Chapter 146 Five centimeters per second
I don't know if it was intentional or accidental.

In short, the water stains on Sakurai Shio's clothes should have been caused by water droplets falling from above when she was lying flat.

Could it be that the ceiling above her head was leaking when she was lying in bed sleeping last night?
No, that's not possible at all.

Qingshui saw that he really couldn't figure it out, so he asked directly.

"Senior, why are you wet?"

At first, Sakurai Shio was confused, but she soon understood.

If it were any other time, Sakurai Shio would definitely act like an older sister, taking advantage of the ambiguity of this sentence and making fun of Shimizu Mizu with ease.

However, today, she, who was holding Qing Shuijian's arms, immediately let go of her hands after hearing this question, and her cheeks suddenly turned red.

Shimizu just glanced at her, and Sakurai Shio immediately turned her head away, as if she was deliberately avoiding his sight.

"..."

On the other side, Sakurai Haruka didn't seem to expect Sakurai Shio's unexpected reaction. She looked over without saying a word, but Sakurai Shio also avoided Sakurai Haruka's sight.

What happened to her?
Could it be that I got a fever from being caught in the rain yesterday?

As the elder sister, Sakurai Shio has always given people a strong and cheerful image, while Sakurai Haruka always tends to be cold in her attitude towards the outside world. The two can be said to be at two extremes, but once they become shy like this, the two sisters become very similar.

Subaru Miura was also surprised by the appearance of Sakurai Shio. He didn't expect that within just a few minutes, he would see the Sakurai sisters showing rare expressions one after another. The pair of eyes under the transparent lenses couldn't help but cast strange looks at Shimizu Ken.

Shimizu Mi was very familiar with that kind of look - it was not judging someone's appearance or figure, but a deeper kind of magic eye that simply assessed a person's value and ability.

At this time, Sakurai Haruka moved her nose, as if she smelled something familiar on Sakurai Shio...

"Sister, why do you have..."

Sakurai Shio immediately interrupted, "No, nothing. I just stepped into a puddle on the side of the road when I went out this morning, and it splashed on my clothes."

Sakurai Shio quickly took two steps back, keeping a slight distance from Sakurai Haruka's sensitive nose.

Did you step into a puddle?

That was really careless.

After all, the water in the puddles on the roadside is mostly turbid and sticky, and even if it dries up after being splashed, it will inevitably leave some traces.

Shimizu thought she was accidentally splashed while watching others fight with slimes.

It turns out that my thoughts are too dirty.

"Sister Xi, do you need me to help you buy new clothes? There's a big shopping mall nearby."

Subaru Miura simply raised his hand and suggested to Sakurai Shio.

"No need. Anyway, I'll be back to Tokyo after finishing my work with the crew this afternoon. I can just wash myself then."

As the daughter of the Sakurai family and a popular star, she actually washes her clothes herself. Shimizu Mi thought that Sakurai Shio would be like those big names who would just throw away dirty clothes and buy new ones instead.

"What does this have to do with you? What are you doing here?"

Sakurai Haruka questioned Miura Subaru in a stern tone.

But Miura Subaru's eyes, beneath his slightly golden brown hair, still showed a happy smile.

"Don't always glare at me like that... Sakura, Sakurai."

It seemed that Subaru Miura originally wanted to address her as "Haruka", but under Sakurai Haruka's particularly cold gaze, he was forced to change his words and address her by her surname.

Miura Subaru shrugged his shoulders, a helpless smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and explained:

"In fact, I originally came to the crew for an audition with the mentality of giving it a try. Maybe I can appear on the screen like Sister Xi."

Then Miura Subaru sighed with some regret and continued:

"Unfortunately, the male lead the crew wanted to recruit didn't seem to have any vision problems, so they didn't accept someone with myopia like me."

Sounds like a sad story.

"Although I can wear contact lenses, I don't think they're comfortable to wear, and... I think glasses are more suitable for me."

Subaru Miura held up his glasses with his middle finger and looked at the Sakurai sisters in front of him. Because the distance was too close, Shimizu could not tell who his eyes were focused on.

The atmosphere at the scene became tense again as before.

However, this situation only lasted for a few minutes. Sakurai Shio, who had been blushing before, adjusted her attitude and became the same as before, guiding the topic with an unusually cheerful voice:

"Speaking of which, Miura, I heard that your two schools are co-hosting a cultural festival and are now looking for bands that are interested in performing."

