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

Chapter 96 On the other hand, everything is for Miss Takeda
After saying goodbye to Amano in front of the restaurant, he put on his headphones and searched for the video of the Hayami High School Wind Orchestra's performance in the Tokyo Metropolitan Competition on the video website.

Press the play button and walk towards the tram station to the sound of music.

The Hayami High School Wind Ensemble chose "Raise the Flag of Courage" as its theme song, a march with an upbeat rhythm; the free song was "When the Sun Rises" (吹奏楽のための風景詩「陽が升㘇るとき）, which has a sometimes tight and sometimes slow rhythm, and a serious and tense mood, which is very different from the style of the theme song.

Judging from the first listening impression, there was no problem with the performance of the subject song, and there were many flaws in the free song, but considering the membership restrictions of the orchestra itself, they were all within a reasonable range.

If we really want to debate why it won the gold medal but didn't get a spot in the Kanto competition, we can only analyze it from the perspective that in the judges' evaluation system, "When the Sun Rises" is less pleasing than "Gorgeous Dance".

He focused on listening to the trumpet part of the free song to verify his guess when he heard Amano say that he wanted to compete with him again.

There was actually no problem with Hayashi Takashi's trumpet playing skills, but he was certainly not as skilled as Tamura.

Amano must have taken this into consideration, which is why he chose to be responsible for the trumpet solo during the competition.

So if Hayashiko really wins the competition and goes to participate in the Kanto Tournament...what will she do?

Should I transfer temporarily from Kitakura High School, where I recently transferred, to Wassei High School, and then come back after participating in the Kanto Tournament or even the National Tournament?

He thought about this while sitting on the train on his way back, and asked Amano on Line.

After waiting for the answer, he turned off the phone screen and stared at the night view of the city outside the car window for a long time before he came to his senses.

[Amano: Inoue-san said that he would definitely ensure that the Kitakura Wind Ensemble won the competition.]
[Amano: It's only been a few days, and you're already going to break your promise?]
When did he become an omnipotent superman in Amano's eyes and gain such a high level of trust?

[Inoue: Amano-san, does that mean you can get a perfect score just by wanting to?]
He thought about the wording, picked up the phone again, edited the text, and sent it out.

[Amano: In that case—I'll help Inoue-san complete the transfer procedures from Kita-Sakura High School to Hayami High School in advance, so you don't have to worry too much about it.]
Well...it seems that even if he doesn't want to be the soloist, he has to find a way to try his best.

He turned off the phone screen again.

This time, he took off the headphones as well.

The tram arrived at the station, and all kinds of noises from the surroundings suddenly came towards him.

He followed the crowd out of the station and followed the navigation on Google Maps to a large supermarket near the station.

I bought some soup bases and dipping sauces for cooking hot pot, and also bought a hot pot set that can be used indoors with anthracite and does not require a smoke extraction pipe.

Then I went back to the tram station, took the tram and went back to the rental house.

If you count carefully, there are far more than just Sukiyaki hot pot on the island.

Pork hot pot, beef offal hot pot, puffer fish hot pot, sumo hot pot, and even soup tofu are also considered types of hot pot.

He was not very interested in these categories. He used his points to buy all the ingredients that came to his mind and filled the living room dining table with them.

Although the origin and production time are marked in front of each ingredient in the points store and the price is not cheap, the exchange rate between points and island currency is high enough, so after careful calculation, it doesn't cost many points.

When ten o'clock passed, he assembled the hot pot set, lit the anthracite, poured the broth cooked on the stove into the hot pot, and cooked it over low heat.

Send a message to Takeda via Line.

[Inoue: When will you be back?]
Steam rose from the hot pot, and the window facing the backyard was pitch black. The only sound in the entire rental house, besides the sound of him tapping on his phone, was the bubbling sound of the boiling hot pot.

He placed his phone on the table, between the plates of wagyu and pork slices, his finger always tapping the same spot on the screen.

Suddenly, I felt that the speed of time flowing through the hourglass seemed to have slowly stopped at this moment, and the trajectory of each grain of sand falling became clearly visible.

