I push the kid!

Makimura Taku glanced at her, shook his head helplessly, walked up to her, and tapped her forehead with his hand.

"It hurts." Hoshino Ai put her hands on her forehead and peeked at Makimura Taku's expression through her hanging hair.

“No message was returned.”

"Ah, no reply?"

"if not?"

Hoshino Ai raised the phone in her hand and took a symbolic look at it: "Yes, it seems that I did forget it."

"Too hasty." said Taku Makimura.

"Feel sorry."

"What's wrong? It's not like you to apologize."

Hoshino Ai looked up at him, slightly opening and closing her lips, as if she wanted to say something.

"That doesn't count as an apology!" "I learned that from you, Makimura!" "Hey, I'm Hoshino Ai, I should be polite!"

But when the words came to her lips, she couldn't help but think of the failed performance on the stage, and the disappointment that Sanae Takamine could hardly conceal when she left the stage.

Everyone has worked hard, and it's only the last step away. If it's because of me, because of me, everyone can only go this far...

Thinking of this, Xingye Ai's eyes dimmed. If this were the case, she would not be able to forgive herself.

"This expression..." Makimura Taku said softly.

“……” Hoshino Ai didn’t know where to look, so she could only stare at the corner and bite her lower lip.

There were only two of them in the corridor. Behind the open door was a staircase. They went down the stairs and reached the auditorium at a distance.

The walls are well soundproofed and no sound from the field can penetrate at all.

The slightly dazzling light shines on Hoshino Ai's head like sunlight, refracting the gleaming hair, making people want to gently stroke it.

The sound of Hoshino Ai's breathing disappeared at some point.

In front of her, Taku Makimura just let out a sigh of relief and took two steps back.

Hoshino Ai raised her head completely as if frightened, looking at Makimura Taku with a confused expression.

"You've tried very hard." Makimura Taku said softly.

Hoshino Ai was stunned at first, then she smiled bitterly and said, "What? I don't want to hear such comforting words."

“It’s actually quite useful, right?”

"No." Hoshino Ai said, "Not at all."

“The performance was outstanding.”

"It's terrible..."

“Everyone likes you.”

"..." Hoshino Ai lowered her head, she remembered the trending searches on Twitter she saw in the room -

"Not good to look at", "Disappointed", "It's really an unknown small group. It's my fault for having too much expectations", "I felt a bright feeling when they appeared, but I didn't expect them to be so ordinary"

……

If I could do it again, would it be better than last time? She wondered.

But soon another voice popped up in my mind: It's hopeless, performing like this is a waste of everyone's time.

Maybe it will turn out like this.

She stared at the light and shadow on the floor, which broke into two pieces in the long pattern.

"Are you thinking wildly again?"

"Hmm..." Hoshino Ai shook her head, a smile on her face, "I'm reminiscing."

"I've seen the trending searches." Makimura Taku subconsciously glanced at her phone.

Hoshino Ai blinked and said, "Then you should have seen it too."

"No matter what those people say," Makimura Taku said seriously, "Anyway, I really like your performance."

Hoshino Ai blushed for a moment and looked away from Makimura Taku: "But no matter what you say, Makimura." At this point, she quickly stole a glance at Makimura Taku and continued to look away, "No matter what you say, it can't change the facts, right?"

Makimura Taku hesitated for a few tenths of a second and said, "Yes."

"Then what's the point of saying this?"

"Pointless."

Hoshino Ai paused noticeably.

She pursed her lips and stared up at Makimura Taku from the bottom up, the shadows cast by her long and thick eyelashes reflected in her eyes.

Those eyes were so dazzlingly beautiful that Makimura Taku almost forgot what he was going to say.

He cleared his throat: "Just like you would still choose to lie to me even though you knew I could see through all the lies."

Taku Makimura walked up to her and stopped. Hoshino Ai raised her face a little, still looking at him.

Makimura Taku couldn't help but raise his hand, and when his hand was hovering above Hoshino Ai's head, he was stunned first.

