Their restricted abilities are refreshed every week.

At this moment, Shirakawa Haru sometimes found Toyokawa Shoko cute, and sometimes too charming, as if he were looking at the mirror of a kaleidoscope in a dream. This might be because the image of Toyokawa Shoko he saw was reflected from a strange glass.

The bottom of the kaleidoscope mirror reflects the dusky hues of the sky outside. This means that the colors at the bottom of the mirror overlap with the scene reflected on the surface, creating an impression of order mixed with disorder. Shoko Toyokawa has no connection to the mountains or sky outside the window; she is a transparent phantom. The backdrop is the hazy September farmland of Chiba Prefecture, dragged backward by a train. Together, these two create a breathtaking scene that shouldn't exist.

Especially when the night scene of lights outside the window appeared on Toyokawa Shoko's face, Shirakawa Haru felt that Toyokawa Shoko was indescribably beautiful at this moment.

Her lips were moving, and she would occasionally say "I like" a few times. Shirakawa Haru thought she was reminiscing about her past life and her band, so she didn't listen carefully.

Besides, eavesdropping on others' sleep talking is inherently immoral. If there's a girl next to you who can sleep and talk in her sleep while slumped in her seat next to you, then she must be very confident in you.

Even in order not to let down Toyokawa Shoko's trust in him, Shirakawa Haru couldn't listen to even one more word at this moment.

The speed of the tram was slowing down, and a few "ticking" sounds came from the glass windows of the car. Shirakawa Haru opened the window and licked his nose. He smelled the cool scent of rain in the air.

"President...ah, did I fall asleep?" Toyokawa Shoko was still a little confused when she woke up from her sleep. She felt that she had only closed her eyes for a while and the train arrived at the station immediately.

It was not until she took a few deep breaths to clear her head that she realized she had fallen asleep on the tram. What's more important, when she woke up, she was wearing a suit jacket. She had seen this suit before, so she knew it was Shirakawa Haru who was covering her.

"Toyokawa-san, we need to hurry home. Judging from how humid the air is, a heavy downpour might be coming soon."

Shirakawa Haru checked the weather forecast before going out. It was supposed to be sunny today and cloudy tomorrow, but for some reason, around nine o'clock in the evening, the moisture in the air suddenly increased.

In other words, this heavy rain was completely beyond everyone's expectations.

Neither Shirakawa Haru nor Toyokawa Shoko brought an umbrella.

If they get off the bus now and run home, they might be lucky enough not to get wet by the heavy rain. It is also possible that it will rain heavily on the way home. The worst case scenario is that it will start raining as soon as they get off the bus.

Shirakawa Haru carried Toyokawa Shoko's bags and quickly got off the bus with her, but as the saying goes, "What you fear will come true." Not long after they got off the bus, raindrops as big as soybeans began to fall from the sky and hit their backs. In an instant, a large area of Shirakawa Haru and Toyokawa Shoko's clothes were wet.

In this situation, Baichuan Qing still wanted to try to take a taxi, but the heavier rain that followed made him give up the idea. As soon as he took out his mobile phone, the already heavy rain became even more powerful. He had to put away his mobile phone and start looking for a place to shelter from the rain.

"Toyokawa-san, let me get the teddy bear. You can't run fast with this thing in your arms." The rain was pouring down. Although Toyokawa Shoko was right next to him, Shirakawa Haru had to shout out loudly because the rain was too heavy and the sound of raindrops hitting the ground was too loud. He was afraid that she couldn't hear him.

"Then I'll leave it to you, President!" Xiangzi hesitated for a while, then decisively handed the doll to Shirakawa Haru. If he insisted on holding the doll, neither of them would be able to run fast.

"Toyokawa-kun, just hold on to my suit and run. Be careful not to get wet in the rain or you might catch a cold."

"Ah...ok!"

Shoko Toyokawa pinched the two corners of the hem of her suit and carried it on her back like a cloak. Her high ponytail hung behind her head and kept jumping. She ran in the rain. Obviously, the suit could not block much rain, but she was as happy as a pony.

Before he knew it, Shirakawa Haru came to a place that he was somewhat familiar with and had been to once.

