Next Bonus, 200PS!!
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"However, before I leave, could you do me a favor, Madam?"
"Do... what kind of favor?"
Her heartbeat, which had just started to settle, immediately accelerated again. Inexplicably, a faint sense of anticipation blossomed in her chest.
As she looked up at Kai, a misty haze began to cloud her eyes.
"I heard that you provided the inspiration for many of Eriri's doujinshi plots. There are a few specific scenarios I'd like to test out personally."
"..."
Rather than feeling any suspicion, Sayuri merely scolded her daughter in her head. Looking at the handsome young man standing before her, she gave a slow, subtle nod and gracefully sank to her knees.
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"Kai-kun!"
By the time Kai arrived at Marin Kitagawa's place, it was already pushing ten o'clock at night.
However, judging from the messages Marin had been sending, she had been thoroughly engrossed in "playing games" with Megumi Kato and hadn't really noticed the time slipping by.
Although Megumi had initially been a bit out of her element with Marin's games, under Marin's deliberate and enthusiastic guidance, she had gradually gotten used to the rhythm.
When Kai finally stepped into the apartment, he immediately understood what Marin meant by a "surprise."
"So, how is it? Do you like it?"
Dressed in full cosplay attire, Marin looked up at him with a smug grin.
Beside her, Megumi Kato was dressed in a matching cosplay outfit. She glanced at him, her face showing a rare blend of shyness and hesitation.
"B-Because Marin said you'd like these kinds of clothes, I... does it look weird?"
Truth be told, Megumi had zero prior experience with cosplay. She barely even read light novels. Right now, she felt quite insecure, worried that she might look ridiculous in Kai's eyes.
"..."
Looking at Megumi, and then at Marin—who was actively wiggling her eyebrows at him—he had to admit, they really knew how to deliver a surprise.
"Not weird at all."
Kai walked over. Under Megumi's shy, flustered gaze, he gently took her hand.
"On the contrary, Megumi, you look beautiful right now."
"Kai-kun!"
That simple sentence instantly melted away the lingering anxiety in Megumi's heart.
She looked up, gazing deeply into his eyes. Even though she had known very early on that he was a player, a total flirt—she had still fallen for him uncontrollably.
Perhaps it was because he was always the only one who truly noticed her. Or perhaps, their souls had been bound together from the very start.
"Megumi! Do you remember what we just rehearsed?" Marin suddenly chimed in, looking at Megumi with sparkling, expectant eyes.
Well, since we've already come this far...
After a brief moment of hesitation, Megumi delicately pinched the hem of her skirt, gave a slight curtsy, and looked up at Kai.
"Goshujin-sama (Master)!"
Hiss!
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"Did Kitagawa-san and Kato-san not come to school today?"
Inside the Service Club room the next day, Yukino Yukinoshita looked up from her book and glanced at Kai with a puzzled expression.
Without Marin's boisterous energy, the clubroom felt noticeably emptier, as if a core piece was missing.
"Yeah, they said they weren't feeling well, so they both took a sick day."
Eating the homemade lunch Yukino had prepared for him, Kai replied smoothly, not a single trace of guilt visible on his face.
"I see."
Yukino didn't suspect a thing. She assumed it was a coincidence that the two friends had caught a bug at the same time.
"U-Um, could it be..." Hitori Gotoh piped up weakly from the corner.
'Could it be that they caught some awful virus when they visited my house yesterday?'
"Don't overthink it."
Hitori was a sweet girl, but her brain had a terrible habit of spiraling into catastrophic scenarios. She would take the blame for things that had nothing to do with her.
Kai reached out and ruffled her hair.
"The temperature drops quite a bit at night these days. Either way, it has nothing to do with you. Look, little Yukino was there too, and she's perfectly fine, isn't she?"
'Why did you have to specifically point me out? Do you think I'm some sort of fragile, delicate girl?'
Yukino shot him a sharp glare. However, she also understood Hitori's personality well. She turned her attention to the anxious girl and spoke earnestly.
"This genuinely has nothing to do with you, Gotoh-san. You don't need to shoulder the blame for everything. This is not your fault."
"O-Okay!"
The reassurance from both of them finally put Hitori at ease.
However, seeing Yukino's deadly serious, no-nonsense expression, Hitori instinctively shrank back and tried to hide behind Kai. Yukino's intense demeanor was just a little too intimidating. It was only by Kai's side that Hitori felt a true sense of safety.
Yukino didn't miss the subtle movement. 'Am I really that scary?'
"President Yukino is certainly imposing when she's serious!" Kai teased with a grin.
Yukino didn't dignify that with a response, opting instead to roll her eyes at him.
Then, as if recalling something important, she looked up at him again. After a moment of hesitation, she furrowed her brow.
"My older sister—the one you saw yesterday..."
"Hmm?"
That's random. Why bring up Haruno Yukinoshita all of a sudden?
"Anyway, she might come looking for you. If she says anything strange, don't read too much into it."
Yukino knew her sister's personality better than anyone. After yesterday's encounter, Haruno was definitely going to set her sights on him. It was a recurring pattern—whenever someone new got close to Yukino, Haruno was always the first to step in and interfere.
However, the family company had recently run into some trouble. Haruno had been involved in the family business for a while now, which was why she hadn't had much free time lately. Yukino, on the other hand, was never given the same opportunities. Even their mother constantly praised Haruno as the superior daughter.
This left Yukino with complex feelings. On one hand, she desperately wanted to prove that she was just as capable as her sister. On the other hand, when she was little, she had genuinely idolized Haruno, believing her sister was omnipotent and capable of anything. But Haruno's twisted, malicious pranks over the years had long since eroded that admiration.
