Chapter 373 Happy birthday, Kato-san

——Honglong.

The sound of the hair dryer sounded low in the apartment and stopped after 5 minutes.

Click, click.

The bathroom door was opened, and the girl's light voice came out.

"Um, thank you for letting me use the bathroom...the water in the bathtub hasn't been drained yet, do you want to use it?"

"No need." Kato Yusuke responded.

"Really? Well, then I understand."

The door was closed again.

There was a gap of several beats.

When the girl walked out of the bathroom, the clock on the wall had already reached 7:55.

Snap, snap, snap...

Along with the gentle footsteps, Hui's figure also came to the living room.

Kato Yusuke turned around and looked.

What appeared in front of me was a girl wearing school sportswear.

The loose jacket and trousers wrapped around the slender body. Both the sleeves and the trouser legs were obviously much longer, so the other party had to roll up these two parts separately.

A pair of snow-white feet lightly stepped on the floor, the insteps were smooth and delicate, and the delicate toes were slightly red, showing an unusual side and bringing about different feelings.

He raised his gaze and saw the slightly damp hair, hot cheeks, flawless skin, and a pair of beautiful and clear eyes.

"that……"

Kato Yusuke walked to the entrance without saying a word, took out a pair of slippers, placed them on the ground one step away from Megumi's feet, and stepped aside.

See this.

The girl thanked him softly, then stretched out her foot and put it through.

"Well, it's almost time to eat. Can we just have bacon pasta and miso soup?"

With that said, Megumi walked to the kitchen and rummaged through the plastic bag she brought.

Kato Yusuke was silent for a while, "...there is still some leftover curry from yesterday."

"Hey~~ If curry is left for too long, the flavor of the spices will be lost, right?"

"It's already 8 o'clock now." Yusuke reminded after glancing at the time.

However, the girl seemed to be completely unaware and responded: "That's true, you must be hungry, right? Then you have to hurry up."

Kato Yusuke then said no more.

Not long after, a cooking melody similar to yesterday's sounded in the kitchen.

During the cooking process, Hui also inadvertently glanced back at the living room.

I saw that the young man still had an indifferent look on his face, his unfocused eyes were a bit depressed, and he didn't know what he was thinking.

So he withdrew his gaze and concentrated on the matter at hand.

Time passes peacefully in the busyness...

Half an hour later, dinner was ready.

The two of them were sitting at the low table in the living room like yesterday.

On the table is "pasta + miso soup" - this combination of Western food and Japanese food is very similar to the set meals in some restaurants.

Kato Yusuke habitually took a sip of soup first and then fell silent.

"How about it?"

"..."

Hui raised his gaze slightly and asked, "Does it suit your taste? Miso soup."

"Oh, that's alright……"

"Oh~"

The girl groaned, looked away, reached out and picked up the fork on the side, put it into the plate in front of her, rolled up a little spaghetti wrapped in sauce, then put it into her mouth, and chewed it in small bites.

Kato Yusuke continued to drink the miso soup and said, "You don't need to do this."

"Yeah~ I know. After all, I helped put the cup noodles into the cupboard. That amount is probably enough for Yusuke to eat for a month, right?" Megumi said this with a hint of surprise and sarcasm in his tone.

"..."

"But that's that, but I'm not here to ridicule you... Anyway, we'll discuss the details later."

After eating and washing the dishes, the time has come to 9 o'clock.

Looking at the girl who still had no intention of leaving, Kato Yusuke finally couldn't help but asked: "Aren't you going home?"

Faced with this question, Hui did not answer immediately. Instead, he walked to the wall and squatted down.

As she opened her sports backpack, she said softly and calmly: "About this, do you know what day it is today? Yusuke."

"...?"

"Sure enough..." The girl murmured softly and took out a long white cardboard box from her backpack, with a store logo that Kato Yusuke didn't recognize printed on it.

"...Before coming here, I met with Jia Zi, and contacted my family once, and told me that I would sleep out today, and then I came to you."

"——!"

Her tone was very calm, as if she was discussing what to eat today. However, when Yusuke Kato heard it, his eyes fluctuated slightly.

Hui didn't explain much, just carried the cardboard box back to the low table, put it on the table, and started to open it.

A Napoleon cake covered with fresh cream and filled with bright strawberries appeared in it.

Immediately afterwards...

The girl took out two more numerical candles and inserted the numbers "1" and "6" on the cake.

Bang, the lighter lit the candle.

Kato Yusuke, who was sitting opposite, was slightly startled before he could speak.

"That~~" Hui cleared her throat, a smile slowly bloomed at the corner of her mouth, and said with a slight tone of voice:

"Happy birthday, Kato-kun."

The beautiful face shone under the firelight and lights, and was deeply burned into someone's eyes.

Pat pat pat pat, raindrops slapped against the window glass.

The room suddenly became silent.

Kato Yusuke moved his lips, then lowered his gaze.

"Sorry, after all, I have seen the student union roster, so I know about this." The girl explained first, and then asked softly: "So... let's blow out the candles together?"

a long time……

"Okay..." Kato Yusuke said in a voice that seemed to be squeezed out of his throat, his hands clenched together, and the veins were exposed.

Hui's eyes became gentler, and she moved her body to his side, kneeling on the carpet.

The next second her eyes fell on his left hand, the girl gently pulled it up with both hands and placed it on her lap, then took out a round box from her pocket and opened the lid.

——There is a transparent substance like colloid inside.

"This is aloe vera gel." Hui explained, reaching out to take some gel from it and gently smearing it on the back of his hand.

Yusuke was puzzled by this, but still let her do what she did.

"What on earth would it take to get hurt like this?" There was a rare hint of blame and concern in his tone.

"..."

Kato Yusuke responded with silence, just accepting the manipulation silently, feeling the cold and slippery gel spreading in his hands.

"...I'm sorry, today is also your birthday. I don't have anything to give you as a gift."

Hui paused for a moment, then took some more aloe vera gel and began to apply it on the palm of his hand.

"By the way, Yusuke?"

"……What?"

"Well, during your absence, I found two portraits of me in the locked cabinet in the student union room...so was that one painted by you?"

"……Um."

"That's right, it's good, then that is my gift..."

——Boom!

Along with a dull thunder, the light above the head suddenly went out with a "pop".

The room suddenly became dark, with only the faint candlelight slightly illuminating their faces.

"...There's a power outage."

"……ah."

"Aloe vera gel, have you applied it?"

"good."

The two looked at each other and looked away at the same time.
To be continued...