Chapter 29: Epilogue
(Totsuka Komachi POV)
It's been almost ten years since Christmas Day during Oji-chan's second year of high school.
Komachi should've known that once she let her Oji-chan visited grandfather, he wouldn't be the same person as the one Komachi was familiar with.
Komachi used to wish Oji-chan would stop being rotten and become better but when it happened she couldn't help but be unhappy about it.
And why? Because his boring points just went off the charts and there's no chance it would drop since then despite he's done nothing wrong.
The reason is simple; ever since that Christmas Day, Oji-san has grown up a lot to the point that Komachi was left behind for real.
"What are you doing, Mrs. Totsuka? The wedding ceremony is about to begin, Please show yourself!" said the staff.
"Yes~" Komachi replied.
Oh, Komachi forgot to tell you that today is her wedding day.
And it's the groom's idea to hold it on the same day as Komachi's birthday to make it more memorable.
Although it's indeed memorable, the impact is lessened due to the lack of surprise Birthday parties are supposed to have.
Seriously, it looks like in the end, Komachi is still an adolescent girl at heart, huh?
Knowing that Oji-chan doesn't have to die in loneliness anymore, Komachi probably won't ask for anything more.
And that line is definitely worth very high Komachi points!
But even though it's a day worth celebrating the most, it's a shame that Oji-chan couldn't come.
Although it's sad, Komachi would feel guilty to make him come considering his current circumstance, not that he's into it since he never done it himself anyway.
Honestly, things just won't go accordingly as expected.
(Totsuka Komachi POV Ended)
(Yukinoshita Hachiman POV)
Today's my dear niece Komachi's birthday and also the day to let everyone know that there will be no next generation whose last name will be Hikigaya anymore.
Why? Because she's married off to a guy.
What about me? I'm pretty much married into another family too that's why.
However, I'm not going to abandon them either since I'm not an ungrateful bastard.
It's really unfortunate that I can't attend Komachi's birthday this year, but I really can't go no matter what.
Why? Because today's the day my wife will give birth to our children.
Yeah, you heard right. Children, not just a child. In fact, according to the doctor, she is pregnant with triplets.
My wife's stamina was never the best and now she has to deal with giving birth to triplets. Even though the doctor who took care of her is top-notch skilled, I still worry about her health.
So I'm here by her side, reading sutras to ease her while she's doing her best on her part.
Hang in there, Yukino. Calm down your mind and take it easy.
To think that we could be together as a couple this far, it's really amazing, especially for a couple who people don't see as one like us.
Back during my second year of high school, we went out with each other during the night of Christmas Day.
Given the fact that there's no reason to continue with the Service Club, Yukino announced the club disbanding the next day.
Hachiju decided to spend his time with Isshiki, mostly to help her study.
Hassen transferred to the different school in order to atone for what he has done to those who he hurt by not being there.
For my brothers, Komachi, Haruno-san, Hiratsuka-sensei and probably Yuigahama, they understood our relationship just by noticing us calling each other on a first name basis.
The rest had no idea at all, at least up until the curious ones came to us and asked directly.
Since we decided to not lie, we answered them honestly.
After that, those who wanted to announce their disapproval and dissatisfaction toward our relationship, came to us one after another.
They're mostly Yukino's fans and my haters.
Hayama also showed us his disapproval of us hanging out with each other but that's for the sake of fitting in with the surroundings, not to mention that whatever rumors regarding Yukino, once reached her parents' ears, the first one who has to deal with their questions will be him.
Or at least that's what he told us.
The fact that he never stated whether the topic itself bothered him directly or not wouldn't make it is all there is to it, but there's no need for us to bother finding out what he thinks about it, especially when he doesn't have the right to.
Eventually, around the new year, things reached the ears of Yukino's parents as he said.
They decided to summon Yukino and I, using the invitation to her birthday party as a cover.
Yukino's parents, they were indeed able to make such menacing glares that their youngest daughter used to give to others in the past.
And lastly, they're also the competitive type of people.
They tried various ways to scare and pressure me and eventually to the point of personally interviewing me.
Despite their huge efforts, they couldn't even scare or pressure me even one bit, though they might be able to do it on their second or third try if I were the same person I was before I read the book father gave to me.
