Restaurant M's.

"Akaji Jun … Do you eat fast food often?"

Satsuki Momoi watched as Akashiji Seijuro ordered the food skillfully and took a bite out of the hamburger wrapper. He didn't seem to mind the noise around him at all. She was a little surprised.

"Not often."

"Seijuro especially likes Restaurant M's McFlurries and fries."

Sanchū Ming chewed on his drink and excitedly smeared Reindeer Ran's reputation. "When he was young, he ate eight chocolate McFlurries in one go and got a stomachache. He was scolded badly by his aunt."

"… Sanchū Ming."

"Why are you calling me by my full name? I'm telling the truth." Sanchū Ming raised his eyebrows.

"That's because you made a bet with me. If I ate eight McFlurries, you would drink ten extra large cups of iced cola."

… Was Akaji also the kind of person who would make such a childish bet when he was young?

She felt that the temperament of a noble young master from the Imperial Censorate had completely disappeared!

Momoi's ridicule was written all over her face. She still wanted to continue asking, "And then?

Who won? "

"Seijuro."

Sanchū Ming said, "I couldn't drink anymore after three cups. In the end, Seijuro was still eating the McFlurries. I told him to stop eating and that he had already won. Seijuro said no, he wanted a real victory."

She clicked her tongue. "Until now, I still can't believe that there is such a serious person."

Sanchū Ming said this bet when he was young just to find a reason to drink iced cola happily. Who knew that Seijuro was so competitive!

*

"Don't stop me!"

Akashiji Seijuro, who had eaten five McFlurries, said fiercely to her, "The victory and the tofu soup are all mine!"

It's yours, it's all yours, don't eat it!

You'll have diarrhea!

The young Sanchū Ming was tongue-tied.

*

"What was your bet?"

"Seijuro's mother made tofu soup that night."

Satsuki Momoi: "…"

Tetsuya Kuroko: "…"

The two of you are really childish!

"Don't look at me like that. Auntie's tofu soup is really delicious. We all like it very much. It would be even better if Auntie didn't add any side dishes."

"Skirt?" Tetsuya Kuroko stared at Akashiji Seijuro. "Akaji Jun … is a picky eater?"

"Yeah, he hates skirt dishes. Every time he has skirt dishes in his bowl, he will tell me that skirt dishes can make people grow taller and prettier, tricking me into eating the skirt dishes in his bowl."

At this point, Sanchū Ming suddenly turned to look at Akaji. "Seijuro, do you think … you didn't grow much because —"

"Shut up." Akaji's face completely darkened.

"I didn't expect Akaji Jun to be so lively and mischievous when he was young." Tetsuya Kuroko couldn't help but smile.

"…"

"And he's so proud!"

Sanchū Ming waved his hand. "When he was young, I asked him what he didn't know. He said he knew everything."

*

"Hey, Zhengshilang, why are you so good at this and that? Is there anything you don't know?"

"No."

"Eh?

That's not right … Oh, right, I remember now!

My mother said that giving birth is a girl's privilege!

Boys don't!

Seijuro is lying! "

"… As long as I want to, I can do it anytime."

"Is, is Seijuro that amazing?

He really knows how to give birth? "

"… Of course!"

*

"Chi, Akaji Jun said that?"

Hearing Sanchū Ming speak in a serious tone like Akashiji Seijuro, Momoi almost spat out her cola.

"Pfft."

Zhe Jun, who was next to her, had already spat out his cola!

"Yes!

You didn't expect that, right? "

Sanchū Ming continued excitedly, "Also, also, Seijuro once saw a woman in the washroom —"

"Do you still remember when you rode a bicycle in the first year of elementary school?" Akashiji Seijuro threatened with a cold face. "I remember it very clearly."

"…" Sanchū Ming completely shut up. He even gestured to tighten the non-existent zipper.

Momoi Wuyue's image of the gentle and refined Akashi Seishiro, who was indifferent to favor or disgrace, and who was dictatorial and majestic, had completely collapsed.

There were those of the opposite sex who would rub a girl's head, complain, be frightened, lose their rationality, and even cut a girl's hair for three days and three months. They would eat eight McFlurries in one go. They were picky eaters and slyly tricked people into eating something they didn't like. They were prideful and would even threaten people to hide their dark history …

"Akaji Jun is so cute." Satsuki Momoi blurted out.

This time, Akaji's cold and murderous gaze could no longer scare her.

Whether it was Akashiji Seijuro or Sanchū Ming, as long as the other was around, they would be especially lively.

They were no different from her and Daigetsu. On the contrary, because the two of them were usually calm and indifferent, they were even cuter.

"Right, right, my Seijuro is the cutest." Sanchū Ming nodded repeatedly. When no one was paying attention, she secretly reached out to take Akaji's cola.

Then her hand was grabbed.

"Tetsuya told me that you drank two iced colas and a can of strawberry milk in the morning.

You also drank a glass of iced colas in the afternoon? "Akashiji Seijuro's gentle and magnetic voice sounded.

Sanchū Ming immediately looked at Tetsuya Kuroko with an accusing gaze.

Tetsuya Kuroko blinked his big round eyes and glanced out the window.

