Let's do it again, Yukino.

Knowing that Xiaoxue was still upset about what happened last weekend and couldn't bring herself to talk to her, Chunri quickly and gently comforted her.

"Isn't it raining outside? We definitely can't go to the rooftop, so I had to call you to the warehouse. Besides, it's not lunchtime now. Are you really not planning to have lunch with me?"

"I don't want other classmates to find out that the two of us are in the warehouse. I have nothing to do with you."

Xiaoxue turned her face away with some disgust, but the corner of the bento box peeking out from behind her back was spotted by the sharp-eyed Chunri.

Subconsciously, he smiled faintly and stuffed the two sandwiches he bought from the school store under the thick layer of cushions under the snow.

"Sometimes, I find those rumors quite cute."

Kasuga vaguely remembered that when he was in the third grade, because of Yukino Yukinoshita, he gradually started to improve at Soubu High School. Many classmates also started to get closer to Kasuga and would occasionally jokingly ask him silly questions like "When are you going to marry Yukino Yukinoshita?" Sometimes they would even directly and mercilessly tease Kasuga.

However, in the spring after graduating from university, I would occasionally stay in my apartment and reminisce about my high school days. I found those gossipy guys who didn't do anything productive to be kind of cute. Perhaps the teasing I did back then had some influence on how smoothly my relationship with Xiaoxue progressed.

At that moment, noticing that Haruhi hadn't brought lunch, Yukino sighed helplessly, bent down and took out a spare bento box from behind her. She tiptoed behind Haruhi, and as if by telepathy, the sandwich under the cushion was picked up by Yukino's fingertips.

"I told you, we shouldn't waste food, right?"

Looking at Haruhi, who had turned away and was whistling nervously, Yukinoshita tore open the packaging. Two brightly colored sandwiches were quietly placed in the blue spare bento box.

Watching Xiaoxue place the lunchbox between the two of them, Chunri, who had been feeling guilty, was suddenly moved. Looking at Xiaoxue, who had swept her long hair that fell over her shoulders behind her back like a virtuous wife and loving mother, some words involuntarily came out.

"Xiaoxue, I'm sorry!"

He clasped his hands together, bowed his head, and apologized to Xiaoxue.

The warehouse echoed with the heartfelt sounds of spring from Australia.

? ?

The girl, who was about to pick up a sandwich brought by Chunri and start eating, stopped what she was doing and didn't speak immediately. She just looked at the boy with a puzzled expression.

"Nowadays……"

Taking a deep breath, Chunri decided that she still needed to be honest with Xiaoxue and explained what had happened that morning.

"Our Snow Mountain ship carried a woman other than you this morning. I'm truly sorry."

Phew... I finally said it. As expected, lying is my worst skill. But if it's Xiaoxue, she'll definitely forgive me.

After all, I helped her future cute junior, so Xiaoxue won't blame me, right?

Springtime is so beautiful, I fantasize about the girl in front of me, and how she will shyly and gently put a piece of egg roll into my mouth, and generously forgive me.

then,

All the imagined scenes in my mind vanished, and I opened my eyes, as if on a spring day full of anticipation, my eyes shining with starlight.

Then they saw that Yukinoshita had packed away all the lunches that had been placed between the two of them, including the two sandwiches that Haruhi had brought.

They stood up from the cushions again, and the sound of rain outside the window reached their ears.

Inside the warehouse,

Xiaoxue held a full lunchbox in both hands, her eyes slightly narrowed. As she got up to leave, she seemed to remember something, and patted Chunri's shoulder with her slender hand, revealing a particularly beautiful smile on her rosy lips.

"Then I'll head back to the Service Club. Please, during this week's lunch break, don't come looking for me, Kasuga-san, who's had a stroke of good luck with women, okay?"

"Hey?"

Looking at the girl who was completely different from before, Chunri understood the harsh reality. He raised his head and gave Xiaoxue a dry laugh.

"Um, even if you're angry, can you leave the food here first? Those two sandwiches were actually my breakfast."

"roll!"

The rain outside,

It's been raining continuously.

(P.S.: This is the second update for today, thank you!)

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Little Theater After the Rain

"I saw that Isshiki was really injured, and I took pity on her and gave her a ride. I swear to the heavens, I didn't touch her at all during the whole process."

In the small warehouse, Chunri raised her hand and swore an oath to the rain falling outside the window.

Yukinoshita had lost all interest in lunch. After listening to Haruhi recount the events of the morning in detail, her voice, which had been gentle before, turned slightly cold.

She couldn't help but furrow her beautiful brows, her hand transforming into a blade, striking Chunri's neck with it.

"I've told you before, my group of friends, I can help them! But you can't help them!! Haven't you ever taken that to heart?"

"why?"

Springtime felt confused.

"Excessive kindness can lead to unnecessary misunderstandings between people of the opposite sex."

Yukinoshita answered Haruhi's question with a serious and indifferent expression.

Haruhi scratched his head and casually reached for the bento box behind Yukinoshita, but was gently patted on the shoulder by the other person and then laughed.

"I think you're overthinking it, Xiaoxue. Yise and I are just friends at the dinner table in the future. No matter how good our relationship was before, I would never fall in love with her, right? You're just overthinking it, Xiaoxue."