Even I wonder about it myself, about why I used to fear such glares in the past, and the fact that I could counter most of their questions when they barely counter mine.
As a result, their facades faded while their confusion and disbelief surfaced, eventually, they suffered from headaches dealing with me.
Then, Yukino's grandparents finally arrived at the party and greeted me.
For some reason, Yukino's grandmother, upon noticing my existence, made a face that looked like she saw a ghost.
She mentioned that my eyes gave off the same atmosphere as someone she knew and tears started rolling down on her cheeks, much to everyone's confusion.
And funny enough, Yukino's father used this reason to disapprove of my relationship with Yukino.
Although it sounds ridiculous and desperate, Yukino and I accepted it, much to his confusion.
Were we crazy back then?
No. Yukino's parents didn't intend to back down anytime soon and the situation became worse and worse as we talked so we had to end it quickly before the further disaster occurred.
A few days afterward, her parents went through the trouble just to inform me through the message about the engagement between Hayama and Yukino.
So, since then, Yukino and I have limited our interaction frequency and she started to go out with Hayama.
At school, people kept on ridiculing me for having my girlfriend taken away. Hayama also came to say that he already warned me and suggested that I should move on from her and went after Yuigahama repeatedly like a broken record. Only a few cheered me up; Komachi, Totsuka etc.
Yuigahama, instead of jumping into the opportunity, told Hayama to back off already.
He didn't know why Yuigahama acted that way and assumed it's my doing, but I said nothing to him.
Yukino, despite her action could be assumed to be loyal to her fiancé, not even once that she showed him any sign of affection. In other words, even though she heeded her parents' decision to become his fiancée, she was also honest with her feelings.
Day by day, people would throw discouraging words at me and Hayama somehow usually invited Yukino to go on a date with him, called out to her using her first name, holding her hand or standing face-to-face with her mostly when I was still around them as if he's doing all of this on purpose.
Also, the girls, who I have no idea who they are, started approaching me, and there's some kind of flashlight every time this kind of incident occurs.
Then, the bad rumors about me spread like wildfire such as not only being an embodiment of womanizer but also aiming for his classmate's girlfriend.
However, those rumors were denied in a few days by the hands of the current student council president.
After that, things started to turn around.
Two months after Yukino and Hayama got engaged, the engagement between Hayama and Yukino finally broke and eventually canceled.
From what I heard, it seemed that Hayama's parents forced their son to engage with another person and strongly refused to have him engage with Yukino.
Because of this, the relationship between the Hayama family and Yukinoshita family started to be ruined.
After the day that his engagement with Yukino was ruined, Hayama looked depressed but sometimes it switched to something similar to anger whenever he looked in my direction.
However, during the same day, a new student transferred to our class.
She looked like an ordinary girl but for some reason Hayama sweated heavily and his expression was frozen in despair just by noticing her.
If I'm not mistaken, her name is Masamune Usami, for some reason she has been showing up near Hayama ever since that day.
There's so many incidents that are worth doubting, but I don't even want to care, and if I even want to, the person who patiently waited for me outside my classroom and hugged me the moment she noticed me could answer for me.
Her hug reminded me of the first hug she ever gave me during that Christmas night. The only differences are that it's more deepening and her tears soaked my uniform, indicating that she was happy for being freed from the engagement.
According to Yukino, it seems that Hayama accepted the engagement because he doesn't want to betray the expectations adults made but he really did show her off to me on purpose on his own in these past two months, and the reason why is because Hayama didn't want to feel like losing to me so he did to make me give up while trying to win her heart over in these past two months.
As for the rumors, the student council president told us that it seems to be plotted by Hayama and Yukino's parents to kill our affection and trust we have for each other.
By showing Yukino the pictures of me being together with various girls and spreading them into rumors, expecting Yukino to hate me for it.
But those efforts of theirs were for naught.
And why did the student council president know that?
She said that Yukino's grandmother contacted her and informed her what's going on then requested her to clear up the misunderstandings as she saw fit.
Then it's revealed by Haruno-san that her grandmother, once met me she was reminded of someone she knew, and that is somehow the reason she denied the idea of Yukino and Hayama parents messing with me but failed.
In order to at least make up for the troubles her daughter and son-in-law caused for me, Yukino's grandmother did this.
But it's too late since her fears have become the reality.
