Chapter 226: Restless Valentine's Day (5)
Saturday, February 12th.
After Watanabe stayed overnight in Chiyoda, he met Koizumi Aona who was about to go out in the living room on the first floor of the apartment.
"Good morning, Mr. Koizumi."
"Good morning." Koizumi Aona no longer felt awkward after watching the movie yesterday. "Did you just get back from morning exercise?"
Watanabe Toru was silent for two seconds, then nodded: "Yeah, I'm back from morning exercise."
After that, he asked with a little curiosity: "Why is the teacher alone? Where are Mr. Akiko and Mr. Miyazaki?"
Whenever they go out, the three female teachers almost always go out together.
"They are resting today and are still sleeping. I have to go to school to set up the examination room for tomorrow's entrance examination." Koizumi Aona explained.
"No wonder they earn 6 million yen a year, and you earn 10 million yen."
Koizumi Aona laughed and said, "There's not much bonus for doing this kind of hard work. It's all thanks to you being the number one in the country, Watanabe."
"No, no, no." Watanabe Toru said modestly, "I was able to get first place because of your good teaching, teacher."
"You've always got full marks in English, but I didn't teach you."
"Teacher, you are so beautiful. Just thinking about seeing you gives me motivation to get up in the morning and go to school in winter."
"You mean, as a teacher, my only advantage is that I'm good-looking?" Koizumi Aona deliberately frowned.
"Yes, that's why I like you the most, Mr. Koizumi."
This sentence is Watanabe Toru's catchphrase, and Koizumi Aona has heard it many times.
She should have been used to it, but the ambiguous scenes between the teacher and the student in the movie last night surfaced in her mind, making her face slightly red.
"Don't talk nonsense," she scolded.
The tone was just like that of a girlfriend acting like a spoiled child.
Koizumi Aina also realized that something was wrong, so she moved the shoulder strap of her bag up and changed the subject:
"You're free today, do you want to help?"
"Sure, sure. How much per hour?"
The two walked towards the apartment's parking lot together.
"Do you want money?" Koizumi Aona asked with a smile.
"Of course. By the way, this year is different from previous years. The minimum hourly wage has increased to 985 yen."
“It’s expensive.”
"Ms. Koizumi, you are a wealthy woman in Shinjuku with an annual salary of 10 million. Don't bargain with students who work hard part-time. We are providing door-to-door service."
"Door-to-door service? What kind of part-time job do you have? You are not a good student."
"I'm talking about the moving company."
The two got in the car, fastened their seat belts, and drove towards Kamikawa High School.
The sky in front of the windshield was blue and the sun was shining brightly.
When driving, Aona Koizumi looks focused and always pays attention to what is left and right.
Toru Watanabe put his hands behind his head. The glass blocked the cold wind, but the winter sun made him drowsy.
There was music playing in the car.
Toru Watanabe never asked Koizumi Aona the name of the song, and because the sun was so bright at the time, he only remembered the lyrics after listening to it once, and they were very fragmented.
"And the little shop I often go to after school, the dim sum shop I always visit."
"There are also constant nagging and mornings of being scolded"
"Time flies by and today is already graduation day."
I only remember these few sentences.
When I arrived at the school and got off the bus, I saw that the student parking lot in the distance, which was usually full of bicycles, was now empty with only two or three bicycles.
There are few cars, but many people on campus.
Third grade junior high school students from various schools, wearing various uniforms, came to visit the examination room today.
The face looks childish, excited, expectant and anxious.
Toru Watanabe looked at these people. Although they were only one school year apart from Gao Yi, they looked much younger.
I don't mean to say that Kiyono Rin and Kujo Miki are old, it's just that these junior high school students are too young, and Watanabe Toru is not Humbert, and he has no interest in twelve-year-old Lolita.
"On this day last year, Watanabe, you were also in the crowd," Koizumi Aona said with a smile.
"Yeah." Watanabe Toru nodded.
That was his first time in Tokyo, and now a year has passed, and he has not yet become a handsome guy in Tokyo.
Every day he spends his days in the Human Observation Department, scheming against two beautiful girls.
The teacher and student walked to the teaching building and entered the teacher's office.
