Tokyo: Who would still fall in love after being spoiled?

Chapter 108: A man and a woman traveling together is a date
After eating the watermelon, Takeda completely recovered his spirit, and he could truly feel that the energetic Takeda was back.

The half of the watermelon that belonged to Takeda was eaten very cleanly. There was not a trace of red on the inside of the rind where it was scraped by the spoon. It looked like a work of art deliberately left by a fruit carver with some kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

"How about we go to the movies together?" Takeda jumped up from the sofa, turned off the TV and asked him.

"Movie?"

Before he could react, Takeda changed his mind.

"No, no, it's best to watch a movie in the evening," she said, amending herself. "The first step is to find a nice restaurant for dinner. And before that, there are still a few hours left, so we can go shopping."

"Didn't you say you were going to rest at home today?" He didn't mind going out with Takeda to do something, but staying at home wasn't a bad idea either.

I asked this question just to confirm how Takeda would make a decision so that the rare day off would not be wasted.

"I've already rested! Besides, people change their minds all the time, everyone is no exception."

"Everyone?"

"For example, you might decide what to eat for lunch before breakfast, but once you're full, your lunch cravings change as you're full," Takeda said, giving an example. "Has this never happened before?"

"Why should I think about what to eat for lunch before breakfast?" he asked rhetorically while thinking back.

His days were relatively long, and there was a high probability that such episodes existed in them, but they did not immediately emerge in his mind - this showed that he was not the type of person who liked to change his decisions according to the situation. Unless some decisive major accidents occurred, he would always live his life step by step according to plan.

He soon thought of the cactus doll and the light novel that he had casually read and helped him kill a lot of boring time - that was his state when he had no plans, his mind was empty, and he had no idea what he wanted to do.

Therefore, it is not so much that he does not like to change the "idea" that Takeda mentioned, but rather that he hardly ever has such an "idea".

This part is relatively missing for him.

"What if I ask you now, what are you going to eat tomorrow morning?" Takeda asked, dissatisfied with his reaction.

"Butter bread." He thought for a moment.

“And then tomorrow I prepare a carefully prepared breakfast with rice, fried fish and vegetables, and tofu and scallion miso soup, and you smell the aroma - will you not eat it?” she said.

"I would eat it, if there is any."

"That's called changing your mind," Takeda concluded.

"So," he said, breaking away from the thoughts that were trying to figure out the difference between 'idea', 'decision' and 'plan', "so, I can have breakfast made by you tomorrow morning?"

"Of course not!" Takeda said confidently, and then suggested an alternative. "There are some uneaten instant lunch boxes in the refrigerator. I can heat them up in the microwave for you."

"It will be two days by tomorrow morning, right?"

"Two and a half days."

"That kind of stuff should be left to the trash can," he said.

Theoretically, some foods can be stored in the refrigerator for a longer period of time, but he does not have the corresponding knowledge and cannot identify which lunch boxes in the refrigerator belong to this category.

Moreover, the taste of the bento heated in the microwave is really not that good, and some weird bento boxes are even difficult to swallow.

"So, how about going out with me and walking around somewhere?"

"Where to go?" He didn't have any place he wanted to go at the moment.

"Let's go out first!" Takeda urged him, already slinging his messenger bag.

"No need to touch up your makeup?"

"Instead of asking me to touch up my makeup, why not just wash it off!" Takeda said disdainfully, "It won't affect my shopping, and maybe it will prevent me from being stopped and hit on by some random guy."

"I'm here right next to you," he said.

"You look so weak, how can you protect me?" Takeda pretended to look at him carefully, looking him up and down, and criticized him.

"It just 'looks'." He had not learned any professional fighting skills, but he had basic physical training. At least he would go jogging in the morning most days.

It can definitely not be described as "fragile".

Maybe his arm and wrist strength is stronger than that of ordinary people.

"In any case, we will definitely not be able to beat those strong ones." Takeda put his hands behind his back, walked around him half a circle, and walked towards the entrance.