The scheme which the parents of Yukino and Hayama came up with to mess with me, the evidence of that scheme was collected and being used as blackmailing materials by the sole young heir of the prestigious Suzutsuki family, Suzutsuki Kanade, who is currently Hayama's fiancée.
One might assume that Suzutsuki Kanade has a feeling for Hayama but that seems to not be the case, in fact, it looks like she only wanted someone to fill in the marital status so that the boys would give up to her and it's really effective.
After the school ended, a black limousine that was different from the one that belonged to Yukino's family came to pick up Hayama and somehow the transfer student I have mentioned earlier went in there.
Then, a black-haired young lady with red eyes came out and greeted them and both Yukino and I once she noticed our presence.
Since the transfer student called her "Milady Kanade", I assumed that the one who greeted us was definitely Hayama's fiancée and the transfer student must be one of her servants.
And that's when I saw Suzutsuki Kanade for the first time.
Considering how her beauty could be described as not losing to the likes of Yukino or my brothers' stepsister, Hayama might be considered to be another lucky guy.
However, her personality seems to be another matter. If I put it in a way my past self would say, her personality isn't even less scary to Haruno-san, in fact, she might be on par with Yukino's parents on that term.
And it's very convincing when Hayama's usual smile couldn't be formed properly whenever he's around her.
Although their conversation seemed like that of the couple, I don't think that would be the case.
For example, Suzutsuki asked Hayama whether he's doing well in the school or not and that he could have transferred to the same school as her if he's not.
It does look like flirting at first, but I don't think she really meant it. If I have to say whether she has feelings of affection or not, then I could say that she might have, but for the glasses-wearing butler beside her to be exact.
After they left, Haruno-san came by to see how Hayama's doing but she's too late.
From what Haruno-san said, it appeared that on top of being blackmailed, Hayama's parents were forced to make a contract that if Hayama tried to lay a finger on Suzutsuki Kanade or do anything without her permission, their schemes would be publicly published.
Since Hayama was someone whose top priority was always about meeting the other's expectations, it prevented him from resisting and had no choice but to agree to be Suzutsuki's boy deterrent fiancé as told by his parents.
The only mercies that Suzutsuki gave Hayama are allowed him to savor the little taste of freedom by let him continue be the student of Sobu High School instead of forcing him to attend her school which her father was the principal there (but still sending one of her servants to observe him, how thorough), also he's allowed to marry into her family after the graduation if he's still a useful boy by then.
For Hayama, his freedom in life was already reduced to the amount of dust residing in the fingernail.
Because Hayama and Yukino are no longer a couple and now everyone knows that he has a fiancée, many horrible rumors about him being a hidden womanizer started to spread like wildfire, much to Hayama's dismay and even more so to the student council president's that she had to clear up these rumors up again.
As for someone who cares about meeting the other's expectations more than anything, this is like leading a life of living dead.
Yukino's parents, especially the father, still not giving up, arranging the engagement for their daughter with the guy they believed to be better than me one after another.
Eventually, 8 years passed, they had no choice but to give up after constant failures, otherwise they would be ruined.
They have been doing this because of the reputation of their family's name, and now they're almost about to be demoted to commoners like me.
Just so you know that neither Yukino nor I did anything except honing our faith, precepts, generosity and wisdom.
It's all because these people have been digging their own graves despite the fact that we have been telling them they shouldn't do it.
We don't need to do much of anything other than studying the book my father gave me and the sutras my father has mentioned that day.
And things turned out like what we have been studying so far.
Firstly, by keeping the difference of four factors that determine the distance between us as low as possible, despite the numerous incidents that would separate us apart, Yukino and I could overcome them all in the end.
Yukino's ex-fiancés, on the other hand, the difference of four factors, especially the precept part, is too much and much worse than her, as a result, the event that separates her from them eventually came.
Secondly, the crime Yukino's parents committed started to bear their fruits.
While Hayama was blackmailed, the rest of Yukino's ex-fiancés had their ulterior motivations exposed in the end.
Not to mention that most of them were the heirs of the Yukinoshita family's business partners.
Thanks to that, the Yukinoshita family lost friends and business partners one after another.
According to what my father has stated, this could be considered related to the light consequence of certain actions.
