The Sound of a Silent Life

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Seeing that Shouya, who was being supported by Mr. Takeuchi, hadn't spoken a word to explain, Shouko could only sigh softly and slowly explain what she knew:

"I'm not sure about the details. When I reacted, all I heard was Ueno's scream. I opened the door to the toilet cubicle and stepped out to investigate. I saw Ishida standing in front of a tightly closed cubicle door, holding a basin of water. Behind him, Ueno was emerging, soaked."

After hearing this, Mr. Takeuchi looked at Shouya, who was leaning against him, in disbelief. He was about to angrily question Shouya when he was interrupted by Tsunayoshi's flat voice:

"Shouko, there's a sun protection jacket in my schoolbag. Go and bring it for Ueno."

"Yeah, don't peek," Shouko nodded, warning someone in a low voice, then ran off.

Tsuna looked at Shouya, who was tilting his head back to stop the bleeding, and thought of his guilty and flustered expression when he ran over. How could he not understand that this guy wanted to trick Shouko?

But now that Takeuchi is here, if I hit him myself, he'll definitely stop me. And since Shouya was targeting Ueno, I don't even have a reason to punch him. I'll just wait for a time when Takeuchi isn't around next time. But that punch I threw earlier wasn't a loss.

After a while, Shouko returned to the bathroom with a gray thin coat and handed it to Naoka, saying softly:

"Ueno, cover yourself up first."

After she put it on, Shouko reached out and gently pulled her up.

Suddenly, she remembered that this was Tsuna's coat and quickly added:

"But don't worry, I'll give you this coat."

She smiled at her after saying that.

Takeuchi saw that Shouya had recovered, so he stood up and shouted:

"Come on, all of you, follow me to the office. We'll call the parents to come over."

Anyway, he didn't want to deal with this matter. Let the parents handle it themselves. There was a surveillance camera that captured the scene of Ishida running into the girls' bathroom, and he was in class at the time, so he could stay out of it.

Tsuna saw that Ishida hadn't stopped the nosebleed from tilting his head back and was nearly choking on the blood flowing into his trachea. What a pity.

Shouya also noticed his gaze, glared at him angrily, and felt the burning pain on his face. He grew even more furious in his heart. If that four-eyed bastard hadn't been there, he would have taught him a lesson.

But Tsuna didn't notice his gloomy expression.

He was busy checking whether any water had splashed on Shouko so he could find a reason to comfort her—and then punch Shouya again.

"Tsuna, I didn't get splashed. Don't worry," Shouko noticed his worried gaze and quickly reassured him.

Naoka, who had already noticed this exchange, looked at Shouko's smile with deep envy in her eyes.

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"Yaeko, I'll go to school. Don't worry."

As soon as Shizuka hung up the phone call from her brat, she immediately called Yaeko, who was at work.

"Okay, then I'll trouble you," Yaeko said politely as she had just been about to ask for half a day off.

"If you keep being so polite, I'll get angry."

Hearing Shizuka's annoyed voice, she chuckled and replied with one word:

"Okay~"

Ten minutes later, Tsuna, now in the office, heard his mother's voice. Her anxious tone came before she even arrived.

Shizuka saw only Mr. Takeuchi in the office. She nodded in greeting, then rushed over and squatted in front of Shouko to check on her.

As for Tsuna, who was standing to the side, she could tell at a glance that he was fine and ignored him entirely.

"Auntie, I'm fine," Shouko said shyly. She was being turned around for inspection by Shizuka and could feel the eyes of everyone around her.

"It's okay. This brat didn't explain clearly on the phone, which made me worry all the way here."

After confirming that Shouko was indeed fine, Shizuka turned her head and gently poked Tsuna's forehead.

Then she began to scan the office. There was a hedgehog-haired boy with a bruised nose, a red-eyed little girl just as pretty as her own Shouko, and she was wearing a coat.

Wait… this coat!?

Did that brat think Shouko wasn't enough and wanted another one? Hugging one on each side?

Was she going to serve him a dinner of a dish tonight that he'd never tasted before?

Or maybe treat him to a mixed doubles match between husband and wife?

Naoka noticed Shizuka's eyes briefly linger on her. Afraid of a misunderstanding, she quickly explained in a tearful voice:

"Auntie, Shouko lent this to me temporarily."

"Hehe… It's okay," Shizuka quickly reined in her wandering thoughts and replied with a soft smile.

"Mr. Miyamura, please have a seat."

"Okay."

This time, Shizuka didn't bother being polite. She took Shouko's hand and walked to the black sofa, sat down, and pulled Shouko into her lap.

"By the way, Mr. Takeuchi, Shouko's parents are unavailable right now. Since I'm her godmother, it's the same," Shizuka said, turning to Takeuchi.

He just smiled awkwardly and nodded in acknowledgment.

Knock, knock, knock…

About five minutes later, Ishida Miyako arrived at the office and knocked.

She greeted Mr. Takeuchi and nodded to Shizuka on the sofa.

She walked over to Shouya, squatted down worriedly, and immediately noticed the bruise on his left cheek. She looked up, wanting to ask Mr. Takeuchi what had happened.

"Ms. Ishida, I know what you want to ask. Please wait a moment.

Once the last parent arrives, we'll discuss what happened."

Before Miyako could speak, Teacher Takeuchi interrupted her in a gentle tone.

As soon as he finished, Ueno Naoka's mother arrived.

Seeing her, Naoka's tears began to fall again. She ran over and hugged her mother, crying.

This startled Ueno's mother, who quickly tried to comfort her.

Ahem.

Teacher Takeuchi cleared his throat loudly, pulling everyone's attention back to her. She then said:

"Okay, now that everyone is here, let's talk about what happened."

It took a few minutes for Teacher Takeuchi to explain what he knew and show the footage captured by the corridor's surveillance camera.

"Okay, Shouya, tell us why you went to the bathroom and splashed water on Ueno."

Teacher Takeuchi's tone was light, but firm.

Miyako couldn't believe her child would do such a thing—if not for the surveillance footage showing him carrying a basin into the girls' bathroom.

"Shouya, please say something. Why did you do that?"

Miyako, having waited long enough, urged him angrily.

Feeling everyone's eyes on him—and Ueno's mother glaring at him like she wanted to eat him alive—he finally pointed at Tsuna and said indifferently:

"I just don't like him, so I wanted to punish the deaf girl next to him. I didn't expect there to be two closed stalls, so I poured it on the wrong one."

Seeing his indifferent and slightly guilty expression, Miyako felt a sharp pain in her chest. But before she could scold him—

She felt a burning pain on her right cheek.

Pah!

Everyone in the office was startled by Ueno's mother's sudden slap.

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