Chapter 160: Ayano wants to be taken seriously

……

“Hello, yes, I am, can’t reach my cell phone? I’m sorry, the cell phone just went into arrears this morning, eh? You mean me?!”

Ayano, who had just returned home from the door with her snack bag clutched in her left hand and her bag in her right, her head turned sideways to jam the microphone of the home phone with the angle of her shoulder, and after a moment of surprise, the purse in her right hand fell with a loud thud, and at the same time her eyes widened in astonishment.

“You mean my work won second place in the Newcomer’s Award!!!”

……

“Oh yeah! I’m so awesome!” Ayano was cheering continuously beside her sister, Takahashi Mito, so excited that she forgot to put on her shoes, twisted her socks into a ball and threw them directly onto the sofa, and ran wildly on the marble floor in her bare feet; fortunately, it was already spring at the moment, and the temperature had warmed up to about twenty degrees, otherwise she would not have been able to be so lively.

Takahashi Mito is in the kitchen to prepare the midday meal, these two months since she and her sister only twice went out to eat food, takeout has been completely abandoned, every week there will be she and her sister two people take turns once to go to the supermarket to buy, but I did not expect that today as soon as her sister came back, received a call from the jp club selected, the newcomer award second place …… Isn’t it awesome?

“Ayano! Put your shoes on! You’re seventeen years old, and you’re still so ungrateful.”

Ayano was intrigued by her sister’s words, but not in the sense of wanting to hear them; she was now completely absorbed in her victory, and suddenly hearing her sister speak, she couldn’t wait to share and tell her sister again.

“Sis~” Ayano pouted, walking quickly to her sister and hugging her from behind, rubbing her cheek against her white shirt.

“Ahhh! Your makeup is rubbing off on me! Die!”

“It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s only a few dollars anyway, when I become a long serialized manga artist, I’m sure I’ll make lots and lots of money and buy you lots and lots of clothes, sis~”

“Save your breath, the eight is not even a thing yet.” Although Takahashi Mito said this, in her heart she was happy for her sister Ayano, working hard for all these years and being able to get something in return proved that the effort was not in vain.

“Say, isn’t there anything other than prize money for this newcomer award? Is the long serialization you mentioned a hard thing to do?”

Ayano loosened her hold on her sister’s hand, her face suddenly became serious, stretching out her right index finger: “Of course, long serialization is the ultimate goal of all Japanese manga artists, many people have been using it for ten or twenty years without being selected for a single award, the Newcomer’s Award isn’t just about the prize money, but secondly about the popularity, and if the work is good, the editorial department may be able to have a meeting with the editors to let my work be published in a long serial! to be serialized!”

“Oh …… so that doll we saw on the street last week, does that mean its original comic is hot?”

“That ah, that is not strictly speaking, every manga artist hopes that the work is animated, so that in turn can bring fire to the sales of the manga, but this is not the only way, there are also some manga plot is very poor, but the only rely on the female characters in it, sell peripheral sales fly, this phenomenon is also abound, this industry water is very deep. “

Takahashi Mito half-listened and nodded in agreement as the spatula continued to stir the ribs stewing in the pot, the scent instantly capturing Ayano’s heart as she sniffed, a happy expression on her face.

“Sister, your level of cooking is increasing.”

“Not really ……” Still a little embarrassed to be complimented.

“Don’t just stand there, serve and eat.”

“Good~”

The two sisters then finished their lunch beautifully, and after the meal, after helping to wash the dishes, Ayano cozied up on the sofa and swiped her cell phone, her feet swinging back and forth in a way that couldn’t hide her inner joy.

Takahashi Mito wiped her hands clean with a paper towel and came out of the kitchen, seeing her sister in this state, she thought of saying something to her, but thinking that she was so happy, let her do whatever she wants for one day today.

“Ayano, I see that Hayakawa seemed to have helped you before, so don’t just be happy all by yourself, thank them too.” Takahashi Midu spoke to the point.

Ayano’s swinging legs and her fingers touching the cell phone screen stopped at the same time, forgetting about it in the heat of the moment.