The originally active Shoko Toyokawa suddenly fell silent, and even the rain-soaked suit was carefully folded and placed in her arms.

"Ms. Toyokawa lives here now?" Shirakawa Haru tried his best to add some curiosity to his tone so that Toyokawa Shoko wouldn't notice that he had just found out that she lived here.

"Um... yes, President, please come with me." Toyokawa Shoko's heart was in turmoil. She felt like Cinderella, bringing Shirakawa Haru to her residence. It was like a fairy godmother's magic. After midnight, the crystal slippers, the pumpkin carriage, the waiter, and the beautiful dress all disappeared. Toyokawa Shoko didn't know how to explain to Shirakawa Haru, but she knew her tone was very low.

Shoko Toyokawa took Haru Shirakawa up to the narrow building and they stopped in front of a small room.

She fished out her key, which she had kept in the lady's bag, and thrust it into the keyhole.

With a click, the door was pushed open by Toyokawa Shoko.

She said to Shirakawa Haru who was standing at the door:

"This is my home."

Chapter 5000: Spending the Night at Xiangzi's House ()

To go upstairs, you have to walk over the cement stairs with completely rotten guardrails. The door wall is full of phone numbers of no-name hospitals or gangs. After pushing the door open, you can see a bedroom of only a few square meters, and next to the bedroom is a narrow toilet.

There was almost no extra furniture in the room except a single bed and sofa.

Shirakawa Haru saw a music stand in the corner with a sheet of music on it. A blue plastic chair, which can be seen everywhere in food stalls, was placed opposite the music stand.

This is where Shoko Toyokawa lives now, and the room is filled with the smell of beer.

If you say this is a home, the room is too small, and the interior decoration lacks any human touch, giving off a cold atmosphere and impression; but to say there is no warmth in this room is an overgeneralization. The small table lamp by the bed and the band posters pasted on the peeling walls all show that the owner still wants to do his best to arrange the room properly.

Shoko Toyokawa's current residence is so narrow that it looks like a small coffin.

This was the first impression that Shirakawa Haru got after he walked through the door and looked around the room. Originally, he was thinking about whether it was a bit inappropriate to scrutinize the girl's boudoir with a scrutinizing gaze, but he didn't expect that he had just walked in and before he had time to look away, he had already seen all the decorations in the room.

"Yes, President, this is my home now." Toyokawa Shoko entered the room before Shirakawa Haru. After turning on the light, she immediately threw the cans lying on the folding table into the trash can. This was the trash she hadn't had time to throw away after drinking beer. She had never drunk alcohol before, and she found that the taste of this alcoholic beverage was actually quite good.

That was the first time in her life that she drank alcohol, and it was also the first time that she broke through the constraints and rules of her past life. It felt good to drink, and it also felt good to be drunk.

It was very bitter, and her throat felt like it was burning. After she sobered up, her head felt like it was splitting apart and it hurt so much. Maybe she forgot all her troubles.

From that day on, whenever Shoko Toyokawa was in deep trouble, she would buy a few cans of beer from the vending machine and have a drink.

Sometimes it was because the customer service work at the company was too hard, and sometimes it was because she didn't buy the discounted lunch box that night, and she thought it would be better to have a beer instead of using the money for two dinners on one. But more often it was when she was confused, she choked up and looked at the outstanding balance on her phone, wondering why her fate was so tragic.

Her busy life has made her develop a bad habit. She always likes to throw away the garbage in the room after it accumulates to a certain level.

So when Shirakawa Haru entered the room, Toyokawa Shoko realized that she had been accumulating garbage for several days and had not taken it out.

Empty beer cans lay scattered on the folding table, and a few areas of the small white table were stained with yellow stains, where unfinished beer had dripped from the cans and dried.

Toyokawa Shoko felt both embarrassed and anxious. She thought she was doomed. Shirakawa Haru must have seen the empty can she had left on the folding table. These cans were common in Tokyo's vending machines, and anyone who saw one knew it was a can of alcohol. If it had been any other kind of trash, it would have been fine, but this one was alcohol, and the smell was so strong it was immediately noticeable. If Shirakawa Haru asked her why she was drinking, how would she answer?

