A band simulator, but all girl-heavy!

For some reason, Aoi's smile became a little sad. Even in the dark night, her eyes, close to me, were still so bright and crystal clear, like a small starry sky.

Listening to her words, Xiangzi felt a little distressed for some reason, and the escapist mentality resurfaced, making her fall silent.

"...That's where Xiangzi and I created many memories together. I hope Crychic can exist for a long time."

Aoi's voice still echoed in my ears: "This way, if one day I am no longer by Xiangzi's side... at least Crychic is here—"

"Aoi, what are you talking about?"

Xiangzi's voice interrupted Aoi with some displeasure, his eyes also mixed with a hint of impatience, and he whispered back: "You won't be gone...right?"

"Yes……"

Aoi’s smile was overshadowed by the lonely starry sky of Tokyo. It was so beautiful, but it no longer seemed to bring joy: “I will be here, and I still am here now…”

"Later."

Xiangzi lay on his side, staring intently into Aoi's eyes, and repeated word by word: "I'll be here in the future too."

"Ah."

Aoi lowered her eyes, and the distance between them was so close that their breaths could touch each other's cheeks, and their long eyelashes seemed to be brushing each other's skin.

"I...will consider it."

Looking at Aoi like this, Xiangzi couldn't help but sigh and whispered comfortingly: "But, not now... Aoi, I still need to think about it."

"Well, that's enough. I won't force Xiangzi to do anything you don't want to do."

Aoi smiled again, her voice as light as a breeze, carrying warmth and touch, yet it drifted away from the ends of her hair in an instant: "If one day you have to go back and confess to everyone... remember to be patient with Li Xi. You know, she is a gentle person, but she is not good at expressing herself..."

"Ok, I know."

"Mu is very worried about you, and she is also anxious. Remember to praise her for being a good child..."

"Um……"

"Su Shi is actually just too concerned about the band and your friendship. If you have time, Xiangzi can still have a good chat with her... Even if you don't return to the band, you still have to be friends, okay?"

"……I try my best."

"Deng is a very sensitive person... Xiangzi, you know she might be hurt by this incident, right? So... remember to express your affirmation well."

"……sunflower."

Xiangzi finally couldn't help shouting.

"Ok?"

Aoi's voice was soft, and her warm breath gently touched Xiangzi's cheek.

"You've said too much... I know all of this."

Xiangzi sighed helplessly.

"Really? Xiangzi said it himself, you're just an idiot."

Aoi's eyebrows were smiling, and her beautiful eyes were almost curved into small crescents, with two emerald green stars hidden in the crescents.

"...Aoi has no right to say that to me."

Xiangzi groaned in dissatisfaction, turned his head away, faced the ceiling, and closed his eyes: "I'm going to sleep... I have things to do tomorrow morning, good night."

"Ah."

Aoi's voice swept past my ears, and then the night returned to silence.

I don’t know how long it took, until Xiangzi gradually fell asleep and in a hazy state of half asleep and half awake, he heard Aoi’s voice again.

"Xiangzi...I wish you happiness."

The sound turned into an evening breeze, passing by Xiangzi's ears and hair, and disappeared in the lonely night air in an instant.

210

Chapter 210 Does She Really Exist?

Xiangzi had a dream.

It was a beautiful dream that she had not touched for a long time since the family changes.

I vaguely remember that there was warm sunshine in my dream, so warm that the surroundings were filled with an almost white halo, and the leaves were swaying, reflecting the dazzling flashes like a mirror.

She walked along a tree-lined path. Light shone through the gaps between the mottled shadows of the trees, forming tangible beams of light that stirred up the flying dust. The singing of birds was in her ears, and from time to time, three or two squirrels chased each other across the path, quickly jumped up the trees, and disappeared among the green leaves.

A pair of warm, white hands gently held her wrist, guiding her to walk in this green passage with light steps. When she looked up slightly, she could see the graceful figure in front of her, and the beige hair that swayed gently in front of her eyes as she moved.

They walked through this quiet and charming path, through the sunlight cast by the mottled shadows of the trees, and walked towards a sunny open area.