"You just drank a glass, do you still want to continue?"

"No, no, no, Brother Zheng, not at all."

She shook her head like a rattle drum, and her hair swayed along with it. The rainbow color that Akaji didn't like to look at was revealed.

Without even thinking, he slapped Mitsune and Luna's swaying head.

"Akaji Jun, do you want to learn from Atsushi and crush Sanikuyue San's head?" Kuroko said suddenly.

“？？？

Brother Zheng, let's talk nicely. What did I do wrong? "

"Akaji Jun and Little Moon have a good relationship." Satsuki Momoi said, resting her chin on her hand.

"Because Auntie once saved my mother.

I heard that the two of them hit it off at first sight and fell in love with each other … "Sanchū Ming poked Akashiji Seijuro." And then what happened? "

"Are you talking about the marriage or the costume change?" Akaji asked calmly.

"… What I want to say is that they enrolled us in the same kindergarten."

Sanchū Ming also looked calm. "If you dare to talk about the marriage, I'll show your cross-dressing photos to your teammates."

Satsuki Momoi and Tetsuya Kuroko straightened their backs under Akaji's cold gaze.

Tetsuya Kuroko said, "Sanchū Ming -san, we can contact each other by email."

"Okay, okay."

Satsuki Momoi said, "Little Moon, you don't mind if I go to your house to play, right?"

"No problem, I don't mind."

Akaji …

Akaji ate a piece of spicy chicken in silence.

"Seijuro, I'm not full …" Sanchū Ming said softly.

"What do you want to eat?" Akaji thought for a moment. "The pudding shop we passed by?"

He remembered that Sanchū Ming had glanced at it several times.

"You're an angel." Sanchū Ming gave him a thumbs up.

"I want strawberry flavored pudding."

"You can't eat too much at night …" Akaji stood up helplessly as if he was used to being ordered around by Sanchū Ming. He asked, "Where are Momoi and Tetsuya? Do you want pudding?"

"Vanilla flavored. Sorry to trouble you, Akaji Jun."

"I want cherry flavored pudding!

Thank you, Akaji Jun! "

Tetsuya Kuroko watched Akashiji Seijuro leave, and then looked back at Sanchū Ming, who kicked him lightly when he wanted to refuse.

"Sanikuyue San?"

Sanchū Ming looked at the red-haired boy through the window. She didn't speak until Akaji turned the corner and was completely out of her sight.

"There are a lot of people waiting in line at that shop. Seijuro won't be back for a while." Sanchū Ming tapped the table with her finger. "You can ask me what you wanted to ask me before."

"Actually, Little Moon has already told me about the question I wanted to ask." Satsuki Momoi smiled.

"As for the other question, it's better for Zhe Jun to ask."

She turned to look at Tetsuya Kuroko. "Zhe Jun?"

Tetsuya Kuroko didn't speak. He looked at Sanchū Ming quietly.

"Is it nice to see him?" Sanchū Ming asked.

"Sanikuyue San is the type of person who will look straight back when he's being stared at." Kuroko said, "No, not only will he look straight back, but he will even take the initiative."

"Like Seijuro?"

"Like Akaji Jun — huh?"

"Many people have said so." Sanchū Ming wasn't surprised.

"How should I say …" She thought for a moment. "Seijuro has a great influence on me.

"He created the current me.

"Shiori — that is, when Seijuro's mother and my mother were still alive, I was completely spoiled.

At home, there was my mother, and outside, there was Seijuro.

In the end, I didn't know anything. I didn't have any common sense, and I was very timid. I could only hide behind Seijuro. "

"… Still alive?" Momoi sensitively grasped the past tense in Sanchū Ming's words.

"Aunt Shiori passed away when we were very young. My mother and father divorced and went back to their hometown. They won't come back again."

"… I'm sorry."

"What's there to be sorry about?

You didn't do anything. "

Sanchū Ming touched Akashiji Seijuro's unfinished cola. Feeling the remaining coolness, he took it and continued to drink.

"After our mothers left, Seijuro's father became stricter and stricter with him. He wanted him to do his best in everything.

After my father left my mother, he was a completely unreliable man. He said that he wanted to prepare a dowry for me and my brothers. He bought a set of custom-made kimono for each of us, as well as a bunch of gold, silver, jade, and jewelry ornaments … He mortgaged the ancestral house here to buy it. "

Eh!

What kind of father is this!

"Our family went bankrupt, and we had nowhere else to live in Tokyo. My older brother, who was still in university at the time, had no choice but to become an actor. My uncle, who worked at a law firm, resigned and went abroad to do business. Our family barely managed to scrape together the money to move to the countryside.

"We separated from Seijuro."

Sanchū Ming, who was a complete idiot, followed behind others like a headless fly. He was completely fooled by a child like Tsurumaru Kuninaga.

After Akashiji Seijuro finished his work with Akatsuki, he sold all of his stocks from his financial experiments and invested in Sanchū Sōjin's debut movie. Coupled with a large amount of money from abroad, he finally managed to redeem Sanchū Ming's ancestral house in Tokyo before it was auctioned off.

