Contrary to Kitagawa Sakisa, Kyujuu Rika was silent for a moment before saying softly, "I can understand."
The two of them had grown up together from a young age, and they never expected to have such a difference of opinion on the matter of arranged marriage.
"Understand what, Rika? If your dad forces you to marry someone you don’t like, I’d definitely crash your wedding and take you away!"
Kyujuu Rika laughed, "I didn’t expect you to be so impulsive."
"Is that impulsive? It’s just doing what needs to be done."
Despite saying this, she knew that Kitagawa Sakisa could be so impulsively confident because she only had these few friends, uncomplicated relationships, and lived as she wished. Her brother never troubled her with the family’s business interests.
"Let’s continue talking about Hanabi," Kyujuu Rika’s gaze fell on Hanamaru Hanabi’s face, "What did Sekine say to you earlier?"
"He said that the arranged marriage talked about by our families can be annulled."
"That’s weird, isn’t he pursuing you? An arranged marriage should be exactly to his liking." Ayaka Rie said.
Hanamaru Hanabi lightly shook her head, not knowing what the other person was thinking.
"Did he have any requests?"
"No, he just asked for a cup of coffee, but then Sakisa-chan came along, and Sekine just left."
Kitagawa Sakisa: "Uesugi, say something, this is about you."
"Can’t you guess?" Uesugi Sakura retorted.
"Can’t guess, you tell me."
Uesugi Sakura glanced at her before saying, "What he’s doing is called making a good impression, just to make himself look good in front of the girls."
He then turned to Hanamaru Hanabi and asked, "Did he say anything else to you?"
Hanamaru Hanabi answered in a low voice, "He said... he’d like to chat as regular classmates in the future."
Ayaka Rie understood too: "He just wants to get closer to Hanabi."
Having clarified his real intention, Kyujuu Rika asked Uesugi Sakura the question Kitagawa Sakisa had asked earlier:
"Uesugi, aren’t you worried?"
"Worried? Not at all. If he really wanted to use Hanamaru’s family against Hanabi, I’d instead have to think of ways to handle it. But what he’s doing now is just shooting himself in the foot."
The children’s tour time is about two hours, and the volunteer’s job is to accompany and explain everything to them.
Once the afternoon passes and they prepare to return to school, Uesugi’s work for the day will also be complete.
Watching a group of little girls on the bus waving goodbye at him, along with the funny faces of the little boys, Uesugi Sakura didn’t know what expression to respond with.
Todaka Keichiro glanced at him, then at Hanamaru Hanabi standing beside him, giving him an encouraging look:
"I’ll go ahead now, won’t interrupt your date."
Uesugi Sakura smiled at him: "Yeah, see you."
"Ah, I’m envious." He shook his head to himself and turned away from the art university’s gallery entrance.
Once he disappeared from sight, only two people were left under the green trees.
"Sakura-kun... it seems you’re quite popular with the girls...."
Uesugi Sakura brushed the hair from her face: "You’re not jealous, are you? They’re just little girls; they don’t even know how to express their feelings yet."
"Your words sound a bit sour, so there’s still a little," Uesugi Sakura pinched her cheek, soft and warm, "So, tell me, how do you want me to accompany you today? The rest of the time, I’m all yours."
"Can we stroll around the park? Hanabi also wants to walk around the shopping street with Sakura-kun." Hanamaru Hanabi didn’t object to his cheek-pinching action; maybe she was not in the best mood. Normally, she would say not to do that.
Uesugi Sakura continued to pinch her cheek, he remembered, the Library Company side, due to the steady increase in novel sales, Hanabi’s work on illustrations had increased too.
"It’s all good, I’m all yours; you can make me lie naked on the bed at your disposal if you’d like. But don’t you have any work to do? If you’re too busy, I’d just be bothering you."
"No, no, Sakura-kun doesn’t have to undress..." Hanamaru Hanabi’s cheeks instantly blushed, "Work, Hanabi completed some while at school, so there’s no rush to meet the deadline now."
Upon seeing her cute face, Uesugi Sakura couldn’t help but smile; her attire today was very youthful, white blouse, small bow tie, round beret, sky-blue suspender skirt.
It’s nice, but he felt something was missing.
His gaze examined her face closely, making Hanamaru Hanabi think there was something on her face, showing a puzzled expression, softly calling his name:
Uesugi Sakura looked for a while longer, realizing what was missing from her outfit.
He took off his gold-edged glasses from the bridge of his nose and carefully placed them on Hanamaru Hanabi’s closed eyes.
When she dared to open her eyes again, like a startled little rabbit, she saw his smile upon looking up.
Hanamaru Hanabi, with her shoulder-length short hair and cute appearance, now wearing a pair of loosely fitting men’s glasses, gazed at him with bright violet eyes that held a somewhat dazed and silly look.
"Now you look adorably nerdy."
Well, it turned into an intelligent, obedient, well-behaved schoolgirl style.
Her eyes, already exceptionally rare and beautiful, appeared even larger and brighter with the glasses.
"No, I’m not stupid!"
Uesugi Sakura reached out his right hand, spreading his five fingers to envelop her cool small hand, interlocking their fingers together.
He raised their clasped hands in front of them, smiling at her as he said: