And the Jinno family's head, Jinno Sumire, and his daughter Jinno Ai, Hikari seemed to remember having come into contact with them for a while when he was a child.
Thinking it through carefully, his memories from the countryside weren't actually that few.
He wondered if on this trip back he might run into that blond guy from the village and maybe earn a little pure-love karma while he was at it.
Beep! Beep!
Suddenly a horn sounded, the bus driver honked a few times, the door opened, and passengers were signaled to board.
Interrupted from his thoughts, Hikari stopped reflecting and picked up his suitcase, stepping up onto the bus.
He threaded through the aisle for a few steps, found his window seat in the middle of a row, put his suitcase on the rack, and sat down.
As soon as he sat and opened his phone, he saw the message Miss Mira had sent him.
It said that Tsubakihra Yuna and Tsubakihra Nina had finally come home and, since they hadn't seen him in a long time, they really wanted to see him.
When he saw Miss Mira say that those two sisters even joked about taking the next bus to follow him to the countryside, Hikari couldn't help but smile.
Of course that was a joke.
Yuna and Nina probably just meant they really wanted to see him right away, give him hugs and chat and so on.
After all, although he was closest to Miss Mira at home, his relationship with those two non-blood-related elder sisters wasn't any worse; when they were little the three of them could practically fit into the same pair of pants.
So it wasn't just Yuna and Nina who wanted to see him, Hikari naturally wanted to meet and talk with the sisters too.
But he was already on the bus and couldn't get off now, so he'd have to wait until he returned from the countryside to meet and chat with them.
After replying briefly to Miss Mira and the two sisters, Hikari put his phone away.
Holding his head down in one position had gotten uncomfortable, so he loosened his neck and shoulders, turning his head a few times.
Just as he turned his head back, a boy in the row in front of him, who had just turned his head, suddenly stared at him.
"Huh? Isn't that Hikari-kun?", In the seat ahead a glasses-wearing, short, chubby boy greeted him enthusiastically.
"You're… Teuchi from Class 3?", Hikari looked at the short, chubby, glasses-wearing boy and, with his photographic memory, recalled the boy's identity.
"Eh! Yeah, yeah, that's me! I'm from the class next door, Teuchi! I can't believe Hikari-kun actually recognized me!", Teuchi looked pleased to be recognized and smiled.
"No problem, Teuchi recognized me first and greeted me, after all," Hikari replied casually.
"No, no, no, it's not the same! Unlike unknown me, Hikari-kun is famous in our grade, even the whole school."
"Not only is Hikari-kun handsome, good at studying, and well-built, he's also super popular with girls. Our class goddess and those hot girls are always crowding around your class to sneak peeks," Teuchi said with envy.
Hikari just smiled politely and said nothing more.
He wasn't close with Teuchi, so keeping the conversation brief was fine.
But Teuchi didn't want to stop talking and remained extremely enthusiastic.
He stood up and introduced, "Hikari-kun, the girl sitting next to me is from a neighboring school, we hit it off pretty well. Why don't you come chat with us?"
"I just looked at the seat next to you, it seems like an old man was sitting there, kind of… dirty. Watch out for his sweat smell~"
At the end of that, Teuchi's tone carried a bit of gloating and mischief.
Hikari looked up and saw that there was indeed a young woman sitting next to Teuchi, long, smooth hair, not particularly striking in looks, a fairly ordinary figure.
But the look in Teuchi's eyes toward him was one of pride and boasting.
Hikari was a little puzzled, but combining it with Teuchi's earlier words, he quickly understood.
Teuchi was really showing off: proud that a young girl was sitting next to him while next to Hikari there was only a smelly old man.
The reason was that at school Teuchi always saw various beautiful girls around Hikari.
Like the other boys, he had always been envious of Hikari's overflowing luck with the opposite sex, silently grinding his teeth.
So seeing Hikari in a rare "losing" position made Teuchi happy, and he couldn't help but gloat.
Like an animal that finally bested a rival and attracted a mate, he was strutting in pride.
Although Hikari guessed the truth, he still didn't fully understand.
Because while there was indeed a young girl beside Teuchi now, her looks and figure were much inferior to any of the beauties who normally surrounded Hikari.
Perhaps Teuchi knew this too, but from his perspective, finally outshining the ever-popular Hikari was already cause for joy.
"Hikari-kun, how about it? Want to chat with us?", Teuchi kept inviting, tone full of boasting.
He didn't notice that the girl who had seemed to be chatting with him was secretly glancing at Hikari from time to time; if Hikari had joined the conversation, Teuchi might have seriously regretted it.
Hikari noticed the girl's interested look but shook his head, "No thanks, you two chat. I want to rest."
Turning down the smug Teuchi, he leaned his head back on the seat and prepared to close his eyes.
The older man who'd gone to the restroom returned and, as Teuchi said, was indeed a gruff-looking, not-very-friendly uncle who gave off an unpleasant sweat smell.
But with Hikari's constitution, he could mentally filter that out when he wanted to, so he wasn't bothered.
After a few minutes with his eyes closed, as the bus was about to start, a figure suddenly rushed aboard.
"Wait! Wait up!"
It was a foreign woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, whether she was late or just hadn't found the bus, she was a bit behind and came running on, panting, shouting in not-quite-perfect Japanese.
When the driver saw her face, he didn't make things difficult; he told her to find her seat and they'd wait for her to stow her luggage before leaving.
