PNB Chapter 46 Tokyo Snow
Chapter 46 Tokyo Snow
The first snow of winter fell silently on the tip of Tokyo Tower, followed by a blanket of white that completely enveloped the bustling city.
Fortunately, Kubo had checked the weather forecast before leaving home. After finishing a meeting about group promotion, he was packing up to go home when his phone suddenly vibrated in his pocket.
"Come pick me up." The voice on the other end of the phone was somewhat muffled, with a faint hint of suppressed sobs.
"Hey, Nishino Nanase, stop fooling around. Didn't we agree to come in March?"
Rito looked around to make sure no one was nearby before he whispered a helpless reassurance to the person opposite him.
boom!
The only answer he received was a crisp crack, followed by a busy tone indicating the end of the call. Rito paused for a moment, and just as he was about to call back, another number appeared on the screen. He pressed the answer button, and the old thief's voice immediately rang in his ears, speaking much faster than usual: "Kubo-san, Nishino's mother called and said that she and Nishino had a fight this morning, and when she went home tonight, she couldn't find her. She suspects that she might have come to Tokyo and wants us to help look for her."
Rito was silent for two seconds, then sighed and said to the old thief, "I know where she is. Tell her mother not to worry. Now that she's in Tokyo, let her return to the team as soon as possible."
"I understand. That's what her mother said too. As long as she's found, she won't object to her staying in Tokyo."
"Okay, I'm off. I'll let you know as soon as I get any updates."
Li Ren smiled faintly, hung up the phone, glanced at the gray sky outside the window, picked up his coat and went out.
The Shinkansen arrival area at Tokyo Station was as crowded as ever, seemingly unaffected by the first snowfall. Rito weaved through the throng, heading straight for the exit, and sure enough, found his target in a corner.
Pigeons from Osaka perched peacefully in a corner of the station, with a large hiking backpack at their feet. They held a drink in their left hand and had strands of hair twirled around their right fingers. They showed no signs of being dejected after running away from home; instead, they seemed relaxed, as if they were going to a pre-arranged meeting.
Rito, of course, didn't believe this was her true state. He guessed she must have just seen him approaching and was deliberately putting on this act. He gave a wry smile, didn't expose her, quickly walked forward, picked up her backpack with one hand, patted her head with the other, and said to her in a calm tone:
"Let's go. What do you want for dinner?"
Nanasai, with her back to him, trembled slightly. Without a word, she nestled into his arms like a fledgling returning to its nest. Even through her thick hoodie, Rito could clearly feel her trembling. Although he knew it was mostly due to teenage rebellion, and it was hard to pinpoint whose fault it was, he wasn't so old-fashioned as to lecture her at this time. He patted Nanasai's back gently and soothed her softly:
"Alright, alright, I'm here now. Who made my Nana angry again? I'll help you get revenge, okay?"
"Wow!" Nana Sai was initially quite touched, until the last sentence.
"Kubo Rihito, who are you going to take revenge on?" She lifted her head from his embrace, rolled her eyes dramatically, and refused to believe that he didn't know how she got to Tokyo and still dared to say such things. He was utterly despicable.
"Okay, just kidding. Feeling better? How about I take you to Ginza for a fancy meal?"
Seeing that she had regained some energy, Rito stopped teasing her, stroked her long hair, and asked softly.
"Eat, eat, all you know is eating, are you a pig?" Nana pouted, crawled out of his arms, put her hands on her hips, and a malicious smile suddenly appeared on her tear-streaked face.
"I heard you moved, Rito. You've already been to my place, but I haven't been to yours yet. How about tonight—"
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"Phew, it's freezing!"
After finishing her workday, Nana Min, holding an umbrella that quickly accumulated a thin layer of snow, walked through the front door of her house.
"I should have known better than to be stubborn. I could have just let that guy pick me up. He gets off work early anyway." Noticing that the living room light was already on, Nana Min suddenly regretted it. It wasn't that she had any lofty ambitions to be an independent woman that made her not call Rito. It was simply because she hadn't seen snow in a while since she came from Hokkaido and suddenly felt a little nostalgic. That's why she deliberately didn't answer Rito's question, but ended up freezing herself.
The moment the door opened, a familiar sweet scent wafted out from the heating, not her usual scented candle, but more like the one a colleague from Osaka used to use. She raised an eyebrow, placed her LV handbag on the shoe cabinet, and as she bent down to change her shoes, her peripheral vision caught a glimpse of the scene in the living room.
Rito leaned back in the middle of the sofa, still wearing his suit jacket and tie loosely hanging from his collar. A familiar face was curled up next to him, hugging a cushion, tilting its head to occupy its usual spot, its eyes fixed on the comedy variety show being replayed on TV, a smile that hadn't completely faded from its lips.
