Chapter 161: Sister, I’m Sorry

After the meal.

Aoi Natsuki and Ayano both have a red ring around their mouths, not only red, press it with your hand, even your senses become numb, even if it’s mildly spicy it’s so hot, skewers are put into the pot, the longer it boils, the more spicy the flavor becomes.

Aoi Natsuki frequently inhaled through her mouth, and looked at the time on her cell phone, it was already 9:40, at this point some of the surrounding stores were less staffed one after the other, individual stores had already closed and shut their doors, there was only one small pub, the small blackboard placed in front of the door was still written with the words “open until 5:00 in the morning”.

“Enjoyed your meal?”

“Uh-huh.”

“You can’t eat like that in the future, not only is my mouth numb now, but my stomach is starting to hurt a little.” Aoi Natsuki pressed her hand against the small of her back.

Just now the store was steaming hot, as soon as she came out and the cold wind blew, Ayano realized what she had just done, when she saw that there was something delicious, she instantly left everything behind, she was really a fool!

Available at ……

Ayano thought back to the unimpeded and open conversation she had just had with Natsuki, it was then that she was the most natural, the awkward atmosphere from before disappeared abruptly and returned to the feeling of the two of them getting along before, with some intimate gestures being done and the other person not feeling embarrassed about it.

At that thought, Ayano raised her hand and wiped her fingertips across her lips, the image of Natsuki wiping her mouth just now still fresh in her mind.

One’s self is really ……

“Then that’s all for tonight, and in closing, I’d like to say congratulations, Ayano.” Natsuki Aoi smiled warmly, his sincere eyes gazing at Ayano, and as the two of them met each other’s eyes, Ayano’s vision was noticeably more complicated as she wanted to see more than anything else a hint of some other emotion in the eyes of the boy in front of her.

“I’ll be off then.” Aoi Natsuki said smoothly when she saw Ayano’s delayed reply, and just as she was about to turn around, she suddenly frowned slightly, remembering something, and tilted her head back, “As well as if you have any questions in the future, you can still ask me, and I’ll do my best.”

It’s still a diamond in the rough after all, polished to finally show its precious side.

“Thanks ……,” Ayano whispered.

Aoi pursed his lips and smiled faintly, this time he really had to go.

Turning around, he hadn’t taken more than two steps when this time it was Ayano who called out to him.

“Natsuki!”

“Hmm?” Natsuki Aoi stood still and looked back.

“Next time, next time there will be a chance to have dinner together!”

Aoi Natsuki mumbled, her flush shoulders slightly shrugged down, and spoke, “What are you talking about, there’s definitely a chance to eat with you, I can even dry two more big bowls of rice.”

Ayano’s expression gradually released, now she had a thousand words she wanted to tell Natsuki, the feeling inside her was there, but it seemed like the timing was wrong, the smile she had just raised was doused again by this sudden frustration, her heart was incredibly complicated, after thinking about it, she still had to respond to Natsuki with an expression, and in the end, she could only smile with an accompanying smile.

Aoi Natsuki didn’t notice the difference and turned away with a wave of his hand.

Ayano’s breath burned slightly, and she could hear her heartbeat speeding up just by standing still, her right hand slowly pressed against her chest, and after repeating the mood to confirm it, she jerked her head up, “Natsuki! I actually ……”

The figure of Natsuki has long been gone from the view, only the lights of one store after another are still lit up, she still hasn’t grasped the moment this time ……

……

It was already 10:20 p.m. when Ayano pushed her way home, and the first thing Takahashi Mito, who had been waiting at home to send about twenty messages, did was to stand up, her eyes glancing over at Ayano, who was standing in the doorway, slowly changing her shoes.

“Ayano! Why are you back so late! Didn’t you say you were just going out to eat with your classmates? It’s already past ten now eh.”

“……” Ayano was in a bit of a low mood, her attention had been solely on the path beneath her feet since she came back, stepping over the cracks in the floor tiles in order to distract herself from moving forward, and it was only when she was called out by her sister like that upon entering the door that she was finally able to shake her head. “Sorry ……”

With that, he walked straight towards the second floor.

Today’s Ayano was very abnormal, Takahashi Midu glanced at the clock on the wall, and finally decided to find some time tomorrow to ask for clarification, what could there be to be upset about with a classmate reunion? A fight? Or something else? It couldn’t be about feelings, could it! It’s normal for Ayano to be clueless at her age, but if it’s really this kind of problem, even if she knows about it, can she really give the right advice? Takahashi Mito was extremely skeptical of her own abilities.

