Chapter 147 – The Changing Landscape of Relationships

……

Six o’clock in the evening.

Winter passed, now it’s the spring equinox, the sky darkens a little later compared to autumn, Aoi Natsuki sent Sakurajima and Hetty out the door, and was thinking of saying goodbye to them, but his parents insisted that he send the two girls to the station, so he had no choice but to agree.

Walking out of the house, the setting sun lengthened the shadows of the trio.

Sakurajima and Hetty were walking ahead of them, talking and laughing, as if Hetty had completely put the events of the morning behind her, or maybe Sakurajima had blown something in her ear without his knowledge, anyway, the two were now looking like a pair of girlfriends who had nothing to say to each other again.

Hetty would have someone come over specifically to pick her up and drop her off, and the three of them walked all the way to the avenue outside the neighborhood, and in a parking space near the curb a Mercedes had its dual flashing lights on, and when they saw Hetty come out, the car’s main driver’s window slowly rolled down, and the male agent with the glasses poked his head out and waved toward them.

“That’s it for today then, thanks so much for taking care of us, we’ll meet again next time!” Hetty smiled happily, it had been a long time since she had relaxed like this, she had felt a little awkward in front of Aoi’s parents, but then until they came back at four or five, both sides chatted again, and realized that it actually felt good not to be known, that there wouldn’t be any purpose to it, and that it was purely just a matter of chatting and joking around.

“Good, you have to cheer for the public performance as well.” Aoi Natsuki said with a faint smile.

“Uh-huh.” Hetty nodded, looking at the refreshing looking boy in front of her, a sudden twinge of doubt rising in her mind as to why she felt so annoyed with him in the first place, when he was clearly not a bad boy.

“By the way, Sakurajima, what about our agreement ……” Hetty returned to the subject, she had come here today all because of Sakurajima, and then looked at her with expectant little eyes.

Sakurajima Apricot pretended to be thoughtful, resting her fingertips against her chin, and after two seconds smiled bashfully and said, “Okay.”

Hetty was in a fit of ecstasy; if Sakurajima could say yes, then it had been worth her coming over today! The agent in the back was already urging her on, so she made no more lingering, waving her hand excitedly in their direction as she backed away.

Apricot Sakurajima similarly waved her hand in farewell, and the two of them watched as Hetty got into the car and the vehicle started up, slowly driving forward until it disappeared around the corner.

Now, only Natsuki Aoi and Sakurajima were left.

After a few seconds had passed, Sakurajima Apricot turned her head, the smile on her face unabated, her body bent forward, her right hand stretched out her index finger against the side of her face, and her voice was very soft as she said, “Isn’t it my turn?”

Natsuki Arai blinked, then let out a long sigh through her nose, her erect back curving slightly, “I’ll accompany you to the station then.”

“Hmm!” Sakurajima’s body bobbed along with his head, and the two of them headed to the nearest station immediately afterward.

Aoi Natsuki didn’t care too much about Sakurajima, until she walked out a few dozen meters away, she hadn’t heard any movement from her, and she was nowhere to be seen when she looked around.

He stood still and twisted around to see that behind him Sakurajima was following him silently with his head down.

“What are you doing?”

“Sort of looking for the funny things in life, so don’t ask and move on.”

Aoi Natsuki didn’t understand what she meant, maybe she was thinking of something bad again maybe, this guy ……

It’s better to talk to her less.

What’s for dinner at home tonight? Just now I seem to have seen my mom buy pork chops, is it possible to have pork chops for dinner?

Natsuki Aoi was caught up in her own imagination.

Get up and continue to lead the way forward.

And behind him, Sakurajima had followed after his start.

Keep your eyes on the ground.

Just moments ago, the two had stepped over a pool of water, and all the way across the floor were two long lines of shoe watermarks.

Sakurajima Apricot noticed this and an idea arose in her mind.

At this moment, Sakurajima Apricot was concentrating on tracking Aoi’s shoe prints, after the watermarks appeared, she raised her own feet, corresponding to the size of the watermarks, and stepped on the center, without taking two steps, she would look back, obviously there were two people, but only one person’s shoe prints were left behind.

Hm ……

Sakurajima Apricot smiled lightly.

With that, she continued to follow until the prints faded completely, and then she followed Aoi to his side, her hands behind her back as she followed him with a word or two of conversation.

One time it’s going forward, one time it’s going backwards.

“Watch the road carefully, it’s too dangerous.” Aoi Natsuki said in an aggravated tone.

Still unimpressed, Sakurajima Apricot turned her head and smiled at him, “Surely Aoi wouldn’t put me in danger right?”

