"...Mmm!!"
After Hayato led the way for a while, he heard a ↑ sound coming from behind him.
It sounded somewhat unconvinced.
He turned his head.
Wow, he saw Sawamura Airiri's cheeks puffed up like an inflated balloon, and a red one at that.
She seemed to be annoyed about something.
"...What's wrong?" Hayato asked.
"Am I, am I really unfashionable?!" Miyajima Tsubaki retorted, she could tolerate everything else, but not this one.
God knows how much effort she had put into meticulously selecting this set of clothes that "suited young people's tastes" in an extremely limited amount of time. Shouldn't it be soft and cute?
She clenched her small fists and questioned Hayato with a gaze that was almost a glare.
Hayato once again scrutinized Miyajima Tsubaki's outfit.
How to put it, when it came to dressing, she had the looks; when it came to fashion, she had the figure, that truly was...
"Oh, speaking of which," Hayato said, "Do you know that drama that's recently airing? 'The Full-Time Wife Escapist'—"
"I know, I know." Miyajima Tsubaki nodded repeatedly. She really liked this kind of morning drama, and her "profession" also meant she had time to watch such dramas.
"Although others say the male lead is quite ugly, I still like him quite a bit," Hayato said.
"Me too, but I think the female lead's aunt also—" Miyajima Tsubaki seemed to have had a switch flipped, and began to chatter endlessly about the drama's plot. After all, among the people she interacted with, she rarely had the chance to share such daily trivialities.
But the next moment, Miyajima Tsubaki reacted.
"Are you, are you changing the subject?" she asked, squinting.
"Eh heh~ ~ ★" Hayato tilted his head and stuck out his tongue.
"Darn it." Miyajima Tsubaki clenched her fists, wishing she could just punch Hayato's arm.
But in the end, she stopped.
Her quality needs to be lowered. Hayato thought, if it were Akane and Ayaka, they would definitely go for it in this situation. Hayato would want to press him to the ground and *bleep* (though he'd counter-kill in the end), only Senior Miyajima... uh, if it were Senior, she probably wouldn't even make the "fist-clenching" motion.
"Hmph." Miyajima Tsubaki wrinkled her nose.
After making this "cute" gesture, she immediately reined herself in and began to reflect... Would it be inappropriate, too rude? And at her age, making such an expression was perhaps a bit childish... But she was pretending to be a high school student right now.
Miyajima Tsubaki seemed to be convincing herself, then secretly nodded. No, no, what she was showing now was not her "true self," but "acting."
She was truly startled by her own excellent acting...
Miyajima Tsubaki touched her pink jacket, wondering if there was something wrong with her aesthetic sense. Did young people nowadays no longer fall for this? She even tugged at her collar, wondering if there was a deviation in her body management, making her a bit too fat and causing the outfit to not fit very well?
Although they were her own clothes, they were indeed products from ten or twenty years ago. After giving birth to Miyajima Sakura, both her chest and backside had indeed experienced a second growth spurt...
"Who was that person just now?" Miyajima Tsubaki asked. From the confrontational tension between the two, it seemed her relationship with him had nothing to do with "romance."
This made Miyajima Tsubaki feel somewhat relieved, and her guilt greatly decreased.
"A junior," Hayato replied concisely.
"...You two don't get along?" Miyajima Tsubaki asked, "But from her words...?"
That girl just now was provoking herself, right? And she even treated herself as someone like the boy's "girlfriend."
"Mm." Hayato said. He knew the doubts in Sawamura Airiri's heart, and after thinking for a moment, he said concisely, "She confessed to me, and I rejected her."
"To you—"
Although Miyajima Tsubaki prided herself on being an "experienced person," she actually didn't have much dating experience, even only one time. The act of "confession" was quite sacred to her, and even hearing others talk about it made her blush a little. "Why did you refuse?" Miyajima Tsubaki asked.
Hayato looked down at Miyajima Tsubaki.
"Hm?" Miyajima Tsubaki was a little strange, "Can't you say?"
He could say it.
...But, it was just strange.
He had long felt that Sawamura Airiri was strange, with an indescribable sense of incongruity about her. For example, now, when she asked such a question, he had the illusion of facing an aunt eagerly listening to gossip at a wet market.
"Don't like her."
"What don't you like? I think that girl is quite cute, and she seems to suit you," Miyajima Tsubaki said.
Here it comes, here it comes, that kind of aunt who says, "Young man, you need to understand that relationships are built by two people getting along and cultivating them. Don't be picky. I think you and that girl are a good match"!
Pressuring him to marry! Definitely pressuring him to marry!
Hayato was a little impatient and casually said, "She's younger than me. I don't like those younger than me."
"You like older ones?"
"The older the better." Wasn't that just pulling things out of thin air? Hayato thought to himself, but if he thought about it carefully, too old wouldn't work either. Fifty or sixty was out, seventy or eighty was even more out, but if it reached seven or eight hundred, it seemed it could be considered again. Men, they're really strange.
"The older..." Miyajima Tsubaki said halfway.
"Puff puff," strange sounds.
Hayato looked back and found Miyajima Tsubaki's face was flushed as if she had a fever.
"What's wrong?"
"...That, is it okay if they're a bit older?" Miyajima Tsubaki asked cautiously.
Hayato didn't know why she asked this, but he still tried to answer:
"It's fine..."
"How old can the oldest be?"
Miyajima Tsubaki thought to herself, this was just casual chat when there was nothing else to talk about... And then she quickly calculated in her mind, she was nineteen years older than the woman, so she was... older than this child...
Then she quickly shook her head, as if to drive away the improper thoughts she shouldn't have.
What was she thinking? Beast! He was still just a child!
"Why do you ask that?" Hayato counter-questioned.
"No, not for anything! Just asking casually!" Miyajima Tsubaki replied stiffly, then as if to cut off her distracting thoughts, she said quite forcefully, "If you don't want to say, you don't have to!"
Hayato looked at her strangely: "What grade are you in this year?"
Could she be his senior?
"First year!" Miyajima Tsubaki said, she absolutely couldn't let herself be labeled as "older"!
That's right.
Hayato smiled. He was in his second year this year, Miyajima Sakura was in her third year, and Sawamura Airiri called Miyajima Tsubaki "Senior," which meant her grade wouldn't be higher than his.
But this kind of...
Hayato looked at the papaya again. A first-year of this caliber was truly rare. He had originally thought Sanada Menako was already invincible; whose subordinate was this?
Although it was just a simple question and answer, Miyajima Tsubaki seemed to have done something extremely immoral, gasping for several breaths, her back still a little sweaty.
"So, you should actually call me senior?" Hayato pointed at his nose: "I'm in my second year."
Miyajima Tsubaki looked up at Hayato.
After a long pause, her eyes were vacant, and her lips trembled:
"Se-Se-Se..."
Calling a boy twenty years her junior "Senior"? What kind of embarrassing game was this?
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