Let's do it again, Yukino.

Perhaps after graduating from university, opening a restaurant with Xiaoxue like this would be a good choice.

As Chunri gazed at this scene, a whimsical thought suddenly occurred to her.

The commotion at the door startled the boy awake.

He pushed up his glasses, then immediately turned around and greeted the girl standing in the doorway.

"Welcome, sir/madam?"

Click,

Chunri's glasses almost slipped off her nose.

Those standing there also looked at Haruhi with a mixture of surprise and delight.

"Although I've eaten at this restaurant a few times before, I never expected to meet you here a second time, Kasuga-nii."

Big pig's trotters?

A single-colored plumage?

Looking at the flaxen-colored figure standing in front of her, Haruhi suddenly realized who this flaxen-colored girl was.

What are you doing here?

"Didn't I just tell you, senior? I used to come here often, but lately I've been busy with the soccer club and trying to lose weight unnecessarily, so I haven't been coming as often. Meeting you here is truly a fateful encounter."

The smile on this shrewish junior's face was as fake yet radiant as when they first met.

"Alright, as long as they're not deliberately trying to cause trouble, how many of you are here?"

"One? The senior's attitude is really cold, even though he touched her body not long ago."

Spring breathed a sigh of relief.

As for the fateful encounter and the suggestive act of touching her body, he completely ignored them and threw them to the back of his mind.

First, this junior has a history of being a jerk; second...

He turned around, smiled, and waved to Xiaoxue, who was staring at him from a distance.

"Xiao---cough, Yukinoshita, we have a new guest here. Please come and serve him."

It wouldn't have been wrong to entertain this junior in the spring, but out of respect and love for life, he chose to summon Xiaoxue instead.

"……I see."

She clearly recognized Iroha Isshiki next to Haruhi, and slowly walked over, brushing past Haruhi without saying hello, before reaching Iroha's side.

"Should we make it a no-smoking area or a smoking area?"

Xiaoxue did this on purpose.

Springtime silently complained to herself...

"It's a no-smoking seat, after all, he's just an ordinary first-year high school student."

"There's just a seat available now, please follow me."

"Yes, then I'll really have to trouble you, Yukinoshita-senpai."

"..."

Haruhi saw Yukinoshita smile and call out Isshiki's surname, and she trembled slightly, but other than that, she did nothing else and calmly led Isshiki to an empty seat in the hall.

During that process, both Xiaoxue and Yise acted in a subtle, unnatural way, and this feeling lasted for a long time.

In the days that followed, whenever Chunri glanced at Isshiki's seat during her free time, she would always find that Isshiki would immediately look away.

……

Xiaoxue was walking towards Chunri from another guest's seat, her dark eyebrows slightly furrowed; she looked somewhat unhappy.

"Take a short rest, and I'll help you with the rest of the work."

Chunri, who was leaning against the front desk waiting for news from the kitchen, handed Xiaoxue a wet wipe.

"She just secretly took a picture of you."

However, upon learning this news, Kasuga shook her head without any surprise.

"I noticed, but let her take the picture. It's not like I'll lose a piece of flesh just because someone took a picture of me."

"Fool."

Yukinoshita let out a soft hum.

"I'm not stupid. Besides, Xiaoxue, you can't expect me, as a waitress, to run over and accuse a customer of infringing on my portrait rights. What if they don't find my photo on Yise's phone in the end? The consequences would be that my already bad reputation would lead to me being arrested as a pervert, and I might even be fired by Manager Xin."

"Besides, it's just a photo... You don't really think that Iroha, who lies in at least one of her three sentences, would have any interest in me that's just an ordinary person, other than a senior or junior, do you? Besides, who told you that if a girl takes a photo of a boy, it means she has a crush on him? Even if she puts it in her album, who knows if she's planning to use Photoshop to get revenge on him as a prank?"

Springtime, who set a photo of Xiaoxue sleeping as his phone wallpaper, shamelessly made fun of himself.

