Takashi's gaze dropped.
To the left: a silver knife.
To the right: a silver fork.
His heart raced, his throat bobbing involuntarily.
He knew that if today's answer didn't satisfy the two women in front of him, the top trending searches for the next two or three days would definitely be all about him.
He had even thought of the headlines:
"The Fall of a Genius!"
"The Day I Conquered the Nation Was the Day I Died!"
"Scumbag's True (Takashi) Intentions (Takashi)!"
"You Reap What You Sow, and Takashi's Watching!"
"A Collapse of Moral Standards—Men Weep in Silence, Women Cry Aloud: A Review of Takashi's Downfall."
Steadying his nerves, Takashi forced out a smile. "Calling it deception is a bit much."
The moment he said that, he felt a cold chill on his neck—and then something warm and wet slid down his skin.
"I warned you, Takashi."
Utaha's slender, lily-like fingers traced along his neck.
Her pale pink fingertips, now stained with a vivid, haunting red, curled as she stared at the blood and gave a dangerous, eerie smile.
"Think carefully before you answer."
"There's nothing we wouldn't do now."
"I'm not joking anymore."
Takashi stared at her in disbelief, completely stunned.
He thought Utaha and Eriri were just trying to scare him. He didn't expect her to actually go through with it.
She really cut him!
"Are you insane, Utaha?!"
Even Eriri froze.
A moment later, she snapped out of it.
Seeing blood running down Takashi's pale and slender neck, she dropped the silver fork, frantically grabbed a white napkin from the table, and pressed it to the wound.
Then she screamed at Utaha.
"Yeah… maybe I really have gone insane."
Utaha stared at Takashi. The wine-red eyes that were once mesmerizing now gleamed with madness—desperate, obsessive, and frightening.
"Takashi, you have no idea what I went through during the time we were apart."
Her voice remained calm.
Just like when she was angry.
Eriri and Utaha were complete opposites in personality.
Eriri's anger was like a kettle—boiling over in an instant.
Utaha's anger was like a thermal flask—constant and long-lasting.
Compared to Eriri, Utaha was undoubtedly more terrifying.
Because when Eriri got mad, once you comforted her, it was over.
But Utaha was different.
Even when you thought things were okay, she had never truly forgiven you. And you wouldn't even know.
Because she acted normal—even when angry, you couldn't read her thoughts.
"I thought of you every day."
"In class, after school, even in my dreams, it was always you."
"When I passed the streets we once walked together, ate at the restaurants we visited, I kept seeing your silhouette."
"My parents took me to the doctor. The doctor said I was delusional."
"I didn't believe it!"
"The only way I could still see you… and they called it a delusion."
Utaha spoke slowly, recounting her experience. Eriri looked at her, moved.
She had been wrapped up in her own world of pain.
She thought she had suffered more than anyone else.
But she never realized… Utaha had suffered too.
And Utaha had never spoken of her pain. She had buried it deep inside.
"Two days ago, Auntie Sawamura came to me and said Takashi wanted to see me."
"Do you know how happy I was when I heard that?"
"The night before I saw you again, I was so excited I couldn't sleep. I kept wondering what to wear, what to say to you."
"And then… I saw you. But it wasn't you."
There was a trace of pain in Utaha's eyes.
"The one I love is Watanabe Takashi—not Kitahara Takashi ! But everyone keeps telling me they're the same person!"
"That Watanabe Takashi who only had eyes for me, who remembered my cycle, who sensed my mood shifts in an instant—that person never even existed!"
"My world collapsed in a moment."
"Takashi… maybe I really have gone mad. I don't know if this is reality or a dream anymore—I can't tell."
A single tear slipped down Utaha's cheek.
She still stared at Takashi, trying to overlap the face in her memory with the one in front of her.
But she couldn't.
She loved Watanabe Takashi—not Kitahara Takashi .
Even though she knew logically they were the same person, emotionally, she couldn't treat them as the same.
"Takashi , I'm begging you… can you give Watanabe Takashi back to me?"
She only wanted Watanabe Takashi.
To her, he was irreplaceable.
Maybe he wasn't as good-looking or dazzling as the man in front of her. Maybe he seemed plain.
But she loved that bespectacled, shy, and awkward boy.
"..."
Takashi looked at Utaha for a long time, his gaze complicated.
He really didn't expect Watanabe Takashi to mean that much to her.
So much that even he—Kitahara Takashi —wasn't enough.
After a while, Takashi turned to Eriri, whose expression was equally conflicted. His voice was low. "You also came here… for Watanabe Takashi?"
Eriri opened her mouth, but in the end, she simply nodded in silence.
Like Utaha, even though she knew Kitahara Takashi and Watanabe were the same, she couldn't accept them as the same person emotionally.
"I would love to give you Watanabe Takashi… but I am Watanabe Takashi."
This meeting today was Takashi's attempt to clear the air.
"You asked me earlier, why did I deceived you?"
"It's simple—I had to survive."
"To live a better life, I chose this path."
Takashi earned system points by going on dates. That was the rule.
If he didn't do it, he couldn't gain system points.
Sure, he could've gone to work instead—but he'd never heard of someone becoming financially free just from a part-time job.
The truth was, a part-time job only let you barely survive.
Beyond that? Forget it.
If you wanted to survive in Tokyo doing just temp jobs, you'd have to be like Shirogane Miyuki.
Only sleeping three hours a day? Takashi figured he'd drop dead from exhaustion long before getting rich.
And if he had a system—why not use it? Why force himself to suffer?
"Yes, I lied. That was wrong. But if I hadn't lied—if I had met you as I am now, would you have gone on a date with me, Utaha?"
He looked at Utaha again.
"No," Utaha answered. Her dark hair swayed gently.
The only reason she let her guard down was because Takashi looked so much like Tomoya.
If he had approached her with his real face, even if she was hurt at the time, she wouldn't have opened up.
Takashi had the kind of face that didn't need a girlfriend.
If he came up to her, Utaha would've assumed he was just flirting.
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