There was a large amount of hair scattered on the floor that had not been cleaned up. As soon as Soya brushed it with his foot twice, Kirino Akane returned to the washroom.
She holds a mirror in her hand.
"Look at the back again."
At this time, Zong Gu already had short hair. He looked at the double-reflected back of his head in the mirror and gave exactly the same evaluation as before.
“Really good.”
Kirino Akane immediately smiled.
"Thank you~"
Her hair-cutting skills couldn't be said to be very good, but at least she didn't make his hair look unattractive, and that was enough for Soya.
"Let me clean up here."
"May I?"
"certainly."
"Great, then I'll leave it to Soya-kun."
After taking care of herself, Zong Gu looked like an overly white high school student, so she unconsciously changed her name.
After cleaning up the broken hair on the bathroom floor, Soya returned to the living room, and Akane Kirino waved her cell phone at him on the sofa.
"I found the phone number of the children's welfare home on the Internet."
He was startled, "Really?"
"Sotani-kun, do you want to contact them now?"
Without waiting for his answer, she handed over the phone.
Zonggu also took the phone simply, but did not make the call immediately.
Since he was timid, he was also thinking about how he should explain the sudden disappearance that lasted for more than two years. After all, not everyone could accept such bizarre explanations.
"Anyway..."
Akane Kirino could somewhat understand his hesitation, "Let's first tell the person you care about the most that you are safe."
"That's right."
He took a deep breath and immediately made the call.
"Hello, this is Sendai Aoba Children's Welfare Home."
Familiar name, unfamiliar voice.
Zong Gu thought about it in his mind and determined that he had never heard the other party's voice. He was probably a newly recruited staff member of the welfare home, so he did not directly state his name.
"Hello. I'm looking for Miss Tachibana."
"Tangerine Emperor? We don't have...hey, what...really?...I understand."
There seemed to be more than one person on the other end of the phone, and they were communicating in low voices.
Zonggu waited patiently, and waited for a reply after a while.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. Miss Tachibana used to be our staff here, but she resigned two years ago."
"Resign?"
Soya was startled, and Kirino Akane, who was pretending to look out the window, also looked directly over.
"Why?"
"It seems that a child that Miss Tachibana was responsible for suddenly disappeared. She felt very guilty and disappeared after leaving a letter of resignation."
"..."
Zonggu suddenly fell silent.
"Sir? Are you still there, sir?"
"……Feel sorry."
He took a breath and asked, "Ms. Orange, did you leave your address or contact information?"
The person who answered the phone relayed the question to the companion next to him. After getting the answer, he relayed it to Soya.
"No."
"I understand, thank you."
"If necessary, you can leave your name and contact information. When we can contact Miss Tachibana, we will pass it on to her."
Considering that this was Kirino Akane's number, Soya declined the other party's kindness and omitted the need to introduce his home address and explain to another staff member who knew the past.
After hanging up the phone, he discovered that the phone wallpaper was the owner's selfie.
The girl in winter uniform has a sweet smile and is very cute. The background is the villa in the snow, but he has no intention of admiring it now.
Kirino Akane took the phone and asked, "Can't I contact you?"
"Well... that teacher resigned from the Children's Welfare Home."
"Why?"
Zonggu himself didn't know much, so he explained it to her more simply, and fell silent after speaking.
The two looked at each other.
After a while, Kirino Akane thought of a more practical question for now:
"So Soya-kun, do you still want to go back to the orphanage in Miyagi?"
Zong Gu pulled away from the memories and thought for a moment before saying: "I am seventeen years old now and I can no longer go back to the orphanage."
The law stipulates that anyone over the age of sixteen can work, which means that he has met the prerequisites for independent living;
And he has been out of school for more than two years. He will not be able to pass the high school entrance examination when he returns, so he must leave the orphanage.
"What should we do?"
"yes……"
Zong Gu murmured, also asking questions about his life that was messed up by the accident.
"what to do."
