Dean Koizumi shook his head with a faint look of regret."Is this about that boy… Shirakawa Natsu?"
Hashimoto Arina's body stiffened. She turned to him in surprise, eyes wide.
Dean Koizumi let out a soft sigh."It seems you're unaware. After Dr. Uemura from the gynecology department was caught having an affair with a married woman, the hospital tightened surveillance—especially in the more secluded corners."
Arina's lips parted slightly. Memories of ambiguous moments with Shirakawa Natsu flashed through her mind. Thankfully, they had been relatively restrained in public—at most, a few stolen kisses.
Still… how much had this elder seen? It already felt like a public execution.
Of course, what she didn't realize was that Dean Koizumi's heart remained calm. Compared to his own daughter, who had once shamelessly declared she wanted to be someone's pet, Arina and Shirakawa Natsu seemed pure and almost innocent.
"Don't be nervous," he said, waving a hand dismissively. "I'm not here to condemn you. Affection between people has nothing to do with age or status. It's simply… a cycle of reincarnation."
"Reincarnation?" Arina echoed, blinking in confusion at him.
"Your mother," Dean Koizumi began, his expression distant, "passed away during childbirth. In truth, she was once your father's patient. Frail, often hospitalized. Over time… they grew close."
"My father never told me," Arina whispered, stunned. To her, her father had always been a hardworking man, devoted entirely to his duties.
"Because he has always carried guilt," Koizumi said, gazing out the window. "As a doctor, he broke the line between physician and patient. That guilt wore him down—his body eventually gave way under the weight."
His eyes turned back to Arina."You, like your father, are easily entangled by emotions. That makes you unfit for medicine. Doctors must face death with rational clarity, able to make the coldest judgments when necessary."
A faint sadness colored his tone as he added, "I wasn't a competent elder. When you first drew close to that boy, I should have spoken with you. Perhaps things wouldn't have reached this point."
"I'm sorry, uncle," Arina said softly, shaking her head. "But even if everyone opposes me, I can't stop these feelings."
A small smile touched her lips."As you said—I'm not a qualified doctor. I can't make the most rational decisions."
And in her heart, Shirakawa Natsu's smile bloomed vividly. She knew she should have allowed him to undergo psychiatric evaluation, as procedure dictated. Instead, she had resigned, choosing to remain by his side—dangerous though it was.
Meanwhile, after Shirakawa Natsu followed Yazhikui to the parking lot, he spotted a green off-road jeep—completely out of place among the sedans and compact cars.
She swung the door open with practiced ease and tossed her luggage into the back seat.
"This is the car you bought with all the money you saved?" Natsu asked, raising a brow. "I thought you'd go for a flashy sports car—or maybe a domineering motorcycle."
"I actually planned on the motorcycle," Yazhikui said, sliding into the driver's seat. "But when I saw this one… I couldn't resist."
She stepped on the accelerator. The engine gave a deep, throaty roar as the jeep surged forward, tires gripping hard before shooting out of the space with a whoosh.
Natsu instinctively grabbed the roof handle. The weightlessness eased as the vehicle steadied.
The ride itself had its charm: high chassis, wide view from the passenger seat, solid frame. You could immediately feel the thrill of off-road power.
As she drove, Yazhikui pulled two envelopes from the console and handed them over."This—an admission letter from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris."
Natsu blinked. "Wait, this is real?" He opened it. Inside was a beautifully embossed invitation, elegant and official.
"A safe office job covered the arrangement. With enough money, you can finish in just two years," she explained casually. "The rest went toward your Tokyo apartment rent—and your specialist appointment at the hospital."
Natsu opened the second envelope: a key and a signed lease contract.
"...Thank you," he murmured, carefully tucking them away.
"So, what's next?" she asked suddenly. "You're not planning to stay in the hospital just because you've got an apartment."
"I want to apply to university," Natsu said, gazing out the window. "Details… not decided yet."
Of course, it wasn't for studying. With the Huangmao App in hand, his goal was clear: to recruit more women—those already with boyfriends or husbands. College girls fit perfectly. Today's relationships burned bright and burned out fast; casual dating, casual breakups.
