Want to be human, but cube-like

A questioning tone came through the receiver, and Aine's eyes showed a hint of worry as she looked at Alex on the screen and asked.

She had called Alex several times but she hadn't received a response. She had thought the video call was stuck because of a bad signal.

However, looking back, ever since she started video chatting and greeted Alex, she noticed that the other person seemed a bit out of sorts, as if she was troubled by something.

"……nothing."

But Alex just shook her head and offered no explanation.

It was Aine's caring words that brought her to her senses a little more.

Alex recalls the differences between Aine and her mother.

My mother would never speak to anyone, including myself, in such a caring tone.

At the very least, Alex had never heard of it.

"We should start helping you practice your spoken English."

Setting aside her chaotic thoughts and trying not to mistake Aine's voice for her mother's, Alex got down to business for the evening.

"Ah...yes."

Ai Yin, however, seemed to have just remembered this matter, and she scratched her head somewhat embarrassedly.

We've been talking about trivial details and have forgotten the most important thing.

The thought of having Alex correct her pronunciation syllable by syllable again made Ai Yin feel tired, and she sighed quietly in her heart.

Even though they haven't started anything yet.

"We practiced before"

Where did Xi go...?

After hesitating for a moment, Ai Yin shrank back and asked.

It seems she knows that her attitude of not being able to remember even what she practiced might irritate others.

"Last time you distinguished between the sounds 'f' and 'h'."

However, Alex remained calm and composed; she always seemed to be like this, and I've never seen her get angry.

Even when Ai-yin couldn't correct some of her English pronunciations, she maintained a calm attitude and patiently taught her.

"This time, let's learn how to pronounce the 'r' sound, shall we?"

Speaking softly, Alex thought for a moment and searched her mind for an English word.

“Take the word refrigerator, for example. In standard British pronunciation, it’s a word with a lot of ‘r’ sounds.”

Incidentally, in American pronunciation, this word requires four "r" sounds, while in British pronunciation, the fourth "r" sound is optional, meaning it only needs to be pronounced three times, which slightly reduces the difficulty.

“le...fei...?”

Alex had already slowed down her reading, but Ai-yin still stuttered a bit. Her face turned red, and her tongue seemed to be tied in knots. She struggled for a long time but still couldn't get the word out completely, let alone pronounce it correctly.

"..."

Alex pursed her lips, looking at Aine's adorable appearance, she remained silent, suppressing the smile on her lips.

It looks like tonight will be a fierce battle.

…………

Volume 1: Chapter 89 Things have come to this, let's go to sleep.

Late into the night.

Alex and Aine's oral practice continues.

It has to be said that Xiangzi's suggestion was indeed quite useful. Compared to the half hour or so in the hamburger shop in the afternoon, where he had to take care of the customers and the teaching environment was not very stable, it was much more efficient to make a video call on his phone in his own bedroom.

Moreover, in the quiet of the night, not only is there much more time, but Aine also appears to be more focused.

The progress is still not going very smoothly...

She admitted that she had indeed underestimated Aine's little pink tongue, the fixed habits formed after being poisoned by Japanese pronunciation for more than ten years.

Alex had tried her best to pronounce clearly, and Aine could see her lip and tongue movements clearly.

But what cannot be corrected will still remain uncorrected.

"Come on, watch carefully how my tongue moves, and repeat after me, 'rule'."

Speaking softly, Alex leaned closer to the front-facing camera of her phone, making sure the lower half of her face completely filled Ai Yin's phone screen.

Her lips were slightly parted, and under the light, her moist cherry lips formed an O shape, revealing her clean and neat teeth. Her soft tongue moved flexibly, and the tip of her tongue curled up slightly, producing a perfectly standard rolled "r" sound.

With the high-resolution front camera, Ai Yin could even clearly see the redness of the inside of the other person's mouth. Although she had been teaching all night, Alex, who was still not thirsty, could still secrete crystal-clear saliva under her tongue. When she spoke, her nimble pink tongue would sometimes pull out thin strands of saliva as it moved quickly and unintentionally.

Previously, I wanted Aine to learn the word "refrigerator" right away, but it was too difficult for her. Even though I lowered the difficulty a lot and changed it to other words that only required reading the "r" sound once, and even had a random English conversation between the two of us to let Aine relax, she still couldn't correct her pronunciation back to the standard pronunciation when we practiced the sound again.

“lu…”

Aine looked a little tired, but she still tried her best to imitate Alex's pronunciation.

But obviously, the effect was not very good.

"call……"

She let out a soft breath; even someone as patient as Alex was somewhat troubled.

She wanted to jump into the screen, travel through the network to the other person, and personally help Aine correct her tongue movements until they were correct.

"Hmm... let me think..."

Alex decided to temporarily stop the practice and find a more efficient way to help Aine correct her tongue.

But in reality, there are not many shortcuts to this kind of pronunciation training. Alex, who is born knowing hundreds of languages, has no learning experience to pass on to Ayane.

She could only help Aiyin learn to use the correct pronunciation gradually through repeated practice and imitating her own tongue movements.

At the very least, there's no quick fix for Alex.

"How about we start today..."

