Chapter 510: A Childhood Without Shared Experience
"welcome."

"Please walk slowly~"

"welcome."

"Please walk slowly~"

"..."

Compared to the hustle and bustle around him, Zero seemed to be in another world. This atmosphere, where no one spoke but gradually became dull, seemed to be noticed by people who had to pay attention to this side, and they quietly turned their eyes away. Even when guests passed by, they would be careful not to make any noise that would attract attention.

Ten minutes passed and the two people sat there without saying anything, as if they were busy with their own things and didn't know each other.

Although Zero had no intention of actually talking to Yamamoto Yurina, he would not pretend to ignore her if he met her.

Yamamoto Yurina seemed to realize what Zero wanted to express, so she smiled slightly.

The two of them sat there for another ten minutes, and Zero saw that there was already a line in front of the cash register of the cafe. This situation was probably happening in every store in Akihabara. She finally had to retract her gaze from the end of the field, and didn't want to remain silent, so she gently turned in the direction of Yamamoto Yurina and spoke lightly.

"Yamamoto-san."

"Ok?"

Yurina Yamamoto, who was reading a book with her head down, raised her eyebrows frivolously, indicating that she was listening.

Ling didn't care about the other party's frivolous behavior. In fact, she had seen the true side of Yamamoto Yurina at Yu Zhuo's home when she was in high school.

Although he knew Zhuo's thoughts very well and had been worried and confused about them before, Ling believed that if certain things were not said to each other's face, the other party might still have hope.

"What are Yamamoto-san's feelings towards Zhuo?"

Zero caught the constricted pupils of Yamamoto Yurina in time, and watched her raise her head as if she was thinking about something, her fingers gently fiddling with the tips of her hair that had already fallen to her shoulders. Originally, Yamamoto Yurina in the photo had dyed her hair orange-brown, but now the girl's hair color was clearly black, and it was obvious that it was not long ago.

She looked like she was thinking, with a gleam of yearning like memories flowing in her dark eyes.

"Hey, this question is so broad. Can you narrow it down a little, Romanov-san? Maybe then I can give you a satisfactory answer."

Romanov repeated it twice. Zero stared at her curved eyes calmly. Although he couldn't understand it, he could tell from the restlessness of the men around him that such a look was an exciting expression.

Ling spoke calmly, without any joy or sadness.

"I don't think Yamamoto-san can give me a completely satisfactory answer."

"Eh?"

"Yamamoto-san knows that I'm married."

"I know. I was there on the wedding day. Romanov and that guy... the guy who always said he wasn't interested in love was the first to start a family. He's so hot~"

Speaking of which, when he first met Zhuo Gang, he had shown an indifferent attitude towards her, but after all, Zero had not witnessed the period that Yamamoto Yurina mentioned, so he couldn't say "I know" calmly.

Ling had never witnessed Zhuo's childhood. If she had to, the only thing she could provide was the childhood photo album of Zhuo that Sa Chiko gave her. In the photo album, Zhuo always looked listless and uninterested when taking photos. Although she was not qualified to preach about this.

Yamamoto Yurina groaned for a moment, and felt that such an answer might not satisfy the other party.

"Mr. Romanov knows that I like that guy, right?"

"I know. You are very relaxed in front of Zhuo and get along well with him. You are completely different from the Yamamoto Yurina I saw outside."

"Hehe——"

Ling saw Yamamoto Yurina humming twice, and the pleasant little tune was enough to show her how Yamamoto Yurina herself felt about Zhuo.

"No, it's not that I'm open-minded, but rather that guy gave me the opportunity to be open-minded. I always think that a conservative guy like him will never find a girlfriend and will be single for the rest of his life. Humph, then as a friend, I can only laugh at him and then sacrifice..."

As she spoke, Yamamoto Yurina's voice became lower and lower, then she looked up and gave Zero an apologetic smile, without any intention of blaming him.

"I'm sorry, I forgot that Romanov-san was already with him. I didn't mean anything else."

"fine."

Zero's eyes remained calm, and even when talking about the fact that Yamamoto Yurina liked Zhuo, it did not shake her in the slightest.

This made Yamamoto Yurina look at her seriously for a few seconds, and then she shook her head in an exaggerated way, and her slightly long bob hair looked like a blooming chrysanthemum.

"Shall I continue?"

"Ah."

"...As a girl, you must have had this experience too. Well, if a girl is cute and well-behaved since she was young, with a pure face like she came out of a comic book, and her development is much better than other girls of the same age, such a cute person, hey, that's me... Romanov, as a girl who has also experienced that stage, I think you should know what will happen, right?"

“…I will be raped.”

"Well--"

Based on Zero's personal experience, this answer is quite accurate and the tone is very convincing. Although Zero doesn't understand what "which stage" means, she can easily imagine that Yamamoto Yurina wants to express something similar. Yamamoto Yurina looked dumbfounded and choked, but it seems that she can't read anything from Zero's frigid face like Zhuo, so she can only laugh dryly and force herself to continue the topic.

"No, it's not that exaggerated...lifting skirts, pinching arms, kissing cheeks, snatching stationery, throwing hats, and so on. Mentally immature boys always like to attract each other's attention by bullying. I'm a 'well-behaved' girl, so I had to talk to them in a soft voice about not bullying me, and gave away the snacks I usually distribute. I guess it worked, because there was only one cute girl and too many boys, so they started competing with each other, and the strongest boy would get the chance to play with me, and then he would help me drive away other troublemakers."

"and then."

Of course, Zero couldn't empathize with him - although she might have had similar experiences - but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't understand such feelings personally.

It should be said that Rei didn't even know about the general childhood experience, let alone how a girl who was popular with children should get along with boys. Even if Yamamoto Yurina used these examples to explain, she couldn't understand.

