[Master K] The bad one next door

Yazawa Ryoko met the old lady upstairs again when she got off work.

"...Oh, isn't this Ryoko! You have worked hard."

The little white-haired woman leaned on a cane and looked at her with a smile.Yazawa Ryoko, who was wearing business attire, bowed slightly: "Yes, thank you for your concern."

Among married Japanese women, Ryoko is one of the very few office workers.When their family first moved here a few years ago, almost everyone looked at her strangely, a woman who had never resigned and took care of her husband and children at home. She seemed to be "rebellious". Only the old man showed her understanding. and goodwill.To this day, even though Ryoko has been recognized by the people around her, she still holds a unique respect for the old man.

"What's wrong? Are you in a bad mood?"

The old lady's kind voice rang in my ears.Ryoko, who lowered her head in thought, quickly shook her head: "How could it be, I'm just... thinking about something."

"Really? If you are sad, don't hold back."

The old man didn't insist anymore, but changed the subject: "Have you seen Xiao Zhenya?"

Suddenly hearing the other party mention her daughter, Ryoko froze for a while, showing a confused expression: "Mami? Ah, I was about to pick her up..."

"It's no use."

"Eh?"

"I saw her when I came back from grocery shopping." The old man's old and thin fingers slowly stroked the smooth head of the cane, "She was staying with another boy with orange hair...that was from the Hatta family. son, right?"

The old man remembered something funny, and smiled gently on his wrinkled face.

"They're having a great time."

Among the tall buildings, the blood-red sunset slowly sank, and the sky was rendered a golden orange-red.The peaceful and wise gaze of the old man behind the lens gave Ryoko the illusion that he was seen through for a moment.

She followed the old man's gaze blankly.

Beyond the gate of the community, there are orange-yellow streets, rows of poplar trees casting shadows, scattered pedestrians, driving vehicles, high-rise buildings with hazy yellow sides... all the way to the end of the road, in sight It is a small park in the sunset.

<<<<<

At this moment.

Mami squatted in the sand pool, holding a branch to write and draw on the sand.

The black-haired girl's white face was smeared with dust, and the hem of her white skirt was also dirty, but her eyes were extremely focused, as if she was doing something earth-shattering.Maintaining a serious expression, she slowly drew the last stroke. She tilted her head to admire her painting for a while, narrowed her eyes softly, and finally raised a satisfied smile.

"You're done!"

The sand pool was dyed a layer of dazzling golden yellow, and there were several slightly darker-colored ravines sunken between the delicate sand, which just connected into a complete pattern.Maya stood up, took a step back cautiously, turned around and waved to the orange-haired boy who was skateboarding in the middle of the square and shouted: "Hey, Misaki!"

The orange-haired boy leaped over a railing on a skateboard, landed with a "clang" and circled neatly, and slowly slid to the edge of the sand pool.After stopping, he stepped on the ground with one foot, stabilized the skateboard with the other, and asked curiously, "Did you finish the painting?"

"Ah."

Maki nodded happily, pointing at the open space in front of her with the tip of the branch.

Misaki Hatta put her hands in her pockets, and took a look with her head.

……

With just one glance, his complexion instantly became very exciting.

...what the hell.

What is this prickly ball? !hedgehog?So why do hedgehogs have three holes? !

Well, three holes are fine, but what is the crooked oval and two dots below?This is simply an abstract painting!How did he never realize that his childhood sweetheart had the potential of Picasso? ! !

Hatta turned his head with a look of joy, but just happened to meet the wet eyes of the black-haired girl full of expectation.

"……Well."

——The spit that had reached the tip of his tongue was swallowed by him again.

There's no way to say a word of sarcasm.

He choked, blushed, and quickly lowered his head to stare at the "painting" that the girl was proud of, desperately searching for the few adjectives in his mind.

"Uh... this..." He blushed, and managed to hold back a sentence, "This hedgehog is quite beautifully drawn."

"Eh? It's not a hedgehog."

"Isn't it?! Then, is that durian..."

"Not at all!"

The black-haired girl pursed her mouth into a "^" shape, her clear eyes drooped down in frustration, and she poked a hole in the sand with a branch: "Can't Misaki see it? This is Misaki."

On closer inspection, the painting does seem to have the outline of a human face.

"This is the hair." Maki pointed to the thorn-like object next to the ball, "This is the face, these two are the eyes, this is the mouth, and the bottom one is the skateboard..."

