Soichiro pointed to a nearby restaurant.
“Why don’t we pop into a restaurant and talk while we eat?”
After all, that was why they’d come here in the first place.
Besides, rather than trying to run away awkwardly, it would probably be better to explain things properly.
Yuzuru exchanged a glance with Arisa, and the two of them nodded together.
“You two are perfectly in sync. Just like I predicted—Yuzurun and Yukishiro-san are lovers—ow! Yuzurun hit me!”
“Don’t jump to conclusions.”
Yuzuru lightly smacked Ayaka on the head.
Once they were seated at the table and had finished ordering, Arisa greeted the three of them.
“Allow me to introduce myself properly. I’m Yukishiro Arisa. Nice to meet you… Tachibana-san, Uenishi-san, Satake-san.”
The three of them bowed their heads slightly in unison and replied with their own greetings.
“I’m Satake Soichiro. Nice to meet you.”
“I’m Tachibana Ayaka. Nice to meet you.”
“I’m Uenishi Chiharu. It’s a pleasure.”
With the introductions out of the way…
All three of their gazes turned towards Yuzuru at the same time.
“So, Yuzuru. Are you really in that kind of relationship with Yukishiro-san?”
“What kind of relationship?”
“Don’t play dumb. I’m asking if you’re dating.”
“The answer is no.”
“Oh, come on… If you’re not dating, would a guy and a girl come to the pool together? Even if you’re not officially a couple, there has to be something there. Normally people wouldn’t come otherwise.”
“Well, that’s…”
Yuzuru felt completely at a loss.
They had already been seen together at the pool in swimsuits. Any sloppy excuse probably wouldn’t work.
“…Takasegawa-san. Are these three tight-lipped? Can they be trusted?”
Arisa asked quietly.
That wasn’t an issue.
None of the three were saints with perfectly pure hearts, but they weren’t the type to blab about a friend’s secrets either.
…In business, after all, there was nothing more important than trust.
If they damaged Yuzuru’s trust here, it would eventually come back to hurt them as well.
“Of course. …I can promise that. But you never know what might cause information to leak.”
“Wouldn’t it be safer if we explained the situation to some extent and made them understand that it’s something extremely important and serious for us?”
“…That might be true.”
Naturally, how well someone kept a secret depended on how important the information was.
If they truly wanted them to keep quiet, they needed to explain things properly.
But explaining the situation would inevitably involve touching on Arisa’s family circumstances.
To Yuzuru, the three were friends.
But to Arisa, they were essentially strangers.
“…Alright. I understand. I’ll explain.”
He would just have to explain things carefully without mentioning her family situation.
Thinking that, Yuzuru concealed some details and gave them a rough outline of the situation.
After hearing everything, Ayaka immediately said—
“Yuzurun, you’ve got yourself into something pretty interesting.”
“…I’m aware.”
Yuzuru muttered with a sigh as Ayaka grinned.
If it were happening to someone else, it would definitely be entertaining.
After all, something straight out of a manga or drama was unfolding right nearby.
“But still, Yukishiro-san actually showed up. Your grandpa’s amazing.”
“Yeah… I underestimated him. I should’ve made the conditions even more impossible. Like an alien, or someone from another world, or a psychic, or a time traveller.”
While Soichiro looked impressed, Yuzuru replied halfheartedly.
That said, Arisa wasn’t actually blonde, nor did she have blue eyes, so technically she didn’t meet the conditions.
If he’d wanted to reject her, he could have.
And yet he hadn’t.
“But Yuzuru-san, Yukishiro-san doesn’t have blonde hair and blue eyes. You could’ve refused her for that reason, couldn’t you? …Doesn’t that mean you were at least somewhat willing?”
Chiharu spoke with a look that practically said Gotcha.
She had pointed out a major contradiction in Yuzuru’s explanation.
Even though he could have refused her, he accepted the arrangement.
That meant maybe Yuzuru actually liked Arisa to some degree.
And honestly, Arisa was beautiful—so any normal guy might think maybe there’s a chance. In fact, after seeing her in a swimsuit, Yuzuru himself had half-jokingly, half-seriously thought It’d be nice if she were my real girlfriend.
“So you told your grandpa to bring someone who fits your type, but if she doesn’t show up that’s fine, and if she does that’s fine too. Pretty clever thinking, Yuzurun.”
“As expected of the scheming ‘Takasegawa.’”
“So when you told me Yukishiro-san wasn’t your type, that was just you being shy, huh?”
Ayaka, Chiharu, and Soichiro each jumped to slightly incorrect conclusions.
This was making Yuzuru sound like a somewhat calculating guy…
But since he wasn’t confident he could explain things properly while hiding certain details, Yuzuru decided to just let them believe that.
“That’s not it.”
However, Arisa immediately denied their assumption.
Yuzuru turned towards her in surprise.
“Hey, Yukishiro—”
“Takasegawa-san… accepted this arrangement in order to protect me.”
Arisa went on to reveal everything Yuzuru had tried to keep hidden to protect her privacy—namely that she had been about to be used as a pawn in a political marriage for the sake of engagement money.
“Takasegawa-san could have refused. But he didn’t do this out of ulterior motives… he did it for my sake. …Well, maybe it’s not that he has absolutely no ulterior motives.”
“Hey, at least deny that part properly.”
Yuzuru couldn’t help but interject as Arisa added the last part with a lack of confidence.
