Chapter 97 – A Quiet Morning With Her Name in the Wind
[Setting: Naoto's House – Early Morning, 7:00 a.m.]
The sun filtered softly through sheer curtains, painting golden lines across the wooden floor. Birds chirped outside the window, and a faint breeze rustled the leaves of the trees outside.
Naoto sat at the kitchen table, a cup of black tea in his hand, still steaming. Across from him, Himari moved quietly, preparing breakfast. She wore a pale yellow sweater and looked like spring in human form.
Their daughter, 4 years old, was sitting on the floor with crayons, trying to draw the sky.
"Papa, what color is the wind?" she asked.
Naoto blinked.
"…It's invisible, sweetie," Himari said gently.
But Naoto smiled. "It's the color of memory."
The little girl tilted her head. "Like… stories?"
He nodded.
[Mini Inner Monologue – Naoto]
I still think about her sometimes. Not in the way I once did. Not with longing… but with quiet respect.
Rika.
Her name still floats into my mind like a breeze that lingers a second too long before fading.
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[Flashback – Chapter 49 Era: Riverside Night]
"Will you always love someone you can't have?"
Rika's voice had been fragile.
Naoto had hesitated.
Now, in the present, he remembered his answer.
"I don't know. But maybe love isn't about 'having.' Maybe it's about 'being'—being there when it mattered."
---
He stood and walked toward the bookshelf in their living room. At the very end of the shelf sat a small, closed box. Untouched for years.
Inside were old photographs. The friend group. The school festival. A crumpled test paper with Rika's handwriting on it.
One letter. Unopened.
She had never given it to him.
He never asked.
And he never opened it.
Some things were sacred in their silence.
---
[Scene Change – Garden Behind Their House]
Later that day, Naoto sat outside while his daughter tried to chase butterflies in the grass.
Himari came out with a tray of fruit and tea. She sat beside him.
"Thinking again?" she asked, resting her head on his shoulder.
He nodded. "Yeah… about the past. About everything it took to get here."
She was quiet for a moment. Then softly, "Do you regret anything?"
Naoto looked out at the trees. The sky. His daughter's laughter.
"No. I think… we all had to hurt, just enough, to become who we are now."
Himari took his hand. "I think she'd be proud of you."
He didn't ask who she meant.
They both knew.
---
[Mini Flashback – Childhood, Himari and Naoto]
The two of them, younger, sitting under the old temple bell. Himari laughing as she scribbled their names in the dirt.
Naoto's hand had been bandaged, and Himari had tied a red ribbon around his wrist.
"You'll forget me one day," she'd said.
"No. I won't," he had promised.
And he never did.
---
[Setting Shift – Rika's Apartment, Same Time]
Rika stood by her balcony, holding a cup of tea that had long gone cold.
The sky was clear.
The same wind that rustled Naoto's trees passed her too, brushing her hair.
She smiled faintly.
He's happy, she thought. He deserves to be.
---
[Final Scene – Back to Naoto]
That night, Naoto tucked his daughter into bed. She clung to her stuffed bear and whispered, "Papa… do you think love goes away when people go far?"
Naoto kissed her forehead.
"No, sweetheart. Love doesn't leave. It just… changes its shape."
Outside, the stars blinked into the sky—one by one.
And somewhere, in the hush between dusk and dawn, two names lived quietly in each other's stories, carried on by memory, and by the wind.
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