My love index is at its maximum.

"what?"

"I'm so happy!"

Me too!

Will you kiss me when it snows?

Yes, we will.

"It's so cold! So cold!"

Hold me tight~

The wind was strong, and the two of them spoke with difficulty as they passed the only traffic light in the center of town. While waiting for the green light, a white van stopped in the next lane.

A woman's voice came through the half-open car window.

"Hey, isn't that Shiori?"

"Oh, hello, Aunt Nishizono." Shiori Ninomiya turned around, a friendly smile on her face, which was flushed red from the wind.

"Who is this boy?" Aunt Nishizono asked, looking at Tsukasa Tazaki with a face full of curiosity.

Tsukasa Tazaki answered for her, "Shiori-chan's boyfriend."

"Tsk," Aunt Nishizono's expression changed, "A Tokyoite?"

What's wrong with Tokyoites?

"Tokyoites love to lie. Shiori, don't let yourself be fooled..."

As soon as the green light came on, Tsukasa Tazaki twisted the accelerator sharply.

With a loud bang, the Honda Wolf darted off the zebra crossing and sped off toward the mountain road.

"Hahahaha!" Shiori Ninomiya, who was tightly hugging Tsukasa Tazaki, laughed so happily that it drowned out all other sounds in the town.

As we drove along the mountain road to the halfway point, we saw a clear stream flowing gently beside the road.

At the end of the stream, there is a small village.

Most of the houses were two-story Japanese-style wooden cabins, and clothes were hanging on the clotheslines in front of the farmhouses. High stacks of firewood were piled up in front of every household, and cats were dozing on many of the stacks. In the distance, a wisp of white smoke rose.

The dog barked incessantly as the motorcycle drove by.

We climbed up a slope and arrived at the little cutie's house.

A very ordinary two-story wooden house, shaped like a "口" (mouth), with an "L"-shaped footprint, a courtyard in the middle, and the other half surrounded by a waist-high wall. To the right of the wall is a bare grove of mixed trees.

Tsukasa Tazaki parked his motorcycle and looked up at the house.

The roof is black, the walls are white, and the window frames are painted dark green. To the left, persimmon trees grow along the base of the neighbor's wall. In the middle of the courtyard is a small pond where the lotus flowers have withered. On the other side, there are unidentified flowers and plants, but they have all withered.

"Don't you dare complain," Shiori Ninomiya said, pulling him into the courtyard without further ado. Tsukasa Tazaki saw an old, long-abandoned ceramic brazier in the corner of the yard, filled with 15 centimeters of water.

Walking up the long corridor in front of the door, there is a small house on the other side of the door.

“That’s the kitchen,” Shiori Ninomiya said, taking out her keys to open the door and giving Tsukasa Tazaki slippers to change into.

The house was cool and comfortable inside. There was a living room and a dining room of moderate size. The living room had a sofa, a television, and a combination of wooden cabinets.

It was an ordinary family home, and it was very clean.

None of the furniture pieces are particularly eye-catching, giving people a natural sense of intimacy.

"Let's go upstairs and rest." Shiori Ninomiya didn't linger on the first floor, but pulled him up the stairs. "You've been my pillow all night, Kiki must be exhausted, right?"

"It's alright," Tsukasa Tazaki said. "I'm in good health; this won't tire me out."

Shiori Ninomiya glared at him: "I told you to rest, so you should rest obediently."

"Fierce-looking..."

"You're not willing?"

“No,” Tsukasa Tazaki shook his head, “but I don’t like using blankets that other people have slept in.”

"What should we do?" The little cutie squinted her eyes. "I was planning to let you sleep in my dad's room."

"I guess I'll just have to stay at a hotel in town for a few days," said Tsukasa Tazaki helplessly.

"Just say you want to sleep in my room." Ninomiya Shiori rolled her eyes at him. "Shiori-chan isn't stupid, how could she not understand what you mean?"

"No wonder he's in the top fifteen of the grade, he's really smart!"

"The top student in the grade uses their grades to make fun of others, Tokyoites are really awful." Ninomiya Shiori muttered, leading him into her room, and then said, "I'll make you a cup of hot tea. You can rest easy and have lunch when you wake up."

Tazaki Tsukasa's gaze swept around, carefully observing the little cutie's world.

The room was small, and the air was filled with the faint fragrance of the young girl.

The bed was neatly made, with a slight dent in the pillow, and a pure blue nightgown folded beside it. On the bedside table sat an antique-style lamp, next to a book, Somerset Maugham's "The Moon and Sixpence."

A simple old table and chairs are placed by the window.

Tsukasa Tazaki walked over and saw many neatly stacked textbooks, exercise books, and notebooks. There were also cheap fountain pens and three bottles of spare ink, as well as letter-writing supplies, all on white paper.

