Laid-Back Life in Tokyo: I Really Didn't Want to Work Hard-Chapter 818 - 486: Coffee and the Café

Uesugi Sakura had been following behind Hanamaru Hanabi the whole way.

The city streets, the pedestrians weaving through, and the sound of cars driving echoed in the air, behind him was the sign of the Pork Bone Ramen Shop in bold black letters.

Uesugi Sakura followed the light and carefree figure of the girl not far in front, watching her stop, holding her shoulder bag with both hands behind her back, and tilting her head slightly as she looked around.

The girl decided her direction, her lightly swaying skirt turned to the right, and she soon disappeared at the intersection.

"Moving so fast?"

Seeing his wife suddenly disappear out of sight, a sense of urgency burst in Uesugi Sakura’s heart, and he hurried to catch up.

Turning at the intersection, he found her stopped in front of a vending machine.

The girl slightly lifted her chin, using her violet eyes to scrutinize the items displayed inside the vending machine.

She stood on tiptoe, starting from the highest row, looking over each one.

"Hmm, corn soup, mochi red bean soup, tea, coffee, milk tea..." Hanamaru Hanabi’s gaze finally settled on a drink in a carton, "Let’s have barley tea!"

At this moment, a hand appeared in her line of sight, selecting two bottles of the drink she had just looked at.

"Sakura-kun?"

Hanamaru Hanabi followed the suddenly appearing hand to the side, only to discover Uesugi Sakura had arrived at her side.

He smiled at her, using his height to his advantage: "I’ll have a bottle too."

"Isn’t Sakura-kun one to only drink coffee?" Hanamaru Hanabi’s face, turned up to him, was spotted by sunlight.

"Not necessarily, aren’t we heading to a café now? And one shouldn’t consume too much caffeine in a day, it’s natural to choose between coffee beverages and authentic coffee."

Uesugi Sakura fished out two 500 yen coins from his pocket, inserting them into the vending machine’s coin slot.

With a clunk, two cans of barley tea were dispensed and landed in the collection bin below.

Hanamaru Hanabi squatted down, placing her shoulder bag on her legs, and reached through the vending machine barriers to retrieve the tea.

She handed one bottle of barley tea to Uesugi Sakura with one hand while holding her own with the other, then stood up with her shoulder bag.

The afternoon sun hung in the sky behind them as they continued toward the train station.

"Sakura-kun seems to have always liked coffee." Hanamaru Hanabi held her shoulder bag with one hand and a carton of barley tea with the other, having a bit of trouble adjusting to the change.

"That’s right. Let me do it." Uesugi Sakura tucked his bag under his arm, took Hanamaru Hanabi’s barley tea from her small hands, peeled off the straw, inserted it, and handed it back to her.

"Thank you, Sakura-kun..."

Hanamaru Hanabi whispered her thanks softly.

After taking the barley tea, her glistening lips slowly bit the straw, taking a gentle sip.

"You’re welcome."

The white straw moved gently under her sipping, and Uesugi Sakura watched her slender white fingers lightly grip the carton, her long sleeves partially covering her small hand, making her grab-and-sip action appear extremely cute and exquisite.

The girl walked the street, drinking through the straw, an ethereal dreamlike beauty.

Only then could Uesugi Sakura truly understand what it meant for a beautiful girl to make anything she did admirable.

He couldn’t help but feel that the face she had while drinking was so adorable, her lips sipping the drink were so tender, her fingers clutching the carton appeared intricately carved from jade.

Just like seeing her earlier on campus, wanting to hold her hand.

As Uesugi Sakura extended his hand toward her, her voice interrupted him:

"Sakura-kun, when did you start liking coffee? Ever since Hanabi met Sakura-kun, Hanabi’s known you liked that."

Hanamaru Hanabi and Uesugi Sakura first met in the snow when they were three years old. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Given such a calculation, Uesugi Sakura’s hobby indeed seemed rather premature.

"Hmm..."

Uesugi Sakura drank his own bottle of barley tea: "Hanabi-chan... you know I have many secrets, right?"

"Mm..." Hanamaru Hanabi gently nodded, biting the straw and turning to look at him, and said, "Hanabi knows, Sakura-kun has many little secrets he can’t tell."

Uesugi Sakura: "What if I say, these secrets might be hard for you to believe, Hanabi?"

"Difficult to believe? But... even if Sakura-kun speaks of such things as another life, Hanabi is willing to believe you, Sakura-kun."

As expected.

Hearing Hanamaru Hanabi’s words beside him, Uesugi Sakura wasn’t overwhelmed with sensation.

He simply smiled, thinking it truly was like this, little Hanabi really was a girl willing to believe him unconditionally.

"Seems like little Hanabi really wishes for such things to happen?"

"Yes, exactly," Hanamaru Hanabi released the straw from her mouth, nodding, "because then it would mean there truly is a miraculous thing like another life, right?"

The two suddenly, in sync, stopped, and the girl tiptoed to whisper in Uesugi Sakura’s ear:

"If there really is another life, Hanabi could find Sakura-kun and fall in love again."

"Hanabi..." Uesugi Sakura couldn’t help but turn his head to look at her.

Hanamaru Hanabi met his face, tilting her small head slightly as she spoke: "Of course, it wouldn’t be the current Sakura-kun, because your favorability is only -10 points, not enough for Hanabi to love enough to chase into another life yet!"

"So if the favorability is high enough, would you really want to be together in another life too?"