The light adaptation of her eyes seemed to have gently reached a critical point at this moment, and her field of vision was briefly filled with the pure and flawless sunlight, as if a pair of warm hands were caressing her tired retina, transmitting the warmth that went straight into her heart into the deepest corner of her soul.

It was at this moment that the pair of warm hands holding her loosened unconsciously, leaving only the last bit of warmth on her fingertips before disappearing without a trace.

Xiangzi felt panicked for a short time, and hurriedly stretched out his hands to wave them around tentatively in front of him, but he could only stir up the air in front of him and could do nothing else.

After her vision finally adjusted to the light, the scene that came into view gradually emerged from the white light, filling her vision bit by bit.

This is a flower field that is so wide that it is almost endless. Red, yellow, white and blue flowers are dotted on the green grass. As the breeze blows, wisps of petals mixed with the scent of grass rise up in the wind and flutter along with Xiangzi's long hair.

The wind here was filled with the whispers of flowers, and still lingered with the faint fragrance of the beige-haired girl's hair. However, Xiangzi could not see the wind, so she could only stretch out her hand blankly, feeling the flow of the wind gradually slipping through her fingers.

Apart from her, there was no one else here but herself, standing alone in the endless flowers, feeling the fragrance of the flowers brought by the wind.

It was as if the girl who had brought her into this flower field didn't even exist...

"……sunflower……"

The dream came to an end in this warm and pure sunlight that was almost dazzling. Xiangzi finally slowly opened his eyes in his mumbling and habitually called out to the figure that had appeared in his dream.

She stretched out her hand, wanting to touch the delicate and soft skin and smooth and fluffy hair of the person beside her, but she found that the touch of her fingers suddenly disappeared and she could only feel the empty air.

Still unable to recover from her hazy dream, she subconsciously continued to grope deeper, and her fingers finally touched something soft, but the touch was not what she expected at all - so she quickly realized that it was bedding.

"……sunflower?"

Xiangzi finally came to consciousness, blinking in confusion and looking at his pillow.

What came into view was a familiar room, and a window directly in front of my eyes, the curtains of which had been opened at some point. Rays of sunlight filtered through the glass and were cut into square strips by the visible window, projecting onto the empty bedding, emitting a golden warmth.

The sunlight seemed to have exhausted all its strength, and it only barely touched Xiangzi's light blue hair, and then it had no intention of moving forward.

Apart from these, there was nothing else in front of Xiangzi's eyes. Where someone should have been, there was only a slightly lifted quilt and slightly wrinkled pillow. Apart from that, there was not even a beige hair left.

Aoi is not here.

"sunflower?"

Xiangzi's heart suddenly became empty, and a strong sense of anxiety and crisis instantly filled her mind, causing her to quickly sit up and look around the room in panic.

There was no sign of Aoi anywhere, but perhaps it was an illusion left by psychological effects, she always felt that there was still a faint fragrance lingering on the tip of her nose - coming from Aoi, which always reminded her of the fragrance of the sun and flowers.

She felt her voice disappear in the empty room, and her panic grew inside her. She stood up and searched every corner of the room.

The pajamas that I lent to Aoi were hanging perfectly in the closet, and the dress that Aoi had hung on the hanger had disappeared without a trace. The photos that I took with Aoi on my phone during this period only showed her smiling at the camera alone, with an awkward empty space next to her, as if there was someone there.

“…Aoi!!! Aoi—!! Where are you… Aoi? Stop kidding… Come out now!”

Xiangzi slammed the door open with a bang and ran around the house like a madman, opening all the doors in the house that could be opened out of control, looking for the familiar figure.

She kept searching, kept shouting, desperately searching, desperately shouting...

But there is no sunflower here.

There are no sunflowers anywhere.

Only in her heart, her mind and her memory still remains Aoi's brilliant smile.

Besides that, there is no longer a girl named Saotome Aoi anywhere in this world.

She is the only evidence that Aoi still exists.

This world completely deleted Aoi, and eliminated from the world the little sun that was the only source of light and warmth for Xiangzi.

