"What's wrong, Takagi-san?" Shouko asked, perplexed, seeing her hesitant to speak.
"Nothing, nothing," Takagi shook her head repeatedly.
"Oh."
The two returned to the classroom and chatted with Tsuna and Nishikata for a few minutes before dispersing.
The two girls did most of the talking, while the two boys listened silently. Tsuna noticed something strange: Nishikata seemed a little hesitant to look at Takagi-san or even talk to her.
But he figured it was probably just an illusion...
Tsuna moved the desk back to its original spot and dozed off for about twenty minutes before Shouko woke him up, saying it was time for class.
He spent the rest of the afternoon pretending to pay attention, and the afternoon flew by in the blink of an eye.
"Dong... Dong... Dong...!"
"School dismissed," Teacher Fujiro said from the podium, but the room remained quiet until she left the room first, when a sudden commotion erupted.
After the two gathered their belongings, they said goodbye to the two behind them and walked out of the classroom side by side.
"I'm back!" x2
"Welcome home..."
"Mom, where are Dad and Hachiko?"
Tsuna and Shouko walked into the living room, only to see Shizuka alone on the sofa, watching a TV series. She asked curiously.
Shizuka casually replied, "I went fishing. I said I'd bring you a big catch this afternoon.
As for Hachiko, you know."
Tsuna glanced at the clock. It was about twenty minutes before four in the afternoon, and Dad would be back around five.
Hachiko was definitely with Yuzuru.
With nothing else to do, the two of them accompanied Shizuka to watch that Mary Sue drama. Shouko and she watched with gusto, while Tsuna sat speechless the entire time.
As for why he didn't take out his phone? As soon as he did, his mother confiscated it, making a casual call about disturbing Shouko and her.
She said she'd return it after they finished watching the show.
"Godmother, I've got to go home first." Shouko, receiving a call from Yuzuru, stood up, waved to the two of them, and left.
"Click..."
Hearing the door close, Shizuka paused the TV with the remote. She nudged her son beside her and asked,
"How's the bento made by Shouko?"
"It's pretty good, but the fried pork cutlet is a little salty." Tsuna reminisced about the taste of the lunch.
"After all, Shouko has only been learning for a few days." Shizuka thought it was normal. It was impressive that the boy finished it all.
She remembered how she couldn't tell the difference between sugar and salt when she was learning from him, and even confused sugar with MSG a few days ago.
Tsuna nodded. "Mom, I haven't touched the bento you gave me yet."
Even if Shouko's food tasted terrible, he still could eat it, unless it looked cooked on the outside but raw on the inside.
He couldn't even stomach that.
"That bento will be a snack for you and your Dad tonight," Shizuka waved her hand casually. Suddenly, a thought occurred to her, and she asked in confusion,
"Does Shouko know I've been secretly making bento?"
"No, I've kept it a secret," Tsuna shook his head.
"Haha... you're kind of useful," Shizuka said, then ignored him and continued watching her drama. She also returned the phone to the brat.
One played a game on their phone, while the other watched a drama. Around 5:30, the front door opened.
Daisuke returned with two fish he had bought, and after receiving perfunctory praise from Shizuka and Tsuna,
Shizuka took one of them to the kitchen to prepare, and asked Tsuna to take the remaining one to Shouko's house.
"Click..."
"Mom, are you back so soon today?"
"Woof!"
Tsuna had just opened the door to the Nishimiya family's house with his key when he heard Yuzuru's surprised voice from inside.
For a moment, he didn't know what to say...
Yuzuru, who was standing in the corridor with Hachiko, saw who had opened the door and immediately put away the smile on her face.
She reminded, "Tsuna-nii? My sister is helping grandma in the kitchen. You can go find her there."
As soon as she finished speaking, she wanted to go back to the living room with Hachiko.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Tsuna hurriedly stopped her, and only after she turned around and looked at him did he continue speechlessly:
"What's with that expression on your face? Can't I just come to see you?"
"Hehe..." Yuzuru forced a smile on her face when she heard it: "Do you think you believe what you said? And you still come to see me?
Can you please look at the fish in your hand first? I don't know how to deal with it."
After saying that, she ignored him and went back to the living room to watch cartoons with Hachiko beside her.
Tsuna closed the door, changed his shoes in the entrance hall, and then carried the fish to the kitchen. He politely declined the grandmother and Shouko's offer to keep him for dinner, and quickly left the Nishimiya family.
————————
"Tsuna, how about we go to that new water park on Futaba Street this Saturday? What do you think?"
Shouko asked curiously. He looked at the thirteen-year-old who had come to the second floor to find him after dinner. "Why do you suddenly want to go to the water park?"
Shouko walked over to his bed and sat down, leaning back before slowly explaining,
"Because after dinner today, Miu and Chika called me and invited me to go."
She suddenly sat up and excitedly looked at someone sitting in a chair. "I don't know how to swim. Can you teach me?"
"How can you be so sure I can swim?"
"Then I won't go. It's better not to go there without you by my side," Shouko replied without hesitation.
"Go ahead. I'll teach you then." Tsuna reached out and stopped her from pulling out her phone to call Miu.
He thought it would be nice to go out and have fun. He'd get to see Shouko in a swimsuit again. He'd already seen her last time at the hot spring hotel in Osaka, but it didn't stop him from enjoying it. (T/N: FBI We found him.)
Besides, there's nothing exposed in Shouko's swimsuit, so he can be quite confident.
"Hehe... I knew you would."
"By the way, is it just the two of us? Yuzuru isn't going?" Tsuna suddenly thought of the black-haired little girl who changed her face so erratically this afternoon.
Shouko reached out to take the schoolbag she had just brought with her, and took out the homework assigned by the teachers today. She replied as she took it out:
"I asked, and she said that Hachiko is not allowed to go there, so she doesn't want to go either."
"..." Tsuna was speechless.
He even suspected that Hachiko had drugged the child, as if she would lose motivation for any entertainment activities without Hachiko.
"By the way, I also asked, Aunt and she said she would listen to you, and if you want to go when the time comes, she will go too.
She said that it's safer to have an adult watching over you in places like this."
"Yeah."
He knew clearly why his mother would listen to him, because if he didn't go, Shouko would most likely not go either, so she would just look at him.
(End of this chapter)
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