After deciding to give up, I became popular

"Couldn't you just be a bit more direct and feed me?" she asked tentatively.

"I'd like you to feed me," Natsukawa Kanade retorted, annoyed.

Today, his senior was exceptionally lazy.

"That's absolutely no problem," Kasumigaoka Utaha said, her face as usual, trying to appear nonchalant, "To show my sincerity, let me start."

Then, she picked up a takoyaki that had already been poked, slowly leaned in, and gently blew on it a few times.

In Natsukawa Kanade's view, his senior leaned in with the takoyaki, her glossy and beautiful lips slightly parted, accompanied by a gentle breeze—

A bunch of takoyaki toppings flew onto his face, giving him a makeover.

Natsukawa Kanade: "…"

He was expressionless and silent.

Kasumigaoka Utaha: "…"

She could swear she didn't mean to be mischievous this time, it was just an accident… who knew such a small force could make the toppings fly everywhere?

"Would you believe me if I said I didn't do it on purpose?"

"I believe you, of course I believe you, how could I not believe you?" Natsukawa Kanade recited flatly.

After casually wiping his face with the back of his hand, he angrily lunged forward, bit into the takoyaki, and chewed with extraordinary force, his entire face seemingly contorted, as if venting something.

Kasumigaoka Utaha blinked, thinking her junior was so cute, even when he was angry he looked so good.

She didn't feel a bit ashamed, and even thought that this kind of development wasn't bad? Although it felt like a clumsy attempt that backfired.

After Natsukawa Kanade finished swallowing, he simply snatched the chopsticks, picked up a takoyaki, and approached her without explanation.

His forceful manner startled Kasumigaoka Utaha, and she nervously closed her eyes, thinking she was about to get her face covered too, but after waiting for a long time, nothing happened. So she opened her eyes again, only to find Natsukawa Kanade looking at her with a teasing smile, without any of the actions she had imagined.

"…"

How mean-spirited!

But this kind of development is also good, she liked it very much.

209. A Relaxing Daily Life is the Mainstream of Life

"Junior is really unwilling to take a loss, actually having the heart to do such a terrible thing to a cute girl…" Kasumigaoka Utaha's eyelashes trembled slightly, and she gently rubbed her eyes, as if wiping away tears.

She put on a pitiful appearance.

"Oh, really? Is that so? Then I'll eat it myself…" Natsukawa Kanade was naturally unmoved, and then he pulled his hand back, as if saying, since that's how it is, then I'll just eat it myself.

"Hmph…" Kasumigaoka Utaha snorted softly, and then with lightning speed, she bit off the takoyaki.

With her personality, how could she let anything that reached her mouth be given to someone else?

After carefully savoring it, she licked the corner of her lips and blinked at him, saying, "I want more~~, Junior give me~~"

"…" The corners of Natsukawa Kanade's mouth twitched, and then he replied expressionlessly, "Let's go to the restaurant first, we've already attracted a lot of attention."

He was completely immune to his senior's appearance because he had seen it so many times, but the innocent passersby were different. Some office workers' eyes were about to pop out, but they only dared to secretly look at them in the corner, and wouldn't come over to cause trouble.

But the gazes were still quite annoying.

Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't care much, after all, she already received a lot of gazes when walking on the street, not to mention that Junior was sharing some of them now, so she didn't feel anything at all.

"In that case… Junior, lead the way." With that, she reached out to him again.

Since it had happened before, it was much more natural to do it again, without any psychological burden.

Natsukawa Kanade glanced at her, wondering what she suddenly wanted to do, but soon he noticed a clue, so the corners of his mouth turned up slightly, and he also reached out in cooperation.

"My pleasure, Senior."

He really didn't like being in the limelight, but since he had already attracted people's attention, why not simply be more ruthless and cut off their fantasies?

The key thing was indeed as he expected, after holding his senior's hand, those annoying gazes suddenly lessened. He even saw some people pounding their chests in place, as if hating why they couldn't replace him.

The ridiculous appearance was really amusing.

"Senior, you really have a bad taste," Natsukawa Kanade leaned closer to her and whispered sarcastically.