Kirino Akane is only sixteen years old this year, and is only a third-year middle school student. She is still confused and far from being able to make suggestions for other people's lives;
But one of the most distinctive characteristics of children at this age is that they rarely realize this on their own.
"In this case, why don't you stay here, Soya-kun?"
...
["...If you have no other plans."]
In the cold wind, Zonggu stood on the street, folding his arms, looking at the road that was still wet after the rain stopped.
"Are you going to work in an izakaya..."
After spending the first night of escaping from hell in the old house of the Kirino family, most of the new day had passed, and he found that he had no other choice - now he had nothing, and even his clothes were borrowed from others.
To survive, accepting her kindness is the best choice.
After waiting for a while, the school behind him suddenly became noisy. After a while, students in uniforms appeared at the school gate one after another.
Zong Gu is tall and thin, and is very conspicuous in the crowd, not to mention that there are not many people at the school gate at this time.
Eyes looked at him one after another, and they basically stayed on his face for a moment before looking away.
He is here to wait for someone, and even if he is not used to the increasing number of sights, he can only bear it silently.
Fortunately, the person who asked him to wait here showed up soon.
"Hey... Soya!"
He followed the sound and saw Akane Kirino, who had just walked out of the school, squeezed in among a group of girls, with a look of surprise and surprise on her face.
"Why are you here?"
"..."
Zong Gu was dumbfounded, then looked at the girls around her who were staring closely at her, and quickly understood.
Girls...
"Want to see you."
"Wow."
The surrounding eyes suddenly focused on Kirino Akane, and two girls even covered their mouths.
"Really."
She complained, but the smile on her face could no longer be suppressed.
"Sorry, Hongzi..." She turned to look at a short-haired girl next to her who looked as good as hers, "I have something else to do, so I have to go back first."
"..."
After saying that, she quickly walked to Zonggu without waiting for their reaction.
"Have you been waiting for a long time?"
"No, I just arrived too."
"Uh-huh."
Zonggu stretched out his hand, she was stunned for a moment, and then quickly took it.
"...I mean the schoolbag." He whispered.
Kirino Akane glanced at him, then looked back at the reactions of the girls, then quickly turned back and walked in front, pulling him along.
"Okay, let's do this for now."
After passing two traffic lights, she let go when the person following her finally gave up.
"Hey, girls are really troublesome...but Souya's reaction is really quick."
"..."
Zong Gu didn't know if the "troublesome girl" she meant included him, so he simply stayed silent and pretended not to hear.
Kirino Akane didn't care, handed his schoolbag to his hand, and stretched out relaxedly.
"Sorry, it took a long time."
"Only a few minutes."
"There are many streets here, so it's not easy to find." She still walked in front, looking around, "And Soya-kun doesn't have a mobile phone either."
"Um."
"In a few weeks, I won't need to come over."
The schoolbag in her hand was not too heavy. Zonggu looked at her dark blue middle school uniform and asked, "Have you decided on high school yet?"
"Yes, Danhai High School. It's a little far away, opposite Lake Biwa."
Akane Kirino turned around and smiled, "However, I'm not sure whether I can pass the exam."
"I feel like Kirino always looks at ease, so he will definitely pass the exam."
"Hehe." She smiled even more happily, "Thank you."
The two walked for a while, got on the bus at a roadside platform, and got off the bus together after four or five stops.
"Right over there."
With light steps, Akane Kirino crossed the intersection and led Soya to an izakaya called "楽春台".
After opening the warm curtain, the two of them stepped into the store and immediately felt much warmer.
The store is not big, with only three or four separate long tables apart from the seats at the bar. It was only three or four o'clock in the afternoon, and the izakaya had not yet opened for business. The two busy people behind the bar seemed to be the entire store staff.
"Akane."
As soon as the woman with a neat ponytail opened her mouth, the middle-aged man beside her who was busy preparing also looked over.
"Is it him?"
Both of them focused their attention on Zong Gu.
"It looks good. Mom likes it very much, so let him stay."