"Maybe..." He began to sincerely hope that Tokyo's public security would be strong enough to ensure that he and Takeda would not be targeted by strong bad guys when they went out shopping this afternoon.

In fact, from a certain perspective, Tokyo's public security is indeed abundant to the point of overflowing. There are police patrolling almost every street corner, and these police are also notoriously "meddling".

If I see someone wandering around, I will definitely go up to them and ask them where they are going. Sometimes, if I see someone looks young, I will even check their student ID.

But it is also notoriously "inefficient". It may take two or three days to find a cat; even something like a child graffiti on a dusty car window can be made into a case - the investigation into Takeda's mother's car accident was delayed for several days because of these things.

In short, managing small things is to show that they are working hard, but it does not mean that they are actually working hard.

"Is there somewhere you want to go?" After they walked out the door and down the scattered steps, Takeda asked him again, "If you were to go out for a stroll to kill time, where would you usually go?"

"Let's go for a walk in the park."

"Gone?"

"Or by the river, or any relatively quiet street." He thought for a moment. "When I was back home in Tottori, I would go for walks in the fields, follow the mountain paths up to a certain point, and then return the same way."

"Boring." Takeda couldn't understand.

They passed by the wild cat cattery, and he subconsciously looked at the entrance. The watermelon he bought was still there intact. Amano had not finished his work at the Hayami High School Wind Orchestra yet.

"What about you?" he asked.

Takeda also looked towards the stray cattery, but his eyes were drawn to the cats. After completely passing by, he looked away and did not notice any changes.

"We have to go somewhere lively." She thought about it and suddenly had an idea. "I have..."

Following her impulse, they boarded the train to Shinjuku.

He originally thought he would go to places like Clothing Street or Arcade Hall, and considering the "lively" condition, he even actively excluded bookstores, tape stores and coffee shops.

But Takeda pulled him all the way to the commercial street that specialized in selling accessories, handicrafts, electronic products and other items.

"What kind of mobile phone charm do you like?"

"I haven't thought about it." He doesn't have any accessories on his phone, and even the phone case was given as a gift by the phone store when he bought the phone.

"Where are the pen holders and pen stands?" Takeda saw a row of porcelain cats with their hands raised high.

"I recommend cutting off the top half of a MAX coffee can." That's how the pen holder in his room came about.

At that time, he was still in junior high school in Tottori and lived in a student dormitory. One day, he suddenly felt that the pens scattered on the table were a bit of a nuisance, so he made one and has been using it ever since.

But in most cases, stationery bags are still used.

"earphone?"

"What I have now can still be used." At this point, he finally understood what Takeda wanted to buy for him.

"Where are the wireless headphones?" Takeda asked again.

He took the earphone case out of his pocket and showed it to her.

When they went to the next store, he and Takeda each wore a wireless earphone in their left ear, the most common white in-ear earphones.

He was asked to play a song. He clicked on the music app's playback charts and started playing from the first song. Takeda stared at him and pouted.

"Don't you like it?" "Put what you like." She gave the order.

So he opened his phone and saved this song, which was probably the most popular song on the island, to his "I Like" account.

He was stepped on and his cell phone was snatched away.

After Takeda fiddled with his phone for more than ten seconds, the prelude to "The Roof" sounded in his headphones.

His collection list is categorized by language type.

The Chinese list only contains Chinese songs.

"Like listening?" he asked.

Takeda didn't say anything until he finished listening to the first chorus, then asked him, "Can you sing?"

He hummed a tune.

"I mean the lyrics."

So he continued humming along with the lyrics.

"I like listening to it." After listening to his humming, Takeda finally nodded and said seriously.

"Next time I go to a karaoke bar, I'll sing it all over again."

"I see there are Russian songs in the collection. Can you sing them?"

"Almost." He had learned some Russian, but not as fluently as Chinese, Island languages, or even English.

It was just enough for daily communication, so that he could occasionally go to places like Siberia to see the snow he longed for, and try to find some inspiration from it.

Even after I became an art exam teacher, I would still go there occasionally if I felt like it.