She pointed to the not-so-standard circle on the sand dune, the three holes in the circle, the oval below and the two dots in turn, and looked up at the dumbfounded Hatta after speaking, "Obviously it's easy to understand, why is it so?" Can't you see it?"

Hatta: "..."

——How could it be possible to see it!Besides, it's not normal to see it!

He cleared his throat and tried to keep his face straight.

"...Well, regardless of how well you draw, why is my head resting directly on the skateboard?!"

Faced with such a big gap, Mami actually had a natural expression on his face: "Because the body is blocked."

"what?!"

"I drew the scene when Misaki skateboarded for the first time. Didn't you just fall down and hit the skateboard with your chin? You can't see your body from the front."

There was no hint of sarcasm in her calm eyes. In fact, she was just stating the facts.This made Hatta, whose black history was picked up, not know where to vent his anger for a while.

"...Hey, this happened several years ago, why do you remember it so clearly?"

Mami was stunned for a moment, and then, as if hearing a child who loves something, a big and undisguised proud smile appeared on her small face: "Of course, I remember everything about Misaki very clearly."

She threw away the branch, tilted her head to remember, and snapped her fingers seriously: "Misaki first skateboarded four years ago. At that time, you were just in elementary school. It is said that you have been pestering Aunt Hatta for a long time before you bought it. To the skateboard."

——Eh, eh?

"Also, you got 99 points in the first exam, you took the paper and told me to show off that you are the No.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!"

In order to prevent her from revealing more black history that she didn't quite remember with a pure face, Hatta hastily interrupted her.He opened his eyes wide and looked at his childhood sweetheart who was looking back suspiciously, his tone stuttered because he was too shocked.

"You, why are you..."

Mami smiled happily, looked straight at him, and answered softly almost without hesitation:

"Because I like Misaki the most!"

How much do you like it?

——I like it more than I like glutinous rice dumplings, and I like it as much as I like my parents.

The setting sun in the orange sky was so red that it was about to bleed, casting a layer of warm radiance on the clear eyes of the black-haired girl.Hatta was stunned for a long time but did not recover.After a while, he suddenly came to his senses, jumped up like an electric shock, blushed and shouted: "Stupid, stupid! This, this... you can't talk nonsense to people outside, you know?!"

Maki opened her eyes wide in surprise, "Why?"

"Because, because..."

Woohoo how to say it!

The orange-haired boy scratched his hair in distress, peeked at the girl from under his bangs, quickly looked away, and swallowed: "It's embarrassing...and it's bad to be misunderstood by others..."

Mami's expression became more and more bewildered.

——I can't understand it at all.

Misunderstand?What misunderstanding?

"It's a fact that I like Misaki, besides, Mom and Dad are very happy when they hear me say that." I thought Misaki would be happy too, but unexpectedly, the reaction was completely different from what I expected.Miya was a little disappointed.

"Uncle, uncle and aunt... these are two different things!"

"It's the same thing." The black-haired girl puffed up her white and tender cheeks, "Just like Misaki likes skateboarding, is Misaki afraid of being 'misunderstood'? That's why I don't understand what you're thinking."

Hatta really wanted to knock open her head to see if it contained weeds.

"This has nothing to do with skateboarding, idiot! Why did you suddenly mention this—" He suddenly realized something, and the words stopped abruptly, and he looked at the black-haired girl squatting in the sandpit up and down with strange eyes After looking it over, "...Hey, you seem to care about my skateboard all the time."

"……Eh?"

Seeing her unresponsive look, Hatta confirmed his guess even more.

"I said you don't want to learn, do you?"

Mami stared at him blankly for a while, then slightly bent the corners of her eyes, tilted her head, and showed an embarrassed smirk.

"... Hehe, it was discovered."

……

When Yazawa Ryoko came to the park, she saw such a scene.

——"Be careful and stand firm! If you fall, I won't help you!"

In the open space between the fountain and the sand pool, the orange-haired boy was blushing, holding the girl's arm to help her stand on the skateboard.It wasn't until the brunette girl stood up carefully that his tense expression relaxed a little.

"Is it OK?"

Mami bit her lower lip tightly, cold sweat dripped from her forehead because of being too nervous, and her soft voice was as thin as a mosquito: "I...I'm not sure..."

"What, what are you so afraid of? Didn't you ask to learn?!"