Meanwhile, Soichiro and the others looked slightly surprised.
“Huh… So you really are a good guy after all. I mean, I believed in you from the start.”
“As expected of Yuzurun. Of course, I totally thought that was the case too.”
“Yuzuru-san’s stock price is skyrocketing in my mind right now. Ah, but of course—I anticipated this from the beginning.”
“You’re all obviously lying.”
When Yuzuru shot them a glare, the three of them shrugged.
Right then, the food arrived.
The conversation paused briefly, and the five of them began eating…
—or at least, that’s what should have happened.
“Hey, hey, Yukishiro-san. Can I call you Arisa-chan? You can just call me Ayaka.”
“Oh, and you can call me Chiharu too. In return, may I call you Arisa-san?”
“Huh? …I don’t mind. Um… Ayaka…-san, Chiharu…-san?”
Pressed by Ayaka and Chiharu leaning towards her, Arisa nodded awkwardly.
Then the two of them closed the distance even more.
“You know, Arisa-chan, I feel a weird sense of familiarity with you.”
“Um… really?”
“Your names are kind of similar, right?”
“The only thing they have in common is starting with ‘A’ and having three syllables.”
Yuzuru couldn’t help but interject.
It was about as much of a stretch as saying Chiharu and Yuzuru sounded alike.
“By the way, Arisa-san, you’re really beautiful.”
“Th-thank you very much.”
Arisa looked slightly surprised as she thanked Chiharu.
But responding like that to Chiharu was actually a mistake.
“Your hair is so smooth and pretty, and your skin is so white without a single blemish… and your chest and hips are quite large too. But your waist is nice and slim. Your facial features are really well balanced too… honestly, you’re totally my type.”
“Ahh, I get it. Arisa-chan is cute. She might be my type too. Your white skin really stands out with that black swimsuit. Actually, you have such a refined atmosphere but you’re surprisingly bold… Oh right! Your face doesn’t look very Japanese—what kind of mix are you? By the way, my great-great-grandmother was British—ow ow!”
“P-please stop, Soichiro-san!!”
Ayaka and Chiharu’s rampage ended there.
Because Soichiro had grabbed both of them by the backs of their collars and yanked them back.
“Yukishiro-san is clearly troubled. Honestly…”
He forced the two girls—who had been leaning across the table—to sit back down.
Then he gave Arisa a small bow.
“Sorry about these two idiots causing trouble. …They’re the type who don’t understand unless someone tells them bluntly. If you don’t like something, just say so. If they annoy you, feel free to tell them to drop dead.”
“N-no, it’s alright. I was just a little surprised. …My mother is three-quarters Russian and one-quarter Japanese. My father is half French and half Japanese, if I remember correctly.”
Arisa answered Ayaka’s earlier question quite dutifully.
Yuzuru wasn’t surprised—he had already heard that information beforehand during the arranged meeting.
If he remembered correctly, “Yukishiro” was Arisa’s father’s surname.
Apparently he had been involved in the trading business.
Among Arisa’s adoptive parents, the one she was actually related to by blood was her adoptive mother.
For Arisa, that woman was her aunt.
Yuzuru had met her once at the arranged meeting, and she indeed had strong Eastern European features.
Meanwhile, “Amagi” was the surname of Arisa’s adoptive father.
He was an ordinary Japanese man with no blood relation to her.
“Oh yeah, speaking of which—this Yuzurun over here? His great-grandmother was a Nordic American.”
“Really?”
Arisa looked at Yuzuru with mild surprise.
He nodded.
“Yeah. Though it’s pretty distant… basically within the margin of error.”
He was practically just Japanese, so you wouldn’t know it from looking at him.
At best, maybe his blue eyes.
Going even further back, the mother of his great-great-great-grandfather was a German woman.
At that point, though, it was from the Meiji or Taisho era—basically ancient history from Yuzuru’s perspective.
While chatting about each other’s family histories, the five of them finished their meal.
After leaving the restaurant, Ayaka made a suggestion.
“Since we’re here, why don’t we all hang out together?”
By “all,” she meant the five of them, including Yuzuru and Arisa.
For Yuzuru, it wasn’t a problem—Ayaka, Chiharu, and Soichiro were his childhood friends.
But…
“Well… I mean, I came here with Yukishiro today.”
For Arisa, the three of them were strangers.
Being dropped into a group where the other four were close might feel awkward.
That much was obvious.
Since Arisa might find it hard to refuse herself, Yuzuru voiced the concern.
But Ayaka said—
“I kinda want to hang out with Arisa-chan. Well, unless you and Arisa-chan want to be alone and flirt or something?”
“Since we’re here, how about we split into boys and girls? It’d be nice for us girls to hang out without worrying about anything.”
Ayaka and Chiharu made it clear—without saying it outright—that they wanted to spend time with Arisa.
Despite how silly they usually acted, they were surprisingly perceptive about these things.
“That’s not a bad idea. …Honestly, I’m exhausted from babysitting Ayaka and Chiharu.”
Soichiro said this while leaning onto the two of them.
It was clearly meant to put Arisa at ease… though judging by the tired look on his face, it was probably also his genuine feeling.
“I’m fine with that. I’d like to get to know everyone better.”
Arisa answered naturally.
…She didn’t seem reluctant at all.
Maybe she had understood their consideration.
“Well, if you say so… then let’s do that.”
And so, they decided to split up by gender and go have fun separately.
