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

"Kai-kun, please try some. Manager Liu's cooking is really good."

Kai Uesugi lowered his head and bit into the biscuit she fed him. Then, with it in his mouth, he turned his bicycle around the corner at the end of the street. The evening breeze brushed against his face, making him feel that the night breeze was very refreshing.

but...

"I...uh...uh...."

"What is Kai-kun saying?" Hanabi Hanamaru sat on the back of the bicycle, enduring the bumps along the way, and looked at his back.

She turned her head to look and realized that Uesugi Kai had a cookie in her mouth.

She quickly apologized, saying, "I'm sorry, Hanabi forgot that Kai-kun is riding a bike and can't finish it in one bite."

She quickly reached out and pinched the cookie from his mouth between her slender fingers.

Kai Uesugi was finally relieved. He took a third of the biscuit, put it in his mouth, chewed it for a while, swallowed it, and said to the girl behind him:

"I almost choked to death."

"I'm so sorry... Kai-kun, do you still want to eat?"

“Eat, of course I’ll eat. My wife is feeding me.” Uesugi Kai said, taking another bite of the cookie she offered.

Hanabi Hanabi heard him call her wife from behind and smiled sweetly, placing the small bag of cookies in her hand.

In the gentle breeze, she hugged his back.

"Hanabi still feels...better with Kai-kun by her side..."

"Have you been missing me a lot since I left for a few days?" Uesugi Kai asked from the front.

"Mmm..." Hanabi-chan pressed her face against his back, feeling the warmth emanating from it, and closed her eyes to savor his body temperature. "I miss him so much, so much, Kai-kun..."

Just hearing her soft, gentle voice, Uesugi Kai felt a surge of warmth in her heart.

The warmth enveloped him, forcing him to soften his voice as he spoke to the girl hugging him from behind:

"I really want to too, it's only been six days...less than a week..."

As he drove to the riverbank, Uesugi Kai looked at the rows of streetlights on both sides of the road in the distance, and some memories flooded back at an inopportune time, making him feel as if he were in another world.

"I don't have any ideals. I'm content as long as I'm fed. I've never asked for anyone to care about me. I just want to eat my fill, not get married, and live a simple life until I die after my parents are gone... That way, there's no pressure or burden. Living a simple life is a kind of happiness."

"But when I actually meet someone who loves me very much, I realize that all those things I said before about not caring and being able to live alone for a lifetime were fake. I was just running away and hiding. Deep down, I still hope that someone will love me, but I'm afraid I won't be able to find them, so I simply wrap myself up and label myself as 'happy on my own.'"

"Hanabi-chan, now I understand, now I understand... It is because of you that I have the hope of living a happy life. When this happiness came to me, I tasted all its goodness, and only then did I know how heartbroken I would be when it left."

"So, let's never be apart again, okay?"

Listening to Uesugi Kai's long string of gentle words, Hanabi Hanabi, sitting on the back of the bicycle, lowered her head and said weakly:

"I'm sorry, Kai-kun..."

"It's okay, I never blamed you... On the contrary, these few days apart have helped me see some things about myself more clearly."

Kai Uesugi was filled with mixed emotions. If it weren't for Hanabi... he would be nothing more than a walking corpse, merely existing to fill his stomach.

My childhood dream of attending the University of Tokyo was simply to become a civil servant, so I wouldn't have to work so hard and exhaust myself, and could just coast along and wait to die.

Now, we have fireworks, we have a home, and we have a heart that wants to protect these things.

Kai Uesugi then learned about a kind of heart called responsibility, a sense of happiness that arose from protecting her smile.

With her, he had hope, and a chance to live on without dying alone.

"Let's talk about something happy."

"What does Kai-kun want to hear?"

"For example...did you have your period this month? Are you pregnant with our baby?"

Hanabi Hanamaru immediately became shy, "This... I only arrived at the beginning of the month... to find out if there's a baby, we'll have to wait until next month..."

"Does Hanabi want to have my child?"

"Yes...of course I want to...in that case...Kai-kun would definitely be very happy..."

Kai Uesugi laughed at her cute words, "What if the baby doesn't behave?"

"Hanabi...Hanabi will educate him well, and make him...as smart as his father, as capable as his father!"

"I'm not that great."

"Kai-kun said he's not that great... so Hanabi isn't that great either..."

"I won't allow you to talk about yourself like that. Hanabi is a very capable girl."

"Hanabi is the same! Kai-kun is amazing too!"

At this point, both of them couldn't help but laugh.