After thinking for a long time without coming up with a good solution, Alex glanced at the time. It was almost midnight. She looked at the screen, about to ask Aine if she wanted to end today's practice.

But on the other end of the screen, Ai Yin, who was lying on her side on the sofa and still video chatting with her, had closed her eyes and seemed to have fallen asleep.

Alex immediately stopped talking.

She sat up straight, somewhat bewildered, pondering whether or not to wake the other person.

So, it's possible to fall asleep without being in bed?

Alex has never experienced what it's like to sleep without lying in bed.

But since Aine is already asleep, let's leave it at that for now.

She blinked lightly, thought for a moment, and didn't immediately end the video call. Instead, she held her phone, reached out and turned off the bedroom light, then imitated Ai Yin's current posture, lying on her side on the bed with her head resting on the soft pillow, holding the phone in one hand, keeping the camera able to capture her face, and staring at Ai Yin on the other side of the screen, quietly lost in thought.

Because Aine, who had fallen asleep, relaxed her little hand that was holding the camera at the right angle, the image that Alex saw on the screen was slightly off.

The pink-haired girl's cheek was very close, and the sound of her breathing as she slept was heard through the microphone and reached Alex's ears.

It was like someone gently waving a cotton candy near her ear—light, fluffy, and sweet.

Under the lens, her slightly parted lips were delicate and tempting. A strand of light pink hair fell to the corner of her mouth and swayed in mid-air with Ai Yin's breath, as if it might be blown open at any moment, or as if it was about to be sucked into her lips each time.

"Mother……"

Alex couldn't help but murmur softly.

Whenever she hears Aine's voice, she can't help but recall those thrilling yet exhilarating adventures she had under her mother's control.

A feeling of longing welled up and overwhelmed her young heart.

But it was precisely Aine's voice that made her truly realize that her mother had indeed left her. That voice, so similar to her mother's, created a sound that would forever feel foreign to her.

Discourse.

Only today, listening to Ai Yin's peaceful breathing, Alex wanted to relax a little by treating her as her mother.

She slowly closed her eyes, a slight smile on her face, listening to the reassuring sound of her breathing, and all her senses fell silent.

Just like every time she slept before, from the moment she closed her eyes, this period of sleep would be completely stripped away from all her senses.

next second.

Suddenly, the world spun around on the other side of the screen.

"Pa-ta-!"

A sound like something falling to the ground rang out.

Then, the screen went dark.

"Whoa!"

A small gasp of surprise rang out.

A few seconds later, the dark camera regained light, allowing a normal image to be transmitted back to Alex's phone screen.

It was Aine who picked up the phone that had fallen to the ground.

"Phew...that startled me."

She examined the phone carefully to make sure it wasn't scratched, then gently patted her chest and slowly breathed a sigh of relief.

Aine was surprised to find that she had fallen asleep without realizing it because she was so tired.

She was still asleep when her fingers relaxed, causing her phone to slip and fall to the ground, which woke her up.

"Waaah~ I'm sorry, Ellie, I just..."

Aine hurriedly adjusted the camera and was about to apologize to Alex when she saw that pretty sleeping face on the screen.

She immediately fell silent.

…………

PS: Even "eighty-nine" is a sensitive word, unbelievable!

Volume 1: Chapter 90 I'm not a little...

Gazing at Alex's stunning sleeping face on the screen, Aine unconsciously slowed her breathing.

Although she was so sleepy that she could fall asleep during her conversation with Alex, the sudden fall of her phone startled her awake.

Holding her phone a little further away, Ai Yin carefully stretched her slender waist, yawned, and a sliver of sweat appeared at the corner of her eye.

Then, holding his phone, he pursed his lips and stared at Alex's face on the screen.

Alex's room was probably already dark; the only light on the screen was the reflection from the phone on the other end, illuminating her gentle face.

In fact, she felt somewhat guilty.

I only casually asked Alex to help me practice my spoken English to start a conversation, but I didn't expect her to actually remember it and waste so much time teaching me how to correct my pronunciation.

Now she's so tired that she even fell asleep during a video call.

Although I also fell asleep...

But thinking about it carefully, compared to attending classes at school and being able to go home early to rest in the afternoon, Alex was busy at the burger shop from morning till night.

Apart from Xiangzi helping out at the front desk, she did everything else by herself. Alex was the only one working in the entire kitchen. Just thinking about it, Ai Yin knew how tiring that must be.

So when Aine learned in the afternoon that Alex still had the energy to play music with Ronna, who had come to visit her, she was quite surprised.

She hadn't intended to take up much of Alex's time that evening, but the other woman was so enthusiastic, after all, she was trying her best to teach her, so how could she say no? And so they practiced until late at night.

Even so, Aine still failed to meet Alex's expectations. Despite all the effort she put in, she made almost no progress in pronunciation.

Originally, Aine was quite confident in her English skills. At first, even using her usual Japanese pronunciation, she could chat with Alex using her standard pronunciation. However, as Alex corrected her sentence by sentence, her confidence was completely shattered.

Now, when Ai Yin speaks with Alex in English, she is even a little hesitant, afraid that she might say something wrong or mispronounce something.

However, if Alex were to comment, even with Aine being so careful, her pronunciation was still completely off.