"Ugh, sorry...but the first few times..."

Under the afterglow of the setting sun, the round beads of sweat on the tip of Hatta's nose reflected the dazzling light, and his reddened face showed a more nervous expression than hers.While holding on to the skateboard firmly and helping her stabilize her body with both hands, he comforted her as best he could, "It's okay, it's actually super easy, even for a fool like you, Mami, who has a bad balance Can quickly learn..."

——What a crappy way to comfort you.

Liangzi couldn't help slandering silently, and at the same time, a kind of interest spontaneously arose in her heart.She quietly stepped aside, watching the next development with great interest.

From the conversation between the two, it can be seen that it seems that Maya first proposed to learn skateboarding, and after several failed attempts, he is naturally a little unconfident now.In this case, even though the orange-haired boy complained about her weakness, he still didn't leave her behind.

Hatta repeated the rules again, and then asked, "Do you remember now?"

"Yes!"

Maki cheered up and responded.

"Then let's get started!"

Following the method taught by the orange-haired boy, Maki lightly stepped on the front of the skateboard.She held her breath and glanced at her partner quietly. After seeing his encouraging eyes, she finally mustered up the courage, closed her eyes, and kicked the other foot hard on the ground.

The skateboard shook all over, and under the impact, it carried the girl and rushed forward quickly.

Hatta jumped up excitedly, and shouted at her back: "Great! You finally succeeded, Maki!...Huh?"

Before the words fell, the black-haired girl's body was tilted, and before the little short hands had time to flap, the little body rolled over with the skateboard.

"Whoa whoa whoa?!"

She let out a panicked cry of unknown meaning, slipped, and the soles of her feet were completely out of touch with the skateboard.The next second, the skateboard rolled and flew into the air, and she threw her hands forward into the air, and her forehead hit the ground heavily, making a heavy "bang".

almost instant kill——

Hatta Misaki was stunned.

Ryoko Yazawa, who was peeping from the side, was also stunned.

She instantly remembered the new snap of the glasses body.

"Hey, hello! Are you okay!"

Hatta ran over in a hurry, knelt down next to his childhood sweetheart, wanted to help but dared not, feeling a little panic and helpless for a while.The black-haired girl lay motionless on the ground, as if lifeless, and after a long time, she twitched her fingers and let out a weak hum.

"pain……"

Hatta slightly opened his eyes wide, showing a surprised expression.

"Maya? Are you okay?"

"Hey..." Mami lifted her head weakly, her white forehead under the black bangs was a big red spot, "...still alive."

"...that's really unlucky." But being able to make such jokes proves that she's fine, "Hey, can you stand up?"

She slowly got up from the ground, and subconsciously wanted to rub her dizzy head, but she flinched when her fingers just touched the swollen forehead: "It's okay." She smiled at him Smiling, showing cute teeth, "It's just that my head is a little dizzy... But it will be fine soon, so don't worry, Misaki."

He couldn't help but widen his eyes.

"It's all right—you've hurt your forehead!"

In fact, it is not that Hatta has never had a swollen forehead. It is true that this kind of injury is already a common occurrence for him.But the small injury that seemed insignificant to him was particularly shocking when it was placed on the girl in front of him.

There was redness and swelling on the fair forehead.

He finally realized the difference between rough-skinned and thick-skinned boys and delicate girls.

If I had known this earlier, I would have resolutely not let her skateboard.He shouldn't have brought it up in the first place, because she looked at him with such anticipation that he would temporarily agree with him. After all, he didn't expect that Mami would fall so hard!

"It's really okay... Misaki is so talkative."

Hearing this, the corners of the orange-haired boy's mouth twitched violently.

"Huh? How dare you call me long-winded? If it weren't for the sake of my childhood, who cares about you!" He sat down next to her and scolded, "Mami, you are an idiot, after studying for so long You haven't learned it yet, how bad is your balance ability? I think you will definitely fail in sports in the future!"

Maya was caught off guard by the scolding, and for a while could only utter meaningless monosyllables such as "Woo!", "Eh?".

"No, failed...?"

"Yeah, no. Pass.! So the idiot Miya is absolutely—— absolutely unable to learn to skateboard!"

"Ugh..."

Maki showed the expression of being severely stabbed in the heart.

"Who said, I, I will learn to show you later!" She swallowed, and stared at him with clear eyes, "I'm just a little bad at sports, as long as I work hard, I will learn it one day Yes! When the time comes, Misaki will take back the failure!"

