Tokyo: Idol Girls have absolutely no bad intentions!

Time seemed to stretch out infinitely, each second feeling like an eternity, long and agonizing.

When she suddenly realized that the pickled radishes she had eaten before were all leftovers from Ito, her mind went blank.

Let's take care of Ito now.

Chapter 206 Safe Zone on the Ice Cream Cone

The two looked at each other silently, and Ito saw a lot in each other's eyes.

There's the embarrassment of being caught red-handed, the shame of one's own actions, and... well, there's a slightly chilling feeling.

What exactly is this guy trying to do?!

Under Ito's gaze, Takikawa's hand holding the bento box trembled slightly, and his expression kept changing.

Ito hadn't seen the other person stealing the leftovers, but the other person didn't try to cover it up immediately and just stood there dumbfounded, holding the pickled radish.

It could only be described as a staged accident.

“You… continue…” Ito tried to find some trash in his pocket to ease the awkward situation.

Saying "I didn't see anything" now would only exacerbate the other person's embarrassment, a point Ito understands.

It wasn't until Ito threw a wisp of air into the trash can—literally air—and walked away as if it hadn't been there, that Takikawa finally came to his senses.

Only after Ito's figure disappeared around the corner of the backdrop did Takikawa seem to have all his strength drained away. He leaned against the backdrop, panting heavily.

An overwhelming sense of shame completely overwhelmed her.

She looked at the empty lunchbox in her hand and the piece of pickled radish that had fallen to the ground.

It’s over.

In the afternoon, as instructed by the director, Takikawa had no choice but to bite the bullet and lead Ito to the recording studio on the street.

There was no one else with them, just the two of them.

The air seemed thicker and heavier than it had been in the morning.

Takikawa walked ahead, his steps stiff, deliberately keeping an awkward distance from Ito, his head down, his gaze fixed on the tips of his shoes.

She dared not turn around, dared not speak, and dared not even breathe too loudly.

The scene from noon that made her wish she could die on the spot kept replaying in her mind.

The aroma of the sauce, the fallen pickled radish, Ito's shocked yet complex expression...

If Director Hase hadn't given the order, she would never have accompanied Ito, absolutely not.

Ito followed behind, equally silent.

He had his hands in his pockets, his gaze fixed on Takikawa's stiff back in front of him.

He could clearly feel the intense, almost tangible shame and embarrassment emanating from her.

Although he found her behavior of secretly eating leftovers hard to understand, and even a little pitiful, he had no interest in mocking or exposing her.

After all, all he wanted was that two million in reward money.

However, looking at the figure in front of him, whose every step seemed incredibly difficult, a strange, indescribable feeling welled up inside him.

It's not sympathy, but more like a sense of unease after witnessing a horrific car accident, or yet another lower limit on human behavior.

After all, it's always uncomfortable to see a pretty young girl doing something like that next to a trash can.

The two walked silently down the street leading to the recording studio, one after the other.

The afternoon sun filtered through the gaps in the cherry blossom trees, casting dappled shadows. A gentle breeze blew, and the petals fluttered down.

It was a beautiful scene, but neither of them paid any attention to it.

“Um…” Ito suddenly spoke up from behind.

Takikawa froze, his steps halting, but he didn't turn around; his heart was racing involuntarily.

What is he going to say? Bring up what happened at noon? Absolutely not!

"The recording studio... how far is it?" Ito tried to ease the awkward atmosphere.

"Uh... turn left at the intersection ahead and you'll get there." Takikawa pointed in a direction.

"Okay," Ito replied, and then said nothing more.

The two fell silent again. This brief conversation did not ease the awkwardness; instead, it made the atmosphere even more delicate.

It's hard to imagine that the two of them had a brief history of cohabitation, even though other people were involved and they lived in two different rooms.

The sound engineer was a warm-hearted middle-aged man who immediately came to greet Ito when he entered.

"Mr. Ito, right? The director has already spoken to him." The sound engineer smiled and extended his hand. "Just call me Kobayashi. The equipment is all ready, shall we do a sound check first?"

"Okay, thank you for your help." Ito nodded politely.

Takikawa, trying to disguise himself as a ghost, quietly huddled in a chair in the corner of the control room, trying to minimize his presence.

She kept her head down, pretending to examine her fingernails, or staring blankly at the ground, trying to block out the sounds of Ito and Kobayashi talking through her earphones.

