"Ajitani-chan, why did they call you out just now?"
When she returned to her seat, Shouko, unable to contain her curiosity, asked in a low voice.
Ajitani first looked around, and seeing that the two weren't paying attention to them, she told Shouko everything in detail.
The advisor by the podium noticed the two whispering below out of the corner of her eye but chose to ignore them, continuing to busy herself with her work.
In the north-facing classroom, the scent of turpentine intertwined with the shadows of plaster statues, and the still-wet acrylic paintings shimmered with a mother-of-pearl luster in the twilight.
After understanding the full story, Shouko gave Ajitani a thumbs-up, very satisfied with the outcome.
After a few simple words, the two continued to busy themselves with their respective tasks.
Shouko continued to revise the unfinished illustration, while Ajitani stared blankly at the dozens of circles on her drawing board.
She began to 'slightly' regret her decision to join the Art Club... During the circle stage, she couldn't understand how Shouko-chan and Miyamura had endured it...
Time passed in Ajitani's wild thoughts, and by the time she fully came to her senses, she had already waved goodbye to Shouko.
"Get in."
Shouko heard him but made no move, her gaze fixed on the backpack on his back.
"Tsuna, I don't understand."
"What?" He had a vague guess as to what Shouko was going to ask.
"I can understand you carrying your backpack to school in the morning, but why are you still carrying your backpack when you come to pick me up in the afternoon!?"
'Are you doing this on purpose?' She didn't voice this question.
Instead, she glared at him with a 'fierce' look, wanting him to confess honestly.
"I didn't go home after school this afternoon; I went to Futaba Publishing to handle some things." Fearing she wouldn't believe him, he even pulled out his phone from his school uniform pocket and handed it to her.
Seeing this, Shouko couldn't say much and could only obediently sit in the back seat, wrapping one arm around him and using the other hand to scroll through his chat history with Fūno Jun.
As the car slowly started, the hand she had wrapped around his waist couldn't help but tighten its grip.
His chat history with Fūno Jun was only a few brief messages, just as he said; Fūno Jun had suddenly asked him to go to Futaba Publishing.
Shouko then clicked on contacts and quickly exited 'LINE' after a brief glance.
Besides friends she used to be close with who had added him, there really was no one else, and the girls were only those few, but they were all people she knew.
The only one she didn't know, they hadn't chatted in a long time, so there was nothing to suspect.
"Shouko-chan, I heard Yuki say that boys' phone browsers always hide 'little secrets.' Have you looked at Miyamura's?"
Just as she was about to turn off the screen and hand the phone back to him, the words Ajitani-chan had said to her this morning involuntarily flashed through her mind.
As if possessed, she clicked on his browser.
Just as she was curious if Tsuna had any little secrets hidden from her, the next second, a page requiring a 'password' popped up, making her frown.
She became even more convinced of Ajitani's words.
She glanced at the pedestrians and vehicles receding in her peripheral vision, calmed herself, and slowly entered Tsuna's birthday. Unfortunately, 'password error' popped up.
Then she tried her birthday, Miyamura Auntie's, Uncle Miyamura's, Yuzuru's, Hachiko's, and even her Grandma's birthday.
All displayed 'password error,' and just as she stubbornly entered her Grandma's birthday, that page instantly displayed a locked message, indicating to try again in one minute.
"..."
"Shouko, we're here."
"Ah... oh... oh!"
Shouko got out of the car distractedly; she had tried about twenty times on the way, entering everything she could think of.
The result was as expected: all failed...
But the clever Shouko didn't alert him; she just silently handed him the phone and the helmet she was wearing.
She felt that if she told him now, the little secret in that browser would definitely be destroyed by Tsuna.
At the same time, Shouko was a little impressed by her own cleverness, that she could even think of this.
Suppressing the corners of her mouth that wanted to turn up because she was about to discover Tsuna's little secret, she said 'see you tonight' and turned to leave.
"..."
Tsuna looked at her low-spirited retreating figure, momentarily wondering if he had gone too far.
After much thought, he decided not to stuff his backpack so full tomorrow...
Shouko wanted to give up, but he stopped her, and she got sulky. He couldn't stop her, not at all!
---
In early April, the cherry blossoms in Tokyo had not yet fully fallen, with sporadic pink and white still clinging to the branches. By the end of April, new green leaves had densely covered the tree canopy, and wearing even a light jacket when going out during the day started to feel too warm.
"Teacher Miyamura, the bookstores collaborating with Futaba Publishing will fully stock 'We Still Don't Know the Name of the Flower We Saw That Day' the day after tomorrow."
"This also includes book launch day promotions and small-scale bookstore publicity."
"Tsuna, what's wrong?" Shouko looked at him, puzzled, especially when he stopped eating and started looking at his phone.
The other three eating their bento boxes were also attracted by her words, their curious gazes falling on Tsuna.
Tsuna quickly replied 'thank you' to Fūno Jun, put away his phone, and shook his head:
"It's a small matter. Jun just sent me a message; my light novel will be on sale in bookstores this Thursday."
"!?"
"!!?"
"This is still a small matter!?" Nishikata couldn't help but exclaim.
"???"
The surrounding students eating lunch were all attracted by the commotion he made, and at the same time, they were curious and puzzled about what they were talking about.
However, seeing Nishikata put his hands together in a silent apology to them, they withdrew their gazes.
Only a few people in the class knew that Tsuna's physical book was about to be released. It wasn't that they didn't want to tell, but Tsuna was afraid of trouble, so they had to keep it a secret.
"Then did Jun say anything else?"
Unlike Takagi and the other two, Shouko, as the illustrator of 'Anohana,' had already heard Tsuna mention that it would be released this week, so she was relatively calm.
However, she couldn't help but feel a secret delight in her heart; no matter what, the illustrations in this book were her debut work.
Tsuna swallowed the food in his mouth upon hearing this, recalled the message Fūno Jun sent, and picked out the important parts to say:
"Futaba Publishing will preview the new book on their personal social media today, bookstores will conduct small-scale publicity, and the book will be shelved in the light novel section of the new book area."
"..."
"May I ask a question?" Ajitani raised her fair little hand.
"Ajitani-chan, go ahead and ask."
"Hmm..." She organized her words, "Is this really the treatment a new author and a new book should get...?"
She knew before that Miyamura was going to publish a physical book, and since she was interested, she looked up some relevant information online.
She could only say that the treatment for new authors and new books was completely incomparable to Miyamura's! At most, they would just be shelved in a bookstore's new book section.
Because of Japan's backwardness in this regard, except for famous novelists, publishing houses and bookstores rarely help them with promotion or the like.