As I Know Anything About You, I'll Be The One To Your Girlfriend, Aren't I? - Volume 1 Chapter 5.4

What Red Means to You 4

Her artworks were mostly themed around love, characterized by flamboyant, vividly bright reds. Like her, they were brimming with vitality, irresistibly capturing people’s attention with an undeniable attraction. They were said to contain the most vivid reds in modern Japan.

She often said, both in public and private, “My paintings, my red, are all my feelings for my husband.” My parents were quite close, but Kuuya’s parents were equally matched in their affection for each other.

Even after Kuuya and his family left, I remained frozen in the entranceway.

Facing the painting in my hands, unable to move.

I felt I shouldn’t take my eyes off it. Because this painting, this painting contained…

“Suika.”

“Grandfather…”

“Grandpa isn’t well-versed in art. Honestly, I don’t understand much about paintings. But, living a long life means you meet all sorts of people.”

My grandfather squatted down to meet my eye level, gazing at the painting with me.

“Among them, very rarely, you’ll encounter someone who’s fighting a battle with everything on the line. Even in an era without arrows or guns flying. Someone who risks their life, and somehow, achieves something by shaving off their own life. You could say they exchange their life for something else.”

“…”

I had no choice but to nod. Because I understood.

With parents like his, Kuuya was bound to be talented. But the painting before me wasn’t just about talent.

The painting exuded the scent of life. Not just paint and oil, but something else layered and poured into it, reaching my nostrils with a dense intensity.

That’s why it was so beautiful, certain, raw, and dear to me.

Something miraculous, now in my hands. Drawn by him, given to me.

Risking his life.

Something stirred within me.

“…Daisuke-san, Kuuya-kun is…”

“Just as Masataka said. No doubt, he’s his son. The same, capable of the same things.”

My father’s voice in response to my mother was somewhat stiff.

As if to reveal the reason for that stiffness, ──then, Kuuya didn’t wake up for three days.

“Kuuya-kun!!”

“…Suika? …Ah.”

On the third day of my daily hospital visits, just when everyone else had left, he woke up.

The weather outside was beautiful, casting deep shadows in the hospital room due to the contrast.

“Where is this…?”

He coughed several times after speaking abruptly, and when I handed him a cup of water, he drank a little.

“Thanks… a hospital, huh. Why am I here…?”

“For me! You drew…! And then…!”

“…Ah~! …Right, sorry, I was just tired. That’s why!”

He laughed off lightly.

“Just tired… Kuuya-kun, you’ve been unconscious for three days…”

“Was I asleep that long? Seriously? …Hey.”

Then, Kuuya looked extremely anxious. Perhaps the fear of having been unconscious for so long hit him─

“How was the painting?”

My expectations were completely off the mark.

“I was wondering if I managed to paint a good one… I haven’t heard what Suika thought about it.”

“…”

“Suika, you’ve seemed so lonely all the time. I was thinking if there was anything I could do… How was it? Did it help at all? …Did it cheer you up?”

“Kuuya-kun, weren’t you… in trouble?”

“Me? Well, I was… I knew going all out would end up bad. My dad even said, ‘If you keep it up, it might be irreversible.’ …Waking up in three days, I guess I’m pretty strong, huh?”

“…”

“But, I wanted to paint that. Well, no, it’s like this.”

Shyly, awkwardly, he said,

“I just hoped it would make Suika smile. I love it when Suika smiles.”

“That’s… all?”

“Yeah, yeah, pretty much.”

“Ah, saying that makes me sound stupid!” Kuuya said, breaking into his usual broad, hundred-meter recognizable smile.

“…”

I couldn’t breathe.

After painting something like that, in such a manner.

Why, why is he…

Why is he, oh, so…

“I…”

“Yeah?”

“I’m not scared anymore. Because Kuuya-kun gave me the greatest thing in the world.”

“…Really?!”

In front of his delighted face, I felt deeply ashamed.

I had envied him for painting, thinking he didn’t have to endure pain or suffering.

In the dojo, both my mother and grandmother were strict, but it was still just training. I never felt like my life was being shaved away, because it wasn’t a real battlefield.

But the person in front of me was different.

He fought, possibly shaving away some, or all, of his life in the process. He fought for me.

“That’s great, then! I’m glad!”

On the hospital bed, his smile was pale. Pure white.

There was another thing I was ashamed of.

That was not giving my all to the training until now. I looked at my hands.

With these frail fists, can I protect someone precious? …No.

“…Uh, …Uh.”

“…Suika?”

“Uh, …!”

“Suika!? What’s wrong, does it hurt somewhere!?”

“Uuuuu!”

Shaking my head vigorously, tears spilled from my eyes. Unstoppable.

Embarrassed, frustrated, pathetic. What have I been doing all this time?

“Ku-Kuuya-kun… Kuuya!”

No more hiding behind a younger girl.

“…? Suika…?”

“I, I, I will!”

“Alright, what…? I’m listening…!”

“Get stronger! So strong that it’ll surprise Kuuya!”

I squeezed his hand tightly, vowing.

Something unshakable, certain, was born within me at that moment. Something I had always wanted, giving me a profoundly happy feeling.

“I will! Become that!”

While speaking in front of Kuuya, I made an additional vow in my heart.

Someday, to become someone who can protect you from everything in the world, no matter what.

──And then.

In the end, I didn’t make that vow in time.