It's 7 o'clock in the morning, and if you expect to drive for 11 hours, you can actually get there in about 10 hours.

In other words, when you arrive at a mountain village near Teine Ward in Sapporo, it is estimated that it will be more than 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

In line with the principle of going early and returning early, Hayato Kitahara opened the car door and got inside, perhaps because he didn't want to be fed dog food early in the morning.

Naoki Natsume went around to the left and went directly to the co-pilot.

"Hey, this shouldn't be your place, right?"

Hayato Kitahara jokes while wearing a seatbelt.

Naoki Natsume also replied with a smile: "What, you still plan to let Asai sit as the co-pilot?" ”

Saying that, he also buckled up his seat belt, without the slightest intention of changing positions.

Asai said "I'm in trouble" and got into the back seat, took out the blanket that he had prepared a long time ago, spread it beside it, and put the cat on the blanket.

Even if the sister shakes is sensible, she won't jump up and down like other cats, but cats will always lose their hair, which is physiology that can't be violated.

There is no such thing as a cat that has long hair and does not shed its hair.

Since it's troublesome to others, you can't be cheeky and think that you can trouble all the way to the end, making the seats full of hair, and the Kitahara Hayato, who has been tired for a day, has to deal with it when he goes back.

Kitahara Hayato looked at Asai in the back seat through the endoscope and poked Naoki Natsume with his elbow, "I mean, is it really good to have the lady sitting alone in the back?" Also, I have a habit when I drive, I don't like to look in the rearview mirror, so I ......"

"So I know your kindness." Naoki Natsume smiled: "But it's not okay to drive a long-distance bus without someone to talk to, and you're bored to death with your temperament." ”

"Besides, this semester is over, and my days of seeing you end today." He paused and continued: "But I have been with Asai for a long time, and when I go back, she will live at my parents' house, and we will get along day and night, and we will be each other when we open and close our eyes." It's just that I'm just going to talk to you for eleven hours today, so I don't need to be too moved......"

"Get the hell out of here! Look at your ugly face, your mouth is almost up to your ears! ”

"Eh~ Don't be so stingy, Falato!"

"I'm really a sinful, I ...... disgusting myself to ask this sentence too much"

"Don't be sad, I made you a sandwich to eat on the way."

As soon as Naoki Natsume's words fell, a small white hand stretched out between the heads of the two people, it was Asai's hand.

Holding a tin box with the lid open.

Such a tacit understanding made Kitahara Hayato have to think about how long these two people had lived together?

A week, or a month?

Naoki Natsume naturally took it from her hand, looked at the sandwich wrapped in the napkins in the tin box and said, "The sandwich in the servant for you is all peanut butter." ”

"Hey, for the sake of peanut butter, I won't pursue it." Kitahara Hayato grinned: "But I'm not hungry now, find a service area on the highway at noon and eat again." ”

Tsurumaki-cho on the highway, go to Ikebukuro.

The streets of Ikebukuro are not as good as Shinjuku or Shibuya, and there is no sense of indiscriminate flowers, and all that remains is solemnity and hormones hidden in the solemn crevices.

The tall buildings at the corner of the street are either gray or white, and only a few billboards and logos add some life to Ikebukuro.

Looking up at the dispensables, it is better to look at the girls at the corner of the street and the dazzling array of street shops.

The bustling pedestrian crowd is perhaps the biggest feature of Ikebukuro.

In the past, Akihabara and Shinjuku had the most goddess girls, but now there are many people who want to come to Ikebukuro.

Heading north from Ikebukuro, you quickly went out of Tokyo.

Without those eye-catching tall buildings, the autumn fields are high and cloudy, gently open the car window a little gap, feel the breeze blowing in, and Asai tilts his head to look out the window.

"Meow~"

The younger sister stretched on her lap, screamed lazily and lowered her head.

Eleven hours is not a long time for a cat, and it waits for two people to come home every day, which is about the same time.

You only need to close your eyes and fall asleep, and you can jump back to sleep after you have energy at night.

There was an occasional exchange between the two boys in the front seat, from the plot of Conan's latest theatrical version to Kamen Rider, and occasionally a few hilarious laughs, but Asai couldn't get the exact point of laughter.

