Chapter 422: Chapter 421.

Chapter 421. Heading to a Bustling City: The Serene-Eyed Girl with Soul-Damage. (4/4)

I bit into it and enjoyed. Somehow, the second bite was better than the first. I couldn’t help but take it as being a bad omen rather than thinking of it as something good. I’d likely been trapped the instant I saw her rare smile. Men were really such simple creatures.

But even if I knew I’d fallen into a trap, that didn’t mean I wouldn’t struggle and resist until the bitter end.

I couldn’t stop staring at her the entire time she was eating. It seems she hadn’t taken notice though as she was too caught up in eating. Ten minutes later and she’d eaten a leg, two thighs, and all her fries.

When she stuck her hand into the box for another fry only to realize she’d finished everything she seemed perplexed.

“Where’d the food go?”

“You ate it.”

“Already?”

“Yeah.”

“I finished before I even realized it…”

“Was it that good?”

“Yeah, I’ve never had fried chicken that good before. The fries too, they were so tasty.”

“If you want, you could get another set before we leave and take it home for later.”

“I can?”

“Yeah.”

“Great, dad can try some too this way.”

“Do you have the money though?”

“Huh? Uh… yeah. Why?”

“I mean if you buy some more would you have enough for a new battery for your pickup truck?”

“Ah… I’m not too sure actually.”

“I see. Then I’ll pay for it, but you’ve got to pay me back after, okay?”

“Really? Is it really fine?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry about it.” I got to see something good after all.

“As soon as I get home I’ll pay you back for it right away.”

I ordered the same thing again to go, only this time I paid for it. After that, we left the store, rounded the block, and returned to my bike. Dawn was still enraptured with the cityscape the entire way. She naturally drew a few peculiar gazes from the locals going about their day as normal.

Her unusual clothes did little to help her blend in.

Since it was getting late, we drove to a big box store that sold car batteries.

We entered the store together and headed over to the automotive department with the dead battery in hand. I provided them with the picture showing the make and model of the pickup truck in the insurance and registration and they keyed it into their system and found a few batteries that would match.

“We’ve got one for $250.”

I nearly fell over when I heard that quote. Well, it sort of made sense I guess. I was used to a compact car rather than a large pickup truck.

Dawn stiffened up when she heard the price and stuttered back, “$2-$250 dollars?”

“Yeah. Is that a problem? Your boyfriend can surely afford that amount, can’t he?”

“He’s not my boyfriend. He’s just helping me out after my car shut down.”

“Oh? You’re not dating?”

“No, we’re not.”

“I see. I see.”

“Hey, don’t you have a cheaper alternative? Surely there’s another battery priced better than that.”

“Hmm… cheaper than that? Let me take a look.”

“Oh, you’re in luck, it looks like we have one left in stock for a cheaper price. Though it’s one that was returned. Are you fine with that?”

“Was it returned because there was something wrong with it?” I clarified.

“It turned out the problem was a short circuit in the vehicle's wiring rather than the battery, so the customer returned it since there was nothing wrong with their old battery.”

“I see. How much is this one?”

“It’s $150 before tax.”

“I’ll take it.” Dawn was quick to jump on the $100 discount.

“Are you trading in your old battery?”

“Yes.”

The employee located the battery behind the counter and scanned it. He keyed in a few things on the register and the $22 core charge was removed. It was more expensive than in my city, where it was only $20.

“Your total after tax is $163.22.”

Though the core charge was higher, it turned out the sales tax was much lower.

“Huh? Ah, I forgot…”

“What’s wrong?”

Dawn turned to me apologetically and asked, “Can you... let me borrow $10? I forgot the $20 I broke earlier. I only have $154.89 on me right now.”

She turned her pockets inside out, then pulled out two bills and some change.

“Haaaaah. Fine. I’ll pay. But I only have my card to pay with. You can pay me back later for everything at once to keep things simple.”

“T-Thanks.”

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If I had nothing to gain from doing so I naturally wouldn’t be so kind as to not take her money right away. The plan had always been to get a place to stay for the week. If I could accomplish that goal by doing this, it would be ideal. A larger amount owed would make her feel a greater sense of indebtedness. With this, her offering to let us stay at her farm for the week as a show of gratitude should almost be guaranteed.

I took out my card and charged the full amount for the battery to it. 

Once it was paid, we took the battery and headed back to my motorcycle with it.

