Miss Heir wasn't very kind to me.

Chapter 216, Section 18: "The Future of the Path, the Past of Haiyue"

At 7 p.m. sharp, Starry Night Cafe closed for the day.

"Thank you for your hard work, Miyazawa-senpai."

"Oh."

Having worked at the coffee shop for five months, Yuyuko has transformed into a skilled worker.

She was skilled at both entertaining guests and making simple baked goods, and her wages were entirely handed over to convenience stores and bookstores to buy fashion magazines.

"Ah~ If I fail my college entrance exams or can't find a job, could you please let Fanxing take me in as a full-time employee?" she suddenly said.

"I sincerely hope that this kind of thing doesn't happen," Masumi said calmly.

"Are Yuyuko's grades really that bad?"

Rinne walked out of the kitchen wearing an apron.

"Ah, well, not really." Yuyuko's eyes darted around as she stammered, "Apart from the science subjects being a little tricky, everything else is fine."

"Huh?" Mirai, who had been listening silently, tilted her head curiously. "Isn't Inukai-kun a science student?"

Yuyuko's smile froze instantly.

"Well, actually, the exam results and career path survey were handed out together recently. They were sent out once in April, but I didn't pay any attention to it."

"I never expected that only half a year has passed, and so many people around me have already chosen their paths, even though I'm only in my second year."

"Among my friends, I'm the only one who's completely clueless. If I don't make a decision soon, I feel like the air itself is stinging."

The girl with twin ponytails, dressed in a landmine-themed outfit, sighed melancholically.

"I see." Masumi nodded in understanding. West High School would distribute career path expectation surveys multiple times starting from the second year.

National universities, public universities, private universities, junior colleges, specialized studies, direct employment, and even "overseas study" are all available, but only a very small number of students at West High School choose this option.

"Does Kuon-kun plan to attend a national or private university?"

"Ah."

"The Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo?" Yuyuko asked, half-jokingly.

"That's still a bit of a stretch, but I really want to go to Tokyo. The seniors from Meteor Band have also made plans to go to Tokyo together."

"Hey, Miyazawa-senpai, Kuon-kun just said 'a little difficult,' not 'very difficult' or 'completely impossible.'"

Yuyuko discovered the blind spot.

"Huh? Didn't Toyama already decide not to take the college entrance exam?" Masumi asked curiously.

“That’s right, so she plans to continue working at LoveHouse and recording studios in Tokyo…”

He paused halfway through his sentence, thought for a moment, and then said, "'Working warrior'."

"I see, just like Miyazawa-senpai."

Masumi pointed to herself: "A part-time worker?"

"Oh, no, I mean going to Beijing to play music."

After explaining, Yuyuko murmured with emotion:

"So that means Kuon-kun is leaving Kansai."

“Yes, I received a lot of help from everyone at the coffee shop. I’m thinking of living alone in Tokyo,” Kuon Mirai said earnestly.

"As expected of Little Future, he's very mature."

Asami praised her frankly, and perhaps feeling embarrassed by the praise, Mirai shyly ruffled her hair with her fingertips.

"Is Inukai planning to pursue higher education?"

“Mmm.” Yuyuko nodded vigorously: “I recently watched a videotape with my friends called ‘Flying Colors,’ it was so inspiring.”

"You also want to apply to Keio University?"

"No." Yuyuko shook her head: "I know my own limitations quite well. I'm thinking of going to a public university in Kansai, but I haven't decided on my major or anything yet."

"How did the older generation make that decision?"

Rinne: "Kyoto University was recommended by the teachers, but I didn't want to leave Kobe, so I chose Kobe University instead."

Mio Kurokawa: "My teachers and the people around me advised me to apply to the music university and not to waste my talent."

"So strong!" Yuyuko clenched her fist in front of her chest, her wine-red eyes gleaming with admiration. "As expected of Shinjiro and Kurokawa!"

"But it's not really relevant for a slacker like me, so next up is... Asami-nee?"

"Wait!" Mami's eyes flashed with hostility. "Am I of any value as a reference?"

"Guuuuu!"

