Comics, daily stories

Hiratsuka Shizuka: [Come pick me up!]

That drunkard always manages to ruin people's good things.

......

Some things in this world have nothing to do with intelligence; they simply represent the uncontrollability of things.

Hiratsuka Shizuka considers herself a smart person, and her intelligence is not limited to her academic performance in school, but also lies in her sensitivity and understanding of people's hearts.

Of course, no one is omnipotent. Even someone with keen insight into human nature cannot possibly calculate everything. There are many aspects of the human heart that cannot be seen with the naked eye.

Therefore, Hiratsuka Shizuka doesn't aspire to see everything clearly; she only needs to see the parts she wants to see.

Hiratsuka Shizuka saw a part of him clearly, and a part of the person named Nomiyama Kazehaya.

A person who can hardly be called healthy may almost completely indulge in personal preferences, but this is not right, because when society connects with a person, it inevitably imposes shackles on that person.

At first, it seemed that the only shackles on him were those of two girls?

Hiratsuka Shizuka observed him for a year and realized something.

This is the kind of person who would easily choose option 1 when faced with the trolley problem of choosing between 1 acquaintances and 100 strangers.

It's an extremely extreme bias, with no effort put into weighing the pros and cons.

Hiratsuka Shizuka wanted to talk to him more, not necessarily to guide him, but at least to change things a little.

He simply didn't know where to start. He had carefully chosen a line he wouldn't cross, and coupled with his outstanding grades, although he was a bit of a troublemaker at school, he didn't actively cause trouble or give anyone a handle to use against him. Besides, he couldn't beat them in a fight...

Then he introduced her to someone, a person named Yukinoshita Haruno.

This isn't a problem child issue. It's more like birds of a feather flock together. A girl named Yukino Yukinoshita would also choose acquaintance #1, but she's even more ruthless. Her train tracks are 1000 people, she chooses #1; 10000 people, she still chooses #1. If the whole world had no acquaintances left, and they were all placed on those tracks, she'd probably laugh and stand at the locomotive, stepping on it and destroying the whole world in one fell swoop.

Hiratsuka Shizuka understood that they were hard to change. The hardest people to change in this world are those intelligent people who have already established their own rules for life. They abide by their own rules, regardless of whether it is spring or autumn outside. They understand this world, draw their own conclusions, and then create their own little world in the vast world, using themselves as the standard.

This is the simplest way of life, and also the most authentic way of life.

Coming from a family of educators, Shizuka Hiratsuka wanted them to connect more with the world.

So she became their friend.

So she became that acquaintance.

Oh, I've been included in their list. Well, maybe I should just let it go? Let fate decide what to do.

Fate.

With a sigh, Hiratsuka Shizuka pulled out the sign, casually swatted away a few thugs, and then put the sign back in place.

The encounters and acquaintances between people must be what is called fate, otherwise, with eight billion people in the world, more than one hundred million in Japan, and more than six million in Chiba, why would two people be connected by a single thread?

Leaning against a lamppost, Hiratsuka Shizuka took a few deep breaths.

That bastard is getting more and more perfunctory. I sent him a message ten minutes ago and he still hasn't replied. Sure enough, he's a man after all; once he gets something, he doesn't cherish it.

"I always feel like you're talking badly about me behind my back."

His voice was as clear and bright as it had been many years ago, but it was neither gentle nor sunny, and it was full of casualness and nonchalance.

Hiratsuka Shizuka looked up at the person squatting on the street lamp. He still looked like an eighteen-year-old boy, but his eyes were much gentler than before, and his eyebrows were softer. However, his voice was still unpleasant.

“I always feel that if you come late next time, you’ll fall headfirst into a trash can, head down, legs up, wobbling around.”

Hiratsuka Shizuka ignored him and simply hugged the lamppost with both hands.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't pull it out! I don't want to lose money."

Nomiyama jumped off the lamppost, grabbed her wrist, and complained, "Who would just pull down a lamppost for fun?"

"Anyway, I'm the one who loses money."

"Isn't your money my money?" Nomiyama said confidently.

"Heh." Hiratsuka Shizuka released the lamppost, swaying slightly. "You're getting later and later, you dog of a man."

"Nonsense, I dealt with the message quickly and was right around you." Nomiyama squatted down and casually remarked, "Didn't we agree that I would quit drinking after we got married?"

Hiratsuka Shizuka leaned over and sighed, "I married a scumbag. My husband is never home and only goes out to have fun. I can only drown my sorrows in alcohol."

