Tokyo: Am I the only male tenant?

As a woman herself, Kana Kobayakawa understands her mother's intentions very well.

After lunch, Ginjō and the others wanted to stay and help clean up, but they were pushed upstairs by Yuriko Kobayakawa, who said, "You must have had a hard time driving all the way, go and rest."

"Mom told you something else when I was away, right?"

After returning to the room, Kobayakawa Kana asked Ginjō.

"Huh? How did you know?"

Ginjo was lying on the newly laid mat, looking at her with some curiosity.

"Because my mother is always like that. She's worried that it will be hard for me to get married when I get older."

Kana Kobayakawa sat down next to Ginjō, reached out her hand and gently stroked the side of his face, speaking in a self-deprecating manner.

"I used to think that with Sousuke accompanying me, I wouldn't be lonely on the road, but now I seem to regret it a little bit."

"How is it? After talking to your mother, do you think I'm a troublesome and difficult woman?"

Although she hadn't heard Ginjō's answer yet, Kana Kobayakawa roughly guessed that her mother might have asked him to take care of her again.

"Honestly, I seem to have been focusing only on my work in the past few months. I've been so busy that I've begun to hate myself for who I am."

"And I always let Sousuke see the complicated, chaotic, ugly and unsightly side of me."

She continued speaking to herself with a self-deprecating tone.

"I also want to spend more time with Sousuke, so that we can have more beautiful memories, but after thinking about it, I can't make it happen."

"Haha, I'm really sorry. It's a rare holiday, but I dragged you along to talk about such a boring topic."

"You should understand what kind of woman I am, right? Sosuke, you are still young. An older woman like me has to bear a lot of troubles..."

Kana Kobayakawa slowly poured out her heartfelt words, with tears welling up in her eyes, but she seemed to notice them quickly and wiped them away gently with her fingers.

"Kana!"

Ginjo Sousuke interrupted her self-deprecating speech.

"Stop talking like that. I never thought what you said was a problem."

His words were calm, yet conveyed a firm will.

"What I just said to Mrs. Kobayakawa was all from the heart."

"Hmm? What did you guys say?"

——Please rest assured.

——I will definitely protect Kana.

——I will stay with her all my life.

Ginjo Sousuke roughly repeated to her what he had just said.

"I'm not only going to tell those words to Mrs. Kobayakawa, I'm going to tell them to Kana again now."

He didn't know when he had sat up, looking face to face into Kana Kobayakawa's eyes.

What do you mean?

Wasn't what he said just to satisfy his mother's request, but did he really mean it?

Kana Kobayakawa felt her heart beating faster, her mouth became dry, and she was unable to make a sound for a while.

"It's not a bad thing to be busy at work. As long as you take good care of yourself, it's fine. Even if we don't spend enough time together, I always think Kana is an outstanding woman."

"I'm not outstanding..."

"You are indeed outstanding, but you just don't notice it."

Can the word "excellent" be used to describe herself? Kobayakawa Kana has never thought of it this way.

She always felt that she was just an ordinary office worker, and even had a tendency to be a workaholic.

In the past, the store employees would call themselves "Queen", and they didn't pay much attention to things like dressing up or cooking on a daily basis.

I'm not very good at acting cute, and I've never given him any decent gifts...

I am not outstanding at all.

It's impossible to be outstanding.

but.

The person in front of me keeps praising himself like this.

I can always get comfort from him, and he is willing to accept everything about me——

"Sosuke..."

Kana Kobayakawa called his name, and her voice trembled involuntarily.

"Kana, just tell me your true feelings."

Ginjo said to her as if trying to persuade her.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes, just say everything you want to say in your heart."

Kobayakawa Kana then realized that although the two of them had already been honest with each other physically, those important words had never been spoken...

Chapter 388 Separated by a Wall

It sounds like that too.

Kana Kobayakawa couldn't help but feel surprised. It seemed that she had not even clarified the most basic issues between the two of them.