"Strange things?"
Tilting his head, Kai looked at Yukino and suddenly chuckled.
"Like what? Telling me that you have been secretly harboring a massive crush on me?"
"..."
Snapping out of her thoughts, Yukino shot him a deadpan look.
"Please refrain from entertaining such impossible delusions."
Regardless of what she might actually be feeling, Yukino would never admit it out loud.
"Sigh, you're so blunt, Yukino. It breaks my heart. Only sweet little Bocchi-chan can comfort me now."
Feigning a broken heart, Kai leaned his head onto Hitori's shoulder.
"U-Um... I..."
Enveloped by his distinctive scent, Hitori immediately froze in place. She stared at Yukino in pure panic, feeling utterly helpless.
"Stop causing trouble for Hitori!"
Knowing he was just messing around, Yukino angrily grabbed his collar and pulled him away.
Truthfully, Hitori hadn't found it troublesome at all. The only reason she panicked was because Yukino was watching. If they had been alone, she wouldn't have been nearly as flustered.
Kai was just about to tease Yukino a bit more when—
Knock! Knock!
Someone knocked on the Service Club door.
"Please come in."
Seeing that they had a visitor, Yukino immediately cleared her throat and put on her serious, professional persona. She shot Kai a warning glare—Behave yourself in front of outsiders.
"Pardon the intrusion!"
A blonde girl sporting twin-tails strutted into the room. It was Eriri Spencer Sawamura. At school, she maintained her flawless, refined heiress persona.
The ace of the Art Club?
Seeing Eriri, Yukino felt a slight confusion. Yukino knew almost every student at the school by name. Eriri, in particular, was well-known, and her background was similar to Yukino's. While the Sawamuras were a real conglomerate, Eriri's mother belonged to a lesser branch family. The Yukinoshitas were mainly notable local landowners, but Yukino's mother was the family head. Considering all this, their social statuses were pretty much on par.
"Is there something you need, Sawamura-san?" Yukino asked politely, though curious about the visit.
"Sorry, I'm just here looking for someone!"
Eriri had no intention of letting outsiders in on her secrets. After a quick dismissal, she locked eyes with Kai.
"So you really are here."
It had taken Eriri quite a bit of searching to figure out that he was a member of this obscure Service Club.
She marched straight over, grabbed his arm, and tried to drag him outside for a private chat.
"???"
Yukino frowned deeply at the sight, but she held her tongue. She wanted to see how Kai would react, unsure if this girl was a close friend of his.
"What do you want?"
Kai remained glued to his chair, unbothered as Eriri attempted to pull him up. He spoke lazily, with a slow drawl.
"How can you even ask me that?? I sent you a mountain of messages! Why didn't you reply to a single one??"
She had been trying to keep her cool, but bringing it up made her blood boil.
She also felt frustrated with herself for accidentally falling asleep during the car ride home yesterday. When she woke up this morning, there was no breakfast in sight. Her mom was asleep so deeply that she seemed unmoving. Assuming her mother was just very tired from the stress of the curse, Eriri decided not to wake her.
As a result, she had been forced to come to school on an empty stomach.
"Messages?" Kai paused. He pulled out his phone and checked the screen.
'Ah. Dead battery...'
He had been having far too much fun last night and forgot to charge it.
"Well, I forgot to charge my phone."
"Who forgets to charge their phone?? What were you even doing all day?"
What teenager could even survive without their phone glued to their hand?
"Isn't it obvious? With so many pretty girls keeping me company, why would I need to stare at my phone?"
Are you kidding? Was playing with his phone supposed to be more fun than teasing beautiful girls?
As he spoke, Kai shrugged and gestured toward Yukino and Hitori.
"..."
Yukino didn't say a word, but the slight upward curve of her lips made it undeniably clear she was in a very good mood.
Eriri turned to look. She couldn't properly judge Hitori, whose face was half-hidden by her hair, but one look at Yukino's stunning features forced her to swallow her pride. She couldn't deny it.
Thankfully, her eyes drifted downward to Yukino's chest, and she let out a quiet sigh of relief. 'Finally, someone in the same boat as me.'
For some reason, Eriri's lingering gaze gave Yukino a strong sense of being deeply offended. Was it just her imagination?
"Anyway, just come outside with me. I have something to tell you!"
Pretty sure he knew exactly what was on Eriri's mind, Kai waved her off casually.
"Whatever it is you want to say, you can say it right here. Don't flatter yourself. Your little secret is nothing. We've got far crazier things going on in here."
A doujinshi artist? That was child's play. He used it to tease her, sure, but in the grand scheme of things, it was nothing.
Right now, the Service Club was practically a gathering spot for eccentric wild cards. Marin Kitagawa spent all day trying to rope people into recreating explicit eroge plots in real life—wasn't that infinitely wilder than Eriri drawing them?
It was a shame Marin wasn't here today. If she were, she and Eriri would probably have an endless amount of things to bond over.
"What??"
His response genuinely shocked Eriri. She shot an incredulous look at Yukino and Hitori.
Although she had no idea what specific "crazier things" Kai was referring to, Yukino's fiercely competitive nature flared up. She refused to be outdone by anyone.
While Hitori maintained her usual socially terrified posture, Yukino sat up perfectly straight. Initially, seeing Eriri try to drag him away had left a sour taste in her mouth, but now, the dynamic had shifted.
She looked at Eriri with dignified seriousness.
"Whatever matter you wish to discuss, Sawamura-san, you may speak openly. The Service Club may be newly established, but in certain aspects, we are by no means inferior to what you might imagine."
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