Celebrity ex-girlfriend got revenge on me

Chapter 558 Perhaps the unspoken confession would have been better?
late at night. The Takanashi family.

I can't sleep, I just can't sleep at all. Sleepiness has become the most cunning deserter; I can't grasp even a trace of it.

Takanashi Seifu lay awake in the darkness, her gaze fixed on the blurry ceiling. Her mind was a jumble of thoughts, more chaotic than ten tangled headphone wires—one moment it was Kitahara's earth-shattering confession under the spotlight; the next it jumped to "what if I had spoken first"; and then it slid into various hypothetical scenarios of a failed confession.
"Why did it have to end like this?" She wrapped herself in the down comforter, her voice muffled and filled with a sense of disorientation.

Everything went off track tonight. It was completely beyond her expectations.

We had already agreed to meet in the student council office afterward.

She had already stepped out of the gymnasium when a sudden, loud voice behind her froze her in place—through the microphone, through the lights, in front of all her classmates and the live camera, he called out another girl's name.

"Today feels fake."

"Is it really not a dream?"

She huddled under the covers, murmuring to herself. Even now, a numb, buzzing sound lingered in her chest. Fortunately, at least in front of her mother, she managed to maintain a semblance of dignity, unlike Moyou, who burst into a childish wail.

Gao Lixu sighed deeply, turned over and lay on her side, only her eyes showing as she looked out the floor-to-ceiling window at the hazy artificial lawn in the night.

"Xufeng, be strong," she told herself silently. "You were prepared for failure long ago, weren't you?"

"I just didn't expect it to be so... ridiculous tonight."

She shook her head vigorously, trying to banish all distracting thoughts.

"go to bed!"

"Go to sleep, stop thinking about it."

"come on! Come on!"

Takanashi Seifu's gaze fell on the lawn, but her thoughts wandered off again: If Kitahara hadn't confessed first, but I had, would things have been different?
If he had understood my feelings and clearly rejected me, wouldn't things be better now?
Kitahara-san and Amamiya-san, when exactly did you two start secretly dating behind everyone's back? Was it during the band competition? Or earlier, or later?
Mayu was crying so hard, could it be that she already knew about Kitahara and Amamiya's secret?
If that's the case, did Kitahara only tell Mayu, or... did she keep it from me?
Takanashi Seifu's mind was filled with all sorts of things, her chaotic thoughts surging and receding like the tide. After an unknown amount of time, her eyelids finally grew heavy and slowly closed.

"Finally...asleep."

However, when she opened her eyes again, the sunny first day of winter vacation that she had expected had not arrived.

A warm light fell on my palm. Looking up, four huge ceiling spotlights illuminated the stage as bright as day.

“It’s back again.” Takanashi Seifu squinted, gazing at the unreal light.
"Is it a dream?"

She turned around and stared blankly at the audience below. A sea of ​​people, all eyes fixed on her, waiting in silence.

Bathed in a warm, almost unreal light, Takanashi Seika murmured absentmindedly, "How did I get here?"

"Or is this actually the real day I've been hoping for?"

"If only that were true." Takanashi Seifu sighed softly.

A sigh fell into the light. On this stage, where she was performing a one-woman show under the watchful eyes of everyone, she gradually became somewhat at a loss.

Her gaze swept blankly across the audience before suddenly stopping.

She saw Kitahara Kento in the crowd. He was also looking at her, equally bewildered.

Their eyes met, and a few seconds of silence hung in the air. Suddenly, Takanashi Seifu seemed to understand what she had to do.

"Do you want to make up for that regret?" She looked down at her palm, which was illuminated by the light, and asked herself silently.

Three seconds later, she exhaled softly, as if encouraging herself, and tiptoed up, raising her head again, her gaze fixed straight on the figure.

"Kitahara——"

The words abruptly stopped on her lips. She was silent for a moment, then opened her lips again. This time, there was no sound, only clear lip movements, silently reciting each word to him:

"Kitahara-kun, I like you."

After speaking, she suppressed the shyness and nervousness surging in her heart, clenched her fists, and stared straight at him without looking away.

She didn't know if he could read lips in her dream, but she saw him look away first, his eyes gradually reddening.

Takanashi Seifu was slightly taken aback.

This reaction is so strange.

That didn't seem like a physical reaction of rejection towards me.

Is it being moved? Is it an unconscious physical reaction to accepting a confession? I don't understand.

But why does it always feel like he's carrying some immense psychological pressure, so much so that he can't breathe and can't respond?

Faintly, one could hear sobbing.

"Moyou?"