Nomiyama paused for a moment: "Sorry."

Hiratsuka Shizuka hugged him tighter: "Fortunately, my husband really likes me, and life is interesting. I like it very much."

Nomiyama smiled slightly, but didn't say anything.

Hiratsuka Shizuka pinched his cheek: "Tell me, what gift did you bring me back this time?"

Nomiyama lifted her up a couple of times, raising her slightly: "How did you guess?"

"Sometimes it's not about guessing, it's about believing that you'll bring back something that makes people happy."

Hiratsuka Shizuka nuzzled his head against him like a cat, her voice soft: "Go ahead and say it."

Nomiyama's smile widened: "It's rum. Didn't you own a winery? When I was eighteen, I secretly brewed dozens of barrels of rum. I've taken them all out this time. You'll like the taste. You can sell it or keep it for yourself, it's all up to you."

Hiratsuka Shizuka thought for a moment, then simply tightened her grip on him and complained, "No customers are buying alcohol from me. I'm not selling anymore; I'll keep it for myself."

Nomiyama hesitated for a moment, then asked cautiously, "Um, should I keep a few barrels for myself?"

Hiratsuka Shizuka refused quickly, sneering, "No, I want them all. If you want to drink, come and ask me for them yourself."

Then she muttered, "Don't think I don't know, you've been secretly hiding a lot of things."

Nomiyama turned his head and nudged her: "Those are for the future, we can't take them out now."

Hiratsuka Shizuka pouted: "Stingy."

"How can it be considered stingy? This is called planning for the future. Madam, you don't want your husband to be unable to come up with anything original for special holidays in the future, do you?"

"Given enough time and enough dedication, how could you possibly fail to find something new?"

"You're so annoying! This drunkard always brings me alcohol, and now he's picking on me?"

"You dislike me?"

"I wouldn't dare..."

They walked under the streetlights, which were still warm yellow, with one or two occasionally breaking down, but fortunately they weren't afraid of the dark.

Now, one of them is the owner of a winery who steals wine from her own farm year-round, and the other is a famous Japanese entertainer and the nominal head of the Chiba Nomiyama family.

The shift in identity was far more jarring than when we first met.

"What did you want to do before?" Hiratsuka Shizuka asked suddenly, sniffing the strands of hair that the wind had blown onto the tip of her nose.

“Sometimes I think about being a pirate or an adventurer or something. For example, with rum, I thought pirates liked rum, so I specifically studied how to brew it,” Nomiyama explained frankly.

"Hehe, I'm better off than you. I wanted to open a tavern or winery from the beginning, basically just selling alcohol, and now my wish has come true." Hiratsuka Shizuka chuckled.

"Ha, so that way you'll have a place to drink all the time." Nomiyama didn't hide his sarcasm. "You're really pathetic."

"Oh? What did you say? I didn't hear you clearly. Could you say it again?" Hiratsuka Shizuka raised an eyebrow and asked.

"I don't know, I forgot," Nomiyama lied through his teeth.

The spring breeze brings down the blossoms from the trees, just like it has been for years.

There will always be someone who cares about your preferences.

In the winter of his sixteenth year, on the night the snow stopped, Nomiyama asked Hiratsuka Shizuka a question, twice.

When exactly are you going to quit drinking?

The first time she said she'd wait until she found a boyfriend.

Nomiyama felt that her tone was somewhat perfunctory and indifferent, so when they were almost at their destination, he asked her a second time.

"Hiratsuka Shizuka, when are you going to quit drinking?"

This time the answer is more certain, at least we have a rough timeframe.

"It should be possible in about two years, or maybe more than six years."

The two timings are quite ingenious: one is when he graduated from high school, and the other is when he graduated from university.

In the spring of his eighteenth year, he returned to Chiba. On the rooftop of a building in Tokyo Bay, Hiratsuka Shizuka drank and spoke to him.

One of them had just returned and was about to start his senior year of high school, while the other had never left Chiba and had just opened a bar.

Hiratsuka Shizuka said she plans to return to Sobu High School to teach for another year, and then told him, "I'm 28 this year, and I'll stop being a teacher next year when I'm 29. I want to get married before I turn 30."

Nomiyama answered earnestly, "I will definitely try my best."

They got married when they were nineteen and twenty-nine years old, respectively.

Hiratsuka Shizuka is no longer a teacher. She changed careers, took off the halo of teaching and educating people, and went to sell alcohol, occasionally beating up two people who said she was selling fake alcohol.

