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

Chapter 131 The beautiful girl’s sister is also cute in a different way
As Asakura said this, he looked up at the clock hanging on the wall.

He looked in the direction in which it was pointing. The hour hand was between four and five, and the minute hand was moving from five to six.

The clock does not have a second hand, so when you stare at it blankly, you will not feel anxious because of the strong sense of "time passing by every minute and every second".

"If Inoue-senpai has a date, but not with another girl... can you take me with you?"

When he got no response, Asakura looked away, lowered his eyelids, and asked in a different way.

"If it causes unnecessary misunderstanding, I will explain it first and say that she is your sister." She added and winked at him.

This was a cry for help—he had this thought again, just like the last time Asakura suddenly asked him to go to the movies together.

But because he knew so little about Asakura, he couldn't even tell whether it was an illusion.

Besides, even if he really wanted help for something, why would it be only him?
"I'm not that interested in fireworks, so going to the festival is fine." He said ambiguously.

The phone in his pocket rang with a Line message ringtone at an inopportune time, but he ignored it for the time being.

"so……"

"If you want to go and take a look, I can go with you and just kill time."

"That--"

ding dong ding dong --

This time it was no longer his cell phone ringing, but the sound coming from the entrance.

Someone rang the doorbell and shouted.

"Sister—are you home?"

It is the voice of a girl, with a tender and clear tone.

He caught a glimpse of helplessness on Asakura's face, which quickly disappeared. He stood up from the low table and went to the entrance to open the door.

"Ah!" The girl who came to visit immediately raised her handbag the moment Asakura opened the door. "Today is Obon Festival! I brought some souvenirs."

"Thank you." Asakura just said without reaching out to take it.

"Sister, are you still busy writing a book? I was afraid that you would forget the Ullambana Festival, so I came here to accompany you," said the girl.

Asakura was standing between him and the girl, so his face couldn't be seen. He was shorter than Asakura and was probably in junior high school.

Perhaps fearing misunderstanding, the girl quickly added, "I'm just here to keep you company. I don't want you to go back..."

Asakura said nothing and took a step aside to allow the girl to enter the entrance.

This allowed the girl to see him sitting in the room without saying a word from the beginning.

"Ah!" the girl was startled.

"Inoue, the illustrator for your sister's novel is discussing work." He looked at the girl, holding up the script in his hand and explained, "Don't get me wrong."

The girl had short hair, barely reaching her ears, and wore a sports shirt, wide-leg shorts, sneakers, and short cotton socks. Her exposed skin was fair, but her breasts, which made it easier to tell a girl's gender apart, had barely begun to develop.

If they met by chance on the train, he would probably think of Asakura as a boy, just a little weaker.

Also, comparing the younger sister to Asakura herself, aside from their cute looks, there's almost nothing in common in appearance...

"Oh! So that's it! Hello, Mr. Inoue! Thank you for taking care of me, my sister!" The girl was a little panicked and bowed to him first.

"Sir..." He didn't really care, but noticed that Asakura looked a little strange, so he complained appropriately.

"Mr. Inoue is only a second-year high school student this year." Asakura couldn't help but smile and looked at him with gratitude.

"Eh!"

The girl stayed where she was, and the atmosphere finally eased.

"You can tell from my appearance, right?" he joked. "Do I look that old? Your sister calls me senior, too."

"I'm not calling you senpai just because of your age..." Asakura handed his sister another pair of cat-ear slippers. "Inoue-senpai's online account has been posting illustrations for five years now, right? And the quality has been quite high since the first illustration."

"Five years ago..." The girl was changing her shoes, still shocked by his age. "That means he was in elementary school... So impressive..."

"It was four years ago." He had to correct it out loud.

When he was in elementary school, he didn't have his own mobile phone or computer, let alone a drawing tablet, so how could he create an account and publish his works?

"That's great... no, it's super great!" The girl quickly ran to the low table, put the handbag containing the souvenirs on the table, and stared at him.

There were almost stars in his eyes.

"Please take good care of me from now on, Mr. Inoue!" The girl bowed to him again and said wholeheartedly.

"It will take at least another two years to finish writing 'The Wrong Love'." Asakura sat down next to him again and joined in the conversation.

“How can it be only two years… two years…” The girl muttered to herself, not knowing what she was thinking.

"I forgot to introduce myself. This is Xiao Zhu, my younger sister. She is currently in the third grade of junior high school."

"Thank you for your guidance, Senior Inoue!" Xiao Zhu bowed for the third time.

"Does your sister also want to write light novels or draw illustrations in the future?"

He could tolerate being called 'Mr.', but he really didn't want to hear 'senpai' anymore, so he asked Asakura. "Um~ No, I just heard my sister call me that, so I followed suit." Nagisa shook her head. "Nagisa, I haven't decided what I want to do in the future yet, but I heard that high schools often have industry tours."

