"Dong... dong... dong...!"
As the class bell rang, Ajitani confirmed that Shouko was alright before getting up and returning to her seat in the front row.
But until school ended, the students' gossip about this matter didn't die down.
Some male students who had originally given up on pursuing Shouko even felt they had a chance again.
The two protagonists of the story chose to ignore their quiet discussions, and they still bickered and played on the way home.
No matter how big the gossip was, it couldn't compare to tomorrow's sports day. Everyone was still looking forward to the full-day sports festival.
The important thing was that tomorrow was Friday, which indirectly meant they could play wildly for a day, followed by two days of rest.
The night wind, past ten o'clock, swept up withered yellow ginkgo fragments, and the electronic sound of the convenience store's automatic door opening and closing was particularly clear on the empty street.
The swaying shadows of drunkards flickered in the warm yellow glow of the izakaya, and the giant advertising screen at the distant subway station entrance was chillingly blue in the night.
Damp mist, carrying the aroma of oden kombu, drifted past the alley entrance, and the fluorescent lights of the 24-hour drugstore cast diamond-shaped shadows on the concrete road.
Under Tsuna's supervision, Shouko helped him finish the homework assigned by the school teachers, checked the time, and then quickly went home.
"Shouko, there's freshly heated milk on the dining table, remember to drink it before you sleep."
Yaeko, who was still working in the living room, heard the sound of the outer door opening and closing and reminded her.
"Okay, okay." Shouko quickly passed through the living room without stopping. "Mom, you should also rest early. Good night."
"Good night..." Yaeko softly murmured and continued to focus her energy on her work.
In the dining room, Shouko picked up the warm milk on the table, took a small sip to check the temperature, and then drank it all in one gulp.
After washing the empty cup in her hand, she returned to her bedroom with a feeling of anticipation.
As soon as Shouko entered her bedroom, her eyes immediately locked onto the phone on the bedside table, and she silently closed the door.
Ever since that girl came to ask Tsuna for his contact information this morning, the first thing she did upon returning home was check if anyone had added her on LINE.
But she was disappointed; no one had added her by the time she finished dinner. She suppressed that inexplicable restlessness in her heart, left her phone at home, and went to do homework with Tsuna.
She walked to the bed, put her two hearing aids back in their dedicated storage case, picked up the white smartphone from the bedside table, kicked off her little white rabbit cotton slippers, and did a perfect roll into the covers.
Then, she skillfully opened the app on her phone called 'LINE.'
With the popularity of smartphones, her and Tsuna's flip phones had also been retired a week before the start of this semester and replaced with matching smart touchscreen phones.
The mobile email and traditional text messages she used to communicate with Tsuna and Takagi-chan on their phones were also replaced by the 'LINE' app launched in June this year.
Its free text, voice call, and sticker features, combined with the popularity of smartphones, quickly made LINE a mainstream communication tool.
As expected, when she clicked on the contacts section, she saw messages requesting to add friends, but something was a little off...
It wasn't just one request to add 'him'; she counted a total of five strangers who added her.
The notes below four of the requests stated they were classmates, along with their names and words of encouragement for tomorrow's sports day sprints.
The key point is that these four were all female classmates!
And the last one was the friend request message from the girl from this morning, with a note.
"How is Tsuna so popular?" Shouko kicked the blanket in dissatisfaction.
Shouko suppressed the feeling of dissatisfaction towards a certain person in her heart and didn't immediately choose to accept the request. Instead, she clicked on the other person's profile picture, wanting to check their background first.
Same age? The profile picture was a cute anime white-haired loli. Apart from these two things, Shouko couldn't see anything about their background...
She no longer hesitated and accepted the other person's friend request. Out of politeness, she also accepted the other four friend requests.
After all, they were all classmates and had said some words of encouragement.
Of course, they added her, not Tsuna...
"Miyamura, hello! (shy.jpg)"
Within five minutes of accepting the friend request, the other party made the first move, making Shouko a little flustered.
Shouko looked at the cute emoji at the end of the other person's message and grumbled somewhat unhappily:
"How long has it been since I accepted? Can't a girl be a bit more reserved? It's almost eleven, and she's not sleeping. Is she specifically waiting for the request to be accepted?"
After taking a few deep breaths and suppressing the dissatisfaction in her heart, Shouko tried her best to imitate the personality of Tsuna in her memory and typed out the first sentence on the phone keyboard.
