After soaking in the hot spring for a while, when Naruse returned to the room alone, the bedding had been laid out.
The Morimi and Takigawa sisters each sat where they slept last night, watching TV and chatting.
"It's been a long time since I've been there." Hikaru Takigawa looked at him, "How do you feel?"
"Not bad."
He stretched his arms.
"The massage was quite comfortable, and the rock bath was okay... Well, I should say I slept well."
She smiled, and Morimi next to her asked: "Where are Naoko and Haixing?"
"Still soaking in the hot springs." Naruse walked in and sat on the innermost quilt, "I'm a little sweaty... Morimi should also experience the rock bath."
"If there is a chance in the future."
Not long after, Shangzi and Haixing returned to the room together, holding several bottles of milk in their hands.
"Drinking some milk makes it easier to fall asleep."
Dinner started at seven o'clock, followed by a walk, massage and rock bath. By the time they returned to the room, it was already getting late.
After watching TV and chatting for a while, I saw Takigawa Yue yawning, and everyone was getting ready to sleep.
"Turn off the lights."
Hikaru Takigawa stood up and came to the switch, then looked back at his companions who were lying down.
The position remains the same as last night.
Naruse looked at her from the inside and said, "Close it."
Pat.
Staring at the ceiling, his eyes gradually adapted to the dimness, Haixing turned to look at Morimi, and she quickly looked over.
"You won't be able to sleep today."
"No." She nodded and pulled the quilt up.
"Go to bed early, and you can still get up and have breakfast tomorrow morning."
"Yeah."
The movement behind him quickly subsided, and Naoko looked in front of him again. Naruse was sleeping inside, his eyes already closed.
She took out her hand from the quilt, stretched it towards him, and closed her eyes.
She waited calmly, no matter what the outcome was.
He was extremely calm, the people around him were silent, and his sleepiness suddenly stirred up.
The consciousness gradually sank in the dark night.
She seemed to have fallen into the deep sea, with light, shadow and sound floating on the surface, getting further and further away from her and becoming increasingly blurry.
Until a certain moment, she suddenly emerged from the dark depths.
"..."
When consciousness returned, Shangzi found that he had opened his eyes, the room was bright, and there were faint footsteps in the corridor.
It’s already the morning of the next day.
"Good morning." Naruse sat next to him and turned to look at her. It seemed that he had been awake for a long time.
"Good morning..."
Shangzi blinked and felt his body again.
She didn't need to lower her head, but she could feel her two hands curled up in the quilt. She didn't know whether he had pushed them in, or whether he had withdrawn them unconsciously while sleeping.
She was a little disappointed, but she didn't care too much. Surprises like the night before yesterday always happened accidentally, rather than deliberately chasing.
Stretching, Shangzi turned over and faced inside, "When did Chunhai wake up?"
"I just woke up a while ago." He replied, his hair still a little messy.
"When I heard footsteps in the corridor outside, I guessed that someone was getting up early to leave - when I realized this, I found myself awake."
Shangzi smiled and sat up.
She looked at the other companions next to her. Except for Takigawa Yue, who was staring at her phone, none of them had woken up yet.
The two looked at each other and smiled, and Takigawa Yue continued to fiddle with the phone.
The yukata was a little messy from sleeping, so Naoko pulled up the collar and tidied it up a little, then climbed out of bed and walked to the window to stand.
The window on the third floor has a panoramic view of the entire hot spring street, but at this time there are only a few or two people on the road.
"There are no people yet."
Naruse also stood over, "After all, it's just after seven o'clock."
"Yeah." Shangzi responded in a low voice and leaned closer to him.
It's rare that the morning is relatively clear. The sun rises in the east and shines brightly.
Although there are still many and thick clouds on the other side of the sky, the sunshine will not last long, but it is always pleasant to see the rising sun when you get up.
After looking at it for a while, Naruse suddenly said: "I'm going back today."
Shangzi didn't feel disappointed either, "Yeah."
"Before returning to Tianjin, let's buy the things we need for the New Year. I don't have much luggage anyway, or ask them to help me take them back."