The rhetorical question rather confused Aoi himself; it was true to say so, but to answer with those words was undoubtedly sophomoric.

“Then I can’t be there for you every time.”

“emm…… Then it’s fine if I’m only in danger when I’m around you from now on~” Sakurajima Apricot brought her body back to her right side in the next second while her hands wrapped around Aoi’s arm as soon as she could, her body pressed against it.

Aoi Natsuki immediately drew back his arm when he saw this, and said with a serious face, “Don’t give an inch ah, I know you must have some ghost thoughts in your heart again.”

“Eh …… how.”

Seeing her playing dumb again, Aoi Natsuki didn’t say anything more and just continued to lead the way forward, it was still the same eternal tenet, less said, less wrong, no said.

Although Sakurajima this guy is not bad and righteous, but the playfulness is especially big, if in the future years, he is still entangled with Sakurajima like this, hissing …… simply dare not think, if it is really like this, it would be better to really be neutralized with Hayakawa.

The thought flashed through Aoi Natsuki’s mind.

Then once again, I was curbed by the thought of justice, what am I rambling on about! You really think you can start a harem! Even if it’s a romance game, this is reality! Don’t let Sakurajima’s words affect you! Aoi Natsuki!

Aoi Natsuki gouge tight palms, this thought has been in the half hour after sending off Sakurajima, still lingering in his brain, the whole person dizzy, this kind of thought is not too impractical ……

……

After the meal.

Aoi Natsuki accompanied Lina to check her homework first, Lina did have a talent for languages, a hundred word essay written at the level of Primary 2 was very much her own unique style, instead of being written as a running gag like other children, since she was so free, should she come back and enroll Lina in another training course?

He pondered on this, now that there was an extra family member, his monthly allowance had been raised, and with the money Aoi Natsuki earned from her part-time design job every month, there would be quite a bit left over after the two of them’s daily expenses, so enrolling Rina in a class would be a good choice.

As well as Lina loved practicing handwriting, not only the usual oil-based pens, but also water pens, and even fountain pens were used very skillfully.

Watching Rina carefully writing the word post in one single stroke, Aoi Natsuki didn’t interrupt and just sat next to her and watched quietly.

Experienced the former things, Lina’s character belongs to a particularly well-behaved, play will play very open, quiet will also quickly quiet down the heart to do a thing, do not cry, but not a little bit of the same age group of children capricious and rebellious character, which is the best news for him, and hope that she may continue to keep going, not arrogant and not impatient, sooner or later, she worked hard today, will be doubled by the feedback back to their own bodies.

Aoi Natsuki’s eyes became softer and softer, when the cell phone he had placed on his desktop vibrated.

He picked it up and it was Ayano calling.

Usually he texted more with Ayano, and his phone calls were relatively few.

What would she want with herself?

When I picked up the phone, the first thing I heard was Ayano’s shrill voice again, “Yo! Natsuki, good evening.”

“Well, good evening.” The corners of Arai Natsuki’s mouth showed a smile, every time he spoke to Ayano, he felt like he was talking to a child, given that he personally liked children more, so in disguise, he would also find it interesting to talk to Ayano, “Why are you calling me all of a sudden? Is it something urgent?”

“Hmph~ Sort of, and it’s something important to me, oh guess what, Natsuki.”

“It’s something about your comics, isn’t it?”

“Whoa! Natsuki, you’re amazing! You guessed it the first time, like my sister couldn’t guess it at all, obviously they say that there’s telepathy between twins, but my sister and I don’t have any understanding at all.”

“Stop whetting people’s appetites, what’s going on?” Aoi Natsuki shook her head with a helpless smile.

“Ahem, I’m here to officially announce that my short manga ‘Fighting Card Trio’ has passed the editor’s review! And the editor said that my short story has a good chance of winning an award!”

Aoi Natsuki could hear Ayano’s excitement on the other end of the phone, this girl ……

“Then I really have to congratulate you, I read it and I also think it’s promising, together with some professional opinions given to you by the editor-in-charge, and if you can follow it up with a long serialization, you’ll be one-fourth of the way to accomplishing your dream.”

“Hmm? Only a quarter?”

“Of course, you when the cartoonist so simple na, jp society’s questionnaire you should also understand it, even if it is a long serialized works, if in the weekly reader questionnaire ranked at the bottom of the list, then it is very likely that the editorial department will be directly cut off, once I remember there is a kind of quite hot cartoon called “Devil’s Dairyman”, and later also animation, the cartoon is also animated because the animation has brought a great deal of traffic, but then because the plot all the way to collapse, and ultimately still be the editorial department cut off. flow, but later because the plot all the way collapse, finally still by the editorial department waist cut, so that once you have a long serialization, that is just the beginning, represents the first step you really step into the manga this industry, the future of every step you have to step on the steady only, do not have a fluke mentality, how you take the manga seriously, the manga will be how serious to treat you, is it clear? Ayano.”

