Of course, persuasion was one thing, but if he wanted Miyuri, that little vinegar jar(jealous), to accept it, he still had to give her some time to cool down.
So even though he was quite looking forward to the sight of Miyuri and Sayako, the two gorgeous aunties, laying everything bare and talking honestly with each other, Hikari still did not rush to take Miyuri to meet Sayako directly, nor did he call Sayako over.
Instead, he planned to leave Miyuri half a day or a full day to think it over herself. When the time came, he would let the two of them face each other honestly again. It would still be in time.
Looking at Miyuri now, passed out on the sofa, eyes rolled back from exhaustion, Hikari knew that once she woke up, she would definitely figure it out.
So he did not say much more. After tidying things up, he left Miyuri's place.
———
He had not been walking on the way home for long, when Hikari slightly frowned.
Because he faintly sensed a strange aura, something like the eerie remnants from urban legends or ghost stories.
Actually, it was not that he only noticed it now. When he brought Miyuri back from the cemetery, he had already vaguely felt it.
But after all, they were coming back from a place like a cemetery. It was normal for things to feel a bit gloomy and strange, right.
And he had even made Miyuri completely prove her love for him right in front of the cemetery. For the deceased Natsuki Akito and Natsuki Kazuto to turn into vengeful spirits and follow him around would be very reasonable too.
But now, Hikari still felt a bit puzzled.
Because this eerie aura felt somewhat familiar, and rather strong. Yet it was also very far away, and seemed to have no intention toward him, nor any hostility. It was as if it just happened to pass by, and his senses were simply too sharp, so he accidentally picked up on it.
It was a very strange feeling. Hikari found it hard to describe exactly what it felt like.
Although he wanted to figure out what was going on, whether it was just an accident or some evil entity causing trouble, that aura always kept its distance from him, feeling very faint and drifting, with no obvious malice. Faced with an existence without clear hostility, Hikari had no way to lock onto it directly.
Still, he raised his guard internally. He himself was naturally not afraid at all.
But he still needed to prepare all kinds of protective measures for the people he cared about, like Miyuri and Sayako. For example, making sure they carried various protective and warning items.
After thinking it through, Hikari went home first.
Only after feeding the exotic beautiful married maid Arisa, whom he had somewhat neglected lately due to being busy, did he head over to the Asakawa household.
After all, Aoi had actually agreed with him yesterday that he would go over there to stay the night. But because of the unexpected incident with Jinno Sumire, he did not make it in the end. So urged by Aoi, Hikari planned to go over today.
———
Arriving at the Asakawa house, Hikari took out the key Aoi had given him, opened the door, and walked inside.
But just as he entered the house, had only taken off his shoes at the entrance, and had not yet greeted Suiren, he was immediately pulled upstairs by Aoi.
"Come on, get in my room!"
Hikari followed her into her bedroom and immediately heard Aoi say, "Hikari-kun, you clearly said you would come stay over at our place last night. Why didn't you come again?"
Hikari explained, "I ran into a ghost on the way to the shrine yesterday, and there was a bit of an accident, so I couldn't come back to sleep."
Hearing this, Aoi could not help but laugh, "Hehe! Ran into a ghost? Was it a vixen instead? Sniff! Sniff… hmm, smells like several vixens~"
"Aren't you not bothered by that kind of thing?", Hikari said with a smile.
"I'm not bothered, but I already said you had to come stay the night!", Aoi said angrily.
"I'm here now, aren't I?", Hikari said.
"Too late!"
"Not too late. If you don't believe me, I'll prove it to you," Hikari picked Aoi up.
"Alright, prove it to me," Aoi also laughed, clearly her earlier anger had been partly an act.
But just as the two were about to lay everything bare, and Hikari was about to show his feelings clearly to Aoi, a burst of urgent knocking suddenly sounded.
"Aoi? Hikari-kun? Are you inside? Nee-san is coming in~"
Hearing Suiren's voice, Hikari immediately put Aoi down.
Aoi also rubbed her flushed cheeks.
Then Suiren really did push the door open and walk into the room.
"What is it, Suiren-nee? Is something wrong?", Just when things were about to get serious, they were suddenly interrupted. Aoi rubbed her face and asked.
"It's nothing big," Suiren smiled, then turned to Hikari and said, "Hikari-kun, the flowers in our yard haven't been watered for a long time. They're about to dry up. I want to go water them, but it's a bit heavy to do alone, and really tiring. You're a boy, can you help Nee-san?"
"Okay," Faced with such a perfectly reasonable request from Suiren, Hikari had no way to refuse, so he nodded and agreed.
"Then let's go downstairs together," As she spoke, Suiren walked up to them and directly dragged Hikari out of Aoi's room.
While watering the flowers, Suiren walked over to Hikari and said through clenched teeth, "Hikari-kun… didn't I tell you before not to be all lovey-dovey with Aoi anymore!"
"Is Suiren-nee jealous?", Hikari said casually.
"Nonsense! Why would I be jealous? I'm saying this because you're both still young and can't take responsibility yet. You need to learn to restrain yourself, understand?", Suiren said angrily.
"I want to restrain myself too, but Aoi is really too proactive. I can't help it…"
"And at my age, even steel plates would… how am I supposed to restrain myself," Feeling uncomfortable with Suiren's scolding, Hikari helplessly spread his hands.
"Nee… Nee-san already said it! If you… if you have needs, you can come find Nee-san!", Suiren stomped her foot in anger.
"I…", Hikari wanted to speak, but Suiren interrupted him.
"Don't say it! I already know! Focus on watering the flowers," Suiren blushed and covered Hikari's mouth.