Despite being a student, Nomiyama is still a university student who is constantly being chased by his girlfriend. He took a part-time job as an entertainer, but only acted in one drama that his girlfriend liked.

He still hasn't given up drinking.

Nomiyama stopped caring about it. Her body was no longer susceptible to the damage that alcohol could cause, and he felt that she couldn't be blamed for it.

If anyone's to blame, blame that even more intoxicating drunkard under the snow, who pulls out all sorts of strange and unusual drinks every day, constantly claiming they're good for your health.

For many reasons, Nomiyama did not restrict the interests of the people she liked; as long as they were happy, that was enough, and happiness was already a rare thing.

"Does Hui know you're back?" Hiratsuka Shizuka asked, inhaling the aroma from the oak barrel with a satisfied and joyful expression.

“Yes, Megumi, she has something that can observe me all the time. She saw it, and I sent her a message explaining it to her.” Nomiyama took two whiskey glasses and handed one to her.

"Hmm? Don't you need to go back and report first?" Hiratsuka Shizuka gripped the cup and reached directly into the sake barrel to scoop it out.

"No need, Megumi won't control me that much." Nomiyama also picked up a glass of wine.

"Oh? Is there some explanation?" Hiratsuka Shizuka stopped drinking, curious.

"Because she knows I'll come back to her sooner or later," Nomiyama laughed.

They are not at Nomiyama's house now, but at a winery in the suburbs.

"Tsk, a husband who seeks pleasure outside, and a wife who waits anxiously at home," Hiratsuka Shizuka mocked.

"I'm home most of the time, okay?" Nomiyama took a sip of his drink, stretched out his foot, kicked off his slippers, and then kicked her off the sofa. "When are you coming to live with me?"

"I spend a week at home every month, isn't that enough?" Hiratsuka Shizuka rolled her eyes at him. "At least consider me a little. That room is full of my former students. If I stand there, they'll have to call me Hiratsuka-sensei. Let's wait a little longer, hmm, maybe a year or two?"

"Tsk, a wife who seeks pleasure outside, and a husband who waits anxiously at home," Nomiyama retorted sarcastically.

Hiratsuka Shizuka threw down her sake cup, pounced on him, grabbed his neck, and gritted her teeth: "You bastard, how dare you say I'm seeking pleasure?"

Nomiyama remained calm: "I already told you, so what? You want to bite me?"

Hiratsuka Shizuka's gaze slowly moved downwards.

"No, no, no! I was wrong, I was wrong." Nomiyama's expression changed, and he admitted his mistake at lightning speed.

He watched the person retreat from him back to the oak barrel, and helplessly pulled out his wine glass again: "You're so old, why are you still acting like a female hooligan?"

Hiratsuka Shizuka took the glass, squinting her eyes: "Big?"

Nomiyama held his wine glass and casually added ice to the oak barrel: "You misheard me. I was saying you're eighteen years old, how can you still be so cute?"

"Oh."

Hiratsuka Shizuka ignored the man who was like a piece of candy to be manipulated, bent down to get herself a glass of wine, tilted her head back, and drank it down.

"Wow! Delicious! Man, you're not entirely useless after all."

Nomiyama rolled his eyes at her, too lazy to pay her any attention.

Hiratsuka Shizuka, not receiving a response, turned to look at him, leaned in, and pouted, "Are you angry? Don't be like that, man, I just..."

Nomiyama pushed her head away, looking disgusted, and said, "I'm not angry, I just think you're talking nonsense."

Hiratsuka Shizuka was pushed away but didn't react. Anyway, the night was still long, and there was plenty of time. She would just have to pin him down and bully him when the time came.

She ladled out more wine and remarked, "When it comes to brewing, you're just like Xuewan, always coming up with new tricks. You've even made rum taste like fruit juice."

Looking back, Nomiyama realized that she had been brewing wine for many years. Back then, she would dig holes in the mountains and bury wine jars of all sizes. She said that good wine needs time to develop, and only time can bring out its deeper flavor.

Later, after she left, I was bored and recalled her winemaking process in my mind, and naturally learned it.

But when the day came that someone really wanted to taste the wine, they dug up the hole where she had stored it, and found that the liquid inside was no longer drinkable. She had forgotten to leave any magic to preserve it when she buried it, and over a thousand years, the aged wine had long since turned into spoiled wine, or even poison.

"Yes, because I learned it from her."