Love Comes After Simulation

[The assistant wheeled Reina Nakajima out of the operating room and informed Yōhei Nakajima that the surgery was a great success. Overjoyed, Yōhei and Honoka followed the stretcher back to the room.]

[Ibuki Yūko trailed behind them. As the elevator doors closed, she let out a quiet sigh and smiled bitterly, gently poking Reina Nakajima’s cheek.]

[After they left, you stepped out of the operating room, changed your clothes, and headed to Reina Nakajima’s hospital room.]

[Yōhei grumbled about your tardiness but soon dismissed it. His heart was brimming with joy, and he was satisfied with everything he saw.]

[By evening, Reina woke up from the anesthesia. Her dark eyes blinked as she surveyed the room.]

[With tubes and wires still attached to her body, she found it inconvenient to talk. With two nurses stationed by her side, there was little room for private conversation. Instead, you held each other’s hands, gazing into each other’s eyes and seeing your reflections within them.]

[The post-surgery experience wasn’t comfortable. The pain from the incision and the strange sensation of the tubes made it difficult for Reina to sleep.]

[But when she thought about the vast future she could now share with you, sweetness filled her heart. The physical discomfort became akin to the joyous exhaustion of a climber nearing the summit.]

[Her recovery progressed quickly. Some of the machines were removed, and soon, some of the tubes were as well.]

[Unlike before the surgery, when she was advised to rest, the doctors now urged her to move around. You accompanied her on walks around the hospital room. To you, the room seemed small, but to Reina, every lap felt like a marathon.]

[You teased her about taking her outside the room, and Reina blushed, shaking her head fiercely.]

[She still had two drainage tubes connected to her, and the tubes and the bags they led to were a source of embarrassment for her. To someone as modest as her, these were things she couldn’t let anyone else see. Even if you looked at them for too long, she would blush deeply and cover your eyes.]

[Soon, even the last of the tubes were removed, and Reina’s body returned to its original state.]

[You pushed her wheelchair every day, strolling leisurely through the hospital together.]

A memory scene surfaces.

Yuuki Minami pushed the wheelchair, while Reina Nakajima walked beside him.

Lilian International Hospital didn’t have a garden, but it did have a large glass greenhouse. Inside, the temperature was comfortable, and vibrant flowers bloomed everywhere. The two of them walked through the greenhouse.

“I’m tired,” Reina said, sitting down in the wheelchair.

“Are you exercising less and less? Yesterday, you walked two laps. Today, you’re tired after just one?” Yuuki skillfully reached out and pinched the soft cheek of the girl sitting in the wheelchair.

“But I’m really tired today.” Reina tilted her head back to look at the boy behind her, lightly punching her own thighs.

She felt a bit guilty. She was indeed a little tired, but not so much that she couldn’t keep walking.

“Really?” Yuuki touched his chin. “Logically, you should be regaining more stamina as you recover. Maybe there’s something wrong with your body. When we get back to the room, I’ll have to check you thoroughly.”

At the mention of “check,” Reina’s cheeks turned crimson. She quickly stood up from the wheelchair. “I’m not tired anymore.”

These past days, Yuuki had often teased her with role-playing “check-up” scenarios.

“In situations like this, where someone suddenly changes their story after hearing about a check-up, it usually means they’re hiding something. I might have to conduct an even more thorough examination,” Yuuki pressed her verbally. “But, Reina-sama, if you can explain why you’re getting tired faster these days, I might reconsider canceling the check-up.”

Reina stood by a flowerbed, her cheeks redder than the newly blooming flowers in the white planter.

She lowered her head, thinking for a while. Compared to the embarrassment of enduring one of Yuuki’s “check-up games,” confessing her motives didn’t seem as daunting.

The girl raised her eyes, quickly glancing at Yuuki’s face, and whispered softly, “Because both your hands are on the wheelchair.”

Her words seemed like fragments of a thought, abrupt and incomplete, as if they didn’t fit the conversation. But Yuuki thought carefully and understood her heart.

His hands, both gripping the wheelchair handles, left him unable to hold hers. Reina felt that sitting in the wheelchair he pushed brought her closer to him, giving her a stronger sense of connection than walking beside him.

This reason left him momentarily speechless. He raised his left arm and extended it toward the girl.

Reina Nakajima grasped his hand with delight, but he shook his head.

“A wheelchair needs both hands to push. Instead of holding it, you should hold me,” he explained.

He deliberately didn’t mention the option of setting the wheelchair aside for now.

Reina glanced at the boy’s firm arm, then at their surroundings. There were two other visitors in the greenhouse. Hugging his arm like that… it felt like something straight out of a TV show about lovestruck couples. Just the thought of it made her unbearably shy.

“Not going to hug me?”

Yuuki Minami pretended to lower his arm. Alarmed by the prospect of losing this chance, Reina quickly wrapped her arms around his.

She bowed her head, leaning against Yuuki’s side, her heart racing.

She pretended to look at the colorful flowers around them, but their beauty no longer captivated her. Her heart had already bloomed into a far more vibrant garden.

Slowly, she began to indulge in the sensation—the boy’s strong, youthful arm securely held against her chest. Nothing else could bring her such peace and reassurance. In that moment, she felt as though the boy entirely belonged to her.

“Tired? Want to sit in the wheelchair now?” Yuuki asked after three laps around the greenhouse.

“Not tired,” Reina shook her head.

After another two laps, Yuuki heard Reina’s quiet, labored breathing. Surely, she was tired now.

“Sit in the wheelchair,” he said again.

“No.” Reina shook her head firmly.

“…?”

From someone who refused to walk to someone now refusing to sit in the wheelchair!

“Never feeling tired could also indicate a health issue. At this rate, we’ll need to thoroughly examine you when we get back,” Yuuki turned his head to look at Reina, who clung tightly to his arm and pressed close to his side.

Reina’s face flushed red. She avoided his gaze but made no move to release his arm.

Not even afraid of a check-up now!

Yuuki thought to himself that this was fine, too. Reina Nakajima was someone who kept her promises—if she silently agreed to the check-up now, she’d cooperate later.

“Next year, let’s go see the snow in Yoshida Town,” he said, changing the subject and steering them back toward the hospital room.

Although Reina had already been told she needed to take care of her health for the entire year, hearing that she’d have to wait until next year to visit Yoshida Town still made her feel a bit disappointed.

“Okay,” she agreed to Yuuki’s plan without protest.

“This year, you’ll come home with me first.”

“Okay… huh?”

The girl’s eyes widened, ripples of surprise spreading through her gaze.

“What’s this? After everything you’ve done to me, Reina-neesan, you’re not planning to take responsibility?” Yuuki grasped her right hand and looked intently into her eyes.

“Wouldn’t that… be too soon?” Reina stammered, utterly unprepared and flustered.

“It has to be this year. I’m graduating from high school next year, and after that, it’ll be time to get married. This year is your only chance to visit my family as my girlfriend.”

“M-married?!”

“If Reina-sama doesn’t want to, then we can postpone it.”

“I-I do!”

“Then it’s settled.”

Hugging his arm, Reina Nakajima felt as though she were intoxicated. The boy’s words were like sweet wine, and she drank them greedily, becoming utterly lightheaded from their warmth.

[While strolling through the greenhouse, you indirectly proposed to Reina Nakajima, feeling a twinge of nervousness in your heart.]

[She accepted, bowing her flushed face, unaware of the faint blush on your cheeks.]

[Back in the hospital room, you carefully examined the girl’s condition, confirming that it was safe to bring her home for the New Year and seek your family’s approval.]