Lion King

With a sound, he stepped forward to help me move the surfboard: "The one from the fireworks show?" I nodded.

"Did he confess to you?"

"……not yet."

"Oh——" Kenji moved the surfboard to the storage room, and when he heard my answer, he turned his head and gave me a meaningful look.

"You also have times when you miss."

My family members go surfing occasionally except for me. After Kenji explained to me a few surfing precautions and necessary items, he asked me as if thinking of something: "What kind of person is it?"

"what?"

"Your date. The classmate you mentioned last time, what kind of person is he?" Kenji looked curious, and I even saw a smile on his face - it was written so that I could Meet him and I want to be good friends with his smile.

"...is a very ordinary person." I turned my head aside to avoid Kenji's eager gaze, and replied against my will.If he knew that it was Mu Shenyi, he would definitely be laughed at until the end of winter.However, I did not deceive Kenji, he turned his head lightly, and approached me: "The person who can make you feel troublesome must be a talent, I really look forward to meeting him."

"Please don't meddle in my relationship, I can handle it myself." I put my hand on his face and pushed back. "You can just bless me silently, then I will bless you too, brother."

I woke up at six o'clock the next morning, and when I went to the bathroom, I heard footsteps outside, and Kenji was about to go out for morning exercises.I, with my messy hair and rumpled nightgown, bumped into Kenji, who was wearing a crisp tracksuit and was putting on his shoes at the entrance.

"Morning..."

"Good morning!"

Kenji said hello energetically while tying his shoelaces.

"...Going out so early?" The Winter Sports Conference will also be our Hainan representing Kanagawa!

Perhaps because I read this sentence from my face, Kenji didn't answer me, and waved his hand and went out.

I saw that it was still early, so I changed my clothes and went out for a walk.Kenji and I took a different route and did not meet him.

It is now the end of August and the morning air is very cool.On the eastern horizon, the sun hangs steadily in the air, shining brightly on the body and sending out a warm temperature.

Kenji had just arrived when we returned home from a walk, and the two of us huddled at the entrance to change our shoes.His running shoes are bigger than mine, and I can't help but think of Mu Shenyi's sneakers.Kenji noticed that I was looking at his shoes and gave me a puzzled look.

"I'll buy it for you if you want it."

"...I don't mean that."

"This brand also has a girls' version, which is very pretty."

"How do you know there are good-looking girls' models?"

He turned his face away with a swipe, and his ears were red.

Okay, I get it, I won't laugh at you anymore.

After I changed my shoes, I went to take a shower, and my father and stepmother also got up.I dried my hair and went to the dining room. Dad and Kenji were eating breakfast and watching the morning news, and my stepmother was making rice balls.

"Good morning, Leo."

The stepmother brought breakfast with a smile—American-style scrambled eggs, toast, and a bowl of oatmeal.After breakfast, she handed me a portable three-layer bento box.

"this is--?"

"Aren't you going surfing at noon? This is a lunch specially prepared by mom for you." Kenji answered for his stepmother, staring at the TV screen intently.

I took the bento box and it was quite heavy.

"I don't know what Li Yang likes to eat, I accidentally overcooked it." The stepmother smiled at me embarrassedly.It's a lot, three layers, four times the amount I usually eat!I don't know if Mu Shenyi and the others have brought bento, we can share the food then.

It was the weekend, and since I was still carrying a big surfboard, my dad drove me to the beach.I was the first to arrive, followed by Amu, Takasago, Soichiro, and finally Yuka with a big backpack.Because it was the weekend, there were many people on the beach, and fried noodle stalls were set up in front of small shops.

"What's in your bag?" I helped Yuka unload her big backpack, which was so heavy that I staggered.The material of the bag is nylon, which is hard to the touch. I opened the zipper and saw that it was full of picture albums and books.

"It's the materials needed for creation. I originally planned to go to the library to borrow books before coming here, but after picking up the books, I realized that it was too late—"

I hope there is nothing in it that cannot be shown to others.Yuka entrusted the big backpack to Soichiro, and went to change clothes with me.The swimsuit I chose today is a blue bikini with yellow stripes. Yuka commented that it is completely colorless, like the taste of a senior elementary school student.

But she herself was wearing a black one-piece swimsuit, not even a primary school student.