Miura Subaru immediately responded, "Yes, the cultural festival will begin next Wednesday, but it seems that there are not enough people at the moment."

"Then let me, your sister, help you."

Sakurai Shio suddenly suggested this.

"Hey, is it okay? That would be a real help."

"Leave it to me. I used to be in the light music club."

Sakurai Shio patted his chest confidently, but unfortunately it didn't cause any big noise.

Qing Shuijian sighed. This person is still the same as always. He does whatever he thinks of...

"Come to think of it, I seem to have heard that when Sister Xi was in her third year of high school, she was once an executive member of the Cultural Festival, and she even formed a band to perform at the Cultural Festival. Even the teachers at the school said that the performance was very exciting."

After Miura Subaru said this, Shimizu noticed that Sakurai Haruka clenched her teeth and looked down at the ground, and the scene fell into a brief silence.

At this moment, Sakurai Shio's embarrassed laughter broke the silence again.

"Ahaha! That's not the way to say it. I was just having fun with my friends. If possible, I plan to be more serious this year and bring back my band alumni who graduated. It seems like it would be quite fun. I just don't know if the school would be willing to let me participate..."

Sakurai Shio probably felt that the joke had almost ended, so she turned to look at Sakurai Haruka.

"So, Haruka, can I join in?"

"If you want to participate, go ahead and participate... I don't have the power to decide."

As if that wasn't enough, Sakurai Shio walked over and hugged Sakurai Haruka's shoulders and continued to beg.

"For my lovely sister Haruka, I'm willing to do anything I can for you!"

"Don't joke... If my sister really wanted to do anything... she wouldn't have..."

Sakurai Haruka waved away Sakurai Shio's hand, took a step away and glared at her.

Sakurai Shio seemed unable to bear Sakurai Haruka's gaze, and slowly lowered her head, her eyes unconsciously falling to the floor.

"……fraud."

Shimizu seemed to hear Sakurai Haruka whispering something.

Then, Sakurai Haruka bit her lips and turned her eyes away from Sakurai Shio and looked at Shimizu Mi. She opened her mouth slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but after a pause, she finally said nothing.

"..."

Shimizu looked into Sakurai Haruka's eyes. Those sparkling eyes were like the summer light, shining into the water in the summer, swaying and scattered light.

As a result, Sakurai Haruka also lowered her eyes, and might even be staring at the same "floor" as Sakurai Shio.

……

……

The golden ocean sparkles in the sunlight.

In this never-boring scene, the crew members are hurriedly preparing for the auditions.

After lunch, Shimizu came to the station where he took photos yesterday.

Besides him, there were many young men in their twenties at the scene. At a glance, there were about 30 or 40 of them, and all of them were handsome. It seemed that there were more people coming to audition than expected.

Because Amamiya Iori and Sakurai Haruka still had work to do at the cultural festival, they took the train back to Tokyo.

Before coming to Kanagawa, Shimizu Mi took the time to read the audition script given by Sakurai Shio.

Although there were only one or two simple audition shots, the script was very detailed, so it still took him a lot of time.

The male lead that Shimizu Mi is going to audition for is named "Natsukawa Yui". The audition only lasts about a minute. The general plot is that "Natsukawa Yui" and the female lead "Mizuno Inori" played by Sakurai Shio have just met for the first time and meet by chance on the way home from school.

Shimizu Miki confirmed the script one last time, and under the director's guidance, all preparations were proceeding in an orderly manner.

I looked up and caught a glimpse of a white nanny car parked not far away.

Sakurai Shio's agent, Ms. Tachibana, opened the door of the nanny car, and then "Mizuno Inori" played by Sakurai Shio appeared from the car.

She changed her clothes into a very common school uniform, a dark blue suit and a short skirt, probably the uniform of a school in the movie setting.

The reason why they are winter costumes is probably because the movie will be released after the autumn after filming is completed.

While Shimizu was thinking about this, Sakurai Shio had already walked towards him.

"What do you think, junior?"

Sakurai Shio turned around in front of Shimizu Ken, and her blue skirt fluttered up. She then pulled her hands down to cover the hem of her skirt.

Unfortunately, I didn't see what color it was because I moved so fast.

The sniper failed.

"Were you seducing me just now, Senior?"

"How, how could that be... I was just testing your loyalty to Haruka... Yes, that's right, I just wanted to test you. It seems like you have quite a lot of self-control, junior."

As she said this, Sakurai Shio patted Shimizu's shoulder in an attempt to remain calm.

