Comics, daily stories

“That was a chair he knew very well, a desk he knew very well.”

"At that moment, perhaps only for a moment, the old man seemed to turn back into that boy, only the long-haired, story-loving boy at the next table was no longer there beside him."

"But fortunately, when he reached out, he could still feel the familiar marks engraved under the desk. Those two names had been in the classroom for many years and had not been damaged or discovered."

After Nomiyama finished speaking, he turned to look at the side, but she had already disappeared.

The wind is gently lifting up the grass that she had just broken while lying down.

He got up, quickly walked down the slope, squatted by the river, and began to lift the fish basket.

Hehe, I'll tell Hui when I get home that I caught these myself.

As he was carrying the fish basket, he turned around, surprised to see her return so early.

Yukino Yukinoshita stood on the slope, holding his desk in one hand, her brows furrowed: "No name."

Nomiyama rolled his eyes: "Because I didn't carve my name under my desk at all."

Yukino lowered her eyes, somewhat disappointed.

"I carved it under your desk."

Watching her disappear again, Nomiyama lifted the fish basket and threw it back into the river. Well, having been caught red-handed, there was no point in stealing anymore.

Nomiyama sat down back on the slope, propping his face up with one hand, and waited quietly for her to return.

Yukino Yukinoshita stood in the familiar classroom, holding a piece of metal with words on it that had been cut off directly in her hand.

"It's not as good as my handwriting."

After she finished speaking, she put away the iron sheet, returned to the riverside slope, sat down, and smiled: "So that's how it is. I pretended not to care when I left, but a long time ago, before I even noticed, she had already secretly carved words on it."

Nomiyama remained completely unfazed: "How do you know it was carved before? Maybe I just carved it for you to play with these past few days."

Yukino Yukinoshita felt somewhat pleased, so she merely glanced at him and didn't bring up the issue of time.

Nomiyama rested his chin on his hand and waited quietly for her to continue fishing. Anyway, as long as he didn't admit it, the name on the metal plate could only have been carved in the last few days.

Yukino Yukinoshita tossed another crucian carp into the fish basket and asked casually, "What were you planning to do with that fish basket just now?"

Nomiyama looked relaxed: "Check if the fish drowned."

"Hmm, you're not trying to steal my hard work?"

"Ha, just a few crucian carp."

"Then don't eat it."

"Yukinoshita is really good at fishing."

Yukino asked another question: "If you're making crucian carp and tofu soup, do you have any tofu at home?"

Nomiyama thought for a moment and shook his head: "No, tofu spoils easily even if it's kept for a day, so it's usually bought on the same day."

Yukino Yukinoshita pondered, "After I put the fish home, I'll have to go to the supermarket."

Nomiyama offered a different suggestion: "You can buy it at the Fujiwara Tofu Shop on the next street."

Yukino Yukinoshita gave him a helpless look: "It's not like we're just buying tofu. There are many people in the family, and we need to have other ingredients on hand. We can't always ask Kato to buy them every time."

"Yes, let's go to the supermarket then."

Nomiyama said, shaking his head.

Yukino Yukinoshita frowned slightly, sensing that something was amiss.

His gaze swept over the two empty beer cans beside him, and surprise gradually emerged: "You can't even handle two cans of beer with your normal alcohol tolerance?"

Nomiyama opened another can, savoring the slightly tipsy feeling: "I'm not an alcoholic. This is only my second time drinking. Isn't it normal to get drunk easily?"

Yukino Yukinoshita glanced down at the beer can next to her. She had also relaxed her body, but she didn't feel anything after drinking a can.

So she reached out her hand: "Give me the useless wild mushroom."

Nomiyama wasn't stingy either; he opened the plastic bag, pulled out two cans, and tossed them over. Anyway, he'd bought over a dozen cans during the discount...

The two quietly drank their chilled beer and stared blankly at the river.

"sorry."

Nomiyama was somewhat startled by the sudden words. He placed his hands on the grass and began to prepare to escape.

Yukino Yukinoshita took off her sunglasses and put them aside, saying softly, "Your treasures, which you've carefully saved for so many years, have all been gone in one go."

Nomiyama understood what she was talking about; she was referring to the old house that had vanished into dust in an instant.

He smelled the lingering scent of sadness in the air and hummed in response.

Then he said, "But most of my most treasured possessions are still in that new house."

"Those are just embellishments, embellishments to the most precious things. They seem important, but in fact, they are not important when compared."

He changed the subject and brought up something he was more curious about: "When are you going to marry me?"

A gentle smile curved Yukino's lips. She exhaled softly, suppressing her emotions, and then turned to look at him: "Is Nomiyama-kun getting impatient?"

Nomiyama clarified that he didn't mean that: "What I meant was, if you don't hurry up, I might have a thick stack of marriage proposals in my room."

Yukino Yukinoshita remained silent for a while. She wasn't really in a hurry for the document, since the first one had already been taken. She was just a little annoyed by the description of "a thick stack".

"When you go to the supermarket later, let's stop by the ward office. Anyway, the staff there are all from your group, so the process will be super fast," Nomiyama suggested.

"Fine, since you're so eager to marry me," Yukino Yukinoshita said calmly.

"I'm not getting married." Nomiyama pouted.

"Give it a try," Yukino Yukinoshita smiled.

Nomiyama felt there was no need to try, but he decided that when he got home, he would put the "marriage card" at the very bottom of a bunch of other cards.

Yukino Yukinoshita shattered his idea: "[Marriage] is with me."

Nomiyama raised an eyebrow: "Why should I?"

Yukino Yukinoshita glanced at him, said nothing, and silently opened her hand, revealing a photo album in her palm.

Nomiyama frowned as he looked at the photo album.

Yukino Yukinoshita opened the photo album and showed it to him.