The light consequence of constant lying is to be accused with false words, the light consequence of constant divisive speaking is to have friendships broken, the light consequence of constant malicious speaking is to get to hear unpleasant sounds, the light consequence of constant senseless speaking is to make your words lose credibility.
Whenever I remembered that, I could only conclude that everything that happened so far just makes sense, even though it might doesn't for some people out there.
For Hayama who mostly relied on lying it would lead him to be surrounded by falsely accused rumors anytime soon, and if his friends lack critical thinking process, then he would also lose friends anytime soon.
Therefore, it made sense.
As for Yukino and I, our past selves definitely did quite a large number of those ourselves so we're paying the prices for our past deeds.
Therefore, it made sense.
That's why we don't hold grudges against them.
For those who threw horrible words at Yukino and I, I heard that many of them, on top of being falsely accused, some of them have their excuses weren't believed and they ended up being ridiculed, some of them lose their friends and lovers by the end of the graduation.
Since they have been doing the lyings, divisive speaking, malicious speaking and senseless speaking back then, this is the fair result.
But even more so to Yukino's parents, since the Yukinoshita family is one of the prestige families, if not only being falsely accused, but also losing the alliances and word credibilities would result in a huge loss for them.
Unfortunately, they have been doing the action that would result in such consequences.
However, normally, it would take much longer for deeds to bear their fruits, even for the light consequences, which explains why lives seem unfair even though they're not.
But for these people's deeds to bear fruits this quickly meant the amount they've been doing might be large enough, if let go, what lies ahead of them would be the heavy consequences.
During the day I genuinely got accepted, Yukino's parents were both slapped in the face by Yukino's grandmother for their disobediences.
I have told you many times that you're messing with someone you shouldn't! And look at what you've done!
Even though they told her that it's all to test me whether I'm a suitable guy that Yukino deserves, Yukino's grandmother only scolded her daughter and son-in-law.
Between this young man's sincereness to you all and everything you two have been doing to him, which one Yukino deserves to have, must I spell it out right here and now?!
And that's how Yukino and I got permission to get married together.
Lastly, as for the four factors that determine the distance between people, there's more about it.
According to the sutras, if you manage to keep all four factors at best and then wish for something, that wish would be granted someday as long as it's possible and the wish itself doesn't ruin any factors.
Although it took about 8 years to have our wishes granted, it was worth it.
But it didn't take us that long for our wish to have a child, in fact we got three at once.
Then what about my dream of becoming a househusband?
Ever since I read the book my father gave me, I'm fine with being anything that could assist Yukino so I don't need that dream anymore, especially now that I'm married into the Yukinoshita family.
But not many people knew about that since I refused to hold the wedding ceremony because it's a hassle (the same could be said to my brothers).
Currently, we're both working to make up for the losses my in-laws caused.
That's how my life with Yukino is.
As for others, who should I start with?
For Hiratsuka-sensei, one year after that Christmas Day, she got herself a boyfriend who was a professor at a Saitama University, then 4 years after that she married him and her name became Ikeda Shizuka.
For Haruno-san, she's currently the head of the Yukinoshita family and married Nobunaga-san. Although Nobunaga-san married into the Yukinoshita family 4 years ago, he's mostly in charge of helping his still-single little sister manage the business, which Haruno-san surprisingly fine with that as if they're married just to fulfill the marital status or something.
For Hachiju, since he's been harming people who hurt his family with drugs in the past, his health began to get worse as the time passed by. Noticed that, Isshiki, threw away her dream of becoming a housewife and aimed to be a doctor for his sake. 5 years later, she married Hachiju and her name became Sanshokuin Iroha. It seems that the doctor is still far from her reach but at least she's good enough to be the doctor's assistant (although that doctor is her husband and the one responsible to take care of Yukino's birth giving to be exact).
For Hassen, there's one more reason why he's transferred elsewhere, and that is because the school he went to is closer to our father's house which is convenient for him. His godparents don't mind him moving out and living with our father at all, in fact, they support his decision, saying that it's obvious to support their son if he's grown up.
And things not just ended there, he also got himself a girlfriend there, if I'm not mistaken, I think her name is Akizuki Sakuya, she's another woman whose beauty is also not losing to Yukino at all (but even I have to admit that her face does remind me of Yukino's).