Everything was arranged too neatly. Tazaki Tsukasa ran his finger across the table, his fingertip picking up some white dust. The dust wasn't much; it looked like it had only accumulated for three or four days.

As he looked away, he noticed a number of knots on the shelf to his left, the kind commonly seen at Suga Shrine. There were also school certificates, bamboo swords from the kendo club, and a few framed photos of a boy named Tsukasa Tazaki in the background.

These are all traces of her life in Tokyo.

Standing in this small room, Tsukasa Tazaki imagined his adorable little self.

A bright and lovely girl, dreaming of living in a big city, is diligently studying at her desk. When she gets tired, she can prop her chin up and look up at the front yard, the terraced fields in the distance, and the sea.

As the years went by, she grew more and more beautiful, and got closer and closer to her dream.

Finally, she took a step, left this place, and appeared before herself thousands of miles away.

Meeting is fate.

Remembering the ending line from "The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl," Tsukasa Tazaki lay down on the bed and pulled the covers over his head.

The sudden appearance of Shiori Ninomiya in my life is like a faint flame. What I need to do is carefully nurture it and help it grow, so that it can burn like a torch.

Once lost, the flame can never be found again.

But what if she doesn't want to?

Don't forget, she has said many times, "I have seriously thought about what kind of life I want to live in the future."

Should my personal will be imposed on her?

Before I could think about the final outcome, my consciousness became hazy, and I drifted into a light sleep.

When I woke up, the sky was bright and the sunlight streaming in through the window illuminated the room.

Tsukasa Tazaki sat up with a yawn and saw the little icicles on the eaves sparkling with a lovely light.

Looking outside again, the dark clouds in the sky thinned, and the sunlight shining through the clouds illuminated the whole world with a magical glow, and everywhere you looked was a white, bright light.

Snowing!

He got out of bed barefoot, opened the window, and a blast of cold air swept in. He leaned out the window and called out as if calling out to the distance, "Shiori-chan, are you there?"

Snowflakes drifted down, burying the entire village in pristine white, with wisps of smoke rising from the chimneys like smoke signals. The silvery-white crystals, dancing in the wind, shimmered like dust after school.

"Are you awake?"

The little cutie's voice came from the kitchen on the first floor. Tsukasa Tazaki saw her walk from there to the middle of the courtyard, look up at him, her face covered with a few specks of black ash.

"It's snowing!" he exclaimed excitedly.

It rains every year.

"I'm going to get down and kiss you."

"Eh?"

As if she had just remembered that sentence, Shiori Ninomiya stared at him blankly, not knowing what to say. The cold mountain air made the blush on the girl's face even more beautiful.

Tsukasa Tazaki climbed out of the window and jumped directly to the first floor.

Snowflakes landed on my shoulders and hair, and some even fell into my neck, giving me a cool feeling.

“My little darling,” Tsukasa Tazaki stepped forward, put his arm around her plump waist, and gazed into her eyes, “I’m belatedly saying 'I love you.' Saying it when you see your first snowfall is still pretty romantic, isn’t it?”

“I…” Shiori Ninomiya wanted to say, ‘I succeeded?’, but in the end she couldn’t say it.

A wave of shyness washed over the girl, and she was somewhat overwhelmed, her eyelids lowering quietly.

He looked so docile that Tazaki Tsukasa felt a little breathless as he gazed at him. A surge of tenderness mixed with affection welled up from the bottom of his heart and coursed through his entire body.

Without thinking, he gently put his arms around her shoulders.

Shiori Ninomiya's face swayed slightly from side to side, and a blush crept up on her cheeks.

“No matter where you go, I will find you and bring you back,” Tsukasa Tazaki said.

“It’s so hard…” Shiori Ninomiya gently raised her head, brushed her hair back with her pinky, and said only, “Such beautiful words sound so sad.”

Snowflakes fell on her face, shimmering in the sunlight and illuminating her rosy cheeks—a pure beauty beyond description.

It looked like a flame burning on ice, cold and desolate.

The sight of the little cutie's rosy cheeks against the backdrop of the vast white snow stirred his heart.

“Not sad at all.” Holding her waist tightly, Tsukasa Tazaki leaned closer and whispered, “After winter, true spring will come.”

Shiori Ninomiya watched his face draw ever closer, her eyelashes drooping slightly, her hands nervously wrapping around his neck. Her lips, her heart, melted into the warm flames of his fireplace.

Chapter 262 Cucumbers with Soy Sauce and Roasted Sweet Potatoes

“kiki~”

"Ok?"

"Can you let go first...?"

"Let's hug a little longer." Tsukasa Tazaki looked down at Shiori Ninomiya with amusement. Under the combined effect of the cold air and her shyness, the blush on the girl's face became even more vibrant.

Her rosy cheeks made you want to take a bite.

"Kiki is so mean." Ninomiya Shiori looked at his smile and smiled back. "You've been bullying Shiori-chan all this time, you big bad guy."