13 | Jinjiang Exclusive · 13
I'd like to hear you call me by my name directly.
When Kenji Hagiwara successfully picked up Yomi Raikawa, Tooru Amuro had already made an excuse to leave early. The five former police academy students thus missed each other and did not meet.
"Soft bread, I'm here to pick you up."
Yomi Laichuan, like a scolded Pomeranian, huddled in the corner, silent. When she looked at Hagiwara with a pout, her large, watery almond-shaped eyes were full of sorrow.
Her emotions were complex; she felt depressed, wronged, and a little angry. But Lai Chuan Huang Quan knew that her emotions were unreasonable, which made her even more frustrated.
“Who bullied the soft bread?” Kenji Hagiwara laughed and bent down, gently stroking Yomi Laichuan’s nose with his index finger. “Tonight I’ll help you put a sack over him and we’ll beat him up together to vent our anger.”
Lai Chuan Huang Quan raised her eyes and glanced sideways at the man who was still a head taller than her even when she bent over. She snorted and said angrily, "It's not like you'd actually help me beat someone up. Last time I wanted to beat up Officer Gorilla, you even stopped me."
"Pfft, Officer Gorilla, hahaha, I suddenly think my nickname isn't so bad."
Kenji Hagiwara reached out and ruffled Yomi's hair. After saying goodbye to Inspector Megure, he took Yomi and left the sushi restaurant. "How about this week? Pick a time when neither of us is working. I'll lure Jinpei over to my house, and we'll beat him up together?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Lai Chuan Huang Quan's wet eyes lit up, filled with anticipation.
Kenji Hagiwara suppressed a laugh: "But knowing Jinpei's personality, he'll definitely get his revenge later."
The light in Lai Chuan Huang Quan's eyes went out again the next second. She scoffed, opened the car door, and got into the passenger seat: "Never mind then."
Kenji Hagiwara smiled and asked, "Why?"
"I'm afraid he'll beat me up when you're not around."
"Pfft."
"Officer Hagiwara, don't laugh!" Yomi Laichuan grinned, "I'm seriously worried!"
"Don't worry," Hagiwara said with a smile, "Jinpei may have a bad temper, but he won't lay a hand on ordinary people."
As soon as he finished speaking, Kenji Hagiwara caught a glimpse of Yomi Rikawa's mournful gaze through the rearview mirror.
"Hmm, what's wrong?"
"Officer Hagiwara, do you really think I'm an ordinary person? I thought I had practically no way to hide from you."
After all, she was just thrown into this world and was caught by Kenji Hagiwara wearing strange clothes, and then she demonstrated skills such as spatial jump in front of him.
"Well..." Kenji Hagiwara just smiled and dragged out the last syllable, his attitude subtle: "I was indeed scared at first, but after getting to know her, I found that Soft Bread is just an ordinary little girl next door."
Wearing her emotions on her sleeve, she lacks some common sense about the world. When angry, she bares her teeth and brandishes like a Pomeranian showing its teeth in front of a big dog; when well-behaved, she tilts her head with wet eyes, making you want to reach out and pet her... In short, she's strangely adorable.
A thousand thoughts coalesced into a smile on his lips, a subtle sweetness lingering on his tongue. But in the end, Hagiwara simply smiled and slowly uttered a sentence that was half teasing and half indulgent: "Still a super big idiot."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan puffed out her cheeks and snorted, ignoring Hagiwara Kenji. She adjusted her chair to a comfortable reclining position, took out her phone, and prepared to check for recent social news. One of the great advantages of the 21st century is that you can quickly learn about the dynamics of the world through the internet.
As a result, while rummaging through the bag, Lai Chuan Huang Quan pulled out a black metal object about the length of a finger joint from the backpack's inner compartment.
Kenji Hagiwara glanced briefly at the object in Yomi Raikawa's hand, then quickly suppressed his smile. He slowed down, turned his gaze back to the black contraption, and frowned.
