Chapter 55: Summer Beauty

Chapter 55: Summer Beauty

After returning from over there, Yatsuno Gen acted as if nothing had happened.

This matter could only be considered a spur of the moment decision. After all, he had just happened to run into those two.

It was not as if he wanted to become some mastermind behind the scenes, plotting everything from the shadows. It was simply that letting Yamazaki Jihei die would have been letting him off too easily. Becoming a vegetable certainly tortured him, his family, and even the backing behind him, but it still was not safe enough.

After all, there was still the risk that he might wake up.

It was obvious that he had so many matters on him that there was no way the police could fail to uncover them. But why had this matter still not fermented? That could only be because someone behind the scenes had suppressed everything.

Whether it was the school or someone else was hard to say, but clearly, he could not be let off too cheaply.

Yatsuno Gen had originally thought that since the police suspected he might not have had an accident, they would investigate everything behind him. But now, the situation was that in order to suppress these possible consequences, they had even ruled out the possibility of homicide.

Then he would make it bigger.

That way, there would be no lingering worries. Even if he really had a tough life and managed to recover and wake up, there would be very little risk of him regaining freedom.

“Huh? Are your friends bloggers? They seemed to be filming.”

The ramen had already been served.

Kazama Sakura looked at the boy curiously.

Yatsuno Gen shook his head.

“I mistook them for someone else. I don’t actually know them.”

“Oh.”

The girl nodded hard.

Yatsuno Gen raised his brows.

“Why do you look like you don’t believe me?”

Kazama Sakura’s eyes were bright, and her smile was sweet.

“How could I? I unconditionally believe anything you say.”

It seemed the more unfortunate and difficult the things that happened to her were, the more they revealed how special this boy was. After all, it seemed everything could be handled easily by him.

On this obvious matter, Kazama Sakura chose not to try to understand those secrets. If he was willing, he would tell her.

If it was something he did not want to tell her, then she did not want to know.

Her mother could not be considered a happy woman. In her life, she had also made countless wrong choices and had said many resentful and complaining things to her.

But there was one thing she had said that was right.

So-called happiness was made up of countless lies and secrets. A clever person would not choose to expose them all.

Kazama Sakura was also willing to be a contented girl.

“Alright, try the ramen first. Let’s see if you can handle it.”

The girl said with a smile.

Before him was the piping hot, fiery hell-spicy tonkotsu ramen. Yatsuno Gen could indeed smell the already nose-stinging spiciness.

However, the boy showed no sign of difficulty. Instead, he looked at Kazama Sakura provocatively.

“Today, I’ll show you what it means to eat a bowl of noodles in three bites.”

After saying that, he picked up his chopsticks and began eating.

Saying three bites was indeed a bit exaggerated, but it did not exceed five.

Yatsuno Gen ate very quickly, but even such an exaggerated way of eating did not affect his appearance in the slightest. How should one put it? When good-looking people wolfed down food, it would still make you think: why does it look so delicious when he eats?

The shop assistant, who had originally been preparing to enjoy the pained expression Yatsuno Gen might show, was dumbfounded.

Not only did this boy eat quickly and deliciously, he even devoured the noodles and soup together.

After eating and drinking everything clean, he even sighed.

“It’d be better if there were bird’s eye chilies. Also, how can there be no garlic?”

Didn’t they know that eating noodles without garlic meant half the aroma was gone?

When Yatsuno Gen calmly set down the bowl, his complexion was normal and not flushed red. He did not even have sweat on his forehead.

The shop assistant began doubting life and secretly asked the kitchen, “I told you to make it hell-spicy. Did you put too little in?”

The kitchen worker looked innocent.

“How did I put too little? I even added more. Does he have no sense of taste?!”

Spiciness was a kind of pain, and did not seem to have much to do with taste.

The shop assistant felt that this boy might be completely incapable of feeling pain. He even had the urge to take him for a physical examination, afraid that once he walked out of the shop, he would die outside.

However, the process still had to be followed.

“Congratulations on completing our shop’s challenge! This is your gift.”

Naturally, the small gift was nothing too valuable. It was a small ramen model, suitable for putting on a keychain.

Without even thinking, Yatsuno Gen handed it to the girl who was still elegantly eating her noodles.

Only after repeatedly confirming that nothing was wrong with Yatsuno Gen did Kazama Sakura relax and accept the gift.

“I didn’t expect you to be so good at eating spicy food.”

“I only just discovered it too.”

Yatsuno Gen answered very smugly.

“Pfft... I only just discovered that you’re so good at acting cool too.”

“Does my handsomeness need acting? Handsomeness is a kind of temperament, and it just so happens to be carved into my genes.”

“Mm, stop making me laugh. I’ll choke to death!”

After Kazama Sakura finished eating her noodles, the two left the ramen shop.

Watching the two depart, the shop assistant still refused to believe it and said to the kitchen, “Make me a bowl the same way you made it for that handsome guy just now. I’ll try it.”

“Really? Then don’t blame me.”

“Cut the nonsense. Let me try.”

