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

Chapter 55 The misunderstanding between him and Amano is spreading from the piano club
Sakurai, who was unable to attend due to some matters, recommended a sukiyaki restaurant. The four of them, with the help of the generous Amano, stopped two taxis and took the bus to the vicinity of Omotesando.

The final payment method discussed was to split the bill equally, but in the end, Kimura still couldn't invite guests.

In fact, the four people had different opinions - Amano didn't say a word the whole time, which was considered as abstention, and Kato wanted him to treat everyone to comfort Kimura who was crying.

It was Kimura who insisted that everyone share the cost equally, so even the radical Kato had no choice but to let her go.

"It's incredible..."

He and Amano were sitting in the same taxi. When they were alone, Amano took the initiative to talk to him.

"what?"

"Kimura-san."

"Isn't it incredible..." He remained noncommittal.

Looking back over the past half month, they hadn't done anything special. If it had been their former teacher, Igarashi, they would probably have gotten the same result.

"I lost again." Amano said, looking at his profile carefully.

"The competition starts tomorrow, why are you so eager to admit defeat?"

"I wasn't able to help Kato-san play the same piano sound as Kimura-san did tonight." Amano stated the facts.

"Really..." He looked at the street view outside the window.

He had only taken taxis a few times since arriving in Tokyo, and this was his first time taking one at dusk. Looking out the car window at the brightly lit city streets was a novelty for him.

"Thank you." Amano said suddenly again.

"I beat you, and you still want to thank me?" He turned around and saw Amano lifting her hair, with the corners of her mouth slightly raised, and a different color flashing in her eyes as she looked at him.

That must be the light reflected from the street scene, flickering and flowing with the hustle and bustle of traffic.

"Thank you for helping me." Amano Atsunori said.

The tone, expression, and everything else were exactly the same as when he said, "I just know it," while waiting for the award ceremony in the concert hall.

If I had to point out a difference, it would probably be the lighting. The bright light in the concert hall allowed me to clearly see every detail of Amano's profile—his eyelashes, the tip of his nose, his lips, and his pretty face.

Now all he could see clearly was the rough outline of the girl's face and the light from the busy street.

"There has to be a reason, right?" he asked, warning her not to keep silent like she did last time.

If he had to guess, it would be nothing more than Sakurai letting the cat out of the bag, or some other unimaginative reason like a misunderstanding by an adolescent girl.

But since the person was Amano, he always felt that everything was different. At least, no matter what, mental patients and ordinary people cannot be generalized.

"If it weren't for you, teaching Kimura to play the piano would be my job." Amano looked out the window through the gap between the seats. "So no matter what your purpose is in teaching her, you're helping me. That's one thing."

Kimura and Kato's taxi was in front, and theirs was always following closely behind.

"That makes sense." He nodded. This one point was actually enough.

"You were very attentive, and your plans were very thorough," Amano continued. "From the very beginning, you put yourself on the same level as Kimura-san in the competition, trying to gain the upper hand. Then you made the impromptu decision to join the competition I was in. And finally, you put the money you extorted from Kimura-san in a piggy bank and returned it to her after the competition was over..."

"If your only concern was to win me, why would you put so much thought into it?" She smiled charmingly. "That's the second reason."

"I just do whatever comes to mind." He couldn't say that he had been an art exam teacher for half his life. "Doesn't that mean I'm also a genius at being a teacher?"

"Can a mentally ill person be a teacher?" Amano must have seen that he was pretending to be confused, and asked with a smile.

"I am at best a doctor, and you are the patient."

"Aren't doctors and patients the same in Amei Liao?"

"Not on Cybertron."

"Is it?"

This is where the discussion about why he taught Kimura to play the piano ends.

The taxi took them to their destination.

Early summer, sukiyaki, dinner parties, and the sound of drink glasses clinking.

Cruciferous shiitake mushrooms, beef slices coated in egg liquid, Chinese cabbage soaked in broth, fried tofu... the iced soda is refreshing.