……

“Yes, yes, yes, that’s it, it’s so sour ah …… ah!” Oki Yusuke had a sour face, while Aoi Natsuki, who was squeezing his shoulders behind him, had a bashful face.

“So what, it’s true that the basketball team played in the district tournament?”

“Well, that’s for sure, it doesn’t have much to do with me, but Coach insisted that I be the starter and asked me to play on every rebound, oooh, it’s so hard.” Yusuke was feeling sore arms and shoulders right now, and his lower body just didn’t even have the strength to stand up.

“Devil training is pretty horrible.” Aoi Natsuki looked at Yusuke leaning limply against the backrest of the chair, his body weak, and combining that with a bit of urination from watching sports-themed anime in the past, it was easy to imagine how grueling the training was.

“Strong does get a lot stronger.”

“It’s not even playing basketball all the time to practice against, of course the body is strong, can’t stand it! I want to quit! I want to aspire to freedom! I want to fall in love!” Yusuke’s mournful cries wailed out from his mouth, and Aoi Natsuki expressed his sympathy and helplessness as he listened.

“That manageress …… really didn’t follow?”

“Don’t mention it, what can follow, it was my fault for Sweetie’s fantasies in the first place, she just used me as a tool person!” Yusuke’s gaze suddenly became sharp, something else came to his mind, “There’s another imp!”

“Imp? What’s this new character?”

At the mention of this, Yusuke’s face gradually turned ugly, his left hand suddenly raised and slapped on the back of Aoi’s hand that was resting on his right shoulder as he turned his head to look at him, “Haven’t you noticed that in the past two days I haven’t even ridden my electric bike?”

“Well, that’s true, what happened?” Aoi Natsuki looked at him with a serious face, like something bad had happened.

“My electric bike was broken by that guy, two days ago I rode my bike normally through the intersection, it happened to be a green light, I was just about to cross the crosswalk, when a silhouette came out of nowhere on my right!”

“Huh? You ran someone over?!” Aoi Natsuki exclaimed in shock.

Yusuke frowned, “Crash it was, but it turned out differently than I thought it would.”

“Was the guy hurt? After all, he was the one who ran the red light, so he should be solely responsible.”

“It didn’t look like an injury, rather she kicked the front end of my car.”

“Huh? I didn’t understand.”

Yusuke then gave Natsuki depicted the scene at that time, in the car accident, Yusuke first wanted to hide has been too late, the afterglow only glimpsed a petite person, and the next moment, the incredible picture appeared, only to see that the girl suddenly rose up in the air, feet shrinking, followed by a side-kick, Yusuke saw her rather muscular wheat-colored thighs, kicking the position of the front wheel of the motorized car, all of a sudden he felt that the body flopped forward, the car braked hard. His body flopped forward, the car braked violently, and he came back to his senses, only then did he realize that his front wheel had been kicked crooked by this girl!

“Do you think it’s outrageous? I took it in for repairs and the master told me the hubs were kicked off!”

“Ha ……” Aoi Natsuki stopped his words, the first thing that came to mind in his head was Ryuusakura, it should be a guy similar to Ryuusakura, these martial artists can never be measured according to the common sense of ordinary people.

“And then what happened?”

“Then of course she wanted to compensate me! I wasn’t going to just let it go, but then she said she didn’t have the money and said she’d pay me back after she earned money from her part-time job, so I exchanged contact information with her.” Yusuke said and started sighing again.

Aoi Natsuki fell into a slight deep thought, a possibility suddenly popped into her head and asked in a small voice, “Yusuke, is that girl you were talking about a double ponytail?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“The hair color is ……”

“Red.”

Aoi Natsuki froze upon hearing this, at this point he didn’t know what kind of expression he should show, and it eventually dissolved into a helpless smile as he patted Yusuke’s shoulder.

“It’s okay, where else are you sore? I’ll press you again.”

Anyway, at least …… is kind of a most adorable height difference, isn’t it? (Bitter laugh)

……

Nights during the week.

Ayano is continuing to work on her manga career, and her editor-in-charge tells her that the work she drew, “Fighting Card Trio Nymphets”, received such a favorable response when the short story hit the stands that she’s interested in having her go ahead with plans for a full-length serialization, and she expects to get an answer in the next couple of days.

It would be great if it could actually be a long series.

Ayano was currently wearing a light blue nightgown, her hair casually draped over her collarbone and shoulders, and she was holding a sensor pen in her right hand, her teeth gently biting down on the tip of the pen as she was caught up in her own self-fantasy for a moment.