Yuyuko's throat tightened, and she hurriedly explained, "No, that's not what I meant. I just feel a sense of... closeness with Asami-nee. Yes, a sense of closeness!"

"It's probably just mutual sympathy among underachievers," Masumi sighed.

This caused Mami to turn her anger towards Masumi, giving him a merciless kick to the shin. "Masumi-kun, you 'unqualified student,' you have no right to talk about me like that."

Yuyuko cast a grateful glance at him without showing any emotion: Miyazawa-senpai, who risked his life to save you, is so kind.

Mami coughed twice, seemingly without any purpose.
"Getting back to the point, I decided to go to a manga school because I wanted to be a manga artist since I was a child."

"You were really amazing as a child." Yuyuko's voice sounded with a hint of longing. "When I was little, I also wanted to be a beautician."

After all, Yuyuko is a huge fan of fashion magazines.

"In that case, wouldn't it be better to go to a beauty-related vocational school?" Kurokawa Mio said casually.

"How could such a thing be so simple? When you were young, you were naive and that's why you had such an easy idea."

"It's really awkward." Kurokawa Mio shrugged nonchalantly. "Even if you couldn't do it before, if you set a goal, can't you achieve it after more than ten years?"

"Ugh."

This statement is 100% effective.

Mio's obsidian-like eyes looked at Yuyuko, who was clutching her chest in despair, and she delivered the final blow without any regard for romance:
"Isn't that what Inukai thinks?"

"If you could think like that, you wouldn't be troubled."

Yuyuko let out a truly sorrowful sigh.

Kurokawa Mio responded casually, "Oh, right."

"Mio's idea is not universal."

Masumi sighed, "The idea that 'you'll succeed if you just try' is an irresponsible piece of advice. If you try and don't succeed, it will only make you more negative."

"No, no, that's not true. Miyazawa-senpai, Kurokawa-senpai were just trying to persuade me."

Worried that the two might have a falling out because of this remark, Yuyuko quickly spoke up to defend Kurokawa Mio.

But her worries were completely unnecessary.

A blush rose on Kurokawa Mio's face, and her eyes sparkled; she was completely captivated.

"As expected of Masumi, she always puts herself in other people's shoes and is considerate of their feelings. I really like this about Masumi."

"Eh." Now it was Yuyuko's turn to be dumbfounded.

"Kurokawa-senpai, you really like Miyazawa-senpai."

Suddenly, a weak murmur rang out in the air.

"……Feel sorry."

Although the sound was soft, it was not to be ignored, and everyone present quietly turned their attention to the source of the sound.

Haiyue, who had been silently keeping her head down, raised her slender white neck.

"Hikawa-senpai?"

Yuyuko tilted her head slightly, puzzled.

"Regarding the route... I can't help with that..."

“Eh.” Yuyuko was taken aback. “Well, it’s not something to apologize for. It’s just that Hanekawa-senpai went to a correspondence high school.”

"Besides, it shouldn't be the senior apologizing to me; I'm the one asking for a favor."

Masumi looked at the twin-tailed girl who was gesturing wildly as she explained and comforted her, "It's okay, Inukai, you don't need to worry about it."

"Hmm...hmm." Sensing that the atmosphere was a bit off, Yuyuko decided to make a quick getaway, slinging her bag over her shoulder:
"Then I'll head back now. See you tomorrow, everyone."

"See you tomorrow, Yuyuko."

See you tomorrow, Inukai.

After the dog left.

Masumi turned to Kaigetsu, whose expression was blank, reminiscent of a jellyfish without water, and asked softly:

"What just happened made you think of something, Haiyue?"

Upon hearing Masumi's voice, Kaigetsu raised her blue-green eyes.

◇

Haiyue was a clingy child from a young age, more timid and cunning than her peers.

The reason she is described as cunning is that Haiyue can keenly perceive the kindness of others, and then, as if seeking warmth, she will approach and rely on those who are kind to her.

She herself wasn't quite sure why this was happening.

Perhaps because her parents divorced early, she changed her surname and followed her mother back to her old home surrounded by peach orchards. She lived in the shopping street and ran the bakery left by her deceased grandmother.

