Chapter 297

Another night passed, and the small cold was almost healed.

After sending Akina back to the hotel yesterday, he also returned to the Rihga Royal Hotel Osaka to rest. With such a large assistant acting as a lightbulb in the middle, of course, it was impossible to go to a place like a nightclub to continue having fun~

After eating breakfast at the hotel in the morning, Naoki Nagayama drove the car and prepared to return to Shizuoka. There were only two days left until New Year's, so he should go back no matter what.

When he came, it was dark, and everything was dark, but when he went back, it turned into sunny weather.

In the cold temperature, on the side of the highway from Osaka to Shizuoka, there was still some snow in the wild fields that hadn't melted, but the surface layer was melted by the sun, as if covered with a crystal-like protective shell, reflecting a crystal-clear luster when looked at.

In a land of gray and brown, evergreen shrubs and trees splashed heavy green, and these residual snows shone like jewels scattered on the ground.

It doesn't really snow much in Shizuoka in winter. Being able to see this bit of snow this year is already a rare sight.

Three hours passed, and Naoki Nagayama arrived at his hometown in Shizuoka before lunch. Just after parking the car next to the house, he heard Eitaro's excited roar in the yard. He was already extremely familiar with the sound of this Toyota Century.

Pushing open the yard door, he saw the white dog running over wagging its tail. That spirited look was clearly more adapted to home than Naoki Nagayama.

"Oka-san, I'm back~"

After the main door opened, Nanako Nagayama made a shushing gesture and whispered: "Welcome back, but be quiet, Tsuruko is reviewing in the room~"

Naoki Nagayama was surprised: "Is Tsuruko already back?"

Generally speaking, high school seniors will go to cram school even during winter vacation. Next January is the "college entrance exam", so the final sprint is of course necessary.

And his own Tsuruko, although she is a top student, in an ordinary high school in Shizuoka, she can't get recommendation spots for schools like the University of Tokyo, so she still has to rely on the center exam to get into university.

"Hmm, there are two more days until New Year's, and the cram school is also on early vacation." Mother Nanako still kept her voice low, afraid of disturbing Nagayama Tsuruko's review. "Naoki-san, you should be quiet too."

"Hai, I understand."

Regarding education, East Asian families generally pay more attention to it.

Thinking back to when Naoki Nagayama took the center exam, the family also... hmm...

... At that time, the family seemed to have no attention at all!

It was the same when his eldest brother Aoki took the college entrance exam; there was no such feeling of being careful at all!

Tsuruko was so noisy at that time, okay!

Watching TV was also very loud!

Remembering these two memories, Naoki Nagayama's head was full of black lines~

But it's not the family's fault. At that time, Nagayama Aoki and Naoki Nagayama could be said to have no talent for exams at all. The family had no expectations for the two of them to get into university. One had already decided to inherit the izakaya, and the other was planning to find a job directly...

"Well~ Only Tsuruko in our family has a chance to get into university~" After organizing his mood, Naoki Nagayama also walked into the living room on tiptoe, and even pinched Eitaro's mouth...

"Are father and eldest brother still operating?"

"Hmm, today is the last day. After noon, they will close the door and come home to eat at night."

Mother Nanako brewed a cup of hot tea, which actually used one of the tea gift packs given to father... Fortunately, it was just tea from the Shimizu Tea Garden...

"There happened to be no tea leaves at home. That guy, your father, hid the tea leaves you sent back and wouldn't even let anyone taste them!" Mother said a bit angrily. "Wasn't it found by me!"

"Hehe~ Oka-san did the right thing!" Naoki Nagayama smiled all over his face. "Tea leaves are for drinking~"

Before saying a few words, he heard the sound of footsteps coming from the stairs, and then Tsuruko, wearing cotton clothes, came down.

"Sure enough, Nii-chan is back! I was just wondering why I heard Eitaro's barking!"

"Ah, did I disturb Tsuruko?" Naoki Nagayama saw the frame on Tsuruko's nose. "When did you start wearing glasses?!"

Nagayama Tsuruko went to the kitchen to pour herself a cup of tea and also sat in the living room: "It just so happens that my head hurts from reviewing, and I'm hungry... I've been wearing glasses since the second half of the year, from overusing my eyes..."

Reviewing, right~ I can understand~

But since Tsuruko had already come down, Naoki Nagayama and his mother didn't have to keep whispering all the time. Tsuruko also asked about Naoki Nagayama's whereabouts.

"Nii-chan, what did you do in Osaka yesterday? You even came back halfway~"

"Went to see the Osaka Castle Tenshukaku, and then watched a concert."

