29 Christmas Eve
◎It must be the fireworks!◎
"Yes..." Hanano Chiheko watched Matsuda Jinpei's head lower and lower, and she also bent down with him, "What?"
"I bought it for myself! Is that not okay?"
Matsuda Jinpei suddenly seemed to have made up his mind. He startled Hanano Chiheko and she looked at him in confusion, "That's right, why are you shouting so loudly? No one's trying to snatch it from you."
There was an eerie silence among the four of them. Suddenly, Hagiwara Kenji chuckled. Matsuda Jinpei's ears flushed red as he turned away. "Well, everyone's gone. What are you still doing here?"
Before he finished speaking, he had already strode out.
Although Hanano Chiheko had no idea what was going on with Matsuda Jinpei, when she looked around, she saw that the crowd had indeed dispersed a lot. Apart from the store clerks, there were only a few people left in the waiting room.
"Let's go too." Kenji Hagiwara suggested to Chihoko Hanano and Rei Furuya.
"good!"
"Um."
"Wait a moment."
Hanano Chiheko heard the voice and looked at the shop assistant who had spoken. The shop assistant handed her the phone and said, "Sir, this is your lost item. A man just asked me to give it to you."
Hanano Chiheko took the phone, her eyes complicated for a moment, "Did he... say anything?"
The clerk thought about it and shook his head apologetically.
"What happened?" Kenji Hagiwara noticed that the atmosphere was wrong and asked Furuya Rei in a low voice.
Fūya Rei looked at Hanano Chiheko, who was staring blankly at her phone, with a serious expression on her face, and shook her head silently.
On the phone, the chat box with the note about my brother lay cold and desolate: "If you don't want me to see you, I won't see you. Also, Merry Christmas."
The frozen place in her heart gradually warmed up. Hanano Chiheko seemed to have immediately forgotten that she was just one door away from the tower. She put her phone away, looked up and smiled as she pushed Hagiwara Kenji and Furuya Rei out. "Let's go, let's go. If you don't get out now, Matsuda Jinpei will freeze to death outside alone!"
Matsuda Jinpei, who had been standing outside the door waiting foolishly, said: "...A-choo!"
Who is saying bad things about him???
“Bang, bang!”
A bell rang next to the mall. Chiheko Hanano and her group passed by and heard that there was a fireworks show, so they immediately stayed to watch it.
Of course, Hanano Chihoko would never admit that she was the first one to suggest standing in the square and freezing.
Chihoko Hanano put the last few pieces of popcorn from the giant bucket that she inherited from Jinpei Matsuda into her stomach, rubbed her hands, and looked at the dark sky.
"We're just asking, when are the fireworks going to be set off?"
"It's almost done." Matsuda Jinpei pointed to the fireworks display not far from the four of them, "Isn't it all ready to go?"
"Are your hands cold?" Furuya Rei handed his black leather gloves to Hanano Chihoko. "They should be a little bigger."
Hanano Chiheko took it and tried it on. "Wow, it's so warm!"
Fūya Ling smiled and suddenly noticed that several groups of people were pouring out of the entrance of the cinema in the distance. It seemed that they had also heard the news that the fireworks were about to be set off, and they were rushing to the square.
Judging from the flow of people...it's not good.
Kenji Hagiwara and Jinpei Matsuda, who also noticed the situation over there, exchanged a tacit glance with Rei Furuya. The next second, a human-shaped wall composed of male police academy students appeared around Chihoko Hanano, who was still looking at the black leather gloves.
Surrounded by three tall and strong men, although Chihoko Hanano was proud of her 2.80 meter aura, objectively speaking, she still looked weak, pitiful and helpless.
"Hmm!" Before Chihoko Hanano could react, Fūya Rei leaned over her.
"Are you okay?" Furiya Rei's concerned words rang in her ears. At this time, Hanano Chihoko also saw through the gap that the square was now crowded with people.
"Eh? It was empty just now!"
As Hanano Chiheko was speaking, Hagiwara Kenji was suddenly pushed by someone. He quickly grabbed Hanano Chiheko's shoulders and pushed her towards Matsuda Jinpei.
"Ouch." Chihoko Hanano moved again instantly.
"Everyone wants to squeeze to the front to watch the fireworks." Fūya Ling has already seen the situation clearly and his face looks a little worried.
Matsuda Jinpei protected Hanano Chihoko, frowning as he stared at the increasingly jostling and crowded crowd. He noticed something, "Something seems amiss with the flow of people on the slope in front of the clock tower!"
As soon as she finished speaking, Chihoko Hanano raised her cell phone high up, and the camera interface on the phone captured the crowded and out-of-control scene ahead that was originally invisible due to the terrain.
"ah!"
A sharp scream rang out from the front of the crowd, and everyone was startled.
Chihoko Hanano and the people behind her also raised their mobile phones to check the situation. Through the high-definition images on their mobile phones, they witnessed the tragedy of the crowd in front of them collectively losing control and being overwhelmed.