After changing clothes and returning to the beach, the boys also changed their clothes.Looking from a distance, Soichiro is shining white, Amu is shining black, and Takasago is basking in the sun normally.

"Your taste is so ordinary, witch." Takasago commented on me unceremoniously.Soichiro praised Yuka with a happy face: "Kanzaki-senpai's skin is really good!"

As soon as Mu Shen stood a little far away from us, staring at the spot in front of him, I had no choice but to take the initiative to talk: "Where's Boqi? Did you bring him?"

"...brought." There was a hint of pain in his voice.

"Oh? Where? I want to see!" Amu didn't move, I tiptoed and looked over his shoulder - a dark-skinned beauty wearing sunglasses and a sun hat, sitting comfortably on a beach lounge chair sunbathe.At her feet, a white teddy dog ​​was sticking out its little pink tongue, panting heavily at the beauty, and arching its waist.Then, the Teddy took two steps forward, put its two front paws on the beauty's knees, stuck its stomach on the beauty's calves, and moved its waist up and down quickly.

It was only then that the beauty noticed the puppy. She took off her sunglasses, and gently stroked the puppy's head. The puppy was panting even more.

"So cute~ What's your name?"

Before the beauty found out what Boqi was doing, Amu stepped forward and hugged it under his arm, apologized to the beauty, and rushed back quickly.He covered his eyes in shame, and Pochi looked at his master happily with his tongue sticking out, his waist still shaking violently.

"Would it be better to have a sterilization operation?" I suggested cautiously, Amu shook his head as if escaping from reality, and I didn't say anything more.

He put Boqi in the bag to open a small air hole. Boqi arched his nose twice and it opened. The wet little nose made people feel pity.Takasago volunteered to take care of Pochi, but when Amu and I looked at the beach while waiting for the waves, he was holding Pochi to strike up a conversation with a girl.

Among the five of us, only Amu and I brought our own surfboards, so Yuka and Soichiro went to the rental office. Takasago was too busy chatting up girls and taking care of Pochi, so he didn’t come to surf.Amu took me to do two 10-minute warm-up exercises, and then checked my surfboard and safety rope.

"I am a little scared……"

Looking at the long line of surfers floating crookedly in the sea, the right side of my body was inexplicably chilled by the sea wind, I retreated hopelessly.Amu was looking for a suitable position. Hearing what I said, he comforted me: "It's okay Fujiwara, just do as I taught you, don't be nervous." After saying that, he patted my arm to cheer me up.

"That's not what I'm worried about—" Not far away, a surfer was overturned by the waves and rushed to the shore. The corpse-like posture made me shudder.

A Mu followed my gaze, nodded understandingly, and continued to comfort me: "That's why the wave was too big just now, we can just pick a smaller one."

"It's not like this, Amu." I swallowed, and just as the two of us were talking, another surfer fell into the waves.This time it was the relatively small wave that Amu mentioned. This surfer was sucked by the current to the depths of the ocean, and then spit it back. When he stood up from the shallow sea in embarrassment, I clearly saw him A section of his swimming trunks was washed down by the waves just now, exposing a small piece of gleaming white buttocks.

...I am wearing a bikini ahhhhhhhhhh!

The gentle sea breeze turns icy at the thought of me falling off my surfboard a few minutes later, with my thin shoulder straps being washed off my shoulders by the rushing water.I glanced at Mu Shenyi next to me. He didn't understand what I was afraid of, and he was looking at me questioningly.

If it's you, it's okay to take off the whole body-wait a second, I thought about it-if I was shivering in the sea because the swimsuit was washed away by the waves, would Amu help me find the clothes? What about coming back?

I know this idea is a bit crazy, full of the atmosphere of a young boy, but I really want to see Amu's panicked expression.

I really am a genius.

"Fujiwara?" A shadow flickered in front of my eyes, I recovered from my wild thoughts, and smiled at Amu with my mouth open. "It's okay, Amu, I believe in you, let's go!"

Amu nodded suspiciously, and led me to the surfing area.

The two of us sat on our respective surfboards and waited. When the next wave approached, I stood up from the sea as Amu taught me, then adjusted the direction of the head of the board, lying on the surfboard and following the direction of the wave When paddling, get on the board when you feel the surfboard being pushed up by the waves, lower your center of gravity, and carefully control the direction of the surfboard.