Two mugs sat on the coffee table, one empty, the other half-full, their contents obscured. The television light flickered on the two figures, casting their shadows onto the wall behind them, overlapping and indistinguishable.
You're smart to know your place.
Squinting to make sure her cup was near the man, Nana's expression softened a bit—even if Nishino Nanase was her teammate from her memories, she couldn't accept that the other person was drinking from her cup. As for Kubo Rito... the two of them had done all sorts of intimate things, so one more wouldn't make a difference.
After calming herself down, Nanamin stood in the hallway leading from the entryway to the living room, took off her scarf, and hung it along with her bag on the coat rack in the entryway. Then she walked through the living room and into the kitchen. The route from the hallway to the kitchen passed directly in front of the sofa. As she walked past, she caught out of the corner of her eye that Nana's body stiffened noticeably for a moment, then she quickly jumped off Rito's shoulder and sat up straight.
Nanamin didn't look at them. She went into the kitchen, took the ingredients for dinner out of the refrigerator and put them aside. Then she went to the bedroom, changed her clothes and returned to the kitchen after a while.
"Hashimoto-san?"
The voice came from the living room, tinged with uncertainty and hesitation. Nana Min didn't stop what she was doing, cutting the tofu into even pieces and adding them to the boiling soup pot. Steam blurred her glasses, so she simply took them off and set them aside before replying unhurriedly, "Good evening. It'll be ready to eat in about twenty minutes."
Nana twitched her lips, feeling a strong shock to her worldview, and subconsciously looked at Kubo Rito, who was secretly laughing.
"Why are you looking at me? Didn't I tell you Nanamin wouldn't care? Who can you blame if you don't believe me?"
Li Ren shrugged and whispered in her ear. Nana frowned even more. At 18, she couldn't understand the situation yet. After thinking it over, she could only categorize it as the magical adult world.
"I really don't understand, so what exactly is your relationship?"
She shook her shoulders, causing the man to fall off, and asked curiously in a low voice.
"Who knows?" Rito just smiled, which made Nanase want to punch him. She only let him go because she still needed him to help her get her mother's consent.
Twenty minutes later, Nana Min emerged from the kitchen right on time, carrying a pot of soup. She had changed into a comfortable silk dress, her face bare of makeup, and her hair loosely tied back. Even so, her natural beauty still filled Nana Sai with envy. Since the other woman had behaved so appropriately, she felt she couldn't appear too childish, so she quickly went over to help place the pot of soup on the table, then went back to the kitchen to bring out the grilled salmon and side dishes, before quietly saying thank you.
"It's okay." Nanamin glanced at her former teammates, feeling a momentary sense of dizziness as if time and space were disorienting. She nodded, pulled out a chair, and sat down.
Two of the three enjoyed their dinner, while the other was in a daze, his stomach already full of questions. He ate a few bites symbolically and then stopped eating. Li Ren noticed this but didn't try to persuade him—it was just a meal, after all. He wasn't Nana Sai's mother, so he couldn't exactly feed her, could he?
"Finished eating?" Rito asked, wiping his mouth.
"...I've finished eating."
"Then I'll take you to the guest room."
The guest room is at the end of the corridor on the second floor, separated from the master bedroom by a study. Rito hasn't hired a housekeeper yet, and the room was cleaned by Nana Min, but it was almost as professional as a professional's work. It looked clean and tidy. If it weren't for the view of his courtyard from the window, it would look like a well-decorated hotel room.
Rito placed Nanase's hiking backpack at the foot of the bed and then took a spare down comforter from the closet. Nanase stood in the middle of the room, watching him bustle about, and suddenly spoke.
"And you?"
"Um?"
Where do you sleep?
"Of course I'll sleep at my place. Do you expect me to sleep at yours?" Rito placed the down comforter on the bed, turned around, and looked at her speechlessly.
"I'm asking if you sleep with that woman?" Nanase stared at him intently, though she didn't know what she was so fixated on. From the beginning, she knew very well that this man was not someone she could have all to herself, but she, Nishino Nanase, was not the kind of girl who would obediently accept her fate. If she didn't fight for it, she wouldn't be able to get past her own conscience first.
"Goodnight." Rito's smile remained unchanged. He pulled her close, kissed her gently on the forehead, and then turned and left. His footsteps echoed eastward down the corridor, only to be cut off by the sound of another door closing.
In the master bedroom, the heating was set a little lower than in the living room. Another Nana leaned against the headboard, holding a half-read collection of essays, her glasses perched on her nose, seemingly already in bedtime reading mode. Rito came out of the bathroom, stretched, lifted the covers and lay down, resting his chin on his hand to admire her timeless beauty.
