[Net King] Pilgrim

After Machida returned to school from London, he had been spending time in the library preparing his thesis.

So much so that Echizen Ryoma ended a series of competitions in early September. When he returned to the apartment at night, he saw Karubin sleeping soundly on the sofa. Know she is still in the library.

"I really want to go back to see you, but once my thoughts are disconnected, it will be difficult to connect again..."

Echizen Ryoma sighed, hung up the phone, thought about it, took his coat again and went out, ordered takeaway from a restaurant near the school, and went to the library.

Half an hour later, Machida couldn't help being surprised when he heard the voice on the phone saying, "Let's finish writing and come down to eat, I'm on the second floor." He finished the task at hand in 15 minutes and packed up his things.

While waiting for the elevator, she even wondered if Echizen Ryoma expected that if he came and waited by himself, her study efficiency would be faster.

...and indeed it is.

Along the way, Machida was recognized by many students. After the summer vacation, she could feel that her life might not be as peaceful as before. Her every move would be watched and possibly magnified.

She needs to slowly adapt and accept the inevitable impacts of work that come with her work. After a moment of hesitation, she pulls out the hat from her backpack and puts it on.

In the public rest area on the second floor, Echizen Ryoma was sitting in a corner with his earphones plugged in, leaning his back against the back of the chair, feeling a familiar atmosphere suddenly surrounding him, and someone wrapped his neck around his neck from behind and hugged him.

"Did it scare you?" Machida asked with a smile.

"I've seen you a long time ago." With a smile in Echizen Ryoma's voice, he took off an earphone, raised his finger and pointed to the transparent glass window in front of him, on which two blurred shadows were reflected.

She let out a discouraged "ah", still hugged him, looked up and saw the thermal bag on the table, "Did you bring me dinner?"

"Ah."

"How do you know I haven't eaten yet?"

"Because it's hard to connect your train of thought once it's disconnected." He returned what she said to her intact.

"..."

He chuckled lightly in a good mood, grabbed her wrist and pulled her from behind, looked up at her, "Aren't you afraid of admitting the wrong person?"

"I won't mistake you, I still have this confidence." She smiled, and the dim light made her face extra soft.

Echizen Ryoma slightly curled his lips, lowered his head, picked up the earphone he had just taken off, and handed it to her.

"Huh?" Machida took it suspiciously, put down his schoolbag and sat next to him, and plugged in his earphones.

After listening to it for a few seconds, she realized what the song was, her eyes widened slightly in surprise, it was the soundtrack of "Sunrise", "When..."

Echizen Ryoma looked at her with some amusement, "Don't you know it has been released? And the sales seem to be pretty good."

She shook her head in a daze, "I've been preparing my thesis..."

Seeing that she didn't want to stop once she heard it, Echizen Ryoma gently took off her earphones, and told her to eat first, and then go back to listen.

Machida smiled, lowered his head and opened the thermal bag, saw that there was only one piece of food in it, and was stunned, "Aren't you going to eat?"

"I ate it on the plane." Echizen Ryoma looked at her with one hand on his chin, and suddenly remembered something, "By the way, I heard before boarding that Nanako-san is pregnant."

As soon as Machida picked up a piece of meat and put it into his mouth, he was so surprised that he swallowed it without chewing a few mouthfuls, "Really?"

"Well. According to the family, the expected date of delivery is May next year."

"May..." It was warm weather, and her smile grew stronger, "It's not far from my graduation."

While the two were talking, Echizen Ryoma suddenly received a call from the coach, saying that he had something to discuss with him.

He was puzzled for a moment, got up and went to the window to pick it up.

Sherwood told him with some seriousness on the other end, "The ITF is going to introduce a new regulation. They intend to reorganize some lower-level tours and establish a new transitional tour."

Echizen Ryoma quickly understood, and frowned, "In order to reduce the number of people participating in the qualifying competition?"

"Ah, although the details are still undecided, what is certain is that they want to eliminate players with lower rankings." Sherwood is very clear that the reason why Echizen Ryoma has been able to get wild cards to participate in the Open several times in the past two years is because the host Fang took a fancy to his strength and high popularity.

But in any case, he is still in school, and it is not easy to quickly accumulate points in a short period of time. In most cases, he still has to play in championships, and the new ITF regulations on qualifying places mean that it is more difficult for college players to rely on participating in championships to accumulate points. integral.

Sherwood analyzed the disadvantages of this new regulation to Echizen Ryoma, and finally said: "I think you need to consider the matter of transferring to the professional network in advance."

He pressed his hat, and responded almost without hesitation: "I'm going to apply to the school to submit my graduation thesis in advance."

