Someone like me couldn't possibly have the right to build a warm home.

#nana56b


Synopsis

Yui stared at her smartphone screen with trembling
hands.

The notification screen was filled with messages from
her biological father, begging for money.
“Can you give me some pocket money?”
“Can’t you do something about the money?”
Even after she fled her parents’ home as if running
for her life and started living alone in a city she
didn’t even know the name of, the relentless
messages never stopped. To her debt-ridden father,
his daughter was nothing more than a convenient ATM.

“I’m at my limit, too…”

Every day, she juggled multiple part-time jobs until
late at night. Even when she was bedridden with a
high fever, there was no one she could rely on.
Yui curled up in the darkness, hugging her knees.

She had no memories of ever being loved. Someone like
her surely had no right to build a warm, loving home.
She had convinced herself that loving someone—or being
loved by someone—was a luxury she wasn’t allowed to
have.

It was he—clumsy, yet radiating a warmth like the
sun—who pried open Yui’s closed-off world.

One night, as Yui, utterly exhausted, broke down in
tears, he quietly held her in his arms.

“Yui, let’s get married right now.”

He looked straight into Yui’s eyes as she lifted her
face.

“You don’t have to push yourself so hard all alone
anymore. From now on, I’m here. I’ll protect you,
Yui. ”

As if to cut off whatever Yui was about to say, he
smiled gently.

“And about your job—I know you’ve been working so
hard, even when you were sick. So you can quit now.
Become a full-time housewife and take it easy—rest
up for all the time you couldn’t before. I’ll be
the one to bring home the bacon. …After all you’ve
been through, I want you to be happy from now on.”

In that instant, tears poured from Yui’s eyes as if
a dam had burst.
“I’m nobody… I have nothing. Not even a family…”
“That doesn’t matter. As long as you’re here…
that’s all I need.”

His words worked like magic, unraveling the chains
that had bound Yui.
Their life was by no means wealthy. But just having
him wrap his large hands around her cold ones was
enough to make her certain she could face another
day.

More than ten years have passed since then.

The face she saw in the mirror no longer bore that
frozen expression from back then; instead, it held
a gentle glow.

Just as he had promised ten years ago, Yui was
happy. He didn’t just protect her livelihood—he
fully embraced and continued to love Yui for who
she was.

Now, gazing at his sleeping face as he lay
exhausted on the sofa, Yui gently tucked the
blanket around him.
A few strands of white were mixed in with his hair,
and the laugh lines at the corners of his eyes had
deepened. All of it was proof of the time he had
devoted to protecting her.

“…Thank you so much.”

Knowing that saying it out loud would make her tears
spill over, Yui repeated the words over and over in
her heart.
You used to laugh about your …