My childhood sweetheart is Nishimiya Glass

Chapter 303 Sales Increase Instead of Decrease

"Beep beep beep..."

"Moxi moxi."

"Uncle Sakata, this is Hiiragihashi."

"Hiiragihashi-kun? Is something wrong so early?"

Inside a narrow and cluttered rental room on Futaba Street.

Lying in bed, the boy listened to the caring words on the phone, his fingers unconsciously twisting the hem of his clothes, his voice trembling:
"Uncle Sakata, I have some things to take care of at home today, so I'd like to ask for a day off."

"Sure, if you're in a hurry, go ahead and take care of it. Tanaka-kun is back today, so the shop won't be too busy."

"Thank you!"

Upon hearing this, the boy felt much less guilty and hung up after exchanging a few pleasantries with the person on the other end of the phone.

He glanced at the number '08:43' in the upper right corner of his phone screen, cursed a Japanese swear word, immediately jumped up, and almost tripped over a plastic bag as he stepped barefoot into his sneakers.

A gray T-shirt was hanging on the wardrobe doorknob. He pulled it off and pulled it over his head, the back of the collar still turned up and not straightened. He had already smashed open the iron gate and rushed down the stairs, his keychain jingling on the door frame.

Just after nine o'clock in the morning, under the arcade of Futaba Shopping Street, housewives slowly walked past the fresh fish shop, pushing shopping baskets with strollers attached, the silver scales of horse mackerel reflecting in the glass tanks.

Middle-aged women carrying bulging nylon bags and aunties with wicker baskets passed each other on the sidewalk, while several bicycles jingled as they passed through the morning light.

The boy, known as Hiiragihashi, stood at the entrance of Futaba Street, panting heavily, his gaze fixed on a bookstore.

"Fortunately, there aren't too many people yet." With that, he wiped the fine sweat from his forehead and strode toward the crowd queuing at the bookstore.

Standing at the end of the line, I glanced at the number of people in front of me—about ten—and guessed that they probably had the same purpose as me.

Everyone wanted to be the first to buy the second volume of "Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day" on its release date.

"Perfect timing, there aren't too many people in line yet, and we'll be opening in a few minutes."

"It's all Nishikata's fault, he was 30 minutes late."

"Sorry, sorry. My bad."

Three voices chattered behind the boy. He glanced back at them, then looked away. The three kids didn't interest him at all.

My gaze remained fixed on the 'Anohana' poster on the bookstore wall, or more precisely, on the face of the female protagonist, 'Menma'.

"Tear... Bang..."

The loud noise drew the boys' attention, and the people at the front of the line began to rush into the store.

Not long after, the boy left the bookstore with a bright blue book in his hand, his nostrils filled with the aroma of freshly baked yeast from the shop next door.

"let's go."

"Let's go get Miyamura's autograph."

"Just wait for me."

The three people who had been there quickly passed by Hiiragi Bridge and turned into the alleyway in the blink of an eye. He did not stop or hesitate and walked towards the alleyway in the opposite direction from them.

----------

"Dong dong dong...!"

"what!"

The sudden knocking startled Shoko, who was up to no good, and she almost dropped her tablet.

"Who?"

"Click..."

"Sister, what naughty thing are you doing?"

Yuzuru Nishimiya half-opened the door, her head peeking into Shoko's bedroom, her eyes narrowed and a mischievous grin fixed on Shoko sitting on the bed. "Woof..." Hachiko scurried into Shoko's room, expertly lying down in front of the wardrobe door, watching the two sisters.

"No... I didn't do anything wrong!" Shoko quickly hid the tablet behind her back, then pretended to be angry and said, "And Yuzuru, why did you come in without my permission?"

Unfortunately, Nishimiya Yuzuru wasn't buying it at all: "But sister, your ears are so red, are you feeling unwell?"

"..."

“It’s hot,” Glass argued hesitantly.

"Oh." Nishimiya Yuzuru's gaze finally fell on Shoko's back. He smiled at her with narrowed eyes and then gestured for Hachiko to leave the room.

She felt that the trick was probably hidden in that tablet, and it was likely related to Ah Gang next door.

Although she knew the tablet's password, she didn't intend to look at it; she just wanted to know that her sister was up to something.

The two returned to the living room, and soon she forgot about the incident, her attention gradually drawn to the action movie on TV.

As darkness fell, raindrops pattered against the tin roof outside the window, and streetlights cast swaying halos on the wet street, while puddles trickled down the eaves.

"Tsuna! Have you seen the comments on your Twitter feed?"

As Tsuna watched Shoko rush into the living room, his gaze unconsciously fell on her wet toes, before he forcibly looked away before she noticed.

He coughed awkwardly and asked in confusion, "What comment...?"

"I just finished dinner tonight and I saw that your 'greeting' post on Twitter received a lot of comments criticizing you."

As she spoke, Shoko sat cross-legged beside him, took out her phone, and was about to open 'Twitter' to show him.

"Stop, stop, stop..." Tsuna reached out to stop her. "You don't need to show me. Didn't we already guess this result?"

"But everyone there is cursing—"

"It was just a few words of abuse, nothing serious." A-Gang waved his hand: "I just asked Sister Xiao-Shun, and the sales of both volumes are still rising, they haven't been affected at all."

"Can--"

"Don't worry, Shoko. They may criticize, but they'll still buy." Tsuna reassured her instinctively.

"Alright then..." Seeing that his expression didn't change at all and he didn't seem to be in a hurry, Shoko couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

She had seen the comments criticizing Tsuna and assumed he had already seen them and was secretly wiping away tears, so she rushed over in a panic. Little did she expect him to look so indifferent...

However, seeing his calm expression, she still felt a little uneasy and couldn't catch her breath.

"Then...then I'll continue with that illustration commission." With that, Shoko slowly moved to the coffee table, lay down there, and began working on the tablet.

A-Gang glanced at her twice and then stopped paying attention, continuing to watch the comedy variety show on TV.

It wasn't until he noticed out of the corner of his eye that she was clicking on the tablet more and more frequently that he curiously moved behind her to see what she was doing.

"..."

"You used a secondary account to insult them, didn't you...?"

"what……!"

"Tsuna, why did you come over without making a sound?" Shoko patted her chest, turned around and glared at him.

"You're just too focused, okay?" Tsuna looked at the records of the online arguments on her tablet and was a little speechless.

No... it's not called a verbal battle, it's more like she was trying to explain the reason behind 'Anohana', but most of the other party ignored her.

A few people who replied to her thought she was using a secondary account and went to explain...

"Shoko-san, have you finished the commissioned drawing...?" Tsuna's gaze fell on her again.

(End of this chapter)