"Huh! Huh! Wow... Oh, my God?"

    "What is it, assistant? I don''t like hearing that from you."

    "It''s the wish of the man in question."

    "Ah, him, he wished to be reborn in the same world as his other half in exchange for his life. The man had worked to help me in his dreams. I went to great lengths to reincarnate him as a prince and his other half as the son of a powerful nobleman. He was born safely the other day..."

    "Yes, I know. I''m sorry about that, but you''ve got the wrong gender."

    "... Hmm?"

    "They have different genders. The other half is a man''s wife, in other words a woman."

    "What? Damn, since you said they were each other''s half, I inadvertently ... I''ll have to retrieve the soul once and reincarnate it as a new female child. As for her memories ... well, she''ll remember in time."

    We were classmates in junior high school.

    We were in the same class in the third year of junior high school, and I exchanged words with her for the first time.

    It was a rural junior high school, a mammoth school consisting of three elementary schools in the area, with nine classes of 40 students at the time. There was a possibility that I would not even know her face until the end, but I knew only her name. She was the ace of the swimming team and often won prizes at competitions, and was often honored at morning assemblies.

    When I saw her up close, I felt like I had been shot in the chest.

    It was love at first sight.

    The first thing out of my mouth was, "You''re going to like me," which I didn''t think I would.

    Her eyes widened in surprise and she said, "I don''t know. I''m dating someone," she said, laughing vaguely, and at that moment my first love was shattered.

    After that, we spent a year as mere classmates, and after graduating from junior high school, we went to different high schools.

    The next time we met was in the summer of my third year of high school. She broke up with her man at the time and was free.

    I ended up going out with her on a whim, and after graduating from college, we got married.

    The next time I met her was the summer of my senior year of high school. She had broken up with the guy she was with at the time and was free.