From Ginjo Sosuke coming to the convenience store for an interview, to going to his room to talk late at night, from the little touches in daily work, to the rainy night when the passion was finally released...

Everything seems to be progressing naturally, but one always feels like something is missing.

By the way, it seemed that the two of them had never confessed their feelings to each other, but they just tacitly entered into a relationship.

She wanted to tell everything without any reservations, but she still didn't say what she should say.

Kana Kobayakawa thought carefully about Ginjō's words. Now that things had come to this, she had to speak her mind.

My heartbeat kept accelerating, my face suddenly felt hot, and my throat felt like it was being clenched by something, making it unable to make any sound.

She couldn't say it, she didn't want to say it, she was almost thirty years old and still had to confess her feelings, she felt like she couldn't say it at all.

But she really couldn't stop.

Because she had already said everything except the truth.

Because the man in front of her is willing to help her carefully remove the chaos and burdens that are piling up in her heart.

Kana Kobayakawa felt that she was a very troublesome woman. If she didn't ask others to make so much preparation in advance, she might never be able to speak her true feelings.

The feelings that had been buried deep in my heart and hidden for a long time were finally pulled out.

"I like you, Sousuke."

Kana Kobayakawa took a deep breath and said, this time she really said it out loud.

"I like you, I like you so much...I like Sosuke!"

Kana Kobayakawa's delicate face felt incredibly hot, and then tears quietly fell for some reason.

Looking back, this might be the first time I said “I like you” to someone, because all my previous relationships were initiated by the other party.

I like him, I like Sosuke.

I thought I shouldn't have said that.

I thought I shouldn't admit the feelings.

In fact, Kana Kobayakawa knew it very well, but she just didn't want to face it.

She always thought that she was not qualified to like others, and she was also very afraid.

She was so afraid that she would hurt the other person and would be sad because of it.

So she never faced her true feelings, but just let things develop as they should and enjoyed the sweetness brought by Yincheng.

Now, Kana Kobayakawa seems to have gotten rid of all her depression. After overcoming many layers of entanglements, she finally became optimistic and awakened.

There was no trace of perfunctoriness in his attitude, but rather firm and decisiveness, as if this matter had been decided from the beginning to be told to Ginjo.

Kana Kobayakawa gently wiped the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand, and the time waiting for Ginjō's response felt like it took an incredibly long time.

The air stopped flowing, and the expressions of the two people seemed to be frozen. In the slightly empty room, the only sound was the electric fan turning back and forth.

"That's great. I can finally hear Kana's true feelings. I like Kana too."

Ginjo Sousuke smiled happily, his clean and refreshing smile was like the bright sunshine outside the window.

"That's great...it seems like we are in love with each other..."

Kana Kobayakawa was stunned for a moment before she spoke slowly with a trembling voice, and her eyes, which were almost dry, were flooded again.

"That's only natural. Kana is so slow."

Ginjo Sousuke leaned forward and carefully rubbed his thumb under her eyelids.

"Because... because Sosuke is so outstanding... I originally thought that as long as you can spend some time with me, it would be enough... I don't dare to expect too much from you..."

The more gently Ginjo treated Kana Kobayakawa, the more she couldn't control her tears.

"I'm already such a grown-up, and I still keep saying words like 'like'. Isn't that a little childish?"

"How could that be? Regardless of age, love must be based on mutual affection. Otherwise, how can it last?"

Ginjo Sosuke said this, and he spoke very calmly, as if he had come to this conclusion after thinking it over and over again countless times, so it sounded incredibly convincing.

"From now on, just imagine as much as you can. Everything is just the beginning."

"Whatever wishes Kana has, I can help you realize them one by one."

Ginjo hugged her tightly in his arms, letting her tears wet his T-shirt.

"Actually...I did think of something..."

After sobbing excitedly for a while, Kana Kobayakawa leaned on Ginjō's chest and spoke tenderly.