Chapter 260: Anyway, they live in the same room
Club activities ended, on the way home.
Eriri's small hands kept hitting Kaede's shoulder, and she said with a frustrated expression, "Who told you to be so talkative? Now everyone wants to come along!"
Kaede didn't dodge, letting Eriri's little fists hit him, and said with a wry smile, "Alright, I was too talkative, but I didn't think that much. Besides, Eriri, you could have refused, couldn't you? You didn't refuse the suggestion, did you?"
"..."
Eriri immediately showed an embarrassed expression, hugging Kaede's arm and saying, "Hehe, I was also thinking that high school is only three years, and the opportunities for us all to travel together are not many. If everyone can come, then let's all go together!"
This was true. Although they were only in their first year of high school, three years of high school would pass quickly. And considering future university entrance exams, Eriri would likely go to an art university, while Kaede would go to a good university for literature. The other members of the Art Club were hard to say, but they probably wouldn't end up together.
In these three years, apart from the president, the most certain opportunity for everyone to travel together would be the school trip in their third year. This year, Toyosaki's third-year students had already finished their school trip, just last week, and they went to Osaka.
Yes, for Toyosaki's school trips, there were only a few places. It was highly unlikely for the school to arrange for everyone to go to Hokkaido or similar places for a school trip. After all, it wasn't a prestigious school like Shuchiin, where arranging school trips abroad was effortless.
After hearing Eriri's explanation, what could Kaede do? After all, he had already agreed.
Shrugging, he said, "Sigh, let's just leave it at that, since we've already agreed. But let me say this first, when the time comes, we two will share a room. We originally planned for it to be just the two of us traveling."
Eriri blushed and hit Kaede, but she didn't refuse.
"But in that case, won't Usami be the only girl left?"
"Regarding that, I have two solutions."
Kaede looked at Eriri, holding up two fingers.
"Hmm? What methods?"
Kaede bent his fingers and said with a smile, "The first method is to have Usami quickly confess to Uchimaki, so the president can have a room to himself. The president likes to sleep anyway, so letting him have a room to himself would be more comfortable."
"..."
Eriri frowned slightly, thought for a moment, and said with a wry smile, "If that were possible, Mizuki wouldn't still be in a state of unrequited love until now."
"Then tell her to try harder!" Kaede said, "Aren't you her good friend? Don't just think about giving Shinomiya-senpai advice; help Usami think of something too."
"They're not the same!" Eriri said, shaking her twin tails, "Kaguya-senpai and Senior Shirogane already have mutual feelings for each other; they're just one step away, and now it's almost a sure thing. Yesterday, I even received a message from Kaguya-senpai saying that Senior Shirogane invited her out on a date this weekend, so it's probably happening in the next day or two. But Mizuki is completely different; who knows if Uchimaki has any feelings for Mizuki!"
"Indeed."
Kaede nodded, analyzing: "Uchimaki is practically in the late stages of 2d waifu addiction; he only thinks about drawing 2d waifu, even though Usami is quite cute too."
"Huh???"
Eriri's tone immediately changed.
Upon hearing this, Kaede leaned over and kissed Eriri, immediately calming the girl down before continuing, "In short, if you want Usami to succeed, she needs to at least show Uchimaki Subaru the charm of 3D girls. Have Usami invite him out to play, start with things Uchimaki likes, and find more topics to talk about. Right now, they only see each other in school all day, and she only wears her school uniform. How would she ever get a chance?"
"Hmm... Will that work?"
"I don't know if it will work, but if she doesn't try, she won't have any chance at all."
Eriri felt that this made sense and nodded, "That makes sense. Tonight, I'll call Mizuki and talk to her properly. By the way, Kaede-kun, besides this method, what's the second one?"
"The second method, naturally, is to find another girl to share a room with Usami."
"Find another girl, huh~~~". Eriri didn't even need to think much; the figure of Utaha immediately appeared in her mind.
There was no helping it; if she could only find one person, only she was the most suitable candidate.
"I'll talk to Mizuki tonight first. I'll see if I can get Mizuki to put in some effort. If she doesn't want to, then I'll go find Utaha."
"Oh? You've already decided on Kasumigaoka-senpai?"
"What else? She's the only option," Eriri said, puffing out her cheeks. "But if I ask her, and she agrees to come along, that person will definitely stare at us, claiming she's gathering material."
"You said 'if,' so let's focus on Usami's problem first."
"Fine~~~"
As they spoke, the two had already arrived at the supermarket and went inside to buy ingredients for dinner... That night, in the apartment.
After showering, Eriri, preparing to make a call, held her phone and said to Kaede, "Kaede-kun, promise me, no eavesdropping! This is private girl talk!"
"...Come on, I already know what you guys are going to talk about. Is there really a rule about not eavesdropping?"
Of course, he hadn't intended to eavesdrop anyway.
Eriri snorted and said, "Of course! You only know the topic, not the specific content. Is that the same thing? Anyway, I'm going to the living room to make the call. You're not allowed to come out until I'm finished, understood?"
"I know, I know~~~"
After watching Eriri leave the studio, Kaede leaned back in his computer chair and sent a message to Ishigami Yuu, who had "luckily" survived.
[You there? Want to play a game?]
After about a minute, Ishigami Yuu's reply came back.
[Just finished a round, sure.]
Based on how long Eriri usually chatted with Usami on the phone, Kaede figured it wouldn't end in less than half an hour or an hour, so he immediately rallied someone to play games.
While opening the game, Kaede also sent Ishigami Yuu a voice chat invitation.
Putting on his headphones, the call connected, and Kaede said with a smile, "Good evening, Ishigami. How have you been these past few days?"
Ishigami Yuu's listless voice came through: "It's alright, I've just been assigned a lot of work. I knew I shouldn't have lied playfully when Shinomiya-senpai asked me about things that time. I got exposed just a few days later. Sigh... Shinomiya-senpai is a real tormentor."
"Hahaha! You brought that upon yourself! You should have known that Shinomiya-senpai doesn't really understand these things." Kaede mercilessly teased Ishigami Yuu. "Alright, nothing serious happened anyway. Let's just relax and play now."
Meanwhile, in the living room outside, Eriri had also connected with Usami on the phone.