Chapter 77: An Unexpected “Memory”

Chapter 77: An Unexpected “Memory”

“Ca-Caroline— what’s going on?”

On the school rooftop in the afternoon, Tendou looked nervously at Caroline, who had her back to him. His timid tone made it clear he had zero confidence.

He couldn’t help it—he genuinely had no idea what he’d done wrong.

But judging by how Caroline hadn’t said a single word, it was obvious she was trying to hold in something big.

So whether he knew what he did wrong or not, the smartest move right now was to apologize immediately!

Because if he waited until he figured out his mistake before apologizing, then… it would be too late.

In handling how to calm Caroline’s “anger,” Tendou had extremely rich and very scientifically proven experience.

But before he could use any of his “one hundred little techniques to soothe Caroline,” Caroline—still facing away from him—suddenly shoved a small gift box into his arms, saying softly:

“Here. Happy birthday… in advance.”

“Huh?”

After doing that, Caroline instantly lowered her head, cheeks faintly red.

At the same time, streams of garbled data flickered across her eyes, and the pair of green electronic cat ears on her head trembled lightly.

She was clearly flustered—her mental CPU was overheating.

And Tendou, unsurprisingly, understood exactly what was going on.

He looked at Caroline’s back, then down at the small gift box in his hands.

A smile slowly formed.

Unlike the exquisite, store-bought gift boxes from the classroom earlier. Caroline’s box—judging from the crooked bow on the lid and the glue around the edges that hadn’t fully dried—was obviously something she had rushed to make by hand.

Otherwise, with Caroline’s usual precision and seriousness, even if it was her first time making a gift box, there was no way she would create something so rough.

So, she must’ve gotten anxious when she saw the others giving him presents… and hurriedly made one herself before running over here.

Realizing this, Tendou’s smile grew even warmer.

Under the cloudless, sapphire sky, the afternoon sunlight reflected off the shimmering sea of the Coastal District, brushed past the fish swimming below, and stretched the shadows of the boy and girl across the white rooftop floor.

A warm breeze passed by, lifting the silver strands of hair on Tendou’s forehead.

Lost in thought, he carefully opened the gift box.

Inside, a blue necklace hung with a cute little dolphin charm appeared before him.

Curious, Tendou picked it up.

Under the sunlight, the dolphin—crafted with some special material—shimmered with ripples like ocean waves.

Before he could study it further, Caroline, noticing his movements from the corner of her eye, quickly whispered:

“I—I know your birthday is coming soon… but once I go back, I need to enter the base’s Quantum Center for at least a month of quantum computation…”

“If I finish the calculations early, I can still make it to your birthday. But if I can’t… then I definitely won’t be able to leave in time.”

“So after thinking about it again and again… I decided it’s better to give you your birthday present before I head to the Quantum Center.”

“That way… even if I can’t come out in time… I won’t have missed your birthday.”

“I just… don’t know if you’ll like this gift.”

Caroline’s voice was tense, her explanation stumbling and awkward—nothing like her usual calm and rational self.

But he had to admit—seeing her like this actually made Caroline look even cuter and somehow, more… human.

So as Tendou carefully examined the little dolphin necklace in his hand, he smiled and said:

“Of course I’m satisfied. This is something that you gave to me. How could I not be?”

The moment he said that, Caroline’s cheeks turned an even deeper shade of red, and a puff of white steam appeared above her head—exactly like the effect that girl ranked first in his class had shown earlier.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the dimensional audience on Crustyroll exploded with excitement.

“COME OUT! All those people who slandered Tendou, saying he can’t flirt—COME OUT AND APOLOGIZE! Isn’t he doing great?!”

“Wowza~ delicious, very sweet, MORE MORE MORE!”

“Science says too much sugar causes cavities, but who cares—I DON’T BELIEVE IN SCIENCE! I DON’T EVEN NEED TEETH! JUST KEEP FEEDING ME!”

