"Fujii-kun, am I very boring...?"
After a few seconds of silence, through the phone, Saki Ogihara's voice, filled with grievance and insecurity, reached Fujii Shu's ears.
"Why would you think that? I think Ogihara is a very interesting person, more interesting than anyone I've ever met."
Fujii Shu responded softly.
This straightforward, almost too honest statement made Saki Ogihara's heart skip a beat.
"More interesting than everyone?"
A warm feeling spread from her heart, as though she were wrapped in honey.
"Fujii-kun, you're joking again..." Saki Ogihara murmured, barely above a whisper.
"This is not a joke," Fujii Shu's tone was serious.
He had been through so much in his time, surrounded either by a Mesugaki like Shimizu Airi, who was mean and unpleasant, or by a Sukeban like Chiba Shino, who was arrogant and domineering.
It was a world fraught with danger, walking on thin ice, as if he had poked the nest of wicked women, with evil girls everywhere.
Only Saki Ogihara was like a lotus emerging from the mud, untouched by corruption. Even though, like him, she was at the bottom of the class hierarchy, she could stand up for justice when the situation called for it.
Good and bad things are sometimes revealed through comparison.
The same goes for people.
In this restless society, how rare it is to meet a pure and gentle girl like Saki Ogihara, Fujii Shu thought to himself.
"Ogiwara, can you see the moon from there?"
Fujii Shu asked softly, his eyes drifting out the window to the round moon outside.
"Ah, wait a second..."
Saki Ogihara lifted the blanket, glanced out the window, and without putting on slippers, she walked over to the window, her bare feet on the cold floor.
"Whoosh—"
She opened the window, and the cool night air greeted her face. Saki Ogihara involuntarily shivered.
"I can see it, Fujii-kun."
"What's wrong?"
She looked up at the silver moon hanging high in the sky. It seemed like she sensed something, her cheek pressed tightly to the phone, her heart racing like a wild deer.
"It's nothing. Thank you for taking me home today and helping me with my medicine."
"It was nothing, Fujii-kun..."
Saki Ogihara's response was soft and filled with visible disappointment.
She thought...
Once again, the atmosphere fell silent.
This time, it was Saki Ogihara, who wasn't good at expressing herself, who broke the silence first.
"Um, Fujii-kun..."
She gathered her courage and said, "Let's go to school together tomorrow!"
"Your injuries aren't fully healed. I'll ride my bike to pick you up tomorrow morning."
For the first time, a little marmot decided to step out of its hole.
The air was fresh, and the night breeze was cool. It felt even more wonderful than she had imagined.
"Okay, then I'll trouble you."
Fujii Shu agreed without hesitation.
"Good night, Ogihara. See you tomorrow."
"Good night, Fujii-kun."
Facing the gentle breeze, Saki Ogihara smiled brightly, her heart still racing wildly.
"I actually took the initiative to ask Fujii-kun to go to school together!"
"Saki, you're amazing!"
Saki Ogihara closed the window, threw herself onto the bed, and rolled back and forth like a little caterpillar, clutching the blanket tightly between her legs.
"Hee hee..." She grinned, giggling foolishly, holding the phone high above her head.
"Saki, are you asleep?"
The voice outside the door immediately extinguished all of Saki Ogihara's excitement, and she almost dropped her phone on her face.
"Mom, I'll be asleep soon!"
Saki Ogihara quickly turned off the phone screen and shoved it under her pillow.
"Get some rest, you have class tomorrow morning!"
"I know, Mom."
Once the footsteps faded, Saki Ogihara sighed in relief.
She pulled out her phone again and set an alarm half an hour earlier than usual.
After finishing all that, Saki Ogihara placed the phone by her pillow, laying on her side, ready to drift off to sleep.
Closing her eyes, all that had happened today—one thing after another, one scene after another—slowly unfolded in her mind like a slideshow.
Saki Ogihara couldn't help but smile sweetly.
"The MVP of today is 'Key-kun'!"
"No, it should be the right hand I squeezed out of curiosity!"
...
Meanwhile, at the Fujii household.
After hanging up the phone, Fujii Shu let out a big yawn.
"Beep beep!"
Just as he was about to pull the curtains and sleep, two car horn sounds came from downstairs.
Fujii Shu looked toward the sound and saw a white Honda car slowly backing into the garage.
That was the car his late father had bought. It didn't take much to figure out who was driving it now.
Before long, a woman dressed in an OL business outfit, with black stockings on her legs, stepped out of the driver's seat.
She was full-figured, with a curvy waist and hips, and a prominent bust.
Her face resembled that of Shimizu Airi, but with a more mature look—like a sister to both Shimizu Airi and Shimizu Rin.
This was the head of the Fujii household, Shimizu Rin and Shimizu Airi's mother, and Fujii Shu's guardian—Momoaki Eiko!
Momoaki Eiko, 38 years old, had two daughters—Shimizu Rin and Shimizu Airi, both of whom carried their biological father's surname.
As for herself, following Japanese tradition, she should have taken her husband's surname as Shimizu Eiko.
But after her ex-husband passed away, she reverted to her maiden name.
Fujii Shu only glanced at her briefly before withdrawing his gaze.
For this woman, who had no blood relation to him yet was entrusted with his father's care, Fujii Shu couldn't say he harbored no hatred—it would be a lie.
She had taken over the household, displaced him, and isolated him, the last blood relative of the Fujii family, along with her two daughters.
Most crucially, not only did she openly favor her two daughters, but she also only gave him 5,000 yen a month for living expenses, keeping him in check.
To be clear, the Fujii family wasn't a wealthy one, but his late father's car, house, and twenty years of savings amounted to at least 10 million yen.
And Momoaki Eiko gave him just 8 yuan a day—barely enough to buy a rice ball from a 7-11.
This practically forced him to quit his studies and work part-time.
On a more malicious note, Momoaki Eiko probably didn't want him to continue his education. After all, her two daughters were excellent students, and she had no interest in him, the failing student from a short-term university.
"Airi, I'm back."
Momoaki Eiko's mature, poised voice echoed from the living room downstairs.
"Click."
She switched on the living room light.
She crossed her legs, kicked off her high heels at the entrance, and slipped into her cotton slippers.
"Airi, are you asleep?"
Momoaki Eiko tossed her bag onto the coffee table, sat on the couch, and poured herself a cup of water from the kettle.
"Mom, you're back."
Shimizu Airi, wearing a light mint-colored nightgown, peeked down from the second-floor staircase.
"Not asleep yet? Just in time, I brought you some yakitori from the izakaya. Come down and eat."
"Mm, okay!"
Upon hearing this, Shimizu Airi immediately ran down the stairs, her footsteps quick.
Seeing this, Momoaki Eiko took the yakitori out of her bag.
Just as Shimizu Airi was about to bite into a piece of chicken heart, she instinctively thought of Fujii Shu upstairs.
"If I bring some late-night snacks to that 'zako' older brother now, his trust and affection for me would definitely increase by a lot!"
"Just as expected of you, Shimizu Airi!"
"What's wrong? Not to your taste?"
Momoaki Eiko asked gently, noticing her daughter's hesitation.
"No, I was thinking of bringing some to Onii-chan too."
"Huh? You call him what?"
"Uh... Nii-san? Fujii-nii?"
"No need to be so formal. He's only a few months older than you."
"Oh, I see."
Shimizu Airi nibbled at her yakitori, unsure if she had really processed what her mother had said.