"Eh... That's great~"

Speaking of which, even as a native Japanese, Tsuruko, except for Tokyo and Hokkaido, has actually never been to many attractions. Parents and eldest brother are also like this. This is the real situation of an ordinary small-town family.

People who travel all over the world are either rich or have leisure. In short, they are not ordinary people who have to live a hard life.

"Whose concert did you watch?"

"Akina Nakamori's, you still remember, right~" Naoki Nagayama said with a smile. "Akina-chan has already become an idol who can hold concerts."

"Eh?! Akina-chan?" Tsuruko is more familiar with Akina Nakamori's sister, Miho. As for her sister Akina, she only had the impression of having met her twice in a hurry. "Although I occasionally see her on TV, I didn't expect her to become such a famous person? She only debuted for about half a year, right?"

Someone who can hold a concert is naturally very famous~

"Hai, debuted in May." Now there is already the atmosphere of a popular idol.

Nanako Nagayama listened to it and was a bit confused: "The Akina-chan you are talking about, is it Akina Nakamori? Do Naoki and Tsuruko know her?"

"Does Oka-san know her too?" Tsuruko chattered on. "Met her when I went to Tokyo to see cherry blossoms last year, and then met her again when I went this year. I am pen pals with her sister. But Nii-chan should be more familiar with her, right?"

"Hmm, she is an artist I have been paying attention to since her debut. The latest song was provided by me, and we are very good friends." Naoki Nagayama said so.

And Nanako Nagayama heard it and only thought it was a friend her son made at work: "In that case, I will listen to that song later~"

"Haha, I will send some records back after I return to Tokyo. Akina-chan's interpretation is still very good~"

Lunch was simple but full of warmth. In the afternoon, Tsuruko went up to review again, while Naoki Nagayama helped his mother with some cleaning work at home.

Before evening, father and eldest brother finally came back. Nagayama Aoki gave his younger brother a bear hug after seeing him. It seems the gift sent was very satisfactory.

And after father took a sip of the hot tea served by mother, his face changed: "This tea leaf..."

And mother looked as if she didn't know anything: "It's the tea leaves Naoki brought back, what's wrong?"

Naoki Nagayama hurriedly interjected: "This is tea from the Shimizu Tea Garden, specially brought back for the family to taste, not Gyokuro tea~"

Father Nagayama Ken was relieved, and the precious good tea was saved: "Hmm, I was wondering why it was so fragrant..."

After dinner, the family didn't even watch TV, and went to rest especially early tonight~

And on the other side, Akina Nakamori, who finished her concert in Osaka, returned to Tokyo without stopping after resting for one night. "Second Love" continued to occupy the first place on the Oricon chart. Akina already knew in advance that she was a guest on the last "The Best Ten" of the year, so she had to go to rehearse,

In addition, there were some other activities. For the whole New Year, maybe only the morning of New Year's Day could she go home to sit for a while, and she couldn't even eat the New Year's Eve dinner.

It was past 9 o'clock in the evening when she returned to the small apartment in Nakano. Akina, who was already very tired, got the letters accumulated these days from the guard room.

After opening the door, she put all the letters on the sofa and went to wash up.

It wasn't until 10 o'clock that she started to look through these letters on the sofa while watching TV.

Most of them were sales, postcards, magazines, etc. Fan letters are generally sent to the agency. However, this time Akina saw a white envelope, on which the return address was written as Sanyoin.

"Naoki-san's letter?" Akina suddenly thought of what Naoki Nagayama said yesterday. "Could this be the gift?"

A thin envelope, inside there seemed to be only a few sheets of paper. What kind of gift is this? A greeting card?

The girl tore open the seal with questions, and then sure enough found two folded sheets of letter paper. One of them was simply written: "Dedicated to Akina-chan, wishing your dreams come true in the new year! Naoki Nagayama"

And on the sheet of paper below, there was the music score and lyrics of a song.

"Kataomoi (Unrequited Love)" When Akina Nakamori saw the name of the song, she felt her heartbeat quicken, and a wave of heat surged from her heart to her head.

Ne darlin' yume ga kanatta ne (Hey darlin', did your dream come true?)

Fusawashii kotoba ga mitsukaranai yo (I can't find the right words to say to you)

Darlin' yume ga kanatta ne (Darlin', did your dream come true?)

Ai ga afurete iku (My heart is overflowing with love for you)

Darlin' yume ga kanatta ne (Darlin', did your dream come true?)

