When Kurosawa Jin turned around, the outcome was already decided.
Hojo Natsuki put his arm around his neck, resting his chin on his shoulder. One hand brushed across his shoulder line, and he stopped talking. He wondered in great confusion, "How can it be wider than mine with padded shoulders?"
Although he made the request smoothly, in fact, this was the first time he was carried on his back.
Mr. Mori never carried him on his back.
Usually, the plot of "guardians carrying children on their backs" happens at night/snowy nights/rainy nights, when the child suddenly has a fever and the anxious guardian carries the child to the hospital... But Mr. Mori was a serious family doctor before he gave up medicine to pursue a career in the underworld. He doesn't need to go out to handle emergencies of this magnitude, and can handle them properly at home.
It didn't rain today, but there was a flash of lightning not long ago. The sky is still gloomy and a rainstorm is about to come.
Hojo Natsuki felt somewhat awkward and adjusted his posture slightly.
Kurosawa walked steadily and did not slow down even though he was carrying him on his back.
"Where is your gun?" asked Hojo Natsuki.
Kurosawa: "Your office."
Xia Shu: “?”
Xia Shu: "Do you know the password to my office?"
Kurosawa: “I know.”
Natsuki: “…Oh.”
He really should know, it's easy to guess.
Hojo Natsuki has a good habit. The login password for each software on his mobile phone is different, and the password for each bank card is also different.
In "Travel Frog", the universal password is Gin's birthday.
This habit undoubtedly helped him at this moment. The silver-haired man, who should have been furious, restrained himself and cooperated with his willfulness calmly.
He carried Hojo Natsuki on his back, walked to the car a few minutes later and put him down.
Having achieved his goal, Hojo Natsuki stopped pretending and opened the door and got into the car with brisk steps.
However, the other party was still angry and didn't say a word along the way.
This made the culprit Hojo-kun uneasy for a long time. He would take a peek from time to time, unsure of how angry the other party was, so he had to rack his brains to think of some bad ideas. He pondered for ten minutes and locked his learning target on Dazai. Even the neighbor's Samoyed could be used as a model, so Dazai should have some merits.
Hojo Natsuki recalled dejectedly, supporting his chin and looking out the window.
When his eyes saw the young girl selling flowers on the roadside, they lit up.
"Stop!" he said.
Hei Ze Zhen glanced at him, his brows furrowed, and stopped the car as he was told.
Hojo Natsuki quickly crossed the road. There were only a few flowers left in the girl's basket. He took a rose and saw that there were not many left, so he simply bought it. Then he smiled gently at the girl and said, "It's going to rain. Go home early."
Amid the other party's flattered thanks, he held the flowers in his arms and trotted across the zebra crossing as the green light counted down.
The soft hair on her forehead was lifted up by the airflow when she was running, and it fluttered like the ears of a happy puppy.
There was a trash can a few steps away. Hojo Natsuki raised her hand without hesitation and threw away the other bouquets. She only held the rose and opened the passenger door.
He held it out to Kurosawa Jinyan as if to ask for credit: "I'll give you flowers."
Hojo Natsuki knew that he would definitely be rejected - "boring", "take it away", Kurosawa would most likely not even give him a second look, he never thought that the other party would accept it, buying flowers and giving them to him was just to convey his sincere attitude of admitting his mistakes.
But unexpectedly, Kurosawa Jin did not refuse immediately. He glanced at Rose and his eyes fell on his face again.
He tapped the steering wheel with his long fingers in a regular, gentle rhythm. "What about the others?" he asked.
Hojo Natsuki explained without hesitation: "Those are gifts, they are not important."
It was not important and was not what he needed, so he just threw it away.
After he answered, he pondered the question for a while, then suddenly realized something and choked.
"Could it be that you prefer..." Hojo Natsuki was a little surprised and tried to recall, but he couldn't name the other flowers, "Uh... the blue-purple one... Tulip... Uh, or..."