If that's the case, why not delete her as well? After all, it's better for a doll like her to disappear, isn't it?

Why did the one who disappeared was Aoi, who was so gentle, so beautiful, so lovely and so kind?

Why was she the only one who remembered all this?

“Shoko…?”

In the clean and tidy living room, Xiangzi's father seemed to have just gotten up and was about to go to work at the job he had recently found. With a worried look on his face, he looked at Xiangzi, who looked panicked, as if he had lost something important. "Did you lose something?"

“…I can’t see anymore…”

Xiangzi just opened her eyes wide, feeling that the whole world was spinning, the ceiling was pressing towards her, and the floor was moving away from her, as if the world had been distorted and collapsed and could no longer remain the same.

She stood there helplessly, murmuring softly: "Aoi...I can't see her anymore...I want to go find her..."

The dream and the girl's smile gradually overlapped in Xiangzi's mind. She suddenly frowned and rushed towards the entrance desperately.

“Xiangzi!!”

My wrist was suddenly grabbed by a force, and I heard my father's anxious voice.

"You've been acting weird lately... You're always talking to nobody. I didn't ask you specifically because I saw you weren't in a bad mood... But this isn't right. Who is Aoi? Is she your friend?"

The dizzying feeling became stronger and stronger.

Xiangzi began to have unprecedented self-doubt, and every bit of beautiful memories came like a tide, filling every corner of her heart.

Does Aoi...really exist?

211

Chapter 211: I promised not to cry.

Aoi exists.

It was because of Aoi that she was able to pick herself up again during this broken time. Not only did she decorate the house into the exquisite and lovely look she loved, but she also influenced her father, making him work hard to change his current life...

All this is thanks to Aoi. If it weren't for Aoi, she wouldn't be devastated, but she would be like a walking corpse, numbly looking for jobs that she used to look down upon, struggling desperately between money and reality.

Aoi must exist.

Aoi must exist...

Otherwise, how could she continue to live? She finally had a glimmer of light, a glimmer of hope and a future, how could she continue...?

Her life, which had been patched together with great difficulty by Aoi, would be rejected along with the existence of this girl.

After rejecting his father's suggestion to take him to the hospital or stay at home with him, Xiangzi returned to his room alone, pulled the curtains filled with light, making the room dim again, and then curled up in the corner of the room like a helpless baby, burying his head between his knees.

It was as if he had hidden himself in a shell he had hastily built, rejecting the outside world, rejecting hope, rejecting the sun. He just curled up alone, turning a blind eye to the injuries to his body and soul, as if he was rotting alive.

Just like that rainy day when she just discovered that Aoi had disappeared from her side, the whole world had abandoned her, and she could only face the pouring rain in her heart alone.

If I could recreate that rain, would Aoi appear again?

Could she have just gone out? She had something important to do, so she didn't tell me. All I could do was wait like this... surely she would show up.

Aoi...she will definitely come back.

Just like the promise she had whispered in his ear that day—she said she was here, she must be here, she had been here in the past, and she would be here in the future too…

but……

"sunflower……"

Xiangzi curled up helplessly and couldn't help calling out that name softly. He couldn't help but feel tears filling his eyes again.

The promise she had made to Aoi came to mind, but what was the point of all this? It was because of Aoi's existence that she could smile again, and it was also because of Aoi's existence that she decided not to cry anymore.

Now that the witness of the agreement is no longer around, who can we turn to to confirm the validity of this agreement?

The air was once again filled with a sour smell, perhaps the smell of tears, or perhaps the smell of loss. She had felt this smell before when she lost her mother, her home, and Sunflower: sour, bitter, damp, and devoid of any pleasant elements.

The sunny day that belonged to her has completely disappeared...

【Don’t cry, Xiangzi.】

Suddenly, there seemed to be a faint sound in the air. She didn't know whether it was an echo from her mind or really touched her eardrum, but Xiangzi suddenly opened his eyes as if by reflex, and his hands could not stop shaking.

She seemed to feel an embrace, warm as the sun, enough to dispel all sadness and pain...but the feeling was as ethereal as air.