"Starting the lesson now, don't call me Shouko Teacher… wait until we get home!"
Shouko leaned close to his ear and warned in a low voice.
"Okay, okay, okay."
"Let me think…"
Shouko touched her chin and recalled, "I remember for straight lines, you draw horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines. The purpose is to train wrist stability."
As she spoke, she drew the lines she mentioned on the drawing board.
After confirming that Tsuna nodded and remembered, she continued, "And for curved lines, you draw wavy lines and spirals. The main purpose is to improve hand fluency."
"The last one is hatching—"
"Hatching is drawing parallel lines and cross-hatching. It's also to lay the foundation for subsequent shading and texture," Tsuna answered quickly.
"How did you know?" Shouko asked him in a surprised whisper.
"You've pretty much said everything you needed to say, so I guessed," Tsuna couldn't help but reach out to pinch her cheek when he saw her cute expression.
But she dodged it and instead got a slap.
"Then hurry up and start drawing. Stop being so touchy-feely. You need to show respect to your teacher, understand, Tsuna?"
Shouko snorted lightly.
Tsuna nodded repeatedly in assurance. After a brief playful banter, they both started practicing on their respective drawing boards.
In the blink of an eye, it was past five in the afternoon, and the number of people in the Art Club classroom gradually decreased.
Tsuna glanced at his watch, told Shouko, and helped her pack up the drawing boards and tools.
He stood up, said "Bye-bye" to the few remaining people in the classroom, and left.
---
As time passed, the two of them settled into their club routine, spending over a month studying peacefully in the Art Club.
The last ray of the setting sun was swallowed by the horizon, and night quietly spread. The city lights lit up one after another, like scattered stars falling into the human world.
"Tsuna, tomorrow is Saturday, where should we go play?"
Shouko lay on Tsuna's bed, hugging his pillow tightly, her fair calves dangling over the edge of the bed.
Tsuna stared at the screen and asked without turning his head, "Didn't Takagi and Class Monitor make plans with you this weekend?"
"Yes, but I only agreed to the weekend. I want to go out with you tomorrow."
Seeing that his attention wasn't on her, Shouko quietly sniffed a certain person's pillow.
"I don't know where to go play either…" Tsuna stopped typing on the keyboard.
Putting everything else aside, he and Shouko had already visited all the places they could within a ten-kilometer radius...
If it was too far, they would need to report to their parents, but they couldn't think of anywhere to go either...
"Hmmm…" Shouko looked at the ceiling and thought for a moment. "Tsuna, do you still remember the shrine we went to during the fireworks festival in sixth grade?"
"Going there is fine too." The image of the unreliable Miko flashed through Tsuna's mind.
"Okay! Then it's happily decided."
With the end of this topic, the only sound left in the room was the tapping of the keyboard. The two of them would occasionally chat idly.
"Tsuna! I just saw an interesting question online."
"What?" Tsuna turned to look at her.
Shouko walked directly to the chair next to him with her phone and sat down.
"It's about me and Miyamura Auntie falling into the river, who would you save?"
She looked at him with anticipation, hoping to hear an interesting answer from him.
"You should watch less of this stuff, it'll affect your brain." Tsuna chose not to answer but instead raised his hand and poked her forehead.
"Oh…"
"Then can you answer this question first? I won't look at questions like this anymore," Shouko gently rubbed her forehead.
"I'd save my mom."
"Oh…"
She had expected the answer, but when the words "I'd save my mom" fell into her ears, her chest still felt like it was pricked by a fine needle.
But she still asked, unwilling to give up, "Then why can't it be me?"
Tsuna chose not to look into her eyes but stared straight at the computer screen.
"That's because, if one day this question falls on our son, I hope he will also prioritize saving his mom."
As soon as he finished speaking, he slowly shifted his gaze to her eyes, but the moment their eyes met, she lowered her head.
"..."
"..."
"..."
The atmosphere suddenly became quiet. After a while, Shouko stood up abruptly with her head lowered, threw the pillow she was holding at his face, and quickly left his room.
At the same time, she didn't forget to leave a message: "Who wants to have a child with you, Tsuna, you're shameless!"
He looked at the girl's flushed ear tips, silently threw the pillow back onto the bed, and continued with his own business.
"Shouko, running so fast, be careful not to fall," Shizuka, who heard the downstairs movement in the living room, reminded her.
"Got it, don't worry, Godmother, good night."
Shouko quickly ran past the entrance of the living room without stopping. She changed back into her shoes at the entrance, opened the front door, and walked out quickly.
"Click…"
"This child…" Shizuka shook her head helplessly when she heard the sound of the door closing.
---
"Damn it!"
Tsuna, who woke up early in the morning, cursed in Japanese and reluctantly got up to take a shower in the bathroom.
Shizuka in the dining room saw his actions early in the morning and immediately guessed the reason, but she didn't ask too many questions.
This is the child's private matter, and let his father talk to him about boy problems.
"Dad, Mom, I'm going for a run!"
Tsuna came out of the bathroom, blow-dried his hair in the living room, shouted to the two people in the dining room, and walked to the entrance to change his shoes.
"Be careful."
"Do you want to eat something first?"
"No need, I'll eat when I get back."
"Click…"
Only after the sound of the door closing did the two people in the dining room continue their conversation.
"When he comes back, remember to talk to him about those issues. I don't know how to bring it up," Shizuka poured Daisuke a glass of milk.
"Okay," Daisuke swallowed the food in his mouth. "Got it."
Some issues really need to be discussed with him, otherwise, he can't possibly figure them out on his own, right?
Tsuna, who had just walked out of the house, looked up at the sky, took a deep breath of the morning air, and started to move his legs, slowly accelerating.
The horizon had just turned a crab-shell green, and the asphalt road was still steeped in the lingering night.
His soles crunched on the dew like thin frost, and the scent of caramel drifted from the back kitchen of the bakery across the street, mixing with the new white roses from the adjacent flower shop, brewing into a semi-solid honey in the 6:30 a.m. breeze.
Empty milk bottles clinked on the iron rack of the milk truck, startling the tabby cat perched on the roof of the newsstand.
The gold dust it shook off when it arched its back was actually the morning sun filtering through the gaps in the sycamore leaves.
---
"I'm back!" Tsuna opened the front door with the key from his pocket and shouted into the house.
"Welcome home."
The response was Shouko's sweet voice, who had arrived at some point.