Tokyo: Am I the only male tenant?

"Thank you. I'll trouble you for a moment."

After saying this, the middle-aged woman turned around and faced them again.

Kana Kobayakawa put the bitten croquette back into the paper bag, then looked at Ginjō, and a certain premonition emerged in the minds of both of them almost at the same time.

"Excuse me, your last name is... Miss Miura Reiko... right?"

In order to confirm that premonition, Ginjo Sousuke asked her carefully.

Sure enough, a strange emotion flashed across the woman's eyes, and she nodded quietly.

"It's really you. We have something to tell you. Can you give us a moment?"

Kana Kobayakawa subconsciously held Ginjō's hand tightly, as if the answer they had been searching for all the way had finally appeared before their eyes.

"Well, I also have something to tell Meihe. Please come over here."

Following her lead, the three of them sat on a bench near the van.

After Ms. Miura Reiko sat down, she waved to the van, and the junior high school girl who was watching the store also waved back happily.

From the looks of it, their conversation probably couldn't be heard in the dining car. Although it wasn't something that couldn't be heard by others, the two people still didn't want Miss Reiko to have any concerns.

“Do you run that mobile food truck?”

Although there were many questions he wanted to ask, before getting into the main topic, Ginjo Sousuke first asked this less abrupt question.

"No, I'm just an employee."

Reiko Miura answered him quickly.

"There is a volunteer group in the village that processes and sells local specialties. I am one of them. Sometimes I go to nearby towns such as Kutchan or Niseko to sell them."

She continued to add.

"In that case, transportation will be very inconvenient, right?"

Kana Kobayakawa followed up on her words and asked.

"My legs and feet are not very good, so I remarried to a farmer, but I can't help with the farm work."

"So I wanted to at least help out a little bit so that people wouldn't gossip about me."

Reiko Miura glanced in the direction of the car and her tone sounded very calm, not like she had any resentment.

"That child, is it the child of your remarried partner?"

"Is she a junior high school student? She's helping out very seriously. She's a great kid."

The two of them chatted with her casually about family matters in order to bring them closer.

"Well, it was a marriage that was introduced by a relative of Makari. The person I remarried was a widower with young children. I never thought I would have children, so I thought this was not bad."

"Ah, I think I've gotten off topic. I'm so sorry, but I've already heard about how you two came to Mahakari Village."

Reiko Miura received a call from Mrs. Megure yesterday, so she was mentally prepared.

"I see. Excuse me, this is the croquette, right?"

“The dream croquette that Meihe has been pursuing.”

As Kobayakawa Kana spoke, she leaned forward onto the table on the bench.

"Yes, the mysterious material is lily root."

Reiko Miura's answer made the two of them suddenly enlightened.

I haven't completely lost my motivation yet, but if I had walked directly from the bus stop to this rest stop in the opposite direction yesterday, I might have come to a conclusion right away.

"At first, I happened to receive a box of lily roots that were not suitable for sale from my relative Shinkariri, who later arranged the marriage. But surprisingly, I don't know how to use lily roots, right?"

"So I learned how to make croquettes from my relatives, but..."

Miura Reiko suddenly looked like she wanted to laugh and continued.

“I don’t want to create a taste that people will never forget after eating it.”

"Why do you say this way?"

Kana Kobayakawa asked curiously.

“Because it’s actually very simple to do.”

Miss Reiko answered her with a smile.

"Steam the lily roots, sieve them, and season with salt and a little more sugar."

"Then you roll it into little balls, coat it with a mixture of flour, egg and water, coat it with bread crumbs and fry it in oil. That's it."

“Because it’s sweet, children will think it’s like a snack.”

"The lily root croquettes here only use a little bit of salt to emphasize the sweetness of the ingredients, and they are also filled with sweetly cooked lily root scales."

Reiko Miura explained the croquette-making process to the two people in detail. Apart from the special ingredients, the method was indeed not as complicated as they had imagined.

When you eat out, you may sometimes eat food with a strong smell, and because of the strong smell, it leaves a deep impression on people.

Although it doesn't happen every time, it's very likely that as long as I recall the taste, I will want to eat it again.

But the lily root croquette they were eating now had a delicate and elegant taste, an unexpected and very mild flavor.

Perhaps, this is the taste that gripped the heart of young Sato Mika?

Kana Kobayakawa began to think about this problem again. Maybe there were other methods that Miss Reiko had forgotten, or some secret seasonings.

