All the people who like me are other people’s girlfriends! ?

She seemed to suddenly see her future with the boy. At that time, they had been married for a very long time. She would be in charge of cooking every day, but occasionally Qingye would want to share the work with her. He would sneak into the kitchen and sit at the table with another petite figure whose specific form was not visible, waiting.

Will she be accompanied by her son or her daughter?

Although there was no evidence, she felt it must be her daughter.

She has the same blue hair as me, and her features are more like a softened version of her father's. She will inherit the good aspects of both of their personalities, and occasionally she will also be stubborn like me.

Seeing her father cooking, she would probably whisper some mischievous things.

Hmm, actually, I prefer Mom's cooking to Dad's.

Don't let Dad hear you say that, he's working really hard.

I know I'll eat the desuwa cleanly, and then my father will praise me!

"...Mom won't lose to you either."

Wait, wait a minute! Where did my mind wander to?

Shoko Toyokawa finally snapped out of her daze, her pretty face turning even redder. She quickly shook her head, trying to shake off the pink bubbles floating around her. She... she wasn't ready yet!

There's nothing we can do about it; the impact she's experiencing right now is just that huge.

The girl patted her cheeks, and then, to the boy's surprise, she grabbed Qingye's wrist and led him to the nearby park, where there was a bench gently shaded by tall sycamore trees.

"Um, if you don't want to eat..."

Xiangzi gently shook her head. She gathered her skirt, sat down next to Qingye, took out her water bottle, and gently pressed it against the boy's face. Her amber eyes stared at him without blinking.

"I'm having a tough time financially lately, so you can only share this one bottle of water with me, is that alright?"

She said it more calmly than she had imagined.

In front of Kiyono, she seemed less resistant to talking about her situation.

"Hmm? Does Ms. Xiangzi mean she wants to share her lunch with me?"

Qingye raised an eyebrow.

"of course."

Toyokawa Shoko took the bento box from his hand, opened it, and found a pork cutlet rice bowl that didn't look very good, with a faint smell of burning. There were also some garnishes like tamagoyaki and small sausages on the side, but the only highlight was that the maker had drawn a cute little Shoko on the surface of the omelet rice with ketchup, and there was a cheering sign next to it.

She remained silent for a while, then picked up her chopsticks, took a piece of fried pork chop, and brought it to the boy's mouth.

Just then, a gentle breeze blew by, causing the leaves to sway softly. Sunlight filtered through the trees, casting dazzling dappled patterns that made the girl's smile appear exceptionally radiant and beautiful.

"You can't eat less than me, okay, Kiyono-kun?"

...

The two finished their lunch together, accompanied by the rustling of leaves overhead.

"Thanks for the hospitality."

Shoko Toyokawa calmly wiped her mouth with a tissue, closed the bento box, and acted as if she had just eaten a delicacy.

"Sorry, this bento box is really hard to eat, isn't it?" Kiyono glanced at her and sighed. The food that the girl had fed him was still slightly burnt in his mouth.

The girl with pigtails smiled and nodded generously.

"It's definitely hard to eat."

These words made Kiyono even more frustrated—he had never seen Yukino Yukinoshita do that much!

As this thought crossed his mind, Kiyono felt the girl's gaze fall on his face.

He subconsciously looked up, only to be met with a gentle sea of ​​stars.

He saw Toyokawa Shoko tilt her head slightly, her eyes filled with gentle and sincere light, standing face to face with him:

"But thank you, Kiyono-kun, I feel very happy right now."

Those eyes curved into crescent moons.

Kiyono was stunned. He silently turned his head away. The girl's sudden change made his heart almost stop for a moment.

*

After that, a silent, tacit agreement was quietly formed.

Kiyono would bring Toyokawa Shoko a bento every day. On a breezy, sunny day off, they would sit together under the shade of trees at noon. The air in early summer would be filled with the fragrance of grass and trees and a lazy atmosphere. The boy would open the bento after he had practiced so much. It was no longer a charred disaster, but gradually became pleasing to the eye. Shoko would sit beside him, watching him quietly, her legs together and her skirt spread out like flower petals.

If it's during the school year, they'll choose quiet streets for dinner, sometimes a silent park bench, sometimes under the eaves of a convenience store. Above them, there are no longer swaying tree shadows, but an endless night sky, with stars and the moon shining brightly. The girls' smiles are like flowers quietly blooming in the night.