"Soft bread, where did that thing in your hand come from?"
"I don't know, it just suddenly appeared in my bag. Someone must have secretly slipped it in after I left the house."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan examined the cool metal object in her hand, tilted her head, and then put it in her mouth. With a crisp sound, the black metal object shattered into several pieces.
“Hey, soft bread,” Kenji Hagiwara frowned, looking both helpless and amused. “What are you doing?”
“Break it,” Yomi Lai said earnestly. “Officer Hagiwara, you’ve figured it out too, haven’t you? This dark thing is a bugging device.”
"I know, I just didn't expect you to bite with your teeth."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan rolled his eyes and muttered, "I'm not a gorilla, of course I can't crush a metal bug with my fingers."
Kenji Hagiwara glanced at Yomi Laichuan but didn't say anything more. It seemed the "soft bread" (referring to a person's name) was truly devastated today; he looked listless, like a small flower parched from being scorched by the sun. He turned the steering wheel to park the car in the underground garage, and only when he unbuckled his seatbelt did he laugh and say, "Get out, I'll take you to get something good to eat. Let's have a good time tonight!"
"Okay!"
Seeing the woman's eyes brighten again, Kenji Hagiwara's eyes also curved into crescents—she was so easy to understand and coax. But it was truly wonderful that she could be happy again.
Leading her through the mall floor by floor, from fruit drinks to three-colored glutinous rice balls to small cakes, Kenji Hagiwara carried a bag of donuts he had just bought and accompanied Yomi Laichuan as they shopped and ate.
He softened his smile and quietly followed behind Yomi Laichuan, like a silent guardian. Her clear, amethyst-like eyes reflected Yomi Laichuan's small figure—her height was only average for a woman, but she looked petite next to Hagiwara.
"Officer Hagiwara, look!"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan chewed on a peach daifuku, one cheek bulging out from the chewing. She pointed at the glass cabinet, her speech mumbled, a grain of coconut shreds still stuck to the corner of her mouth, making her look like a spotted mouse with its mouth stuffed full of peanuts.
"These chocolate balls look so delicious!"
“It does look delicious,” only at this moment would Kenji Hagiwara shift his gaze from Yomi Yorikawa to the direction she was pointing: “Hello, could you please wrap five for me?”
He turned to look at Lai Chuan Huang Quan: "You have four, I'll take one."
She paused in her swallowing motion, her eyes darting around nervously. She whispered, "I only need three. Officer Hagiwara, please eat more too."
But Kenji Hagiwara just leaned against the cabinet, staring at Yomi Raikawa and laughing without saying anything more.
As I browsed through floor after floor, I found more and more bags filled with food on my secondhand clothes.
The small table at the barbecue restaurant, occupied by only two people, felt like a mini-date. However, the atmosphere between the two wasn't cozy; instead, it was filled with endless banter and playful teasing. Kenji Hagiwara, holding a condiment tray, wore a mischievous grin as he snatched a whole slice of pork belly from under Yomi Raikawa's chopsticks.
"It's mine now~"
"Huh!? That gorilla did that, fine, but why did you, Officer Hagiwara, do it too...!"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan protectively held his bowl with his arm, as if guarding his food.
Kenji Hagiwara: "Soft bread, look behind you!"
Then, taking advantage of the moment when Yomi Laichuan turned her head, she snatched the roasted beef that Yomi Laichuan had already put into the bowl.
"You damned police officer!"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan gritted her teeth, and when Hagiwara reached out with his chopsticks again, she slapped his hand with them, leaving a red mark.
"If you take my meat again, I'm going to get angry!"
"Oh dear," Kenji Hagiwara said, his eyebrows drooping and his lips pouting as if he were aggrieved, his subtle coquettishness hidden beneath the guise of a joke: "Softie is so fierce, she won't even be gentle with me."