"Hello, is there something you need?"
As soon as this message was sent, 'Read' appeared next to the dialogue box.
But she waited for a long time without receiving a reply. Shouko waited for another four or five minutes, and just as sleepiness was about to overtake her, she heard a 'ding-dong' sound from her phone.
"I just simply wanted to cheer for Miyamura at tomorrow's sports day (shy.jpg)"
Shouko looked at this message, couldn't help but roll her eyes, and quietly imitated the sentence in a sarcastic tone: "I just simply wanted to cheer for Miyamura..."
"Asking Tsuna for his contact information in front of so many people, do you think I'm stupid...?"
"Thank you, I will do my best tomorrow."
"Classmate, it's late. Is there anything else? If not, get some rest early."
Shouko sent two messages in quick succession, and both showed 'Read' at the same time. But after waiting a few more minutes without receiving a reply, she chose to ignore it.
Thinking that the other person must have retreated after facing difficulty, she turned off the phone screen, placed it next to her pillow, and prepared to sleep.
Unfortunately, just as she closed her eyes, the phone screen lit up and vibrated. She reluctantly picked up the phone to check.
"I..."
"Miyamura, I like you, please go out with me!"
"(shy rabbit animated image.jpg)"
Shouko instantly lost all sleepiness and wanted to throw the phone away, but she held back...
She took a few deep breaths and, based on what Tsuna had explained to her this morning, typed out a question:
"But we've only met a few times, how did you fall for me?"
She completely didn't understand why a girl would just talk to someone a few times, or even not talk at all, and then directly fall for them.
The key point was that she had confessed before her!
She couldn't imagine how serious the consequences would be if Tsuna had given his contact information to the other person today and they had confessed to Tsuna without her knowing!
Shouko, angered, raised her small pink fist and punched the wall, then drew it back in pain.
While rubbing her small hand, she silently made up her mind that she would bring her phone to the sports day tomorrow and secretly peek at Tsuna's 'LINE' when he was participating in his events...
"Because I think Miyamura is very handsome..."
"And I often hear the teachers mention your name, and I can see that you are a very gentle guy."
"Gentle? Tsuna?" Shouko recalled Tsuna in her memory. Bits and pieces of their time together quickly flashed through her mind, and she couldn't help but nod:
"Indeed, but Tsuna is mine, so you shouldn't think about it!"
"Gentle? We've only met a few times, how did you determine that I'm gentle?"
Shouko was still very curious about the answer to this question.
After all, at school, Tsuna could be said to be with her at all times, with almost no opportunity to show his gentle side to others.
"Hmm... I learned about Miyamura from others before."
"I also learned about Nishimiya, who often appears by your side and has a hearing impairment, so I know you are a very gentle guy."
This sentence vaguely touched Shouko's sore spot. Even though she could communicate normally now, her hearing impairment had always been a hurdle she couldn't overcome in her heart.
Tsuna's words of comfort to her in the past flashed through her mind unconsciously. She still firmly believed that her ears could be cured.
Shouko shook her head, shaking off those bad emotions, typed out a paragraph on the screen, and, suppressing her shyness, tapped the send button.
"However, the thing is, I have a girlfriend, the Nishimiya you mentioned."
As expected, this message was sent and immediately showed 'Read,' but there was a long wait for a reply from the other side.
"Miyamura, I understand."
"You don't have a girlfriend, and Nishimiya is just being used as a cover, right?"
Afterward, the other party sent several messages in succession, each listing details to prove that the two were not in a relationship.
Later, Shouko couldn't defend herself anymore and could only admit that the two were still childhood friends.
"I will definitely let Miyamura see my shining points!"
"(fist pump cheering rabbit.jpg)"
"..." Shouko didn't know how to reply to the other person for a moment and could only send a random, not-so-cute emoji to appease them.
But the other person seemed to have endless topics, slowly shifting from the topic of confession to the topic of tomorrow's sports day, and then to the topic of studies.
As the conversation gradually opened up, no matter how she tried to be perfunctory, the other person could find a topic and force the conversation to continue.
What was even more terrifying was that the other person often attached cute emojis at the end of their messages, and when they got excited, they would even send a sweet voice message.
This gave Shouko the illusion that she wanted to reveal her identity to the other person and that she couldn't compete with them.
