Living in Tokyo, all I want to do is laze around.

Kai Uesugi turned around and looked at her departing figure, then shook his head.

Little Fireworks... I can't bring myself to hate anyone, no wonder she's always getting bullied.

On the day before Qixi Festival, many boys and girls privately discussed confessing their feelings with their best friends.

But how can you negotiate something like this? You might get betrayed.

So... on the night of Qixi Festival, many people will secretly eat the chocolates they made themselves.

That night, even though the dessert was made primarily of cocoa beans and sugar, and even though I ate each one, I couldn't taste any sweetness at all.

------

After becoming pregnant, Mrs. Hanamaru often came to the Uesugi family home for dinner and chatted with Mrs. Uesugi.

Uesugi Shio crossed her long legs and lazily leaned back on the sofa, eating a lollipop while watching the TV program in the living room—"The Life of a Newlywed Couple with a 20-Year Age Gap".

Noriko Uesugi and Mieko Hanamaru sat together watching TV.

The male lead, Hanari Harumi, is 44 years old and still single, and is several years older than the two wives present.

"Kai-kun, could you please give me a potato?"

"Ah."

Kai Uesugi handed the peeled and washed potatoes to the busy Hanabi Hanamaru.

Unlike her gentle nature, his knife skills were extremely sharp.

Potatoes, carrots, and cucumbers are quickly diced or sliced, while corn kernels are set aside.

"What are we having for dinner today?" Uesugi Kai asked, looking at the sea of ​​vegetables—it was most likely a salad.

"Potato salad." Hanamaru Hanabi poured the chopped potatoes into a steamer and steamed them until cooked.

Wash your clean hands and get back to preparing the ingredients.

"Tomorrow is Qixi Festival, do you want a gift?"

"Kai-kun... there's no need to buy anything for Hanabi..." Hanabi paused for a moment, thinking that she hadn't made the chocolates yet.

"Is Hanabi still angry?"

"What are you angry about...?"

"I saw you changing your clothes."

Hanabi Hanamaru's violet eyes were fixed on the yellow corn kernels in the bowl, her cheeks slightly flushed.

Then he whispered, "You bad guy..."

It was like a mixture of dislike and shyness.

Kai Uesugi leaned closer to her face and said, "Actually... it shouldn't be anything, right?"

After all, he could hold her while he slept at night.

Cool water flowed over my hand, and tender green cucumber slices in the bowl floated and sank in the water.

"Hanabi... Kai-kun saw everything..." Hanamaru Hanabi stammered, her voice filled with extreme embarrassment.

Kai Uesugi: "You have a great figure, very slender and fair-skinned."

As soon as he spoke, Hanamaru Hanabi recalled the scene, her little mind went blank, and her voice became extremely shy and weak:

"Kai, Kai-kun...you're so annoying!"

"Are you that shy? It's not like you didn't see these things when you were a kid."

"Different."

Hanabi Hanamaru tried to avoid his close gaze, her little head filled with the scene of him looking at her back then.

"Back then, Kai was still the older brother, so it was normal for him to give Hanabi a bath."

I don't understand. It was okay when I was a child, but not when I grew up?

This is probably just an excuse for Xiaohuahu to answer her own question.

That's what Uesugi Kai thought.

"Let's not talk about that. What kind of dessert would you like after dinner? I can go out and buy it for you now."

"Let's skip dessert tonight, it'll make us gain weight."

Hanabi Hanabi hesitated for a moment, then said, "A little chili for dessert is fine."

Dessert = chili pepper.

No wonder it's a little firework that carries chili powder with it.

The mashed potato salad was ready quickly, paired with the previously prepared garlic pork tenderloin and miso soup.

The family is having dinner in the living room.

Mrs. Hanamaru picked up a mouthful of rice with her chopsticks, then suddenly stopped in mid-air, smiling as she said, "Won't we be disturbing your time together?"

"Absolutely not."

In front of the two ladies, Uesugi Kai ate several bites of the mashed potato salad with a milky flavor.

