Quietly Changing Daily Life

A Quietly Changing Daily Life

Exactly four months after Kōshū came to this family, Mr. Sasaki couldn't wait to transfer him to Magnolia Middle School. At the same time, Shen Qing planned a family trip, both adults hoping to make the family more stable through these actions.

August was still hot, and even hotter than the weather was the adults' hearts. Being transferred in at the end of the semester, when everyone was busy reviewing their lessons, Kōshū was told that he also had to take the exams. So, while cursing inwardly, he quickly picked up his study pace. Returning to a normal school, he felt a certain youthful spirit slowly reviving within him.

For example, when Lang Zhi said that he had just started learning these things and would definitely not do well on the exam this time, Kōshū's first reaction was not to beat him up, but to think about how to make a splash.

"Hey, what's wrong? You have a scary 'planning something' expression."

"I'm thinking about how to beat a bunch of Japanese people in Japan."

Although Kōshū was a year older than Lang Zhi, they were currently in the same grade for various reasons.

Of course, in the end, Kōshū only partially achieved his goal, ranking in the top five in the class, but it was enough to make Lang Zhi feel frustrated.

Given that Kōshū was the only one in the new family who hadn't seen the sea, Shen Qing decided with a wave of her hand that they would go see the sea.

As a result, when they arrived at the beach, the people who had seen the sea were even more excited than the one who hadn't.

"Ah, finally a vacation, I don't want to go to work anymore." Isn't Mr. Sasaki supposed to like solving everyone's problems?

"I lost weight for a month, finally in time to wear a swimsuit." Hehe, coming to see the sea for my sake, that's a false motive, right?

"There seems to be beach volleyball over there..." Are you watching the volleyball or the people playing volleyball? Besides, aren't you a shut-in? Why are you interested in three-dimensional girls?

In the end, Kōshū was the only one left in place. "No, I just want to enjoy the shade."

When the sun wasn't so harsh, Kōshū was in the mood to walk on the messy beach, and then the other three called him over: "Kōshū, come play bottle cap baseball."

Shen Qing and Kōshū had a superficial understanding of baseball, but Mr. Sasaki had been in the Baseball Club, and Lang Zhi was an active member of the Baseball Club, so the two Sasakis discussed the rules and decided to divide into two teams: Lang Zhi and Shen Qing on one team, Sasaki and Kōshū on the other.

In the first inning, Lang Zhi was the pitcher, throwing bottle caps, using a piece of plastic cloth as Home Plate, Shen Qing was the catcher, and Sasaki and Kōshū took turns batting. As long as they hit past the 2-meter line behind Lang Zhi, it counted as one point. The batting tool was, of course, a plastic bottle missing its cap.

Sasaki demonstrated first, and as expected of someone who had been in the Baseball Club, he hit far past the 2-meter line, scoring one point. Then it was Kōshū's turn to bat, and he swung and missed several times. Lang Zhi, pleased with himself, was laughing at Kōshū over there.

Sasaki called Kōshū to the side again to guide him on his stance, and then, amidst the shorty's smug smile, Kōshū hit it high and far, directly flying into the sea and disappearing.

Mr. Sasaki laughed and high-fived Kōshū, and Shen Qing also smiled and blamed him, saying, "You hit it so far, we can't find it anymore, we can only open a new one."

Only Lang Zhi jumped up and down, claiming that he wouldn't let Kōshū hit it, then Mr. Sasaki struck out after three bad hits this round, but Kōshū only hit once and sent it flying into the sea again.

After Mr. Sasaki and Kōshū each batted for three innings, they had accumulated 5 points. Then it was Kōshū pitching and Sasaki catching, with Lang Zhi and Shen Qing batting.

Lang Zhi resolutely refused to teach the method of throwing bottle caps, so Kōshū threw the bottle caps like skipping stones, and the effect was surprisingly good. Lang Zhi commented that his bottle caps were thrown disgustingly, but given his height, he switched to throwing directly with his arm raised after two rounds. The two sides bickered and made fouls constantly, and in the end, no one cared about the score anymore.

They played until dark before packing up and resting. On the way back, in the depths of the grass pile that the moonlight couldn't reach, there were the sounds of crickets, and in the distance, there seemed to be the sound of fireworks. Mr. Sasaki's heart had completely switched to vacation mode at this time, and he began to suggest some wild ideas, "Should we run back?"

"Ah, no, we have plans for tomorrow."

"Speaking of which, should we get a dog? It would be more lively." Mr. Sasaki thought of another idea.

"What if someone is allergic to dog hair?"

"It's okay, I'll clean it well."

"Then you'll be in charge of taking care of the dog, Dad, we won't help." Lang Zhi said mischievously from the side.

"So heartless..."

"Hahahaha," everyone laughed.

"Speaking of which, Kōshū, should you play baseball? You have the height for it," Sasaki said again.

"Hey, why is everyone so quiet?" Sasaki asked for help, seeing that no one was speaking.

"Sure, I think it's a good idea. With that height, you'd put a lot of pressure on the pitcher's mound. Speaking of which, the bottle cap you threw today was pretty nasty, falling straight down from so high," Lang Zhi analyzed seriously at first, then suddenly made a face.

