"Still… still a little bit…" Shouko stammered, raising her hand to show a tiny gap.
"Still a little bit?" Tsuna didn't fall for her trick and pressed, "How much is 'a little bit'? How many pages have you finished?"
"Just… just… just a little bit."
Shouko's voice grew softer and softer, and her head gradually lowered. Then, she suddenly thought of something, looked up at him, her eyes sparkling:
"Tsuna, I forgot how to draw those poses from this afternoon. Can you come again tomorrow?"
"Don't even think about it." Tsuna poked her fair forehead unceremoniously. "Besides, you secretly took pictures of me this afternoon, and I haven't even said anything about it yet. Now that you've brought it up—"
"Hey, hey, hey…!"
Shouko didn't wait for him to finish, quickly covering his mouth. She glanced at the living room entrance to make sure there was no movement, then released her hand and let out a long sigh.
"What do you mean, 'secretly took pictures of you'? That's slander! I'll tell Godmother!" Shouko put her hands on her hips, her tone carrying a hint of threat.
"Tell me what?"
"!"
Shouko stiffened and turned to look at Shizuka, who had appeared at the living room entrance at some unknown point. She asked weakly, "God… Godmother, when did you get here?"
If she really had to tell Auntie Miyamura, she wouldn't dare. She didn't want a third person to know about this kind of thing at all.
"Just now. What's wrong?" Shizuka walked over to the sofa and sat down, looking puzzled. "You just said something about slander. Did Tsuna bully you?"
"No, no." Shouko shook her head repeatedly in denial.
Unlike the two who were still chatting, Tsuna got up and ran, not giving Shizuka any chance to lecture or question him.
At this moment, he knew his mother would definitely side with Shouko. Running was the right thing to do.
"…"
"Tsuna, wait for me."
"Godmother, I'm going upstairs to draw illustrations with Tsuna first." Shouko grabbed her tablet, waved to Shizuka, and without waiting for her response, tiptoed and hurriedly followed his footsteps.
"These two children…" Shizuka watched them leave the living room, her gaze lingering for a long time before she withdrew it.
---
In a rented room on Futaba Street, raindrops pattered against the window.
"Menma!"
"My Menma!"
Compared to the morning, several crumpled paper balls were scattered on the floor of the originally narrow and messy rented room.
"Ring… ring… ring…!"
Hishirugi's nose was red, and his gaze shifted from the tear-stained book in front of him to his phone. He saw that it was a call from a colleague and good friend from the sushi restaurant.
Without hesitation, he chose to hang up.
"Ring… ring… ring…"
"What do you want, Tanaka?" Hishirugi's tone was slightly impatient.
"Well, I saw you took a day off, so I wanted to call and check on you."
"Isn't that what 'LINE' is for?" Hishirugi was speechless. His emotions, which had been stirred up by reading Anohana, dissipated by more than half because of the other party's words.
"How can checking on 'LINE' compare to me calling you directly?"
"…"
"Beep beep beep…"
"So touched?" The guy named Tanaka looked at the hung-up call, pouted, put away his phone, and returned to the back kitchen.
Hishirugi, who had hung up the phone, immediately put his phone on silent and continued reading the remaining few pages of the second volume of Anohana.
Not long after, another negative review appeared under Tsuna's Twitter post.
"Miyamura, you old scoundrel! Give me back Menma and my day off! (Japanese swear word) (Japanese swear word)"
---
"Tsuna, is this really okay? Will they really not come knocking on our door?" Shouko looked at his mischievous actions next to her, feeling a bit worried and hesitant.
"It's fine. Isn't this to appease those readers whose emotions are out of control?" Tsuna chuckled and waved his hand.
"…"
Seeing that Shouko was no longer stopping him, Tsuna decisively posted a "Scum Scum" anime emoji on Twitter. Within ten minutes, the latest post had dozens of comments.
Most of them were concerned about his health, and a small number wanted to express their feelings by asking for his address to send gifts.
Shouko looked at him, full of mischievous fun, shook her head helplessly, and continued drawing her unfinished commission.
"Oh, right!" Shouko suddenly looked up at Tsuna. Her illustration on the tablet had a few extra strokes due to her sudden movement. "Tsuna, I suddenly thought of something."
"Huh?"
Shouko asked worriedly, "Ajitani-chan and the others haven't finished reading the second volume yet. What if they finish it and come knocking on our door?"
He hesitated for a moment. "Good question, I don't know either, but they probably won't do anything. At most, they'll yell for a refund…"
"…"
Upon hearing this, Shouko no longer asked anything. Both she and Tsuna got busy. These illustration commissions had already taken almost half a month, and it was about time to speed up the submission.
There were also things Tsuna had assigned to her to do, and most importantly, there wouldn't be much time once school started.
Tsuna, on the other hand, was checking I Want to Eat Your Pancreas for typos and other issues.
This time, he wanted to send the entire book directly to Futaba Publishing. If it was going to be a tearjerker, it would be a complete tearjerker, unlike Anohana, which was divided into two volumes.
At the same time, he also planned to release Your Lie in April in February of next year, giving Futaba Publishing two months to prepare for a release in early April.
---
Two days slowly passed. The cooling effect brought by the heavy rain two days ago disappeared by noon the next day.
"Tsuna, have you asked Jun about the sales of the second volume of Anohana these past two days?" Shouko sat on a brown bench in the park, staring at him as he constantly rubbed Hachiko's head, extremely curious.
"No, I haven't paid attention to that question these past two days." Tsuna stopped his actions and shook his head. "The comments on Twitter are getting more and more numerous. I'm even planning to enable mute."
"If you're curious, you can just use my phone to ask Jun."
"Okay." Shouko didn't hesitate. She reached into his pocket, took out his phone, and immediately sent a message to Jun on LINE.
The park was filled with the fishy smell of mud mixed with the scent of grass, and the musty smell of moss growing in the cracks of the stones.
Cicadas chirped like rusty springs, ceaselessly, and the gurgling sound of circulating water came from the nearby fountain pond.
"Have Takagi and the class president said anything these past two days?" Seeing her staring at him without speaking, he then asked curiously.
Shouko shook her head. "No, everything is so normal it's a bit abnormal. Logically speaking, unlike Nishikata, who has a part-time job, they should have finished reading it by now."
"Never mind, these aren't important." Tsuna stood up, patted the invisible dust off his pants, and extended his right hand to Shouko:
"Let's go, Shouko. While the sun isn't too strong, let's continue walking Hachiko around the neighborhood."
Hachiko, wagging his tail, silently waited for the two to interact.