CHAPTER 683: CHAPTER 420: MISSING EACH OTHER IS MUTUAL

Tokyo University Central Cafeteria.

Todaka Keichiro looked at Uesugi Sakura ordering two large steaks, astonished, as he used to be just a poor guy who could only afford a burger combo.

"Uesugi, it’s only been two days, and you’re already so extravagant? You can actually afford a 5000 yen black pepper steak!"

yen is about 274 RMB.

"Indulging occasionally, I don’t have much savings now." Leaving the ordering counter, Uesugi Sakura carried his plate to the table and sat down.

Then, Todaka Keichiro sat down across from him with a bowl of ramen: "I heard you bought a wedding house in the Minato ward for full payment?"

"Yes."

"How much is the housing price over there?"

"1.4 million yen per square meter, bought a 160 square meters without including shared areas."

"What are shared areas?"

"You don’t know?"

"No, I haven’t looked into houses before."

Uesugi Sakura explained: "Walls have thickness, right? The thickness of the walls is counted in the housing area. The remaining elevator shafts, restrooms, electrical rooms, stairways, and property management rooms are also counted in part of your purchase, referred to as [shared areas] in the contract. Some houses are 145 square meters but only 109 square meters after excluding shared areas."

"Does that mean you have to pay for dozens of extra square meters!? That’s such a rip-off! Never heard of it. Where did you learn about this devious sales strategy?"

"I don’t know. Anyway, when you’re buying a house, beware of these traps. I learned about some market conditions when I was buying a wedding house. It’s said to be a recent sales ploy."

"How are taxes and property fees calculated?"

"Eighty percent are according to all the area on the contract." Uesugi Sakura sliced a side of the black pepper steak with a western-style knife.

"So shady, really shady!"

Uesugi Sakura then asked: "Aren’t you looking for a job? Have you found one?"

"I found one," Todaka Keichiro said, "at a nearby Seven Days Convenience Store as a sales assistant."

"How’s the hourly wage?"

"Not bad, about 950 yen."

After lunch, and after resting for a while, Uesugi Sakura went to the sports field to run a few laps.

Most elective courses are in the morning, and if there’s a class in the afternoon, skipping is alright.

As long as you pass the finals in the first and second year, the professors won’t care too much.

In the afternoon, on the way to the café by bicycle, Uesugi Sakura suddenly saw a dark blue necklace in the crowd.

This necklace looked a lot like the one he had given to Hanabi. Uesugi Sakura thought she had returned, stopping his bicycle by the roadside and gazing at the crowd at the intersection for a long time but ultimately failing to find her among the many silhouettes.

"So she’s really not here..." Uesugi Sakura murmured.

He had previously called Kitagawa Sakisa and the others to ask where Hanabi was.

But they didn’t know either, only that Hanabi had taken a leave, and they even asked if the two of them had an abrupt argument.

He withdrew his gaze, resting his hands on the bicycle handlebar, lost in thought.

It’s been less than five days, and he already felt an overwhelming emptiness inside.

Long-lasting companionship had made her presence almost a habit, and being apart for merely five days had invoked a feeling of deep loneliness.

Uesugi Sakura looked up, watched the constantly changing traffic lights across the crosswalk, and when the little figure turned red and started walking, he too rode his bicycle into the intertwining stream of people.

Hanabi... where are you?

...

On a bench beside the intersection, under a beech tree.

A girl dressed in black was lowering her face, pressing her lips together, thinking about how Uesugi Sakura had been looking around just now.

"That was close, Hanabi-chan, hehe~ (light laughter) I told you, I shouldn’t have come."

"But, Hanabi really wanted to see Sakura-kun..."

The girl lowered her head, her eyes on her hands on her lap, her voice weak yet melodious, sounding pitiful.

But although she was speaking, there was nothing that could be called a person beside her, and from the perspective of others, she seemed to be talking to herself.

"It’s only the fifth day, and you miss him this much?"

Hanamaru Hanabi was silent for a moment, murmuringly asking, "Actually... you miss Sakura-kun too, right...?"

"Me? (pause) Hmph, I wouldn’t miss him. On the first day away, he immediately ran to work at a maid café, huh (cold voice), surely having very pleasant interactions with the maids there."

"Sakura-kun... Sakura-kun would be careful."

"He may be careful, but other women wouldn’t. You have no idea how other women look at him, as if they want to taste him and savor him thoroughly. To me, he should never have worked at the maid café."

"But, Sakura-kun has no money... He certainly didn’t want to borrow from others, and without money, he could only work part-time."

"So cute, Hanabi-chan, you are defending him again."

"No, not at all... Hanabi, is just speaking the truth..."

"You’re so sweet, that’s why you get bullied. If you listen to me and stay away for a year, he’d definitely miss you a lot. When you appear unexpectedly, ’Wow!’ out of nowhere, he’d be caught back by surprise, and his heart would be completely and truly wholeheartedly bound to you forever, only ever loving you. Isn’t that good?"

"Too long..."

"But it’s effective, isn’t it? You’re barely gone for five days, and he’s already starting to daydream. He must be thinking about you, Hanabi-chan."

"But what if Sakura-kun suddenly likes another girl during this time...? You wouldn’t want to see that happen either, right...?"

"He wouldn’t, I know, and you know, but if, I say if, if he really falls for someone else, it’s better to end it early, to avoid the pain I went through later."