My love index is at its maximum.

Several crows perched on the wet branches, their wide, black eyes peering curiously into the pavilion.

Hoshino Hanami realized her mistake, but she didn't want to change it.

She stood up, did a few stretching exercises in the pavilion, then bent down in front of Tsukasa Tazaki and pinched his earlobe.

On a rainy morning, having a sleeping, beautiful young man all to yourself sounds like a very pleasant... no, a very elegant thing.

"It would be so nice if you could stay this quiet forever."

"To be honest, I'm quite proud to be liked by such an outstanding young man, but I can't just agree to date you just because I think you're nice... I'm at least ten years older than you..."

"Ugh...you're really annoying me!"

Hoshino Hanami bit her lip, glared angrily at Tazaki Tsukasa, and then, as if she had seen something dazzling, she couldn't help but squint her eyes and sighed inwardly—this was truly a May morning where everything was so clear it was almost transparent.

The air was filled with the fragrant scent of damp earth, and you could also faintly smell a refreshing perfume.

Smelling the fragrance of grass, listening to the birdsong, and feeling the coolness of the rain on my skin, suddenly, someone pinched their ear.

After a brief pause, a clap of thunder sounded in the distance, filling the gap in time.

Immediately afterwards, someone spoke to their own face in a complaining tone.

I pictured this scene in my mind—the teacher puffing out her cheeks, angrily blaming herself, her expression as cute as an angry cat.

Before Tsukasa Tazaki could even open her eyes, a smile naturally appeared on her lips. She's so cute.

"Huh? What... Ouch... It hurts!"

A sharp pain shot through my lower back.

"Well, you, Tsukasa Tazaki, pretending to be asleep!"

"I'm innocent... I just woke up, please have mercy..."

Hoshino Hana didn't bother listening to his excuses. To hide her embarrassment, she instinctively reached out and grabbed his cheek, pulling it outwards forcefully.

Tsukasa Tazaki naturally took her hand, and then, they both froze for a moment.

They were so close, their foreheads were almost touching. If they moved even slightly, their lips might even slap together.

A beautiful and somewhat warm atmosphere.

Her posture stiffened, and Hoshino Hanami seemed to want to speak, her lips slightly parted, her alluring scarlet tongue half-protruding. Tazaki Tsukasa reached out and pressed his hand against her sensual lips, warm, moist, and soft.

The soft touch made it hard to breathe, and an impulse urged him to take the next step, but Tsukasa Tazaki restrained himself with all his might.

Taking that next step would likely come at a considerable cost, at the very least requiring a week in the hospital.

“Teacher…” Tsukasa Tazaki’s throat bobbed slightly, then he placed his hand on her cheek: “You are so beautiful.”

"Uh...you too..."

Hoshino Hanami managed a weak reply, her breathing becoming rapid. The boy's not-so-large palm pressed against her face, warm and comforting. There was something captivating in his adoring gaze. Something that seemed to possess a magical power, gently peeling away the thin membrane covering the heart.

That was a lustful, yearning look in her eyes, and Hoshino Hanami could confirm one thing: Tazaki Tsukasa's affection for her was far more than just a little boy's infatuation with a beautiful older sister.

He genuinely wanted to have sex with her; it was a true desire between a man and a woman...

"I……"

Her mind was unable to form complete sentences. Hoshino Hanami felt her ability to think was gradually being lost. She could clearly see Tsukasa Tazaki's lips changing shape slightly with his expression, and she could clearly see the light shining deep in his clear eyes.

Her lack of explicit resistance emboldened Tazaki Tsukasa. He suddenly stood up and, without giving the teacher time to react, wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Eh...what...?"

Hoshino Hana was momentarily stunned, her mind blank. Her student was now wrapped around her, his head resting gently on her shoulder. She could feel his soft skin pressing warmly against her.

so comfortable...

No!

She wanted to shout to stop him, but her throat didn't move; she just exhaled.

The rain subsided without us noticing, and summer sunlight pierced through the thick rain clouds, casting a few rays onto the steps in front of the pavilion. It was as if the sky was subtly peeking into the pavilion's interior.

A wisteria vine bloomed along the edge of the steps, its vibrant purple petals sparkling in the sunlight, utterly charming. Raindrops falling from the eaves lingered on the petals for a moment before sliding off into the soil.

"one two Three……"

After silently counting to six, Tsukasa Tazaki quickly let go and ran out of the pavilion.

"I'm going for a run now, teacher, wait for me here!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than he dashed into the drizzling rain and disappeared around the corner of the tree-lined path in an instant.

"You're lucky you ran fast!"

Hoshino Hanami loosened her raised fist, smiled gently, turned around and took out the prepared bento boxes, arranging them on the L-shaped bench.

The rain pattered softly, and a layer of mist shrouded the lake, creating a hazy white scene. She leaned on the railing, looking towards the other side of the lake, where everything was obscured by the mist, its outlines indistinct.

But she could sense that there was something of vital importance to her in the scenery across the way, and she also knew that Tsukasa Tazaki would definitely stop on the other side and look at the same scenery as her.

"Ugh...this is even more annoying! Why is this kid so irritating?!"

"You're getting more and more demanding, aren't you? Just you wait..."

He twisted the water bottle open forcefully as if to vent his frustration, and gulped down several mouthfuls of water.

Hoshino Hanami took a few deep breaths, forcing herself to calm down. But only a few seconds later, her forced composure was broken by a few silly laughs.

On this misty May morning, her delicate cheeks were quietly flushed with a rosy blush, as if dye had been applied to the entire canvas in an instant, making her charmingly shy.

Chapter Fifty-Four: I Must Marry My Teacher.