“Bro, I don’t know you can flirt like that, say more line please. My notebook still has lots of pages! (Studying seriously, analyzing frame by frame!)”

“Don’t take notes, bro. You think he flirts through technique? He’s cheating—his base stats are broken!”

“‘This is something that you gave to me—damn it, Tendou’s skill is skyrocketing! How is this still balanced?!”

“‘Stellaris Dev Studio: We’ve received user feedback. Patch in progress.’”

“DON’T YOU TOUCH IT! This is the PERFECT version. No patches needed!”

Amidst the audience’s teasing, Tendou set the little dolphin necklace down and carefully put it around his own neck.

At that moment, he suddenly noticed the necklace hanging from Caroline’s pale neck—the exact same design as his.

The only difference was that his dolphin was blue, while hers was pink.

Perfectly matching the giant pink dolphin plush he had given her as a birthday gift not long ago.

But Tendou wisely chose not to mention this. Instead, pretending not to notice, he asked about the necklace’s function.

Using his Star-Eclipse Eye, he had seen the flow of star energy circuits hidden inside the little dolphin charm.

“Caroline… this necklace isn’t simple, is it?”

“Mm.”

Caroline nodded. After tucking the pink dolphin necklace back under her collar, she turned around and began explaining in her usual serious, earnest tone.

“It’s called Deep Blue Resonance. I asked Isabelle to have the BluEther Group specially craft it using a rare performance mineral—Tear of Deep Blue.”

As she spoke, Caroline unconsciously stepped closer and lifted the Deep Blue Resonance necklace resting on Tendou’s chest.

The two of them were now standing so close that Tendou could see every detail of Caroline’s eyelashes.

But immersed in her explanation, Caroline didn’t notice.

Holding the necklace, she began describing the star energy engravings inside it and their functions.

“Tear of Deep Blue is a specialty of the Deep Blue Metropolis. It naturally has exceptional conductivity for water-element star energy.”

“So one of the star energy circuits in this necklace is for temperature regulation. It can keep your body feeling like it’s in the low twenties even in a heat of forty degrees. Basically, it’s a portable air-conditioner in necklace form.”

“And its other function is—”

Mid-sentence, Caroline suddenly seemed to realize something and stopped talking.

Her mysterious pause immediately made Tendou dissatisfied.

“Caroline, what’s the other function? Why did you suddenly stop?”

Caroline hesitated for a moment, gently biting her lower lip, before taking out the pink dolphin necklace she had hidden earlier.

“The other function is… when one of us wants to find the other, we just need to activate our Deep Blue Resonance.”

“At that moment, as long as we’re within a certain distance of each other, these two matching Deep Blue Resonance necklaces will emit a sound—one only the two of us can hear. The ‘sound of the ocean.’ It’ll guide one of us to the other… like this.”

As she finished speaking, Caroline immediately infused star energy into the pink dolphin necklace on her neck.

With the star energy powering it, a faint sound—one only Caroline and Tendou could hear—suddenly echoed near their ears.

If one listened closely… it sounded exactly like a dolphin’s call.

The sound came quickly and faded just as fast, but it was unmistakably real and unique.

Realizing that, Tendou clearly understood what this meant. He smiled and lifted the little blue dolphin necklace hanging from his own neck.

“So what you’re saying is… as long as we aren’t too far apart, we can use this sound—one only the two of us can hear—to find each other quickly, right?”

“…Mm.”

Caroline nodded, head lowered, not daring to look directly at Tendou.

After all, this gift had indeed been made with a little personal… intention.

Her motives weren’t exactly pure.

But even though Tendou had already figured out what she was thinking, he smartly chose not to point it out.

Instead, he switched topics:

“Caroline, let’s take a picture together!”

“Huh?”

Caroline clearly couldn’t keep up with Tendou’s sudden change of direction.

But Tendou didn’t care whether she agreed or not—he simply grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the edge of the rooftop.