……

"Graduate early?" Machida widened her eyes after hearing Echizen Ryoma's explanation. She hadn't heard of anyone in the school graduating early, but there are many people who delay graduation every year, "...I remember you said before, Did you go to summer school in America?"

He nodded, as if he was thinking, but his expression did not fluctuate much, "Try it, communicate with the school, there will always be a solution." With his hands behind his head, he still leaned on the chair calmly and confidently. back.

As soon as Machida looked at him, he suddenly lowered his head and smiled, how could she have forgotten that Echizen Ryoma would not panic most of the time, and would do his best to solve problems when he encountered them.

After school started, Machida focused on graduation performance rehearsals and preparing thesis, and spared a small amount of time to review the scripts that she wrote back to Japan for performances. Sometimes Amakusa would call her, not only to know her progress, but also to Confirm later work.

But one time on the phone, Amakusa Izumi suddenly mentioned that if she planned to get married, she must let her know in advance. Machida was sitting in front of the sofa eating fruit, and subconsciously pressed the volume button on the small phone, because Echizen Ryoma was sitting next to her. ...

He didn't seem to respond. She thought he probably didn't hear it. After all, apart from training, he had been busy taking classes and writing papers during this period of time, so he had no time to be distracted.

He had communicated with the school many times about graduating early. Although it took some trouble, the school finally agreed to allow him to participate in this winter's graduation ceremony if he met the graduation requirements.

Time flies by in the busyness.

When early winter came, the rehearsal for Machida's graduation performance came to an end, and the first draft of his graduation thesis was completed.She originally thought that she was progressing quite fast, but it turned out that someone was progressing faster than her. While Echizen Ryoma finished two courses, he was already preparing for the thesis defense...

And as far as she knows, Sherwood contacted the sports economic company in the early stage, and Echizen Ryoma sometimes used Skype to discuss team matters with him in the apartment...

The night before Machida returned to Japan, he took a shower and sat on the hot floor of the living room of the apartment, eating ice cream while watching Echizen Ryoma sitting in front of the sofa and Skypeing with his coach as usual.

She didn't speak until he was done, and regretted again: "I can't attend your graduation ceremony."

I don't know if it was to comfort her, or just to state the facts, Echizen Ryoma turned off the monitor with a mouse click, "I'm not even sure if I can attend my graduation ceremony."

"..."

Thinking that he would have to train later, Machida leaned over and lay down, resting his head on his lap, scooped a scoop of ice cream and put it into his mouth, "I'll send you some performance tickets when I return to Japan, you can watch it when you have time, It doesn't matter if you don't have time."

Echizen Ryoma looked down at her, the light fell into her eyes, he stroked her forehead lightly with his palm, nodded, "Okay."

After a pause, he said, "Get up, don't lie down and eat."

"It's okay, I won't choke."

"I'm afraid you'll get cream on my clothes."

"..."

Machida scooped up the last bite of ice cream, sat up sullenly, put the box on the coffee table, just about to stand up from the floor, Echizen Ryoma suddenly reached out and pulled her back from behind, with a laughing voice, "Hey, I'm just kidding. "

She bumped her back into his arms, couldn't help but smiled, and looked at him with raised eyebrows, "Don't think that I won't be angry if you're joking."

Echizen Ryoma clasped her head with his hand, followed by a kiss, and said vaguely, "Then, I will make an apology to you."

Machida was stunned for a moment, then realized that he was coaxing her, a little unexpectedly, he passively accepted the delicate and long kiss.After being busy for a long time, and having to part again tomorrow, Echizen Ryoma held her in his arms, not wanting to let go more and more.

There was only the unsteady panting of the two of them, and the world was spinning for a while. By the time Machida realized it, his back was already on the bed in the bedroom, and he said in a daze, "I have to get up early tomorrow to take the plane..." She thought she might have said this It doesn't help either.

In the darkness, Echizen Ryoma touched her lips and smiled softly, "You can sleep on the plane."

"..."

In Tokyo in November, the temperature dropped several notches from when Machida returned in the first half of the year.After she returned to Japan, she sent the performance tickets to Echizen Ryoma, and then there was intense rehearsal.

In the rehearsal hall every day, she has quickly withdrawn from the preparations for the graduation performance and devoted herself to the current work. After two weeks, she was too busy to be distracted.

The play party started the publicity work early on. From the adaptation of the original work, the production team to the performance lineup, the publicity points are enough to attract attention. In addition to several well-known new-generation protagonists and sub-yakuza, two or three Japanese theater circles were also specially invited. the leader.