There was only the history teacher of Class 3 in the office on Saturday, and he was instructing two students from Class 3 to do something.
When Koizumi Aona was watering the succulents on her desk, Watanabe Toru glanced over there and saw that the two students were the blackboard eraser couple from Class 3.
Could it be that these two guys are pretending to help but are actually here at school for a date?
Aona Koizumi and Toru Watanabe divided the work, and she went to check the examination room by herself.
The desks had already been arranged by the students when school was over on Friday, and she needed to check them again: whether the positions were correct, whether there were any textbooks left behind, etc.
Toru Watanabe went to set up road signs at various locations on campus.
Although the next character to appear is not important, because of her, the high school life of Toru Watanabe and Rin Kiyono is more interesting, so let's introduce her appearance in a slightly grand manner.
At that time, Toru Watanabe had placed a "No Entry" sign in front of the club building and was walking on the corridor between the club building and the teaching building.
A petite, slim, short-haired, cute girl wearing a white sailor suit and small leather shoes walked briskly past him.
"senior!"
Toru Watanabe, holding the sign for 'Examination Room F', did not stop.
No one has ever called him senior.
Before coming to Tokyo, even his first-grade sister called him Archer.
If she had called someone a handsome guy at that time, Watanabe Toru would have stopped immediately to see if she was calling him - he still had some self-awareness in this regard.
"Watanabe-senpai!"
This time, Toru Watanabe stopped and looked back.
It only took two steps, but the short-haired girl ran over.
"Watanabe-senpai! It's me! It's me!"
"'I'? Who am I?"
"Geng Guidesu!" The girl raised the toes of her right foot in her small leather shoes, put her heel on the ground, leaned her upper body forward slightly, and made a scissors hand gesture with her right hand over her right eye.
"I like Gardevoir, thank you, goodbye." Watanabe Toru turned around.
"Wait a moment! Please wait a moment!" The girl ran around to the front of Watanabe Toru, "Senior, I'm Horikita Mai!"
"Mai Sakamoto?"
"Horikita Maidesu!"
"Horikita Maki?"
"It would be nice to be an entertainer in the future, but I'm Horikita Mai."
"I'm sorry, I don't know anyone named Horikita Mai."
"How could it be!" Horikita Mai said subconsciously, and then froze for a moment as if she remembered something, "I almost forgot, Senior doesn't know me yet."
"People from the future?"
"Psychic Desu!"
"Sorry, I'm not interested in aliens, people from the future, or people with super powers. I only like ordinary people." Toru Watanabe took a step forward.
Horikita Mai quickly followed, surrounding Watanabe Toru like a sparrow.
"Watanabe-senpai, I'm your biggest fan!"
“I don’t have any fans.”
"Senior, don't you know? You have many, many fans! Everyone follows you from various channels. Let me introduce myself. I watched your wind instrument competition and was attracted to you!"
"You're so noisy."
"My mother said that to me, too, eh~"
Hey, you...
Forget it, Toru Watanabe made up his mind not to swear - even though it was just a complaint, it shouldn't be considered swearing.
"Senior, I was able to apply to Kamikawa High School because of you!"
“That’s not necessary.”
"Senior, is the atmosphere in the wind band good? Will they bully the newbies?"
"meeting."
"Really? Then Senior will definitely protect me, right?"
"I'm the bully."
"Is it because the seniors are too skilled that they are so harsh on the members? Well, it doesn't matter. Although I'm small, Mai-chan, I have a strong will! Seniors, please train me as much as you want!"
"Horikita Maki-san..."
"Horikita Maidesu!" Horikita Mai introduced herself again, "Senior, just call me Mai!"
"I have quit the wind band."
“Eh——Why?!”
The two of them kept walking. For every one step Watanabe Toru took, the girl would take two or three steps.
"During the Chinese New Year this year, my motorcycle was tampered with by someone who was jealous of my talent. I was involved in an accident and my left hand was injured. My dream of becoming an oboe player was shattered."
Horikita Mai was so scared that she stopped, then realized that she had been tricked and immediately followed.
"Just like Kaidou Naoya! Senior, I will avenge you!" She chirped, as lively as a little bird.