Seeing that Suiren was getting a bit anxious, Hikari could only shut his mouth and say nothing more.
After telling Hikari to water the flowers properly, Suiren slowly squatted down, lifted the shovel, and gently turned over the soil in the flowerbed.
"Hiss!", Hikari let out a light cry.
Suiren immediately glared at him.
"Seems like some bug crawled over my foot," Hikari explained.
Suiren had no way to fuss about it and lowered her head again to work seriously.
Hikari also lifted the watering can and watered the flowers earnestly.
After a while, Aoi suddenly walked out of the house and came to the backyard.
She looked around and asked Hikari curiously, "Hikari-kun, where's Suiren-nee? Weren't you two watering the flowers together?"
Sensing that the Suiren hiding nearby was a bit nervous, Hikari spoke up for her, "Not sure. Suiren-nee seemed to say she needed to buy something and went out."
"Alright then," Hearing this, Aoi nodded and left.
After Aoi had been gone for a while, the Suiren who had quietly finished her work finally stood up.
She complained to Hikari, "Hikari-kun, can you be more careful? I almost got discovered by Aoi just now. That was way too dangerous…"
As she spoke, she puffed up her cheeks, looking angry.
"Next time for sure, I'll definitely be careful next time."
"Hmph!", Hearing Hikari's words, Suiren hurriedly left the garden and went back into the house.
Not long after Suiren left, Aoi returned again, coming back to the backyard.
This time, she walked straight into the garden and came up to Hikari.
With her hands behind her back, she lowered her head and looked at the deep footprints near Hikari's feet that were left from when Suiren had been squatting there earlier.
Smiling sweetly, she asked, "Hikari-kun, how was it getting bitten by bugs just now? Did it hurt? Or was it… comfortable?"
Looking at the mischievous girl's face, Hikari said helplessly, "Do you really like teasing your sister that much? Or do you just like using your sister to tease me? How about I just tell Suiren-nee directly that you actually already know everything."
Hearing that, Aoi immediately hugged Hikari's arm and shook it, "No, no, don't! Sister's skin is thin. If we say it straight out, she'll be so embarrassed she'll die."
"And because she doesn't know, every time she helps you, she's super nervous and serious. Doesn't that make you feel even better, Hikari-kun?", Aoi said with a giggle.
"You really do always come up with new tricks for me," Hikari looked at Aoi helplessly.
Aoi looked surprised, "Eh? You already figured that out, Hikari-kun? I really did secretly learn some new tricks yesterday. Let's try them together."
After saying that, Aoi directly pounced on Hikari and knocked him down into the flowerbed. Because the garden soil was quite soft, it did not hurt when they fell together.
Next, Aoi showed Hikari all kinds of new techniques she had learned. Hikari was deeply moved and then expressed his reward to her.
———
"Huh? Where's Hikari-kun?"
Having just finished washing her face and brushing her teeth, Suiren returned to the backyard, only to find no one there at all.
She had originally planned to water the flowers herself, but found that the watering can was gone too, and she had no idea where Hikari had taken it.
She could only go back inside to look for it. After searching for a while and still not finding it, she sat down on the sofa to rest.
Suiren did not know that Hikari was in fact still watering flowers, just watering a sunflower.
———
The sun was setting in the west.
The evening breeze blew in with the falling sun, and the sunflowers in the garden swayed gently.
After being nourished by plenty of sweet rain, the sunflowers that faced the sun without fear of the heat grew quite robust.
Their stems were tall and straight, their fruits full and plump.
However, on the branches and leaves in the flowerbed, there were still a few drops of dew left behind after watering.
Seeing the sun gradually set, Hikari, who had been busy watering the flowers, pulled Aoi up from the ground.
Aoi thoughtfully helped Hikari clean off the places that had gotten dirty from watering.
Hikari also helped her brush off the fertile soil that had accidentally stuck to her skirt hem.
After tidying themselves up a bit, Aoi linked her arm with Hikari's, and the two of them walked back into the house together.
"Suiren-nee~"
Seeing Suiren sitting on the sofa in the living room, Aoi smiled and greeted her.
"Aoi? Where did you go for the past few hours?"
"And Hikari-kun, didn't I ask you to help me water the flowers? Why did you disappear?"
Seeing the two of them appear together after not seeing them for so long, Suiren looked puzzled.
Aoi smiled and said, "I went out to buy something earlier. When I came back, I saw Hikari-kun watering the flowers in the garden, so I helped him for a bit. Hikari-kun was watering the flowers in the garden the whole time."
"Oh? Is that so? Then why didn't I see Hikari-kun when I went to the garden earlier?", Suiren asked doubtfully.
"Well, it was probably because when you went over, Hikari-kun was squatting down to catch bugs and pull weeds for those sunflowers, so you didn't notice him. Just now Hikari-kun was even complaining to me, asking why you said you were going to wash your face and brush your teeth, but took so long to come back and help," Aoi said with a smile.
"Ah? Is… is that so?", Suiren looked at Hikari somewhat embarrassed.
"I didn't complain about you, Suiren-nee," Hikari shook his head, only denying that part of Aoi's words. After all, the rest was Aoi covering for the two of them.
"Right, right, Hikari-kun didn't complain about Suiren-nee. He was just grateful for my help. Otherwise, watering alone with that can, he might have watered until it started smoking, and the flowers wouldn't have bloomed at all~", Aoi said with a giggle.
"Alright, I'm really sorry, Hikari-kun, for calling you to water the flowers and then leaving you alone," Hearing Aoi say this, Suiren looked at Hikari apologetically, though she still felt a trace of suspicion about the two of them coming back together.
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