She remembered Rinko, who had dating experience, sharing her kissing summary with them, and the most impressive part was Rinko's description of the tongue kiss.
Although she had forgotten the name of the method, she clearly remembered the key point: sticking out the tongue...
"Boom!"
"Eh!"
The sudden thunder startled Shouko, who felt guilty. Before she could recover, she noticed Tsuna's eyelids twitching from the corner of her eye.
'!'
Shouko realized he might be waking up. She quickly put distance between them and hopped onto the chair in two steps, feeling completely flustered.
"Pitter-patter…"
The dense curtain of rain blurred the view outside the window.
Shouko waited for a while, but Tsuna didn't seem to be waking up. So, she shifted from observing him out of the corner of her eye to staring at him directly.
She even wondered if Tsuna was pretending to sleep, but when she leaned closer and saw that his face was still the same, without any change, she felt like she was just feeling guilty for no reason…
'Last time, a kiss and then run!'
'That's right! A kiss and then run!'
After silently hyping herself up, Shouko slowly leaned down. As the distance closed, her throat tightened even more.
"Thump, thump, thump…!"
"!!!"
Just as their lips touched, Shouko instinctively sprang back, looking in terror at the knocking door.
"Tsuna, the weather forecast says there's heavy rain. Are the windows locked tightly?"
"A…Auntie, they're l-locked tightly!"
"Boom! Boom!"
Shizuka, outside the door, heard Shouko's stammering voice, muffled by the thunder, and didn't suspect much. She gave a few instructions and then turned to go downstairs.
"Whew…"
Shouko let out a long breath, her face flushed. She turned her head and saw that Tsuna had already woken up, rubbing his sleepy eyes.
"Shouko, what was Mom saying just now?"
"…"
"Click…"
"Bang!"
The clever Shouko knew her face must be very red right now. Her rapidly operating 'single-core processor' chose to escape his room before he could notice anything unusual.
"Shouko?"
"Mom, I just remembered my bedroom window isn't closed! I'll return the umbrella in the entryway tomorrow!"
By the time Shizuka poked her head out of the living room, she only saw an empty entryway and the just-closed front door.
"…"
At the same time, Tsuna on the second floor touched his damp lips, a bit speechless. He had also heard the excuse Shouko used when she left.
— — — —
"I'm leaving!"
"I'm leaving."
"Click…"
As soon as the door closed, Tsuna immediately turned to the girl beside him. "Shouko, I feel like you're a bit off today."
"W-what's off…?"
Shouko stammered, looking up to meet his gaze, but her eyes uncontrollably shifted down to his rosy lips.
Then she noticed his lips curve up by two pixels and quickly lowered her head again, afraid he would notice something.
"I just have a feeling you did something bad and are hiding it from me." Tsuna eyed her suspiciously.
"N-no way!" Shouko suppressed her guilt, gathered her courage, and looked up to meet his eyes.
Tsuna smiled, apologized to her, and then turned to ride his motorcycle out of the garage. After she put on her helmet and got on the bike, he turned back and continued to ask the question on his mind:
"Did you take a shower this morning?"
"Th-this morning, when I was preparing your bento… I accidentally spilled sauce on myself, so… I showered."
Shouko explained hesitantly, her ears red.
Because she was wearing a helmet, Tsuna couldn't notice the change in her ears, and the focus of the conversation had already shifted by Shouko.
"Did you get burned?"
"I… I'm fine. I just felt a bit sticky and smelled an odor, so I took a shower."
Shouko shook her head repeatedly, looking at his worried eyes. As she wrapped her arms around his waist, she said, "Tsuna, if we don't leave now, we might be late."
"Are you really okay?"
"I'm fine!" Shouko's helmeted head bumped his back.
The next second, she regretted it a bit and rubbed his back with her hard helmet.
"…"
When they arrived at school, the clever Ajitani also noticed that Shouko had taken a shower early that morning.
When asked, Shouko also brushed her off with the same excuse, but this time, having learned her lesson, she mentioned beforehand that she hadn't been burned.
"I thought you were on your period…" Ajitani, hearing she was fine, smiled, waved her hand, and teased.
Shouko looked bewildered and chose to ask, "Which 'that'?"
Ajitani first looked around, seeing that no students in the noisy classroom were paying attention to them.
And Tsuna, in the seat next to Shouko, was already playing chess with the Duke of Zhou. Takagi and Nishikata hadn't arrived at school yet, so she slowly leaned into her ear to explain.
"…"
After explaining, Ajitani watched Shouko's ears turn red at a visible speed, a little surprised.
In junior high, the girl had taken biology classes arranged by the school on these topics, and Shouko's reaction hadn't been this big.
Although her ears had turned red then too, it was definitely not as exaggerated as it was now!
In that instant, the clever Ajitani discovered 'Watson'!
During lunch break, she also secretly glanced at Shouko and Tsuna's bentos; none of the side dishes required sauce.
That moment confirmed her suspicion, and she started to feel a bit narcissistic again, but she didn't mention it to anyone.
Tsuna and the others saw her either stroking her chin and suddenly laughing or closing her eyes and slowly shaking her head with a slight smirk. They just treated it as her usual eccentricity and didn't ask too much.
— — — —
The sunset faded as Daisuke returned home.
After dinner, Shouko appeared at Miyamura on time, bringing Yuzuru and Hachiko with her.
"Auntie Miyamura, can you please help me convince Mom?"
"What's wrong?" Shizuka looked at Yuzuru, who had rushed in and was cuddling her, a bit puzzled.
"Mom won't let me take next week off to see my sister's opera performance." Yuzuru wiped nonexistent tears from the corners of her eyes.
"Next week?" Shizuka mumbled, then looked at a certain person sprawled on the tatami mat beside her, being poked by Shouko:
"Tsuna, how long does your School Festival last next week?"
"Mom, three days. The original Wednesday was postponed to Thursday due to some special reasons."
Shouko held up three fingers and explained why Yaeko wouldn't let Yuzuru take time off: "Yuzuru has exams for two days next week, which are Thursday and Friday, so Mom won't let her take time off."
Shizuka heard this and, without waiting for Yuzuru to speak, rejected her series of charming pleas and asked curiously:
"Don't Shouko and their opera performances have a morning show and an afternoon show? Yuzuru, you can go after your exams are over."
"…"
"By the time she gets there, our performance will already be over. The timing perfectly aligns with when her exams start." At this point, Tsuna sat up straight and spread his hands helplessly:
"On Saturday, she complained that the weather was hot and she didn't want to move because it would take up her rest time."