"Mr. Toyokawa, please go slow. Let's clean up together." Shirakawa Haru put the teddy bear he was holding on Toyokawa Shoko's bed. Although it had rained heavily outside and he was soaked, he protected the teddy bear very well and it hardly got any water on it.

He took the initiative to help Shoko Toyokawa clean up the cans on the folding table and the plastic wrap stuck to the ground. This kind of plastic wrap is generally used on simple bento boxes in convenience stores, and it is marked with the big word "discount".

After seeing the empty cans of beer on the folding table, Shirakawa Haru felt confused.

It turned out that the smell of alcohol he had smelled on Toyokawa Shoko before was from drinking beer. Judging from the stains and scattered empty cans on the folding table, although Shoko did not drink very frequently, he would drink a lot at one time.

This is not good for the body.

"President, just sit on the sofa. No need to trouble you to help me clean the room!" Although Shirakawa Haru always felt that his behavior might be a bit abrupt in the eyes of others, in fact, in the eyes of those being helped, his actions were like a spring breeze. Xiangzi also thought so. Shirakawa Haru's help was so natural, as if this was his home. She felt that if there were aprons in her own home, Shirakawa Haru would definitely put on an apron before cleaning after knowing it.

A strange feeling of warmth suddenly arose in her heart. This feeling was great and there was nothing wrong with it. Now she thought that keeping a secret was so hard and boring, but if someone knew your secret and kept it with you, then the annoyance and boredom caused by keeping the secret would all be transformed into equal sweetness and happiness.

Shoko Toyokawa wanted to indulge in this warmth. At the moment, she felt that she was a little obsessed with Shirakawa Haru's back, but she quickly came to her senses and realized that her current mood was a little bit wrong, so she hurriedly waved her hand and asked Shirakawa Haru to sit on the sofa and rest.

"But I'm all wet now. It would be bad if I soiled your sofa."

Shirakawa Haru deftly dumped all the trash into the trash can, then picked up the bag and tied it shut. He even found a break-point trash bag from under the folding table and put it back on the trash can. He straightened his back, but the rain continued to drip down his body.

"President, just sit down!" Toyokawa Shoko said, and quickened the pace of cleaning the room. She wanted Shirakawa Haru to put down the work in her hands so that she could get away from the warm feeling, but she forgot one very important thing.

The house she rented was less than ten square meters, so she had no wardrobe to store clothes. She originally wanted to buy a small suitcase for clothes at the flea market, but when she thought about the fact that she would not let anyone know that she lived in such a place, she decided not to buy a suitcase for her clothes in the end.

"President, don't look at that sofa!"

"Ah? Xiangzi, how could you just throw your clothes around?"

It wasn't until Toyokawa Shoko reminded him that Shirakawa Haru noticed that the colorful pile of things on the sofa turned out to be Toyokawa Shoko's clothes, including dresses, skirts, garters, stockings, underwear, and panties. He thought Toyokawa Shoko always completed the tasks he assigned her in an orderly manner and seemed to be a serious and responsible person, but he didn't expect that she could be so careless in private and didn't like to tidy up her room.

But he immediately thought that there was no place to store clothes in this house, so he could understand why Shoko Toyokawa put all her clothes on the sofa.

"Sorry, Toyokawa-san!" Shirakawa Haru quickly closed his eyes and thought to himself that he had gotten into trouble. If it was Yuki whose underwear he had seen, he might be the one being teased in the end. After all, he had been busy running around for Yuki when they were young. Being called a brother was actually not much different from being a father.

Toyokawa Shoko is not his sister.

Anyone with even a little empathy would know how terrible her image was in Toyokawa Shoko's eyes. A woman without any biological connection was considered well-mannered if she didn't immediately hit someone with a mop or broom when someone saw her clothes at home. Shirakawa Haru felt he was bound to get a scolding from Toyokawa Shoko, so he quickly closed his legs, covered his eyes, and turned his back to the sofa. Before he could fully close his eyes, he saw Toyokawa Shoko's hand reaching out to him.

I hope that Toyokawa Shoko won't scold me too harshly later. Shirakawa Haru suddenly remembered that she seemed to have scolded me before. I only remember that Toyokawa Shoko's face turned red, but I think she was so cute when she scolded people.