But it is also understandable that there are always some jokes between friends that others can't understand, which is a testimony of long-term friendship.

Even if he couldn't hear anything funny, Asai still had a little relief on his face, and the corners of his mouth were as if there was no curvature.

She gently stroked her sister's trembling hair, from beginning to end.

Outside the window is a beautiful landscape, and in front of you sits your favorite person with a sleeping cat in her arms.

It doesn't feel bad.

When I came to Tokyo, I was alone, wearing a maid's outfit and carrying two huge suitcases, and I went into a foreign country to become a stranger, and it took me half a year to find a home in a small two-story building next to the Kanda River.

Now that he is on his way home, Asai still feels that his home is in Tsurumaki Town, Shinjuku, Tokyo.

After all, Hokkaido has no relatives and no home.

Therefore, in Asai's view, this trip back to Hokkaido is not so much about going back to his hometown for a vacation, but rather as the image of a newlywed couple returning to their parents' home to visit relatives after their honeymoon.

I found a high-speed station to eat a sandwich, and the further north I went, the colder it became.

Especially on the way to Sapporo when he officially set foot on Hokkaido land, Hayato Kitahara felt that the toes of stepping on the accelerator began to feel cold and gradually numb.

"Let me see how long it will be......" While waiting at the Sapporo Expressway toll booth, Hayato Kitahara took out his mobile phone to look at the navigation, and the hot air exhaled was already clearly visible.

"How come there is such a long way to go?" He frowned, "Aren't you already in Sapporo?" ”

"My house is at the foot of Teineyama, the westernmost part of Sapporo's Teine district is close to Otaru City, and to the north is facing the sea with Teineyama and Mt. Tengu." Naoki Natsume took a blanket and covered Hayato Kitahara's legs: "So you have to go through Sapporo...... The farther you go that way, the colder it gets. ”

"And how long will I see snow?"

Kitahara Hayato gave the smiling toll collector the money and asked suddenly.

"What snow?"

"You think, Hokkaido! Isn't that Snow Country? I've watched the video, standing at the entrance of the mountain village and looking inside, there are white flowers, and all the roofs have thick snow, like the milk cover of snow-roofed coffee! ”

Kitahara looked excited, and he now felt that the white breath he exhaled was the finish line of the 3,000-meter run at the Games...... There was only a sprint left before I could see the snow.

Naoki Natsume thought about it, and then it dawned on him.

It turns out that this is the understanding of Hokkaido by orthodox Tokyotes!

So he patted him on the shoulder with a look of "you city people are going to be disappointed" and comforted: "Then you may have to go to the snow resort or the northernmost mountain...... Now this month, it doesn't snow in Sapporo. ”

"No snow?!" His voice rose a few degrees.

"Hokkaido is not the Arctic, so how can it snow all year round?" Naoki Natsume shook his head: "It's only cold now, and it's surprisingly cold." Perhaps if it rains, freezing rain is more likely to turn into fine snow...... But you won't be able to see it today. ”

"How so!"

For the rest of the road, Kitahara Hayato looked very depressed, absent-minded in his speech, and had no energy to talk about anything.

Anyway, the other two people in the car couldn't understand the mood of this Kanto man at all.

After all, they are natives of Hokkaido, and Asai and Naoki Natsume have no sense of substitution at all for not being able to see snow so frustrated.

As for the cats?

What does the kitten know, it only sleeps.

After about two hours, all that was left around the road was bare trees and hard-looking soil.

After the last steep slope, you will see a small mountain village in the embrace of the bay below.

From a distance, there are only houses and no people, and the sparse houses are not neat, and they look a little desolate.

Naoki Natsume looked at the village that had been separated for several years, and always felt that nothing had changed.

Except for a certain household at the entrance of the village, which seems to have renovated a fence, and a certain road has a new cement pier, it is almost the same as the hometown fabricated from memory in a dream every day.

"Asai, we're home."

Naoki Natsume whispered, and when he looked back, he saw Asai also looking out the window.

The side face is beautiful, with a cat in her arms, quiet.

I reflected the snow that had not yet fallen in Hokkaido.