But she looked as if she had something else to say.

"Anything else?"

"Um... Junior, you last night..."

"last night?"

"No, nothing. I mean, I heard that my junior has also joined the executive committee of the cultural festival. Is he working hard?"

"……Um."

Qing Shuijian responded casually.

"But it's a bit unexpected. I thought you couldn't possibly participate in this kind of work."

"Yeah, I think so myself."

If Hoshinomiya Mitsuki hadn't forced me, it would have been impossible for me to participate.

"Oh... So it was Hoshinomiya-sensei who did it. It fits her personality very well."

Sakurai Shio, who was also a student of Hoshinomiya Mizuki, nodded in understanding.

But compared to Shimizu Mi, the other person should have surprised her more.

"If we really want to talk about surprises, isn't Haruka more surprising?"

Although Sakurai Haruka claimed that she was chosen by the class through rock-paper-scissors, but apart from Hoshinomiya Mizuki, is there really any homeroom teacher who would be so casual?
"Really? I knew she would attend from the beginning."

Qing Shuijian didn't understand the meaning of this sentence and showed a puzzled expression.

Sakurai Shio stared at his face and added explanation.

"Think about it, my sister used to be an executive member of the cultural festival and even hosted a concert at school. These reasons alone are enough to prove that she will participate."

Gradually, Shimizu Mi seemed to have more or less understood what kind of existence Sakurai Shio was to Sakurai Haruka.

The relationship between the sisters is more complicated than Qing Shuijian imagined.

Whether they are brothers or sisters, they are bound to be compared with others, and it is inevitable that they will be judged as superior or inferior.

Although Shimizu Mi has a younger sister, Shimizu Reina, the brother and sister are of different genders after all, and they have only recently met each other, so there is no feeling of being compared.

But if it's the Sakurai sisters, they look as similar as twins.

And my sister is more outstanding than ordinary people.

Although the younger sister is as talented as her older sister, she still cannot surpass her older sister.

In the hotel lobby, the "past" that the two of them talked about might be the reason why they didn't get along well.

And Sakurai Haruka always seems to want to challenge her sister's phantom. She seems to have a way to defeat her, but she can never do it.

Just like in the sports meet, in order to win three consecutive championships like Sakurai Shio, Sakurai Haruka insisted on participating and came in first place like in the previous two years, but that accident happened.

It would be much easier to avoid facing the achievements made by Sakurai Shio.

In fact, sometimes it is not shameful to escape. If it were Qingshuijian, he would simply choose to do so. Comparing yourself with others everywhere is a very tiring thing.

But Sakurai Haruka's self-esteem, or perhaps her strong feelings for someone beyond her self-esteem, did not allow her to do so.

After thinking about this and understanding these things, Shimizu Mi began to wonder whether Sakurai Shio came to the cultural festival to do something for her sister in other ways.

"Senior, may I ask...what exactly are you planning to do?"

Shimizu stated his doubts directly.

However, Sakurai Shio, with her excellent acting skills, often makes it difficult for people to guess what she is thinking.

"What should I say so that my junior will believe it?"

"..."

Sakurai Shio's usual eccentric image has long been deeply rooted in Shimizu Mi's mind. She always uses various jokes and acting skills to hide her emotions.

Perhaps, no matter how profound her reasons were, or how lofty her ideals were, Shimizu Mi could not take them seriously.

At this moment, Sakurai Shio must have been very clear about the meaning of Shimizu Mi's silence.

"Junior brother, you are really an irresponsible person."

Sakurai Shio was smiling bitterly, and the emotions behind these words were very real, without any affectation.

"What do you mean?"

Qing Shuijian seemed somewhat concerned, and looked at her silently, asking her to explain clearly.

"I said those words to someone else..."

But I don’t know if Sakurai Shio did it on purpose, she stopped talking halfway through.

After she closed her mouth, the noise around her immediately became louder, and Shimizu was able to hear the director urging the crew to prepare to start filming.

A few minutes later, the director gave the order and the test shoot began.

Under the spring sky, cherry blossoms were falling like snow. The heavy sound of "clang clang clang" of a train came hurriedly from not far away. The red lights were flashing continuously. "Natsukawa Yui" drifted with the flow to the other end, and the gate bar behind her suddenly pressed down.

"Natsukawa-san!"

As the train passed by, the sharp wind blew the boy's bangs.

But the voice of "Mizuno Inori" could not be heard from the other side of the gate.

(End of this chapter)