Hearing Koshigaya Suguru's question, Miyauchi Hikage couldn't help but scratch his head.
"You don't actually believe that boring village gossip, do you? Kaede is four years older than me. When she was in high school, I was still an elementary schooler. The only reason we're on good terms is because of Renge, okay?"
Kagayama Kaede, 19 years old this year, was a graduate of the Asahigaoka branch school, but she was four grades ahead of Miyauchi Hikage.
The reason Miyauchi Hikage was on good terms with her was because she was very fond of Renge. After seeing Renge at school once, she would often bring snacks and toys to the Miyauchi house to look after her.
And on the Miyauchi family's side, the elders were busy with farm work, Kazuho was away at university at that time, and Hikari liked to mess around everywhere, so the job of taking care of the young Renge naturally fell to him.
It was also during that period that he became familiar with Kagayama Kaede.
After she went to high school, Kazuho graduated and came back to Asahigaoka to be a teacher and had time to look after the child, and Renge also gradually became more sensible and didn't need as much looking after. Although they interacted less frequently, they still saw each other often, but the topic of conversation never strayed from Renge.
And in Kagayama Kaede's third year of high school, because of her grandmother's death, she, who had good grades and a hope of getting into university, chose to drop out and return to Asahigaoka to take over the snack shop left by her grandmother.
When Miyauchi Hikage learned of this, he began to have designs on Kagayama Kaede.
At that time, it was just when the Asahigaoka revitalization plan was starting to make a name for itself and was recruiting people from all over. The young people in the village were basically all rounded up by him, and even the old men and women in the village were pulled over by him to film several episodes of "Asahigaoka's Past".
Miyauchi Hikage remembered that in the anime, Kagayama Kaede had complained more than once about her shop having no customers.
So he had a long, heart-to-heart talk with Kagayama Kaede, and in the end, using the bait that her snack shop would no longer have to worry about the number of customers after the revitalization of Asahigaoka, he made her the public promoter and promotional ambassador of the plan.
Now, the situation in Asahigaoka was excellent. The whole village had made a lot of money. As the leaders, the Miyauchi family, and the main implementers, the Koshigaya and Kagayama families, were the biggest beneficiaries.
The snack shop, which was originally just a small shop, had expanded into a three-storefront convenience store, and Kagayama Kaede's own image was registered as a trademark and used on Asahigaoka's agricultural products.
In addition to that, because she would occasionally make a guest appearance in the videos in the image of the convenience store proprietress to promote products, she also had a certain degree of popularity online.
To say something a bit hurtful, the current online fame of Hoshino Ai was really not as high as Kagayama Kaede's.
As for the gossip about him and her, it had pretty much started when the snack shop was being renovated—a girl who had dropped out before even finishing high school must have gotten together with the Miyauchi family's boy. Why else would they give her so many benefits for no reason?
This gossip had spread like wildfire in the village. Although Miyauchi Hikage had heard about it, no one had ever dared to mention it in front of him.
He naturally couldn't just stand up and clarify things, let alone say something like "I originally wanted my eldest sister to work for me as a shield, but my eldest sister was lazy and refused to do the work, so I had to settle for second best and find Kaede, who gets along well with my Renge and happened to be at home with nothing to do, to help me out."
He just hadn't expected that even Koshigaya Suguru would think this way.
But thinking about it carefully, it seemed understandable.
The way he and Kaede sometimes interacted indeed didn't look like ordinary friends to outsiders.
In many people's hearts, a relationship between a man and a woman that is more than friends is naturally that of lovers.
It was just that they, who had changed diapers and fed milk to Renge together when they were little, and spent their days thinking about how to make Renge happy, really couldn't spark any flames of love.
If they really could, given the situation in the countryside, Kagayama Kaede's child would probably already be walking by now.
Their relationship was more like that of a brother and sister. Mmm... a brother-sister relationship where the brother is four years younger than the sister.
After all, to cultivate the girl from the anime who had no taste in clothes and relied purely on her natural looks into the current, bona fide promotional ambassador of Asahigaoka, Miyauchi Hikage had also spent a lot of effort.
After briefly explaining to Koshigaya Suguru, Miyauchi Hikage, without the slightest bit of guilt, went straight to Kagayama Kaede's convenience store.
In fact, Koshigaya Suguru's worries were purely unfounded.
His conversation with Kagayama Kaede was very smooth. Not only did he tell her his plans without reservation, but he even briefly tested whether she was a diary holder.
And Kagayama Kaede's response was also very normal.
She supported Miyauchi Hikage's decision to gradually let go and also expressed her own thoughts on the future development of Asahigaoka.
As for the matter of the diary, from the current looks of it, she was not a diary holder.
After all, her role in Non Non Biyori was indeed not that big. Even the possibility of the two Koshigaya sisters getting the diary was much greater than hers.
After spending a few hours discussing work, because it was time for dinner, Miyauchi Hikage also stayed for a meal without any politeness.
At the dinner table, they habitually chatted a bit about Renge.
"Renge is starting elementary school in a few days. Hikari and I are both going to school in Tokyo. Although Kazuho-neesan will be with her, you know her personality. She's basically a large-sized mascot."
"So do you want to attend the entrance ceremony of the Asahigaoka elementary school? If you're there to accompany her, Renge should be very happy," Miyauchi Hikage made this proposal.
After detaching from her work mode, Kagayama Kaede's somewhat tsundere nature subconsciously revealed itself. "What's so great about the entrance ceremony of a rural school with only a few students? I'm managing so many things right now, how would I have the time to go."
But Miyauchi Hikage could tell at a glance that she actually really wanted to go.
Dealing with this kind of tsundere was too simple.
"You haven't been to see the Asahigaoka branch school after it was renovated last year, have you? Our families paid for it together. You should at least go and inspect the results."
"Weren't you guys just having classes there a month ago? What's there to see..." Kagayama Kaede muttered, then shook her head. "But I really should go and take a look. If you guys spent the money on useless things, I'll have to get my share of the money back."
After a few more murmurs, Kagayama Kaede had more or less confirmed that she would go and accompany Renge on the day of the school opening.
After dinner, and sitting for a while watching TV, Miyauchi Hikage, thinking that he hadn't yet figured out what to write in his diary for the day, prepared to go home and update it.
But it seemed that everyone now liked to say things they wouldn't normally say just before leaving.
The usually non-gossipy Koshigaya Suguru had asked him if he had thought about how to deal with Kagayama Kaede.
And Kagayama Kaede, just as he was about to leave, suddenly hit him with a soul-searching question.
"You'll be back, right?"
Hearing the rare hesitation in Kagayama Kaede's tone, Miyauchi Hikage just gave her a roll of his eyes.
"Feel free to try and score points with Renge while I'm gone. I'll be impressed if you can score higher than me."
"...You're such a damn siscon!"