Changing her mind, she thought about it carefully and felt a chill. If the other person had really added Tsuna's contact information, Tsuna probably wouldn't last long before falling for her!!
Tsuna: "You're overthinking it. We don't even know if she can get through to me as a friend, and for this kind of thing, you can just turn on do not disturb. Why bother replying to her message by message?"
["It's a bit late, I'm going to sleep first."]
["Miyamura, good luck at the sports day today! Good night!"]
"(good night.jpg)"
["Okay, good night."]
Shouko glanced at the time and realized it was already past one in the morning. Her heart became even more convinced of how terrifying and high-level the other person was.
Tsuna must not come into contact with this kind of girl, otherwise, the other person will steal her Tsuna!
Afterward, Shouko quickly reviewed the two or three hours of chat history between them, and then pulled up her chat history with Tsuna to compare.
The latest chat history was still from last night, with just a few short messages:
["Where are you?"]
["Second floor."]
["I'll come find you."]
["Okay."]
["Come help me with my homework"]
["Okay."]
Shouko frowned. This comparison couldn't compete at all!!!
However, because it was indeed too late and she had to wake up early tomorrow, the sleepiness that had disappeared resurfaced. She put her phone on the bedside table and closed her eyes.
---
The morning mist began to slowly creep up the convenience store glass, the horizon showing indigo cracks, and the blue light of the vending machine became thin.
The smell of hangover soy sauce overflowed from under the warm curtain of the 24-hour izakaya, twisting into spirals with the steam from the freshly baked meat buns from 7-Eleven at the street corner.
"Did you go steal chickens like a thief last night?" Tsuna, who had just come out of the bathroom, looked at the faint dark circles under Shouko's eyes in confusion.
"It's all your fault."
Hearing this, Shouko thought of what happened last night, lightly slapped him in dissatisfaction, then, under his confused gaze, took the towel from his hand and began to dry his hair for him.
"You didn't have to wake up early to prepare a bento today, and you went back to sleep around 10:30 last night, so why do you have dark circles?"
Tsuna was still very confused. Even though Shouko said it was his fault, he still couldn't remember why it was his fault.
"Do you remember Sakuragi Mari?"
As soon as she finished speaking, Shouko changed her mind, realizing that Tsuna likely wouldn't remember if she just said the person's name directly, and rephrased:
"Do you remember that girl who came to the classroom yesterday morning to add your contact information?"
Tsuna, who was originally thinking about the name, instantly remembered when she said this, and roughly guessed the origin of Shouko's dark circles, asking tentatively:
"Your dark circles aren't because you talked to her until the middle of the night, are they?"
Shouko hesitated for a moment, then slowly nodded. "Yes, she confessed to me as soon as she started talking, so I gave her a good lecture,"
"making her clearly realize her mistake. As a student, she should focus on studying!"
Tsuna 'almost' believed what she said. After more than ten years of being together, Shouko could indirectly be said to have been raised by him. It would be great if she had this ability.
However, he didn't choose to expose her and instead clapped:
"Shouko Teacher is amazing. Not only did she persuade a student who had gone astray to return to the right path, but she also helped me reject a confession."
Shouko instantly heard the perfunctoriness in his words, threw the towel in her hand at him, and turned around to get the hairdryer to help him dry his hair.
"It's sports day today, you don't have to go to school so early. Shizuka will drive us later. Do you want to take a nap in my room for a bit?"
Only after she had finished drying his hair and the hairdryer noise stopped, did Tsuna speak up to persuade her.
"Hmm..." Shouko hesitated a little.
Tsuna glanced at the clock on the living room wall. "You can probably still get about thirty minutes of extra sleep."
"Alright then, Tsuna, remember to come wake me up later."
As soon as she finished speaking, Shouko handed him the hairdryer, turned around, and left the living room, said something to the two people in the dining room, and went upstairs to the second floor.
"Click..."
Shouko turned the doorknob and pushed the door open, taking a quick look at Tsuna's room. It was very simple: a bed, a wardrobe, a bedside table, a desk, and two chairs, and that was pretty much it.
She closed the door, quickly walked to the bed, lifted the covers, picked up the black cat plush toy next to the pillow, took a deep sniff of Tsuna's lingering scent on it, and burrowed into the covers.
Holding the plush toy, she soon drifted into a sweet dream.