Keiko Hatoyama always believed that she must have been reincarnated as a scumbag in her previous life.
Otherwise, how could a girl ask a boy she just met so directly, "Do you have a girl you like?"
But she still had to defend herself seriously. She swore that she really didn't have any unnecessary thoughts at the time. She was just curious, and then... she had a little bad taste.
Yes, she really still wanted to see that expression of embarrassment and shyness on the face of this expressionless mature little boy.
Just like she used to go to the watchtower every day, just to wait for the boy to be late.
She was always so rebellious and unreasonable.
"Then... Xiaoqing, do you have anyone you like?" Keiko Hatoyama asked softly, looking directly at the boy.
"No."
This time the boy answered quickly, without even a little hesitation. It seemed that he really didn't.
"Then what kind of girl do you like?" Hatoyama Keiko saw this and continued to ask.
Hearing this, the boy stopped writing again. He frowned slightly, as if he was thinking about this issue seriously.
But suddenly, his frown deepened, and he seemed to finally realize something. He turned his head and looked at Keiko Hatoyama quietly.
Although this was their first real meeting, they were surprisingly in tune with each other, and they could always understand each other's true meaning.
Just like Hatoyama Keiko who considers herself to be "level 10 fluent", the boy also noticed the little evil thoughts in the girl's heart at this moment.
"What, what's wrong?"
Being stared at so directly by the boy, Hatoyama Keiko suddenly felt a little flustered. She subconsciously looked away and raised her hand to hold the pocket watch hanging on her chest.
Seeing her look like this, the boy became more sure of his inner guess.
So, for the first time since the two met, a smile appeared on his face.
It's just that this smile doesn't seem that pure.
"I like pretty girls who wear kimonos."
Plop!
In an instant, her heart seemed to contract violently, and the strange palpitations caused by this violent contraction swept through her body in an instant.
Then the next moment, she suddenly felt her heart beating uncontrollably at a speed that scared her.
This feeling was the same as when the boy hung up his pocket watch for her.
And that strange blush had already covered her cheeks from her neck to her ears.
【Girls who love to wear kimonos...】
She had never been spoken to like this so directly. The boy's words directly penetrated Hatoyama Keiko's psychological defense.
She did not respond to the boy's words. Instead, she blushed, lowered her head, and sat there quietly. She still held the pocket watch tightly in her hand. Some steam could be vaguely seen above her head. ?
When the boy saw this, he did not "take advantage of the victory", but withdrew his gaze with satisfaction and continued to write the homework in front of him.
"Come on, let's eat!"
After an unknown amount of time, the boy's mother finally came out from the kitchen carrying several plates of food.
The food here is naturally not as good as the ones at Hatoyama's house, but the portions are quite large, perhaps because of the guests, and it is obvious that they are made with care.
Hatoyama Keiko originally wanted to stay for a meal, but in the end she was rejected by the old housekeeper who had been waiting outside the door.
The reason is simple. Because of her health, her diet has always been strictly controlled. It is absolutely not allowed to eat other things at will without the permission of a doctor.
The old housekeeper could let her follow the boy here to play for a while, but he would never allow her to be so willful.
Moreover, she had been out long enough this time.
In this way, although Hatoyama Keiko still wanted to stay for a while, she could only get up and leave.
"I'm very sorry for causing you any trouble."
Before leaving for the last time, Keiko Hatoyama glanced at the face of the boy's mother again.
The boy's mother seemed to have washed off the makeup on her face, and her entire face looked very clean.
In fact, when she saw the face of the boy's mother for the first time just now, Keiko Hatoyama was a little surprised.
Of course, this does not mean that the boy's mother's appearance has reached a certain extreme level of beauty, to the extent that she can't help but sigh.
Indeed, the boy's mother is very beautiful, and the pair of eyes with purple pupils give people a strange sense of beauty, but Hatoyama Keiko doesn't think she is any worse. When she grows a few more The year will definitely not be lost.
What really surprised her was the makeup on the boy's mother's face.
Different from her plain clothes, the boy's mother's face was foundation, lipstick, eyebrows, and even the hair on her forehead was trimmed with cosmetics that looked cheap at first glance.
That was why she was surprised when she first saw the boy's mother.
To be honest, this outfit looks quite gaudy, like...
Would a mother do this look alone at home?
Hatoyama Keiko didn't think about it further.
It was not until later that Keiko Hatoyama learned that the boy's father died young and it was his mother who raised him up alone.
But in Japan at that time, how could a woman without a husband raise such a child and provide him with education?
You can only do some dirty work, and once this kind of thing is done, it is often impossible to cover it up.
Yesterday, when Keiko Hatoyama saw bruises on the boy's face, several classmates in the boy's school teased his mother about it, and the boy finally punished her after school.
The boy was very talented in fighting. He beat the group of people until their noses were bruised and their faces were swollen. He only had a slight bruise on his cheek.
On the day when Hatoyama Keiko came to visit the Shirakawa family, the boy's mother had just come back from outside. She didn't expect that the boy would bring friends back, so she hurried to the kitchen to cook without even washing off the makeup on her face. .
Of course, these things only last until today.
That's right, it seems that from the day Keiko Hatoyama followed the boy to his house, the boy's mother never did the same things as before.
She began to develop the habit of reading newspapers. She would carefully pay attention to the recruitment information in the newspaper every time, cut it out and keep it, and then go to interviews one by one to look for serious jobs.
Before the boy went to middle school and started working in a nearby detective agency, the family had been struggling to support the boy's mother's meager salary.
Later, Hatoyama Keiko also had the idea of supporting the boy's family, but every time he was rejected by the boy's mother.
In fact, Hatoyama Keiko can see that the boy's mother does not really want it at all. If Hatoyama Keiko had no relationship with the boy, the boy's mother would definitely accept her help without hesitation. .
But the point is, the boy took her home and told his mother that she was his friend.
Therefore, it cannot be accepted.
In Keiko Hatoyama's view, although the boy's mother may not be perfect, she is still great enough.
However, just that winter forty years ago, a few years after the boy and Hatoyama Keiko got to know each other, and when their poor family was gradually improving, the boy's mother was brutally murdered and died suddenly.
∠( ∠)＿
(End of chapter)
