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After settling the two lolis, Kitahara Makoto turned and walked into the convenience store.
It was just seven o'clock in the evening, which was a busy time for the supermarket. After Kitahara Makoto entered, his gaze immediately fell on the long queue in front of the cash register:
"Could Bocchi-chan be queuing to pay?"
Slap.
Kitahara Makoto lightly tapped his forehead.
"I was overthinking. With Bocchi-chan's super social anxiety, making her queue with so many people would be even worse than killing her…"
Kitahara Makoto looked around, starting to search for dark corners where ordinary customers wouldn't go.
Bocchi-chan had a special ability: when there were many people, she could instinctively find unnoticed dark corners and hide in them. The convenience store was now crowded, so to quickly find Little Miss Anxiety, it was clearly in an unoccupied dark corner.
Facts proved that Kitahara Makoto's idea was completely correct.
As he specifically searched for dark corners, before long, a Aho-hair girl hiding behind a pillar in a corner, exuding a dark aura, wearing her characteristic pink tracksuit, and with yellow and blue hair clips, came into view.
Who else could it be but Bocchi-chan?
"Found her."
Kitahara Makoto's eyes lit up, and he stepped forward from behind.
As he got closer, he soon heard Bocchi-chan's seemingly inner monologue of murmuring:
"So scary! So scary! So scary!"
"I didn't expect the convenience store at seven in the evening to have so many people. I feel like I've seen the hell described in Dante's Inferno…"
"The convenience store is hell!"
"I really want to go back to my mother's womb. The outside world is too scary…"
It seemed she sensed the approach of a stranger's aura. Gotō Hitori shrank her neck, about to quietly slip away and continue searching for a new dark corner to hide in.
Kitahara Makoto quickly extended his right hand and called out, "Hitori-chan, don't go yet."
"…"
Hearing the familiar voice behind her, Gotō Hitori's body suddenly stiffened. She subconsciously turned her head, and upon seeing Kitahara Makoto, a hint of surprise flashed across her small face, followed by her face rapidly turning red at a visible speed. She frantically tried to run away.
They had just kissed yesterday, and the girl's sense of shame hadn't cooled down at all. She completely didn't know how to face Kitahara Makoto now, and her first thought was to run away.
"Wait." Kitahara Makoto quickly called out, "You don't want your sister to get lost, do you?"
Gotō Hitori's foot, which was raised in mid-air, stopped abruptly:
"F… Futari?"
Kitahara Makoto seized the opportunity, quickly walked to Little Miss Anxiety's side, then stopped a meter away, so as not to scare away the startled-deer-like Bocchi-chan again. He raised his hands and said softly: "I brought Hana-chan to the Commercial Street for dinner, and at the entrance of the convenience store, I saw a little kid with pink bobbed hair. I felt a strange sense of familiarity, so I asked her name, and that little kid said her name was Futari… Is she Hitori-chan's sister?"
Gotō Hitori nodded subconsciously.
"Then you can rest assured." Kitahara Makoto said softly, "I've asked Hana-chan to look after Futari."
"Hoo…"
Gotō Hitori quietly let out a sigh of relief, nervously looked up at Kitahara Makoto, then quickly lowered her small head again.
"This won't do."
Kitahara Makoto pressed his brow, beginning to ponder a solution.
Although Little Miss Anxiety hadn't run away, her entire body was tense, so normal conversation was clearly impossible.
"I've got it." Kitahara Makoto's eyes lit up. He took out his phone and suggested, "Hitori-chan, how about we communicate using our phones from now on?"
"Eh?"
Kitahara Makoto used a retreating tactic to advance, saying:
"I know Hitori-chan must hate me a lot right now, so how about we lean against this pillar and communicate with our phones?"
(I… I don't hate you…)
Gotō Hitori parted her pink lips, wanting to deny it, but the words got stuck in her throat and she couldn't say them.
Kitahara Makoto turned around and leaned against the pillar, then sent the photo he had just taken to Gotō Hitori:
"Just in case, confirm again, is the child in the photo your sister?"
Gotō Hitori quietly raised her head, saw Kitahara Makoto leaning against the pillar, put her hand to her chest, secretly breathed a sigh of relief, then leaned against the other side of the pillar, her small face flushed as she took out her phone.
"Ah… yes, it's Futari. I just looked for her for a long time and couldn't find her."
Kitahara Makoto: "I knew she looked familiar… But Futari said you got lost, and she was worried you two would miss each other while searching, so she chose to wait at the supermarket entrance for you to come out."
Gotō Hitori: "I… I didn't get lost… I saw a very, very scary presence, got scared and quickly hid, and then Futari disappeared…"
Kitahara Makoto: "Was it an evil spirit?"
Gotō Hitori: "Not an evil spirit, it was a teacher from junior high school. She was super strict in class…"
"…"
I see.
What do socially anxious people fear most in daily life?
What they fear most is encountering acquaintances.
A teacher from junior high school, strict personality, plus a chance encounter at the convenience store… the buffs are fully stacked. In Gotō Hitori's eyes, it was definitely an existence like a monster. The moment her radar detected it, she would definitely immediately detour and hide, getting as far away as possible.
Kitahara Makoto: "Don't worry about Futari, she and Hana-chan are playing outside. I've asked Hana-chan to protect her. Hitori-chan, why are you at the convenience store when it's so crowded?"
Gotō Hitori: "Uh, um... Dad went on a business trip, and Mom has to work overtime again today, so she messaged me to buy tomorrow's groceries, especially to grab the discounted eggs... This is my first time coming to the convenience store at this hour, I didn't expect so many people..."
Kitahara Makoto: "Have you bought the groceries yet?"
Gotō Hitori: "Not yet..."
Kitahara Makoto: "Should I help Hitori-chan with the shopping?"
Gotō Hitori: "..."
"Since you're not speaking, I'll take it as Hitori-chan agreeing." Kitahara Makoto put away his phone, looked at Bocchi-chan hiding on the other side of the pillar, and said seriously, "Futari is still a child, if she can't see her sister for too long, she'll definitely be scared, right? So let's hurry up, buy everything, and then leave."
Gotō Hitori: "..."
Kitahara Makoto snapped his fingers: "Hitori-chan, stick close to me, we're ready to shop."
"..."
Gotō Hitori's small face was flushed like fire, and she instinctively followed, like a small tail, two or three meters behind Kitahara Makoto.
In Little Miss Anxiety's eyes, Kitahara Makoto at this moment was clearly like a hero saving others in times of crisis...
Seeing Little Miss Anxiety follow out of the corner of his eye, Kitahara Makoto's mood immediately brightened.
Stay calm.
Don't rush.
At a time like this, you have to take it slow.
If he rushed too much, he would definitely scare Bocchi-chan away.
Anyway, they had already kissed, so Bocchi-chan couldn't possibly continue to deceive herself and use excuses like 'friends' to escape. The next step was to take the initiative and slowly win Bocchi-chan over!
A moment later.
"Discounted eggs, check."
Kitahara Makoto sent a message to Little Miss Anxiety: "What else do we need to buy?"
Little Miss Anxiety couldn't communicate with Kitahara Makoto by speaking for the time being, but sending messages to each other was no problem:
"Mom said we also need to buy a head of broccoli."
"Broccoli, check. Anything else?"
"Also need to buy two small cucumbers..."
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