On the third day after returning to Wakayama, to cheer up Kaigetsu, her mother took her to the local aquarium.

When Xiao Haiyue first saw the jellyfish floating in the tank, she was captivated by their colorless, transparent, and shimmering bodies. She pressed her tender little face against the glass and stared at them without blinking.

The zookeeper next to him explained in Japanese with a Wakayama dialect:
"Jellyfish do not have a social division of labor; they simply gather together because of ocean currents and food, and are actually alone."

"Without its own will, it cannot swim on its own; it just floats along with the current." Learning about the ecology of jellyfish from the zookeeper, Little Moon couldn't help but feel sad.

As if they had forgotten to breathe, the noisy voices in the aquarium seemed to drift into the distance.

Everything was isolated from me; my body felt as if it were floating in mid-air, like I was about to be sucked into a jellyfish tank, but I was blocked by glass and couldn't return to the place I was supposed to go back to.

It took time to realize this.

Haiyue heard her mother's voice.

"The sea moon looks a lot like the jellyfish in the tank."

"I look a lot like a jellyfish."

Is that right?

Yes, even the names are the same.

——Haiyue.

It is another way of writing jellyfish.

The moon in the sea.

This is also the last characteristic of jellyfish.

The zookeeper's voice rang out: "Although jellyfish cannot emit their own light, they can reflect the sun's rays like the moon, becoming the moon in the sea."

After visiting the public aquarium, Xiao Haiyue stopped in front of the souvenir shop. There were jellyfish-shaped plush toys on the shelves. She really wanted one, but couldn't bring herself to say it.

The mother, lost in her grief, didn't ask her daughter's opinion. Her decision to visit the aquarium was also partly motivated by a desire to comfort her daughter.

It was probably from this point that Xiao Haiyue gradually began to sense the changes in her family.

Perhaps it was her striking flaxen hair, inherited from her father, that made her mother subtly avoid communicating with her daughter.

Her mother would cook for Haiyue, but the two of them almost never ate together.

After the divorce, her father quickly started a new family with his mistress and never appeared in front of Haiyue again, except for sending alimony.

Of course, it could also be because her mother forbade Haiyue from seeing him again.

Whenever her father is mentioned, her mother has a look of gritted teeth and hatred, regarding this marriage as the biggest failure of her life.

But young Haiyue was unaware of all this.

She realized only one thing—

Even kinship can fade; it needs to be cultivated and maintained actively over time. It doesn't naturally become closer just because of blood ties.

It is precisely because of this cruel reality that Haiyue yearns even more for an eternal bond.

A friend I long for "a lifetime".

Perhaps because she is not good at making friends, she cherishes even more those who take the initiative to build a good relationship with her.

As a child, Haiyue was tiny, with a delicate and delicate pretty face, like a fragile doll for Girls' Day, a little doll that was easy to love.

The teacher would unconsciously take care of her, and there were always some slightly more mature children in the class who were willing to show friendliness and care for Haiyue, so that she would not be lonely.

Therefore, in order to hold onto this bond, Haiyue would become overly intimate with anyone she got along with even slightly better.

As a result, in elementary school, he received a harsh remark from a female classmate who said, "It's disgusting that you're so obsessed with your friends," and was subsequently ostracized.

Haiyue couldn't eat lunch. Clutching her lunchbox, she hid in a corner of the campus and sang softly to herself.

For Haiyue, who has felt disconnected from her environment since childhood, this is where she is similar to and different from jellyfish.

The important thing is not singing, but shouting and effectively relieving pain. Jellyfish do not have vocal organs and can only remain silent when injured, but the jellyfish girl can.

"—Lunch break is about to end. Are you a student who will be attending the choir class on Parents' Visit Day? You sang very well."

A primary school girl dressed in a blue and white gymnastics uniform stood in front of her.

Xiao Haiyue stopped singing, slowly raised her face, and looked down at the name tag on her gymnastics uniform top.

"...Amamiya".

She was calling out the girl's name.

"Shoot".

"Ok?"

Haiyue tilted her head in confusion.

For a moment, the girl showed a look of disgust: "I don't like being called by that last name."

