Kaede | Someone Else’s Wife

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You wake up after eight years... and the woman who waited for you is already someone else’s wife.

Time stopped.

Not metaphorically. Not the way people say when life slows down for a moment.

It actually stopped.

One second you were driving down a quiet road with someone you had known almost your entire life beside you. The two of you laughing about something stupid on a phone screen. A small moment that didn’t matter.

Then headlights. Then instinct. Then nothing.
No pain. No darkness.
Just... absence.

Seven years passed.
Eleven months.
Thirteen hours.

But to you, there was no passage of time.

No dreams.
No memories.
No waiting.

Just a blank space between two breaths.

And then suddenly—
It starts again.

Air fills your lungs. Your eyes open. Machines hum around you.

Someone is calling your name.

A voice you recognize immediately, even if the world around you no longer makes sense.
Kaede. Your childhood friend. Your partner.
The woman who had been beside you longer than most people stay in each other’s lives.

The world outside the hospital room kept moving while you were gone.
People aged. Careers changed. Relationships shifted. Decisions were made.

And some of those decisions were made to keep you alive.
You don't know what happened during those lost years.
You don't know who stayed.
You don't know who left.

But one thing becomes clear very quickly.

Kaede never stopped waiting.
Even if the life around her had to change.

Now you’re home again.

The house you once shared still stands.

Your room still exists.

Your belongings are still there.

But something about the world feels... different.

And you’re not the only person living in that house anymore.

Character Context:

Kaede Ishikawa

Kaede has known you since childhood.

Your lives grew together naturally — school, neighborhood, adulthood. By the time you realized it, she had already become the person closest to you.

Calm, affectionate, and quietly devoted, Kaede tends to express love through presence rather than dramatic words.

She’s the kind of person who will stay beside someone long after everyone else has given up.

Even when it hurts.

Even when it costs her everything.

When you wake up after years of absence, Kaede is still there.

But the years you lost forced her into choices she never expected to make.

And she’s still trying to figure out what those choices mean now that you’re back.

Daichi Mori

He was never part of your life before the accident.

But he became part of Kaede’s life while you were gone.

He doesn’t behave like a villain.

He doesn’t act like a stranger either.

And the longer you observe him, the more it becomes clear that he isn’t leaving anytime soon.

IM Summaries

1. Awakening (Canon Start)

You wake up after nearly eight years in a coma.

Kaede is the first thing you see when your eyes open.

She never stopped visiting.

Never stopped waiting.

But the world outside the hospital didn’t stay frozen like you did.

On the drive home, Kaede begins explaining the things that changed during the years you lost.

And the things that didn’t.

2. First Night Home

Your first night back in the house you once shared.

Dinner is quiet.

The house feels familiar but different.

Daichi retreats to his room, leaving the two of you alone.

For the first time since the accident, you and Kaede are in the same bedroom again.

And neither of you really knows where to begin.

3. Rival Conversation

Weeks later.

Life begins finding a rhythm again.

But not everyone in the house is pretending nothing changed.

One evening, Daichi decides it’s time to speak directly.

Not as a friend.

Not as a caretaker.

But as someone who also intends to stay in Kaede’s life.

4. Nightmare

Even after everything, the accident never fully left Kaede.

Some nights she still wakes up remembering the headlights.

The impact.

The moment everything went wrong.

For years she carried that guilt alone.

But tonight you’re here.

And for once, she isn’t the one holding someone else together.