Isshiki is indeed a very popular girl among the first-year students, but how should we describe Soubu High School, a high school with a completely unbalanced male-to-female ratio? Most of the girls are of average to above-average looks, so Kasuga doesn't have the bold idea of ​​asking every girl she sees to date.

Upon hearing Haruhi's words, Yukinoshita, who had initially felt relieved, frowned for some reason. She scrutinized the boy who was also earnestly explaining his relationship with Isshiki, and after a long while, once she was sure that she could find no flaws in his expression, she sighed softly.

"I think you, you idiot, can be a little naive sometimes..."

"Huh? Natural? Me? How could that be?"

"Fine, I'll forgive you this time since you don't know anything. Until Isshiki is elected as the student council president, I forbid you from having too much contact with Isshiki."

"Oh... wait a minute."

Unable to bear seeing herself being called "naturally naive" in springtime, she seemed to have realized something.

"You don't actually think that Yise would like me, do you? I think sometimes, Xiaoxue, you really overthink things. I don't even care about my own mother. Besides Xiaoxue, what other girl would like me? You're just overthinking it."

No wonder Yukino had been scrutinizing her adulterous lover just now; Kasuga finally realized what was going on.

Luckily, I have a strong will to survive. If it had become a rift between the two of us, I would have suffered even more.

"I didn't think that much about it; you're just overthinking it."

Besides, this idiot sometimes underestimates himself; the future is uncertain...

With a blush, Xiaoxue, unusually, lost in a staring contest with Chunri, and took out the bento box from behind her again.

The boy felt a warmth coming from the palm of her hand. He looked down and saw that Yuki's fingertips were touching his own.

Occasionally, Xiaoxue would suddenly feel like holding Chunri's hand tightly, just like now, when she lowered her head somewhat shyly.

"Let's eat."

"..."

The boy nodded helplessly, and as he accepted the bento, he and Yukino tacitly stopped mentioning Isshiki Hachiman.

While I was eating lunch, I was inwardly grumbling.

As expected, all women are big liars.

……

…………

"In that case, summer will be coming soon, and the cherry blossom season will be coming to an end."

Before leaving, Xiaoxue, who had just come out of the warehouse, looked at the still incessant rain outside and murmured something softly.

The plum rain season is approaching, and Xiaoxue knows this, which means that the bright spring she loves is about to end.

Standing next to him, Chunri, sweating profusely while eating lunch, had his black coat draped over his shoulders. He seemed somewhat disdainful when he heard Xiaoxue's inexplicable sentimentality.

There's always next year, right? Next spring, I can just come back and admire the cherry blossoms with you again.

Next year, or the year after, the year after that, or even every year thereafter, as long as Xiaoxue wants...

Just as Chunri was about to say these words, the sound of a door opening seemed to come from outside the stadium, interrupting Chunri's thoughts.

"Tch, these people are really in a hurry. I'll go back to the classroom through the back door first. Xiaoxue, you can leave through the front door."

Feeling somewhat frustrated by the disturbance, he could only quickly greet Yukino and, without waiting for her reply, slipped out through the back door before the group could enter.

"Ah."

Standing there, Xiaoxue responded, then, unconcerned about the departing spring, nodded gently, suppressing her thoughts about the impending end of spring, and regaining her usual cool demeanor. Gazing at the open door, the girl walked over expressionlessly.

As the rain continued, the spring she missed was quietly slipping away.

……

…………

"Nagato-kun, do all girls become sentimental because of the changing seasons?"

"What did you just say, Kasuga-kun?"

The bespectacled girl sitting in front of Haruhi seemed not to have heard Haruhi's words clearly. She turned her head, and her incredibly long and slender legs came into Haruhi's view. The girl gently pulled down her glasses and asked again, as if to confirm what Haruhi had just said.

Sometimes, when Haruhi sees Nagato not talking to other classmates, she will take the initiative to try to chat with this somewhat taciturn classmate.

"I mean, do most girls get sentimental from time to time?"

Looking at Nagato, who was intentionally or unintentionally trying to be cute in front of her, Haruhi, who was resting her chin on her hand and looking at the rainy scene outside the window, asked again, seemingly tired of it.

Physical education class was changed to an indoor class, so Chunri, who hadn't planned to go out to exercise, could only sit by her seat and watch the rain.

At first, he didn't pay much attention, but when he recalled what Xiaoxue had said at that time, he still felt a little uneasy.

They are both working hard to maintain their relationship, and they are certain that their connection will not be easily severed. Perhaps it is because he has been influenced by Xiaoxue's occasional sentimentality lately, that he has also begun to feel a sense of tension, as if he is competing with life and time.

Yes, more than anything, I felt a sense of powerlessness as a teenager.

He is considered an illegitimate son of the Shinomiya family. If nothing unexpected happens, his future will not have any connection with the Shinomiya Group. Even if his father, Shinomiya Gan'an, whom he has been cursing to die for many years, really passes away one day, he will not leave a single penny of his property to himself.

Right now, he might be able to run rampant in the entire Zongwu High School because of the title of "super delinquent" he carries. But once he graduates and enters university, he will be even less capable than people in society. He will have almost nothing that he can truly control or possess.

He knew some things perfectly well. If his life hadn't changed before graduating high school, perhaps his and Xiaoxue's future wouldn't have been too different from their previous life.