"Kaidou Naoya?"
The girl ran in front of Toru Watanabe, turned around like a handsome guy in a girls' comic, and came face to face with Toru Watanabe.
She spread her legs, circled her waist, which was as thin as a paperback book, with her right hand, and then stretched it out towards Watanabe Toru with her palm facing upwards as if posing.
"I will never forgive those who hurt my seniors! Transform!"
Watanabe Toru stopped.
"What did you say your name was?"
"Horikita Maidesu!"
"Horikita-san, if you get admitted to Kamikawa, you will be my little brother."
"Yes! Please rest assured, senior!" The short-haired female junior high school student saluted in a very serious but funny way.
After parting with the girl named Horikita Mai, Toru Watanabe finished setting up the remaining road signs.
At noon, Koizumi Aona invited him to have lunch at a restaurant near the school.
The prices at this restaurant are a bit high and students from the area don't often come here.
There is relaxing music playing in the store.
The two sat down at a window seat. Watanabe Toru saw that there were Chinese dishes such as shredded pork with green peppers, so he ordered two.
Koizumi Aina ordered spaghetti.
"Teacher, when is the third grade graduation ceremony?" asked Toru Watanabe.
"The exact date has not been determined yet, but it will be somewhere in the second week of March."
In other words, Asu Mai will move to Shinano Town sometime in the second week of March.
After dinner, Koizumi Aona ordered coffee for the two of them.
"Do you need help tomorrow?" Toru Watanabe added half a teaspoon of sugar to the coffee.
"We need someone to stand at the classroom door to deal with any emergencies of the examinees. Are you willing to do it?"
"If you want to eat."
"This is the first time I'm having dinner alone with a boy." In the sunlight outside the window, Koizumi Aona's smile looked very charming.
After saying this, Koizumi Aona felt something was wrong, but the words had already been spoken, so she could only drink coffee to ease the embarrassment.
"I rarely eat alone with girls. I refused any invitation from girls at school." Toru Watanabe looked like he was keeping himself clean.
Koizumi Aona looked at Watanabe Toru with amusement: "How are things going with Seino-san and Kujo-san recently?"
"That's good. These two like to team up to bully me recently." Watanabe Toru took a sip of coffee.
It was still a little bitter, but it had started to become sweet, and it had a unique flavor to drink, so he didn't dislike it.
After watching the movie yesterday, Koizumi Aona subconsciously associated "bullying" with that aspect, and was very concerned about whether Watanabe Toru really did that, but she resisted the urge to ask.
The two sat and rested for a while, then paid the bill and left.
◇
Sunday, February 13th.
Horikita Mai turned off the alarm clock just before it rang.
After changing into school uniform and brushing my teeth and washing my face, I heard my mother's voice.
"Mai, breakfast is ready!"
“Here it comes!”
For breakfast I had fried eggs, toast, salad, and a glass of milk.
She ate at the dining table while her mother helped her check her admission ticket and stationery again, and prepared her coat, scarf and gloves.
"Mom, I'm leaving!"
"Come on, Mai."
"Yes, I will definitely pass the exam!"
I rushed out of the house with my schoolbag and jumped onto the tram whose door was about to close.
The tram screens were broadcasting news about exams in various places.
It snowed heavily in Kamakura and the trains were delayed.
In front of the camera, those senior high school students who were preparing to take the exams either closed their eyes and prayed, or looked despairing, or anxiously called someone.
"Next stop, Yotsuya Station, Yotsuya Station."
Leaving the platform, the slope leading to "Tokyo Kamikawa Private High School" is full of applicants wearing various styles of school uniforms.
At the beginning of the slope, there is a small bicycle repair shop. In front of the shop, Horikita Mai finds her school friend.
"Wasuho-chan!" She waved vigorously, looked left and right, and after making sure the road was safe, she ran over.
"Good morning, Mai-chan." Linnahei replied very ladylike.
"Good morning. Sorry I'm late."
"It's okay. It's still early. Did you pick up all your things? Did you forget anything?"
"Of course!" Horikita Mai patted her schoolbag, "Please trust my mother!"