Akashiji Seijuro was looking forward to seeing Sanchū Ming again, but he found that the young Tsuran, who used to follow behind him and laugh secretly in his clothes, had become a bald man covered in spikes.

Akashiji Seijuro looked at Sanchū Ming, who was like a hedgehog, and suddenly realized that he wasn't the only one who needed to grow up.

"So Seijuro forced me, who was only interested in Kendo at the time, to seriously study it. He asked Akaji's family chef to teach me how to cook. He forced me to take private lessons with him and lent me things he thought I needed to read. Sometimes it was a book, a page of newspaper, a note, or notes."

Sanchū Ming didn't know how soft her face was at that moment. "My favorite thing was the notes he gave me every month.

"A decrepit old man is just a piece of trash, a tattered coat propped up on a wooden stick.

Unless the soul claps its hands and sings louder for every crack in its skin.

In order to pursue the truth, he is ruthless to himself and dares to expose his human weakness.

"Seijuro didn't really like poets. He once said that they were a bunch of moaning worms." At this point, Sanchū Ming couldn't help but laugh. "But he liked Ye Ci very much.

All these years, he has been making notes, and the title page of every book has this line from 'Sailing to Byzantium'.

"I also like this line very much."

After Sanchū Ming grew up without a mother and a father, and her brothers were too busy to take care of her. Only Akashiji Seijuro was never absent and unquestionably showed her the path.

"He was the one who made me who I am now." Sanchū Ming repeated.

"My way of thinking, my values, it was Seijuro who helped me establish them.

So if you want to find his mistakes, it's impossible.

"I think you noticed this when you said that I was very similar to Seijuro, Kuroko -kun."

"Yes."

Tetsuya Kuroko nodded. "But thank you very much for explaining so much. I have a deeper understanding of what kind of person Akaji Jun is."

At this point, he suddenly smiled slyly. "And Sanikuyue San's words just now already told me your answer."

Eh?

What did she just say?

Sanchū Ming was stunned. After carefully thinking about his words, he couldn't help but applaud Tetsuya Kuroko's attentiveness.

"Well, I admit that Seijuro is a bit extreme."

Sanchū Ming rubbed his head. "Uncle Akaji's typical capitalist ideology of 'victory is everything' has influenced him too deeply."

She put down her hand. "Seijuro restrained himself well before, but you guys are too strong.

"Which one of you provoked him?"

Tetsuya Kuroko and Satsuki Momoi looked at each other. Satsuki Momoi said, "It was Atsushi Shihara."

Atsushi Shihara thought that Akaji's strength was far behind his, so he provoked Akashiji Seijuro.

In fact, at the beginning, Akaji was indeed the one who was suppressed, until … one of Akaji's eyes turned golden.

Akaji awakened and ended the game without any suspense. It also ended Teiguang's happy era of playing basketball.

"It's him … a beast-type brat." Sanchū Ming nodded. "I know."

I'll find a time to beat him up, the petty Sanchū Ming thought.

"Atsushi -kun is just a naturally naive child who likes to fight and is afraid of trouble," Tetsuya Kuroko said, "Sanikuyue San, please don't put him in a gunny sack."

"… Tsk."

"Girls shouldn't tsk like that. It's not nice, Sanikuyue San."

"… Another old woman."

"I can hear you, Sanikuyue San."

"Ah, Seijuro." Sanchū Ming stopped talking and waved at Akaji, who came back from buying pudding.

"You didn't go because there were too many people waiting in line."

Akaji came in with the cold air outside. He didn't sit down directly. Instead, he took off his jacket and sat next to Sanchū Ming.

"It's cold. I'll eat it later." He stopped Sanchū Ming's hand from reaching for the pudding.

"Then let's go back and eat." Sanchū Ming looked at his watch. "It's getting late. Did Seijuro call the driver back?"

"Yes, he's downstairs."

"Seijuro's car is big. Let's go back together," Sanchū Ming said to Kuroko and Momoi. "I'm going to the bathroom."

"I'm going too!

Let's keep each other company. "Satsuki Momoi also stood up.

After Sanchū Ming and Satsuki Momoi left, only Tetsuya Kuroko and Akashiji Seijuro were left sitting in their seats.

"How was the chat?" Akaji was the first to speak.

"As expected, I can't hide it from Akaji Jun."

"I taught Ming all the tricks she knows." Akaji said, "She knows that she can't hide it from me."

"Knowing full well but still going with the flow … Isn't this the so-called 'fun'?"

"If Tetsuya can use idioms well in the Chinese exam, he won't have to worry about failing." Akaji didn't deny it. "After chatting with Ming, do you still think I'm wrong?"

"I don't know.

Akaji Jun knows, right?

Sanikuyue San won't say anything wrong with Akaji Jun. "

"Because I'm right."

"But Sanikuyue San is very worried about Akaji Jun."

"…"

"As expected, Akaji Jun can't say 'worry is unnecessary' in front of Sanikuyue San." Kuroko raised the corner of his mouth.

Facing Akashiji Seijuro like this, Tetsuya Kuroko felt that he had the courage and confidence to say what he had been thinking for a long time.