A soft touch appeared on his face. Shirakawa Haru waited for a while but Toyokawa Shoko's slap did not hit his face. He opened his eyes and found that she was wiping his face with a towel.

"Please close your eyes first, President. There are still water stains on your face that haven't been wiped clean, and there are water droplets on your hair. It would be bad if these raindrops slide into your eyes."

Shirakawa Haru noticed that Toyokawa Shoko's face didn't blush. How could it not? He had just seen her underwear. Logically, she should have called him a pervert and slapped him! But she didn't. Instead, she stood on tiptoe and gently wiped the rain from her face with a towel... He suddenly realized that from this perspective, he could see every detail of Toyokawa Shoko's face: her eyelashes as light as a cicada's wings, the slightly raised corners of her mouth, and the slightly majestic drooping eyes.

Before today, Shirakawa Haru could not imagine that Toyokawa Shoko, who had never been kind to her, would smile so happily at her, let alone this intimate action where their bodies were almost touching.

At this distance, any action between a boy and a girl will become ambiguous, like being shrouded in mist.

He suddenly realized that Toyokawa Shoko's drooping eyes were not stern at all. It was just an outward manifestation of her competitive spirit and a little bit of unwillingness to admit defeat.

His face was slightly hot, and Shirakawa Haru couldn't look directly at Toyokawa Shoko's face. He felt that Toyokawa Shoko, who was wiping his cheek, was too much for him. She didn't blush, but he blushed first.

"I can do it myself." Bai Chuanqing took a step back, opened his eyes and said, "Clean up your room first. Otherwise, even if the rain is wiped off your face, sweat will still remain, and it will be very uncomfortable."

"Yeah." Toyokawa Shoko didn't say much.

The previous charming atmosphere seemed to have died down. The two worked together to tidy up the room, and the whole room soon looked brand new. As for the peeling walls, they were part of force majeure. After all, neither of them knew how to do this kind of handicraft, and they didn't have the tools.

During the tidying process, Shirakawa Haru also found a few socks and even a few unopened bottles of beer under the single bed and sofa. He thought that these might be things that Toyokawa Shoko had dropped in at some point.

Toyokawa Shoko sat on the bed, while Shirakawa Haru sat on the sofa facing her. The private clothes on the sofa had been sorted out by Toyokawa Shoko and stuffed under the quilt of the single bed.

"President, I'm so sorry about what happened today. I didn't know it was going to rain tonight. If I had known, I would have just taken a taxi."

"It's okay, I checked the weather forecast, and it says it won't rain today. But who can say for sure about such things? Even though it's raining heavily now, it may stop soon." Baichuan Qing opened the window and looked at the deep night outside.

Even rooms that are less than ten square meters have windows, but because it is an old building, the windows are of an older style and are covered with a layer of anti-theft netting. The grids of this anti-theft netting are very small and can easily block people's sight.

It was raining heavily outside, and the light coming out of the window could only illuminate a distance of less than two meters. The rain was so heavy that the area that could have been illuminated was completely blocked by fine raindrops.

The raindrops fell to the ground and broke into smaller fragments. These fragments reflected the light on each other, making it even harder for the people inside to see what was happening outside.

This kind of rainy weather will never end soon, and if the sky can clear up tomorrow morning, Shirakawa Haru will be thankful. Now, what he said to Toyokawa Shoko was only a little hopeful, but more of a comforting one.

"It doesn't look like this rain will stop anytime soon... I just feel a little guilty. If I could have gone home quickly, you would have been lying in bed resting now." Shoko Toyokawa's tone was a little low.

"It's okay. Staying up a little late isn't a big deal. If you look at it from a bright side, at least I'm still at Toyokawa-san's house instead of getting soaked by the rain."

"Now, even if the president wants to go home, he can't. It's raining so hard that you can't get a taxi. Even with an umbrella, you'll get soaked."

"Okay, okay. Let's let this topic go. I finally get to visit Toyokawa's house, it's boring to keep saying this kind of thing." Shirakawa Haru smiled playfully at Toyokawa Shoko. He thought his smile was not too ugly. When Yuki occasionally lost her temper at home, he would smile at Yuki, and then no matter how angry Yuki was at the time, she would calm down.

