Chapter 26. We Will Always Meet on the Moon
Just as everyone was moved to tears by Johnny and River's story, the unexpected happened.
"I think... we should now know what to do to send him to the moon."
Dr. Eva Rosalene suddenly spoke.
Were they going to implant false memories for Johnny so he could reunite with River the following year?
Sirin was crying as she watched, yet she still held onto that hope.
Even if the memories were false, letting Old Johnny pass away quietly in a beautiful dream didn't seem so bad.
However, what happened next left her stunned.
"Wait a second, you're not actually planning to do that... you can't be serious!"
Dr. Neil Watts's reaction made everyone's heart sink.
"This is our job, Neil. Our contract requires us to send Old Johnny to the moon."
At that moment, Dr. Rosalene seemed cold and unfeeling, her voice flat as she said, "And the only way to make it real... is for Johnny to have the motivation to go to the moon."
Hearing that, Neil grew angry for the first time. "If that means removing River, then what's the point of any of this!! The very reason he wants to go to the moon is because she died—because River died! Do you understand?!!"
Wait—what were they saying?
Remove River from Old Johnny's memories?
Remove who?
Sirin thought maybe her tears had blurred her vision and she'd misread it, so she hurriedly wiped her eyes with a sleeve already soaked through.
But when she looked again and confirmed she hadn't been mistaken, a rush of heat shot to her head and she blurted out, "What the hell does that jerk think he's doing?!!!"
Sirin didn't usually swear.
Compared to her light words, the bullet comments were far more colorful.
[WTF, Johnny never wanted to go to the moon at all.
He wants to go to River's side!! Are you blind!!]
[Is this woman out of her mind, huh? Huh? Is that even human speech? I'm just **********]
[Contract, contract—contract my ass.
Still hung up on the contract at this point, you absolute *******]
[&%&&**&*&%#@#!!!!]
If bullet comments could make noise, the "beep-beep-beep" would be flying everywhere by now.
Everyone had just been crying with emotion, and now this woman not only wouldn't help but even planned to delete River?!
In the story, even though Neil argued with everything he had, his superior, Dr. Rosalene, remained unmoved.
According to her, they'd get sued if they failed to send Johnny to the moon.
Rationally, they understood what she was saying.
But that didn't stop them from venting their anger with all kinds of auto-censored words!
Just then, the dream on the screen began to shake violently.
Even the colors flickered on and off.
Both doctors understood that Johnny's life was approaching its end.
Seeing that she could not persuade him, Dr. Rosalene used higher-level authorization to force herself out and locked Neil down, sealing away his ability to interfere with the dream.
The background music shifted quietly, and for the first time, human vocals appeared.
A mournful whisper of a woman's voice seemed to clutch everyone's heart.
They could only watch as River's figure faded, bit by bit, from Johnny's life.
In the empty hallway, Johnny and his buddies ran happily toward the cafeteria, but the girl he cared about was no longer there.
In the movie theater, Johnny sat with his friends watching the latest film they were interested in, and the girl who once sat by his side—together with the platypus in her arms—slowly faded from the screen.
Out on the wide riding grounds, Johnny's joyful shouts were gone.
With River no longer there, what meaning was there in horseback riding?
He didn't need it to alleviate autism anymore.
Then came the classroom.
When the teacher asked everyone about their future wishes, Johnny finally spoke the word.
"Astronaut."
From that moment, Johnny's future was completely altered.
Those moments that had moved everyone appeared again, one by one, and then Johnny and River within them slowly dissolved.
Johnny had lost River.
There was no room left for anger.
Only helplessness and sorrow filled their hearts.
They watched, yet could do nothing.
In contrast, his brother Joey did not die in the car accident.
Encouraged by his brother, Johnny set foot on the path to becoming an astronaut.
Watching him train hard, send out applications, receive replies, and finally be accepted by the Anti-Entropy Space Agency, everyone felt a mix of emotions.
It seemed Johnny really would fulfill his wish to go to the moon.
But now, what meaning would the moon still hold?
The girl who was supposed to be waiting for him there had long since gone.
Even after joining the space agency, Johnny kept working hard.
Within a few years, he was promoted to a full-fledged astronaut.
"Is it really going to end like this?"
Seeing how smoothly everything was going, Sirin pressed her lips together.
Johnny had become an astronaut.
After that, it would be hard for any mishap to occur...
But would nothing really go wrong?