Yazihkui said nothing more, focusing on driving. She weaved through traffic with daring speed, yet the jeep remained stable, leaving Natsu unshaken.
They soon pulled up at the entrance of Tokyo University Hospital. Natsu took his ID and entered alongside her.
Unlike the small private hospital where he had been before, this place was on a different scale entirely. A spacious lobby, bustling staff, voices echoing.
"I have an appointment," Yazhikui told the receptionist, showing a voucher.
After a brief exchange, a young nurse arrived, smiling as she offered to escort Natsu. Yazhikui, however, stayed behind—already chatting idly with another mature nurse, drawing laughter from her within minutes.
"Tch. Scumbag," Natsu muttered, following his guide toward the examination rooms.
He was no stranger to these machines, but Tokyo University Hospital's equipment was visibly more advanced. The procedure was the same: lie down, endure the poking and prodding, let the doctors arrange him as they liked.
After several tests, he stepped out into the corridor with a paper cup of water, feeling drained.
Real hospitals weren't like anime fantasies—no glamorous doctors giving strange, risqué tests. Just routine checks, and fatigue afterward.
Leaning on the railing, he looked down into the hospital's circular atrium. From the third floor, he could see patients moving between departments below. Unlike the blank expressions of passersby in the outside world, here every face carried emotion. Perhaps illness was the only time people remembered they were truly alive.
Pulling out his phone, he opened the Huangmao App. His progress with Hashimoto Arina showed as blank, as if urging him to begin a new route.
But he wasn't rushing. Choosing Arina before had been impulse, born of liking her. Strategically, she wasn't the best choice.
This time, he needed someone with a lower threshold. Not hardened women who had seen too much, nor high schoolers whose practiced masks offered nothing real. To survive, he had to choose carefully.
He deleted all the photos on his phone—no sense letting something slip into the app and compromise him.
Just as he looked up, a familiar figure caught his eye on the second floor below: silver-white hair, standing out unmistakably in the crowd.
"Again? Is this guy some kind of key NPC? Why is he everywhere?"
Natsu shifted, hiding himself partially behind the passageway wall, and looked closer.
It was Kimura Sakae. And beside him stood a girl.
She was in her twenties, with long straight black hair tied into three thin braids along the left side. Her outfit was youthful and fashionable, balancing the innocence of high school with the allure of an adult woman. Unlike Arina's softer image, this girl was slender, her black-stockinged legs striking beneath her skirt. Easily a solid ninety-plus on appearance alone.
Even here in the hospital, she smiled, bright against the gloom of patients around her.
Natsu's gaze froze when he realized where they had just exited from: the gynecology ultrasound department.
"Good grief…" He hadn't experienced such an exam himself, of course, but long hospital life had made him familiar with the departments. Gynecological ultrasounds usually checked for intrauterine pregnancies, or determined the timing for possible abortion.
A girl barely twenty wouldn't be here for premarital check-ups. Which left…
So much for Kimura Sakae's dignified image. Behind the façade, a beast in clothes. Barely two weeks had passed since Arina and Sakae's separation, and already he was bringing another woman for a maternity exam.
Natsu quickly snapped a photo. But the result was almost too perfect—elegant silver-haired man with a beautiful black-haired woman at his side. Looked more like a wallpaper than evidence.
"What the hell is this…" He sighed, preparing to retake from the side.
Just then, Kimura Sakae looked up. Their eyes met across the atrium. He smiled.
The air froze awkwardly.
"Mr. Natsu, long time no see." Kimura ascended to the third floor with a graceful step, the black-haired girl following behind, still smiling brightly.
"...Hello," Natsu forced out, lips twitching into a businesslike smile, trying to play off the caught sneak shot.
"This is my student," Kimura introduced, gesturing to the girl. Then to Natsu: "And this is my friend."
"Hello~ My name's Jingu Nao," she said warmly, extending her hand without hesitation. Her grip was firm, cheerful. "So Teacher Sakae really does have friends. You must be amazing."
"Uh… it's nothing," Natsu replied awkwardly, extracting his hand. She was striking—gorgeous, black stockings accentuating her enthusiasm.
"It seems you're recovering well," Kimura said with his usual gentle smile.