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Take a walk late at night.

The Hour Hand Points to Zero — The Stop Watch Illusion

"Chairman, I know this song. It's 'Stop Clock Illusion' by Mushroom Empire!" Chihaya Aine raised her hand and said, "I heard this song in a movie. What was the name of that movie..."

"'Love Like a Bouquet'." said Shirakawa Haru.

"Yes, that's the name!" After saying that, Chihaya Aine suddenly laughed. Shirakawa Haru is the boy she likes. The more he knows and the better he is, the happier she is and the more she likes him.

"It's a pity that the ending wasn't very good." Baichuan Qing said, "But it can't be considered a bad ending. At most, it just means that these two people are not suitable to be together in the end."

"Huh?" Chihaya Aine leaned forward, laid her hands on the table and asked, "If you were the male lead in the movie, what would you do? If you were Mai, how would you keep Jun?" She had completely remembered the story of the movie.

"Don't be angry, just say what you want to say." Baichuan Qing blinked, "If I were Mai, if Juan wanted to run away, I would definitely put aside everything around me and find a way to catch her."

"That's true." Chihaya Aine said, "A lot of things can be solved by just talking them out."

"Excuse me, could you two?" The owner of the milk tea shop came over with a camera and said to Chihaya Aine, "Miss, when are you going to kiss your boyfriend? If you're too shy, just saying 'I love you' will do."

"Huh? A kiss!" Chihaya Aine's gray eyes widened, and her long, thin eyebrows curled upwards at the ends. Not only did she show her fangs, but she also neatly exposed her upper teeth. "Why do you want to kiss?"

"Well...it's written on the couple's package," the boss said a little aggrievedly. "Didn't I ask you at the beginning if you'd read the rules for the couple's package? You told me you were a couple, so I brought out the couple's package." "If you choose to kiss, I have a Polaroid camera here, you can take a picture for free."

"Hey!" Chihaya Aine took out her phone and quickly browsed through the mini program. She found that there were indeed a few lines of rules specially prepared for couples at the bottom of the main page. "There really are such rules."

Those who purchase a couple's package must have the woman kiss the man on the cheek or say "I love you" in the presence of the store manager or wait staff.

What should I do? What should I do? What should I do in this situation?

Chihaya Aine raised her eyes and glanced at Shirakawa Haru, and found that Shirakawa Haru was also looking at her. Should I follow the rules and kiss the chairman directly on the face?

Or just say "I like you" to him, but isn't that a confession?

Should we cancel this couple's meal and tell the boss we don't want it? Just charge us as two milk teas and a macaron. That way, the boss can make a little more money—No, no! If I do that, I'll be an idiot for insisting on the word "couple" when ordering!

Chihaya Aine's mind was almost spinning. Under pressure, she felt that everyone in the milk tea shop was looking at her, especially Shirakawa Haru's gaze, which was as hot as fire, as if it was going to ignite her heart!

She thought her solution was completely untenable, and no matter how she thought about it, it was wrong. No matter how she thought about it, it would make her look stupid and foolish!

"Aine, I like you." Shirakawa Haru saw Chihaya Aine's embarrassment.

"Huh?" Chihaya Aine was stunned.

Shirakawa Haru was afraid that Chihaya Aine and the shop owner didn't hear clearly, so he lowered his eyes and said it again: "Aine, I like you."

Then he looked at his boss and asked her, "Is this okay?"

"Oh! That's all right! It's the same thing for a man to say to a woman." The shop owner wiped the sweat from her forehead. For some reason, she felt a little breathless when being looked at by the big boy in front of her.

"Pay," Shirakawa Haru said, preparing to pay. This milk tea shop was quite large, and they had a standard dine-in service where you ordered first and paid later.

"Okay, okay," the shop owner said. "I don't think you two will kiss again, so there's no need to take a Polaroid photo. I'm leaving now."

"Wait!" Chihaya Aine said softly. She asked the shop owner not to leave, then quickly walked to Shirakawa Haru's side, "Haru, I like you."

Chihaya Aine held Shirakawa Haru's face in her hands, then closed her eyes and gave him a gentle kiss on the side of his cheek. It was soft and warm, like a dragonfly touching the water, or like the moment when a star exploded.

She was thinking a lot at this moment.

Bring your love to the sun, to the wind, and to the earth to stretch freely!