When the noodles were ready, the shop assistant looked at the bowl of hell tonkotsu ramen, which already looked scorching hot, and took a deep breath.

“I’d like to see whether you were just pretending. Hiss.”

After putting the first bite of noodles into his mouth, he tried to chew quickly and swallow as he would when normally eating noodles.

But not even three seconds passed.

His face went red as fast as a thermometer, and bean-sized beads of sweat directly broke out on his forehead.

“So spicy! Water!! Give me water, damn it!!”

Two young figures walked side by side along the lively street. The sunset had already sunk away, and night had covered the entire sky. Streetlights lit up one after another, and the nightlife of this bustling city finally awakened.

“Officer Morita said that the evidence collection is almost done, and the process for divorce litigation will also move forward soon. There shouldn’t be any major problems. The division of property will be favorable to my mother.”

“That’s good.”

“I also went to see my father today. He cried and apologized to me. He said he only acted so impulsively because he didn’t want this family to fall apart. He said he would never be like this again.”

“Do you feel that he’s pitiful too? After all, he is your father. Maybe he was tortured into becoming like this by pressure, and perhaps he really knows he was wrong?”

Yatsuno Gen asked.

The girl’s shoulder was beside him, occasionally brushing against his arm.

Yatsuno Gen did not know whether this counted as one of a young girl’s little schemes, but it was quite fun. It was like a kitten trying to knock over a perfectly placed cup in order to attract your attention.

She lowered her head slightly, then shook it.

“I am a little softhearted, and I do feel sorry for him. But I also understand that even if a shattered mirror is glued back together, it will still leave marks. These things can’t be treated as if they never happened. He changed, and he really did change. No matter the reason... I also told him that if he truly regrets it, then from now on, it’s best for us not to disturb each other or appear in each other’s lives.”

Even an upright official would find it hard to judge family matters. Yatsuno Gen did not want to interfere too much with this girl’s emotional choices regarding family and relatives.

This way of handling things was also quite good. At the very least, he had not helped in vain.

“That’s pretty good. Maybe your father truly did feel regret, and the part of him that remains rational is greater. But still, once the monster in a person’s heart is released, the destruction it causes can easily ruin decades of warmth.”

Kazama Sakura lowered her head and looked at her own steps. She also saw Yatsuno Gen’s hand hanging casually at his side and swaying. She really wanted to grab it.

But that would seem too sudden.

How could she make it seem natural?

She raised her head and looked at the boy.

“Sometimes I think, was it really the pressure my mother and I brought him that made him become like this? After all, society gives men more responsibility, right? So the pressure seems greater. And in order to shoulder those responsibilities, they also choose to bear that pressure silently. As time goes by, it makes them seem like they’ve become a different person.”

Yatsuno Gen smiled.

“I’m quite happy that you can think that way.”

“Why?”

“Because that means you’ll be a very considerate wife in the future.”

“Hey.”

The girl scolded him coquettishly, seemingly a little embarrassed. After all, she was a high school student, yet he was already talking about her becoming a wife in the future. Was this hinting at her?

Then couldn’t he be a little more direct?

Even acting spoiled became a little hard to justify.

Yatsuno Gen said quietly, “But that doesn’t mean every man deserves to be understood like that, just like not every woman is worth a man giving everything for. Most people in this world are surviving with difficulty. You don’t need to make yourself feel guilty because of someone else’s mistakes.”

“Mm.”

The girl nodded hard, then looked at him tentatively.

“Then will you change in the future?”

This question seemed a little difficult to answer. After all, he could not tell her every secret about himself.

Yet his current identity was only that of a high school student with both excellent character and academic performance, so he seemed unable to guarantee anything more.

After thinking for a moment, he said, “Who knows what will happen in the future? I’ll do my best to stay the same.”

Kazama Sakura shook her head at this moment. Feeling the hot summer wind blow against her face, her heart also seemed filled with something called warmth.

She finally felt that it was no longer sudden. This atmosphere was just right.

The light from the streetlamps fell on them. This street they walked along was still very long, and it would be best if it had no end.

Yatsuno Gen did not lower his head, but he clearly felt warmth covering his palm. Her slender, long fingers gently clasped his hand.

Little by little, she tried to wrap around it, though of course she could not.

There was a large difference between the size of a boy’s palm and a girl’s palm, so she chose to slip her fingers between his, interlacing them.

He did not lower his head to look. He only looked at her lovely face, which had turned pink.

She said,

“It’s alright. Just be yourself. No matter what stage of life you’re in, and no matter what you become, I want to stand beside you like this.”

Yatsuno Gen did not pull free from her hand. He could feel the damp warmth in her palm.

She was nervous too.

But when the boy did not stop walking and simply held her hand like this, naturally weaving through the crowd with her,

she felt happiness.

Had her mother said something like this to her father too?

That no longer mattered.

She truly was a little luckier than her mother.

He was like the warmth that dispersed the cool emptiness behind this lively night.

He was all the lights illuminating the darkness.

His voice was misty and distant, like a lighthouse far out on the sea, but his light truly shone upon her.

“Summer really is wonderful.”