I push the kid!

Ritsuko Ninomiya kept looking straight ahead with a slightly flushed face. Following a few words spoken by Sanae Takamine, they quickly entered into the practice state.

Nearing five o'clock, the four of them discussed what shortcomings there were, and Sanae Takamine demonstrated a few discordant movements that everyone was doing.

"Xiao Ai, the problem here is quite serious, you need to pay more attention."

"Oh, yes." said Hoshino Ai.

"And Watanabe, you didn't keep up on the fourth beat, so it's easy to mess up your movements."

"I have tried my best."

"Then try harder." Takamine Sanae said, "Ninomiya is pretty good. Apart from the shortcoming of occasionally losing focus, there are basically no problems. Just keep it up."

"Feel sorry."

"Stop apologizing all the time." Takamine Sanae sighed helplessly, "Let's stop here for the afternoon, take a break, and then we can go eat together."

"Freedom!" Mai Watanabe said excitedly.

Hoshino Ai walked up to Makimura Taku and asked, "Do you want to eat together?"

"No need." Makimura Taku explained, "I have work to do in the evening, so it's almost time to go home now."

Hoshino Ai had seen his work schedule and knew the situation: "Then I'll take you there."

"No need, you still have to eat with them."

"It's okay, I'm not that hungry."

"How can I not be hungry after training for so long?" Makimura Taku didn't use the word lie, "That's it, I'm leaving first."

He turned and left. Hoshino Ai kept looking in the direction he left, seeming to want to say something but stopping herself.

It was not until the crisp cry of a bird brought her back to reality that Taku Makimura had disappeared.

She felt a little disappointed because they had spent too little time together today.

Giving him a ride was an excuse, and saying she wasn't hungry was also a lie, she just wanted to talk more on the way.

But thinking about it carefully, having such a feeling was too strange, so until Makimura Takuya left, she didn't know what she wanted to say just now.

After leaving Ochanomizu, Taku Makimura returned to Starbucks ten minutes early.

The scene in the store was the same as usual. He changed into his uniform at six o'clock and worked until nine o'clock in the evening.

When he got home, it was past eleven-thirty when Taku Makimura finished his daily tasks.

He changed into a clean short-sleeved shirt and sat at the desk reading a book when his cell phone vibrated. Someone sent him a message.

He activated the screen to check and saw that it was sent by Tomoki Ogura.

This is the first time she has sent me a message; usually she calls me.

"Good night."

The message is simple.

Thank you all for your tips, monthly votes, and recommendation votes.

Chapter 31 After the Rain

Chapter 31 31. After the Rain

On April 5th, the weather was not as good as yesterday.

When I woke up in the morning, the light coming through the gaps between the curtains and the walls was still a little dim.

Taku Makimura glanced at the time. It was only a little after six and the alarm was still ringing.

He turned off the alarm clock and opened the curtains. An electric cable was lying across his vision, with two sparrows perched on it.

He opened the window, and the bird was frightened by the sound of the aluminum plate rubbing against each other, so it chirped and flew away.

The clouds in the sky looked like cotton that had been pulled by someone, and their outlines were about to melt into the air.

The weather in the past few days was so comfortable. Both the temperature and the scenery gave people a sense of transparency and comfort between spring and summer.

That should not happen often. Early April should be like today, with the day breaking very slowly.

After brushing his teeth and washing his face, Makimura Taku sat at the dining table and had breakfast.

The news was on TV: beautiful cherry blossoms were blooming in Shinjuku Gyoen and Ueno Park, and a flock of pigeons flew over the Imperial Palace at Chidorigafuchi.

A new railway was being built somewhere, a fire broke out somewhere, and many fish were stranded on Yuigahama Beach overnight;

Asakusa, Ginza, Akihabara, Meiji Jingu Shrine, there seems to be no end to the news in Tokyo.

He turned off the TV and checked the refrigerator to see if everything was within its expiration date.

The big box of special offer milk was opened last night, and there was a little left, so he drank it all.

On a morning when he had no work arrangements, Taku Makimura originally planned to go to the library to read, but the weather forecast said it would rain soon, so he remembered that he lost his umbrella the last time it rained.

So he went to a nearby Lawson convenience store and bought a transparent umbrella. There was a buy-one-get-one-free sale on the mechanical pencils on the shelf, so he bought one.

When he got home, the hands of the alarm clock were less than eight, so he sat on the sofa and watched "The Fault in Our Stars" from the beginning.

There is a line in it that he always remembers:

Sometimes the setting sun casts a purple-red afterglow, and sometimes it emits an orange-red flame, lighting up the sunset on the horizon. In that incomparable sunset scene, I gradually understand the truth my father said, that the whole is better than the sum of its parts.

After the movie was over, he stopped writing. The scene outside the floor-to-ceiling window froze at eight o'clock. It was not very dark, but it was completely dark.