Everything went smoothly, and I even had time to recall the plan just now—I fell into the water, pretended to be a swimsuit and was washed away, and then asked Amu to help me find it—of course I must not forget that the expression must be pitiful.While enjoying the coolness of the sea breeze passing by my ears, while admiring the scenery of the coast approaching me rapidly, just as I was looking for the opportunity to fall into the sea, a huge object hit hard behind me, and I fell off the board go down.

Hey - what are you doing!again?I don't want to get out of my body again!I hugged my head hastily.

After falling off the board I rolled several times in the ocean, my arms, shoulders, back hurt like hell, like the second surfer I saw falling into the ocean, I got sucked back in by the current and threw up come out.Because everything happened so suddenly and the impact was too hard in the sea, I choked on several saliva.After being washed up on the beach, he couldn't stop coughing, and his eyes turned black.Shaking my head from side to side, my ears were full of water, and the sound seemed to be separated by several layers of glass plates.

Takasago, who was walking his dog on the shore, was the first to spot me. He ran over with Pochi in his arms, and said something, which I couldn't understand at all.Immediately afterwards, I started coughing violently again, until my head almost split open.

This must be God's punishment for my impure thoughts.

I looked down at my body—the bathing suit hadn't fallen off, I was well dressed, there were scrapes on my arms and knees, nothing serious.Fortunately, I can swim, otherwise the accident just now would not be a body abrasion but a drowning accident.

Mu Shenyi also rushed over quickly. He knelt in front of me on one knee, holding my head with both hands and said something. I couldn't hear clearly, so I kept shaking my head. He patted my back again and raised my arm. Checked for abrasions.Pochi was very happy to see his master, and rubbed his little tongue out, his waist finally stopped up and down.

After coughing for a long time, I finally coughed up all the things I inhaled into my lungs just now. After I was able to breathe normally, my consciousness became much clearer.I patted my ears on both sides, and after the seawater blocked inside flowed out, I could finally hear what the people around me were saying clearly.

Pochi was panting, Takasago hugged Pochi and shouted at me behind me: "What are you doing, you idiot!"

My sweetheart, Mu Shenyi, looked solemn, holding my injured arm with his left hand, and resting his right hand on my shoulder, maintaining a posture of asking about my injury, but his eyes were not looking at me, his eyes crossed my shoulder, straight Gougou stared at a point behind me.I turned around and saw a boy with short shaved hair kneeling behind me, holding his head in his hands to bear Takasago's scolding, and his surfboard was leaning against him.And my surfboard was still in the sand a few meters away.

This guy hit me just now?

I scanned his body carefully and the guy was not injured at all.How is this going?Just as he was pitifully rushing to Gaosha to beg for mercy, a shadow rushed over from a distance, followed by a burst of refreshing fragrance.

A girl with long black hair hugged the guy who hurt me, tears were about to fall.I inadvertently met the girl's eyes, and two seconds later, we both shouted at the same time.

"Li Yang?"

"benefit?"

The beautiful black-haired girl in front of me is my good friend, Megumi Toyama.The person who hit me was—I scanned the perpetrator seriously again, and the monk-like hairstyle is a specialty of our school's football club.

"Ohno? Are you Ohno?"

I pushed Amu away, turned around and took two steps forward, and patted his shoulder hard to make him turn to look at me.Sure enough, it was Ohno, "So—" I looked at Xiaohui, she immediately understood what I meant, and nodded shyly.

"Congratulations! Awesome!"

Before my car accident, Xiao Hui had a crush on Ono.During the hospitalization, she also used me as a tree hole to confide the anguish and sweetness of love.After we were discharged from the hospital, we rarely communicated. I thought it was the cooling-off period of the girls' friendship, but I didn't expect that she was in love and completely forgot about me.

I am sincerely happy for my friend's romance, but for boys who don't know about it, the harmonious and friendly atmosphere between girls will not affect them at all.

Amu helped me up and asked me to move my joints to see if I was sprained.Then he walked up to Ono and asked in a condescending manner, "Is this your first time surfing?"

Ohno's shoulders trembled, he clasped his hands together and apologized repeatedly, with tears welling up in the corners of his eyes.

