7 “I’m home!” “Why are you sitting out in front of the door instead of going inside?
Did you forget your keys?” Fūju responded to Shoko Nishimiya using smooth hand signs.
Since Fūju was an all-around genius, there was absolutely no way he wouldn’t master sign language.
Furthermore, a massive coincidence had occurred back when Fūju was learning the skill—the specific location where he practiced happened to be Gifu Prefectural Deaf School, the exact school Shoko Nishimiya attended on a daily basis.
Back then, when Shoko Nishimiya first spotted Fūju at her school, she had been incredibly startled.
It was through that accidental encounter that the relationship between Shoko Nishimiya and Fūju managed to take a significant step forward.
Their dynamic, which had started out as mere strangers exchanging polite nods when passing by, gradually transformed into an incredibly close friendship.
Because of that, Shoko Nishimiya had now become one of the very few close friends Fūju actually maintained in his immediate surroundings.
“It looks like Yuzuru took the wrong set of keys; she accidentally walked off with mine.” “She and Mom went out to take care of some errands and aren’t back yet.
I’m just waiting for them to return here,” Shoko Nishimiya explained through clear sign language.
“So that’s what happened.” “In that case, you should come rest inside my house for now.
The wind is hitting pretty hard today, so be careful not to catch a cold!” Fūju signed back.
“I’m fine, really!” “It wouldn’t be right for me to impose on you!” Shoko Nishimiya smiled gently, her hands moving quickly to convey her hesitation.
“Shoko is incredibly sweet, how could you ever be an imposition!” “Or could it be…
Shoko is worried that I’m actually a bad guy who’s going to eat you up right on the spot?” Fūju signed, his expression carrying a distinctly playful tease.
“Eh?!” “That’s not it at all, Fūju isn’t a bad person at all.” “Besides, I don’t think Fūju would ever do anything bad to me…” Shoko Nishimiya’s hands kept moving to form the signs, but by the time she reached the end of her sentence, she became visibly flustered.
A lovely blush flared across her small face, resembling the deep pink hue of a perfectly ripe peach.
“Alright, alright!” “Be a good girl and come take a break inside my house.” “If you’re worried that your mom and Yuzuru won’t know where you are, just leave a small note taped to your front door.
That way, they’ll know exactly where to find you the moment they get back.” “Think about it, if you keep waiting out here in the freezing wind and end up falling sick, and Yuzuru finds out it happened because of her mistake, she’s going to feel incredibly guilty later!” Fūju continued to reason with her through signs.
“If that’s the case…
okay then!” Shoko Nishimiya made a quick, hesitant sign and finally accepted the invitation.
She likely realized that Fūju’s words held a perfectly logical truth, and she genuinely didn’t want to make Yuzuru or her mother worry or drown in guilt because of her.
Guiding a still-flustered Shoko Nishimiya along, Fūju walked back to his private property.
After unlocking the front door with his key, Fūju stepped inside first.
Slipping off his outdoor shoes at the genkan entrance, he pulled two pairs of indoor slippers from the shoe rack standing off to the side.
One pair was for himself, while the other pair was naturally set out for Shoko.
“Here you go!” Fūju made a brief hand sign and placed the slippers right in front of Shoko Nishimiya’s feet.
“Excuse me for intruding!” Shoko Nishimiya signed her polite greeting, giving Fūju a small, respectful bow.
After that, she shyly slid her feet into the prepared slippers and followed Fūju into the living room.
“You must be thirsty, please have some tea first!” Fūju pulled a pitcher of pre-brewed barley tea out from the refrigerator.
Pouring a fresh cup for Shoko Nishimiya, he placed it neatly right in front of the girl.
In Japan, households pretty much maintained a standard habit of brewing tea in pitchers beforehand and storing it inside the fridge, so it could be consumed at a moment’s notice or used to serve guests.
Even though Fūju had found this tradition a bit unfamiliar at first, over time he had naturally fallen into the habit of doing it himself.
“Thank you!” Shoko Nishimiya politely signed her gratitude first before raising the cup of tea Fūju had provided.
After serving Shoko Nishimiya her tea, Fūju poured a cup for himself.
He then returned the tea pitcher back to the fridge and took a seat on the sofa directly facing Shoko Nishimiya to strike up a conversation.
“By the way, how has your lip-reading practice been coming along lately?” After taking a sip of his tea, Fūju rested his cup on the table in front of him and began signing to Shoko Nishimiya.
The ability to read lips was a linguistic skill Fūju had mastered long before he even learned sign language.
Once the two of them became close friends, he had tried recommending this lip-reading method to Shoko Nishimiya.
That way, even if Shoko couldn’t catch the audio of someone’s voice clearly, she could still completely grasp the meaning based purely on the movement of their lips.
If she ever ran into a specific situation down the line, this skill would make it much easier for her to respond, especially if the person speaking didn’t know sign language and she happened to leave her small writing notebook behind.
When dealing with strangers who didn’t know how to sign, Shoko Nishimiya usually relied on a pen to jot down her thoughts on a small whiteboard to get her point across.
“I’ve been practicing it constantly lately, and now I can understand the meaning of a lot of phrases!” Seeing Fūju’s question, a bright smile bloomed across Shoko Nishimiya’s face, her hands moving with a trace of quiet pride.
“Oh?
Really?” “If that’s the case, let’s put your skills to the test!” Fūju signed back with a warm smile.
“Sure, give me the test!” Shoko Nishimiya blinked playfully, her hands flashing a quick response.
Fūju nodded, and then his lips began to shape a sentence.
To ensure Shoko Nishimiya could track the movements clearly, he spoke at an incredibly slow tempo, deliberately exaggerating the shape of his lips.
“Sho…
ko…
Ni…
shi…
mi…
ya…
is…
a…
re…
al…
ly…
cu…
te…
girl!” Shoko Nishimiya slowly pieced the words together into a complete sentence based purely on Fūju’s lip movements.
Initially, she didn’t think anything was out of the ordinary.
But the exact moment the sentence fully clicked in her mind and she read it over again internally, the true meaning finally registered.
The second she realized what he said, Shoko Nishimiya’s face flushed a deep crimson, leaving her utterly embarrassed.
She instantly brought both hands up to shield her face, completely losing the courage to look Fūju in the eye.
Even so, through the tiny gaps between her fingers, she couldn’t resist stealing occasional glances toward him.
‘Fūju said I’m cute!’ ‘Is that…
really true?’ That single sentence kept looping endlessly inside Shoko Nishimiya’s racing thoughts.
Watching Shoko Nishimiya get so intensely flustered, Fūju’s lips automatically curved into a deeply affectionate smile, his eyes warming with pure fondness.
Once Shoko Nishimiya’s intense embarrassment gradually began to settle down, the lip-reading test between Fūju and Shoko Nishimiya resumed.
For this next round, Fūju steered clear of phrases that would make Shoko Nishimiya blush.
Instead, he chose to focus on standard vocabulary used in daily life.
Based on the results of the test, Shoko Nishimiya’s lip-reading progress was absolutely stellar, as she managed to perfectly grasp almost every single phrase he threw at her.
There were only a handful of specific words with highly complex articulation, or homophones that sounded identical to other words, which caused a couple of minor slip-ups.
From this display alone, it was crystal clear just how much immense effort and dedication Shoko Nishimiya was putting into studying lip-reading whenever they weren’t hanging out.
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS FaaanzKun Can’t wait to see what happens next?
Plus, I’ll be dropping exclusive 18+ content there much earlier.
Your support means the world to me!