Empty your mind, let that hateful figure disappear from your thoughts.

The more she resisted, the clearer the figure became, and the more her inner shame surged.

This guy who wouldn't even contact me on Line dares to appear in my head without any sense of propriety. Takikawa clenched his fists inwardly.

According to Ito, she was determined to make the other party pay for the usurpation of her ideas.

That would be ideal if it could offset my existing debts.

"Is the microphone height okay? Does it need to be adjusted?" Kobayashi asked.

“Yes, this height is just right,” Ito replied, unaware of Takikawa’s unusual behavior.

No, it should be said that Ito was acting strangely from the very first moment she met Takikawa today.

So the abnormal is normal; Takikawa has never been normal!

“Okay, let’s try the first chorus and get a feel for it.” Kobayashi operated the control panel. “Relax, Mr. Ito, you have a great voice.”

"Thank you."

Ito's voice came through the headphones, clear and magnetic.

Takikawa forced herself not to listen, but the sound stubbornly penetrated her ears, making her even more agitated.

The recording process lasted for nearly an hour.

Ito was very professional and cooperative, and Kobayashi nodded frequently to show his satisfaction.

Takikawa remained silent throughout, like an outsider.

She just wanted it all to end quickly; whenever she heard Ito's voice, she couldn't help but reminisce.

that's terrible!

"Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Ito. The results are excellent." Kobayashi took off his headphones and said with a smile to Ito as he walked into the control room. "The director should be very satisfied."

Kobayashi turned to look at Takikawa in the corner, "Ms. Takikawa, thank you for keeping me company."

Takikawa suddenly raised his head, as if startled, and forced a very weak smile.

"...It's not hard work."

When the recording ended and I came out of the recording studio, it was already getting dark.

The two walked silently back to the film set.

Takikawa was still shrouded in the midday shadow, looking listless. He walked ahead of Ito, not wanting to get involved with him.

The afterglow of the setting sun cast a long shadow of her.

As Ito looked at the dejected figure in front of him, that indescribable feeling welled up in his heart again.

There was a bit of irritation, but more than that, there was an undeniable sense of awkwardness, completely different from the Takikawa I knew before...

It had only been a few weeks since I last saw him, but I felt that Takikawa had changed a lot. This change was different from Asada's weight gain; it seemed more like a change in mindset.

He hated trouble, especially getting involved with a woman like Takikawa, whose thoughts were unpredictable.

But looking at her like this, he felt a bit annoyed, as if he had done something heinous to bully her.

It was clearly her own strange behavior.

Just as they passed a familiar ice cream shop, the one they had eaten at with Asada last time, Ito stopped in his tracks.

He glanced at Takikawa, who was still walking ahead with his head down, and then at the colorful ice cream display case in the shop. His brows furrowed slightly, as if he were making a difficult decision.

A few seconds later, as if he had made up his mind, he said to Takikawa in front of him, "Wait for me."

Takikawa froze, stopping in his tracks, but didn't turn around. He just stood there stiffly, his back to him.

She didn't know what Ito was going to do, and her heart was pounding with anxiety, fearing that he would bring up what happened at noon again.

After a few minutes, Takikawa felt as if he had lived a whole lifetime.

"Here you go." Ito's voice rang out from the side.

Takikawa froze, staring blankly at the ice cream cone suddenly handed to him, then looked up at Ito, his sky-blue eyes filled with bewilderment and disbelief.

"...For me?" she asked instinctively, her voice tinged with uncertainty.

"Mm." Ito nodded, his voice still flat. "Please have some if you don't mind."

He paused, then added, "That little bit of food at lunch probably wasn't enough to fill you up."

He remembered the way she stared at his lunchbox with the hungry look in her eyes at noon.

“Everyone’s appetite is different,” he said, as if explaining, or perhaps talking to himself. “Just like you can’t expect Asada to eat only one person’s worth of food.”

He recalled Asada's astonishing appetite, and compared it to Takikawa's pitiful "healthy meal" at noon, and felt that this reason seemed reasonable.

Takikawa's heart skipped a beat.

Was he concerned about me? Or was he mocking me for sneaking a bite to eat at lunchtime?

Looking at Ito's expressionless face, she couldn't discern his true intentions.

But looking at the tempting, towering scoops of ice cream, and then thinking about the bland and tasteless lunchbox I had at noon and the pitiful leftovers that followed... my stomach seemed to growl empty again.