Oh, you are shyly falling in love for the first time, trust in the impermanence of fantasy! Run with her to freedom, to willows and maples, to the new green of birch trees; go to graze on the pink hillsides, listen to the gurgling streams; girl, go kiss the face of the young man, don't be shy here! Who whispers and reproaches this happiness of youth? Who says it's too late to forget?

Bring your love to the sun, to the wind, and to the earth to stretch freely!

When Chihaya Ai opened her eyes, she found the chairman staring at her blankly.

Only then did she understand the meaning of this sentence:

“Thinking about it is all questions, doing it is all answers.”

Chapter 4.3 This is the answer (k

The streets at dusk are filled with the exclamations of people coming and going, and the tireless cicadas are singing carefree songs, as if it is still midsummer.

There are several shallow puddles beside the flower bed outside the window. They are formed by the water that seeps out of the soil when watering the flowers. Passersby step over the puddles, splashing crystal water droplets on the glass windows.

The flash on the Polaroid camera held high by the store owner lit up, illuminating the profiles of Shirakawa Haru and Chihaya Aine - nothing is more touching than a kiss on the face of a lover in their youth.

When our youth is fleeting and years pass by, we may miss our past. In our memories, we may not care about the decadence and pleasure-seeking at that time, but we will definitely remember the person who was by our side, the person who had the courage to kiss you regardless of everything.

Shirakawa Haru doesn't know what he will do in the future. Will he become a scientist who transcends his time, a leader who will be remembered forever, or a poet or writer who will leave behind immortal poems?

He doesn't know what the future will be like.

He couldn't imagine it anyway.

Maybe he would lose his talent and end up being just an ordinary man who worries about supporting his family every day, getting up in the morning sunshine, leaning on his wife's body, and then leisurely going to the kitchen to fry eggs, fry bacon, and make a delicious breakfast...

He has no plans for his future because he can do anything and he can shine in any field, so even he himself is not sure what kind of person he will become in the future.

But he will never forget the time when someone held his face and kissed him in a milk tea shop on the commercial street...

This scene would not only linger in his memory for a long time, but would also transform into blazing glass, embedded deeply in his heart. It would also warm the gazes of passersby, resist the malice that the world might unknowingly attack him, and dispel the regret in his heart...

At this time, everyone in the milk tea shop was looking at Shirakawa Haru and Chihaya Aine. Under these gazes, Shirakawa Haru's senses became much more sensitive.

He felt the softness of Chihaya Aine's lips, the warmth in her palms, and the chaotic beating of her heart...

This undisguised love that was as blatant as a sharp knife stabbing him...

Shirakawa Haru's brain froze instantly. Chihaya Aine's kiss had a much greater impact on him than Takamatsu Touma and Rakuna's kisses.

The sound of a Polaroid camera clicking rang in his ears. As the developer and fixer on the Polaroid paper transformed the latent image into a visible color photo, two photos were slowly spit out, and then the soul-trembling touch left him.

"Wow, this is a great photo!" The shop owner handed one of the Polaroid photos to Chihaya Aine. "This is probably the best photo I've taken this year. The little girl is very beautiful, and her boyfriend is very handsome too."

"Manager, is this considered a candid photo?" Chihaya Aine looked at the photo of Shirakawa Haru and suddenly laughed out loud. In the photo, not only her, but also Shirakawa Haru's face was red, but it was not obvious. "The chairman is blushing, how rare! I thought the chairman's face didn't have the option to 'turn red'."

The chairman is not asexual after all!

He just has no idea about the two feelings of "love" and "romance", so he is at a loss.

Chihaya Aine noticed this keenly.

In this case, as long as I keep attacking, the chairman will one day fall at my feet!

When she was in school, she asked several of her close classmates why the chairman was so popular but had never been in a relationship?

Their answer was: "Although President Shirakawa has received love letters from almost all the girls in the academy, no one has ever dared to confess their feelings to him directly or do anything, because his temperament makes it difficult for people with selfish motives to approach him. So over the years, everyone has only dared to fantasize about him verbally or secretly put love letters in his shoe cabinet or desk.

"By the way, even the three of us wrote love letters to President Shirakawa back in junior high! We did it for fun, though. Writing love letters to President Shirakawa had become a common practice among the girls back then. But what we didn't expect was that even these playful letters were carefully read by President Shirakawa, who then wrote a message and returned them.

"Even though we had no real connection with President Shirakawa, he clearly wrote his impressions of us on the back of our love letters. He then politely rejected our 'confessions' and told us that studying wasn't the most important thing right now. His tone was just like that of a dean!