Hoshino Ai shrank her body but did not avoid it.

She lowered her head as before, even lower than before, as if coordinating with Makimura Taku's movements.

She also raised her hand, but only placed it between her chin and chest, and the other hand was hidden behind her back in a somewhat helpless manner.

From beginning to end, Hoshino Ai didn't make a sound. When Makimura Taku looked at her, she glanced away, but looked back the next moment.

Makimura Taku snorted with amusement and touched the top of Hoshino Ai's head with his hand.

It was just as imagined, soft and smooth, with some body temperature, making people want to keep touching it.

Makimura Taku said in his usual tone: "Whether it makes sense or not, I want you to know that this is enough."

Hoshino Ai didn't move, her head lowered, her eyes looking somewhere unknown, and she didn't say a word.

Makimura Taku only touched him for a while, then he took his hand away: "Sorry, it was an accident."

"No, nothing." Hoshino Ai seemed still unconscious.

"Where are the other three?"

She finally responded: "Are you talking about Watanabe and the others?"

"Ah."

"They are all in the room." Hoshino Ai asked, "Do you want to go together?"

"If possible," Makimura Taku said after thinking for a while, "Let's go there later."

"late?"

"Yes."

Hoshino Ai thought of something, glanced at the time on her phone, shook her head and smiled, "I sacrificed my lunch to accompany you, Makimura."

"Now it's fair," Makimura Taku said calmly, "I didn't eat it either."

"Okay." Hoshino Ai smiled again.

During lunch time, the two did not go to the lounge.

Mai Watanabe sent a message to Hoshino Ai, asking her where she was going. Hoshino Ai was still thinking of a reason, and Mai Watanabe said that President Saito came to the lounge to find them and probably had something to say.

Hoshino Ai glanced at Makimura Taku next to her and simply typed in the dialog box: My stomach hurts, I have to stay outside for a while before I can go back!

"Is it necessary to lie?" asked Taku Makimura.

"Just say what you want to say." Hoshino Ai clicked send as if nothing had happened.

After a few seconds, Mai Watanabe replied: "Are you okay, Xiao Ai? ≥﹏≤Do you want me to come over and take care of you?!"

"No need! No need!" Hoshino Ai sent.

"If you feel uncomfortable, please send me a message. We are all here!!ヽ(ω)"

"You guys eat first, don't wait for me!" said Hoshino Ai.

"OK!" Mai Watanabe replied.

Hoshino Ai turned off the screen of her phone.

Since her top and skirt had no pockets, she had to hold her phone in her hand.

In fact, she and Taku Makimura didn't know the way. They noted their original location, turned a few times along the corridor, didn't take the elevator, and climbed up an unknown number of floors through the staircase before coming out of the enclosed space.

Where they were, in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, the midday sun was shining in from outside.

Clouds floated above countless buildings, with the 240-meter-tall Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in the distant center of the horizon.

They stood in the tall building, leaning on the window railing, looking at Asakusa in the distance, and then at the trams passing through the low buildings.

"It would be nice if we could feel the breeze." Hoshino Ai said suddenly with her head resting on the railing.

"There are plenty of places with wind." Taku Makimura said beside her.

“But it doesn’t feel that way when you move to another place.”

"What does it feel like?"

"Hmm..." The sunlight slowly moved. Hoshino Ai covered her head with her hands and squinted her eyes. "Maybe, it feels like I want to float away with the wind."

"Like this." Makimura Taku could understand that feeling.

Hoshino Ai turned her head to look at him, not knowing what she was thinking, and then turned back.

The two of them looked at the white clouds floating slowly in the sky, and no one spoke.

"It's so annoying." Hoshino Ai said after a while.

"Are you still annoyed?" Makimura Taku glanced at her.

"definitely."

"What can I say to make you feel better?"

Hoshino Ai groaned, then smiled at him and said, "If you ask me this, what worked before doesn't work anymore."