“Well …… I’ll be cheering!” Ayano shouted firmly on the other end of the phone.

She is just as simple in head as in character, which contributes to the fact that she draws comics with great concentration, and perhaps …… she might actually be the material to become a cartoonist as well.

“But why a quarter?”

Hearing this, Natsuki Aoi asked rhetorically, “Is it hard to believe that you haven’t thought of a follow-up?”

“Follow-up? What?”

“Animated.”

“Moves, animated ……!” Ayano’s voice revealed surprise, apparently she had never considered that.

Aoi Natsuki then hastened to explain: “Of course I don’t mean that I want you to be over-ambitious, but I just mean that having a firm goal and expectation in place will give you more motivation to draw manga, so if you want to become a well-known and famous manga artist, you should focus on your manga being able to be animated.”

“Wow. ……”

Ayano seemed to be subdued by his own words, Aoi Natsuki knew that she might need to digest these words, his own twenty-something years old social person’s mentality to speak these words to a sixteen year old flower girl to listen to, most likely still too early, really some of the axioms really have to wait for their own have a certain age, they can only be able to deeply understand.

“Uh-huh! I see! Then let’s aim for animation and work our way in!”

“That’s more like it.” Natsuki Aoi smiled and nodded her head lightly.

“Natsuki, I’d like to thank you too, you’ve been a great help to my manga career as well, and I don’t know how I should thank you ……”

“It’s okay, we’re all friends, you’re welcome.”

“No, let me think …… about it like this, when the real notice comes down, no matter whether I win the award or not, I will treat you to a meal, do you think it’s okay?”

“There’s still rice to eat, that’s great, it’s a deal.” Aoi Natsuki didn’t think too much about it and agreed in one breath, while the person on the other end of the phone acted even happier than him.

“We’ll decide what to eat when we get there, so …… let’s call it a day?”

“Oh, okay, bye.”

“Bye.”

The phone hung up.

Aoi Natsuki mood is good, all things are in order, Hayakawa specialty point difference has also come to 70 points, I believe that another year or so, he can get rid of the status quo by all the women disgusted by it, there is no hurry, everything should be done slowly.

……

The other end.

Ayano leaned against the liquor cabinet with a full heart, her body twisting from side to side as she thought about something and couldn’t help but laugh out loud, holding the phone with both hands and pressing it against her own chest for a moment with both eyes open.

After ten seconds or so, she slowed down to a somewhat lighter state, turned away from the wine cooler, and walked slowly to the living room, which was connected to the dining room, and conveniently behind the metal clean-up counter in the dining room was the kitchen, which at this point was still lit, and not long afterward her sister came out of the kitchen doorway with a plate of cookies.

Wearing two cotton gloves, the first moment he saw Ayano, he quickened his pace and came to her, “Try it? I just learned it through the internet.”

Ayano was slightly stunned, and then Mito Takahashi placed the tray on the cushion of the dining table, took one of the pieces with his glove, blew on it, and then handed it to her mouth.

Ayano didn’t go straight to her mouth at first, but took it with both hands and opened her mouth to bite the edge, a rich chocolate flavor filled her mouth, she was very fond of chocolate flavor and eating chocolate could make her feel pleasure physically and mentally as well.

Only at this moment, Ayano was slightly wooden, chewing on the chocolate in her mouth and looking at her sister with an expectant face in front of her, and for the first time, she felt that the food in her mouth had become tasteless.

“Is it good? Ayano.”

“Mmmm …… yummy ……”

Ayano bit her lower lip lightly and whispered.

Takahashi Mito didn’t notice her sister’s strangeness and was in a good mood when she heard the tasty comment, looking at the cookies she had baked with great care, her heart surged up full of pride, as well as fantasizing in her head about someone’s look and words of praise when they ate the cookies.

“I really don’t know what Aoi will say when he eats it na ……”

Takahashi Mito muttered.

In front of others perhaps she wouldn’t have said it so directly, but at home, in front of her own sister, she blurted it out quite instinctively.

Ayano heard this sister this sentence, just now that the complexity of the emotions can not help but intensify again, eyes downcast, chewing delicious cookies, but the face does not show the enjoyment at all, but instead, the heart feels a burst of sour, they …… do not say that they are also ……