Hanabi Hanabi glanced at him furtively. When they were alone together, he would usually ask her if he could feed her.

"Oh? Is that so?" Mrs. Hanamaru has been looking at Sugi Kai with a lot of affection lately, and she knows that he sneaks into Hanabi's room every night.

But strangely, there were no unusual noises coming from next door.

While chatting with Noriko Uesugi, she mentioned that the two of them were very...close, and she was worried that something might happen.

After all, they are too young.

However, as a mother, Noriko Uesugi couldn't nag about this all the time, as it would only annoy her.

Only by asking Uesugi Shio to occasionally remind them—she's the older sister who's known the two of them since childhood.

“Let’s go to the shrine to see the wedding tomorrow,” Mrs. Hanamaru suddenly said.

"Aren't we going on Saturday?" asked Noriko Uesugi, holding a bowl and chopsticks.

"On Qixi Festival, someone will definitely get married."

Kai Uesugi: "I have class tomorrow."

"Kai doesn't want to go?" Mrs. Hanamaru smiled kindly.

Strangely enough, the more amiable his mother-in-law's smile, the more oppressive it felt to Uesugi Kai.

"I want to go!"

"Then it's settled."

"Is there a wedding tonight? Shouldn't something like that be done in the afternoon?"

Mrs. Hanamaru took out her phone and said with a smile, "7 PM on Qixi Festival is even more popular."

Outside, a light drizzle pattered against the flowers and leaves.

The rain that falls on July 6th, the day before Qixi Festival, is called "car-washing rain".

It is said to be the oxcart that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl rode when they met, and the water that washed it fell from the Milky Way.

------

The next day was Qixi Festival (Chinese Valentine's Day).

The story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl is also widely circulated in Japan.

Chocolates, which are usually given as Valentine's Day gifts, are also given by some girls to their crushes today.

At noon in the library, Uesugi Kai was tutoring Hanabi Hanamaru.

Hanabi Hanabi, with her hands behind her back, watched him intently and secretly pulled out an exquisitely packaged box from her shoulder bag, which had a shark keychain attached.

Then she quietly handed it to him.

"Kai-kun, for..." Hanamaru Hanabi's tiny, sweet voice rang out.

When Uesugi Kai saw the pink box that suddenly appeared in front of him, he put down his pen and calmly said, "Only Hanabi will give me chocolate today."

"Kai-kun...aren't you satisfied?" Hanabi Hanamaru could tell he wasn't very happy.

"Ah."

Kai Uesugi nodded, deliberately pushing the chocolate aside: "I've received quite a few on Valentine's Day or Tanabata in the past."

Hanabi Hanamaru watched as the chocolate she had painstakingly made was pushed far away by him. She lowered her head, clasped her small hands together, and said in a low voice:

"But... Kai said she only likes making fireworks..."

He didn't come to see her last night, nor did he come to wake her up this morning. She went to school by herself.

Think about how I've been calling him a bad guy and saying I hate him for the past few days.

'Kai-kun...you don't hate fireworks anymore, do you...?'

She was afraid she was getting annoyed, so she nervously turned the ring on her ring finger.

"The chocolates you used to give me were all out of obligation." Seeing her slightly downcast look, Uesugi Kai smiled inwardly, but deliberately kept his tone cold.

Actually, the chocolates that Hanamaru Hanabi sent were said to be handmade, but they were all handmade by hand.

However, when Uesugi Kai asked her, she always couldn't muster the courage to say, only that she bought the chocolate at the supermarket.

She was always afraid of being rejected.

Kai Uesugi's cold tone made Hanabi Hanabu feel inexplicably flustered.

She quickly said, "Not this year! We've always put a lot of effort into making fireworks; we make them all ourselves..."

"So you've been lying to me all along?" Uesugi Kai lowered his voice, his tone carrying a hint of annoyance.

"Fireworks, fireworks...it wasn't...it wasn't intentional..."

Hanabi Hanamaru felt disliked, and her heart pounded with anxiety and panic, causing her to start rambling incoherently.

"No... I didn't mean to lie to Kai-kun..."

"But...but..."