.

Now, only she and Kitagawa Ryo are in this house.

Then Ichinose Honami began to narrate intermittently. She was like a devout believer entering a church, facing a kind priest in the warm firelight, laying out all her feelings and thoughts in great detail, indulging in all the repressed details of hatred and love, and holding them in her hands for him to see.

She said she really liked Hotaru, and she was especially grateful to Kitagawa Ryo for taking Hotaru home after she was there.

She said she liked him a lot, but in fact, she wrote "I like you" on every origami crane she folded for him when she was twelve years old.

The fire flickered.

Beside the sleeping girl, the burning candle was shedding tears drop by drop until its bottom could no longer bear the weight, and half of the candle stub rolled to the side.

Over there are paper cranes, one after another.

Let's offer a bounty.

First of all, it should be noted that this book has an outline. Regarding the main plot that has been mentioned in the book review section, the author has definitely prepared it. The main plot will most likely start around 200,000 words. The purpose of the simulator is to let the protagonist understand the character's backstory and provide cheat codes. Most Classroom of the First Class fanfiction starts from the entrance of the class. This book is written this way because I am interested in the things that happened to many characters before they entered the class.

However, since everyone has been urging me to make progress, and the author does have some free time to write during the May Day holiday, let's start a bounty.

Starting from midnight today, I will add one 4,000-word chapter for every 400 recommendation votes, 40 monthly votes, and 4,000 rewards, up to a maximum of ten chapters. This is my limit.

Finally, thank you again for reading. Please leave any suggestions in the book review section.

Chapter Twenty-One: Fireworks Fade Easily (The End)

"Around 5 p.m. on July 20, a fire broke out on the fourth floor of a four-story apartment building in Nakano Ward, Taipei. Fortunately, the apartment had been vacant for a year, so there was little flammable material. Firefighters arrived promptly and extinguished the fire using high-pressure water cannons and fire extinguishing bombs. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. One person sustained minor injuries and has been taken to the hospital for treatment."

Karuizawa Kei picked up the remote and turned off the TV. Before that, she had been sitting motionless on the sofa for thirty minutes. If it weren't for this action, one would almost think she was a silent statue sitting in a temple. But unlike those clay-sculpted and gilded bodhisattvas, the gaze she cast at the person opposite her was colder and fiercer than that of a demon. This coldness was like a wall between her and Ichinose Honami.

Why did you light candles in his empty room when he wasn't living there?

Karuizawa Kei's words struck Ichinose Honami like an axe, causing sparks of memories to crackle and pop. The most distant and the most recent memories rushed in from the well in her heart, and the boy who broke down the door and the origami cranes burning in the fire crashed into her mind.

"none of your business?"

Honami Ichinose was inexplicably annoyed by Karuizawa's anger. She stared at Karuizawa's face, chuckled, and repeated her words:

"What's it to you?"

As soon as her tone became serious, she seemed to come back to life. No matter how friendly Ichinose Honami was, she was still the student council president of the school, and naturally had a leader's aura.

Karuizawa Kei had previously been afraid of this kind of lifestyle, mainly because the female leaders could control the public opinion of an entire class. She had already suffered from these people during her two years of junior high school, so when Ichinose Honami's expression turned cold, she became somewhat afraid.

“…It’s still the same.”

Ichinose Honami shook her head as she saw Karuizawa Megumi's somewhat wavering expression. After Kitagawa Ryo was hospitalized for his second injury yesterday due to the fire she caused, the lady of the Kitagawa family finally returned to Tokyo this morning on the earliest flight from abroad. As a result, both Ichinose Honami and Karuizawa Megumi were sent back home by their mother, who was in a bad mood.

"I can't get through, and I can't contact them."

This time, it was Ichinose Honami's turn to guard the phone. As she looked at the unread messages and unanswered calls, a strange pain welled up in her heart, as if she were watching someone sink into the sea before her eyes until they disappeared completely.

"..."

Silence fell again. Ichinose Honami seemed to realize that her words had been a bit harsh. She considered her words and decided to apologize to Karuizawa Kei. But before she could say anything, her phone screen lit up. The two of them leaned over at the same time. Unfortunately, it was a call from Ichinose's mother.

As soon as the call connected, the mother, who was still ill, cautiously began to speak:

“The landlord has contacted me. Those rooms were properties that the Kitagawa family bought a long time ago, so the compensation issue is something we need to discuss with the Kitagawa family ourselves… You know that Mom doesn’t get along with him, and the family really doesn’t have any extra money right now. Fanbo, Fanbo, go talk to him, just for the sake of being neighbors for over ten years.”