This trick was also very useful for Toyokawa Shoko. When she saw Shirakawa Haru giving her a golden retriever-like smile, she felt a lot more relaxed.

The feeling of self-blame is still there, but it is overshadowed by other more powerful emotions. Women are emotional animals, they use emotions to drive the body, and girls are even more so in this regard.

In the past, Toyokawa Shoko didn't know what kind of feeling this was, but now she knows. Because she likes Shirakawa Haru, she hopes that he will smile at her, even if he doesn't know that she likes him.

Shirakawa Haru didn't know that she liked him, but she knew that she liked her.

This emotional journey is both tortuous and winding, but it is very consistent with Toyokawa Shoko's budding heart at a young age.

"But how are you going to go back, President?" Shoko Toyokawa didn't want to dwell too much on the issue of rain, but facts cannot be changed by human will, and some problems must always be faced.

"Hmm... I don't know. Let's wait and see. Maybe the rain will stop a little soon, and then I'll run back by myself."

There was a sense of annoyance in Shirakawa Haru's tone.

"Then President, would you like to stay overnight at my house?"

A flash of inspiration suddenly struck Shoko Toyokawa. Seeing Shirakawa Haru's distress, she wanted to help him out, so without thinking, she blurted out her thoughts. But as soon as she opened her mouth, she felt that what she said was extremely inappropriate. She, a young girl, actually invited a boy who wasn't even her boyfriend to stay overnight at her house! Even if she liked him very much, she couldn't be so straightforward and direct! Although she knew that she and Shirakawa Haru wouldn't do anything, inviting someone of the opposite sex to stay overnight was still too tempting for her at this stage.

This kind of logic of "liking" can actually make people do such ridiculous things.

Toyokawa Shoko had thought this logic was just a muse that would pop up and tell her the right option when she didn't dare admit she liked Shirakawa Haru! She told herself that if Shirakawa Haru showed any embarrassment or any sign of rejection, she would immediately shut up about the topic!

She lowered her head and secretly watched Shirakawa Haru's reaction.

"I don't mind," Baichuan Qing's tone was a little unnatural. He wondered why Toyokawa Shoko suddenly said such a thing. He felt that there was something wrong with Toyokawa Shoko today. "I can just lie down outside your door for a night."

"Then please stay in your room overnight. I have a tatami mat that can be laid out in the hallway."

Although there was a hint of rejection in Shirakawa Haru's tone, Toyokawa Shoko knew as soon as she heard it that he really wanted to spend the night in the room, so she immediately pulled out the tatami mat from under the single bed mattress and spread it on the floor.

The floor of the room had just been cleaned, so it was very clean and it was okay to put the tatami directly on the floor.

Shirakawa Haru looked at Toyokawa Shoko who was in full action and said that he was shocked by her. He really wanted to sleep on the floor outside the door.

He thought that if anyone dared to approach him and do something bad while he was resting, his sword sense would immediately grab the opponent, stun him, and kill him like a dragon. To be honest, there was really no need for him to spend the night at his house.

And, Toyokawa Shoko, are you really not concerned about the issue of intimacy between men and women? While he's not into relationships and isn't particularly interested in girls, he's a real guy. Aren't you really afraid of a guy staying over at your house?

Shirakawa Haru looked into Toyokawa Shoko's eyes and found that she was both expectant and a little scared, and her arms were shaking with excitement.

He suddenly realized that he couldn't stay the night at her house this time.

If a girl looks at you like this and invites you out, you'd be a real jerk if you refused.

"Ok."

Shirakawa Haru sighed in his heart and agreed to stay overnight at Toyokawa Shoko's house.

Chapter 8100: Late Night Nocturne ()

Shoko Toyokawa was brushing her teeth and drying her hair while humming a song in a nasal voice.

People who often listen to classical music can immediately tell that she is humming Dvorak's "Humoresque". Her long blue hair is shiny and moist, with a lot of conditioner applied on it. It can be seen that she attaches great importance to the care of her hair.

Shoko Toyokawa had just taken a bath, which was her daily habit before going to bed.