"I don't really care, but isn't the Baseball Club very strict with its hierarchy? I can't stand them," Kōshū said casually.

"Ah, that's true, but you'd probably be the one bullying them, haha. But since you're entering school, you have to consider joining a club," Shen Qing said, thinking practically. She still felt it would be better to have Kōshū and Lang Zhi together, because Lang Zhi could only travel with his family during the two-day break. When he returned, he would have to join the Baseball Club's training. Although it was a team that got knocked out in the first round, it still had to train.

"Why not find a Little League Team and join together?" Mr. Sasaki suddenly said. After everyone questioned him, he explained, "How should I put it? I've always longed for it. My older brother and I have a big age gap, so we couldn't play on the same team. Also, I think it's better for Lang Zhi not to stay in the original Baseball Club."

Lang Zhi kicked a stone at his feet and chuckled, "It doesn't sound like something Dad would say." Mr. Sasaki always responded to injustice with silence, so he didn't even go to the coach to explain after the bullying incident. It was a bit rare for him to mention it so vaguely now.

"Ah, why doesn't it sound like something I'd say? I'm seriously considering it for both of you."

"If you're going to join a baseball team, you should get in touch with them now. I remember there's a Little League Team nearby, right?" Shen Qing recalled, "That big club next to the cake shop."

So, the decision for the two of them to join the Little League Team was made. This year, one was 12 years old and the other was 13, both in the second year of middle school.

Kōshū noticed that the sound of Lang Zhi kicking stones behind him paused briefly, and then the footsteps changed from light to muffled. This short guy seemed to be vaguely uneasy about joining the Little League Team, but he didn't say it.

Sigh, why do I have to understand the inner world of a stinky 12-year-old kid? Kōshū felt the gaze behind him becoming more and more intense. When the two of them arrived at his room, Kōshū packed his things, feeling the short guy's absent-mindedness beside him. He had originally just planned to wash up and lie in bed to play on his phone.

However, every five seconds, there was a loud thud from the bed opposite him as his body lifted and fell heavily.

"What the hell are you doing? I'm giving you one minute to explain," Kōshū said, finally losing his patience.

The other immediately got up, the words he had prepared for half an hour swirling around in his mouth several times.

"Actually, I've already quit the Baseball Club."

"Huh?" Kōshū, who thought he was going to hear some teenage boy's secret, simply responded, "So what? You're not playing baseball anymore?"

There was silence behind him, then the rustling of bedding, and a muffled voice came from under the covers. "Why did you agree to play baseball? Do you like it?"

"Like it my ass. It's just that school ends too early, so I have to do something."

After a long time, as if all the words he had prepared for half an hour had been digested on the spot, a voice came from under the covers again. "The Little League Team plays with hard balls. I've always played with soft balls, and do I really like baseball? The reason I joined the Baseball Club was because the training ground was close to my dad's clinic when I was in elementary school, and he always came to see me..."

"Oh, then don't play. I'll tell those two."

The other then suddenly lifted the covers and sat up straight, "No!"

Kōshū also sat up straight, "So what the hell are you thinking?"

"In short, no, I haven't figured it out yet."

"So, what are you hesitating about?" Kōshū already wanted to change rooms. Why did he have to listen to this? Ever since the bullying incident, Lang Zhi would sometimes come to Kōshū's room for no reason, not doing anything, just sitting on the bed or spinning around in the chair, as if he wanted to leave his scent in someone else's room, or to test Kōshū's tolerance for him. After five minutes, he would leave on his own, and Kōshū would lift his eyelids and be too lazy to pay attention to him.

"It's just what I like or something..."

"What you like is unreliable anyway. As long as you can do one thing well, you'll naturally like it, because it's cool to be better than others, right?"

Thinking of going to the next class to find Lang Zhi, the classmates in the next class didn't even realize who Lang Zhi was for a moment, "So you're someone who's not very adaptable and very timid. You're very inconspicuous in class, and you don't dare to speak up when you're bullied. You had already given up baseball and breathed a sigh of relief, but you didn't dare to tell your dad, so you defaulted to continuing to play baseball, and then you became afraid because the familiar sport became unfamiliar."

"I'm not scared at all!" Lang Zhi shouted, trying to interrupt Kōshū, but the other boy wasn't intimidated and completely exposed his inner thoughts. So, he stood up in embarrassment and annoyance, "Forget it, enough. I don't want to talk to you anymore, and I don't want to share a room with you!"

"Oh, really." Kōshū lay back down and continued playing on his phone with ease.

Then, the sound of a door closing and a knock next door rang out almost simultaneously, along with Lang Zhi's deliberately amplified voice: "Dad, let's switch rooms."

"Pfft—" Kōshū was amused, and then Mr. Sasaki ignored his unreasonable behavior, came over to knock on the door, sent the shorty back, reminded them about getting up early tomorrow, and left the shorty angrily flopping back onto the bed.

Kōshū didn't want to coax him, and the shorty didn't want to pay attention to Kōshū either, and the two finally maintained a quiet atmosphere until they fell asleep.

Quickly entering baseball life and training games, I haven't written about this kind of thing before, I wonder if I can write it well.