"My name is Shao, just call me Shao."

With a youthful face, she forced a mature expression, as Xiaoshao said.

Haiyue tilted her head slightly in confusion: "Why? Shao... doesn't have any family?"

"..."

Xiaoshao seemed to choke, and looking into Xiaohaiyue's innocent and clear eyes, she sighed:
"I'm telling you, are you just too naive, or do you simply not know how to talk?"

"Luckily, I have a good temper. If I had met any other girl in school, it wouldn't have been so easy... He's such a weirdo."

Her unintentional remark made Xiao Haiyue hold her breath.

"Gloomy, troublesome, weird kid from the bakery," Haiyue once heard such comments in the shopping street, and her mother, of course, heard them too.

"Why are you embarrassing me like this? The parents in my class have called me too. Isn't this disgusting? Why can't you just be a normal kid?"

Perhaps because of the existence of Xiao Haiyue, which constantly reminded Haiyue's mother of her failed marriage, her reaction became excessive, and she hysterically shouted at her daughter.

Haiyue simply bit her lip and silently endured it all.

After venting her emotions and calming down, Haiyue's mother stared intently at her daughter's face, her little face contorted with pain. Suddenly, she squatted down and hugged her daughter.

She said in a trembling voice:

"I'm sorry, Haiyue, Mom got so angry that she lost her temper again, but Mom didn't mean to do it. Mom actually loves you very much."

Haiyue remained silent, but tiptoed to respond to her mother's hug.

The daughter's behavior brought a sense of relief to the mother, who relaxed her expression.

"I'm sorry, Haiyue, I'm so sorry..."

Inside the bakery, a mother and daughter huddled together, the mother repeatedly saying the same thing to her daughter. The scene was anything but heartwarming.

"—Hey, are you alright?"

Seeing Xiao Haiyue's disappointed look, Xiaoshao said in a flustered manner:

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have called you a weirdo. I should have said you're just more special than other people."

“It’s okay…” Xiao Haiyue said expressionlessly, “My mother… said the same thing about me…”

"Your mother... actually said such hurtful things to her own daughter?"

"I see." Xiaoshao seemed to have misunderstood, or perhaps she already harbored a prejudice:

"Families are just like that. No one can choose which family you are born into or what kind of children you have. There is no need to maintain family ties. So, having friends is enough."

For a fourth-grade girl, these words are a bit too mature and extreme; it's hard to imagine her family background.

"Oh, right," she said as if suddenly remembering something, "Come be my friend."

"friend?"

"That's right, my favorite thing to do is make friends and take care of them."

"Being able to take good care of my friends is something I'm very proud of."

"However, because people often say that I am too controlling of my friends, every friendship has a very short shelf life."

"But...being friends with me...won't make me happy..."

Little Haiyue stared quietly at the ground, as if trying to escape something.

"That's not true at all. I'm happiest when I'm your friend."

Kosho confidently raised her chin, "I'm the best elementary school girl in the island nation at taking care of others. For me, being able to take good care of my friends is enough to make me feel satisfied."

"Well……"

Little Haiyue, unaware of what was going on, tilted her head, then suddenly remembered that she still needed to introduce herself:

“Um, my name is… Ichinose, no, it’s… Hanekawa, Hanekawa Kaigetsu…”

"Sea Moon? What an impossibly beautiful name, jellyfish, moon in the sea."

Xiaoshao easily switched to friend mode, saying, "Haiyue, you have a talent for singing."

"I...have talent?"

Xiaoshao nodded.

"You have a voice that can touch people's hearts. This is not something you can learn through practice; it's innate."

"Is it great?"

"Of course, singing can convey many things that words cannot, so—"

"Sing, Haiyue."

—This is Hanekawa Kaigetsu's memory of making her first friend.

In Wakayama during the mandarin orange harvest, when the moon is full.

It was a period of quiet happiness, but I still felt a sense of emptiness and loneliness.

Then, there is the memory of Hanekawa Kaigetsu's first experience of falling in love.

Kobe during the rainy season, a time of water without moonlight.

(End of this chapter)