Broken. Summer
The tree thought, I should have not thrown it away earlier.
Who would have thought that Mr. Top Killer’s first reaction would not be to simply refuse without even looking at it
But with his poor eyesight that day, he could only recognize the roses, and bought the others just to do a good deed, which was his habit.
Hojo Natsuki felt guilty and explained seriously: "Rose is very good, I just wanted to give you this."
As he said this, he looked back at the trash can where he had just thrown the flowers, and hesitated to get into the car.
A few seconds later, Kurosawa Jin leaned over and took the rose with an expressionless face.
He seemed to have just asked casually, and he was not unhappy at all because of Xia Shu's action of throwing flowers. On the contrary, he even felt a little barely perceptible joy.
The silver-haired man opened the transparent wrapping paper and pointed to the seat beside him with one hand, motioning Hojo Natsuki to get in the car.
He slowly lowered his head and leisurely fiddled with the flowers in his hands.
The brightly colored rose trembled slightly between his fingers. The outer edges of the petals looked slightly wilted as it had been exposed to the wind and sun by the flower seller for most of the day.
Hojo Natsuki sat in the passenger seat, and the sound of the door closing was particularly clear in the silent car.
The air seemed to stop flowing with the closed door.
Contrary to his usual behavior, Kurosawa Jin was playing with the rose intently, his bony fingers caressing each petal as gently and tenderly as if he was caressing a lover's cheek.
The movement was extremely gentle, yet it made people inexplicably chilling.
"I told you a long time ago that there are a lot of people out there who want to kill you."
The other party suddenly spoke in a declarative tone.
Furthermore, he guessed what Hojo Natsuki hadn't said yet, and gave a cold rebuttal in advance: "And next time, it will repeat the same mistake."
Hojo Natsuki swallowed the breath she had just begun to speak, remained quiet, and looked back at him obediently and innocently.
Obviously, over the years, Kurosawa Jin has also come to understand his willful nature to a certain extent. He is very good at saying nice things to make people happy, and he has no psychological burden when he apologizes, and he doesn't feel shy - but he will never change.
Kurosawa Jin was still staring at the rose in his palm, and his fingertips slowly reached into the center of the flower and caressed it.
The sky outside was getting darker, dark clouds were hanging down, lightning was flashing, announcing that a devastating rainstorm was about to come.
"No explanation?"
He asked coldly, with undisguised mockery.
Hojo Natsuki shook his head and slowly admitted: "You are right, I am such a person. I will not stay in a place you think is safe, never follow other people's orders, and only do what I like besides work. It is like this now, and it will be like this in the future. ... Here, I enjoy some privileges that are higher than the world view, so I am particularly arrogant."
Hei Ze Zhen sneered, closed his fingers, and the flower trembled in his hand.
He could crush and grind this poor flower at any time, pinch off the stems and leaves, trample the pistil, and make its petals fall off. It would have nowhere to go and could only lie helplessly in the palm of his hand, crying in silence.
Judging from his impending action, he seemed to be prepared to do so.
When he was still young, Kurosawa Jin held the Beretta and fired three shots at the man who hurt his mother. Since then, he has been obsessed with this feeling of control.
His desire for control is almost pathological. All things must be run in an orderly manner to reduce risks and not go off track. His treasures must be firmly locked in his palm, placed where he can see them when he lowers his eyes and reach them immediately when he stretches out his hand. Otherwise, he will not have a moment of peace.
A few raindrops fell on the transparent car window, playing the prelude to heavy rain.
The slight sound of raindrops hitting the window actually diluted the stagnant atmosphere in the car a little.
Hojo Natsuki leaned against the back of the chair, used his hands to gain strength to stand up, reached over, and quickly kissed him on the lips.
"But, trust me again." He blinked and said, "I cherish my life very much, really. I also want to go to the Hokkaido ski resort with you to eat butter potatoes. Have you been to Hokkaido?"