"What, Nana Sai didn't keep you?" Nana Min didn't put down her book, but just turned a page, her tone as flat as if she were reading a passage from a book, "If you're worried about me, then you don't need to. You're not that petty."
"Shall we go together?" Rito immediately seized the opportunity.
"Is this all you think about?" Nana Min took off her glasses, placed the book on the bedside table, and turned to look at him. The warm light from the lamp cast a soft shadow on her face, making her expression appear gentler than usual, but her eyes remained clear as a mirror. "Or are you just treating people like us, who shouldn't even exist in this world, as toys?"
Rito turned his head and met her gaze. He suddenly smiled, reaching out to brush away the stray hairs falling across her forehead: "Even if you're a toy, Nanamin, you're still my most beloved one."
Nana rolled her eyes at him, knowing full well he wasn't that kind of person; she was just reminding him of what she'd said earlier. She didn't bother with him now and continued immersing herself in her books.
Seeing that she ignored him, Li Ren became even more enthusiastic. He stopped his hand next to her earlobe, gently caressed it with his fingertips, and then slid it down her cheek to her neck, his thumb pressing against her jawline. His movements were practiced and natural.
"Stop fooling around, your hair is so wet, go dry it before you go to bed."
Nana rubbed between her legs, feeling very dissatisfied with her lack of self-control, and turned her head to vent her anger on Rito.
"Anyway, I'll just have to shower again later, so it's fine." Rito casually unbuttoned her pajamas, grabbed Nanamin, flipped her over, and pinned her down. Everything happened so naturally, just like every day and night before.
"Seriously, don't you get tired of doing this every day?"
"It's okay because it's Nanamin."
Hearing the man on top of her say that, Nana Min's lips curled up slightly. She sat up, hugged his neck, pulled his hand to her cheek, closed her eyes, and her voice gradually softened, "Well said, because I know you love me, so it's okay."
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The next day, in Nogizaka46's practice room.
When Rito pushed open the door, she was followed by someone all the first-generation members knew, but whom she hadn't seen for almost a year. Nishino Nanase, wearing a simple white cardigan and with her hair tied in a low ponytail, stood quietly half a step behind Rito. The music in the practice room stopped abruptly, and a dozen pairs of eyes fell on her.
"Starting today, Nishino is officially back with the team." Rito's voice wasn't loud, but it could be heard clearly in the quiet practice room. "The coach has already reported to me on her training results in Osaka. She will participate in the next four singles with everyone else."
The silence lasted for about three seconds, then Gao Shan was the first to rush over. She grabbed Nana Sai's hand, looked her up and down, and greeted her with a smile, "Nana Sai, long time no see! You've gotten so much fairer and prettier."
Nanase maintained contact with Takayama during her recovery period, exchanging many team-related messages, so she didn't feel like a stranger. With Takayama as a medium, many first-generation members came forward to talk to Nanase. Sakurai Reika squeezed out of the crowd and, as the captain, formally greeted her with "Welcome back," then took out her prepared training schedule and began explaining the recent progress. Hoshino Minami quietly went behind her, poked her ponytail, and then casually looked up at the ceiling. Even the usually aloof Inoue Kazuto walked over and silently nodded.
But not everyone's expression was welcoming.
Sayuri stood in front of the mirror, holding a water bottle, never approaching. Her gaze lingered on Nanase for a few seconds, then she turned to Watanabe Miho beside her and whispered something. Qiuqiu frowned but didn't respond. Saito Yuri and Kawagoe Hina exchanged a glance but didn't come over to greet them either.
Rito leaned against the door, taking in every reaction. He didn't criticize anyone, but as Takayama led Nanasera to the dressing room, he nodded to the manager beside him and then turned to leave.
The day the selection results were announced came very quickly.
The selection process for Nogizaka4's fourth single had already been prepared by the managers, who warned the members that it wouldn't be a case of all members participating in the first single. Therefore, the atmosphere in the studio was much heavier than before. The Hinadan studio was packed with people, with the first and second generation members lined up on either side, separated by an invisible line. All eyes were focused on the list in Shitara Osamu's hand.
"Number 15, second-generation student Eto Misa."
"No. 17, second-generation student Shiori Kubo."
With the two second-generation members in the third row as a prelude, the first-generation members were already mentally prepared that there would be second-generation members in the front row as well. However, when Setara actually announced "Number 3, Mai Shiraishi", the air in the studio seemed to be sucked out for a moment.
This is the center position of Nogizaka46, which they have been fighting for all along. A member who has only been a member for a few months has directly stood in the most central position of Nogizaka46.
The first-generation trainees looked at each other, unsure of what to say.