Dawn seemed a bit more reserved than before when she climbed on the back of my motorcycle this time around.

“Is something wrong?”

“Huh? Wrong? What made yuh ask that?” Her voice was a pitch higher.

“Are you nervous about something?”

“When yuh said to pay yuh back for everything at once…”

“In cash. You better not be thinking of something weird you read in a manga.”

“I’m… not thinking of anything weird.” Dawn leaned forward a bit closer until her chest pressed up against my back. Her hands moved from gripping my sides to the front of my waist. I could feel her heart beating through her chest on my back and it was noticeably faster than before.

From the signs, it seems she’d developed a small crush. But rather than it being a crush on me, it was a crush on the idea of a boy from a city.

“Are we going to leave the city now?”

“Well, we would, but there’s somewhere I’d like to take you first.”

“Somewhere? Where?”

I felt her heart skip a beat.

What the hell did this girl just think of?

“Hey, where exactly is it that you think I want to take you?”

“In a manga I read… it’d be called a... love hotel… right?”

“Did you expect me to fly you out to another country or something? There are no love hotels in this city, let alone this country.” Not only that, did this airhead suddenly forget all about Rosa?

“There aren’t?”

“No.”

“Then, where is it you want to take me exactly? Is it somewhere fun?”

“A hospital to get your brain checked out.”

“Kohoh. Kohoh.” I reflexively coughed out the air in my lungs as she lightly hit my chest with the underside of her fist.

“Hey, don’t misunderstand. I didn’t mean it as an insult or anything. I’m just concerned about what happened to you earlier. I think it’d be best for you to get checked out at a hospital in case something is wrong.”

“...”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

Her forehead inside the helmet she had on tapped down lightly against my back. For some reason, the image of her pouting and puffing out her cheeks entered my mind. It was cute. If I could have taken a picture of it, I certainly would have.

We weren’t very far from the closest hospital, it only took a few minutes to drive there. Luckily it wasn’t very busy and we only waited about fifteen minutes in the waiting area before a nurse led us to a room in the hospital.

Right as Dawn entered the room, I heard something drop to the ground from my left. I turned to look and discovered a woman in light blue surgeon attire exiting a room who’d just dropped her clipboard. There was a man in a white lab coat who appeared to be a doctor.

The man bent over, picked up the clipboard the woman dropped, then returned it to her.

“What are you doing freezing up like that all of a sudden?” The man asked.

“Sorry.” The woman apologized.

“Is something wrong?”

“No, nothing is wrong. I just realized I forgot my wallet at home.”

The two started to walk in the opposite direction away from me.

“Oh? Then you don’t have any money for food today? How about I treat you?”

I couldn’t hear anything after that as they were too far away. Looking at them as an outsider, the two of them seemed pretty close. What sort of relationship this surgeon-doctor pair had was unknown.

“What are yuh standin around at the entrance for? Are yuh comin in or not?” Dawn asked from inside the room.

“I’m com-”

I stopped mid-sentence just as I was about to look away from the duo further down the hall. The woman had glanced back over her shoulder and I saw her eyes directly for the first time.

Those eyes overlapped with Dawn’s in my head and an electric current coursed through my brain and a strong connection was made.

Dawn’s mother. I couldn’t help but think that. She had blond hair just like her daughter’s too.

No way, she went from a farmer’s bride to a surgeon in the time she’d been apart from Dawn?

I might just be jumping to conclusions too quickly. It’s not like every blond hair and blue-eyed woman is Dawn’s mother. However, was the reason she froze up and dropped her clipboard just now because she caught a glimpse of Dawn’s side profile when entering the room just now?

“What’s got yuh tongue-tied all of a sudden?” Dawn inquired curiously.

The duo had just rounded a corner and broken my line of sight so I had to be quick to ensure I didn’t lose them.

“Nothing. I just need to use the toilet really quickly. I’ll be back soon. If the doctor arrives before I get back, just tell them about your daydream episodes. Getting a brain MRI scan done would be ideal.”

“Okay… but aren’t MRI scans really expensive?”

“Do you have health insurance?” I hadn’t considered that when I brought her here. My city had a pretty solid healthcare system which made MRIs at hospitals free, but I didn’t consider the situation here at all.

“I don’t.”

Her not having health insurance gave me more of an incentive to chase after the woman I was suspicious of being Dawn’s mother.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll see if I can arrange something so you don’t have to pay.”

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