As Qingye's cooking skills improved, from ordinary to delicious, the girl's smiles became more and more frequent.

In reality, the two didn't spend much time together. Xiangzi had to go to school, and Qingye had to work. They only had that short hour together, but this time became the girl's only expectation. Just by fantasizing about it, just by checking the menu on her phone, an indescribable warmth filled her heart. It was as if being with this person meant that she could overcome any hardship or difficulty.

After family misfortunes, after leaving the band, after working hard—

For the first time, she wanted to live even more.

However, Toyokawa Shoko has been troubled by something these past two days.

"How should I return the courtesy to Kiyono-kun?"

On Saturday, a pair of small feet in white socks walked back and forth on the old floor, making a soft 'thump thump thump' sound.

Toyokawa Shoko's pretty face rarely showed a serious expression. In the past, she had habitually closed herself off and had refused to give Kiyono's kindness a chance to show, so she hadn't thought about it much. But now she was seriously considering this issue.

She stopped and looked around the empty house, realizing that she really had nothing to give Kiyono... In her distress, her gaze suddenly fell on the old refrigerator in the corner of the living room.

The girl moved to the refrigerator, opened it, and found only a small amount of food she had carefully bought to last for a few days: a bag of discounted pork, two boxes of half-price beef, a wilted cabbage, a few small bags of vegetables, and a bag of small sausages.

Shoko Toyokawa hesitated for a moment, then took out her phone, opened her chat with Kiyono, typed a message, quickly deleted it like a thief, then edited the message again, and finally...

【Kiyono-kun, my mini-fridge seems to be malfunctioning. I need to use up the groceries I bought a couple of days ago, otherwise they'll go to waste, but I can't finish them all by myself, so, so, do you want to come over to me...?】

The girl closed her eyes tightly, and with a tragic resolve as if she were going to her death on the battlefield, she pressed the send button forcefully.

After sending the message, Toyokawa Shoko didn't dare look at her phone. She quickly hid it under her pillow and covered her blushing cheeks with her hands.

She actually invited a boy to her house... and to this wretched house of hers...

Of course, this is a privilege that only Kiyono can enjoy. If it were someone else, such as Nagasaki Motoyo and Shiina Tatsuki, if they wanted to come to her house, Toyokawa Shoko would definitely be prepared to coldly sever ties on the spot.

Rather, she felt that if they saw her current situation, she wouldn't have the face to live anymore.

Although Toyokawa Shoko has become much softer and more gentle now, that's only true in front of a certain person!

The girl stopped thinking about it, found the cleaning tools, tied a headscarf, and tried to clean the house a little cleaner. She also planned to take a bath at the nearby bathhouse... Wait, that would mean she would have to find a reason to make Kiyono-kun come a little later!

As for that bastard dad?

He's gone off drinking somewhere again.

*

Da Xiang... actually invited me to her house for dinner?

Given the girl's personality, it must really be that the refrigerator is broken, right?

Kiyono, who had just walked into the kitchen to prepare today's bento, stopped what she was doing and thought to herself.

Xiangzi has changed a lot lately... He was quite happy, it seemed that his feelings had been well conveyed to the girl.

The reason he kept getting closer to the girl wasn't really that many. Besides the help she had given him in the past, he wanted to see a better version of Xiangzi. Although the girl who was now prickly and avoiding him was still Toyokawa Xiangzi, he felt that the girl who loved the world and flowers and could face everything honestly was more beautiful.

*

dong dong dong.

There was a polite knock on the door.

A soft response came from inside the door, followed by slightly faster footsteps, and then the door opened with a click.

A girl as pure as a white lotus appeared before me.

At this moment, Toyokawa Shoko was not wearing pigtails. Instead, her long blue hair was hanging down to her waist, with strands of water still on it. She looked less delicate and cute than usual, but more elegant and gentle, as if she had matured a lot. Kiyono also noticed that there was a hair tie on her wrist. Had she not had time to style her hair?

"Kiyono-kun, thank you for coming today."

After a brief exchange of glances, Toyokawa Shoko naturally clasped her hands in front of her lower abdomen, her posture relaxed yet controlled, her fingertips and wrists gracefully curved, her gaze level and gentle smile on her lips, every word full and rounded.