He listened to the bubbling, bubbling sound of the hot pot soup, which quickly burst, and counted the sands dripping from the hourglass. It wasn't until his phone finally chimed, signaling a Line message, that the sands of time finally began to fall, forming an unbreakable, thin line.

[Takeda: I went back after I finished tidying up the shelves.]
He felt this, felt the passage of time, and picked up his phone to reply to the message carefully.

[Inoue: If I had known earlier, I would have gone to help you.]
[Takeda: I would have been home from get off work by the time you came over!]
[Inoue: Have you had dinner yet?]
[Takeda: There's a bento being heated in the microwave.]
He took a photo of the table full of ingredients, thought about it, deleted the photo from the album, and started typing.

[Inoue: I'm starving now, and I'm waiting for you to come home and have dinner together.]
[Takeda: Wait for me? Heat up another one for you? We only have sandwiches left, let's make it clear.]
[Inoue: There's a microwave in the rental house, too.]
The message became read, but there was no reply for a long time.

He thought Takeda was sorting the goods and taking out the bento boxes that had been heated in the microwave.

He scanned the table, searching for any ingredients that could take longer to cook so that Takeda could eat them as soon as he got home.

I put some fish balls, tofu, radish cubes and mushrooms into the hot pot.

Picking up the phone again, Takeda sent me a photo.

The background is a Tokyo train car with few passengers late at night, and the main subject is a plastic handbag placed on the seats.

Inside were three boxes of expiring sandwich lunch boxes.

[Inoue: All sandwiches?]
[Takeda: All sandwiches!]
During a casual chat, she also said that this was one of her least favorite types of bento boxes among the many types available in the grocery store.

[Takeda: How is Mother doing?]
After complaining, Takeda asked about other things.

It seemed that in her eyes, whether he asked her for the expiring lunch box from the grocery store for dinner, or urged her to bring the lunch box back quickly, it was all natural and reasonable.

[Inoue: He was in good spirits. At least he didn't have any severe coughing spells while I was around.]
[Takeda: Thank you for your help.]
[Inoue: We talked about tumblers, nesting dolls, wooden block building blocks, and mahjong.]
He omitted other content and only extracted a few key words.

[Takeda: Ugh… Why does mother say everything?]
[Inoue: That’s all. It’s not what you imagine.]
[Takeda: What am I thinking?]
Although it was just a calm text, he could sense the murderous intent hidden in it.

[Inoue: Who knows...]
Another silence followed.

Depending on whether Takeda responded or not, he repeatedly observed the appearance of the sand in the hourglass when it stagnated and when it flowed turbulently in just ten minutes in the evening.

It was soft white sand, as if it could transform into everything and bury everything at the bottom of the sand.

As the tofu and fish ball lucky bags floated in the hot pot soup, there was finally a knock on the door.

The hourglass that had always lingered in his mind finally disappeared.

"Sandwich—it smells so good... What were you eating secretly? Didn't you say you would wait for me to come back..." Takeda opened the door, changed into slippers, and immediately noticed the fragrance that filled the whole house. He looked towards the dining and living room.

"Hot pot," he picked up a piece of tofu with his chopsticks and placed it on his own plate. He tapped his chopsticks at her a few times and said with a smile, "It's too boring to eat alone, so I sent a message to urge you to come back quickly."

"..." Takeda walked past silently. Just like the day Kuroki came for the dinner, he put the lunch box in the refrigerator first and said with ulterior motives, "Master Inoue has a lot of friends, doesn't he?"

"No one comes, I'm abandoned." He shrugged and sighed.

"You mean you thought of me at the last moment?" Takeda sat down next to him, pretending to be angry and asked him.

"Can you finish it?" He skipped the question and pointed to the ingredients on the table.

"Well..." Takeda dragged out the words pretentiously, picked up his chopsticks, and took the tofu from his bowl and plate. "At worst, I can eat it until tomorrow morning."

(End of this chapter)