Chapter 66: Lilac

The scenery on the second floor was even more desolate. The ground was thick with dust, and the swollen, almost falling-off wall plaster clung to the walls.

Upon reaching the second floor, Ryo’s desire to explore waned. She looked around, but didn’t observe anything carefully.

She noticed the area behind her.

Although Ishikawa Hayato’s gaze casually lingered in various places, she felt as if she was constantly being watched.

Indeed.

Less than half a second after she turned around, Ishikawa Hayato looked over.

And she threw out the question she had been holding for a long time.

“Aren’t you scared?”

Ishikawa Hayato froze for a moment, then showed a wronged expression, standing still in fear.

“Ryo, I’m so scared, I need a hug.”

Ryo sighed inwardly, knowing that Ishikawa Hayato had been putting on an act from the very beginning, and immediately tried to avoid him.

She walked to the door ahead and gently pushed it open with her foot.

The door opened heavily, but a large section of plaster from the doorframe fell off with it.

Ryo quickly pulled her foot back after hearing the sound.

Splat, a large piece of plaster fell to the ground, kicking up dust.

However, compared to this, it was the scene inside the room that slightly moved her.

The concrete floor in front of her feet sloped downwards, descending from the second floor to about halfway down the first, creating a novel sense of fear with its uneven space.

It was like reality had been torn open.

While she was staring in a daze, she suddenly felt a gust of wind approach.

She looked in that direction, but before she could see clearly, she heard a sound from behind her, similar to the plaster cracking just now.

She glanced at Ishikawa Hayato, who had suddenly come close to her, then turned back to look at a piece of plaster from somewhere that had been knocked aside to the edges of the wall.

She looked up at the ceiling.

The plaster had fallen from above, perhaps dislodged by the earlier commotion and had taken a split second to come down.

But how did this guy manage to knock aside such a fragile piece of plaster so perfectly without breaking it?

“Ryo, who recommended such a dangerous place to you?”

She snapped out of it, looking at Ishikawa Hayato, who was naturally leaning on her shoulder and gazing into the room.

He looked very surprised.

Ryo asked him, “Are you scared?”

Ishikawa Hayato turned his head, maintaining an extremely close eye contact with Ryo without any pretense.

He could clearly feel Ryo's breath.

Ryo didn't step back either.

“A Pervert has nothing to be afraid of.”

After he said that, he clearly felt Ryo's breathing become a little erratic.

He reassured her, “I can definitely get you out safely.”

He stepped back two paces and, with an elegant yet aggressive smile, said to Ryo, “Others use bragging to exaggerate their strength, but I use bragging to conceal my strength. There’s nothing to worry about. The strength of the man named Ishikawa Hayato is far more than this.”

In the desolate ruins, Ryo, standing quietly, gave a faint smile, then turned around, her skirt swaying as she took slow, deliberate steps.

“Indeed, the most dangerous one should be the person beside me.”

“Now how could that be true.”

Ishikawa Hayato responded nonchalantly, catching up to her slow pace, which she had deliberately waited for him to match.

They wandered around the ruins for a good while, but the excitement seemed to have been used up at the very beginning.

After calmly viewing everything, the two emerged from the ruins.

Next, they went to a mountain field to pull weeds.

When it was time to go back, each of them carried a small bag of various edible wild grasses, walking towards the train station under the slightly slanted sunlight.

Walking on the dirt path in the countryside, they looked at the small grass on both sides of the road, which were slightly tinted by the sunlight.

After a long silence, Ishikawa Hayato looked at the road and said to Ryo beside him, “I just can’t seem to stop worrying about Ryo.”

Ryo hummed a noncommittal reply.

“Always eating grass, wandering in dangerous places, and when I touched her twice before, her body felt extremely thin.”

As Ishikawa Hayato was speaking, he heard Ryo take out her phone next to him.

He quickly reached out and grabbed the phone.

“No calling the police.”

“Oh.” Ryo pulled her hand away, took her phone back, and put it in her pocket.

Then she seriously asked Ishikawa Hayato, “This is genuine sexual harassment, isn’t it?”

Feeling that Ryo didn't want to discuss any further on it, Ishikawa Hayato went along with her, saying with a dramatic and exaggerated tone, “This level is still far from what I consider sexual harassment! Would you like me to demonstrate?”

“How about I let the police take you away instead?”

The lively atmosphere immediately returned to normal.

After a few seconds of pause, Ishikawa Hayato asked again, “Will you invite me on your next adventure?”

As soon as he finished speaking, a cold wind blew through the air in this season fluctuating between warmth and chilly.

The air seemed to carry a rich yet not pungent scent of lilacs, but it quickly drifted away.

He heard the girl beside him respond, “Perhaps no one truly likes to be alone, it’s just that they don’t like to be indulged or indulge others.”

Ryo's low, almost sighing voice came from beside him.

“Hayato, a lonely person is like a needle dropped on sand, only slowly moving when pushed by the sand.”

“Then it touches another needle, emitting a long-awaited resonance, or perhaps causing harm.”

After she finished speaking, she carefully scrutinized Ishikawa Hayato.

“Hayato, I don’t understand you. I feel you are very dangerous.”

Ishikawa Hayato sensed her unease and said to her, “I can’t guarantee anything else, but one of my principles is to make the people around me happy; that way, the joy can be doubled.”

“And Ryo is so cute…”

Ryo had a hint of disdain on her face, yet a faint smile, as she said, “Being called cute by you really doesn’t feel good.”

Ishikawa Hayato chuckled softly.

The reason he said that was because he had gradually guessed the reason why Ryo had been eating grass recently.

Because of the joy of reforming the band, she invested more in instruments, dedicating herself to playing with everyone.

Beneath her expressionless face was a delicate and turbulent heart.

Ishikawa Hayato thought for a moment, then couldn't resist teasing, “Speaking of which, what you just said felt very much like an older sister. From now on, I’ll call you Ryo-neechan.”

“Don’t you dare call me that.”

Ryo raised her voice in protest.

In the setting sun, their figures walking side by side on the ground seemed to lean into each other.

...

Listening to the music Ryo chose, in the gentle sway and vibration of the train, the two returned to Shimokitazawa.

As they exited the station, the scenery their eyes beheld had undergone a drastic change compared to before, a lightning-fast transformation.

The tranquil mountain wilderness had turned into orderly, neat high-rise buildings, and within each of those small window frames, countless aging souls were locked away.

Looking at the people coming and going, Ishikawa Hayato felt the undisguised emotional fluctuations in the young girl beside him.

Her surging emotions were suppressed and smoothed by herself, transforming into calmness and melancholy, and then she walked forward as if nothing had happened.

Ishikawa Hayato asked her, “Are you going to work now?”

“It’s not far from my house here, so I’ll take these things home first.”

Ryo moved the plastic bag in her hand; the grass leaves rustled against the plastic.

Ishikawa Hayato joked, “Excellent, the Pervert’s next target confirmed: the cool girl’s home.”

His words livened up the atmosphere a bit.

But Ryo glanced at him, and at the same time noticed that the attention of nearby passersby was also drawn by his strange remarks.

She quickened her pace, trying to ditch him, but such a small struggle was clearly futile for the Pervert.

The Pervert walked beside the cool girl without falling behind.