Unmoved, Amu paused, and continued: "Snatching waves is a taboo in surfing. If Fujiwara gets hurt because of your relationship, what are you going to do?"

Hearing my name, Ohno hurriedly turned to me and made a standard Dogeza.

"I'm sorry Fujiwara! I won't do this again next time, please forgive me!"

"...Next time?" Amu's eyebrows moved, Ohno immediately changed his words, bowing again and again: "I'm sorry--in the future, it won't happen in the future!"

"It's more or less..." I heard Takasago whisper.

"—So, forgive me?"

Ohno raised his head, trying to force a smile.

I can only nod.

Because of him, my elbows and knees were scratched, and Amu took me to the infirmary of the Coastal Management Office to treat the wounds, and it was almost noon when I returned to the beach.The bright sun above my head made me unable to open my eyes, and my stomach also growled.

Yuka and Soichiro were picking out surfboards at the rental when I rolled onto the beach and didn't see my injury.After going through Takasago's eloquent explanation, Yuka developed a strong hostility towards Ono, and after a simple greeting with Xiaohui, she stopped talking.In order to make up for the indifference to us before, Xiaohui pulled her boyfriend to join us.Facing her hopeful eyes, I really couldn't say no to her.

Suddenly the atmosphere became very cold.

In order to ease the atmosphere, I took out the three-layer bento made by my stepmother, asked Amu to spread out the picnic cloth, and invited them to eat together.Yuka was sitting on my left, and Xiaohui came over, but Yuka quickly turned around to avoid Xiaohui.

Soichiro quickly noticed the awkward atmosphere between the two, and asked Yuka to buy ice cream together on the pretext of being thirsty.Takasago always hated Ohno, so he led Pochi to continue flirting with girls.Only me, Amu, Xiaohui and Ono were left.

Ohno had a flamboyant style in school. When he was a freshman in high school, he once choked on the basketball club and laughed at basketball as a low-level sport.Because of this matter and his basketball team members at the same level don't like him.I don't have any opinions on Ohno, it's just that the fact that he grabbed the waves with me just now and injured me made me not want to have anything to do with him.So Amu and I sat on one side, Xiaohui and Ohno sat on the other side, the two boys looked in opposite directions, only Xiaohui kept talking.

"Eh? Liyang Liyang!" Xiaohui suddenly excitedly pulled my arm and shook it violently.

"what happened?"

"Look, doesn't it look like four of us are dating?"

Amu and Ohno turned their heads to look at us at the same time when they heard the sound.

"It looks a bit like this..." Ohno agreed, and Amu let out a "huh".

chapter40Lies

A long-awaited beach date ended with a Band-Aid on me.

As soon as he entered the house, Kenji greeted him. Behind him were the little giants Hanakata and Hasegawa.

"What happened to your leg?" He helped me put the surfboard back into the storage room, and then checked my wound, while Hasegawa and Hanakata looked around curiously.

Because I had been in a state of mental tension and the weather was hot, I didn't feel much pain.After returning home, there was a cool breeze, and my body relaxed, only to feel like my whole body was falling apart.

In addition to my elbow and knee, I also had bruises on my right cheek, and a spot on the top of my head that hurt. Kenji pushed my hair aside and told me that my scalp was also broken.It must have hit a pebble while rolling in the sea.Fortunately, it is not very serious, just apply medicine after cleaning the wound.

Kenji asked me to sit on the sofa, and Hanaka held my legs, and Hasegawa pressed my shoulders. He held a cotton ball dipped in medical alcohol in one hand, and brushed my hair with the other to disinfect me.

"...Is this necessary?" I moved my legs and kicked the flower-shaped knees with my toes. "Don't peek at me!" I warned him in a low voice, my flower-shaped face blushed immediately, and I buried my head deeply in my arms.

I'm not a child, I just clean the wound, as for that?

Kenji didn't answer me, he asked me to bow my head, I could already smell the alcohol.

Then he put cotton balls on my wound.

"——It hurts!! Pain, pain, pain——lightly, lightly————"

"Hold her down!"

I watched my tears drip down my lap and slide down onto the couch.

It's really - it hurts!The scalp is about to be lifted off!

I wanted to hide, but Kenji held my head firmly; I wanted to stand up, and Hasegawa pressed my shoulders tightly; I wanted to be sloppy, and Hanakata faithfully performed his duties, hugging my calves tightly.

