Last night, she secretly checked online. A new illustrator only makes around 20,000 yen, but even if Tsuna didn't pay her, she was still very willing to help him draw.
However, not paying comes with a small condition: he just has to marry her in the future...
"Too little?"
"Slap..." Shouko didn't hesitate to lightly slap him. "It's too much, okay!"
"Go, go, go, go upstairs and do your homework. You're interrupting my drama-watching."
Shizuka, who was watching a drama, impatiently waved her hand at the 'flirting' pair.
Seeing this, Tsuna and Shouko could only obediently go upstairs. Shizuka had spoken, so they didn't dare to resist.
"Shouko, you do your homework first. I'll draw those black-and-white illustrations."
"Okay." As soon as they came up, Tsuna thought for a moment and assigned the work. Shouko nodded in agreement without hesitation.
Compared to elementary school homework, the amount for Japanese junior high wasn't much more. She finished all the homework the teacher assigned in class today in about thirty minutes.
This included someone else's as well.
"Shouko, you can design the poses based on these few pictures of the main characters when they were young. Just ask me later when it's time to color them."
Tsuna uploaded the first version of the drawing on his tablet to the computer, letting Shouko next to him observe it first, while he continued to refine it based on the characters' appearances from memory.
"Okay."
For the rest of the time, the only sounds in the room were Shouko's occasional questions and Tsuna's answers.
Most of them were questions about the colors of the male and female leads' clothes, hair colors, and other appearance details.
"Tsuna, I'm heading back now. Good night."
Shouko glanced at the time, '22:56', stood up from her chair, and didn't forget to pack up her tablet, wanting to take it back and keep working hard.
Tsuna seemed to see through her thoughts and advised, "Go back and go to bed early. Don't stay up late drawing anymore. Be careful, if you keep staying up, you'll turn into a haggard old woman prematurely!"
"Besides, there's no rush. If necessary, we can push back the printing time."
"Got it." Shouko opened the wooden door, stuck her tongue out at him as she looked back, and quickly went downstairs, not forgetting to close the door for him.
It wasn't until Shouko's voice saying goodbye to Shizuka downstairs reached him that he came back to his senses and continued optimizing the illustrations.
Memories of the past felt blurry.
They say people see a life review before they die. If you're rescued while seeing your life review, would you remember it again?
However, this thought only stayed in his mind for a second before he dismissed it. It was just a random thought; he wouldn't dare to try it.
Time unknowingly arrived at past midnight, around 12 AM. He rubbed his slightly sore eyes, saved the illustrations, uploaded them for computer backup, and then shut down the computer to prepare for sleep.
"I wonder if Shouko is asleep..." As soon as he burrowed into the covers, this question unconsciously appeared in his mind.
If she was asleep, calling her via video call at this time would definitely wake her up. That method wouldn't work.
After thinking it over, he gradually came up with a bold idea: just close his eyes and sleep. He should have more trust in Shouko, okay?
How could he be so suspicious?
The sky gradually turned a cool, fish-belly white. The night fog on the ginkgo avenue was crushed by the first tram and curled into the iron grates of the drainage ditch.
The shadows of uniformed boys on bicycles swept past the convenience store. The metal school badges on the side pockets of their backpacks collided with the cold light of the vending machine, creating a series of clear sounds.
Office workers in beige trench coats hurried along, clutching hot coffee. The rhythm of their leather shoe heels tapping on the pavement briefly overlapped with the sound of the distant elementary school's morning assembly broadcast at the intersection.
"Honestly, what time did you go to bed last night?! How are your dark circles even worse than yesterday?"
Just out of the bathroom, Tsuna's gaze immediately fell on Shouko's already-formed dark circles, feeling a bit speechless.
He had even thought about giving Shouko a little more trust last night, only to be severely slapped in the face the next day...
"It... it wasn't that late either." Shouko was a bit uncomfortable under his gaze, feeling guilty. "I went to bed around eleven..."
"Hmm?"
"Past twelve..."
"Sigh..."
"Alright, I'll tell you the truth, Tsuna, don't be angry." At this point, Shouko didn't even have the courage to meet his gaze and forcibly shifted her eyes away:
"Three... past three..."
"You slept past three and still had to get up at 6:30 to prepare the bento?" Tsuna rubbed her head hard, feeling a bit angry and a bit helpless.
"I... I just saw that you gave me so much pay, so I wanted to help you finish the task earlier...?"
Shouko didn't resist but blinked her eyes with dark circles at him.
Well, he felt even more helpless...
Tsuna pinched her soft cheek. "Go back to sleep for a bit. We'll quicken our pace later, and you can still sleep for thirty minutes first."
Now, Shouko only didn't resist when she had done something wrong, obediently letting him rub her.
"I'll help you blow-dry your hair first. You can sleep once it's done."
"No need, I can do it."
"No, I'll help you blow-dry it." Shouko puffed out her cheeks.
"You blow-dry, you blow-dry."
In the end, Tsuna could only let her blow-dry it. The sooner it was done, the sooner she could catch up on sleep. If they argued further, there would only be less time.
After finishing blow-drying his hair, Shouko still wanted to take a sniff, but as soon as she made a move, Tsuna sent her upstairs to catch up on sleep.
When she got upstairs, she could only hug someone's pillow to vent. In the next two or three minutes, on the bed filled with Tsuna's scent, sleepiness overcame her, and she closed her eyes.
Tsuna on the first floor went to the dining room and slowly ate breakfast under Shizuka's questioning gaze. It wasn't until the alarm he set on his watch went off that he went upstairs to wake Shouko.
"I'm leaving."
"I'm leaving~~"
"Are you sure Shouko is okay? Do you want to take a day off?" Shizuka came out of the dining room and naturally noticed Shouko's dark circles.
"I'm fine, Godmother. I'm going to school." Shouko waved back at her and then took Tsuna's hand.
Tsuna looked at the white doves flying across the sky and the sleepy girl beside him, letting out a helpless sigh.
——————————
He withdrew his gaze from the flock of white doves flying by and met the curious eyes of the girl beside him, hearing her repeat what he hadn't heard clearly just now:
"Tsuna, will we be able to send the illustrations to Jun today?"
"Yeah, we'll send them to her after school this afternoon." He nodded, shifting his gaze to the traffic light on the opposite sidewalk.
A smile appeared on Shouko's lips at some point. "I hope they get approved so we can happily attend the graduation ceremony tomorrow."
"Don't worry, Jun said that as long as there are no issues with the scale being too large or being too ugly, they will definitely be approved. And for us, neither of those issues exist."
Watching the traffic light opposite turn from red to green, Tsuna held the hand of the girl beside him and took the first step.
With his own Old Man behind him, he felt that even if those two issues existed, they would just be minor matters...