To My Sunflower

Like everyone, he was grateful for his weekly payment of ration food that adhered to the government quota. His job fed his family. A fact that made him work hard and seriously.

"Good work today Ohno-kun." One of the older men patted Natsuo on the back.

They entered the dirt paths bathed with golden hues of orange-pink streaked sky. Taking the way back towards the set of small minkas and modern hard-wood buildings on the other side of the village square.

Natsuo gave the old man a respectful bow and returned gesture. He then ran ahead to greet his friends, who had entered his view near a wide porch of a nearby minka.

His friends were Take and Ren; twin brothers about his age. Wiry boys with shaven heads and common j.a.panese features. They also worked the a.s.sembly lines. Like Natsuo they wore white singlets, grey school boy shorts and threadbare sandals.

It wasn"t until he was closer that he realized they were talking to Ito, Kei.

A lot of kids were afraid of him at first. After a while, they realized he was okay.

"Ito-san." Natsuo respectfully greeted Kei with a bow.

"Aaaiya! You don"t need to do that." Kei quickly dismissed Natsuo"s bow with a click of his teeth and groan.

"It"s polite." Natsuo answered with a perplexed frown.

"Yeah. But polite makes me antsy Kid." Kei grumbled with a pouty expression that made his mouth look like a pair of fish lips.

His expression reminded Natsuo of a stun-eyed puffer fish. This made him chuckle aloud. He fell silent when he saw Kei"s brows scrunch into a deep frown.

"Sorry Ito-san." He bowed with his apology.

"Enough with the bowing already!" Kei grumbled in a tone that made the boys laugh out loud. "Sheeze, brats."

Natsuo smiled at the man.

His impression of Kei had improved when heard about him helping Kandsan and her son. No one liked what was happening to their old school teacher with the food theft. So when Kei had given her yen for a new life. He had earned instant respect from him and all her former students.  Even though what Kandsan did was wrong. She was also right in trying to keep her baby alive.  It was a hard life for a woman with no man around.

"Keineko-chan. Let"s play ball!" Take pestered Kei.

"You better remember how to kick it, p.u.s.s.y! I want no sissy kicks!" Kei scoffed at the scrawny youth who replied with hearty grin.

The boys trailed Kei to the back of the hospital and old school fields. They gathered other kids along the way for the game of soccer Kei had taught them.

Kei saw Sean making his way back from his rounds. He roped him into the game with taunts that guaranteed the man"s partic.i.p.ation.

The men and boys were enjoying a good game close to sun down when Sean noticed Nana acting strangely around Kei"s car, which was parked near the hospital"s back entrance.

He signalled for Kei to call his part of the game early and swap out. Kei had caught on to Sean"s interest.  He decided to end the game, declaring the brats the winners to shut them up and send them on their way.

Natsuo sighed, but agreed to call quits after noticing the sun had gone down. He led his friends back towards his place. Letting the men to return to their hospital duties.

Kei and Sean were curious to know what Nana"s interest was with the Blended Beauty. Sure, it was a beautiful car that would impress anyone. The way she had inspected it from various angles. It didn"t seem she was admiring it. It was like she was searching for something.  She had returned inside the hospital before they had a chance to call out to her.

Tyne shortly entered their view with their suitcase in his hand.  They approached him at the car.

"What"re you going to do with that?" Kei gasped in a low whispered.

His eyes darted around the area to ensure no one else was taking interest.

"Making s.p.a.ce." Tyne winked and said aloud. "It"s getting too crowded in our small room."

Kei held in his thoughts as he opened the front bonnet for the case to go into. Tyne expelled a heavy sigh when he slammed down the hood.

"Weber-sensei?" Sean"s eyes narrowed.

"Mueller-sensei. We need to leave." Tyne whispered low.

Sean sighed, closing his eyes with realization. It was only a matter of time that their ident.i.ties would be questioned. Especially with the train attack.  Nothing had come of it yet. He felt sure that the enemy would make their move on them soon. 

"Ok." He turned to Kei.

Kei shook his head with frown. Of course, they were informants for the enemy. It was unwise to be friendly and comfortable with the locals for too long. He knew better than anyone the chances of innocent people being caught in the cross fire of underworld business. Avoiding confrontation with all possibility was their best advantage.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"Not yet. I need to find out what she knows of us. Who she"s spying for," Tyne soberly whispered, breaking Kei out of his thoughts.

Kei nodded as he locked up the car. He also needed some answers to calm the unease in his heart.

The men returned to the hospital to a.s.sume their duties and keep a shaper eye on comings and goings, without alerting unwanted attention.

Tyne and Sean found every excuse to keep Nana occupied with conversation or duties, so she wasn"t as free to roam around the place.

A few of the visiting locals misunderstood the men"s friendly attention towards Nana, especially Tyne"s. They drew conclusions. Inciting new gossip amongst themselves about the doctors and nurse.

This gossip ran through the wards like a wild fire when Ren entered to do his police rounds. He was nicely navigated away from Tyne and Nana by Sean. Who had made an excuse about giving the couple some time to know each other better. Ren had, oddly, accepted the excuse without further reason. 

Sean decided to pursue this advantage. He invited Ren for a drink at the local inn. Using the excuse of helping Tyne get closer to Nana.

Ren groaned believing he was going to be playing cupid. He accepted the offer with a condition that Eiji would face him in a drinking match. Sean accepted the match on Eiji"s behalf. He figured the man wouldn"t mind being a distraction when he knew what Tyne was up to.

Eiji made a timely entrance with the local priest. He caught one look at Sean"s goofy smile and cringed with strong suspicions of foul play at foot.

The night was becoming interesting.