"...Are you still going to skate?"

"Of course--"

"--I reject!"

Hatta stood up, crossed his hips like a little adult, and stared at her aggressively: "It's not enough to fall like this, you still want to fall to your death! I will never lend you the skateboard again!"

Maki still wanted to argue, but was blocked by his next sentence.

"You don't cherish yourself and I still feel sorry for my skateboard! Besides, what happens to you won't be all my responsibility!"

The last sentence made her choose to compromise.She lowered her head in frustration, scratched the small stones on the ground with her little fingers, and muttered in a low voice: "... I see, I'm sorry."

Seeing her dejected look, Hatta, who got his wish, suddenly didn't know what to do.He glanced at her uneasily, but he could only shut his mouth, and sat beside her silently, waiting for her to have a good rest.

The sun sank deeper.The smudged orange light on the girl's black hair faded little by little as the sun set.

Seeing that the two children had no intention of talking any more, Ryoko Yazawa, who had been peeping at the side for a long time, felt that it was time for her to appear.She coughed lightly, walked out from behind the big tree where she was hiding, and raised an innocent smile to the two who suddenly turned their heads and looked at her in surprise:

"Yo, kids, it's time to go home."

<<<<<

There was the sound of cooking vegetables in the kitchen.

Mami sat on the sofa with dangling legs, sniffed and smelled the fragrance wafting in the air.

Well, this should be fried river prawns.

My mother who loves Chinese food always chooses some days to prepare a big meal with great interest, and her favorite glutinous rice dumpling is also a Chinese dish.While looking forward to her mother's masterpiece, Maya stared at the TV intently.

My mother's favorite "Gintama" is on TV.

To be honest, she didn't understand the plot very well, and she didn't understand why her mother couldn't stop laughing.She only knows that her mother likes to call "Yin Sang~" (Papa's language) with a nympho face, and sometimes excitedly chanting "Mami, do you think Chongshen or Yinshen is better? Of course, Shuangshen also Not bad, the brother and sister group praises it! Ahh, you are still God of All!" and other words of unknown meaning.

But Dad's performance told her that she didn't need to understand.

... It's really hard to understand the thoughts of parents.

The sound of cooking in the kitchen gradually subsided.Yazawa Ryoko walked out of the kitchen wearing an apron, and stretched comfortably: "Yo Xi, it's done! We can start when the soup is ready!"

"I'm looking forward to it. Thank you, Mom."

Yazawa Ryoko raised her eyebrows, walked to her daughter and sat down.When her body sank into the soft sofa, she couldn't help but let out a long and comfortable breath, and then she hung lazily on the back of the chair, and sighed in an exaggerated tone: "Oh, my mother is so touched by how much Mami cares about her~"

Mami was a little embarrassed for a moment.

There was a smell of food in the small white and warm living room. The father who was reading the newspaper on the other side of the coffee table glanced at the overly lively wife and couldn't help laughing.

The head of the Yazawa family is a man who is not very tall, with a fat figure, and he often smiles.Wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, he exudes the temperament of a social elite. His youthful handsomeness can be seen in his eyebrows and eyes-of course, he is not much different now.

"...Speaking of which, Mom." Mami hesitated for a moment, tugged at the corner of the woman's clothes, and whispered, "Will I really fail in physical education?"

The little black-haired girl showed a slightly disturbed expression.Ryoko turned her head and stared at her for a while in surprise, until a flush of embarrassment appeared on her soft cheeks, then she laughed as if realizing something: "I see, do you care about Misaki's words?"

"No, not at all! It's just a little..."

"Don't worry about it, Misaki just said that because she was worried about you." Ryoko patted her daughter's head comfortingly, "Misaki is a good boy, although his expression is a bit awkward. There is no need to take his words so seriously."

"real……?"

"Of course. Besides, it doesn't matter if Mami fails in physical education. You just need to have a good brain."

As she spoke, she nodded her head with her slender, fair fingers.

Brunette girl looks surprised.

"But I don't think my brain power is good either." She lowered her head in frustration, "Misaki always calls me stupid..."

"Maya will never be an idiot."

Yazawa Ryoko's expression suddenly became serious.She bent down slightly, a few strands of long black hair slipped from her round ears to her chest, and there was a faint fragrance in the hair.