"He's like the sun, shining brightly on all the students at Hinodemori Academy. Regardless of gender, facing such a big boy, we simply don't have the courage to confess our feelings to him face to face, or do anything to make him feel close..."

Not only was I the first to discover the chairman's "secret", but now, apart from me, no girl dared to get close to the chairman, right?

No, it seems that Deng and Lena are very close to the chairman.

But Deng treats the chairman as a good friend; as for Lenai, although the chairman does dote on her, is that just the love he has for a pet?

Even Soyo-san, the "lady of the house" in the band, didn't say anything to Lenado.

In other words, if you regard the Strategy Director as a game, then you are the only player who has entered the main storyline, while others are still taking on side quests.

Now that I can kiss the chairman on the face, I can kiss him directly on the lips in the future!

"Little beauty, please stop joking around now," the shop owner said. "Remember to take your photos. I'll give you one, and I'll put one up on the photo wall in the shop... Ah! Do you want to sign the photos?"

Chihaya Aine pinched the corner of the photo and turned away, not daring to look at him. She took the ballpoint pen from the shop owner, then handed both the photo and the pen to Shirakawa Haru, saying a little unnaturally, "Chairman, please sign first."

"Oh... where should I sign? Just sign in the lower right corner of the photo." Shirakawa Haru pressed the pen cap. He looked at the dark-colored, retro-style photo. In the photo, he and Chihaya Aine were a little distance apart. She held his cheek, like a treasure in the world. He leaned forward slightly, and then kissed him without hesitation.

The radiant Chihaya Aine makes the texture and grain of this Polaroid paper as beautiful as a work of art.

"Boss, how much do you want for these two photos? Can you sell me the photography service at the original price?" Shirakawa Haru handed the pen and photos to Chihaya Aine. "Just pay the money, and don't put the photos up on the photo wall. It might cause you to have some complaints, Aine."

"Manager, wait! I'm paying you three times the price for this photo. Could you please enlarge it, print it out, and put it in the most prominent place on the photo wall?" Chihaya Aine turned around, her long pink hair bouncing, and shouted to the boss, "Just say it on it that the chairman of Hinodemori Academy is a complete scumbag who took advantage of girls and is irresponsible!"

Shirakawa Haru bit his straw and looked up in surprise. He didn't know what he was feeling right now. He had only come out to drink a cup of milk tea, but he didn't know how it had turned out like this: "Aine?"

Chihaya Aine quickly signed her name on the photo: "Just kidding!"

"joke?"

"Yeah, I'm kidding."

"So you were just 'joking' when you kissed me just now?" Baichuan Qing asked.

"This is a secret. I don't plan to tell the chairman for now. But maybe I will tell you later." Chihaya Aine carefully put the photo into the compartment of her schoolbag.

"You guys chat slowly, I'm going to post the photos." The store manager didn't understand the interaction between Shirakawa Haru and Chihaya Aion, so she took the photos and walked to the photo wall and posted them. She just thought that Chihaya Aion and Shirakawa Haru were a good match. Both of their clothes were neatly kept, and with the school uniforms they were wearing, they gave people the feeling that they were the male and female protagonists in a youth romance campus drama.

The man's eyes were ignorant, while the woman's feelings were warm and sincere.

The store manager could see that if the couple in front of him really became a couple, then the one who would take the initiative in the relationship would definitely be this little beauty.

"Chairman, let's sit for a while and then go to RING. It's almost time for rehearsal." Chihaya Aine drew a few circles on the table with her fingers. "If we are late, Rikki will blame us. Ah~ Rikki is so strict!"

The phone next to the milk tea lit up. Chihaya Aine leaned over to look at it, and a text message suddenly popped up. It was a message from Shiina Riki to the band group: "Sorry, I have something to do today, so I might be a little late to the rehearsal room."

"Then how about postponing it by one hour from the original time?" Nagasaki Suyo replied immediately.

"Sure." Chihaya Aine lazily lay on the table, her head resting on the crook of her arm, her fluffy hair almost hiding her entire exposed profile. "The chairman also said it's okay, so let's meet in an hour?"

"Didn't Shirakawa Haru send any message in the group? How do you know he said yes?" Both messages sent by Shiina Riki were filled with strong doubts.