"Yes." He chose to visit a publishing house during his freshman year of high school, which in a sense was like helping his own publishing house to scout out the enemy's situation.

"Where did Inoue-nii go?" Xiao Zhu leaned over the table and came closer, her eyes shining. "Sister almost never participated in school activities in high school. She never went once."

"Publisher."

"Ah... Oh! Are there other situations like this, where you are suddenly recognized by the editor while on a visit, and you ask the editor to keep it confidential while chatting with him...?" Xiao Zhu was very interested.

“We visited other publishing houses that we had never worked with before.”

"So you're visiting a competitor? Did you use your student status to sabotage anything during the visit?"

"It's just a normal visit. Besides, there are still opportunities for cooperation in the future." Is this girl probably reading too many light novels, or is it normal for junior high school students to have such thoughts?
"Oh! That is to say, even though we are now cooperating with the publishing house where my sister works, we cannot offend other publishing houses. We must leave more ways for ourselves to fall back!" Xiao Zhu suddenly realized.

"Almost." He didn't want to continue the topic.

"By the way, Inoue-nii-san didn't want to go to the fireworks today like nii-san? Instead, he came here to talk about work during a holiday."

"I was the one who sent the message for Inoue-senpai to come," Asakura interrupted.

"Sister..." Xiao Zhu suddenly felt disappointed with her sister.

"Let's not talk about me for now." Asakura changed the subject. "You came to me at a time like this. Are they okay?"

"It doesn't matter, Dad...they actually want to..."

Xiao Zhu wanted to say something but stopped himself, considering that he was sitting next to him, and probably also considering Asakura's personal feelings.

"I didn't make any reservations to buy paid tickets to watch the fireworks, so you won't be able to see them if you follow me." Asakura himself, at least on the surface, looked normal.

"There are fireworks every year, and it will be the same next year," said Xiao Zhu.

"Same here, it'll be the same if you come and stay with me next year."

"What's the difference... Xiaozhu can start working next year and save up money to buy tickets to watch the fireworks with her sister."

Asakura was silent for a moment, and Nagisa was a little excited. After she finished speaking, she stared at her sister for a long time.

He looked at the hands of the clock on the wall, wondering if his presence was no longer necessary here.

Or maybe, Asakura wanted to go to the festival with Nagisa because she thought that Nagisa would look for her today.

Listening to the conversation between the two sisters, Asakura felt that he was in a similar situation to himself at least in one respect - they were both unable to watch the fireworks with their families on this day because of "distance".

But Ullambana has now become a joyous festival that is more celebratory, and many people go to the festival and watch the fireworks with their lovers, friends, or even classmates and colleagues.

He just happened to have no classmates close enough for him to want to go watch the fireworks with, and his friends just happened to be with their families, so he just happened to have nothing to do.

"Inside..." Asakura opened his handbag to see what souvenirs Nagisa had brought.

"Oh! Nagisa used her allowance to buy firework sticks, thinking that if her sister doesn't like going to crowded places for festivals, they can find a quieter park to play together."

“…” Asakura took out the plastic bag containing the fireworks sticks from his handbag and poured it on the table.

There are the most common incense stick fireworks, firework sticks, as well as firework spinning tops and firework fountains placed on the ground, and there are quite a few of them.

"These must cost a lot of money, right?" Asakura picked up a firework fountain and looked at the product information printed on the packaging.

"Xiao Zhu has saved up quite a bit of pocket money, don't look down on me."

"What about this?" In addition to the fireworks, there was also a gift box of medium size in the handbag.

"Father asked me to bring this... He said you would like it, sister."

"Like this." Asakura released his hand that was about to open the gift box, put it back into the handbag, took it aside, and placed it next to the TV cabinet.

The relaxed atmosphere just now was immediately broken.

He took a moment to check the message on his phone. It was from Ah-yi, asking him if he knew of any yukata shop where he could rent a yukata.

He hadn't even told Ah-yi that he had returned to Tokyo from Tottori, yet he received this kind of news. It was a typical example of desperately seeking medical help.

Less than five minutes and ten seconds ago, it was A'an who said that Asukai had found the yukata shop.

He thought about it, sent a message back, and put his phone away again.

"So, when do we leave?" He took the initiative to put the fireworks spread out on the table back into the plastic bag.

"Brother Inoue wants to come too?" Xiao Zhu was still obedient. She immediately changed her address after hearing his suggestion once, unlike her sister who still called him "senior".

Asakura also looked at him, a little surprised.

"I just happened to have nothing to do..."

The Line ringtone of the phone in his pocket rang again. He took out his phone and saw that Ah-an had sent him a Google Map address to share.

"Before going to the festival, let's rent a yukata."

He checked the address, calculated the route, and suggested to Asakura.

(End of this chapter)