"Is this really how it is made? Isn't there anything else to add?"

"No, it's really just like that. After cooking, sieve it, add salt and a little more sugar, dip it in batter and fry it. Because the method is very simple, I still remember it to this day."

"Yeah, thank you."

Kana Kobayakawa folded her hands and hummed softly. At this point, she could only try this recipe and then let Sato Mika taste it before making a judgment. After all, she had no way of finding out what was going on in her memory.

As she fell into deep thought, it was Ginjo Sousuke who spoke this time.

"By the way, Ms. Reiko, what was it that you said you were going to tell Meihe?"

"Rather than telling, it's more like asking..."

"I see. What do you want to ask?"

"Meihe... Is Meihe happy now?"

Reiko Miura seemed a little hesitant before asking her question.

Kobayakawa Kana and Ginjo exchanged glances and began to ask her questions seriously.

"Meihe is my friend from college. We have kept in touch after graduation. We met in Sapporo just a few days ago."

"She is now a dance instructor, doing a job she loves, and she also keeps a lot of pets in her apartment. She lives her life very seriously and energetically."

"what..."

After listening to her story, Reiko Miura sighed deeply.

Maybe it was Kana Kobayakawa's illusion, but the strength in her shoulders seemed to relax a lot in an instant.

"Meihe has always stayed at my house at night since she was a child because her parents were busy with work. Did you know about this?"

The two of them nodded, and Miss Reiko continued speaking with a smile.

"One day, Meihe, who was always energetic and full of life, kept her mouth shut and refused to eat or speak."

"I was worried that she might be unwell, so I wanted to ask my ex-husband to drive her to the hospital. Just when I told her I wanted to call my uncle, she suddenly burst into tears."

Reiko Miura lowered her eyes and a barely perceptible, slightly lonely smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.

"We have never had children, so my ex-husband and his parents asked Meihe's parents if I could adopt Meihe, whom I loved very much, but they didn't tell me about this."

When Ginjo Sosuke and Kobayakawa Kana heard this, they were so shocked that they were speechless.

Reiko Miura looked up at the sky, her eyes drifting away into the distance.

"Meihe has an older sister who was in the lower grades of primary school at the time. My ex-husband and his family may have thought it would be better to get this done while the child was still young, but even if she was young, the child had her own consciousness."

"For the sake of their busy parents, they are also trying very hard to endure loneliness."

Reiko Miura's hands were involuntarily clasped tightly in front of her chest.

"At that time, Meihe cried and apologized to me, saying, "I'm sorry, you loved me so much, played with me, and cooked delicious meals for me. I'm sorry."

"Although I like my aunt, I still want to be my dad and mom's child..." When a child desperately says this, I can't refuse it no matter what. "

"Meihe...she..."

Kana Kobayakawa lowered her head, probably trying to feel the same feelings her friend had as a child.

"To be honest, I have thought about treating Meihe as my own child, but when I saw her little body trying so hard to endure loneliness and willfulness, I couldn't say that anyway."

"So I told her, don't worry, that won't happen, auntie will go and convince uncle, I promise."

Reiko Miura turned her gaze from the sky back to the two people.

"After that... Anyway... a lot of things happened... so I live here now."

Ms. Reiko did not specify what "many things" included, but those things that happened in her previous family should have also made her feel blamed.

But she swallowed everything silently, gradually sublimated in her heart, and finally became the current Reiko Miura.

"Ms. Lizi, are you happy now?"

Kana Kobayakawa couldn't help but ask quietly.

After hearing her question, Reiko Miura subconsciously looked towards the van. Standing there in high spirits was her daughter, who was not related to her by blood.

"I wouldn't say it wasn't hard at all. The child also fiercely resisted me, who was not his biological mother."

"Because of my poor legs and feet, my husband had to take care of the farm work by himself. In order to supplement the family income, he started working on a mobile food truck, but because of this, he couldn't take care of the family affairs at the same time."

"We brought my dad here because he was so depressed after my mom passed away and he started to show symptoms of dementia."

"Although I have managed to get by with great difficulty, it is still hard to hold my head high and say that I am living a happy life... But..."

Miura Reiko smiled slightly behind them while she was talking, thinking that her daughter must be waving at her from the van.

“On many long journeys, joy will always appear moment by moment.”

The two men greeted Miss Reiko who was about to go back to work and stood up.