Her manners were truly textbook-perfect, befitting a young lady of high society.

Kiyono felt strange. He had been to the Toyokawa family's main residence more than once, but each time the girl had always been cheerful and lively, holding his hand without caring about such things. Now, however, she was showing a noble side... or rather, she was more like a newlywed wife welcoming her husband. This made him feel inexplicably awkward, and he couldn't help but think about the future.

Thinking about it carefully, Toyokawa Shoko is truly the embodiment of every man's ideal. She comes from a wealthy family, is the next heir, and her personality can be described as sunny and beautiful most of the time. She is both a Yamato Nadeshiko (ideal Japanese woman) and a young girl.

The heart of this kind of rich girl is hard to be moved by ordinary men—after her downfall, she builds even stronger walls around herself, but once she sets her mind on someone, it's for life, and she won't turn back even if she crashes into a brick wall.

So what am I thinking?

Kiyono coughed lightly: "Sorry to bother you."

Toyokawa Shoko blinked, keeping a slight half-step ahead, and led him into the house, where slippers were already prepared.

Kiyono changed into slippers and curiously looked around at her surroundings.

"Um, sorry... the space in my house is a bit small."

Toyokawa Shoko noticed his movements, her face stiffened, and she could no longer maintain her elegant posture. She twisted her body slightly and said shyly.

"It's a bit small compared to underpasses and parks, but the environment is much better." Kiyono nodded seriously.

After experiencing homelessness and living in internet cafes, he didn't care about any of that.

"So Kiyono-kun used to live in a place like this?"

Toyokawa Shoko couldn't help but ask. Even though she had just experienced the hardships of life, she couldn't imagine how she could live in that kind of environment. However, her words made her feel secretly relieved.

"There's even more you don't know, like there's often a treasure hidden in the trash cans near convenience stores."

Upon hearing this, the girl wisely avoided the topic:

"Kiyono-kun, have you bought the sukiyaki base? Let's cook lunch."

She recently bought an induction cooker with a heavy heart. Although it can't cook very complicated meals, it can still cook noodles and vegetables for everyday meals.

Kiyono hummed in agreement and placed the plastic bag on the table. Inside were the base ingredients he had requested, along with some ingredients he had bought himself.

"Honestly, I was the one who was supposed to treat Kiyono-kun to dinner..."

Toyokawa Shoko opened the bag and frowned. In the past, she would have felt angry because her pride was hurt, but now she just sighed almost coquettishly. She had slowly gotten used to sharing food with Kiyono like this.

"I'll go wash the vegetables first. Could you please boil the water in the pot first, Kiyono-kun?"

The girl tilted her head, and after receiving Kiyono's confirmation, she took out the pot base and meatballs, turned around, picked up the bag, and went to the kitchen.

He skillfully turned on the stove, boiled water, and added the sauce to the pot. However, when he opened the package, some sauce accidentally got on his fingers. He wiped it off with a tissue, then stood up to wash his hands.

But at that moment, Kiyono paused almost imperceptibly.

His gaze inadvertently fell on the refrigerator in the corner.

There was nothing particularly noteworthy about this, but...

He saw the green light on the refrigerator.

That's an indicator light that means it's running.

He suspected he was seeing things, so he subconsciously took a step closer, making the green dot on the refrigerator even clearer.

Kiyono's expression was strange.

A bold idea came to mind.

Could it be that……

Was Xiangzi's refrigerator actually not broken?

027. Xiangzi Who Couldn't Refuse [Two-in-One]

The small electric cooker was bubbling away on the low table, steam rising continuously. The two people sat around the low table, beads of sweat appearing on their foreheads.

"Sorry, Kiyono-kun, I forgot to turn on the air conditioner..."

Seeing Kiyono's clothes slightly soaked with sweat across from her, Toyokawa Shoko realized something and quickly stood up, picked up the remote control, and turned on the crystallization of human civilization—the air conditioner, though small, still created a comfortable and pleasant space.

It seems that Teacher Xiangzi doesn't usually turn on the air conditioner... Qingye noticed this detail but didn't say anything. What he should do now is to help the girl escape this kind of life.

While pondering, Qingye used his chopsticks to pick up a piece of meat roll, his knee under the table almost touching Xiangzi's reddened knee.

"Da Xiang, is today's job okay?"