Machida's performance experience in London's West End and the attention of her works undoubtedly added highlights to her resume.But after all, she is still a newcomer in Japan, and in a place like this where seniority is considered, Amakusa Izumi is afraid that her temperament will easily suffer, so she is told to keep her in the theater a little bit.

Machida didn't know how far this "holding point" would go, and he just said less and did more, but he was not too cautious, too twisted her nature, and made her uncomfortable.After a period of time, it was her neither humble nor overbearing that won her the love of several senior co-workers, and they would kindly mention her a few words in terms of work.

"Frozen" has a movie version and a Broadway musical version in front of it. For this adaptation, Japanese audiences have expectations and dislikes. Naturally, the pressure on the Japanese version of the production staff is not small.

Machida initially reviewed the Broadway version, but stopped watching the original when she found herself imitating it in rehearsals.What she wants to interpret is Elsa, not the performance of other performers.

The rehearsal period of more than three weeks passed quickly. The day before the performance, all the cast and crew encouraged each other spontaneously, and ended the last day of rehearsal very easily and joyfully.

Machida packed his backpack in the background, and when he went to get his coat from the hanger, he suddenly heard greetings from several staff members in the corridor, and then footsteps entered the lounge.

She turned her head and glanced, it was the stage actress who collaborated this time, Shizuko Seto who played Anna.

The eyes of the two met at the same time, Seto Shizuko smiled and said, "Miss Machida hasn't left yet, I thought you had already left."

Seto Shizuko was born as a ballet dancer, and later transformed into a stage play, which was considered a success. Her qualifications are not short, but because of her early debut, her age is not much different from that of Machida.

"There are a lot of things, so I wasted a little time." Machida said politely, put on a thick coat, pulled his hair out of the collar, and went to get the backpack.

There were only the two of them in the lounge at this time. Seto Shizuko sat in front of the dressing table and took off her clothes. After pondering for a while, she suddenly mentioned: "I don't know if Ms. Machida has heard of something."

Machida turned his head in doubt, and met Seto Shizuko's eyes through the vanity mirror.

She suddenly remembered that the staff sometimes joked that the two of them had the same height, shape, and even hairstyle, and it was easy to confuse them when viewed from the back.

Machida didn't know whether he was mixed or not, but from the back, she felt that Seto Shizuko's temperament was actually quite suitable for Elsa.

When she thought this way, the person in front of the mirror had already turned her head, hesitating to speak, "I heard some of the actors say that you are too lofty and flattering your seniors, it seems that you have misunderstood you..."

Machida's gaze fell on Seto Shizuko's concerned eyebrows, and after a moment of silence, he said with his usual expression, "Is that so, I haven't heard of it."

She really hadn't heard of it, at least she felt that everyone got along very well during this time.

Seto Shizuko smiled slightly, "Because you didn't go to the dinner on the rest day a few days ago, I was worried that hearing those words affected your mood."

"It was because of something at home that day."

"That's it, it's good that you are in good condition, after all, the performance is going to be tomorrow."

In fact, Machida doesn't like to deal with Seto Shizuko in depth, not because of the fact that Amakusa's character was changed before, she didn't care too much about it, but Seto Shizuko's words and deeds seemed to be carefully considered and considered, and she spoke It is also a little convoluted, making people need to guess the meaning behind her words.

Once or twice is fine, but after a long time, Machida will be a little tired, so after a few weeks, she only maintains a cooperative relationship with her.

Machida lowered her head and tightened the strap of her backpack. Regardless of what Shizuko Seto said was true or not, she didn't want to continue this topic anymore. She raised her head and said politely and plainly: "Well, then I'll go first, and Miss Seto will go back to rest early. Well, see you tomorrow."

It was already dark outside, and after leaving the theater, Machida received a call from Echizen Ryoma.

A lazy voice came over, "Tomorrow is the performance, I call to encourage you."

At that moment, she suddenly relaxed, smiled and said: "Aren't you awake, why are you so weak?"

"I got up early to go to training..." Echizen Ryoma yawned, saying that he did not attend the graduation ceremony, and the certificate would be sent back to Japan.

Machida knew that he was preparing for the competition at the beginning of next year, so he should train for a period of time, "I gave you the performance ticket on Christmas Eve, and I thought it was a birthday present for you." She said with a smile: "If the time is too late, I will give you another gift."

"I'll be back before Christmas." He raised his voice a little bit, "And, you have a birthday too, don't you?"

It wasn't until Machida remembered that Christmas was her birthday, but Amakusa had already told her about the itinerary after the performance.

Unhappy for three seconds, sighed, "My birthday will probably be spent at work..."