[I can't take it anymore... my brain is about to explode! Hoshino Hanami's stock index is up 20 points. Current stock price: 200]

[Hoshino Hana's stock price reached 200, triggering a share issuance process]

[Hoshino Hanami has issued 10000 new shares.]

[Opening the Secondary Trading Market]

A series of prompts flashed through his mind like bullet comments, but Tsukasa Tazaki didn't want to click on them at all. His mind was still full of the feeling of hugging the teacher just now.

That's fantastic!

The teacher's body was warm and soft. Even just touching her through her clothes, the sensation of touch was transmitted through her hands, and it felt like a feather was tickling my brain.

Tsukasa Tazaki almost thought the fuse in his brain was about to blow and his soul was about to leave his body.

If his ribs hadn't been sending a warning signal to his brain, he would never have let go so easily.

While still running, their minds are already racing with ideas for the next step. They might even skip the tedious steps and jump straight to the more difficult ones…

With an irrepressible smile on his lips, Tsukasa Tazaki ran along the park path in the drizzle. Suddenly, he stopped and shouted, startling the crows that had been peeking from the treetops into cawing and taking flight.

As I hurried back to the pavilion, I saw a flowerbed by the roadside, blooming with hydrangeas in various colors—pink and white, blue and white, pink and yellow. On the other side, a cicada shell, wet from the rain, clung quietly to the red bark of a pine tree.

A breeze blew from afar, causing the leaves to rustle and mingling with the clear chirping of wild birds.

Hoshino Hanami had been looking down at her lesson plan for a while when she heard footsteps. She clenched her fists and looked up.

Tazaki Tsukasa walked in, a pink and white hydrangea dangling from his lips, his eyes sparkling with excitement. She sighed as if she had a headache; the man before her had hair that was soaked from the rain, several strands clinging to his forehead. His clothes were wet too, and through his damp shirt, she could see his increasingly muscular chest.

"The hydrangeas in May have a fragrance that can evoke feelings of romance and happiness."

"..." Hoshino Hanami glared at him, then looked away and loosened her fist.

Although I felt that his words and smile were vulgar, the faint sense of shame and annoyance after being taken advantage of was like the drizzling rain, which would soon dissipate with the arrival of the sun.

Tazaki Tsukasa stood obediently in front of her. His guilty gaze lingered on her lower body, which was clad in slim-fitting jeans, revealing her long, shapely legs.

Oh, by the way, the off-white ruffled collar top also looks great; the close-fitting fabric perfectly accentuates the shape of her bust, making her both elegant and sexy.

The wind stirred the lake water, and a few water droplets fell onto Hoshino Hanami's burning cheeks from the cedar branches and her hair.

Feeling both helpless and amused, she looked back as if she were making excuses for herself, or as if she had made up her mind, and smiled broadly.

Like a lotus flower quietly blooming with water, this was quite different from her usual smile. It was no longer the slightly formulaic smile a teacher gives to students, but a purely personal smile.

"I'll let you off this time." Hoshino Hanami smiled and shook her fist, threateningly saying, "If there's a next time, you'd better book a hospital bed in advance!"

Then, she tidied her slightly messy hair, took out a handkerchief embroidered with flowers and deer from her bag, and tossed it to Tsukasa Tazaki.

"Wipe it off, don't catch a cold."

"Thank you, teacher." Tsukasa Tazaki took the handkerchief, wiped the rain from his hair and clothes, and then stuffed the handkerchief into his pocket.

Hoshino Hanami rolled her eyes at him, then unfolded the bento box on the bench.

Tsukasa Tazaki sat down next to him and glanced at the food. It was tempura and some kind of fried tofu dumplings.

"The tempura got soggy from being left out for too long." Hoshino Hanami shook her head regretfully, picked up a piece of tempura with long chopsticks and placed it on the lid of the bento box, sprinkled it with a little salt and pepper, and then gestured to Tazaki Tsukasa to invite her.

"I'm starting to eat."

As part of a simple pre-meal ritual, Tsukasa Tazaki picked up a piece of food, put it in his mouth, and chewed it carefully.

Just as she said, the originally crisp tempura became soft and fluffy, more like it was baked than fried.

How does it taste?

"Like you said, it's been sitting for too long..."

Hoshino Hanami also picked up a piece and put it in her mouth. After chewing a few times, she pouted and said, "Ahhh... what a pity, this should have been delicious!"

The morning sunlight fell on her face, and her slightly oily, sexy lips looked more delicious than any delicacy.

“Hmm…it’s actually quite delicious.” Tsukasa Tazaki swallowed hard, struggling to look away from her lips. “Especially the tender shoots inside. They’re a bit bitter when you first eat them, but once you swallow them, a wonderful taste of bitterness followed by sweetness melts on your tongue.”

“No pain, no gain…” Hoshino Hanami’s expression suddenly became somewhat dazed. After a moment of silence, she smiled as if she had used up all her strength: “It’s like the bitterness of longing and the sweetness of memories when remembering our ancestors.”

At this moment, I feel like I'm very, very far away from her.

There was perhaps an unimaginable distance between her and him. Thinking this, Tsukasa Tazaki felt an indescribable unease.

"Is there a story behind this dish?" he tried to ask.

"These tender shoots are harvested from the mountains outside Kyoto. When I was a child, my family was poor. Whenever I felt hungry and couldn't find anything to satisfy my cravings, my mother would run several kilometers along mountain paths to pick tender shoots and fry them into tempura filling for me..."

"Later, when I got a little older, I would run all over the mountains by myself and gather things... But not long after, we moved to Tokyo, and then, my family became richer, so we never lacked food..."

Tsukasa Tazaki looked into her eyes.