When Soya returned to Kirino's old house, the night was already deep.
He was not too surprised to see Akane Kirino still staying here.
Both sides are her homes, and she has brought a lot of clothes with her, so she can spend the night on either side. Not to mention that tomorrow is the weekend, so she has plenty of room in all aspects.
"...Why can't Kyoko wait until tomorrow before skipping school?"
Zong Gu shook his head, but it was a fact that he was absent from work for one day. After clearing all the messy thoughts in his mind, he walked into the living room.
"Sogu, welcome back."
Kirino Akane looked over and shook her feet under the table.
"I'm back……"
"How is Sugawara-senpai?"
"It's no problem. I just sent her home."
Soya sat down at the low table. Seeing a plate of bright red plump cherries on the table, he asked, "Are Kirino waiting for me?"
"yes."
Kirino Akane pushed the fruit plate in front of him, "A regular customer in the store gave some Yamagata 'Sato Nishiki', saying they were just picked in the past two days. Mom asked me to bring some over to Soya to try."
Looking at the cherry, she finally couldn't help complaining, "Zonggu came back too late!"
"I'm sorry... Kirino can't bear it anymore?"
She immediately laughed again.
"I'll eat them all as soon as I start."
Zonggu pushed the fruit plate a little further and said, "Then let's eat together."
"Uh-huh."
Kirino Akane picked up a cherry and put it into her mouth, then pulled it gently and pulled out the slender cherry stem.
"Hmm~"
Zonggu was not polite either.
The ripe "Sato Nishiki" looks like a red heart. When you bite into it, the flesh is thick and juicy, and it takes a while to bite into the core. It is sweet and sour, but just right, and the taste is very delicious.
"What did Soya and Sugawara-senpai do today?"
"sleep."
"..."
"I mean...rest."
Kirino Akane spit out the core into the palm of her hand, then put it on the table and picked up another cherry.
"Have you been sleeping all day?"
"Absolutely. She didn't sleep all night last night."
"Ah... no wonder the senior sister doesn't look energetic at all this morning."
Zongya responded, holding the thin stem in his hand, and the haggard appearance of Kyoko when he first saw her in the morning came to mind.
"After getting off the bus at the terminal, I took Jingzi to the hotel and opened a room for her to rest in."
"Where's Soya himself?"
"I don't have anywhere else to go, so I'll stay with you in the room until Kyoko wakes up in the evening."
"That's it..."
Akane Kirino looked at him, the left side of her cheek bulging.
After biting the cherry into pieces and eating it, she continued: "Hongzi didn't wake up until noon, too."
"I know." Zonggu nodded, "Yoshikawa also sent me a message when she woke up. Didn't she stay here today?"
"Yes, because Hongzi has to go out tomorrow morning."
"Where to go?"
"Grandma's house in the countryside. It seems that the old man is sick and I have to go and visit."
"Yeah."
Soya didn't say anything more, thinking that if he and Yoshikawa started chatting later, he would ask a few more questions.
"ah."
"ah?"
Soya raised his eyes, Kirino Akane looked at his hands.
He put down the cherry stem that was accidentally knotted, "What's wrong?"
"I saw on TV that someone could tie a cherry stem in his mouth with his tongue."
"...What a weird show."
"Variety show?... I can't remember clearly. Anyway, it looks awesome!"
"Yeah."
She picked up another cherry and pulled out the stem, "Can Zonggu do it?"
Tie the cherry stems with your tongue? Just imagining it made Sogu find it difficult, "I can't do it."
"Let's try it."
"Then let's try it."
Kirino Akane handed him the thin stalk she had just pulled out.
After holding it in his hand and looking at it for a few times, Sogu put the thin stem into his mouth.
He tried stirring the tip of his tongue for a while, then suddenly covered his mouth and coughed.
"Sogu, is it okay?"
"fine……"
After coughing twice, he spread his palms and said, "Besides, it's tied."
"Eh..."
Kirino Akane stared blankly at the cherry stem that was indeed knotted, "Sotani is so awesome... No, isn't this the same cherry stem that was knotted by hand just now!"
