Chapter 65 Chapter 65 School Starts

Winter vacation is over and everyone is reluctantly returning to school.

For freshmen and sophomores, the period between winter break and spring break is only Valentine's Day. But for seniors facing further studies or careers, this month is destined to be filled with confusion, sadness, and busyness.

In Xiangcheng's opinion, the biggest change on the first day of school was probably that she could no longer ride in her mother's car to school - just after finishing breakfast, the special reminder she set rang.

Mikiko smiled knowingly: "Is Yukimura-kun here?"

Xiangcheng put on her coat and nodded, "Yes..."

"Don't leave anything behind!" Mikiko warned, watching Xiangcheng walk out with her schoolbag and lunch bag.

The morning light softly fell on Yukimura Seiichi, who was leaning against the wall. After seeing Xiangcheng, he straightened up, took a step forward, and took the lunch bag from her hand.

"Happy Homecoming~" he joked, extending his left hand.

Xiangcheng placed her right hand in his and smiled, "It's probably hard to be happy about the start of school! I feel like the holidays went by so quickly!"

Yukimura adjusted the strap of his tennis bag as the two held hands together. "So... happy tenth day together?"

"Ah! Why are you still counting the days?"

"Because every day is worth remembering, isn't it?"

Xiangcheng had no choice but to nod: "Yes, yes..." Except for the first two days, they met almost every day, and the time they met each time was getting longer and longer.

Even my grandmother began to sigh, "Yukimura-kun is too clingy."

Every time this happened, Xiangcheng couldn't help but recall their daily schedule—they'd run together in the morning, then Yukimura would take her to the club for practice while he practiced at the nearby tennis gym. He'd take her home at noon, and in the afternoon they'd either find a place to study together or accompany her to French class. And in the evening, after dinner, he'd ask her out for a walk...

It's really a bit clingy.

Now that school has started, for Yukimura... it should be that he finally doesn't have to work so hard to find excuses to take her out every day.

No wonder he said happy start of school.

Noticing that she was distracted, Yukimura asked, "What are you thinking about?"

My thoughts often wander for a while, and I don’t know where I’m thinking about.

"I was thinking, we used to be pretty much the same... running, learning to walk, and stuff like that."

"Really?" Yukimura thought to himself, the difference between before and now is huge - if he could have predicted this three months ago, he would have woken up laughing in his dreams.

But Xiangcheng obviously feels that life has not changed that much nowadays.

Yukimura: "Since Kazuki said so... then I'll leave?"

"Oh, don't..." Xiangcheng knew he was overthinking it again and quickly put her arm around him. "That's not what I meant! I meant, if I had known falling in love was so easy, I wouldn't have bothered with it for so long!"

Seeing this, Yukimura Seiichi was delighted and couldn't suppress the smile on his face. "So, how long has Xiangcheng been struggling with this?"

Yuihara Kaoru didn't want him to be so proud every time, so she deliberately said, "It won't be long. After all, we have to focus on the game~"

"Okay," Yukimura squeezed her hand, admitting that she was shy: "As long as it's not a burden to you."

What's with this mournful tone?

Xiangcheng resigned herself to her fate and began to coax him again.

I secretly complained that boys are too childish.

As they neared the school gate, the two men tacitly let go of each other's hands. Discipline committee member Genichirō Sanada was deeply grateful for their support and understanding of his work, so he nodded at them and forced a standard, yet strange, smile.

After the two passed by, Xiangcheng couldn't help but complain: "Sanada should stop smiling. When he smiles, he really looks like the dean."

Yukimura smiled. "I once tried to make him laugh out loud... but I ended up aborting the mission because I scared the kids."

“That’s quite a show.”

After putting the lunch box back into Yukimura's locker, the two went to the club together.

Yukimura doesn't like to give speeches to motivate the members to focus. Whenever school starts, he will directly let the members start competing to test whether they have persisted in practicing during the holidays.

And during this holiday, Renji Yanagi returned to the old house and spent many days carefully studying their new product "Kanyagi Juice" with his childhood friend Sadaharu Kanagi. Fuji Shusuke spoke highly of it. Of course, the other people in Seigaku had lost the ability to express their opinions.

Yanagi Renji will bring the research results back to Rikkai University, striving to make everyone's training results achieve better results under the supervision of high-tech products.

Xiangcheng and the others have a lot of club stuff to attend to, so they probably won't have time for training this morning.

Before every meeting, Matsumoto Genon would list the key points on the whiteboard, which allowed everyone to experience in advance what it means to be a slave.

Today is no exception.

The school will reward the students for reaching the quarterfinals this year and is willing to introduce more training equipment. After consultation, Ms. Misaki will officially assume the supervisory role, coordinating matches, training, and practice sessions. A new volleyball-specialized physical education teacher will oversee skills training.

Xiangcheng has always been able to accept anything as long as it doesn't interfere with her independent training time, so she has no objection.