Asking "and then?" was just to show that she was listening. There was no curiosity in it, but it didn't mean she wasn't curious either. It was just like her flat tone, nothing at all.

"Then, then that guy transferred here... I went over to him and stuck to him. To be honest, I hated him so much at that time. He was so cocky! He was just a kid who had just started to develop, but he liked the teachers' thighs and breasts. He had a weird expression on his face when he saw the pretty girls coming to him. He ignored them and tried to take advantage of them. He was so lame. Even a super pretty girl like me had to give him some benefits if he wanted to play with her, otherwise he would look like he deserved a beating. He was always daydreaming in class, but he knew everything. He could get full marks on the exam, but he deliberately failed just to get into the arms of the pretty teacher and act cute. When we quarreled, he didn't show sympathy for girls like other boys did. He actually hit me! He kicked me! In the stomach! Really... Can you just kick a girl's stomach casually!?"

"Why are you arguing?"

"Oh, because I showed my fat to other boys."

As a child, Yamamoto Yurina is quite calm and easy-going. Although Zero doesn't understand why she shows her underwear to other boys, it seems that girls with a faster mental development should have a basic sense of shyness during the period when boys become curious about the opposite sex.

In short, it was hard for Zero to imagine what reason would make Yamamoto Yurina do such a thing.

Ling could not see any ill will towards Zhuo from Yamamoto Yurina, so she was sure that Yamamoto Yurina hated Zhuo's behavior at that time.

Even so, even though she couldn't understand, she knew Zhuo well enough. To further explain, in terms of the concept of getting along between the sexes, Zhuo was a very lazy person. Although he would not turn a blind eye to the help extended to him, he would not take the initiative to get involved in other people's affairs.

Although she didn't know the specific reason, she found it hard to imagine that Zhuo would hit his friends. If such a thing really happened, there was only one possibility...

Seeing Zero's eyes flickering, Yamamoto Yurina smiled bitterly and said, "It's hard for you to believe, right?"

"..."

"…But since you're already married, I shouldn't tell you the following. Think about it, if a boy always helps you drive away other kids who harass you, but finds out that you always like to get close to another boy, he'll definitely be angry. He doesn't care about me, so what can I do? If I don't give that boy a benefit, more people will definitely come to bully me!… He doesn't understand others at all, and he's still angry at me."

Zero glanced at Yurina and saw that she was pursing her lips and trying to look angry.

Although she didn't plan to say anything, most of what Zero talked about was mixed with her own opinions. Of course, Zero didn't plan to get to the bottom of it. She felt that if it was Zhuo sitting here, at most he would just sneer more than her, and then look at Yamamoto Yurina opposite with contempt.

Ling had no such thoughts or ideas at all. She looked out the window again in a trance. She didn't know when the outside world had become gloomy. The slight cold wind tried to roll up the paper scraps on the ground, and the crowds on the street were also quickening their pace to leave here.

It's going to rain.

she thought.

Yamamoto Yurina seemed to have realized what Zero wanted to say, so she spoke in a self-deprecating manner.

"Okay, I was the first to do it. But I'm also a girl, and I don't want to show my panties to others. Not only did he ignore me, he didn't even try to comfort me, and he even said something sarcastic like "You can lend me money to buy Okagi, but even if you don't care about that kind of thing, you should still consider the consequences!"

"Is that so?"

Ling understood her reasons, but there were still some things she couldn't fully understand. However, this kind of words did sound like something that could come from Zhuo's mouth.

She recalled that when she first met Zhuo, Zhuo suddenly slapped a bottle of Coke in front of her, and then another one... This awkward way of expressing dissatisfaction was indeed very much his style. Ling had forgotten how she answered at the time, but it should be an answer that satisfied him - she could only vaguely remember Zhuo's evasive behavior as if to hide his shyness, and thought so in her heart.

"and after."

"Well, then he dragged me over to help me vent my anger. Although he was like that on weekdays, he was really good when he fought - okay, I made all this up. In fact, he beat me up and I cried, and then I apologized while wiping my nose~"

Perhaps she noticed Zero's gaze, Yamamoto Yurina became less and less confident as she spoke, and could only truthfully describe the scene at that time.

Zero originally thought that this should be something that made people feel ashamed and angry, but from the other side of the table, where she was holding her milk tea in both hands, staring at the white straw in a daze, as if she was recalling something and grinning foolishly, it seemed that Yamamoto Yurina didn't think so.

"I got up from the ground, wiping my tears while afraid that he would just leave me there and follow her. My family is very strict. If my father knew about this, he would definitely not let me go to school alone. At that time, I only had a short time to be like other children. My hands were covered with snot, tears and mud. The more I wiped them, the dirtier they became, and I wanted to cry again."

"..."

Zero looked at Yamamoto Yurina holding the milk tea carefully but not showing any intention of drinking it. In his heart, he actually guessed what she was going to say.

Rather than telling a story about childhood or explaining reasons, this expression is more like revealing the secrets that are carefully kept in the heart bit by bit to others.

Let's reduce the number to twice this week - Zero, who was beginning to feel bad, made this decision silently.

"My hands were full of sticky mud, and he put his hands in his pockets, told me it was dirty, and then took his hands out and led me away."

Just once—Hearing Yamamoto Yurina's increasingly cautious and gentle voice, Zero changed his mind again.

"He didn't help me fight, but he always held my hand after that. The boy got angry and came again, but Zhuo didn't fight back..." Yurina's voice became smaller and smaller, "... He didn't say a word even when his face was covered in blood. He just stared at the boy calmly. I was so scared that I hugged him and cried. The boy was also scared. Later, our parents were called in. Since we were the ones being bullied, nothing happened. The boy was expelled from school."

Alas - Zero sighed silently in his heart.

(End of this chapter)