"Yes, I'll talk to Ryo about it."

Honami Ichinose sniffed, but her tone still inevitably carried a hint of nasality.

"...That's good. It's not that Mom is saying this, but Honami shouldn't have gone there either. This whole thing could have been avoided. Luckily, the house was empty. If it had burned down and burned our house and the downstairs neighbors, that would have been a crime. What would people think of the Ichinose family, what would they think of Honami?"

The mother on the other end visibly breathed a sigh of relief, and then resumed her usual nagging and lecturing of Ichinose Honami.

"Mom, you should rest first. I have things to do too."

For the first time, Honami Ichinose felt annoyed by her mother's words, and she hung up the phone after saying those words.

"I wish you had responded like that before."

Karuizawa Kei easily overheard the entire conversation in the quiet room, and she said with a hint of sarcasm.

She also wanted to take this opportunity to really hurt Honami Ichinose, as Karuizawa felt she would never understand her.

But she soon realized that Ichinose Honami had no intention of speaking anymore. She sat there with her eyes closed as if she had left her soul, and then she began to sob.

To be fair, Karuizawa Kei disliked Ichinose Honami to some extent, but when she actually saw Ichinose Honami sobbing in front of her, she suddenly felt a little sorry for her. However, she then felt that Ichinose Honami's behavior was really ridiculous. Kitagawa Ryo had given her so many chances, but she had pushed them away time and time again.

She found the crying girl ridiculous, but tears welled up in her own eyes without her realizing it, as if sadness could spread between them, even though they were crying for different reasons.

But Karuizawa suddenly felt a strange sense of pleasure. Looking at Ichinose Honami, who was in tears, she felt a strange sense of comfort as she felt her pain and sorrow. The more Ichinose was in pain, the more comfortable she felt. It is said that if a person's emotions are truly heart-wrenching, they can be conveyed to those around them. And now, Karuizawa felt the emotions radiating from Ichinose Honami to her.

This pleasure made her unconsciously move closer to Honami Ichinose, accepting her sobs with her shoulder and holding her in her arms from above. Their roles were instantly reversed, as if Karuizawa Megumi was the leader and Ichinose Honami had become the bullied.

Honami Ichinose hugged Karuizawa Kei without hesitation. She no longer cared who was hugging her; all she needed now was a good, cathartic cry. In fact, she had already cried yesterday. Honami Ichinose was starting to fear the way she was crying now. She felt that tears were a seal that restricted her growth. Every time she cried, it seemed even harder to laugh like before.

"If Ichinose-san had been more decisive earlier and followed her own heart, whether by clearly agreeing or refusing, things wouldn't have turned out this way."

Karuizawa Kei lowered her head and whispered some "comforting" words in her ear. Of course, she knew that these words of feigned comfort were just adding insult to injury. Ichinose Honami cried even harder than before, and for a moment, Karuizawa Kei subconsciously asked herself: Was she doing this on purpose? If so, why would she do it?

However, at this moment, Karuizawa Megumi found that her mind and body seemed to have separated. She could no longer control her mouth, as if it had suddenly detached from her and become an independent organ. She was even continuing to cut the wound open:

"Actually, he had been planning your date for several days. The grandest ceremony was already prepared on the mountaintop you had never been to. How could the Kitagawa family possibly have any construction contracts there? Those people were just waiting up there."

Her performance was effective, even frightening Karuizawa Kei. She hadn't yet adapted to this role change, feeling like an actor improvising and changing lines on stage. The audience's applause was so enthusiastic that she didn't know what to do.

Karuizawa Megumi realized she might have lit the fuse of a firework, but she didn't know how it would burn or what kind of sparks it would create in the sky. She instinctively felt she had pushed things further into a more complicated direction. What surprised her even more was that she actually started talking:

"Actually, I'm quite curious about how Ichinose-san felt when she heard her senior say that he was my boyfriend on the phone?"

Karuizawa felt like she was going crazy, but then she remembered how she had been biting her lip and watching Ichinose Honami and Kitagawa Ryo interact in the hospital just two days ago, and she felt a little more at ease. She felt like a bad woman in a TV drama who destroys other people's families, but the next moment she denied it with a cold laugh.

"Ichinose-san is a girl who never gives up."

"But it's better to give up on him now, because he's almost at his limit."

"To destroy a person, psychological violence seems more suitable than physical violence. Ichinose always puts others first, but she keeps hurting Kitagawa-senpai's heart."

"……do not talk."