She thanked him, one hand dragging her suitcase, the other holding her ticket, nervously searching for her seat number.
Seeing this foreign woman moving down the aisle, many of the Japanese men on board couldn't help but cast glances her way.
Not only because she was blonde and blue-eyed, but because she was very pretty.
She looked about twenty-three or twenty-four, with delicate features and short, ear-length hair that didn't diminish her femininity.
Her figure was excessively good, her feminine attributes pronounced.
Though overall slender, above a narrow waist she had a pair of breasts that would make most Japanese women envious and most Japanese men stop in their tracks.
Their fullness strained the white sweater she wore, making it bulge.
In short, she was impossibly eye-catching.
Below, she wore ordinary jeans, but even those were filled out, showcasing a round, full butt and fleshy, attractive legs.
So despite her modest outfit, many people on the bus stared at her.
"She's so pretty, and that body is on fire, what country is she from?"
"Probably America?"
"Doesn't feel like it, more like Europe…"
Hearing the whispered guesses, including from Teuchi, Hikari opened his eyes to look at the foreign woman.
Although people assumed she was Western or American, Hikari, who'd once studied alongside a genuine American for many years, sensed that this woman didn't quite look American or Western.
Although also blonde with blue eyes, he felt she seemed more northern, perhaps Russian.
While everyone speculated about the striking foreign beauty's background, the suitcase wheels stopped and she paused.
Hikari glanced up.
She had stopped not far from Teuchi's aisle seat in the row ahead.
Seeing the gorgeous, busty foreign woman stop in the aisle near his seat, Teuchi's chubby face brightened and he cleared his throat, ready to strike up a conversation.
But the woman checked her ticket, shook her head, and said, "Ah, I almost read the wrong seat number. Good thing I didn't!"
She pulled her suitcase a step forward and came to the aisle beside Hikari's seat.
"17-D…"
"Mm, this is it!"
She muttered to herself and was about to set down her luggage and sit.
But when she looked up, she froze.
———
On the bus, the young blonde woman clutched her ticket, staring at the seat that should correspond to her ticket, a little dazed.
Both seats in that row were already taken.
A burly uncle and a good-looking young man were occupying them.
She checked carefully and was pretty sure her seat was the aisle one on that side.
The foreign woman, Alisa, politely said to the uncle, "Excuse me, sir, that seat seems to be mine. Could you please make room?"
Before coming from Russia to Japan, Alisa had heard Japanese people were especially polite and courteous seniors.
So she expected that after her polite reminder the man would politely stand, bow, apologize, and move with a friendly air.
But the broad-faced uncle glared at her and snapped, "What are you saying, foreigner? Can't read the numbers? This is my seat!"
Startled by the sudden rebuke, Alisa's body trembled. She fumbled to open her ticket and check again, the number was correct.
After comparing seat numbers two or three times, she timidly spoke up, "I checked my ticket, this should be my seat. Maybe the booking system messed up? Could you show me your ticket, sir? I can show you mine…"
The burly uncle waved his hand suddenly and, very impatiently, said, "I don't want to see it! Get lost! Such a big person and you can't find a place to sit or stand? Foreigners are idiots, get away from me!"
Alisa trembled under the roar and didn't know what to say.
From the tone and the confrontation, the people watching roughly guessed the truth.
It seemed the seat matched the foreign woman's ticket, and the uncle either hadn't bought a seat ticket or had a standing ticket and was flagrantly occupying someone else's seat.
Seeing someone who looked weak and easily bullied, he shouted to scare her off.
Although it was upsetting to watch, no one stepped in.
Japanese social norms discouraged meddling in others' business.
Besides, she was a foreigner they didn't know, and the uncle was big, tattooed on his shoulders and neck, nobody wanted to get involved.
Teuchi, who'd been excited to have the foreign beauty sitting behind him, immediately shrank back at the uncle's loud voice.
Initially thinking it might be a misunderstanding, Alisa, who seemed a bit bewildered, began to piece things together when she saw the uncle's ferocious face. She anxiously said, "This is my seat, I have a ticket, please sit somewhere else!"
The seat-stealing uncle didn't budge, folding his arms and slanting his eyes, "I told you this is my seat, it's my seat. If you say you have a ticket and want to sit, fine. Sit on my lap then, hehe!"
At the end, the uncle leered lasciviously at Alisa's full chest and shapely thighs.
"You… how can you say that!", Alisa was nearly in tears from his rude and domineering words.
Hearing the girl's near-sob, many felt pity; the driver and a few unwilling-to-stand-by passengers were about to speak up.
But the uncle seemed to notice people wanted to intervene and roared, "This is my seat. I want to see who'll stand up for a foreigner and bully a local like me! Traitors who worship foreign things, step out!"
Hearing that, those who'd been about to help shut up, not wanting to be labeled as siding with foreigners over local Japanese.
More importantly, the seat-stealing uncle looked huge and vicious, not worth provoking.
People figured someone else could handle it.
Including the trembling Teuchi, most passengers were thinking the same.
"I…I really didn't get the wrong seat! This really is the seat on my ticket!", Alisa, with no one willing to help and the uncle pressing on, stood helplessly, tears beginning to fall.
She didn't have much experience traveling far and didn't know how to handle this sudden situation.
[T/N: She maybe Alya from 'Alya Hides Her Feelings' but the only think making me doubt is Blonde hair. Also, her name is Alisa in the manga.]
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