Following the direction of Satoru's slender finger.
Yayoi mechanically turned her head.
Right at her doorstep, directly opposite, was an old apartment building.
However, her house was on the left side of the street, and the apartment was on the right.
"Eh—?" Yayoi dragged out a long, incredulous sound.
"Is something wrong?"
"You, you live here?"
"Yes," Satoru nodded and said, "Otherwise, why would I come to this place?"
Wow!
Although Satoru didn't explicitly say it, Yayoi's heart felt like it had been violently struck.
What are you feeling so good about yourself for!! Yayoi's face flushed with shame; he had no intention of taking advantage of her, he was just going home!!
"If it's still far, I suggest you call a taxi."
Satoru's calm words continued to kill Yayoi's "ordinary" yet confident fantasy: "And next time you buy things, don't just think about discounts and promotions; consider your own arm strength a bit."
"Hmm—"
More realistic words struck Yayoi's back like a giant hammer.
She struggled to straighten her back.
Ha, haha, so it was just like that, she was already a woman almost thirty, yet she was still fantasizing about a pure high school boy having feelings for her.
"No, no need," Yayoi pointed to her own house: "It's right here."
"So, we're neighbors."
Satoru glanced at it without much surprise: "Wow, a detached house."
"It's just a single-family home," Yayoi corrected.
Her house was a typical Japan single-family model.
For details, you can refer to the layout of Nobita's or Shin-chan's house.
Although it couldn't be considered luxurious, it was still much more affluent than Satoru's shabby apartment.
Satoru saw that the house number indeed said "Aiya," but he had never paid attention to it.
Satoru nodded, then turned and left without hesitation, unable to say goodbye.
"Wait," Yayoi called out to him.
Thinking about it, her inner thoughts just now were quite offensive to him, and besides, this brat really did help her carry such heavy things to her doorstep.
"Have you eaten?"
He shook his head.
"Come to my place for dinner; I bought so many dishes anyway."
He hesitated.
It wasn't shyness, but rather suspicion of Yayoi's cooking skills.
"And there's something I want to talk to you about," Yayoi said, "It's about Shizuka George."
Satoru's dark pupils, as if sensing danger, instantly constricted to pinpricks.
He nodded.
To review, Shizuka George was… the blond character in the notebook where Yayoi was.
Satoru followed Yayoi into her house.
Seeing Satoru curiously peeking around at the house's structure, Yayoi casually explained:
"My house has two floors in total, two people live here, me and Aiya ; I usually live on the second floor, and Aiya lives on the first floor."
Then she sighed, as if complaining about something,
"As high school coursework becomes increasingly heavy, my communication with Aiya has also become less and less recently… And boys your age are the strangest; sometimes I really don't know what he's thinking."
Yayoi planned to cook first, then tell him about Shizuka George.
Haste makes waste.
So Satoru didn't ask much; besides, Yayoi's stir-frying technique was quite skilled, and the smell was very fragrant, so there was no need to rush to escape.
After Yayoi mentioned "Aiya " a few times.
"I'm home—"
A leisurely voice reached the living room.
Next to the living room was an open-plan kitchen, and Yayoi responded without turning her head:
"Welcome home!"
Then.
Aiya had just thrown his crossbody backpack onto the sofa when his eyes met Satoru, who was sitting there.
"…Uh, who are you?"
Aiya was a bit confused.
His deceased brother was Yayoi's husband.
In other words, Yayoi was his sister-in-law.
And he had indeed just heard his sister-in-law's voice, which proved that the person sitting there wasn't a burglar.
Sister-in-law! Brought a man home!?
His brother had passed away seven years ago, and his sister-in-law was still very young.
Aiya didn't think his sister-in-law should remain a widow, and even when some Grandmas came to set her up, he would fan the flames and encourage his sister-in-law to attend.
So, his sister-in-law bringing a man home should have been a good thing.
But! Why was this man wearing the same school uniform as him!? Was he his classmate?
This was too abstract! There must be a difference of about ten years!
"Oh, Aiya ."
Yayoi poked her graceful figure out from the kitchen, laughing heartily: "I happened to meet your classmate while shopping in Shibuya, and he helped me carry everything back, so I invited him to stay for dinner."
So that's how it was.
Aiya breathed a sigh of relief; he almost thought he was about to become kin with a schoolmate.
But, Aiya still eyed Satoru suspiciously.
The brat was quite tall… But, damn it, he was also a bit handsome.
Was it really a "chance" encounter? He knew that many boys at school had a crush on his sister-in-law! Maybe he manufactured the encounter.
But then Aiya somewhat frantically averted his gaze, because when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss smiles back at you.
Yes, Satoru smiled at him fearlessly, then looked back at him with interest.
As a male lecturer proficient in human nature, Satoru could immediately discern the emotions expressed in Aiya 's eyes: "vigilance" and "caution."
That is to say, Aiya was afraid he would do something bad to Yayoi; this was a look similar to "protecting family."
However, there was no jealousy, which meant that the current Aiya had no romantic feelings for Yayoi yet.
As expected, it was still before the start of the plot; otherwise, Aiya shouldn't have only such pure feelings.
"Don't you two know each other?" Hearing no sound from outside, Yayoi in the kitchen began to ask.
She had heard Satoru mention Hiro's name before, and thought they at least had met.
"Don't know…" Aiya frowned.
He didn't have a good impression of such a flamboyant man, so he directly expressed his dissatisfaction with him, telling his sister-in-law not to bring him home next time.
"I'm going back to my room to do my homework," Aiya said, not even intending to exchange names with Satoru.
"Wait!" Yayoi-nee, however, called out to him, "I heard from a student who came to the infirmary earlier that you guys had a test this time, Aiya ? How were your grades? Let me see your test paper."
She walked out of the kitchen, rubbing the water from her slender white hands onto her apron.
Aiya immediately felt as if he was facing a formidable enemy!
His body stiffened slightly, and his eyes were flustered and helpless.
Yayoi-nee then turned to Satoru and asked, "Satoru, how did you do on your test? You're also in the second year of high school, right?"
"How did you know—" Satoru was about to start reciting.
But then he thought that he had already pulled this stunt a few times, and doing it again would be a bit bland, so he just smiled shyly: "It was alright, pretty average."
"Satoru!?" Aiya was shocked by the surname: "...Wait, you're the Satoru from Baiqiu High School's second year? Satoru? The top student this time!?"
Satoru smiled even more shyly: "Just lucky, just lucky. Ah, I don't even want to bring it up."