Yukinoshita wiped the slightly damp skin on her palm with the wet wipe Haruhi handed her, turned her back, blushed awkwardly, and looked at the sake in the bar window, then shook her head again.

“I didn’t say much, but you can’t deny it, Kasuga-kun, that child did develop an interest in you earlier in this life.”

"...Then I have no choice. Xiaoxue, if you want me to only like you, I can do that; but if you want others to not like me, what do you expect me to do? Disfigure myself? Even if I were willing, you wouldn't be!"

"Don't joke with me, I'm not kidding."

Raising her hands, Chunri shook her head helplessly and rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry, even if Isshiki accidentally falls for me, I will clearly reject her. Think about it, we've been together for seven years, have I ever cheated on you even once? And every three days, the 'tribute' I give you has always made you say it's about to overflow?"

"Really... wait a minute, can you please stop telling dirty jokes in public like this? Besides, there's no guarantee you won't have these kinds of thoughts in the future."

Xiaoxue's expression softened a bit, but she still retorted to Chunri with a hint of arrogance.

"...That's why I said a long time ago, you women are really complicated creatures."

As the woman pinched the soft flesh around his waist tightly, Chunri felt a sharp, uneasy pain in his chest.

……

…………

"Senior, please give me another cup of green tea."

From a distance in the hall came the cheerful and playful voice of Iroha Isshiki.

"okay."

Chunri responded and, without explaining anything to Xiaoxue, took a cup of prepared green tea and walked towards Iroha's seat. Before leaving, he said something to Xiaoxue with some concern.

"Xiaoxue, why don't you go to the back and rest for a while? You can leave the work here to me and Senior Heng."

Just as he felt relieved and was about to turn around,

Click,

He heard once again the crisp flash of a girl pressing the camera button on her phone.

Ugh,

Xiaoxue, whose expression had just softened, showed signs of turning gloomy again.

"Um, Xiaoxue, let me explain."

Springtime felt like crying, but no tears came. Watching the figure storming away beneath the snow, she tried to speak, pleading for him to stay.

"I won't listen! I won't listen!"

Her long black ponytail bounced as she walked away. When the boy looked again, the snow maiden had already disappeared from spring's sight.

(P.S.: One more chapter, I'm really out of energy, I can't write anymore.)

Chapter Seventy-Eight Jealousy

"I really have absolutely no relationship with that junior, Isshiki. Why won't you believe me, Yuki?"

At night, in a park not far from Fengliu Temple,

Springtime squatted on the cold ground with a worried expression, looking at the girl sitting on the swing in the park.

The sweltering heat of the day dissipated considerably with the arrival of night, and the temperature dropped significantly compared to midday.

At this time of day, the park was completely deserted, a place that should have been very quiet.

However, the creaking sound of the iron chains on the swing rubbing against the lever above as it swayed made Chunri feel uneasy.

"push……"

Xiaoxue, whose expression was neither sad nor happy, sat on the swing and murmured softly.

Chunri frowned, clutching her stomach, and suggested, "Why are you playing on the swings so late at night? I'm a little hungry anyway, how about I go to the supermarket next door and buy some meat buns to tide me over?"

"push."

The girl repeated herself in the same tone as before.

"...Sigh, I get it, Xiaoxue, I give up." Seeing that his persuasion was useless, the boy had no choice but to walk behind Xiaoxue, grasp the cold iron chain with both hands, and gently shake it without much force.

Each time the iron chain is shaken, it seems to produce a variety of sounds.

In the pitch-black night, beautiful and complex music began to play.

"Let's go back."

Watching the girl's figure bobbing up and down on the swing, Chunri, who was squatting to the side, was so bored that he ignored the blurry vision provided by the darkness. He hummed an unknown tune and focused intently on peering up at the scenery under the girl's skirt.

Although the result was that we gained nothing...

I don't know how long the swing swayed like that.

Then the creaking sound gradually stopped.

The girl's mood gradually changed from irritability to calm.

"Are you feeling better, Xiaoxue?"

The atmosphere quieted down, and Chunri stopped humming, turning her gaze to the girl sitting on the swing.

"why?"