After taking the medicine, all four of them were sweating.

"Okay, let go."

Hanagata and Hasegawa let go of me, both of them breathed a sigh of relief at the same time, but seeing my fierce eyes, they hid behind Kenji like frightened rabbits.

"She...wouldn't hit us, would she?" I heard Hasegawa asking Hanakata in a low voice.

"No, Li Yang is a paper tiger. It looks scary, and it will fall if you push it." Kenji changed a new cotton ball, pinched my jaw and forced me to turn to him.

I have a bad feeling.

"Be patient."

As soon as he finished speaking, a cold object stuck to his cheek, followed by a stabbing pain, and I fell on the sofa crying and screaming.

"It hurts! Take it easy!" Ignoring my screams, Kenji slowly wiped the area around the wound with a cotton ball, and then applied anti-inflammatory ointment.I wanted to get rid of him, but he squeezed my face tightly, and I couldn't break free no matter what.

After treating the wound on my face, I hurried to the bathroom to look in the mirror - I saw that the part of the right cheek covered by the hair was swollen, and there were still a few handprints of Kenji on the chin and cheek.

"Can't you take it easy?"

"Stop complaining, I bought puffs, come over and eat together."

I sat down at the dining table angrily. There was already a pot of hot black tea on the table, and the puffs bought by Hanakata were placed on a white bone china plate. My elegant and generous brother was enjoying a wonderful afternoon tea.

"I want to eat one more!" I said angrily.Hasegawa immediately pushed his plate over.

"I'm sorry just now..." He apologized softly.

"...It's okay, don't take it to heart." I glanced at Kenji, you are also the hardworking people oppressed by the big devil, I will not blame you.

The puffs tasted so good, I ate two in a row, then sipped the black tea slowly and listened to the three of them chatting.

I asked Kenji why he asked someone to hold me down. He replied that when I was a child, my ears were bitten by poisonous insects. That's how my mother asked my father to hold me down and help me apply the medicine. Even so, I still scratched my father's face. up.

"You don't have any tolerance for pain." Kenji commented.

After seeing off Hanagata and Hasegawa, Kenji turned on the TV to watch the news, and asked while watching, "Did the date go well?"

How could it go well? Didn't you see that I came back all injured?

I sat next to him, pulling the tassels on the sofa cushions boredly.

"Fortunately, surfing was smashed like this by Qianlang, and the bento I brought was eaten by others. It's not too bad." Speaking of bento-I stood up abruptly, and the bento box hadn't been washed yet!

I hurried upstairs to take out the bento box from my bag and went to the kitchen to scrub it clean.While I was washing and brushing, Kenji suddenly said:

"Mom called at noon today to say that the house has been repaired, and you can move back before school starts."

"Mom? Which one?" My first reaction was my stepmother. Kenji gave me a dissatisfied look and emphasized: "Our mother."

"Oh..." It's not so much our mother, but Kenji's own mother.Since Kenji was injured in the match against Feng Yu, my mother called every day to ask, as for me and Yi?It seems to have been forgotten long ago.

One once called me to complain, and I didn't know how to comfort him.

But when I think of her being a girl with a personality who eloped with her boyfriend regardless of her family's opposition in high school, I feel relieved.After all, Kenji is the product of her relationship with her father. He is the eldest son who has not seen each other for more than ten years. It is understandable that he cares more about Kenji.

I'm not much better either. Ever since I set my schedule for Hiroshima, I've been so focused on Mu Shenyi that I've even forgotten to care about whether the termites in my house are clean.

We mother and daughter each other each other.

However, something always feels wrong to me.

Why didn't mom contact me directly?

The stepmother went to the class reunion at night, and my father said there was a social event, so Kenji and I were the only ones at home at night.

"Going out to eat?" I remembered the bleak supper I had with Huaxing last time. After a tiring day, I wanted to eat something high in calories.

Kenji opened the refrigerator to look, and agreed to my suggestion to eat out.The two of us changed our clothes, and when we were changing our shoes at the entrance, I found a strange thing.

In the layer that belongs to me in the shoe cabinet, there is a pair of white leather slippers with black heels, which look small and delicate.