Seeing that he was exposed, Zonggu smiled and admitted.
"I can't do it."
"Humph." Kirino Akane glared at him, then picked up another cherry, pulled out the stem and threw the fruit aside, "Look at me."
"Don't waste fruit..."
Zong Gu took the cherry and then watched her put the thin stalk into her mouth, her cheeks were bulging, her eyes were wandering, and she gradually frowned.
"Don't force it."
"I'll try again!"
He didn't stop him, looked at the cherries with half of them left, and grabbed a handful.
"I'll go upstairs."
"Yeah, yeah." Kirino Akane was already competing with Cherry Base, "Go ahead."
Knocking on the door of Chaowu Ling's room, luckily she hadn't fallen asleep yet and was fully dressed.
"cherry."
"..."
She looked at him, then looked down at the handful of cherries in his hand, picked up one and put it in her mouth.
"Come in."
"Um."
Entering Asagiri Suzu's room, Sogu saw a plate of cherries on her table, which was almost full.
"Doesn't it taste good?"
She shook her head, "I just forgot."
There are some ancient books on the table, and a notebook is spread out in the middle.
"What is Rin doing?"
"Compile a bibliography for Amamiya's reference."
Zonggu looked at the pile of precious ancient books again, "Can she find it?"
"If it's an only copy, I will copy it and give it to her."
"Go on."
"Um."
Zonggu didn't leave, and just sat down next to him, watching Asagiri Suzu flipping through the ancient books, and occasionally jotting down a few notes in his notes.
While eating the sweet and sour cherries, he did not forget to take care of her.
"..."
The cherry was brought to his mouth, and Wu Ling opened his mouth to take it, while he kept moving the pen in his hand.
While eating and feeding, the plate of cherries on the table had visibly shrunk a lot. As Asogiri Suzu had to eat and vomit the seeds again, her energy was dispersed a lot.
"No more."
"Um."
After waiting for a while, Zonggu suddenly yawned.
Lifting his gaze towards Wu Ling, he also stood up while supporting the table.
"Go to bed early."
"Good night."
After walking out of Asagiri Suzu's room, Soya looked at the end of the corridor again, but there was no movement at all.
I knocked on the door, but there was no response. When I opened the door again, I saw that Tsukuyomi was not inside.
He guessed that Tsukuyomi probably stayed in the social affairs office and was busy making the Sunny Day Doll Gomori, which was selling well. Even if he wanted to motivate the slacker Kami-sama, he had no way to start now.
"Let's talk about it tomorrow..."
Soya closed the door, but before he could go downstairs, Akane Kirino ran up.
"Soya! I did it!"
"...You are so perseverant."
"hey-hey."
She stopped in front of him, looked up at him, opened her mouth slightly, and stuck out her pink tongue, which was a knotted cherry stem.
"..."
Soya looked away to the side.
It doesn't matter whether the cherry stems are knotted or not.
"Don't do that in front of other boys... other people."
Kirino Akane quickly retracted her tongue and continued to look at him.
"Why?"
"They'll take your cherry stems."
She couldn't help laughing, "Who would want such a thing..."
"Who knows."
"Okay, I remember."
"Go down."
"Sogu, do you want me to teach you how to tie a tongue tie?"
"No need, I have no intention of learning..."
"You should learn from it."
As the two walked away, the sounds outside the room became smaller and smaller, gradually disappearing.
"..."
Chaogiri Suzu picked up a cherry stem, looked at it for a while, and then put it down.
...
The next morning.
Although it was the weekend and it was raining early in the morning, Kyoko still got up early and went to the shrine halfway up the mountain.
Tsukuyomi, who was lying in the social office sleeping soundly, was a little surprised.
She did not disturb his sleep for the time being, took the keys, opened the doors of the three main halls, and then started cleaning the shrine again.
A car came up the mountain road and stopped in front of her.
Noma Minami lowered the car window and looked at her a few times.
"It seems that Miss Kyoko is resurrected again. Did anything good happen yesterday?"
Jingzi turned her back, scratching the bluestone floor with the broom in her hand.