"The chairman is right next to me." Chihaya Aine snapped a quick photo and posted it to the group chat. Shirakawa Haru, holding a cup of milk tea, was the center of the photo, with pink hair in the lower right corner. A quick thought would reveal that Shirakawa Haru and Chihaya Aine were sitting face to face. The poems on the two cups of milk tea just happened to visually mesh together.

"Aine-chan, is Shirakawa-kun with you now?" Nagasaki Suyo quickly sent a message to Chihaya Aine.

"At the milk tea shop." Chihaya Aine replied, "I actually made the chairman unhappy yesterday, so I asked you how to make him happy. In the end, I decided to treat him to milk tea."

"I see~" Nagasaki Motoyo sat in RING's seat and looked out the window at the gradually darkening sky. "Then shall we meet later?"

No wonder I was asking about how to help Shirakawa-kun relieve his stress yesterday. So, Shirakawa-kun's early return home yesterday was also because of you? Not sure, I'll give it some more thought. But I'm impressed that Chihaya Aine managed to get Shirakawa-kun out alone.

The slogans on the two cups of milk tea go perfectly together, and judging by the atmosphere of the milk tea shop...did Chihaya Aine buy a couple's set meal? Did Shirakawa-kun know that Chihaya Aine bought a couple's set meal?

It would be fine if he didn't know, but what if Shirakawa-kun knew? He knew Chihaya Aine bought a couple's package, but he didn't refuse, which means that for him, he doesn't care about it.

No, I have to find a way to find the milk tea shop that Chihaya Aine and Shirakawa-kun went to together. Maybe there will be information that can help me understand Shirakawa-kun better.

"See you later!" Chihaya Aine sent a waving emoticon to Nagasaki Motoyo.

"Do you want me to bring you some milk tea?" Shirakawa Haru took out his phone, tapped the screen, and sent a text message to the band group. "If you want, just say it in the group. Don't be shy, be generous."

Le Nai sent a message full of typos in the group, and Shirakawa Haru had to guess what Le Nai meant. She then sent a picture of matcha.

"Would you like to drink matcha flavored milk tea?" asked Shirakawa Haru.

Lenai sent a period punctuation in the group.

"What are you drinking, Shirakawa-kun? I want to drink the same as you." Nagasaki Motoyo said that she didn't know what to drink, so she just wanted to drink the same as Shirakawa Haru.

"Deng also wants to drink the same thing as you." Shiina Riki sent a panda to Shirakawa Haru, "Deng and I drink the same thing."

"Got it." Shirakawa Haru typed back, "One cup of matcha milk tea, three cups of cheese black tea au lait."

Shirakawa Haru went to the front desk to place his order. After he bought his milk tea, Chihaya Aine had already taken enough photos. She uploaded the one without Shirakawa Haru to her social media app. But she added a little extra flair: there were two cups of milk tea in the photo.

"How about going to the nearby parks?" Chihaya Aine suggested, "We were originally planning to go directly to RING, but Rikki is late today, so why don't we go to the nearby parks?"

"Is the park you mentioned far from the RING? If I can make it back in time, I'll go."

"Chairman, you should tell your female companion that you're happy to do it!" Chihaya Aine puffed up her cheeks. "Chairman, you're such a clueless boy."

Shirakawa Haru agreed. Chihaya Aine, carrying her guitar bag, waited for Shirakawa Haru to finish picking up his food at the front desk before pushing him out of the milk tea shop.

There are many cherry blossoms planted at the intersection of the park. Unfortunately, it is the end of summer and the real autumn is about to come. The cherry blossoms have already fallen, and only the dark green branches and leaves look dirty in the wind.

"Next spring, the scenery here should be spectacular," Shirakawa Haru thought as he sat on a park bench. He turned his gaze and saw Chihaya Aine sitting beside him. She clutched a guitar, playing and singing to the nearby lake, which was as thick as ink in the night sky.

Suddenly, she put down her guitar and moved closer to Shirakawa Haru. She asked with wide eyes, "Chairman, what's wrong with you? Why are you so stunned? Do you want to know the answer to that question?"

She smiled faintly.

"What's the problem?" Shirakawa Haru looked at the lake. The floating water surface gave him a dreamlike feeling, so that he couldn't remember what the question was from Chihaya Aine's mouth.

"It's that 'just kidding'." Chihaya Aine's expression was mysterious.

So you were just joking when you kissed me? Shirakawa Haru remembered. But just as he was about to speak, Chihaya Aine beside him quickly came over and kissed him hard on the face.

Shirakawa Haru looked at Chihaya Aine in astonishment.