Tokyo: Oreimo

Please take one day off.

I need to take a day off to accompany a family member to the doctor.

Chapter 289 I Just Like Him

At 4:30 pm on the third day of the summer COMI, a notice to dismantle the exhibition came over the loudspeaker.

The additional 5,000 sets were sold out by 2 p.m. on the third day. Combined with the 3,000 sets on the first day and the additional 6,000 sets on the second day, the total sales over the three days exceeded 13,000 sets.

This number isn't bad even in the corporate exhibition area, and in the doujin game section, it's a result that would make other groups stop what they're doing and start counting.

"That's it!" Tian Zhongxue pulled the club flag down from its stand. The flag was already a little wrinkled, but Aozaki Aoko's silhouette was still clear under the exhibition hall's lights.

Okubo leaned against the "wall" made of empty cardboard boxes, his legs stretched out, looking as if all his strength had been drained.

"I've never given so much change in my life."

Kobayashi wrote down the last sales record in his notebook, closed it, and adjusted his glasses. "Total sales exceeded expectations by about 40%. After deducting printing, burning, and Aniplex licensing costs, the club's surplus funds can support the next project."

"We'll talk about the next project later."

Ayumi stuffed her sketchbook into her canvas bag and glanced at the time on her phone. "The celebration party is tonight. The chairman has booked a yakiniku restaurant for 6 PM."

"The same place as last time?" Misaki Asakura asked.

“Same place.” Tian Zhongxue grinned. “After we went to Dong COMI, the owner said he would always reserve the largest private room for us.”

Misaki Asakura helped pack the laptops used for the display into her bag, then turned to look in the direction of the corporate exhibition area. "Where are Takashiro and Ayano?"

“He said he’d come over once he finished finishing up at Aniplex.” Ayumi zipped up the canvas bag. “He told us to go to the store and wait for him.”

Tian Zhongxue carried the school flag and walked towards the exit of the East Building.

As he walked out of the exhibition hall, he glanced back at the massive Tokyo Big Sight.

The setting sun was shining obliquely from the western sky, turning the concrete wall a dark gold color.

During the winter COMI, they sold 1,300 copies of doujinshi, and at that time he felt that was the pinnacle of his life.

Now he carries the same company flag on his shoulder, follows the same group of partners, and carries in his pocket the sales records of 13,000 sets and a promise to establish Aniplex Studio.

"Let's go! Roast pork!"

He strode towards the station.

......

At 7 p.m., the private room of the barbecue restaurant was already a mess.

The beef tongues sizzled on the wire mesh grill, empty beer glasses lined up on the table, and two rosy blushes appeared on Okubo's face.

Misaki Asakura was wrapping pork belly in lettuce, Kobayashi was calmly eating edamame while holding a teacup, and Ayumi was sitting in the corner with a glass of plum wine that had barely been touched in front of her.

Tian Zhongxue stood up and raised his beer glass high.

"Gentlemen!" His voice was louder than usual because he had been drinking, "The Night of the Wizarding War sold out in three days! After the winter COMI's The Garden of Sinners, Manga Club has achieved another great success!"

Everyone raised their glasses in response.

Okubo downed half a glass of draft beer in one gulp and wiped the foam from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Aniplex was in an uproar today too. The queue for the demo of 'RE' was much longer than ours. Apparently, all 5,000 numbered tickets were snapped up in just an hour and a half on the first day."

Okubo looked at Ryosuke and Ayano sitting opposite him. They arrived half an hour later than the manga club members. Ryosuke was currently putting pork belly on the grill, while Ayano picked up a piece of beef tongue with her chopsticks.

"Speaking of which, Gao Cheng and Ling Nai, you two have a really good relationship. After all, you are siblings who have created and lived together for so many years. Your tacit understanding is different from that of ordinary people."

Ling paused for a moment while picking up the ox tongue.

“Indeed,” Ayumi replied calmly. “I noticed it from the beginning of Winter COMI. Every time Ryono came to the activity room, she would first look for Ryosuke to sit with.”

"Moreover, Ling Nai understands Gao Cheng's works more thoroughly than anyone else."

Misaki Asakura added.

"Misaki," Kobayashi suddenly spoke, his tone a little harsher than usual.

"Huh? What's wrong?"

Xiaolin didn't answer; he noticed that Ling Nai put down her chopsticks.

Ryosuke didn't say anything. He put the grilled pork belly into Ayano's plate, and then put another slice on the grill.

“Speaking of which,” Tian Zhongxue said, already holding up his glass, unaware of the change in the atmosphere around him, “I first saw Takashiro and Ayano together at the Electric Town Festival last year, and I thought they were a couple.”

Tian Zhongxue laughed, "Later, when I found out they were siblings, I was really relieved, after all—"

He suddenly remembered something halfway through his sentence and quickly stopped talking.

At last year's electronics festival, he mistook Ryosuke for his girlfriend, and Ayumi stepped on his foot at the time.

