Chapter 1048 - 1048: The Future He Promised

Ryoma staggers through the restaurant, ignoring the pain in his jaw and the unsteadiness in his legs. His eyes dart from face to face as he searches for Kaede.

"Sir, excuse me! Where are you going?"

"Have you seen a waitress named Kaede?" Ryoma asks without stopping.

"Sir, you can't just…"

But Ryoma has already walked past him, continuing down the corridor. He pushes through another door, startling a staff member carrying a tray.

"Hey! You can't go back there!"

"Where's Kaede?" Ryoma demands, barely sparing the man a glance.

He follows the corridor until he reaches the kitchen. Several staff members immediately turn toward him.

"Stop right there! This is a restricted area!"

A chef steps forward, blocking his path. "Sir, you need to leave. You can't come in here."

From deeper inside the kitchen, Ryoma hears a man scolding someone.

"Do you think you can just walk out in the middle of your shift without telling anyone? You made a mess in front of our guests, and now you're abandoning your responsibilities? What exactly do you think you're doing?"

Seemingly recognizing who was being reprimanded, Ryoma shoves past the staff blocking his way.

"Hey! I told you to stop!"

"Sir, you can't go in there!"

The men try to hold him back, but Ryoma forces his way between them, ignoring their protests as he pushes deeper into the kitchen.

Finally, he finds Kaede near the exit standing with her head bowed, while the manager continues berating her, jabbing a finger in her direction.

"Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused? If you can't even face the consequences of your own mistakes, how am I supposed to trust you with another shift?"

Ryoma cuts off the manager's tirade.

"Kaede!"

The moment she hears Ryoma's voice, Kaede lifts her head. Her eyes meet his for an instant before she abruptly turns, pulls open the back door, and flees.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" the manager shouts, hurrying after her for a moment. "You can't just walk out like this! If you leave now, consider yourself fired!"

Ryoma brushes past him, knocking him aside as he rushes after Kaede.

"Hey! You bastard!" the manager bellows, his face flushed with anger as he charges after him. "Stop right there! Who the hell do you think you are?!"

Ryoma ignores the man, and eventually catches up to Kaede, grabbing her by the arm.

But he doesn't try to stop her or force her to turn around. Instead, he keeps walking, moving ahead of her while holding on to her arm and pulling her along.

"Ryoma, wait… Let go of my hand."

He doesn't answer. He just continues leading her toward the far end of the alley, ignoring her pleas until the manager finally catches up.

"Hey! You there!" the manager snaps, grabbing Ryoma by the back of his shirt and yanking him around. "Who the hell do you think you are, barging into my kitchen and dragging my employee away? You think you can just do whatever you want?"

Ryoma whirls around, his expression hardening.

"Get lost!"

The sharpness of his voice makes the manager falter. Then he gets a good look at Ryoma's face, and recognition hits him.

"Ryoma Takeda… the world champion."

The manager freezes, all the anger draining from his face. He quickly forces a pleasant smile and bows several times in rapid succession.

"I… I'm terribly sorry, Takeda-san! I didn't realize it was you. Please forgive my rudeness!"

He then hurriedly steps back, still bowing apologetically.

"I didn't realize you knew Kaede personally. Please, go ahead."

After walking away for a short distance, he turns back to Kaede, his voice suddenly turning sweet.

"Take as much time as you need for your break, Kaede. You can even take the rest of the day off. Just make sure you come back, all right?"

A beat later, Kaede pulls her arm away from Ryoma's grip, but she no longer tries to run. She realizes there's little point in avoiding him any longer.

Still, she can't bring herself to meet his gaze, lowering her eyes and turning her face slightly aside.

Ryoma turns to face her and studies her in silence, his gaze filled with concern and affection. He hadn't expected to find her in such a state.

Her cheeks look slightly thinner than he remembers, and the strain of a harsher life is still visible in her features. He can't imagine what kind of struggles she has endured over the past few years.

Whatever she has been through, Ryoma knows that it isn't the kind of life someone would lead while advancing her career and climbing the professional ladder in Malaysia.

"What happened to you?" Ryoma asks. "Why didn't you contact me after returning to Japan?"

Kaede keeps her gaze lowered, unable to meet his eyes.

"I just…" She falters, struggling to find the right words. "I thought it would be better this way."

"Better for whom?" Ryoma asks.

Kaede presses her lips together. She wants to tell him everything. About the promotion, the job she lost, and the day she came looking for him only to see him leaving with Reika. But what would be the point now?

Kaede finally looks up at him, forcing a smile. "You've been doing well, haven't you? Your career… everything. I thought you'd be better off without me getting in the way."

"And what about you?" Ryoma asks. "How did you end up here? Working as a waitress in a place like that? What happened to your promotion?"

Kaede's pain resurfaces as the bitter memory of the day she turned down the promotion for Ryoma comes rushing back.

But she can't bring herself to tell him the truth now. She turns her face away, forcing a laugh.

"I screwed it up, didn't I? Things didn't work out the way I planned."

Suddenly, Ryoma pulls her into a tight embrace. Kaede freezes, completely caught off guard.

"I'm sorry, Kaede."

"Ryoma…? Why are you apologizing?"

"I'm the one who pushed you into making that choice."

"No, Ryoma… it's not your fault. It was what I wanted."

Ryoma pulls back but keeps his hands on her shoulders, looking straight into her eyes with an earnest, almost childlike sincerity.

"Come on. You don't have to think about any of that anymore," he says. "I don't care about the past. I only care about today and our future. You're here now, and I want us to be together again. You wanted a commitment from me, didn't you? Look at me. I've made it. There's nothing to worry about anymore."

Kaede can only stare at him, her face growing paler by the second, the trauma of the past still lingers deep in her subconscious.

She has become too afraid to hope, too frightened to accept it, even though all she needs to do is nod, without having to fight for it anymore.

But Ryoma places no pressure on Kaede to explain herself. He could read everything in her eyes, and he simply takes her hand to lead the way.

"Come. You don't need to work in this kind of place anymore."

Kaede still looks a bit terrified. Yet she follows without resisting, unable to turn away from the very hope she is afraid to embrace.

Ryoma himself knows she's hurting, still burdened by the past.

But as someone who's spent years fighting his own trauma from the previous life, Ryoma knows that sometimes, healing means focusing on the present and refusing to let the past dictate how you live your life.