In Tokyo: They are heavily dependent on me

Chapter 64. Error

After returning from the hospital, on Wednesday and Thursday, after finishing her work at the convenience store, Kobayashi Chio did not take Hoshino Kaoru to various high-end places as usual.

She was already exhausted from working at the convenience store. When she got home, she still had to wash up, take a shower, and make dinner. By the time she finished all that, she was so tired that she didn't have time to go out at all.

Her mother will be discharged from the hospital next week, and she plans to clean the house before her mother returns.

As soon as Xiaolin got home after Friday's classes ended, she started cleaning her room.

First, she kept reusable items, such as paper bags from shopping and cardboard boxes that could be used to pack clothes.

Tags removed from clothing, plastic bags, and PET bottles that once held barley tea are all waste items that take a lot of time to dispose of.

The caps and plastic bottles of PET bottles should not be thrown away together; otherwise, garbage collectors will leave the garbage behind, causing trouble for nearby residents.

There was a lot of trash this week, and even the simplest tidying up took more than 30 minutes.

"Seriously, what did I do...?"

"Why...why do I create so much garbage?!"

Xiaolin threw the trash into the designated spot. Even though it wasn't summer yet, he was already unbearably hot, with fine beads of sweat covering his forehead and his back soaked with sweat.

She turned on the old-fashioned electric fan in her house. The fan, which had exceeded its service life, whirred and made a "clattering" sound, finally dispelling some of the stuffy feeling.

At that moment, the cell phone on the dining table started buzzing.

She glanced at it and saw it was an unread message from LINE.

It was sent by Hanako.

[Chio-chan~ Want to hang out this week? Bring your boyfriend along too, I've got my eye on a new bracelet that just came out, it's super cute!]

New product?

Xiaolin perked up for a moment, but quickly remembered that she had made a promise with Kaoru that she would only be his girlfriend for a week, and now the deadline had arrived.

Thinking about this, she felt somewhat disappointed.

[Him... never mind, we're not together anymore.]

A second before she sent the message, Xiaolin thought for a moment, deleted "We are no longer together" and changed it to "I have already unilaterally broken up with him".

Yes, that's it, perfect.

She was about to send a message when a sudden incoming call startled her.

Seeing that the person who dialed the number was her mother, she hesitated before answering the phone.

"Mother?"

"Chio... could you come to the hospital?"

On the other end of the phone came the faint voice of a middle-aged woman.

"Mom? What's wrong?"

Noticing something was wrong, Kobayashi frowned. She could tell that her mother's voice was much weaker than when they last met, and she didn't sound like someone who was about to be discharged from the hospital.

"I don't know why... Mom's condition suddenly worsened. Treatment requires expensive surgery, and the chances of a successful cure are extremely slim, so Mom gave up treatment... If you have time, could you come to the hospital to see Mom one last time?"

"Has the condition... worsened?"

Kobayashi was completely confused; his expression was blank as he opened his mouth, unable to utter a word.

Just a few days ago there were no problems... The doctor even mentioned that I could be discharged next week.

But why is Mom's condition suddenly worsening?

"No...we absolutely cannot give up on treatment! Mom, how much will the surgery cost?"

"It will probably... cost two million yen. You can't afford that. Chio will need a lot of money for university, right? Mom doesn't want to be a burden or a drag on you anymore, so..."

"No! I don't want to lose my mother! Give me some time! I'll raise the money!"

There's another way!

Xiaolin interrupted her mother halfway through her sentence without a second thought, went to her room, and threw all the neatly folded clothes out of the closet.

She also found her favorite handbag and placed it together with those expensive clothes.

If we sell all of these things, we can definitely get two million yen!

Leaving the apartment, she took a taxi to a chain store a few kilometers away that sells all kinds of second-hand luxury goods.

Upon arriving at her destination, she pushed open the glass door and asked about the price.

"What! The selling price is only half the selling price?"

A handbag that sells for around 30 yen can only be bought back for 15 yen.

There wasn't even a trace of use on it! She couldn't even bear to remove the tags!

"Please forgive me, but this is already the highest price we can offer. If you mind, you can look elsewhere."

"Go somewhere else... never mind, how much would it cost to sell all of them?"

The female shop assistant calculated the prices in detail, carefully examined each piece of clothing, and finally gave a price of 150 million yen.

"150 million yen...that's not enough, can you go up a bit more?"

"No... this is already the highest price."

Xiaolin felt heartbroken, but her mother needed money for surgery, so she gritted her teeth and decided to sell all the luxury goods she had bought.

They are still 50 yen short of raising enough money for the surgery.

Borrowing money... That's it! I can ask Hanako and Ayano!

She came up with an idea and quickly made a phone call.

As soon as the call connected, an impatient voice came from the other end.

"Chio-chan! Are you planning to go out together this weekend?"

"No...no, Ayano-chan, could you please lend me 50 yen? If that's not enough, 20 or 10 yen will also be fine."

"Oh...so that's not it..."

Upon hearing that it wasn't a shopping trip, the other party clearly lost interest.

"Just ask your boyfriend to lend it to you; that's an easy thing to do."

"But... we've already broken up."

"We've broken up... I'm sorry, I don't have a single penny on me right now."

"Um... but..."

The call was disconnected.

Xiaolin called her back, but found that no matter how many times she dialed, there was no response.

Helpless, she had no choice but to give up and call someone else.

The phone call went unanswered.

Undeterred, she joined the chat group, hoping to borrow money from her close friends.

However, those who were usually very respectful to her immediately stopped responding when they heard that she wanted to borrow money. She sent messages to all her contacts, but she couldn't even borrow 10 yen.

Thinking that she was still 50 yen short of the cost of her mother's surgery, she was utterly desperate.

The words Kaoru had said to her came back to mind again.

Are they really your friends?

At that moment, she realized it.

They approached her, showering her with flattery, with only one purpose.

money.

If this most important connection is lost, the relationship of "friendship" cannot be maintained.

They were friends—but that was only her opinion.

Xiaolin regrets it now, but it's no use.

It was all because of her vanity that she spent all the money her family had saved for her to go to university, which is why she can't even afford her mother's surgery now.

She finally realized that she had been doing the wrong thing all along.

But it was all too late.

My mother... will die because of her vanity.

She left the chain store just as she was about to collapse to the ground, overwhelmed by a sense of powerlessness.

Suddenly, the sound of bicycle brakes rang in my ears.

"Kobayashi, you seem troubled."

She raised her face and looked at the smiling boy in front of her.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

The figure that appeared before my eyes—

In that instant, light shone into her world.