The bicycle turned the last corner, heading towards home.

The night sky is dotted with stars, and the blue of the starry sky adorning the horizon makes one feel expansive.

Hanabi Hanabi sat behind him, and as the bicycle bumped along, she saw the night scenery flashing by. Her little feet under her skirt swung involuntarily on the back seat, and she hummed a pleasant tune softly in her throat.

Why are you suddenly humming a song?

"Because I was thinking that Kai-kun was going to take Hanabi on a date tomorrow."

"A date? Is it?" Uesugi Kai asked doubtfully, then she was pinched on the waist, which hurt terribly!

Kai Uesugi winced in pain: "No, no... your husband is riding his bicycle."

"Who made Kai-kun forget..." Hanabi Hanabi pouted. "Kai-kun himself promised to take Hanabi on a date... Kai-kun... you wouldn't be deliberately treating Hanabi like a child, would you?"

As she spoke, she felt a little angry again and pinched him again.

Uesugi Kai immediately interrupted her: "Speaking of which—!"

"What?"

"Hanabi just apologized to me."

"Hmm..." Hanabi Hanabi withdrew her hand and lowered her face. "It's like this..."

"So... Kai-kun also wants to get some reward from Hanabi-chan..."

When they arrived near their building, Uesugi Kai pushed his bicycle the rest of the way, with Hanamaru Hanabi following behind him, still carrying that small bag of cookies.

"What reward?" Hanabi had a bad feeling when she saw him suddenly turn around.

Kai Uesugi laughed, leaned close to her ear, and bit her ear, making her shrink back. Then, breathing out warm air, he said, "After you take a shower... shall we go to the living room? I really like Hanabi-chan's splits."

Hanamaru Hanabi knew what he was talking about, blushed, raised her resentful eyes, and muttered a curse:

"You scoundrel Kai-kun!"

""

###Chapter 426 Warmth in the Night###

When they got home, the two realized they hadn't bought groceries for dinner.

I have to go downstairs to the nearby supermarket, otherwise I'll be eating dinner with an empty pot and bowl tonight.

"Want to come together?"

"it is good......"

After being apart for a few days, they both wanted to spend as much time together as possible.

The two walked side by side without saying a word.

When they arrived at the supermarket and walked to the fresh produce section, Uesugi Kai watched as she selected a whole piece of cut pork.

She is very familiar with all of this, knows how to select ingredients, and knows which piece of meat is the freshest and best.

After searching for a while, she finally put a piece of pork that looked good into the shopping cart he was pushing.

"Do all girls have this skill?"

"what?"

"Shopping is just like buying clothes. You might spend a long time looking at clothes, but I think any piece that I can wear will do. It's the same with buying pork. I'll just grab any piece that looks good and leave."

"So, Kai-kun is completely incapable of taking care of himself!"

"How could I not know how to take care of myself?"

"What have you been eating these past few days, Kai-kun?"

"Uh..." This question stumped Uesugi Kai. "I bought this bento box."

Hanabi Hanabi smiled triumphantly: "So that's why Kai-kun doesn't know how to take care of himself. Eating that kind of bento isn't good!"

"There's nothing wrong with it, it's all made with domestic ingredients." Uesugi Kai still wanted to stick to his guns.

“Those bento boxes are all made by machines, and we don’t see the process of making them. Who knows if there will be any strange things in them? Hanabi thinks it’s more reassuring to use ingredients that she can see herself cooking.” Hanabi said to him while picking out vegetables.

“Besides,” she picked up a white radish and waved it at him, “it doesn’t taste that good either.”

"That's true, but I still feel I can take care of myself."

Kai Uesugi thought that he must be in his forties by now, counting his past twenty-odd years, and yet he was being told by an eighteen-year-old girl that he couldn't take care of himself.

"...Kai-kun can take care of himself, so why does he still want Hanabi to come back so much...?"

"Is it enough that I want you to be with me?" Uesugi Kai said with a smile.

Hanabi Hanabi glanced at him, said nothing, and turned back to continue selecting vegetables.

Although she didn't laugh out loud, Uesugi Kai saw a slight smile appear on her lips when she turned around.

This means she is happy.

"Honey... I want to eat your stir-fried shredded pork."

"Can I stir-fry it with green peppers?" Hana Maru glanced at a pile of green herbs next to her.

"Anything is fine."

Hanamaru Hanabi casually grabbed one, put it in a bag, and then turned around to ask:

"What else would you like to eat, Kai-kun?"