As for the school awards... I'd be thankful if it wasn't just a ceremony where I had to go on stage and receive a banner.

Also, all the third-year seniors are going to quit the club.

In fact, except for Kotomi Igarashi who has always been the starter, the other seniors have not had many opportunities to play this year, but they still accompany the younger students and witness the Rikkai University women's volleyball team rise to new heights.

Kotomi Igarashi was not as sad as the others, she had some good news to announce.

Her performance in Spring High School attracted the attention of a second-tier team in the V League. She has agreed to sign the contract and will be able to officially start work after receiving her diploma.

"Although this path is something I never imagined," she looked around at everyone, "I thank you all for your collective efforts. This has allowed me to stand on a higher stage and have the opportunity to be seen."

After saying that, she stood up and bowed deeply to these female students.

Everyone stood up, feeling deeply moved.

Xiangcheng was thinking about this until she had dinner with Yukimura in the rooftop garden.

"What's wrong?" Yukimura sat beside her and rubbed her head.

Xiangcheng expressed her thoughts, "Sometimes I feel like volleyball is a very cruel sport. Today, when a senior said that you can only be seen by going to Chungao High School, I realized that there are many excellent players who are buried in ordinary teams and may never have a chance to be discovered in their entire lives."

Yukimura pressed her against his shoulder and said, "Yes, that's how it is in team sports. It's hard to break through the shackles with just one person."

"Thanks to our hard work and luck, we were able to allow our senior to go straight to the professional level."

"What about you? Have you thought about what to do?"

Xiangcheng rubbed his back and said, "I have an idea, but I don't know if I can do it... Do you want to hear it?"

Yukimura tilted his head and stared at the tip of her nose: "Of course."

…

After getting Yukimura's affirmation, Xiangcheng suddenly sat up and prepared to eat, but accidentally bumped into Yukimura's chin.

Xiangcheng quickly turned around and reached out to touch it: "Ah - I'm sorry! Does it hurt?"

Yukimura nodded, and Xiangcheng felt even more guilty: "You didn't bite your tongue, did you?"

Yukimura grabbed her hand and rubbed his aching jaw: "What should I do? My jaw is going to fall off."

"No way?" Xiangcheng was startled, her eyes close to his chin, her fingers still pointing at his bones: "It's not broken..."

Yukimura Seiichi laughed breathlessly, burying his head in her neck.

Xiangcheng, who was worried for nothing, poked his chin with her fingertips: "Really!"

After Yukimura had laughed enough, he said, "You're so cute, Kaoru."

"Have a meal!"

Seeing that she was really annoyed, Yukimura quickly sat up straight and said, "Okay, let me look forward to what delicious food my girlfriend will prepare."

Xiangcheng warned in advance: "My cooking skills are not that good. This is all taught by my grandma. If you think there is anything inappropriate, please tell me in advance!"

The insulated lunch box was opened and the aroma of egg fried rice emanated.

Yukimura helped to take it out. There was fried tempura on the bottom layer, and it looked pretty good.

"It looks really good. It will definitely be delicious."

There are also some exquisite cold dishes, such as oranges: "These are not made by me, but by my grandma, but they go well with rice."

"Okay~"

They both started eating.

Yukimura said in distress, "It's so delicious, what should I do?"

Xiangcheng thought he was exaggerating: "Just try to coax me."

"If you knew... I once chose to eat in the cafeteria because my lunch box exploded, you wouldn't feel that way."

Xiang Cheng didn't expect him to be able to do such a feat. She laughed so hard that she was out of breath: "Really?"

Yukimura admitted with great difficulty: "Indeed..."

In short, he was about to give up on cooking. Fortunately, Rikkai University High School did not require him to take the home economics course, otherwise he would have to hire a large number of people to teach him how to complete his home economics homework.

"So Xiangcheng is really amazing. He can do anything he wants to do."

Xiangcheng frowned and said, "Will I have to cook for you from now on?"

after?

Yukimura Seiichi was stunned for a moment and then suddenly laughed: "In the future... I will definitely study hard and won't let you suffer alone."

"That's not a big deal. If you say it again, I'll record it."

"good."

Yukimura couldn't suppress his smile anymore.

Really, it was just an unintentional remark, but it seemed to move people more than any promise and give people a supreme sense of security.

I am also in your future plans.

However, due to Xiangcheng's heavy academic and training pressure, eating the lunch box carefully prepared by his girlfriend became an activity that only happened once or twice a week.

Despite this, Yukimura Seiichi still felt that even eating bread together on the rooftop was a rare space that belonged to just the two of them.

I thought we would have plenty of time to spend together after school started, but his girlfriend not only got into a tangle herself, but was also afraid that he would become love-sick, so she forced him to get into a tangle too.

For a time, the atmosphere in the tennis club became more disciplined than before the national competition.

What else could he do? He could only compete seriously with his teammates every day to prove that he would not be affected.

The inner thoughts of the entire tennis club: We are the only ones affected!!!