“Okay~ I’ll let Hayakawa know!” Ayano couldn’t wait to tell her the good news, opening her address book and sliding down the list, her eyes passed between one familiar name after another, but in the next instant, the words Aoi Natsuki were the first to appear in front of her eyes.

“……” At the sudden silence, Ayano instinctively pursed her lips lightly.

Then the finger on the side of the phone tapped a little, recalling the experience of these days, in fact, Xia Shu is also a great credit, without his initial encouragement and inspiration, or their own up to now is still in the wall.

From the time he recognized his mistakes in detail, admitted his drawing skills, and changed his drawing logic, he deserves half of this award as well.

At the same time, she also thought of the phone call she had with Xia Shu some time ago, she said that if she won the award, she would treat him to a meal, now that she really won the award, shouldn’t she give him a call and ask him out for dinner?

Ayano rested her head on the couch cushions, her eyes becoming glum, if they did ask out, would it be just the two of them? Is that even possible? In the name of the manga, surely Hayakawa would have to be there as well, the scenario where it was just the two of them together simply didn’t exist.

“Hmmm ……” Ayano let out a mournful cry, and her feet, which had just been constantly swinging back and forth, fell straight down helplessly.

Think of the others is really good, Hayakawa, Sakurajima, Dragon Sakura, and even the sister can be because of a school students, and occasionally can meet, everyone has a good reason to be able to meet with Natsuki alone, only she, as if she was excluded from the general, in addition to the manga, there is no any intersection with Natsuki, perhaps Natsuki heart, he is also just a like-minded drawing manga of good partners, right? ……

The more she thought about it instead, the more unhappy Ayano became, but she wasn’t such a person who would give up so easily, and still calculating her next plan in her mind, the force of her right hand’s grip on the cell phone gradually became tighter.

“Eh? Ayano, this hair of yours …… “Looking from the back under the perspective, Takahashi Mito could see the faint yellow color between her sister’s headscarf, stepping closer, Ayano, who was in the middle of her calculations, didn’t even pay attention to the coming crisis until Takahashi Mito pulled her headscarf away, and the big long hair, which was obviously curly and better after a week, was exposed to her view. hair was exposed to her view.

“This, this is what’s going on! Ayano!!!”

Ayano snapped out of it and turned around, looking at the plaid bandana held in her sister’s hand, her eyes glazed over, this is bad ……

The entire afternoon that followed, Ayano was the object of ridicule as her sister kept laughing at her, and the ones who hurt themselves the most are often the ones they are closest to, aaaaaaahhhh! It’s so annoying!

……

The noisy street was filled with lights, various food signs were placed on the interfaces, and the storefronts hanging on the walls of the buildings to the left and right were in unfamiliar Chinese characters, all of them Chinese by the looks of it.

The road was slightly damp after the rain, Ayano specially wore a hat, but did not tuck all her curly hair in, just covered her head, while that head of big long waves was still batch down her back, white T-shirt with small letters tucked into a linen-colored long wide drawstring long skirt, and the T-shirt was also paired with a very oversize wool sweater, the overall look of the slightly lazy wind, but more of a small fresh cuteness.

Clutching the canvas bag in her own arms, Ayano was a little nervous, leaning her body towards the middle of the road, constantly looking to the left and right entrances to see that after waiting for a little while longer, Natsuki was finally arriving.

Aoi Natsuki had just been worried about being late, so he arrived five minutes early, but he didn’t expect Ayano to put him even earlier, and he immediately raised his hand in greeting.

The two converge.

“You’re early. How long have you been here?”

“It didn’t take long, just …… a few minutes.” Ayano stepped from side to side, she had actually come fifteen minutes earlier, her feet were numb from standing for so long in her short, high heeled shoes.

“Uh-huh.” Aoi Natsuki nodded, and immediately afterward, she began to look around as well.

What exactly was he looking at?

Ayano knew this reason very well in her heart, her upper lip gently biting her lower lip, and after two seconds she spoke, “Natsu, Natsuki, just, just now Hayakawa sent me a message that he couldn’t make it because of something, and asked the two of us to eat by ourselves.”

“Hmm? Can’t make it?”