She nodded, "Okay."
"That's it. Let's wake them up and have breakfast first."
Naruse turned around and clapped his palms a little harder, while raising his voice: "Get up——"
The three people who were still asleep woke up one after another, staring at each other and struggling with sleep.
Without waiting for them to wake up, Naruse went to the guest room outside to change clothes and wash up.
He brushed his teeth and washed his face. The hotel provided some basic skin care products for free. He put on some hand cream to prevent frostbite.
When he came out of the bathroom, the sliding door of the bedroom suddenly opened.
Starfish stood at the door, sleepy-eyed.
Behind her, Morimi had just taken off her yukata, and Takigawa Hikari was fastening her sister's bra straps. Naoko, wearing only the underwear underneath, bent down and lowered her head, facing this way.
For the first time, he visually perceived some amazing facts so intuitively.
"..."
Morimi narrowed his eyes, the two looked at each other, and Naruse quickly looked away.
"Starfish——"
Amidst the screams, the sliding door was pulled shut by Takigawa Hikari who rushed over.
"..."
Naruse pursed his lower lip, and there was subsequent movement inside.
"Ah, ah, I'm sorry!"
"...Please wake up a little bit."
"It's okay, luckily I was just seen by Chunhai."
"Just... this can't be considered 'okay' or 'nothing' anymore."
After a while, the sliding door opened again.
Morimi, who had already put on his clothes, came out first and stopped to look at him.
Naruse thought she would say something, but she rolled her eyes, turned around and entered the bathroom.
Shang Zi, who followed him out, had a slightly red face and just smiled at him, saying nothing about what just happened.
Starfish sat inside and stared at him, a bit angry, but he stared back.
"..."
After all, she was unreasonable. She quickly lost the battle and turned her head to look aside.
Takigawa Mitsunori smiled and told him not to worry.
After washing up, they went downstairs to eat the breakfast provided by the hotel.
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"You guys go over there first."
Naruse went to the front desk to ask about the hotel's private minibus.
Knowing that there were plenty of seats on the first bus to Oishida in the morning, he reserved six seats first.
"Fortunately, there is still a seat... I went to the hot spring last night."
When we came to the restaurant, the breakfast provided by the hotel was not as rich as the dinner, but it was still exquisite.
Freshly boiled hot spring eggs are served on top of fragrant rice made from local Yamagata rice, with mashed yam, fish roe and the hotel's homemade pickles on the side. It's delicious;
Ingredients such as wild vegetables, mushrooms, burdock and rice cakes are added to the cooking pot, which is delicious and can warm you up;
In the bowl with desserts, in addition to cherry yokan and matcha, there is also a shiny, completely transparent piece of Suishingen mochi.
"It was a big loss for not being able to get up for breakfast yesterday." After finishing breakfast, Takigawa Hikaru concluded.
Naruse nodded, feeling the same way.
After breakfast, few of us stayed much. We went back to the room and rested for a while. Taking advantage of the fact that no tourists came in in the morning and the street was still empty, we took our luggage and went downstairs to check out.
"The ground is icy and a bit slippery, so be careful."
After leaving the hotel where he stayed for two days, Naruse looked back and walked ahead.
I got on the hotel minibus parked outside the hot spring street and waited for about ten minutes. Two middle-aged couples came up who said they wanted to catch the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. The driver stopped waiting and drove away from Ginzan Hot Spring.
Starfish sat by the window and looked back for a while.
"I'm going back."
Morimi looked at her and said, "Yeah."
Only when there was only white snow left behind, left and right did the starfish withdraw its sight.
When we arrived at Oishida, we got off the bus and took the Shinkansen to Yamagata.
The route back was exactly the same as when we arrived. When we arrived at Yamagata Station, we took a bus to Sendai.
After two hours of Shinkansen ride, several people returned to Aomori.
When we took the train back to Tsumae, it was already noon.
The journey, which is neither long nor short, ends here. After coming out of the central station, Takigawa Hikaru raised his arms high.