After his interruption, Kurosawa's movements suddenly froze.
He stared at Xia Shu. The car was dim, making his cold eyes even more captivating.
After a long while, the other party threw the flowers onto the center console, put his hands back on the steering wheel, and answered through gritted teeth, "No."
The tone was still hard, but not as dangerous as before.
The Porsche 356A was revived.
When we returned to Kurosawa's residence, the rain that had been brewing for a long time finally began to fall.
Hojo Natsuki casually dealt with the aftermath of today's bombing: he erased some surveillance footage, instructed the aftermath team to divert the police's attention, and asked a few people to cooperate with the investigation and interviews on his behalf, continuing to create the image of a pure and innocent toy factory...
It didn't take long to do all this, after all, he was the boss who only knew how to give orders. When the boss opened his mouth, his subordinates would run around.
But Kurosawa Jin is very busy, racing against time to handle work and working hard to keep this unreliable organization running.
Hojo Natsuki turned on the TV, watched it for a while, and found it boring.
So he took off his shoes, lay down on the sofa, leaned his head against the armrest, and stared at Kurosawa Jin.
"There's no future in working in an organization." He looked for a long time and suddenly suggested, "How about joining Port Mafia? Although it's the mafia, it's also a legitimate business that pays taxes."
Kurosawa Jin laughed sarcastically and asked, "Are you from an organization in another world?"
Xia Shu corrected: "I guess so, but the organization is not mine."
Kurosawa: "Then what are you?"
Xia Shu: "The leader is my guardian, you can address me as Young Master."
Kurosawa: “Oh.”
Xia Shu said nonsense: "What? Isn't it enough to impress you? Then wait, I will go back and make Mr. Mori step down. A tiger father will have a dog son. The children of the mafia are born to usurp the throne."
Kurosawa Jin continued with his work and ignored him.
Seeing his sullen face, Hojo Natsuki decided to stay quiet for 20 minutes and then scold him again later.
The TV was still playing an incomprehensible love-hate drama. He found it boring after just a glance at it, and let the protagonist on the screen be alone in his sorrow and melancholy.
It felt like they hadn't spoken for a long time, but the clock told him that only three minutes had passed.
Hojo Natsuki placed the cushions and used them as pillows, then lay down completely and closed his eyes to rest.
After a moment, I looked at the clock again and saw that 7 minutes had passed.
He closed his eyes again angrily. He had never felt time was so long before.
The sound of rain outside the window is a natural white noise, which, accompanied by the rustling sound in the house, is very hypnotic.
Hojo Natsuki took a few deep breaths and felt a wave of fatigue coming over him.
He decided to take a break.
Soon, he fell asleep, a light sleep, and still had a vague awareness of everything happening around him.
So, when Kurosawa Jin walked over, he also heard the sound of the chair being pushed away, as well as the sound of footsteps. They were extremely light and small, blending naturally into the surrounding noise.
The other person sat down next to him, and even with his eyes closed, he could feel that heavy and cold gaze fixed on him.
Hojo Natsuki maintained a steady breathing and continued to pretend to sleep.
He is very good at pretending to sleep, and has been doing this since he was a child. He has mastered the skill and has even been able to fool Mr. Mori several times.
The rough fingertips felt cool to the touch on the skin of his neck.
The other person touched his wound. The knife wound was so thin and narrow that it would stop bleeding and heal early, and the scab would fall off in a few days.
Kurosawa's movements were very light.
So itchy.
Want to hide.
However, even with such a touch, Hojo Natsuki remained motionless and continued to take a nap.
This move seemed to confuse the other party, and he withdrew his hand silently, probably because he didn't want to wake him up.
But within a few seconds, Kurosawa Jin's fingers were placed on the artery on the side of his neck again, just lying there, motionless, feeling his pulse.
—As if listening to his heartbeat with the fingertips.
(End of this chapter)