The two walked up the ramp and entered Kamikawa High School, bypassing the oak tree that was more than 20 meters tall and as big as a hill.
“This tree is so big!”
“I really want to see what it will look like in the summer!”
"Then let's work hard together."
"Yes! And I have already made an appointment with Watanabe-senpai, I must pass the exam."
"Mai-chan is really obsessed with Watanabe-senpai."
"Of course! Kazuho-chan, you don't know much about wind music, and you don't know how amazing Watanabe-senpai is! Why don't you join the wind band too, and we can become the Pretty Cure of the wind band together!"
Horikita Mai posed in a classic moon transformation pose.
Her figure, if placed in an animation, is indeed as slender as a beautiful girl.
On campus, the middle school boys, huddled in their scarves, glanced this way out of the corner of their eyes.
"…Mai-chan, you're going to high school soon. If you keep doing this, Watanabe-senpai might hate you."
"Really?!"
The two were on different floors and separated by the stairwell.
Horikita Mai walked into the classroom of Class 3-1 and sat in the second to last seat in the last row.
"Mai-chan, you really are the protagonist! You will definitely pass the exam!"
Linnaeus and Sui went up to the third floor, which was a higher level floor.
Although it was a serious examination venue, there was noise in the corridor.
Someone stuck their heads out from the doors and windows of Class One, Class Two, and Class Three and looked towards Class Four.
There were also people who did not enter the examination room. They were standing in the corridor chatting with their friends, but their eyes were also looking at Class 4.
Linnai and Sui looked over curiously.
It was a scene that left a deep impression on her and she still remembered it many years later.
In the sun-filled corridor, a boy wearing the Kamikawa High School uniform with his shirt open placed a set of tables and chairs in front of Class 4's door.
There was nothing on the table. The sunlight shone on the boy's handsome face. He was reading quietly alone.
After the morning exam, Linna and Sui met up with Horikita Mai, and the two had lunch at a nearby family restaurant.
"Mai-chan."
"Hmm?" Horikita Mai ate the parfait with a spoon.
"I saw Watanabe-senpai today."
"Really? Where? When?"
"He seems to be a staff member on the third floor, responsible for dealing with emergencies."
"Ah, why am I on the first floor!" Horikita Mai angrily took a big bite of parfait.
"Well," Linnai Hesui hesitated a little, "I heard that Watanabe-senpai seems to have a girlfriend."
This is what she heard from others in the examination room in the morning.
Before this, Horikita Mai showed her a photo of Toru Watanabe and asked her to listen to Toru Watanabe's oboe. He was indeed amazing and handsome, but she didn't like to chase stars, so she didn't feel anything.
However, the shining senior Watanabe was sitting outside the examination room just now, and if she passed the exam, she would be able to go to the same school and join the same club as him.
Realizing this, she began to pay attention to Toru Watanabe's information.
The girls in the examination room seemed to know him and told him a lot of information about him, one of which was that he had a girlfriend.
"Yes, Watanabe-senpai's girlfriend is called Kujo Miki, and she is the eldest daughter of a wealthy family."
"Mai-chan, aren't you sad?"
"Why should I be sad ?" Horikita Mai asked curiously.
"Don't you like Watanabe-senpai?"
"Yes, but before I liked him, he already had a girlfriend, so my love for him is just the admiration of a fan for an idol! He Sui-chan, why don't you come to the brass band too, so we can chase stars together!"
"…If, if I can pass the exam."
"It doesn't matter, we will definitely pass the exam!"
In the afternoon, after handing in the test paper, Horikita Mai picked up her schoolbag and ran quickly to the third floor. The stairwell was filled with the sound of her little leather shoes clacking on the ground.
Toru Watanabe is still here.
From morning till evening, he sat there reading.
"Senior! Watanabe-senpai!"
"Horikita Maki." Toru Watanabe looked up.
"Horikita Maidesu!" Horikita Mai corrected as usual, "Senior, if you have time, can you take me to the wind band?"
"Let's talk about it after you pass the exam."
Toru Watanabe put the book in the desk drawer, then moved the desk and chair and walked towards Class 2.
This is Miki Kujo's desk.
