Laid-Back Life in Tokyo: I Really Didn't Want to Work Hard
Chapter 299 - 235: To love is to live ordinarily.

Chapter 299: Chapter 235: To love is to live ordinarily.

"Take care."

Retracting his gaze from the two young women still chatting outside the door, Uesugi Sakura sighed with relief.

He had wanted to refuse more decisively, but considering the clientele of the Soho café, it was better to subtly reveal the engagement ring.

He tidied up the bar again, listening to the soothing pop music in the shop, and flipped through Hanabi’s recently opened Twitter account.

It was full of her paintings. Hanamaru Yuuki’s Twitter seemed to be quite popular, with tens of thousands of followers.

Hanabi was also helping with reposts and drawing traffic.

However, the watercolor landscapes Hanabi posted on Twitter gained followers more slowly.

Uesugi Sakura thought that the drawing of the white-haired little girl she did last time would be very popular online.

Unfortunately, all copyrights for that illustration belonged to the gaming company, she only had the right to be credited.

Anna, the owner, soon came into the shop carrying a large box.

"Sakura, Blaise told me you want to learn guitar?" She placed the box on the floor.

"Is ten days enough time?" After giving a few likes, Uesugi Sakura put down his phone and asked.

"Ten days?" Miss Anna chuckled, "Enough time to learn several chords and play a song, absolutely no problem."

Anna’s voice sounded very confident. Uesugi Sakura wasn’t sure if it was her confidence in her teaching methods or her faith in his ability to learn.

Sunlight refracted through the tall windows. Miss Anna hugged the acoustic guitar, her face beautifully silhouetted against the light, and performed a short piece of "Hotel California" for Uesugi Sakura.

She played with great confidence.

With the gentle strumming and tapping of her fingers, a rhythmically rich and melodious piece of music flowed slowly from her hands.

It made people feel as if they were in an old hotel in a desert oasis, sipping on beer.

Trying to enjoy that fleeting moment of rare tranquility.

After finishing the song, she sat by the window, cradling the guitar head and asked Uesugi Sakura:

"Did you pay close attention to my hands just now?"

Uesugi Sakura snapped out of the music: "Yes, right hand strums the strings, left hand presses the strings, right thumb strums the top three strings, remaining three strings are strummed by the index, middle, and ring fingers."

"Haha, you watched closely."

Miss Anna laughed heartily, "You should remember this, it’s the basics. All the music played is grounded on the basics. Of course, if your fingers are skilled enough, you can ignore this foundation."

"Got it."

"Next, I’ll explain the frets to you. From the body to the head of the guitar, each small division is called a fret, arranged in order from small to large: first fret, second fret, third fret... up to the twentieth fret..."

...

In the afternoon, Uesugi didn’t work much, spending all his time learning guitar with Miss Anna, leaving everything to Mr. Blaise and his cat.

The lucky cat would get head rubs from every female customer that visited.

How to describe this afternoon—it was smooth enough to play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."

His fingers felt a bit sore from pressing the strings, and Uesugi Sakura put down Miss Anna’s guitar to rest for a while.

Ding-a-ling~

After school, the Hanamaru sisters, Hanabi and Yuuki, came into the shop.

"Uesugi, what are you doing!" Hanamaru Yuuki immediately gathered around him, full of curiosity.

"As you can see, learning guitar."

"Why learn guitar when you’ve got nothing else to do?"

Uesugi Sakura glanced at Hanabi, then continued saying to her, "Precisely because there’s nothing else, I want to learn something."

"How long until your competition starts?" he changed the subject.

"It should be about a month before it starts, but it’s hard to say. We haven’t even started selecting themes yet."

"Then I’ll just wait a bit longer."

Hanamaru Yuuki and Hanamaru Hanabi ordered coffee and desserts from Mr. Blaise, patted the lucky cat on the head, and sat down across from Uesugi Sakura in the café.

"Uesugi, did you know the teacher took great effort to convince?" Hanamaru Yuuki suddenly hugged Hanabi’s arm and said.

Seeing that Hanamaru Hanabi didn’t speak, Uesugi Sakura asked, "Your teacher... doesn’t want Hanabi to leave?"

"No teacher would want their beloved student to leave; you must know our teacher is a professor at the academy!"

Uesugi Sakura had looked up the credentials of the Royal Academy of Arts when Hanabi was about to leave.

—The academy is hailed as a cradle for masters of art and design globally, with academic reputation crowned worldwide, and courses taught by internationally renowned artists.

The world index of art universities has topped the list for many years.

Originally, this academy only accepted graduate students, but the Hanamaru family got a channel, and a professor was willing to start teaching from the beginning, so Hanabi’s grandfather gave one of the places to Hanabi.

The opportunity to study here was hard to come by.

Moreover, according to Yuuki, their teacher fully supported Hanabi to continue on this path.

Uesugi Sakura had thought more than once whether he was cutting off Hanabi’s bright future.

But after understanding what she wanted in the morning, he let go of these miscellaneous thoughts.

From beginning to end, she had never changed; she was always thinking of him.

Uesugi Sakura no longer knew how to thank her presence, the only thing he could do was to stay true to his heart.

He had grown accustomed to the cheerful, lovely girl sitting by the window in front of him.

"Want some desserts? Only free for you both."

Hanamaru Yuuki: "Really!?"

Upon hearing about free desserts, Hanamaru Hanabi was initially happy but then thought about her stomach:

"The calories... won’t be too high, right...?"

October 2nd, eight days until Hanabi’s birthday.