It's not like they have feelings for each other at first, according to Hassen, it appeared that he's transferred to her school and he mostly spent his lunch break at the library and met her there.
After spending time together for a brief period, they got along pretty well since their mindset is quite alike to each other.
Then one day, Akizuki-san's childhood friend urged her to confess to Hassen before it's too late.
It appeared that she used to have an ideal boy she's in love with but that boy already chose to date her childhood friend so she's heartbroken, but ever since she met Hassen, she could gradually moved on and took a liking to him, so her childhood friend suggested that she took the initiative before someone took him from her again like how it did to her unrequited love.
It's not like Hassen was eavesdropping that he knew all of this, but his presence just being ignored despite being there from the beginning.
Hassen suggested that she's not wrong about her actions since she didn't know everything about him because she simply understood him better than anyone else, unless she knew enough about him, she'd better not confess.
Because of that, during my high school graduation, Hassen came back and introduced her as his friend to me as a part of her education about him, which made it the first time I met Akizuki Sakuya for the first time.
By the end of that day, Akizuki-san learned a lot about Hassen, including his past crimes with others, but even so, she could accept all of that and decided to confess to him.
With Hassen accepting her confession after fixing his blushing, they've become a couple and then married each other 4 years afterward.
We three brothers kept in touch from time to time, but our wives seemed to not do that together with us since it was kinda confusing to differentiate their husband from their brother-in-laws, not to mention that they just didn't feel right whenever they being addressed by each other; Iroha is the eldest sister-in-law yet she's the youngest between the three, Yukino is the youngest sister-in-law yet she's the second oldest between the three and Sakuya is the second eldest sister-in-law yet she's the oldest between the three.
As for Komachi, she gets along well with Taishi once they become the Sobu High students, in fact, they're dating each other as well. But one day, they engaged in a big fight that caused both of them to break up and never made up.
At that time, the bad rumors about me being a womanizer were still around and Taishi was ridiculed for dating a little sister of the scumbag.
At first he didn't believe it, but he eventually gave in to the flow of rumors after time passed by.
Once he debated about rumors regarding me with Komachi, she got mad at him and eventually broke up with him.
The depressed Taishi got comforted by his sister and Yuigahama and he eventually developed feelings for Yuigahama as a result.
After learning so much about Taishi, Yuigahama herself also started to develop feelings for him too and they started dating during the day of Yuigahama's graduation.
Komachi, on the other hand, although a lot of people comfort her, her disappointment in Taishi still lingering in her mind.
A few days later, Komachi found Totsuka crying over his break up with Shiromeguri-senpai so she comforted him.
It seems that their situation is really similar.
One day on his way home from club activities, Totsuka happened to be riding the train alone. It was rush hour, and the train was crowded, then a junior high school girl in front of him suddenly grabbed his hand and said "This man is a molester" even though he's done nothing.
But not everyone would just believe his words. Shiromeguri-senpai believed he's innocent at first and did her best to be by his side, until she couldn't take the pressure from the ones who didn't believe his words and eventually doubted him herself as well.
And all it took for them to break up is her tongue slipped her doubt about him and it reached his ears.
Then, their relationship started with being the benefactor to each other and started to develop into that of a romantic one.
As for Shiromeguri-senpai, a few days after her break up with Totsuka, she found Tobe crying over his breakup with Ebina so she comforted him and ended up dating him once he managed to get accepted into the same university as her, the power of love is amazing.
The reason for Ebina to break up with Tobe is simple; Tobe couldn't win her heart and got broken up once he's no longer of use to her.
And it seemed that Ebina also took a liking to Zaimokuza after he did an image change; he's no longer a fat boy and now looked like a real-life Byakuran.
Although they're acting like a couple of kindred spirits back then, the fact that both of them are going out with each other or not remains unknown.
Several years after our high school graduation, Miura worked at Sobu High School as a P.E. teacher and is very popular while Kawasaki was hired as a driver for Yukinoshita family after the previous one's retirement.
There's so many twists in life indeed.
Now then, can someone help me name my babies?
(Yukinoshita Hachiman POV Ended)
A/N: Look like I finished it in time. Epilogue is finally done but there's still more so please enjoy, also, Happy Birthday Hikigaya Komachi and Kiryuu Mizuha.