“Ah! Help!!”
The wailing sounds, echoing very close to them, made people inexplicably nervous, and the people in the crowd struggled to escape in panic.
"Hello, yes, there's a large stampede near the clock tower in the central square. We need to immediately deploy security to evacuate and rescue the people."
Kenji Hagiwara calmly explained the situation to the police operator on the other end of the phone.
Chihoko Hanano accidentally saw a little girl five meters away being knocked to the ground by the crowded crowd.
"Hey, don't step on the child!" Chihoko Hanano struggled to push through the crowd and moved towards the little girl with difficulty.
Furiya Rei cleared the way beside Hanano Chiheko, and fortunately the little girl also saw them at the same time and immediately reached out her hand.
Fūya Rei pulled the little girl up first, and Hanano Chiheko briefly checked her injuries.
Furiya Rei noticed something was wrong with the little girl's other arm and immediately asked Hanano Chihoko, "How is she? Is her bone okay?"
"It's okay, it's just a simple sprain." After checking the injury, Chihoko Hanano breathed a sigh of relief and protected the child in front of her.
"Everyone, please stop running around to avoid being trampled!" Jinpei Matsuda shouted loudly in the chaotic crowd while stopping people from running around.
Furuya Rei also shouted, "The police will be here soon, everyone calm down and wait."
Fortunately, someone came out to maintain order when people were in turmoil. This fact itself effectively calmed people's hearts, and the crowd actually gradually calmed down.
“Beep…”
The red flashing lights of police cars illuminated the crowded square, and accompanying medical staff also rushed over.
The crowd was dispersed in an orderly manner by the police, and the little girl's parents also came up.
"Be careful not to sprain your arm." Fūya Ling warned worriedly.
"Oh, thank you so much, otherwise my child would not have suffered such a small injury." The child's mother expressed her gratitude.
"This is what I should do, and it's all thanks to..." When Furuya Rei turned around, there was no trace of Hanano Chihoko around.
"Kazuko?" Fūya Rei was inexplicably panicked for a moment. This familiar feeling of helplessness was exactly the same as it was ten years ago. Fūya Rei felt as if he had fallen into an icy cave.
"Brother, sister is there!"
The little girl's tender voice brought Rei Furuya back to his senses, and he looked in the direction the little girl pointed.
Among the pedestrians, Chihoko Hanano had already run to the bottom of the clock tower and was working with medical staff to provide first aid to the injured.
Jōgu Ling calmed down, took a deep breath, and ran over to help.
“Bang, bang!”
When the bell rang again, all the injured had been sent to the hospital.
Hanano Chihoko, Furuya Rei, and Matsuda Jinpei, after receiving praise from Inspector Megure who came to assist in the police operation, sat on a bench to rest for a while.
"Fortunately, the police arrived in time and no major casualties were caused." Chihoko Hanano closed her eyes tiredly, saying with lingering fear.
Seeing that Hanano Chiheko's bangs were messed up, Furuya Rei raised his hand to tidy them up. Unexpectedly, Matsuda Jinpei, who was on the other side of Hanano Chiheko, also raised his hand and touched Hanano Chiheko's forehead.
"Hmm?" Hanano Chiheko opened her eyes as if she sensed something, but found that Furuya Rei and Matsuda Jinpei were both doing their own things, and she didn't know what they were busy with.
Hanano Chiheko then immediately noticed that her bangs seemed to be much neater than before...
Chihoko Hanano held up her bangs and fell into deep thought.
Kenji Hagiwara, who happened to have watched the entire show, had a slightly subtle look on his face. He walked up to the three people and, like a kindergarten teacher, handed each of them a cup of hot cocoa. "Even if you don't drink it, you can use it to warm your hands."
"Thank you for the gift, Mr. Hagiwara!" Hanano Chiheko squeezed over to the side of Shimotani Rei and patted the space on the other side. "Come, come and sit with us!"
Furuya Rei immediately moved closer to the edge of the bench. Hagiwara Kenji naturally reciprocated Hanano Chiheko's words, saying, "Thank you for the gift, Owako and Ko Furuya."
Matsuda Jinpei felt that the people were being too polite, so he swiftly pulled his own child, Xunran, over to sit next to them.
Perhaps it was the warmth of the hot cocoa, the four people sitting in the row were silent for a while.
After a moment, Hanano Chiheko sighed and said, "This Christmas is really thrilling."
"Yeah..." Matsuda Jinpei, who was resting his hands on his curly-haired head, looked up at the dark sky and agreed in a rare tone.
Just as he finished speaking, there was a sudden "bang" and a firework rose into the sky. In an instant, the azure firework exploded in the dark night.
Chihoko Hanano was shocked by the beautiful scenery before her and took a deep breath of the cold winter night air.
Then, there was another “bang bang bang…!”
Countless explosions were heard, and the night sky was instantly dyed colorful by fireworks. Passers-by were shocked by the dazzling fireworks and stopped to watch.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