Where we went for the dinner, what we ate, how good it tasted... it didn't really matter. Years later, when I think back on it, all I remember is this: a dinner after the first semester of my second year of high school.

What to eat?
Sukiyaki.

where is it?
Omotesando.

What about the taste?
Who still remembers...

The protagonists of the dinner were Kimura and Kato. They ate and chatted, talking endlessly about many topics related to the piano club, him and Amano, and tomorrow's competition.

He and Amano are both supporting characters.

Amano sat in the corner by the window, picking up some food from time to time, and spent most of his time staring out the window in a daze.

He was halfway through his meal when he received a message from Takeda.

She asked him if he had time, and waited for her to finish her part-time job so they could find a place to celebrate the start of summer vacation.

After receiving the message, he only drank beverages - not because he disliked the taste of the sukiyaki here.

It’s just ordinary sukiyaki, but the portion is affordable and few can compare with it at the same price, so it’s very popular among students.

Speaking of this, through Kato and Kimura's casual chat, I learned that the most popular restaurant among high school and college girls nowadays is Malatang.

You can choose your own dishes, have the waiter cook them for you, and then prepare a sauce for you to eat.

It is said that this effectively solves the problem that sharing the cost of meals will make people who eat less or do not like to eat feel dissatisfied.

It’s just that there are currently too few malatang restaurants in Tokyo, resulting in long queues in almost every restaurant, and they also have to practice piano, so they didn’t go for the time being.

On the way back, Amano just hailed a taxi and drove away with Kimura and Kato.

He said he wanted to send them home, and if he was really dissatisfied, he could ask her to reimburse the travel expenses when they met next time.

So he hailed a taxi himself.

On the way home, my phone rang with a Line notification tone, indicating that I had received a message from an unexpected account.

[Kimura: Thank you.]
He seemed to have transformed into a great good man.

The villain seems to have really been whitewashed.

[Inoue: Why are you thanking me? The real thing is that you beat Kato in the competition.]
[Kimura: Is this just an excuse?]
After the villain is whitewashed, will the good characters be strengthened? Why doesn't he remember this convention in mainstream comics?
[Kimura: I often see you and Amano-san sitting together for dinner, and they always eat the same meal.]
"..."

[Kimura: Actually, I don’t hate Amano-san as a person, I just hate the way she does it…]
Oh well, there are more and more misunderstandings.

When will he be able to explain this clearly?

Kimura: Every day after school, we have a limited amount of time to practice piano. And even though there are only Kato and I in the piano club, she always assigns most of the time to me—I just hate that, so I always do the right thing.
[Kimura: Kato is obviously a better player than me.]
[Kimura: Limited resources should be allocated to more qualified people.]
[......]
Even when he got out of the taxi on the old residential street near his rental house, Kimura's monologue was still circling and echoing in his mind.

The only sound in my ears was the dull echo of wheels rolling through the empty alley.

If there were no him, there would be no Amano.

What will become of this competition between Kimura and Kato?
If Kimura and Kato were born in a family like Ichinose's, even if their family did not support them spending too much time on their hobbies, they would still have plenty of financial support.

What will become of their lives...

He walked into the front yard of the rental house and turned on the door light. There was a note on the door written by Takeda: "Leaving the light on for too long will waste electricity, so I won't turn it on!"

There was a picture of a little bear in the lower right corner of the note.

He stared at the little bear for a long time.

I gathered my thoughts, came to my senses, dug out a gel pen from my shoulder bag, and added a sentence at the bottom of the note:

[This young master has plenty of money, so just leave the light on.]
　Thanks to Zhi Qingyi for the 4 monthly tickets.

　　Thanks to Zosma, Yeyu Xinglan, and book friend 20210301104143906430 for the 3 monthly tickets.

　　Thanks to Dianqingui, Bored Jess, and book friend 20221108181731110 for the two monthly tickets.

　　Thanks to Xia Weiqi, Youyouzi6, reader 1191996299569446912, book friend 20240507205607621, and book friend 20180621091707538 for their monthly tickets.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)