The Siberian snow is even quieter than winter in rural Tottori. All is still and silent. Spend enough time in the snow and you might even forget where you are.

"Let's sing to me together then." Takeda frowned and said softly.

"Order."

"Hey, Inoue--" She turned to him, stared into his eyes face to face, and called out.

This is a watch shop that sells mostly mechanical watches. Even the battery-powered models use hands to display time. There are no models with electronic screens.

They stood face to face surrounded by these clocks with stopped hands.

"What do you have that I don't know?" Takeda asked softly.

"Want to hear?"

"If you're willing to tell me."

"I used to go fishing often back home in Tottori, so I was pretty good at it," he said after thinking for a moment.

"Yeah." Takeda nodded and looked away.

He also broke away from the atmosphere that seemed like he was in a confrontation with Takeda.

"Don't like fishing?" he asked.

"I do like fish," Takeda said honestly. "Anything else?"

"I can swim too. It takes about 30 minutes to swim 1,500 meters." So swimming a few laps in the river next to the park was easy for him.

"Fishing, swimming... and sailing?" Takeda asked according to his own thoughts.

"I can drive a boat, I can drive a car, and I can ride a motorcycle," he said half-jokingly. "If it weren't for the age limit, I would get my driver's license right now and take you for a ride on the streets of Tokyo tomorrow."

"Finally, there's one that sounds good." Takeda smiled and said, "Write it down for now. I'll ride your motorcycle after I graduate from high school."

"If there's a chance." He imagined riding a motorcycle with Takeda on his back, their bodies always pressed together, with Takeda holding him.

"Anything else?" Takeda was silent for a moment and then asked.

"Well..." He hesitated for a moment, and finally began to speak, "Actually, I can cook, but I'm just too lazy."

"Cook?"

"And my cooking skills are pretty good." He leaned in to examine a mechanical watch closely and said to Takeda, "At least no one else in our Inoue family is as good as me."

"It sounds like a big family, with several mountains." Takeda said with a sigh.

"Dad, Mom, and me." This is the actual situation.

"Actually, I can cook too." Takeda thought of something and smiled happily. "I'm a pretty good cook—but I was just thinking, if I'm the only one who can cook, wouldn't I have to make breakfast all the time?"

"how come."

"Hey, you think so too, right?"

"I think it would be just as troublesome even if we took turns preparing breakfast."

"Quibbling." Takeda was in a good mood as he hummed the melody of "Haven't Heard It Yet" playing in his headphones.

"That's right."

"Hey, Inoue, do you prefer mechanical watches or digital watches? There are also those wristbands that can connect to the Internet..." Takeda noticed his gaze and asked.

"A cell phone is enough."

"There are always times when my phone isn't with me or runs out of battery," Takeda said. "According to school rules, students at Kita-Sakura High School aren't allowed to bring cell phones."

"It's actually tacitly allowed." He didn't know whether other people brought their phones, but on the first day after the second grade class was re-divided, a girl came up to him with her phone and asked him to be his Line friend...

I guess most students brought it secretly.

"It's tacit consent... Choose one, if you have to wear a watch."

"...a mechanical watch, perhaps."

It relies on a spring for power. As long as you pay attention to winding it regularly, it can keep running for decades.

Whether it is an analog watch or an electronic screen, the battery of an electronic watch needs to be replaced every few years - at least one day the battery will need to be replaced - and this feeling of anxiety will always accompany those who use them.

The latest smart bracelets need to be charged more frequently, but the advantage is that they can be connected to the Internet and always display the most accurate time in a certain sense, making people feel that they are truly connected to the entire society.

But he didn't particularly enjoy the connection.

Takeda stared at the mechanical watch he had just seen for a long time, and naturally saw the price.

"When you take me for a ride, I'll buy you a mechanical watch." She said in a soft but serious voice.

"Then the motorcycle belongs to you?" he asked.

"Just let me ride the back of the motorcycle." Takeda couldn't help but chuckle again. "I don't know how to ride that kind of thing."

"Get yourself a motorcycle helmet."

"Just like you."

"Then buy the same one as mine."

(End of this chapter)