"Likewise, Junior," Kasumigaoka Utaha blinked at him, her lips pursed in a smile.

Her junior was still too inexperienced, did he really think she cared about the gazes of passersby?

After getting rid of the passersby, the two walked a little further and arrived at the reserved family restaurant. They pushed open the door, entered, found a slightly secluded seat, and sat down. Soon, a waiter came to greet them.

"Is there anything you need?"

"Um…" Natsukawa Kanade was also here for the first time, and wasn't sure which ones were better. The netizens' comments in the restaurant's review section were different, making it difficult to make a decision for a while.

"Do you have any recommendations?"

"How about a couple's set meal?" The waiter still had a smiling expression, "If you have a larger appetite, you can also add some snacks or something."

"Okay, I understand," Natsukawa Kanade nodded.

He wasn't in a hurry to clarify the "mistake", anyway, going out with other people always caused this kind of misunderstanding, and over time he became too lazy to explain it specifically.

"What do you think, Senior?"

"I'm fine with anything, Junior decides," Kasumigaoka Utaha shook her head, still looking at him fixedly with her cheeks propped up.

After getting a reply, Natsukawa Kanade nodded, pointed to the picture on the menu, and said to the waiter, "Then one couple's set meal, and add this snack set."

"Okay… Do you need anything else?"

"Nothing else… Oh right, bring two glasses of iced water first," Natsukawa Kanade added, then glanced at Kasumigaoka Utaha, and only after seeing her nod slightly did he confirm, "That's it, thank you."

"Okay, I'll bring it to you right away, please wait a moment."

After the waiter left, Kasumigaoka Utaha opened her mouth meaningfully: "Junior really doesn't care at all, actually lying in front of outsiders…"

Natsukawa Kanade was stunned, but soon understood what she meant, but wasn't annoyed at all.

"There's no need to explain anything specifically, anyway, it's probably just this one time today, and I won't be coming here again in the future, so there's no need to care too much."

Moreover, in other words, specifically bringing it up to explain would have a guilty feeling of trying to cover something up, and might even make people laugh—this kind of thing had happened before.

"Tch…" So Kasumigaoka Utaha curled her lips and didn't say anything else.

The two chatted for a while, and soon the meals were served one by one.

During the meal, Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't cause any more trouble. Naturally, she also understood the principle that too much is not appropriate.

Her appetite was relatively small, so she quickly finished her meal, wiped her mouth, and then propped up her cheeks again, looking at Natsukawa Kanade like she was watching a play. She didn't have the habit of touching up her makeup after meals, and it could even be said that she didn't have the habit of putting on makeup when going out, at most she would put on some lipstick when going to see her editor.

After all, some people are naturally beautiful, and adding more makeup would be too much.

"…"

"If Senior has nothing to do, you can read a book or browse Twitter, always staring at others will make them feel embarrassed."

"Eh? Does that mean Junior is also the kind of person who can't continue when being watched?" Kasumigaoka Utaha pretended to be surprised.

"…" Natsukawa Kanade expressionlessly swallowed the steak in his mouth before speaking again, "I feel like you're saying something rude… Do you want me to complain like that?"

"I'm clearly saying something serious? It's clearly Junior who's thinking crookedly, it has nothing to do with me~" Kasumigaoka Utaha naturally wouldn't admit it, putting on a mischievous look.

"Truly serious people don't say 'I'm saying something serious'," Natsukawa Kanade shook his head, then slightly increased his eating speed.

Even he was somewhat bothered by the gazes of others.

So Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't reply to him, but her gaze still didn't let go, and even became more excessive.

210. Natsukawa Utaha?

After finishing their meal, the two walked out of the restaurant and found that it was drizzling outside.

Mixed with rainwater, the air also became humid and viscous. Crisp raindrops pattered on the eaves, making a ticking sound, coordinating with the hurried steps of passersby, playing a melodious movement unique to early summer.

But for Natsukawa Kanade, this wasn't the time to appreciate the scenery, but rather felt that the rain was very untimely.

It was a bit inconsiderate—didn't it see that the two of them didn't bring umbrellas? Not even coats.