Natsuki Arai didn’t expect this, but he didn’t doubt it.

On the contrary, Ayano, because she was the one who seldom lied to this extent, the smile on her face directly froze, if Natsuki had asked one more question, she would have been so ashamed that she would have directly bent over and apologized, because she had not asked Hayakawa to come over at all this time, and Hayakawa did not know about this matter the whole time!

It was a plan she’d thought about and finally formulated, a stupid way to ask the slightest question and have it all fall apart, but Ayano couldn’t really think of anything else in her head, and even in the middle of the night, while tossing and turning under the covers, the whole thing went into a distinctly rebellious state of mind, Why are you guys the only ones who can ask Natsuki out alone? Why can’t I? Why can’t I? If you can, I, Takahashi Ayano, can do the same!

The plan that was finally slapped together was the same one that she had first plotted in her head at the very beginning, like the first version that A had chosen after many comparisons.

“Then …… “Aoi Natsuki looked at Ayano in front of her, always feeling that there was something wrong with her and couldn’t tell, “Since she can’t come, let’s eat today.”

“Uh-huh! So, what’s for dinner then?”

“Of course I’m going to eat something nice, I’m not going to be polite at all tonight when you’re treating me.” Aoi Natsuki grinned.

“Of course, feel free to eat tonight, the second place prize for the newcomer reward is two hundred and fifty thousand dollars! Eat whatever you want! I’ll pay for it!” Ayano clamped her elbow on the cloth strap of her canvas bag and puffed out her chest, confidently saying.

“Wow!” Aoi Natsuki exclaimed, and then the two of them walked forward together, today the two of them came to a very famous Chinese street in Japan, Kobe Street, where there is a bustling atmosphere everywhere, without walking a few meters, you can hear people speaking unintelligible Chinese, through the window, Aoi Natsuki also saw one table after another table eating hot pots, the bottom of the pot full of chili peppers, red, even with the heat up, the patrons ate was sweating profusely, and constantly Huffing and puffing.

Aoi Natsuki felt very thoughtful, in fact, in his neighborhood, it felt more dead, people often need to socialize with each other to some holiday to maintain, unlike here, some shopkeepers as well as passers-by smile on the face, all let him see a very different style from Tokyo.

The time was nine o’clock.

There were still all kinds of hawking around, Aoi Natsuki curiously bought a bunch of sugar gourds, Ayano a bunch of iced strawberries, a taste of very sticky teeth, the flavor is very sweet, Aoi himself is a very sweet tooth, so it is especially to his taste.

“Natsuki! This strawberry tastes so good!” Ayano covered her mouth with her right hand and bounced twice in front of him, the bamboo skewer unconsciously facing him, Ayano sighted at the skewer, followed by the ghostly question, “Want to try one?”

Aoi Natsuki turned his head and saw Ayano was this action, for a moment the atmosphere all became a little different, both of them at the same time do not speak, he stared at the strawberry on the bamboo stick, the thought in his head that it is inconvenient to take it with his hands, and up to the mouth to bite it would seem too intimate.

“I’d rather not, let’s think about what to eat first, are you hungry?” Aoi Natsuki rejected Ayano’s inquiry, her eyes couldn’t help but look around.

Ayano also reacted quickly and quickly echoed the smile, following Natsuki’s eyes to the surrounding stores, but not recognizing a single Chinese character, she had to turn on her phone and locate the restaurant for dinner by using the map to locate it.

Aoi Natsuki stood right next to him, and didn’t come along to give his opinion while Takahashi Ayano looked at her cell phone to find something to eat.

This behavior also made the already nervous Ayano’s heart empty, this is not the same as she originally envisioned the two of them dating ah! How to feel very distant ah, touch the screen hands are unconsciously trembling, several times have clicked on the wrong picture, especially when Natsuki will look at their own eyes, three times in a row have clicked on the wrong, close to the original community died.

After discussing with Xia Shu, he finally settled on eating at a restaurant called Chengdu Skewer King, which was highly rated on his cell phone and offered a wide variety of things to eat.

Deciding on this the two of them moved off together.