Nomiyama looked at the familiar papers in the photo album, his hand twitched, and his expression began to twist: "What do you mean?"

Yukino Yukinoshita quickly put away the photo album to avoid him snatching it away later. Her tone was natural: "No, I just remembered that I have a lot of letters that someone wrote to me back then, so I'm showing them to you."

Nomiyama smiled: "You don't think something like this can threaten me, do you?"

Yukino Yukinoshita shook her head: "I'm just thinking about whether to make copies of these letters for Kato and Eriri. There are over a hundred handwritten letters; they should be very interested."

Nomiyama tilted his head: "Most of these letters were written by Megumi sitting right next to me watching me write them. Do you think I was worried about that?"

Yukino Yukinoshita stared at him, her voice turning cold: "You actually showed the letter you wrote to me to someone else."

Nomiyama felt that this statement was not quite right: "Those are just letters sharing my normal life. There's nothing I can't show to others. Do you really think that's my dark history?"

It's fake, because Kato Megumi didn't even look at what he was writing; she was just quietly playing on her phone and waiting for him to finish.

The two men looked at each other on the slope, each absorbed in their own thoughts.

Yukino Yukinoshita frowned slightly, realizing that the person in front of her really wasn't flustered.

After thinking for a while, she got up and walked up the slope.

Nomiyama asked, somewhat puzzled, "Where are you going?"

Yukino Yukinoshita didn't turn around, but just walked up the slope: "Print shop."

Nomiyama gave an "oh" and stopped talking, simply looking at her calmly.

The girl walked up the slope step by step to the river crossing, then crossed the crossing and headed towards the road.

"[Marriage Industry] Keep it there for you."

Nomiyama covered his face.

Yukino Yukinoshita smiled and turned around.

Of course, it's impossible to replicate his treasure for others to see, after all, it's a piece of evidence he specially preserved from his youthful days.

However, this guy is getting better and better at acting. I'll have to be more careful in the future, or I might easily be fooled.

"Seriously, in the marriage world, it's pretty much the same everywhere, why are you worrying about this?" Nomiyama opened a beer and chugged it down.

"You're prone to doing bad things to my [marriage circle], it's safer for me to keep it myself." Yukino Yukinoshita's voice was somewhat lighthearted.

"What bad thing could happen? It's just a piece of paper, I can't just soak it, can I?" Nomiyama thought she was overthinking things.

"For example, you could throw my 'marriage box' in the hardest place to be seen. I believe you could do something like that. It's a bizarre and strange kind of perverse pleasure." Yukino Yukinoshita also opened a beer and took a couple of sips.

“Wronging an innocent person,” Nomiyama muttered.

How can something that hasn't been done yet count?

Yukino Yukinoshita ignored his statement. Was she wronged? No, everything about his feelings—once you start to feel something's wrong, then something's definitely wrong.

She brought something up: "Could it be that you're hiding something from me?"

Something you don't know?

Nomiyama thought of the desk where he had carved his name, and then his thoughts began to wander.

It seems he's hiding a lot of things she doesn't know... and the others are hiding a lot too, after all, he has a good memory.

"Huh? I'm very lazy." Nomiyama touched the beer can and took a few gulps.

Upon hearing this answer, which was not really an answer, Yukino Yukinoshita realized that there were still some things this person hadn't told her.

Oh well, let him be. Anyway, he has a good memory, so he won't lose the things he hid. It's just that I might have to wait a while for him to tell me slowly.

That's fine too, let's just consider it the next candy with an unknown flavor.

Thinking of this, Yukino Yukinoshita reached out her hand: "Give me a candy."

Nomiyama shook his head, patted himself down, and pulled out two candies, tossing them to her: "Try them and see what they taste like."

Yukino Yukinoshita put away the extra candy, then lowered her head and quietly unwrapped it.

It has no flavor at all. If his strange, prophetic luck hadn't changed, he would probably only be able to taste pure sugarcane now.

Thinking of this, she put a candy in her mouth and reminded him, "Try one to taste it."

Nomiyama refused: "I'm drinking."

Yukino Yukinoshita said with a hint of disdain, "If you can't drink, then don't drink. You might as well eat some candy to help you sober up."

Nomiyama casually placed the empty can aside and reached out to unwrap the candy wrapper: "Why can't I drink it anymore? And what does eating candy have to do with sobering up?"

Yukino Yukinoshita raised her fishing rod and cast the newly caught small crucian carp into the fish basket: "I don't know, I just wanted to give you a piece of candy."

Nomiyama bit into the candy, the chocolate flavor spreading in her mouth: "It's all chocolate after eating it all, it's getting a bit cloying."

Yukino Yukinoshita sighed, "Be content, at least it's not like before, a mix of sour, sweet, bitter, and salty."

Nomiyama shrugged: "I'd rather have a sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, and salty flavor, at least then I can look forward to the next candy's taste."

"Well, then you'll start complaining about why you can't eat those delicious foods and can only eat bitter melon, pickled vegetables, and mustard every day."

"No, I usually just silently pray in my heart, 'Give me all the sweetness of Yukino Yukinoshita.'"

"As expected of the wild mountain mushroom, it becomes very vicious with ease."

"This is to toughen you up and make you stronger."

Nomiyama's eyes darted around, glancing at the fishing rod beside him that had moved slightly.

He reached out, grabbed it, and swung the rod.

The bamboo tube leaped out of the water.

The two remained silent, their gazes simultaneously fixed on the bamboo tube.

Reaching out, Nomiyama grabbed the bamboo tube, then touched it and pulled out the pen he had always kept on his person.

He uncapped the pen, ran it across his arm a couple of times to make sure it still worked, and then opened the bamboo tube.

Yukino Yukinoshita quietly stood up and sat down beside him, looking at the paper together.

The paper is spread out.