On the monochrome manga pages, the night market felt almost alive, colorful, bustling, glowing even without color.
Māori Hino and Tōru Kamiya walked side-by-side through the crowded festival street, both a little stiff, both quietly embarrassed.
Emi flipped to the next page.
Māori took two small steps forward, then, trying to act casual, reached out, and gently held Tōru's hand.
Emi stopped breathing.
It was here.
'The classic, heart-stopping moment in every romance manga.'
Tōru looked at her for just one second.
Then, without hesitation, he laced his fingers with hers and held her hand firmly.
"A sense of happiness overflows, but my memories can never quite keep up."
Hand in hand, they walked onto the bridge.
Just then, fireworks burst across the sky.
Brilliant colors bloomed above them while the two stood below, small and silent, hands clasped together.
Then Māori's internal monologue appeared:
'This precious moment, and I'll forget it soon. Even this warmth in my hand.'
Tears streamed down Māori's face, but she never looked away from the fireworks.
Emi blinked hard; her eyes stung.
For Māori, the more beautiful the moment, the more painful it became.
Because she knew, tomorrow morning, it would all vanish.
This was why tonight always tasted bittersweet.
Even the sweetest scenes carried sadness underneath.
"I don't want to forget, I don't want to forget..."
"You won't," Tōru whispered.
"No memory ever disappears completely."
"Please, don't leave me, Tōru."
"I'll always be with you."
Emi's grip on the page tightened.
Then Māori turned toward him.
"Tōru, can I break our third promise?"
The third promise.
Emi remembered immediately.
Never fall in love.
She flipped the page quickly.
The next spread was overwhelming:
Fireworks exploding across the sky,, and beneath them, Tōru bowing his head, kissing Māori softly.
Her tears falling. His eyes steady, full of devotion.
The line beside them read:
"Actually, I already broke it."
Emi stared at the page, shocked into stillness.
Then she reread the kiss scene three, four, five times, her heart in a knot.
Finally, she collapsed back into her chair and sighed.
"Shirogane-sensei, why does Māori forget Tōru later? How on earth are you going to patch this hole?"
Panicking, Emi grabbed her phone and opened the Ametsukage Weekly forum, only to see thousands of fans losing their minds just like she was.
"I officially crown tonight as the #1 pure romance in this magazine."
"I'm a guy and yes, I cried. Fight me."
"Anyone who trashed Tōru early on, come out and apologize."
"This male lead is perfection. I'm in love."
"WHAT happened between them in chapter 1?!"
"Why did Izumi hide the diary? I've been tortured by this mystery for TWO MONTHS."
"It should be soon. For two whole months we've been watching Izumi flip through Hino's old diary entries. Now that Hino and Tōru are finally in love, the truth about what happened later has to appear soon."
"Go, Shirogane-sensei! At this pace, tonight is destined to become legendary!"
"I'm kinda nervous though. Romance manga usually end right after a confession. This manga confessed in chapter eight. So what now…?"
"What's there to be afraid of? Great romance doesn't need to be long. A tight, clean ending is a thousand times better than those dragged-out series that lose all their charm."
"Supporting Shirogane-sensei forever. She's my lifetime oshi."
"My guess? Something happened between Tōru and Hino, some kind of misunderstanding. Izumi hid the real diary to protect her. Then once the misunderstanding clears, they get back together normally."
"Misunderstanding? Like what?"
"Probably a classic one, Hino sees some girls around Tōru, thinks he's involved with them. Romance manga always use the 'third-party misunderstanding' trick when the relationship plateaus."
"That would be way too cliché! Please, please, Shirogane-sensei, if you're reading this forum, don't do that!"
"Everyone… are you seriously ignoring the other possibility?"
"What possibility?"
"It's simple. What if Tōru and Hino had pure love from beginning to end, no misunderstandings, no drama, just true love? But, remember Five Centimeters per Second. Takaki and Akari loved each other deeply too. Yet they still couldn't stay together."
"Don't say it."
"No, seriously. There are hundreds of ways for two people who truly love each other to end up apart. Shirogane-sensei already gave us one answer in Five Centimeters per Second. Will she give us a second answer now?"
"You're scaring me."
"No way. No way, right? This manga isn't going to end like Five Centimeters per Second, right?"
Rei stared at the heated discussions exploding across the Ametsukage Weekly forum, emotions twisted into a knot.
He felt happiness, of course, Tōru × Hino had become one of the most beloved romance series in the journal, with an explosive following across the country.
But beneath the joy was something else, a deep, quiet ache of guilt.
Because next week…
He was going to break all of their hearts.
And that thought hurt him more than he expected.
He had considered changing the ending. He truly had.
But…
Some stories are built around a single irreplaceable ending. You can list a hundred reasons why that ending is painful or "wrong," but when you attempt to write a better one, nothing fits.
The ending is where the soul of the story sits.
Change it carelessly, and you get a disaster, the kind of embarrassment fans roast for decades, the kind of revision that becomes a meme, the kind of joke people call "the 2.5 Gojo incident" all over again.
Thinking this, Rei turned off his computer and phone, switched off the lights, and went to sleep.