Laid-Back Life in Tokyo: I Really Didn't Want to Work Hard-Chapter 870 - 512: Go Jogging to Find a Girlfriend (Kidding)_2

Chapter 870: Chapter 512: Go Jogging to Find a Girlfriend (Kidding)_2

[Accuracy Lv:MAX]

Bored.

That’s all Uesugi Sakura could say about it. He plopped back into his previous seat, intending to watch the black swans and ducks a bit longer before heading home. But not only were the black swans gone, even the ducks were waddling ashore.

Their home was a small wooden hut built by the female students of Tokyo Art University.

Very plain, with no paint or patterns, just a small entrance for them to squeeze into.

However, those swaggering ducks brazenly ran into the black swans’ house, squeezing in with the female black swan inside.

Do the ducks want swans for wives too?

Uesugi Sakura took out his phone again, ready to snap a photo of this strange scene. Just as he opened the camera app, Twitter suddenly popped up with a notification.

[Someone replied to your post]

With curiosity, Uesugi Sakura leaned back against the bench and tapped on the notification.

There were two replies.

One was from Towa Rina—[What are you doing up in the middle of the night? You didn’t come to work today, be careful or the manager will fire you!]

And another from Hanamaru Hanabi, her private account ID was just her name.

[Is this the school backyard? Sakura, aren’t you going home to sleep?]

Uesugi Sakura selectively ignored Towa Rina’s reply.

As for Hanamaru Hanabi’s... Uesugi Sakura hesitated for a while, typed a long message on his phone, but then thought it inappropriate and deleted it, only to type a brief reply:

[Just sitting for a while, getting ready to head home]

After hitting the send icon, Uesugi Sakura exhaled, turned off his phone screen, and got up to leave.

Walking along the school pathways, Uesugi Sakura didn’t know why he felt nervous replying to Hanabi just now.

During the rehearsal in the afternoon, her gentle and fragile gaze left a deep impression on him, her eyes seemed to linger in his mind, leaving a lasting aftertaste in his heart.

He didn’t know how many minutes had passed when he arrived near the school cafeteria. Since the university was an open campus, there were many businesses around.

The street was brightly lit, with the aroma of cooked and fried food wafting through the air from time to time.

Ramen, oden, takoyaki, milk tea, tacos... various food vendors were present.

It was ten in the evening, and the crowd here was neither too many nor too few. Many couples could be seen walking hand in hand, chatting and laughing as they lined up.

Even though he had a wife himself, he still felt a bit envious of them.

Uesugi Sakura didn’t understand what he was feeling.

"One serving of oden, two chikuwa, two fish roe pouches, two boiled radishes, two fish tofu, please."

Uesugi Sakura approached a shop’s small window, peering through the rising steam as he spoke to the owner inside.

"Sure thing!"

The owner was a slightly plump man with an Osaka accent, wearing a chef’s hat, who responded enthusiastically.

"Would you like clear broth or spicy broth?"

"Spicy, with extra chili."

"No problem!" The man’s voice grew even more enthusiastic, as if the warmth of his food could be conveyed through his voice.

On such a chilly day, it was precisely this warmth and the flavor of the oden that could add a trace of warmth to one’s heart.

Standing outside the small window, Uesugi Sakura waited.

"Hey, Christmas is almost here, what are you gonna get me?"

"A present? What do you want?"

"I want... everything!"

"Then I’ll give you... everything!"

The couple cuddled together for a bit, happily tapping their foreheads together.

At this moment, their faces were full of smiles.

The sweet scent of love, Uesugi Sakura couldn’t help but internally comment on the couple buying skewers next door as they openly flirted.

But... Christmas is almost here.

Although Uesugi Sakura didn’t usually celebrate Christmas, it seemed the perfect occasion to give Hanabi a small gift.

Just the thought of giving a gift made Uesugi Sakura a bit troubled, not knowing what to give.

He had given her a sapphire necklace a while ago, she wore it often, if he gave another one, would she alternate them or wear two at once?

What was he thinking?

They hadn’t even patched things up yet, and he was already thinking about gifting.

Maybe it was the boredom of waiting for food, Uesugi Sakura glanced over at that couple again.

What he saw startled him.

The two of them had started kissing passionately right in front of him, the guy pinning the girl to the wall, showing his dominant side.

Hey, hey, even I haven’t been this open, have I?

Kissing intensely on the street in front of so many people, is that really appropriate for you two?

Surely it’s not proper, right?

If this were during the Showa era, a couple kissing like this in public might’ve been dragged home by their parents for a mandatory breakup.

Then the couple would be separated by great distances.

From initial reluctance fading into forgetfulness, until eventually, whether the other person existed or not wouldn’t even matter.

—Uesugi Sakura scratched his head, wondering what nonsense he was thinking about; he usually wasn’t like this.

Yet seeing that couple gaze affectionately at each other, feeling their shared warmth, Uesugi Sakura suddenly felt colder.

Even with the oden’s steam wafting into his face, he didn’t feel any warmth.

His gaze drifted into the distance, where he saw the Tokyo Tower glowing in orange lights.

It was illuminating the entire city with Tokyo’s lights, turning the night sky into a layer of orange-black.

"One serving of oden, two chikuwa, two fish roe pouches, two boiled radishes, two fish tofu, please."

"Sure! But gotta wait for this young man’s order to be finished first, haha, you all ordered the exact same thing."

Suddenly hearing a familiar voice while gazing afar, Uesugi Sakura turned back reflexively, immediately spotting Hanamaru Hanabi smiling at him, wearing a beret.

Her delicate face was lit with a rosy smile, strands of her light and smooth hair gently swaying in the fleeting night breeze above her shoulders.

"You... what brings you here?"

Upon seeing her, words churned in his throat for a while before these words came out.

Confused, Uesugi Sakura thought he was hallucinating.

"No... it should be why are you here?"

"Can’t Hanabi be here?"

"Didn’t think so..."

"See, it’s fine then, isn’t it?"

Hanamaru Hanabi took out her phone from her waist bag, tilting the screen towards him: "Sakura, you posted something around 10 o’clock, so Hanabi knew you were still at school and figured you wouldn’t go home early, so I took a taxi from Shinjuku."

"You specially came all the way from Shinjuku by taxi?"

"Yes."

The girl stood amid the street lights, outlined by the night, her face basked in luminescence.

Her posture was slender and graceful, enchanting in her youthful beauty.

Uesugi Sakura didn’t know how to describe her smile, her silhouette at that moment, just finding it so familiar, so pleasing, so heartwarming.

"Young man, your oden is ready." The shopkeeper jovially handed out a portion of oden.

"Why are you spacing out, Sakura?" Hanamaru Hanabi waved her small hand in front of his face, spotted the oden, then walked over and smiled at the shopkeeper, "Mine should be the same as his, perhaps you could give this one to me first?"

"Well... haha, you’d better ask the young man, but with a pretty girl like you asking, I’m sure he’ll agree, young guys love pretty girls!"

Holding her freshly prepared oden, Hanamaru Hanabi stood before the shop window’s white light, slightly tilting her head to smile at the dazed Uesugi Sakura:

"So... can Sakura give this one to Hanabi first?"