Takanashi Seifu suddenly turned around and looked around.

"Moyou, are you there?"

"Moyu, where are you?" She couldn't find that familiar blonde hair. But the sound of crying was clearly nearby. Takanashi Seifu could only force a smile and comfort her in the empty dream, "Don't worry, Moyu, don't fret, I'm very strong."

"I didn't cry when I got home, really. I just couldn't sleep. So—"

Before the words of comfort could finish, a sudden sense of detachment washed over me. The dream was ending.

Just before she felt herself leaving the dream, she smiled bitterly and murmured softly:

What a strange dream.

"Is it better to confess a love that was never spoken?"

"Perhaps it would be better."

Kashiwagi Mayu stared blankly at the swaying light spots on the curtains and said in a daze.

Staring blankly at the sunlight spots on the curtains, she didn't get out of bed until she realized there was a cool, damp residue on the pillow, her messy blonde hair still hanging loose.

"Xufeng, now you won't have any regrets, right? You should be able to let go of some of your worries." She whispered to the air.

She sat by the bed for a while before getting up and turning the doorknob.

"Finally, you're getting up?"

An unexpected sound came from outside the door. Mayu Kashiwagi paused, her brows furrowing slightly.

Mom is back.

After hesitating for a moment between staying indoors and going out, she quickly put on a calm, expressionless face and pushed open the door. Glancing at her mother lying on the sofa scrolling through her phone, she walked straight to the bathroom without making a sound.

While pretending to browse the news on her phone screen, Kashiwagi's mother glanced at the disheveled blonde girl out of the corner of her eye.

“Something really happened at your school last night,” Kashiwagi’s mother said casually.

Kashiwagi Mayu gave an "oh" and walked past with feigned indifference.

Glancing at her daughter, who was trying to appear normal, Kashiwagi's mother asked, pointing towards the closed bathroom door, "Do you have any plans for winter break?"

"No." The sound of the faucet and her daughter came from the bathroom.

"Where do you want to go?" Kashiwagi's mother continued to ask.

"No."

Kashiwagi's mother hummed in agreement, and the corners of her mouth lifted almost imperceptibly.

"His reaction was perfect, just like someone who's just broken up with their boyfriend."

The sound of running water came from the bathroom, then silence; clearly, the bathroom didn't want to pay attention to her.

The daughter didn't respond, but Kashiwagi's mother wasn't annoyed and continued scrolling through her phone. She randomly clicked on a few videos, and six out of ten were of her daughter's crush confessing his love to Amamiya Masahiro under the spotlight.

"Tsk tsk, that's really bold, young man." She couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.

"This is definitely a young person's love story."

After scrolling through her phone for over ten minutes, the heartbroken girl in the bathroom still hadn't shown herself. Kashiwagi's mother shook her head helplessly, got up, grabbed her bag, and said to the closed door, "I'm going out. Contact me anytime if you need anything."

The sound of running water continued in the bathroom.

Kashiwagi Mayu didn't say anything, but simply buried her face in the cool water.

The sound of a door opening and closing came from the entryway. After a while, she quietly moved to the doorway, opened it a crack, and confirmed that her mother had really left. She immediately felt as if all her strength had been drained away, and listlessly returned to the mirror.

Holding a comb, she saw a tired, dull face reflected in the mirror. She slowly combed her tangled blonde hair.

"At least she had a conscience this time," Mayu Kashiwagi thought to herself, "and didn't say something like 'Your sweetheart ran off with someone else.'"

After washing up and tidying herself up, she looked at herself in the mirror, where she looked slightly better. Then, gazing into her still bewildered eyes, she drifted into a daze.

Sometimes I can't help but wonder: what if Xu Feng's confession was successful? What would happen if Xu Feng and "the source of pollution" really got together?

"Xu Feng must be very happy."

Kashiwagi Mayu whispered.

But for her, it must have been a long and arduous ordeal.

Day after day, I have to watch my two favorite people being so intimate and affectionate, while I am excluded and forever kept outside by a transparent wall.

Every moment, you must play the role of the smiling, considerate observer, feigning composure and nonchalance, offering just the right smile and blessing for every bit of their sweetness. Be the best audience member in their romantic love story.

For the rest of my high school life, and even longer, I will endure this torment.

If it turns out like that, it would truly be a marathon of endless, never-ending pain.

Thinking of this, Kashiwagi Mayu gazed at her blank-eyed reflection in the mirror and couldn't help but murmur, repeating the words of the wind whispered in her dream:
"Perhaps, it's better to leave it unspoken?"