"Let's wait a little longer, this kind of rain should stop after a while," Natsukawa Kanade glanced at Kasumigaoka Utaha beside him and found that she was like a child, reaching out her hand and letting the raindrops pat her arms and palms, as if feeling nature.

"Um…" Kasumigaoka Utaha was a little absent-minded.

Natsukawa Kanade didn't bother her, letting her immerse herself in the world of a literary girl. He took out his phone and started browsing Twitter again.

Their idea was indeed good, but the rain got heavier and heavier, showing no sign of stopping. Not only that, as time passed, the surrounding shops basically closed one after another, and even the restaurant behind them was almost empty, with only the two of them not moving because they wanted to stubbornly wait for the rain to stop.

Just as Natsukawa Kanade was thinking about whether to simply brave the rain, a familiar voice suddenly sounded from behind.

"Um, customer?"

He turned his head and saw the previous waiter, handing over an umbrella and talking to him.

"If you don't mind, you can use this…"

"Uh… okay, thank you," Natsukawa Kanade was stunned, but he didn't refuse, and decisively took it, "How much is this? I want to buy it."

He basically wouldn't refuse other people's kindness, and of course he would never be stingy with his rewards.

"No need, no need, just take it…"

The waiter still wanted to decline, but Natsukawa Kanade insisted on buying it, otherwise he wouldn't accept it, which made the other party accept it.

After getting the umbrella, Natsukawa Kanade spoke to Kasumigaoka Utaha, who was still in a daze: "Senior, let's go."

Kasumigaoka Utaha turned her head to look at him, and then nodded lightly: "Um."

This umbrella wasn't too big, and even when fully opened, it could only barely cover the figures of two people. Natsukawa Kanade moved closer to Kasumigaoka Utaha.

He didn't have any strange plots, preferring to get wet himself rather than dare to get close to others. If it weren't for the fact that the person next to him was Kasumigaoka Utaha, he would have already put his arm around the other person's shoulder to keep the two in the same rhythm.

The road to the station wasn't far, but because of the wind and rain, it took them a little longer.

Before leaving the restaurant, Natsukawa Kanade had looked at the departure time of the last train, but after really walking to the train station, he saw the scrolling subtitles on the sign next to him showing "Due to heavy rain, the train will stop operating early, the departure time of the last train is 9:00", more than an hour earlier than the scheduled time.

Natsukawa Kanade had a bad feeling in his heart, and then he opened his phone and saw that it was indeed past 9 o'clock. They had spent too long waiting for the rain.

So he looked at Kasumigaoka Utaha next to him and asked for her opinion: "Looks like we can only find a place to stay here tonight?"

It wasn't that there was no way to go back at all, after all, taxis were very convenient, but taxis in Japan… only those who know, know. It's better not to be ripped off.

"Um, I'll listen to you…" Kasumigaoka Utaha nodded lightly, rarely showing a very obedient appearance.

Although Natsukawa Kanade was a little puzzled, he didn't think much about it. After finding a slightly well-rated hotel on his phone, he led the other party towards the hotel.

The journey wasn't very far, and it didn't take much effort to reach the destination, but they were harassed when inquiring about rooms.

"What kind of relationship do you two have?" The person at the front desk was a seemingly nice-looking aunt, but in reality, she wasn't easy to talk to.

"Uh…" The two looked at each other, and then Natsukawa Kanade took the lead in asking: "Does this have anything to do with our stay?"

"How should I say it… In principle, our hotel doesn't accept accommodation applications from minors without the permission of a guardian, and this one is clearly a high school student, right? I think I have an obligation to ask," the landlady pointed to Kasumigaoka Utaha.

Only then did Natsukawa Kanade remember that his senior was still wearing a school uniform, and she was immediately noticed.

"Uh, actually, I'm also a student. I'm not some suspicious person," Kanade Natsukawa tried to explain, thinking he was being mistaken for some shady character trying to abduct high schoolers.

"Even if you say that... still, a high school boy and girl staying in the same room is a bit... you know?" The landlady inexplicably gave him a very strange look.

Just then, Utaha Kasumigaoka suddenly spoke up: "It's okay..."

Seeing that both of their gazes were drawn to her, she added again: "Because we are—siblings."

Kanade Natsukawa: "..."