“That guy Takashiro,” Okubo sighed, shaking his head. “He’s good-looking, can write scripts, got into Waseda University, and has such a beautiful girlfriend. Speaking of which, Ms. Saori is actually in management at Aniplex. This development is even more outrageous than a visual novel.”

"Still the young lady, that aura, definitely the young lady." Tian Zhongxue chimed in, "Gao Cheng, you're such a social butterfly, it's making people envious to the point of vomiting blood."

"It's good that you siblings have such a good relationship. Unlike other people, your sister won't become distant after you get a girlfriend."

Ling Nai put down her cup.

The bottom of the cup made a soft, crisp sound as it touched the table.

"It's not that the siblings have a good relationship."

The sounds in the private room seemed to be muted in an instant, and the sizzling sound of the pork belly on the grill became exceptionally clear.

"My feelings for him have never been those of a brother and sister."

Tian Zhongxue's chopsticks stopped in mid-air.

Ling Nai sat in her original position, her hands folded on her knees, her back straight.

“When my senior, Ayumi, asked me last year, I said I had someone I liked, an older person from outside the school.” She paused for a moment, “Actually, it’s not someone from outside the school, it’s him, it’s been him for the past three years.”

Tian Zhongxue opened his mouth, his voice a little dry, "Ling Nai, um... doesn't Ryosuke already have Hououin-san?"

"So what?" Ling Nai's tone was flat. "It's my business that I like him, and that guy knows it too."

Tian Zhongxue felt like he'd been punched in the face. "Huh?"

"Ahem." Ryosuke couldn't help but cough.

All eyes turned to him.

Ryosuke held his teacup. Since the start of the celebration banquet, he had barely spoken or drunk any alcohol.

Ling Nai glanced at him sideways, then turned back to face the crowd. "She has already challenged me to a duel, telling me to go and take it openly and honestly if I have the guts."

Ayumi opened her eyes and looked at Ling Nai.

What she heard in the blonde girl's tone was not impulsiveness or spite, but a kind of openness that had been suppressed for a long time and was finally being released.

Tian Zhongxue swallowed hard and asked cautiously, "Then... what do you think, Gao Cheng?"

Ryosuke put down his teacup. His gaze swept around the private room, finally landing on Ryouno beside him.

"I can't answer that question right now."

"That means you're still thinking about it."

Okubo suddenly spoke, his tone carrying a hint of sudden realization.

"No wonder. I felt something was off during the Electric Town Festival. What kind of younger sister would bite her older brother's crepe like that? And last time at Fuyu COMI, when Ryouno was talking about the person she liked, her face turned so red. How come I only realized it now?"

"Because you're an idiot," Kobayashi said.

"Kobayashi, why are you always yelling at me today!"

The atmosphere in the private room eased a little. Tian Zhongxue picked up his beer, took a swig, and then slammed the glass down on the table.

"Anyway!" he exclaimed, his face flushed red, whether from the alcohol or from his concern for the two men, it was hard to tell.

"Regardless, it's good that Ling Nai has brought things up! What's the point of hiding it?"

"President, you've had too much to drink," Ayumi said.

"I'm not drunk!" Tian Zhongxue took another swig. "I just think Ling Nai is right, liking someone is liking someone, who cares about siblings? Besides, you two aren't related by blood, and there's no legal problem! I've checked!"

"Why is the chairman investigating this?" Okubo asked.

"Materials for writing fan fiction!"

The topic shifted from somber to absurd, and then gradually returned to a normal volume.

Ayumi took a small sip of plum wine, Asakura resumed wrapping her lettuce, and Kobayashi placed two slices of beef tongue on the grill.

Ryosuke turned his head to look at Ryouno beside him.

She was drinking tea, her profile expressionless under the warm yellow light of the barbecue restaurant, but her ears were bright red.

Her hands, hidden under the table, were gripping the hem of her skirt so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

Ryosuke reached out his hand and gently patted the back of her hand.

Ling Nai's body stiffened for a moment, then her fingers loosened their grip on the hem of her skirt and hooked onto Ryosuke's little finger instead.

On the grill, the pork belly has been grilled until it's slightly browned.

As the event was about to end, all the anime fans received a message.

The photo that Bu Meifa posted is a group photo from last night's celebration banquet.

Tanaka stood in the middle holding the club flag, with Okubo and Kobayashi on either side. Asakura made a peace sign, Takeda pushed up his glasses, Ryosuke stood in the back row on the right, and Ryouno stood next to him.

The two are very close in the picture.

Chapter 290 Do you like me?

The celebration banquet ended after 10 p.m.

Tian Zhongxue was so drunk that he was staggering, with Kobayashi and Okubo each supporting one of his arms. He was still mumbling something like "Manga Research Forever".

Ayumi called the taxi company to arrange the order of dropping people off and then confirmed the last bus time for Asakura Misaki to go home.

"See you tomorrow, Ayumi-senpai." Asakura waved to her from inside the taxi.