Tokyo: My Girlfriend

At the same time, Shinichi Kitagawa originally planned to have lunch on the rooftop with Akemi Aoki at noon, since tomorrow was their weekend date.

But when the school bell rang, Shinichi Kitagawa saw that his mother had sent him a message.

Mom: "Xinyi? Is get out of class over yet? I found what you asked me to find, and I took pictures of it and sent them to you. See if there's anything you need."

Shinichi Kitagawa opened the dozens of photos his mother had sent him.

The photos show items that Rena Kitagawa placed in a warehouse in Finland—things she no longer needed but hadn't thrown away.

There were two large boxes in total.

Ever since Rena and Hina's meeting in Tokyo, Shinichi Kitagawa has been thinking about how to change Rena's mindset.

The temporary separation from Hina was to avoid upsetting the naturally sensitive Rena. In order to reduce Rena's wariness of Hina, he tried to help her return to normal by living a peaceful life, but so far this method has not been very effective.

Furthermore, Haruna's school transfer has completely nipped this possibility in the bud.

Moreover, even if Hina doesn't come back, according to Shinichi Kitagawa's previous observations, no matter how much time has passed, a simple separation cannot diminish her vigilance.

Rena's obsession with emotions far exceeds imagination and cannot be smoothed over by time and calm.

So Shinichi Kitagawa came up with another idea: to find out about Rena's past. He knew Rena's present best, but he didn't know much about her past, especially before junior high school.

He thought of the old items Rena had stored in the warehouse in Finland. Although he might not find anything of value, he had to try. Perhaps he could find a breakthrough from some root cause.

As for Aoki Akemi's help, it was an unexpected third option. In this dilemma, Kitagawa Shinichi could only hope for all possibilities.

At that moment, he kept scrolling through the photos his mother had sent him on his phone. Many of the things in those photos looked very familiar to Shinichi Kitagawa.

Because many of the items were gifts he had given her before, including the first toothbrush and the first hair tie he gave her when she first moved into his house.

There was also a pretty pebble that she had picked up from somewhere, which she actually kept in the warehouse instead of throwing it away.

Looking back now, Rena clearly said she hated me giving her these childish little junks, but she kept them all safe and sound.

After flipping through most of it, Shinichi Kitagawa found nothing of value.

But something felt off: "Wait a minute, why are all these things from middle school onwards? What about the things Rena's mother gave her before? Didn't she keep any of them?"

Suddenly, Shinichi Kitagawa noticed an old rabbit hair clip among the items. The rabbit pattern on the clip had some mud stains on it, as if it had been discarded.

Shinichi Kitagawa tried to recall, but was certain that Rena had never worn this hair clip before.

He saved the picture of the hair clip, then went through the remaining items, which deepened his earlier doubts. Among all these miscellaneous items,

There really wasn't anything her mother had given her, not a single thing. Maybe this hair clip was it?

But Shinichi Kitagawa remembered that although Rena Kitagawa was naturally cold, she was clearly not that estranged from her mother. She was very sad when her aunt passed away.

Shinichi Kitagawa found Haruhi's contact information, thought about it, and then swiped past it. He decided to avoid involving Haruhi as much as possible, otherwise any action Haruhi took might cause misunderstandings in Rena's eyes.

So he went directly to Kyoko Tamura's friend.

He had previously added Xingzi as a friend online, although they had never chatted.

Shinichi Kitagawa sent a message: "Kyoko-nee, can you do me a favor and contact Hina's father? I have something I want to talk to my uncle about."

Aoki Akemi ran over with a smile from afar: "Shinichi-kun! Sorry I was in the restroom and took up time, let's go eat together!"

Shinichi Kitagawa turned to look at the smiling Akemi and responded. Kyoko Tamura replied instantly, sending her uncle's contact information along with the message:

"It seems that Hina and Rena's relationship has been quite strained lately, otherwise you wouldn't have come to me directly. Don't worry, for your and Hina's future, I will do my best to help you both."

Shinichi Kitagawa replied with a smile, "Thank you, Kyoko-nee."

Kyoko Tamura: "You're welcome. After all, you're Hina's boyfriend. And just call me Kyoko. We're pretty familiar with each other, and we'll be peers sooner or later."

Akemi Aoki noticed Shinichi Kitagawa's smile and wondered who he was texting now.

Is it his ex-girlfriend? It seems that Shin-il really hasn't broken off contact with his ex-girlfriend yet.

No wonder Rena-chan was so wary.

........

In the afternoon, there was another English class.

Before class, Haruhi was organizing yesterday's English homework in her office when she noticed that Kitagawa Rena's English level had dropped drastically since her arrival.

Is he even working against himself in this aspect?

Her English grades are clearly related to her future.

Even though that incident had just happened at noon, Haruhi Hina decided to go and talk to her.

After an English class, the bell rang, and Haruhi Hina looked at Kitagawa Rena, who hadn't looked up at the screen the entire time. "Rena-san? I'd like to talk to you about some homework. Is that convenient?"

Reina Kitagawa, in a bad mood, glanced at Hina Haruhi standing in front of her: "Is it convenient? If the teacher asks this, my answer is naturally..."

Haruhi Hina said seriously, "Then I take back my question about whether it's convenient or not, because this matter is very important."

In the corner of the corridor, Haruhi Hina handed her English homework to the other person:

"These are the assignments Rena has taught us recently. She started off doing quite well, but in such a short time, her level has dropped by at least twenty points. How can this continue?"

Rena Kitagawa didn't want to answer her.

Haruhi Hina couldn't maintain her serious demeanor in front of the girl, so she took a deep breath:

"I know that you dislike me, or even hate me, for some reason, but this is about your future career. If you want to go to university, I suggest that you at least think about yourself in this regard."

I haven't thought about whether or not to take the college entrance exam.

"Still haven't decided? With Reina's excellent grades, the teacher can give you some advice..."

"Stop calling me Rena Rena all the time!" Kitagawa Rena stared coldly at the other's gentle face. "Am I that familiar with you, teacher? I hope you can call me Kitagawa-kun. Besides, I won't listen to any advice you give me. Don't you know that? If you know, you don't need to say anything more."

She snatched the test paper from the other person's hand, turned away without looking at her, and said, "I know about the English score. I'll make my own plans."

Watching Kitagawa Rena's angry back, she felt helpless. After parting ways with Kitagawa Rena, Kasuga Hina, clutching her lesson plans, walked back to her office with a heavy heart.

As expected, Kyoko was right. I had been too optimistic at the beginning. In this situation, let alone starting as friends with Rena, even having a normal conversation would be a problem.

She had just stepped into the office when a colleague at work reminded her:

"Teacher Haruna? Didn't you apply for teaching aids this morning? The headmaster said that if you need teaching aids, you can just go to the teaching aids room on the first floor and get them. I left the key on the table for you. Remember to return it to the headmaster after you're done."

Spring Sunflower responded, picked up the keys from the table, put down what she was holding, and hurried off.

However, after arriving at the teaching aids room behind the teaching building, Haruhi Hina was surprised to find another person approaching from a distance, and that figure looked strangely familiar.

Haruhi Hina's beautiful peach blossom eyes widened: "Shin...Shinichi?"