Shizuka was sitting on the sofa in the living room, digesting her food, when she heard the sound of the door opening outside. Before she could guess whether it was Yaeko or Shouko, a voice stopped her thoughts:
"Excuse me!"
When the owner of the voice walked to the entrance of the living room, Shizuka waved to her and chuckled:
"Shouko, let's go to the fireworks festival on Saturday. Auntie will take you to buy a yukata, okay?"
Shouko walked over and sat next to her, asking puzzledly, "Why don't you just rent one, Auntie?"
Shizuka shook her head and rejected the idea. "If you rent it, many people may have worn it. Who knows what kind of skin diseases they might have had?"
Seeing that she wanted to say something more, Shizuka made the final decision. "That's that. Yaeko and I will buy one for you when we go shopping."
After saying this, she added, "It seems Tsuna is doing homework on the second floor. You can go and play with him." Before Shouko left, she rubbed her cheek affectionately.
"Tsuna, what are you doing?" Shouko went upstairs and called out to someone inside before the door was fully opened.
"You came just in time. Help me with my homework. I'll help you review the topics that Takeuchi taught today." Tsunayoshi looked up and, seeing it was Shouko, put down the pen in his hand and waved to her with a warm smile.
"You should call him Mr. Takeuchi, Tsuna." Shouko closed the door, walked to the white chair next to him, and sat down. She picked up the pen he had just placed in the notebook and could still feel its lingering warmth.
She was used to Tsuna asking her for homework help.
Tsuna made room for her and said casually, "Yes, yes, Mr. Takeuchi."
Ever since the first grade of elementary school, when Teacher Minagawa had started assigning homework, he had already been asking Shouko to help him with it. As for whether he felt guilty about this…
In Japan, the homework was different from what he had before. It could be completed in ten minutes—or even faster.
If he had asked someone to do his homework in his previous life, he definitely would have felt guilty. He remembered sixth-grade homework taking about 20 to 30 minutes, and even longer in junior high and high school.
"Tsuna, will you wear a yukata to the fireworks festival on Saturday?"
After about five minutes, after finishing the last question, Shouko put down her pen and curiously asked.
Tsuna shook his head. "No, I'll wear casual clothes. I'm not used to wearing a yukata."
After the two chatted about the fireworks festival for a while, Tsuna interrupted the conversation and started reviewing some of the topics Takeuchi had taught that day with Shouko.
---
Dong... Dong... Dong...!
"Take a break at noon." As the bell rang, Takeuchi immediately closed the textbook, gave a brief instruction, and quickly left the classroom. He didn't want to stay a minute longer.
The four of them found a brown bench downstairs. As soon as Miu sat down, she couldn't wait to share the big thing she had discovered the day before:
"Shouko, Shouko! I found a way to make money while I was out buying soy sauce for my mom yesterday!"
Tsuna and Chika didn't even bother to respond and silently ate their lunch boxes.
If she had really found a way to make money, then even sows could drive tractors.
"What method?" Shouko paused from opening her lunch box, still genuinely curious.
"Hehe!" Miu giggled a few times, enjoying Shouko's curious reaction.
Finally, she pretended to be mysterious and slowly revealed, "It's a secret! I'll take you to see it after school."
"Is it far?" Tsuna leaned back on the bench and swallowed the rice in his mouth, wondering.
"Not far, not far—just at the intersection where we part ways," Miu waved her hand casually.
"Okay."
Tsuna thought it was fine to go take a look since he had nothing else to do, but he didn't believe a word about the so-called way to make money.
---
When the last bell of the day rang, the two immediately packed up and went to Class A to find the other two.
"We're almost there!" At the intersection, Miu excitedly pointed toward the road on the left. The others didn't respond and followed her silently.
"That's it! That's it!"
Tsuna, walking behind her, gave her a speechless glance, while the other three were still curiously looking at the small stickers and advertisements on the telephone pole she was pointing at.
Before Tsuna could say that it was a scam, he heard Shouko beside him reading aloud:
"A large sum of money to have a child! I am a 26-year-old female. Because my rich husband is not very capable and I am infertile, I am now offering a large sum of money to find a healthy man to help fulfill my dream of becoming a mother... I'll be waiting for you in Myanmar, and round-trip airfare is all included!" (Note: Hahahahahah)
There was a contact number at the bottom, but Shouko didn't read it out. Instead, she turned to Tsuna curiously and asked,
"Tsunayoshi, what do 'not very capable' and 'infertile' mean?"
Chika, who had never believed any of this from the start, also asked curiously,
"And what is Myanmar? You're the smartest one here. You must know."
"This is—"
Before he could finish, they heard Yuzuru's childish voice reading another sticker:
"50 years of Cervical spondylitis and rheumatoid arthritis! With my medicine, you'll be completely cured overnight, and it will never come back. If it doesn't work, I'll pay you ten times the price. You can even come confront me personally. Contact: 1—"
There was also a picture of an old man holding a small medicine bottle on the sticker.
"It's a scam. It's not that miraculous," Tsuna interrupted before Yuzuru could finish reading the number.
Miu ignored him, pointed at the first advertisement again, and said happily:
"Look! As long as we call her and recognize her as our mother, her dream of becoming a mother will come true!"
Before anyone could refute her, she put her hands on her hips and laughed narcissistically:
"Hahaha! This beautiful girl is a genius! An absolute genius! Hahaha..."
"That's enough." Tsuna smacked Miu lightly on the head and said, deadpan, "These are all scams, okay?"
"Tsuna, I know they're scams, but what does 'not very capable' and 'infertile' mean?"
Seeing Miu laugh like that, Shouko covered her mouth and giggled before asking again.
"...…"
"I don't know what it means either. I guess you'll understand when you grow up."
Tsuna looked at her curious expression, thought for a moment, and gave a tactful answer.
Shouko could only nod and accept it. After all, if Tsuna didn't know, the question must have been very profound.
"What kind of place is Myanmar?" Chika added.
"A place where people get their kidneys stolen."
This time, Tsuna answered almost instantly.
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