Fusawashii kotoba ga mitsukaranai yo (I can't find the right words to say to you)

Darlin' yume ga kanatta ne (Darlin', did your dream come true?)

Ne darlin' aishiteru (Hey darlin', I love you)

Overwhelmed by the words of love in the lyrics like "aishiteru" and "ai ga afurete iku", even the sound on the TV seemed to have drifted away.

It took Akina a long time to come back to her senses, and it took another long while before she started looking at the song again.

Reading music is no problem for Akina. She hummed the melody softly, and then started trying to sing the lyrics.

This gentle love song, the first half is a gentle confession, and the second half is a deep vow. Although the name of the song is "Unrequited Love", it actually tells the scene of lovers in their twilight years.

At that time, even if they had wrinkles on their faces and were not as smooth as before, and their hands playing the guitar were no longer flexible, and even their voices started to become hoarse, they still had to beat the rhythm with both hands, humming the love of their youth softly, asking each other,

darling, did the dream of this life come true? I still love you~

Akina hummed for a long time and found that this song was very suitable for her voice. This light style was unexpectedly compatible with her, it's just...

"Wrinkles on the face or something... Hmph, I won't have wrinkles!"

The girl in the prime of her youth, the collagen on her face was breakable by a blow, making her imagine the time when she was old, which was indeed a bit difficult~

Although she was complaining like this, Akina sang it several times in a row, then draped the letter paper over her face and fell onto the bed, rolling back and forth like a caterpillar, occasionally letting out happy laughter...

On the last day of Showa 57, the entire Nagayama family began to get busy. Even Tsuruko put down her review tasks on this day and began to prepare the New Year's dinner with her mother.

Speaking of which, this family can almost be considered chefs. Father and eldest brother operating an izakaya goes without saying. Mother and Tsuruko also often cook in the kitchen. Even Naoki Nagayama, after picking up the cooking skills practiced for many years in his previous life, can also be considered to know both Chinese and Japanese cuisines.

However, today, the task of the three men in the family is not in the kitchen, but in the cleaning of the yard, the repair of the roof, and the decoration of the New Year, such as Kadomatsu, Shimenawa, Kagami Mochi, etc.

Even though they were all young and strong, half a day passed when they were busy.

Lunch was just a little bit to fill their stomachs, and the New Year's Eve dinner at night was the main meal.

By evening, they officially started eating the New Year's Eve dinner.

The New Year's Eve dinner made by the Nagayama family, who are all chefs, is naturally very delicious. They ate and drank until seven or eight o'clock, and even Eitaro ate until his stomach was bulging, lying in the living room and unwilling to get up.

After the New Year's Eve dinner, Nagayama Ken took out the treasured tea set and the Gyokuro tea sent by Naoki Nagayama, and then learned the tea ceremony etiquette taught on TV, showing Nagayama Ken's tea ceremony to the whole family, which naturally won the cheers of the whole family.

Nagayama Ken, who was originally relatively silent and serious, didn't stop smiling tonight, and even boasted that he would compare his superb tea ceremony skills with other friends who drink tea.

Naoki Nagayama snickered on the side. In fact, no matter who he compares with, as long as the tea he makes is top-grade Gyokuro, father should win, right~

The family watched the year-end Kohaku Uta Gassen together, and only returned to their rooms to rest after 108 bells.

The next morning, Showa 58 officially arrived.

It was still a sunny day. They simply ate rice cake soup, and then followed father to visit neighbors. Although it is said that Japanese interpersonal relationships are indifferent, in small cities, neighborhood relationships are generally very close.

Father led the whole family to a nearby small shrine to pray for good luck in the coming year, and to pray for Tsuruko's exam success.

Although I don't know if the unknown deity of this small shrine will compete for business with Sugawara no Michizane, the god of learning at Tenmangu...

This year, the Nagayama family had no plans for a New Year's trip because Tsuruko's college entrance exam was very important. On the afternoon of the first day of the New Year, Tsuruko restarted her review.

Even father and eldest brother started to become careful at home, trying not to make any sound.

Not long after, eldest brother couldn't stay, and chose to go out to find his girlfriend directly...

And after consideration, Naoki Nagayama also explained the situation to his mother, planning to return to Tokyo in the afternoon. If nothing else, it was indeed a bit difficult to keep Eitaro quiet all the time.

The black Toyota Century was speeding on the highway. Naoki Nagayama looked at Eitaro in the passenger seat, and then thought of the food in the trunk.

"This year's New Year, it feels like it passed, but it didn't pass~ In short, there is a feeling of being very watery..."

"Am I right, Eitaro?"