Could Johnny's searing love for River truly be erased just by deleting her from his memories?
It was a love so deep that even without his memories, he still wished to go to the moon.
Just as Johnny was summoned to meet with aerospace experts, the powerful thumping of a heartbeat rang in everyone's ears.
It was Johnny's heart.
It was his all-out resistance to the possibility of losing River!
"What's happening?!"
As the two doctors panicked and wondered, they saw the mechanical door of the room slide open.
"Oh, right. We recruited someone new this time," Johnny's superior said with a smile to Johnny as he glanced toward the door.
That sight made Sirin forget her grief and hold her breath.
Could it be...
A long tail of orange-red hair was tied into a ponytail.
Keeping time with the soft piano that began to play, she walked step by step to Johnny.
Across time.
Across memory.
Across every hardship.
The two finally met again in that moment.
"Hello, I'm Johnny."
A first meeting, just like before.
"Wait—what is going on? Y-you... what are you doing..."
Neil stared wide-eyed at the scene and stammered at Dr. Rosalene.
"I didn't delete River. I transferred her. So how 'she' chooses will still be up to 'her.'"
Watching the reunion, Dr. Rosalene finally smiled.
"This new world is built from public data and Johnny's own convictions. River is, of course, an individual person."
"But this only increases the odds by a tiny bit. How did you pull it off?"
"I'm not sure."
Dr. Rosalene shook her head, then looked toward Johnny and River.
"I just tried believing in Johnny once. He didn't let me down, did he?"
She walked back to Neil's side and continued lightly, "Don't we still have two spare headsets?
I think Johnny wouldn't mind having two old friends with him in his final dream, would he?"
[I'm sorry, Doctor.
I admit I was a bit loud just now...]
[Doctor, you know I've always believed in you.]
[You up there—weren't you the one yelling the loudest a moment ago!]
[So it was the Doctor who believed in this love the most...]
A flood of "Sorry"s washed over the screen.
Sirin's vision blurred again.
Damn it.
Why did it feel like she'd been crying all day?
She wiped her tears and laughed, cursing in her heart.
Dr. Rosalene's move had completely separated two hearts that could not reach each other.
But it also made their reunion possible.
No matter how small the chance, she believed Johnny's fierce, blazing love would become light and illuminate River again.
Neil had wanted to break the contract, but wasn't her decision just as crazy?
Fortunately, she succeeded.
River came back to Johnny's side.
"What piece is this?"
In the music room, Johnny played the piano piece he had once composed for River, while River sat quietly below the stage and listened.
"TO THE MOON (To the Moon)," a passerby replied.
"I like that name."
Unlike before, their hearts would touch again, becoming inseparable.
At the space agency, they came to know each other once more.
Day after day, Johnny played that piece for River.
And then...
When the launch order was given, the engine of the crewed rocket ignited.
Roaring flames of orange-red shook the sky.
Johnny and River rode it upward, slowly rising into the heavens, heading toward the place they'd promised to meet.
Beep—beep—beep—
A thin, drawn-out, piercing tone reached the audience's ears, flashing red across the screen, and everyone understood.
Old Johnny couldn't hold on much longer.
The lines on the heart monitor began to level out.
Scenes from long ago flickered past like a revolving lantern.
In the capsule, River and Johnny sat side by side.
They had left the Earth and entered space.
This time, they did not need to look up.
The countless stars were all around them.
Beep—beep—beep—
The intervals between the sounds grew longer.
Everyone held their breath.
It was as if Dream-Johnny sensed something.
He looked around anxiously.
Then River turned to Johnny and, for the first time, reached out to him.
Seeing it, Johnny's heart grew calm.
They smiled and looked into each other's eyes.
Their fingers intertwined.
In that instant, two lighthouses parted for decades warmed each other again.
Two hearts, with no distance between them.
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep—
A harsh, continuous tone drew the curtain on everything, and on the rocket's display, the moon slowly appeared.
Then, all sank into darkness.
A gentle piano melody rose.
River and Johnny became children again.
They arrived on the silver-white moon and sat side by side on that same fallen trunk as when they first met.
River still held the platypus in her arms.
They pointed happily at the sky and spoke of the promises they once made.
He had gotten lost, but just as he'd said—
"We will always meet on the moon, you dummy!"
(THE END)
Sirin couldn't hold it in any longer.
She dropped her head to the desk and sobbed out loud.
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