About ten minutes of walking, Takahashi Ayano felt that the walk was extraordinarily long, since the two entered the face to the present, the topics that could be chatted about were just like a soon-to-be-dry well, the water drank less and less, and the conversation no longer had a theme, the atmosphere between the two people was surprisingly not as cozy and romantic as she had thought in the last couple of days, but instead, it was getting more and more awkward.

To, what the hell is going on ……

Aoi Natsuki on the side of the mouth chewing a sugar gourd, sight peeked to the side of the lowered head of Ayano, it seems that there are things on his mind, hmmm …… but it is rare to have seen Ayano like this worried look, in his memory, Ayano has always been a girl who does not fix things, and talk about anything, so with her, one never uses the take the initiative to think of topics, the other party was always able to ask all sorts of questions, but today’s Ayano how always stop in the middle of the words, and the atmosphere between the two had become so strange.

Natsuki Aoi frowned and bit down on another candy cane, the lively atmosphere not affecting the two at all despite the crowd around them.

The two hadn’t said more than a couple words in total until they had walked to the door of that kebab store.

Ayano then felt her head rise and her eyes get a little wet and red, if she had known it was going to be like this, she would have just not come today! Natsuki must have felt awkward with himself too.

She was remorseful and her head was dropping lower and lower.

Until–

A pair of large hands pressed against her head, and Ayano’s eyes fluttered as she looked sideways at Natsuki at the side.

He was rubbing his head with a light smile on his face.

“Are you under pressure? Don’t be like that, it’s just a rookie award, you’ll get better and better in the future, if you can’t handle this kind of pressure, how will you be able to carry out a long serialized story in the future? Don’t think too much.”

“Tonight, let’s leave all distractions behind and have a nice meal, what do you say? Ayano.”

“……”

There was that once familiar tone again.

For a moment Ayano was inwardly moved, wanting to cry out in aggravation, but in the way of so many people around her, in the end her crybaby eyes just narrowed, her grinning mouth still closed, and then she gently nodded, trying not to appear to be crying, “Hmmm ……”

“But Natsuki! I told you not to talk to me in such a childish way!”

Ayano raised her small fists and just kept pounding Aoi Natsuki’s arm.

Aoi Natsuki repeatedly apologized, “Sorry, I said sorry ……”

……

Skewer store.

The two of them ordered a lot of things, after the situation at the door just now, Ayano’s state recovered quite a bit, and her gluttonous nature reappeared, just like Aoi Natsuki said before, for Ayano’s kind of simplicity to speak of, there was only one thing that could ever go through her head, and when she started to eat, that’s all that was on her mind.

This feeling of food being skewered on bamboo sticks and shabu-shabu in a red hot pot was really quite special, and Aoi Natsuki watched Ayano eat it, and followed suit with a lot of it herself.

By the end of the day the corners of his mouth were full of red oil.

“Get some paper to wipe it off, and aren’t you hot? Bring a bandana.”

“Hmph.” Ayano narrowed her eyes and smiled, a few weeks ago she had permed her curls and dyed the tips of her hair yellow, now that she had washed it even after it had regressed back to a purple color, and that big, grinning style of eating had drawn a lot of attention in the store, partly from shock at Ayano’s face value, and partly from contempt for him.

Hey, ignore ignore ignore.

Natsuki Aoi pushed over the tissue box, pulled out two, and handed them to Ayano.

Ayano’s eyes widened, now that her head was full of food, and her eyes became incredibly clear as she looked at the proffered tissue and then at Natsuki, then narrowed her eyes and smiled, bringing her mouth right up to it.

?

Aoi Natsuki froze, the hand holding the paper towel held flat in particular embarrassment, but looking at Ayano’s look, his brain ran through it at a very fast speed, but still went up and wiped Ayano’s mouth, one side was dirty, then folded it again, and Ayano even cooperated by coming up again until it was completely clean.

“Thank you~” smiled Ayano, continuing to start eating the skewers while Natsuki Aoi looked at her and couldn’t help but smile, shaking her head as she continued to start eating.

Sometimes I really envy this guy, when he eats something, he can forget all his worries, this is kind of gifted, isn’t it?