Chapter 320: Agreement
Kitahara Kaede reached the rooftop stairwell.
The afternoon breeze carried a pleasant warmth as it brushed across his face.
He stepped outside, looked to the right, and immediately spotted the figure leaning against the railing.
Tsunade had her back to him, her pale golden hair fluttering gently in the wind.
Kaede unconsciously slowed his steps.
His heart was beating a little nervously.
What was going on?
Was this really because he hadn’t gone to see her first?
But her reaction hadn’t felt like jealousy.
…
At the stairwell entrance, Mei poked half her head around the corner like a cat and anxiously tugged on Pakura’s sleeve.
She kept her voice low, full of irritation.
“Move over a little! You’re blocking me. I can’t see anything!”
Pakura rolled her eyes and shifted half a step aside.
Mei widened her eyes, but they were too far away. She could only see the backs of the two people in the distance and couldn’t hear a single word.
That drove her crazy.
“No, no. I can’t hear anything they’re saying!”
Her eyes darted around until they locked onto a huge water tank nearby.
“Over there! We can definitely hear them from behind that tank. Help me over!”
Pakura stared at her speechlessly.
“Watching isn’t enough? You have to get close enough to listen too?”
“Obviously!”
Mei ground her back teeth.
“Why did I put this much effort into climbing up here if I wasn’t going to listen? To admire the scenery? Come on, hurry!”
The two women hunched over like thieves and furtively crept toward the water tank.
…
Kaede had already reached Tsunade’s side and carefully stood beside her.
He cleared his throat and tentatively tried to explain.
“Uh… I only went to see them first because the third-floor ward was closer to the stairs. Don’t read too much into it.”
Tsunade said nothing.
The atmosphere was unbearably strange.
But Kaede could feel that the woman beside him was desperately holding something back.
After a long while, Tsunade slowly turned around.
The instant Kaede saw her eyes, his heart seemed to stop for a beat.
Pain and determination churned within them.
“Kaede.”
He instinctively straightened.
“Yeah?”
Tsunade suddenly bit her lower lip. A faint blush rose across her cheeks, and for a moment she seemed unusually nervous.
She quickly steadied herself, and her voice became firm.
“I don’t know what you went through in those timelines…”
“But I understand now. Whether it’s the you standing here or the you from the future…”
She stopped halfway through the sentence.
Then she abruptly stepped forward and met his gaze head-on.
“I’m the same as you! I don’t care who else is beside you, and I don’t care what happens in the future!”
Her voice rose with every word.
“From now on, I will never let you face all of that alone again!”
“I… I like you! No—it’s more than that. I absolutely cannot lose you!”
Her confession exploded through Kaede’s mind like thunder.
His entire body went rigid.
The whole world seemed to fall silent. All he could see was Tsunade’s flushed face growing larger and larger before his eyes.
Huh?
This wasn’t how the script was supposed to go…
And what was she talking about?
What timelines? What present and future?
When Tsunade saw the dumbfounded expression on his face, as if he had just seen a ghost, her heart immediately began racing with uncertainty. The enormous courage she had summoned leaked away all at once.
She unconsciously took half a step back and even began to stammer.
“W-Why are you making that face? Don’t tell me… you don’t want us to be like this?”
“No!”
Kaede finally recovered from the enormous shock.
He stepped forward without the slightest hesitation and pulled her firmly into his arms.
His eyes burned with emotion, the joy in his chest nearly bursting free.
He tightened his embrace and buried his face against her neck. His voice was low, utterly sincere, and carried the slightest tremor as he spoke each word.
“I’m just… so happy I could lose my mind.”
“I never dared imagine I’d hear an answer like that from you.”
At his response, Tsunade’s nose suddenly stung.
She had intended to stubbornly brace her hands against his chest, but she couldn’t bear to actually push him away. In the end, she simply let him hold her tightly.
Then she turned her head away with a flushed face, trying to sound proud even though her voice carried obvious embarrassment.
“Hmph. At least you know what’s good for you! If you dared reject me, I’d throw you off this roof right now!”
The two of them remained locked in each other’s arms, quietly feeling the heat of the other’s body and the violent pounding of their hearts.
After a long while, Tsunade finally broke the silence in a small voice, sounding tentative.
“Have you hugged me enough yet?”
“No.”
Kaede answered without hesitation. If anything, his arms tightened.
“I want to keep holding you like this.”
The straightforward answer made Tsunade’s heart skip another beat. Her face felt burning hot.
She struggled lightly, then quickly softened her voice in case he misunderstood.
“I… I was still examining Nawaki before this. I’m not finished yet. I have to go back.”
Kaede was reluctant, but he understood. He nodded and finally let her go.
Watching her turn to leave, he felt an inexplicable sense of loss.
But after taking only a couple of steps, Tsunade suddenly stopped.
She glanced back, her eyes darting away from him.
“If you… still want to, you can… you can come to my place tonight.”
Her voice grew quieter with every word. She lowered her head more and more, until even her fair neck was tinged a lovely pink.
Tonight?
Her place?
This…
Did she mean what he thought she meant?!
Kaede’s eyes filled with unconcealable amusement, and the question slipped out before he could stop himself.
“Huh? Isn’t that a little fast?”
The instant the words left his mouth, he regretted them.
Tsunade froze, not understanding at first.
But the next second, realization dawned. Her face exploded red, as though blood might drip from it.
She couldn’t hold herself together anymore. She glared fiercely at Kaede, then turned and hurried away without looking back, her fleeing figure filled with embarrassed fury.
Once she disappeared, Kaede stood alone on the rooftop, practically floating with happiness.
Remembering the genuine warmth and softness of her body in his arms, along with that direct confession, he lowered his head and couldn’t help laughing.
Then he suddenly caught one key point from what she had said and snapped his head up.
Tsunade had just said… she didn’t care who else was by his side?
Did that mean…
Kaede’s mouth fell open into a perfect O.
Had the hardest death-trap stage of this entire romantic battlefield just cleared itself?!
But before he could celebrate for long, another difficult problem surfaced and froze his smile.
Tsunade had agreed…
But what about Mei and Pakura?
What did those two think?
…
Behind the water tank, the two women had seen and heard everything clearly.
Mei trembled with rage, grinding her teeth as she stared toward the rooftop entrance.
Damn it!
Damn it all!
Tsunade had beaten her to it again!
That kind of direct confession, that kind of declaration of possession—those lines were supposed to be hers!
Absolutely unforgivable!