I took a sip of tea to calm myself down.
Riran was tripping through a world of delusions, and Suwabe-san was looking at us with eyes that seemed to be watching something heartwarming.
"Ah—... I'm sorry to Suwabe-san, but I have to decline that offer."
""Why (is that)?!""
Riran, normally you should be in a position to decline as well.
Well, I knew that when Riran gets flustered, things turn out like this, so there's no point in stopping her now.
"Think about it carefully. Riran and I are still 16, first-year high school students. Two people like that living under the same roof is out of the question."
"Heh-heh-hehn! I already foresaw such an objection! It seems I truly do have the aptitude to be a great detective!"
Stop with the smug face. It's annoying.
Suwabe-san turned on the screen of a tablet she took out from somewhere and pointed it toward us.
"Now then, please take a look at this."
"...What's this?"
"This is a graph summarizing the timing of when people around the world started living together after meeting their fated person, categorized by age group. Looking at this graph, you can see that those in their early 20s account for 70 percent of the total. However, 10 percent of the total start living together in their teens. This is by no means a small number."
To think she'd prepare such materials... Just how serious are you, Suwabe-san?
"Furthermore, in response to the question of whether they have been happy since they started living together, 99.9 percent of people answered 'Yes'."
"Well, of course, they're people connected by the 'Red Thread of Fate' living together. There's no doubt they'd be happy."
"That is true. And one more thing: as a result of asking if there was anything they regretted, the older they were, the more the answer was: 'I should have started living together sooner'!"
This data must have been gathered from all over the world. She used pie charts and line graphs to make her point with incredible emphasis.
Certainly, what she was saying made sense. Or rather, it was such a logical argument that I couldn't refute it. Riran was also nodding with heavy breaths.
"Furthermore!"
"There's more?"
"Of course! This is a presentation on whether the Suwabe family can repay their debt to their benefactor; it is, so to speak, a decisive battleground where the pride and competence of the Suwabe family are at stake! Naturally, I will put my soul into it!!"
"O-Okay. I get it, so don't lean forward so much."
Because it looked like various things were about to spill out from her loose neckline.
Even for me, who has the best fated partner like Riran, it's difficult to resist in the face of 'Universal Gravit-tation'.
"Akito, just now..."
"It's a misunderstanding. I didn't see anything."
"I haven't said anything yet, though."
"Curse you, was that a leading question?!"
"You just self-destructed, didn't you?"
She gave me a cold stare. No, sorry...
"Ahem. Then, I shall continue. Actually, I contacted certain individuals and conducted an interview with a couple who started living together as first-year high school students. Here it is."
She pressed the video play button.
In the next moment, the screen brightened along with some grand audio, and a man and a woman appeared... Wait.
"Ah, Kurashiki and Neika."
"She found out about those two, Suwabe-san?"
"By using my real estate connections, I was able to gather information surprisingly easily."
Using company power... Suwabe-san's seriousness is really coming through now.
As I watched the footage, I could hear Suwabe-san's voice from within. She was probably the one filming.
'Thank you for agreeing to the interview today.'
'You're the one who visited us out of the blue and threatened us to answer your questions if we didn't want the world to know we were living together, right, Iinchō-chan?'
"Stop."
I tapped the video to pause it and looked at Suwabe-san.
Hey, don't look away, look at me.
"Suwabe-san, you..."
"N-n-no, you're wrong. It wasn't a threat. Hyu-hyu-hyu~"
Your whistling is terrible.
This person is a dangerous individual who won't choose their means as long as it's for their objective...
"N-Now, let's watch the rest. Click."
She tapped the play button again. Naturally, the Suwabe-san in the video was also making some kind of excuse, but I'll skip that.
'Ahem. Then... let me ask you two. You seem to have started living together this summer, but are you two happy now?'
'Hey, hey, hey! Iinchō-chan, that's a stupid question!'
'We're full of happiness! Every day is a life at maximum bliss!'
Both Ryūya and Neika, who was sitting on Ryūya's lap, had smiles that seemed full of happiness.
This might be the first time I've ever seen these guys make faces like that.
'Having experienced living together so soon after your Red Threads became visible, what advice would you give to people in the same situation?'
'Are you talking about Akito and the others?'
'Or is it about Rio and Riza?'
'I shall remain silent on that.'
At the point you're asking these questions, there's no point in remaining silent.
However, Ryūya seemed to be thinking about the answer seriously, crossing his arms in thought.
'Hmm... to be honest, age doesn't matter. I think you should just start living together quickly.'
'And why is that?'
'Because time is finite.'
...Time is finite? What does that mean?
'People have a tendency to live thinking that time is infinite. But that's not the case. Your current age is your youngest, and you can't go back to the past. Whether you're a good person or a bad person, time flows equally for everyone. In other words, you'll eventually reach the end of your life and die. This is universal; it doesn't change.'
At those words from Ryūya, Riran, who was sitting next to me, grabbed my hand.
Her hand was trembling slightly. Riran had clearly recognized the concept of time and death just now.
I hadn't thought about it this deeply before either... but being told again, it really makes me straighten my posture.
'I looked it up once before; it seems humans can live for about 30,000 days. And if you calculate the number of days we've lived at 16, it's about 6,000 days. Just five times the amount of time we've lived so far, and we'll die.'
30,000 days... of which 6,000 have already passed...
'Besides, we aren't invincible. We might die tomorrow due to an accident or illness. Then I'd rather live together as soon as possible and stay by the side of the person I cherish for as long as I can. Right?'
With that, Ryūya's eyes looked straight at me. ...Or so it felt.
'Hey, you listening to this. You're the youngest you'll ever be in your life right now. You can't go back to the past. So don't look back at the past, and live so you won't have any regrets. Live your life to the fullest right now. ...That's all!'
Live to the fullest... so I won't have any regrets.
Haha, to think the day would come when my heart would be so shaken by Ryūya's words.
'Ryūya, you're cool but it's so embarrassing. Uhee, I'm getting goosebumps all over!'
'Hey, hey, hey! I'm always cool, right?!'
Noisy and chaotic. The video ended with such a scene.