I'm going to be sad~
"snort!"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan pouted and quickly lowered her head to stuff the beef into her mouth. She didn't want to talk to an idiot.
Despite being slapped hard on the back of his hand, Kenji Hagiwara wasn't angry. He simply rested his chin on his hand, tilted his head, and smiled, chopsticks in hand. Only after Yomi Raikawa had happily swallowed a plate of grilled meat covered in sauce did he raise his hand to signal the waiter for another plate.
After watching a movie with Lai Chuan Huang Quan, it was only nine o'clock when I drove him home, but the winter nights always seem exceptionally quiet.
Kenji Hagiwara walked in front, carrying a bag of snacks, with Yomi Raikawa quietly following behind him. A gentle breeze blew by, bringing a slight chill, and Yomi Raikawa exhaled a puff of white breath, but she didn't feel cold.
The moonlight outlined Kenji Hagiwara's silhouette, while the streetlights stretched their shadows long. Yomi Raikawa, wearing her new boots, hopped and skipped on Hagiwara's shadow, as if playing a game of hopscotch just for the two of them.
Kenji Hagiwara, with one hand in his pocket, glanced at the person behind him and chuckled, "Softie, what are you doing?"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan didn't look up. She stared at the shadow of Hagiwara, which was stretched long by the warm streetlights, lifted her leg and hopped across on one foot, landing steadily on the head of the shadow.
"I'm kicking that bastard officer in the head, maybe that will make him smarter."
"Eh~?" Kenji Hagiwara exaggeratedly dragged out the last syllable, and said in cooperation, "Damn it, even though I bribed you with so many snacks, you still managed to find out my secret of not being smart enough?"
"Tch, don't talk like I'm just a little pig."
"You're like a soft loaf of bread that puffs up like a balloon when you're angry."
"You damn officer!"
Just as Raikawa Yomi had a chance to bristle, Hagiwara Kenji pressed her head down. His warm, masculine hands rubbed and kneaded Raikawa Yomi's head, making her originally smooth black hair messy and bunching it up at the nape of her neck.
Raising her hand and pressing down hard on Kenji Hagiwara's palm, Yomi Raikawa couldn't help but protest loudly, "You idiot, stop it!"
But before she could continue to resist, Kenji Hagiwara stopped, letting Yomi Rikawa grab his hand that had just done the wrong thing and bite and gnaw at it in a fit of rage.
“Soft bread,” he said, his voice as serene and hazy as if veiled by moonlight. The north wind rose again, ruffling their hair. The sound of their hearts pounding in their ears, a faint smile on his lips, as he whispered to Lai Chuan Huang Quan, “Call me Second Year of Graduate School.”
A gentle breeze rustled the leaves softly. Even though she hadn't used any skills, Yomi Laichuan felt time slow down. Kenji Hagiwara's downturned eyes, brimming with springtime allure, were magnified infinitely, until they filled her entire field of vision.
Yomi Lai held Kenji Hagiwara's hands in hers, the faint teeth marks from her recent bite still visible on the thenar eminence of his thumb. Yomi Lai pressed her lips together, trying to look away, but her attention was firmly drawn to the person before her.
After a long silence, she whispered in a voice barely audible, "Second year of graduate school."
The air gradually warmed, and the moonlight on the horizon became even brighter and more beautiful. But before Hagiwara Kenji could be happy, Raikawa Yomi, her ears turning red, flung his hand away and, puffing out her cheeks, shouted, "You big idiot!"
...?
Kenji Hagiwara paused for a moment, then burst out laughing: "Hahaha, you're so cute, you soft bread~"
"Seriously, no laughing!"
"Hahaha cough... Okay, I won't laugh."
Clearing his throat to force a laugh, Kenji Hagiwara feigned seriousness, but his eyes betrayed a hidden amusement. His jewel-like eyes were reflecting Yomi Raikawa's pouty face, reflecting only her.
[Author's Note]
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