Silently closing the door of the barbershop, Ishida Miyako walked upstairs.
"Shoya, I need to talk to you," she said.
Shoya Ishida was playing a video ga, his hands frantically mashing the buttons on the controller as if venting his frustration.
"I'm busy playing. No ti."
"Shoya!"
"I said I'm busy!"
Miyako walked over and unplugged the console without hesitation.
"I just called Takeuchi-sensei. He told what happened today."
"Ugh, why do you always ddle in my business?!"
As the ga screen went black, Shoya tossed the controller aside and buried his head under a nearby pillow.
"Shoya! How could you do sothing like that?"
"It was just a prank, like always! Why is everyone making such a big deal out of it? You, Takeuchi-sensei, and especially that jerk, Hojou!"
Tears began streaming down Shoya's face as he spoke.
"Shoya..."
Seeing her son like this, Miyako's angry expression softened into her usual gentle deanor.
She knelt on the tatami mat, crawling over to Shoya and pulling the pillow away.
With a soft hand towel, she wiped the tears that wouldn't stop flowing.
"Shoya," she said softly, cradling her son's head in her arms.
Her voice was as tender as ever.
"Not everything can be treated as a prank."
"If you cross a certain line, you can hurt others. Nishimiya Shoko has a hearing impairnt, so she speaks differently."
"But that's not her choice—it's just her misfortune."
"Using soone's misfortune as a prank is a terrible thing to do."
In the familiar comfort of his mother's embrace, Shoya's sobs subsided.
Hearing her words, he couldn't help but argue back.
"I didn't an it like that!"
"But that's what you did, and you hurt Nishimiya Shoko."
"If it weren't for that jerk Hojou Kyousuke interfering, she wouldn't even have known what happened!"
"Shoya! Kyousuke did nothing wrong. You should learn from him."
"What?! Learn from him? No way!"
Miyako gently stroked her son's head, smoothing down his ssy hair as she pondered how to make him understand the gravity of the situation.
"Shoya, do you rember that fight you had in fourth grade?"
"How could I forget? Those guys said... they said..."
"What did they say?"
"They said I didn't have a dad!"
"Back then, they used your misfortune to play a cruel joke on you. Just like what you're doing now."
"I..."
"Think about how you felt when they pranked you. That's how Nishimiya feels. So, tomorrow, go and apologize to her properly, okay?"
Miyako's face softened into a warm smile.
"Okay."
———————————————————————
anwhile, after school, Hojou Kyousuke walked out to the school gates.
"Kyousuke! Over here!"
A small girl was already waiting there, waving energetically when she saw him.
To make sure he noticed, she even jumped up and down.
"Sakura, didn't I tell you not to shout at the school gates?"
"What's the big deal? Everyone's already gone. Anyway, why are you so late today?"
Sakura Yamauchi's amber eyes sparkled like a cat's in the glow of the setting sun. Despite waiting alone for a while, she showed no sign of annoyance.
Her carefree expression and lively voice were accompanied by the gentle sway of her brown ponytail as she spoke.
"You always have an excuse. Let's go. Your mom's probably already prepared dinner and is waiting for you."
"Hey, hey, speaking of dinner, I asked Mom to make tonkatsu tonight. Want to co over and eat with us?"
Sakura's mother, Yamauchi Makoto was a traditional Japanese woman who doted on her lively daughter, who was more energetic than most boys.
"No, if I go to your place, my mom would be left eating alone. That's just sad."
Kyousuke refused without hesitation.
This kind of conversation happened almost every day.
Even though he usually declined, Sakura would still list off her family's dinner nu and invite him over.
"What's the big deal? You can bring your mom along too!"
"Still no. That's too much trouble. Besides, this is your last fried food allowance for the month, right?"
"Fine, fine~~"
Sakura wasn't discouraged by the rejection.
She continued to chatter happily, skipping every few steps as they walked.
Occasionally, her heavy backpack would pull her off balance, but she wasn't worried.
She knew the boy beside her would always catch her.
"Can you walk properly?" Kyousuke asked, exasperated, as he reached out to steady her for the fifth ti.
"Hehe, what's the big deal? You're here, after all," Sakura replied cheerfully, continuing her one-person ga of hopscotch, completely ignoring the concept of walking normally.
Even though they'd been walking this route to school for three years, but every day with Kyousuke was a joy.
She didn't necessarily want Kyousuke to co over for dinner every night.
Her daily "nu announcents" were more about reassuring him.
For so reason, this boy from the neighborhood had beco like a "third guardian" to her from the day they t.
Every morning before school, he would co over to take her jogging, insisting she needed to exercise.
The first ti, she thought it would be fun, imagining it would be like a playful gym class or a trip to the park to play on the slides.
But no, it was a strict, tid jog with no breaks until they finished!
How unfair! She was just a third-grade girl. Why did she have to jog every day?
So, the next morning, when her mom knocked on her door to tell her Kyousuke was here to take her jogging again, Sakura buried her head under the covers and shouted, "No! I don't want to jog anymore!"
"But Hojou-kun brought you a gift," her mom said, a hint of amusent in her voice.
"What kind of gift?"
Curious, Sakura cracked open the door, her pink pajamas with little bears printed on them peeking through.
"It slls delicious. I think it's sothing tasty. I'm drooling just from the sll," her mom teased.
"Gulp."
Sakura, her stomach empty after just waking up, couldn't help but swallow hard.
"Fine, I'll go see. But I'm definitely not jogging with him!"
"Alright, then hurry up and get dressed. Or are you planning to et Hojou-kun in your pajamas?"
"Of course not!"
Blushing, Sakura quickly shut the door to change.
Watching her daughter's adorable reaction, Makoto smiled contentedly.
Such a precious daughter was surely the dream of many parents.
As for the boy next door, Hojou Kyousuke, Makoto couldn't help but feel curious.
First, it was unusual for a child his age to be so focused on exercise.
Second, she couldn't understand why he insisted on taking Sakura along.
'Was jogging alone too lonely for him?'
But the most surprising thing was that Kyousuke seed to know Sakura would refuse to jog today and had brought food to tempt her.
'Ah, is this what they call childhood sweethearts?' Makoto thought, her mind drifting to a future where her daughter walked down the aisle in a white kimono.
Clutching her cheeks, Makoto stood outside her daughter's room, lost in her daydream.
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