From that spot, they could clearly see Deep Blue Metropolis’s iconic landmark in the distance:

The Pearl of Deep Blue—a towering building shaped like a giant jellyfish.

It was also the very same location they’d used as the backdrop for their first photo together when they first came here.

Without giving Caroline a chance to refuse, Tendou instantly pulled out his phone and aligned the camera toward the two of them.

Unlike their first photo—where Caroline had been caught off guard with a flustered expression—this time, Tendou waited patiently until she was ready, even choosing an angle he thought suited her the best.

But what Caroline didn’t expect was that Tendou suddenly made a silly face one second before pressing the shutter.

The result was that in the photo, Caroline stood bathed in the soft afternoon sunlight, unintentionally brushing back her hair with a serene, almost literary elegance.

Next to her stood Tendou—pulling a goofy expression like a mischievous imp.

The contrast between them was almost comical.

A beautiful, quiet bookish girl.

And beside her… a completely unserious chaos gremlin.

The contrast ratio was maxed out.

“Tendou… why did you suddenly drag me to take a picture?”

Once the photo was taken, Caroline finally voiced her confusion.

Tendou’s answer was something she never expected.

“No reason. Remember when we first came here, you said I messed with you on purpose and took the picture before you were ready?”

“So this time, we’re switching it up. I’ll take a picture where you are ready and I’m not.”

“That way, it’s fair for both of us!”

“…”

Caroline froze, then stared at him speechlessly.

“Just because of that?”

“Yeah. Just because of that.”

Under the clear blue sky, Caroline looked into Tendou’s eyes—those deep azure irises that could outshine the stars and moon—and suddenly, she laughed softly.

Her expression turned helpless, yet tinged with a kind of gentle affection.

“Forget it. You’ve always been like this—doing whatever comes to mind. It’s exhausting…”

“But for some strange reason, it’s impossible to dislike you.”

“Come on, send me the picture.”

Just as Caroline reached out to take his phone, Tendou suddenly lifted it high out of her reach and refused:

“Nope, nope. I’m not sending you this photo. I’m keeping it for myself.”

“???”

Caroline stared at him, baffled.

Tendou smiled and explained:

“Just like the necklace you gave me—how the two pendants only let us hear each other’s voices when we’re close enough.”

“The photo in your phone and the photo in my phone each capture the best version of ourselves.”

“So instead of sharing, why don’t we just keep them separately?”

“That way, whenever we look at the picture in our own phone, the version of the other person that appears in our mind… will be the very best one.”

“And besides—this unexpected memory? I’m planning to keep it all to myself. No way I’m sending it to you.”

After saying that, Tendou immediately stuffed his phone into his pocket, striking a posture like he was guarding a priceless treasure—looking ridiculously childish as he silently declared he’d die before handing it over.

Caroline couldn’t help shaking her head helplessly, but she didn’t try to force it.

It was just a photo, after all.

If she wanted, she could take more pictures with Tendou anytime in the future. It wasn’t some irreplaceable thing.

What she didn’t notice was this:

After Tendou slipped his sunglasses back on, the eyes hidden beneath them held a very complicated expression.

Because, just as he’d said, today’s memory was completely unexpected.

He never imagined Caroline would remember his birthday so clearly.

Nor did he expect her to choose a day like this—when everyone was about to return—to suddenly give him such a special birthday gift.

It really was just like the saying goes:

In the script called life, even when you’ve planned everything out for yourself, the unexpected always arrives quietly, without warning.

Tendou thought he had already planned out the script between him and Caroline.

But he never expected that Caroline would suddenly write herself an extra scene into that script.

And the strangest part was… Tendou didn’t dislike it at all.

Meanwhile, in the shadows of the rooftop, unnoticed by either of them, a red-eyed girl watched the two from a distance.

She then looked down at the gift in her own hands.

After thinking for a moment, she simply turned around and left.

Because she knew very well that at this moment, on that rooftop… there wasn’t a place for her.

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