Fujima's shoe cabinet is a push-pull type. These shoes are placed on the side away from the sliding door, next to my sneakers. Because my feet hurt a little today, I thought of changing to sneakers, otherwise I wouldn't Found this pair of shoes.

There are only two people in this family who might wear these shoes, me and my stepmother.I'm pretty sure I don't have shoes like that, and the shoes are a little small for my stepmother.So I asked Kenji, "Whose shoes are these?"

Kenji was bowing his head to tie his shoelaces. He glanced at the little slippers in my hand, with a puzzled expression on his face: "Isn't it yours?"

"I don't wear this kind of shoes, do they belong to my aunt?" I handed the shoes to him, and Kenji looked at them in his hand, with a puzzled expression: "Mom's shoes are not so small."

I know the size of my stepmother. In order to cultivate our relationship, my father asked my stepmother to accompany me to buy shoes before. Her shoe size is bigger than mine.After listening to Kenji's answer, I kicked off my sneakers and tried on these slippers——

Small, not my size.My heel can't even fully touch the shoe.

"Isn't it yours?"

Kenji looked at the shoes and then at me: "Could it be that you forgot after you bought it?"

"Why would I buy shoes that I can't wear? And look—" I held them up to show him the logo raised on the foot bed—it was a well-known luxury brand with a ladylike line.

"How can I buy such a mother-level thing?"

Kenji's brows tightened. He picked up the other shoe and studied it over and over again. We didn't speak for a while, and a strange feeling gradually spread.

"I remember - the last time I wore sneakers was in the morning before going to Hiroshima, when I went for a walk with you, and we left the next day..." I picked up my sneakers, the uppers were clean , I smelled it closely and there was a nice smell.

Someone brushed my shoes.

Definitely not the stepmother, I have emphasized that I will tidy up my things by myself, and she will not touch my things casually.

That is, during the period when Kenji and I were in Hiroshima, someone came to the house, cleaned my sneakers for me, and put her slippers in the shoe cabinet.

Neither Kenji nor I spoke.He stared at the shoes for a while, took the one in my hand, and put it neatly into the shoe cabinet.

"Let's go." He went straight out the door and waited for me outside.I froze for a moment and followed.

Kenji took me to a nearby family restaurant for dinner. I ordered the steak set meal and he ordered the pork chop rice.During the meal, I wanted to ask about the pair of shoes several times. I always felt that he knew something, but Kenji cleverly avoided it.After dinner, he ordered dessert and ice cream. Seeing that his face was not looking good, I stopped asking questions and started to eat bitterly.

We didn't go home until nine o'clock in the evening. On the way, Kenji walked beside me uncharacteristically, with extremely small steps.

"What's the matter with you? It's been weird since the afternoon." I was not used to his appearance, so I asked him.

"...It's nothing." Kenji lowered his head and didn't answer my question.I sighed, thinking of the pair of slippers I found this afternoon, and thinking of Kenji's abnormality today, I suddenly felt a strong uneasiness in my heart.

In this way, the two of us walked to the door of the house without talking all the way.Before entering the door, Kenji stopped me, hesitated for a while and asked, "Li Yang, if Mom and Dad hadn't separated at that time—would we—"

"Could it be anything?"

"...It's nothing." His expression was gloomy.I silently followed behind him and entered the house.

When changing shoes at the entrance, I double-checked the pair of white lambskin slippers, and Kenji stood behind me with a blank expression.I turned my head and saw the light from the porch falling from the top of his head, cutting his originally soft facial features into sharp edges and corners, like a cold sculpture, standing there quietly.

"Don't tell mom about this."

I nodded.

"My mother," he emphasized.

Under Kenji's watchful eye, I stuffed the slippers into the innermost part of the shoe cabinet, and then put my sneakers in.Kenji squatted down to check with his probe, closed the sliding door, and went straight upstairs.

"...Kenji." I stopped him, "Your shoes haven't been changed yet."

Hearing the sound, Kenji turned his head, looked at his feet, and let out an empty "Oh".

The night of this day has become very long.

I quickly took a shower and went to bed, but I couldn’t fall asleep. When I tossed and turned, I remembered the scene when I first came to this house-the stepmother was preparing breakfast in the kitchen, my father was reading the newspaper while drinking coffee, and the aroma of muffins wafted from the oven , Kenji walked in the door covered in morning dew, took the water glass handed to him by his stepmother, and said good morning to his father.Standing on the last step of the stairs, with my tousled hair and Zoubaba's tracksuit, I thought I was watching a morning show.