At eleven o'clock, he made lunch with the remaining ingredients in the refrigerator, carrots, corn, green beans, green vegetables, curry, and some seasonings, and stewed them in a pot.

After finishing his meal in more than ten minutes, he took his umbrella and went out, took the tram for twenty minutes, got off, and went to Starbucks.

It started raining at 1:03 in the afternoon, and it rained heavily all of a sudden.

Dark clouds gathered together, as if trying to shake out all the moisture that had accumulated over the past few days.

The ground, roofs, and electric poles all turned dark in an instant.

Cars ran over the water and traffic lights flashed in the rain.

The sounds of splashing water, footsteps, complaints, rain, all kinds of noises mixed together, and it felt like it was raining in my head.

Inside the isolated Starbucks store, Taku Makimura turned on the lights.

Some people ran into the store to avoid the rain, and Koizumi Hanami specially brought them tissues to wipe their bodies. The customers thanked her repeatedly, and she said you're welcome.

Hideki Nishida was in charge of entertaining the guests at the front desk. Maki Teramoto came out of the small room at the back and asked where Taku Makimura had gone.

"Huh? He was here just now." Hideki Nishida glanced at him and took the time to reply.

"What's wrong?" Taku Makimura, who had just turned on the lights outside the store, walked back from not far away.

Maki Teramoto saw him and gestured to him to come over, and Taku Makimura did so.

"Look, these are coffee beans from Kagoshima," Teramoto Maki took out the packaged coffee beans and showed them to him. As she unpacked them, she said, "The coffee beans here are really good. I've always felt that coffee beans produced in Hokkaido or Tokyo can't compare to these. Either the aroma isn't good enough, or the taste isn't as good. The ones from Kagoshima have to be better."

She poured the coffee beans into a special container:

"Next, I will teach you how to make the most classic cappuccino. It doesn't matter if you have learned the others or not, but you must learn this one. Listen carefully."

"Okay." Makimura Taku nodded.

He originally wanted to say that he had already mastered what he had learned before, so there would be no problem doing it now.

But Maki Teramoto had already started the next step of making cappuccino, so he followed quietly and watched carefully.

Just like before, this time I learned it in one go.

It wasn't until around four in the afternoon that the rain stopped outside.

The faint sunlight slanted down from the overlapping gray clouds, and the blackened earth reflected golden light.

Many customers left the store. Maki Teramoto and Hideki Nishida relaxed at the front desk, but Hanami Koizumi was still busy.

After wiping the table here, she would run over there to mop the floor. When the floor was spotless, she would come back and wipe the machine, table corners, and various small items again with a rag that had been rinsed several times, and wipe the tableware with a special tablecloth.

Seeing how hard she was working, Maki Teramoto asked her to rest for a while, but she said she was not tired yet and it was okay. Taku Makimura helped her at first, but later he also became idle.

At around five o'clock, a girl dressed in fresh clothes and wearing a blue baseball cap slipped in from the door. Makimura Taku was wiping the table.

The girl walked up to him and waited for him without moving.

Feeling that the light was blocked by someone, Makimura Taku straightened up.

In the field of vision, Hoshino Ai stood straight with her hands in front of her, looking at Makimura Taku and smiling gently.

She smiled sweetly, and her smile seemed to be saying, "I'm back," and also seemed to be saying, "welcome back."

Taku Makimura turned around and entrusted the work to Hideki Nishida. Under the puzzled gazes of the three people, he walked to the side of Hoshino Ai, and the two of them found a seat and sat down.

"Is work important?" Hoshino Ai pointed to the front desk with his eyes.

Makimura Taku nodded: "It shouldn't be a big deal."

"I thought the store would be busy." Hoshino Ai looked around, then turned to Makimura Taku and said, "It turned out to be surprisingly quiet."

"Maybe it's because of the rain." Makimura Taku guessed.

“That’s right.” She looked out the window and recalled, “It rained heavily this afternoon. I thought it wouldn’t stop today.”

“The sun is still shining.”

"Logically, there should be a rainbow, right?" Hoshino Ai said, "After the rain, the sky clears up, and then a rainbow appears."

“It’s not 100 percent.”

"Is that so?" She looked away.

Makimura Taku changed the subject: "Are you going to training today too?"

"Well, we still trained in Ochanomizu in the morning, but we didn't go in the afternoon because it rained. The president said that we should be able to rent an indoor training room in the next two days, and we will go there to train then. So Miss Kyoko gave us half a day off today."

"It's good, but it's not too hard."

"No," she shook her head, "After all, time is tight, our group hasn't gotten used to each other yet, and everyone is just starting out. If we don't work harder than others, we'll probably fail in the audition." She took off her hat and said, "I'm fine, but I don't want others to be sad because of this failure."

"The important thing is to participate," said Taku Makimura.

"That's nothing." Hoshino Ai smiled, "I decided to become an idol because of you. Although I don't care that much, I still hope for a good result."

Lie, Makimura Taku wanted to say, but there was no need to say it.