It was her dream to become a famous best-selling manga artist, and she was only sixteen years old, a sixteen year old long-running serialized manga artist, that was at least something that should be on the news with a headline titled Genius Sixteen Year Old Manga Girl.

Once the association was made, eyes narrowed to slits and smiles closed in.

“What kind of plot should I actually draw next~ Should I talk to Hayakawa and Natsuki~” Ayano’s body bobbed up and down casually along with her leisurely mood.

Tic-Tac-Toe–

The cell phone on the table suddenly lit up its screen.

Someone called her.

At first Ayano thought it would be Hayakawa, but when she saw the note on her cell phone screen, she froze.

“Dad.”

“……” Ayano’s hand stopped in mid-air, the unfamiliar and familiar word overwhelming her until seven or eight seconds after the ringing had passed, she immediately grabbed the phone with both hands, brought it to her face, and tapped the call button.

“Hello? Dad.”

“……”

That’s when she realized her voice was too soft and scrambled to hit the amplify button again.

The voice on the phone got louder this time.

“I’m here, Dad, just forgot to turn on the PA.”

An extremely young voice came over the phone at this point, but his composure could be heard in the vocal line, “You’re so old, and you’re still venturing out like that.”

“Hey ……,” Ayano laughed awkwardly.

“Didn’t disturb your rest, did it?”

“Nope! I’m, generally, up late now.”

“Is it drawing comics?”

“Eh? Uhm …… yeah, dad you know.” Ayano showed the shyness that only comes out like a video call.

“I saw it on Facebook, and don’t forget, I created your number for you.”

“Ohhhh, I remember, dad you still check Facebook, have you been busy with work lately?”

“I’ll be busy soon, I’ll be back home next week, your mom is still currently in Holland with an urgent matter over there, so I’ll be the only one coming back first.”

“Really! Dad, you’re coming back!” Ayano’s eyes widened in surprise, and as she counted the days in her mind, thinking that she hadn’t seen her dad in almost a year, she immediately became overjoyed, “Yes, yes, yes! I’ll tell my sister later! Dad, let me tell you, now that my sister is a good cook, you should try her cooking when you come back.”

“Metu cooks her own food? Are you guys running low on allowance? Then dad ……”

“No, we are just promoting healthy eating now, what we love to eat ourselves, in short, dad you don’t have to worry about us, we are fine.” Ayano pursed her lips and smiled, father and daughter silently at the same time, five or six seconds later, she was a little cautious and said again, “Just dad, if you come back, try to talk to your sister as much as possible, my sister is …… now a little angry with you guys, I know that mom and dad you guys are very busy, but I still hope that you guys can talk to more We talk, after all, we are a family well ……”

Ayano’s words caused the middle-aged man on the other end of the phone to fall silent, and Ayano could only hear the dull breathing, her mood tensing up along with it.

“Well …… Daddy will.” The man replied with a hint of sadness in his tone.

In fact, every family has its own problems.

“Uh-huh! Then I’ll look forward to you coming back daddy!” Ayano’s smile became wider.

“Then don’t draw too late, it should be almost eleven o’clock by now, right? Go to bed early, and you don’t want to fall behind in your studies just to draw comics, you have to balance both sides of your center of gravity, okay?”

“Aiya, dad how you also began to talk about these words ah, know know, I now academic performance can be good ah, grade can enter the top thirty it.”

“Oh, oh …… Ayano did you turn out to have improved so much now? I had no idea at all.” The man was a bit surprised, while a pang went through his heart, “Actually, I’m not even qualified to talk about you like that either.”

“Don’t say that! In fact, actually, I wish so much that you could lecture me a little more, dad ……” Ayano smiled warmly.

She was a simple and soulful girl, and Eishi Takahashi had noticed this not long after her birth; compared to her crybaby sister, her younger sister Ayano had eyes that noticed beauty, that cared about the green leaves on the branches outside the hospital window, that listened to the cicadas, and the layers of light from the sunlight that shone through the window shutters at sunset, which all doomed her to her very different personality.

Takahashi Eishi felt a pang of nostalgia, but as a father, he couldn’t talk to his child so sadly, and turned his low voice to respond, “I’ll be back soon, then …… I have something else to do, so go to bed early.”

“Uh …… okay, Dad.”

After Ayano’s response, the phone call between the two was disconnected.

A year with mom calls more, with dad on the contrary less, has always felt that he is a serious person, but as they slowly understand more, she can also appreciate the phone in the tone of dad’s concern, before their own, or sister, may …… be some misunderstanding of dad.