Tokyo: Oreimo

This is Ling Nai's style of "I'm very interested, but I will never admit it."

Thinking about all this, Ryosuke suddenly wanted to go home as soon as possible.

It's not for any other reason.

I just feel that teasing a cat is definitely more fun when you do it in person.

.....

The tram swayed for about forty minutes, and by the time it arrived at the station, it was completely dark. Ryosuke came out of the station and saw the roof of the Takashiro family's house in less than ten minutes.

I pushed open the door, and the light in the entryway was on.

The sound of a television came from the living room. Stepfather Takashiro Isao was curled up on the sofa watching the evening news, while mother Mieko seemed to be cleaning up the dishes in the kitchen.

"I'm back," Ryosuke greeted the house.

"Oh, Ryosuke's back. He's a little later than usual today." Takashiro Isao peeked out from behind the sofa.

"The club activities were extended a little."

"Have you eaten? I left you some curry, it's in the pot." Mieko poked half her body out of the kitchen, her apron still tied around her waist.

"Thank you, Mom. I'll go upstairs to put my schoolbag down first, and I'll be right back down."

Ryosuke changed into slippers and went up the stairs to the second floor. Ryouno's door was closed, and warm yellow light shone through the crack in the door.

He deliberately slowed his pace as he passed by, without knocking or making a sound. He just glanced at the closed door once more before heading straight to his room.

Put down your schoolbag and take off your coat, hanging it on the back of the chair.

Just as he was about to turn around and go downstairs, the door was suddenly pulled open from the outside.

Ling Nai stood at the door, her long golden hair cascading over her shoulders. She was wearing her usual loose hoodie and shorts, one hand still in the position of pushing the door open, the other hand tucked into her hoodie pocket.

Her expression was one of standard impatience.

"too slow."

"What's too slow?"

"What time is it?" Ling Nai turned her head away. "After you finish eating, come to my room. Your tutoring time will be over by then, right?"

"Oh, sorry, I'll do it as soon as possible."

He did spend a lot of time in the club today; not everyone can read manuscripts as quickly as he can.

It was almost 6 o'clock when the results were announced. Afterwards, we discussed some arrangements for the winter COMI. By the time we left the school, it was already dark.

Ryosuke chuckled, walked past her, and headed towards the stairs.

"Let's go eat first, the curry is getting cold. We'll talk about it during tutoring later."

"Humph."

A very faint hum came from behind me, followed by the sound of the door closing.

...

After having dinner and taking a shower, Ryosuke knocked on Ayano's door with his tutoring notebook in hand.

Ling Nai was sitting at her desk with a math workbook open in front of her. The pen cap was still on the pen, and it looked like she hadn't turned a page for at least fifteen minutes.

"Let's review math today." Ryosuke pulled up a chair next to her, sat down, and opened his notebook. "I've compiled a few similar questions from the last monthly exam. Try them out first."

"Understood." Ling Nai took the notebook, picked up a pen, and began to work out the first problem on the paper.

About three minutes later, she stopped writing.

"So how did the voting go?"

"you guess?"

"You bastard..." The girl's eyes immediately widened.

Ryosuke chuckled.

"Won."

"First."

How many votes?

"Four votes. There were five people voting in total, and each person had two votes. I got four votes and was in first place."

Ling Nai was silent for two seconds, then let out a very soft hum.

“That’s only natural.” There was a hint of smugness in her voice. “It would be strange if your writing lost to a bunch of college students.”

"The president's writing is actually quite good, a significant improvement over his previous doujinshi."

"I didn't ask you how other people's writing was."

Ling Nai turned her head to the side and poked the corner of the workbook with her pen cap. "Tell me the details."

Ryosuke leaned back in his chair and slowly recounted the voting process of the day.

He didn't embellish the story; he simply described the expressions and reactions of those people as they were.

Ling Nai's fingers, gripping the workbook, trembled slightly, and her shoulders also shook gently.

"puff."

She finally couldn't hold it in anymore.

Ling Nai laughed so hard she was practically lying on the table, tears welling up in her eyes. "That student council president is so pitiful! So many people praised him to his face, but it wasn't even his own writing that was being praised! What was his expression like then? Did he wish he could disappear into a crack in the ground?"

"almost."

"And then there's Asakura. She said that the person who wrote this kind of work must be a very gentle person."

Ling Nai suddenly stopped laughing, looking at Ryosuke with an extremely strange expression, then poked his arm with her finger. "You? Gentle? The stories you write are very gentle, but the person..."

"What's wrong with me?"

"You constantly kill off your characters, torture your heroines, and make your readers cry their hearts out. A scheming guy like you dares to call yourself a warrior of love..."

"Didn't Asagami Fujino survive in the end?"

"That happened after she survived! Don't you know what you made her go through? Besides, when did I say I was talking about 'Kara no Kyoukai'? I was talking about things before that! Nagisa from Clannad! Madoka's upperclassman! Mayuri from S.G! There are too many to count!"

"Didn't they all give happy endings?"

"What about the process! The process! You always torture people to death before the ending!"

"Tragedies are more memorable."

"Nonsense!"

Ling Nai poked Ryosuke's hand hard with the pen cap, then leaned back onto the table, her shoulders still trembling slightly.

After laughing for a while, she finally straightened up, wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, and picked up her pen again.

"Although you have a terrible personality, your writing is barely passable."

"Just barely passed?"

"What else do you want to hear? Do you want me to say 'Big brother is so amazing, I admire you so much'? Dream on."

When she said this, a small patch of her ears turned noticeably red.

Ryosuke saw it, but said nothing. He just sat quietly beside her, watching her lower her head again, bite her lower lip, and turn to the next page of the exercise book.

"Next question."

"understood."

The scratching sound of the pen tip gliding across the paper began again.

About two minutes later, Ling Nai asked a question without looking up.

"So you won the vote, and you'll be representing your manga club at the Winter Commercial, right?"

"Ah."

"When will the fan fiction be finished? And will the rest be for club activities involving layout design?"

"It's still early, we'll have to wait until December."

"What? Anyway, I don't have much work lately, so finishing this is the most important thing."

Takashiro Ryouno is quite looking forward to the rest of the story; so far, it's only the first three chapters, and she's particularly interested in those eyes.

"I'll do it as soon as possible. Shouldn't you focus more when doing practice questions?"

"I want you to take care of it!"

Ryosuke sat in his own corner, watching Ryosuke diligently working on her homework under the desk lamp, when suddenly something occurred to him.

"Oh, right."

"Ok?"

"Horiuchi-senpai asked if you could occasionally go to the manga club to tutor her in drawing."

Ling Nai paused for a moment.

"That vice president?"

"Ah."

“She’s pretty good at drawing, and she’s very serious about it.” Ling Nai thought for a moment. “If you’re free on Saturday, you can go and take a look, since you’ll be there anyway.”

"Then I'll thank you on her behalf."

"No need to thank her on her behalf." Ling Nai lowered her head again, her voice unconsciously becoming a few decibels lower. "I didn't go for her sake."

The pen continued to scratch on the paper.

Ryosuke didn't say anything more.

But he noticed that when Ling Nai said her last sentence, the small patch of red behind her ear seemed to have deepened a little.

Chapter 244 Romance Topics (Bonus chapter for monthly votes, combined chapter counts as 2 chapters)

On Saturday morning, Ryosuke did not sleep in as usual.