She gently stroked her daughter's head, staring at the girl's ignorant eyes with obscure eyes, and parted her lips lightly.

"—After all, you are my daughter."

Mami was stunned.

Under the shadow of the fluorescent lamp, the dark eyes of the black-haired woman appeared even deeper.She couldn't even see her own shadow in it.

--What's the meaning?Mom's... daughter?

Just when the atmosphere started to become awkward, Yazawa's father coughed lightly.

"Compared to this, Ryoko, I think the most important thing right now is the issue of TV programs." He pushed his glasses that had slipped off slightly, poked his head out from behind the newspaper, and said seriously, "Gintama is really not suitable for children."

Yazawa Ryoko let go of her hand, and turned her head to stare at him dissatisfied: "Hey, Kyosuke, what do you mean! Are you despising my taste? Gintama is such a gorgeous art of complaining!"

Yazawa's father sighed helplessly.

"But don't forget that Maki is only eight years old! Don't bring her down from a young age, okay?"

Ryoko didn't speak for a while.She propped her chin up, looked the man up and down with scrutiny, shrugged her shoulders in compromise for a while, turned around, grabbed the remote control and tuned the program to a children's channel that broadcast "Digimon".

It seems that she is more compatible with this style, and Mami, who has always been a little careless, is refreshed and looks at it with full attention.

While Mami was concentrating on staring at the TV, Ryoko stood up and came to her husband, bent down and patted his shoulder, and said casually, "By the way, Kyosuke, I just want to ask you something."

……

"what happened?"

Yazawa Kyosuke closed the door with his backhand, and looked at the back of his wife in front of him suspiciously.

In order to prevent Maya from hearing, the two went to the upstairs room.Ryoko turned on the desk lamp with a "click", stared at the dim light, and said calmly, "You have been in touch with Qi Mulisa recently, right?"

Yazawa Kyosuke was taken aback.Seeing the black-haired woman turning her head to look at herself, she couldn't help lowering her head with guilt: "...Yes."

After finishing speaking, he quietly glanced at Ryoko.But seeing that she didn't even move her brows, she didn't seem to be angry about it at all.This surprised him a little.

When he said this, he had the consciousness of being scolded severely by the black-haired woman and even ignoring him, but now the other party's performance deviated from his expectations.He couldn't help feeling annoyed that the situation was out of control.

Ryoko sat by the bed and tapped the table with her fingers, as if to remind him to regain his senses: "What's the reason?"

"...Sorry, I can't say it yet."

Her eyes narrowed coldly.

"Yazawa Kyosuke, you must not forget how we escaped from that place, right?"

Yazawa Kyosuke pursed his lips and shook his head with difficulty: "No."

"We have gone through untold hardships, escaped countless pursuits, and finally severed ties with that kind of place, but you have contacted Qi Mulisa without telling me, are you trying to cause disaster!" Liangzi stood up, "That's all, I want to find out what you think, but you actually threw me a 'can't say'! Are you kidding me?"

She took a breath, stood up straight with the support on the table, and looked at him coldly: "Maybe I can understand that you want to go back?"

Yazawa Kyosuke was shocked, raised his head suddenly, and showed an excited expression for the first time after entering the room: "I never thought about it like that! How could I want to go back to that kind of place!"

"...You think so?"

"Of course!"

Ryoko lowered his eyes and let out a slow breath.

"Listen, Kyousuke, if it was before, I wouldn't care about you, because we got married in a hurry without any emotional basis, even if we went our separate ways at any time. But it's different now, we have Miya " She said, "I don't want to hurt my daughter, so if you do something stupid that threatens our safety, I will definitely kill you, understand?"

She is serious.

Yazawa Kyosuke could see it.

She had never been so serious, so serious that it made every pore of his body tremble, and he even clearly caught the flash of murderous intent in her beautiful black eyes.He had to lower his head.

"I see."

Yazawa Ryoko stared at him for a long time, and his probing gaze made his heart hurt like a knife.After a long time, she sighed, turned and walked out the door.After she closed the door, Yazawa Kyosuke heard the faint conversation between mother and daughter coming from outside the door.

"Mom, you forgot to turn off the gas stove, but I turned it off!"

"Hey, my Miya is the best~"

It was a completely different tone of cheerfulness than when he was alone.

The words he had held back for a long time finally poured out powerlessly from his pale lips.

--sorry.

Yazawa Kyosuke said this to the empty room.