THEY SPENT THE NIGHT TOGETHER, GUYS! I REPEAT, THEY SPENT THE NIGHT TOGETHER!
Hinana woke up with Kaede by her side, and then she remembered what they did last night.
Kaede had fun watching her reactions since it’s how he expected her to react. Hinana explained how it’s obvious she’d react that way since she remembered how Kaede went all-out last night. Kaede then said she’s also going “all-out” with the way she’s explaining what they did last night. HAHA, these two cuties!
Hinana smiled and told him how happy she is which made Kaede blush too, LOL. She asked if Kaede wasn’t able to sleep well and wondered if she was talking in her sleep. Kaede told her she wasn’t, but she did move a lot while sleeping. Hinana’s embarrassed about it but Kaede was happy to know another side of her.
They kissed and cuddled, and Hinana dropped a perverted joke HAHAHA
Hinana: I wasn’t able to look at your body properly last night, so can I have a proper look at it? Especially the lower part.
Kaede: Stop that.
We all know she’s a closet pervert HAHAHA.
Dreams
Hinana’s finally acting like her age and telling all her selfish qualms. She kept sticking to Kaede because she knows she knows it’s really their last day being together before she flies to Germany. Kaede has always wanted her to act this way so he let her hug her until she gets tired of him LOL.
They talked about Hinana’s future dreams during breakfast. She said she wants to be a pianist who can perform all over the world. Even if that doesn’t happen, she’s still fine with being a studio pianist, composer, or anything that can make her a living by using her piano skills.
As for Kaede, he’s fine with his current accomplishments but his actual wish is to win an Oscar. He said winning the Oscar will help him show how much he and the people around him worked hard. With that, they promised that even when apart, they’ll both work hard to reach their dreams.
Fast Forward
“Reality is different from fairy tales.” That’s what Hinana has always thought but she’s starting to think that that might not be the case. You can move forward as long as you have courage and the important people around you. That’s already something that can be considered a fairy tale.
An-chan went to college. He saw an article where Hinana got 3rd place in a competition. He couldn’t help but smile because of how proud he is for Hinana since she’s already accomplished that much in just a span of a year and a half. His classmate saw him smiling while looking at his phone, then he proudly said “She’s my childhood friend!”
Wedding
Hinana flew back to Japan to attend a wedding. Shuu and Shige-chan’s finally getting married!
Shuu wanted to give her bouquet to Hinana, but she felt bad accepting it when Kaede showed up behind her and asked if he can accept the bouquet in Hinana’s stead.
Kaede and Hinana went for a drive after the wedding. They haven’t seen each other for six months so Hinana thought they should talk and catch up on each other. Kaede invited her to his place, but she remembered her mom telling her that the theater they used to go to is finally closing down. And so, they decided to go there one last time.
Happily Ever After
The cinema was still the same as how they remembered it. It’s still empty and feels like they rented it all for themselves. Hinana’s sad because they made a lot of memories at that place but it’ll soon get demolished.
They reminisced about their past, on how it’s been 4 years since they first went to that theater together. Now, Hinana’s already playing piano overseas. Hinana shared how he felt studying overseas, and how there are times she felt homesick, but her drive to be better was stronger so she strived harder. Kaede also shared his own accomplishments. He got nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor.
Another interesting piece of news, Kaede has a new movie project. He said he could totally ace his role without the need to study it because the movie is a love story between an actor and a high school girl. Aside from that, the title of the movie is something he thought of doing in the past, “Come to Kiss You at the Stroke of Midnight”. ROLL IN THE CREDITS!!
Fast forward again, Suzu’s now in high school. She’s walking with her friends on the way to school when the people around her were surprised by the news on the billboard.
It says, “Actor Kaede Ayase (35) announced his marriage to musician Hanazawa Hinana (27).
Suzu, on the other hand, thought the two actually took longer to get married. THE END.
After Thoughts
I personally didn’t think I’d like this when I first read it because I wasn’t a fan of Mikimoto-sensei’s previous works (I thought they were too cringe for my age). I read this without any expectations and now it’s one of my favorite. There weren’t any serious love triangles or problems aside from Kaede’s issue with the band and Hinana’s problem with her parents. You can also see how open and comfortable the couples are with each other. There were parts where I cried when Kaede was resolving his problems, and I still cried out of happiness at the ending. It’s just too wholesome for my heart!
All in all, this is something I’ll reread in the future (I might even buy a physical copy despite already owning it digitally HAHA). What do you guys think? Did you also enjoy reading this?
Here are two extra pages in Volume 12 where Kaede announced his marriage on IG.
His caption there is, “Got married. #LoveMyWife”
Fun fact: Kaede’s IG username is pretty witty IMO.
Kaede means Maple and Oshiri means Butt in English. We can think of the dot there as the O so he’s boldly flexing his butt fetish on IG HAHAHA.
Please support Mikimoto Rin-sensei’s “Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight” by buying the series, be it in English or in Japanese.