What a perfect family.

When I was young, I also dreamed of such a family, but when I was actually in it, a strong sense of alienation came to my heart.

I don't belong here, so I've always refused to be close to them.

I can't accept having a happy breakfast with them, saying good morning to each other, and then taking the lunch box from my mother and going to school happily.As if by doing so I would become more whole, and by doing so I would realize that all my mother gave me was immature, inadequate love.I don't want to betray my mother, so I keep saying no.

I know exactly what those slippers mean, and I can roughly guess what happened when Kenji and I were not at home.

I don't feel bad because I never considered myself part of the family.I even thought that such a perfect and unreal family should be broken.

Kenji also noticed it, and he was very sad.I won't be sad about this, but I will be sad because of Kenji's sadness.

Alas, this unbroken bloodline.

After rolling for two hours, I still couldn't fall asleep, and my father and stepmother didn't come back either.I tossed out of bed and wanted to go downstairs to find something to eat.When passing by Kenji's room, there was still light in the crack of his door.

This guy didn't sleep either.

I put my ear to his door and listened for a while—no sound.Want to knock on the door, but can't find a suitable reason.

Forget it, let's talk about it tomorrow.

I walked downstairs lightly, opened the freezer, and there was a can of creamy ice cream inside.Then I found another can of black stuff, unscrewed it and smelled it, it was chocolate hazelnut spread, tears almost fell down.

The stepmother doesn't know how to make sweets, and she doesn't know how to buy them, so there is no such thing as jam at home, and she rarely eats bread.This jar of chocolate sauce has no label, so I think it was a gift from someone else.And I grew up, quite literally, in the house of sweets.My mom and I couldn't live without sweets.

I happily lifted the lid of the ice cream, poured two spoonfuls of chocolate sauce on it, the rich aroma of chocolate and nuts diffused in the dark, I took a deep breath with great happiness, said that I started, and sent a large amount of ice cream to my mouth Spoon.

So satisfying...

Chocolate sauce has a very familiar taste, it's my mother's taste.Every summer, my mother would make chocolate sauce and bake cakes.Every day when I come back from school, I have afternoon tea. Zhang once envied me and said that Yi and I were the happiest children.

Dear mom, I will be back with you soon~ The delicious food made me forget about my mother’s indifference to me recently. I munched on ice cream while planning to go home tomorrow.

After eating the whole box of ice cream, my father and stepmother also came home.They did not find the shoes.Stepmother made tea and we chatted about our respective parties today.When I got back to my room, I noticed that the light in Kenji's room was off.

"You must be exhausted today?" The stepmother also noticed and asked me with a smile.

I didn't know if she was asking me or Kenji, so I didn't answer.The stepmother still kept smiling and gently took my hand.

"Ah, by the way, the jar of chocolate sauce in the refrigerator is delicious, was it a gift from your friend?" I was not used to such sudden intimacy, so I quickly changed the topic.

"Chocolate sauce?" The stepmother blinked, confused. "I didn't buy chocolate sauce..."

"Ah, that's it, Kenji must have bought it. This guy also likes sweets... Hahaha." I smiled dryly and said good night to my stepmother.

Watching her disappear behind the door of her and father's bedroom, I let out a long breath.

I need to get out of here as soon as possible, the sooner the better.

chapter42Crisis

Dad is having an affair.

Both Kenji and I are clearly aware of this.But we all pretended not to know.I quickly moved back to my own home.On the day we moved out, Kenji helped me put my luggage in the car and went to my mother's house with me.

I remembered the question he asked me the day he found the slippers—if Mom and Dad hadn’t separated, would we—would it have been different?Wouldn't it be perfect to have a home that looks like the one in the estate advert?I have no idea.

I don't want to imagine either.I have forgotten all the memories of living with him and my parents.

After helping me carry my luggage to the room, and having lunch with my family, Kenji went back.Before leaving, he gave me a pair of red sneakers.

This aggressive color is for you. ’ he told me while trying on the shoes.

The gift box is also very intimately marked with my favorite bow.

I remembered the last time I parted with him