After that—
Since it was around lunchtime, Yuzuru and the others decided to eat together at a nearby café.
“Pfft!!”
After ordering their food, Tenka caught sight of Arisa’s face and let out a small snort.
Then she turned away, shoulders shaking, unable to hold back her laughter.
“Nagiri-san, could you stop laughing already? …My leg really hurts.”
Thud, thud, thud.
Arisa kept kicking Yuzuru’s leg so persistently it practically came with sound effects.
Her cheeks were puffed in irritation.
I’m angry, you know, her expression declared.
Since she couldn’t take it out on Tenka—whom she wasn’t that close to—all that frustration was being directed squarely at Yuzuru.
“Look, Arisa. I admit I was in the wrong, but if I hadn’t asked Nagiri-san, you wouldn’t have been able to go pick flowers, right?” A Japanese euphemism used by girls for going to the bathroom.
“…I could have.”
“Then why don’t you try going again now?”
“…”
Arisa averted her gaze awkwardly.
It seemed the fear hadn’t fully left her—she still couldn’t go to the toilet alone.
Watching the exchange between Yuzuru and Arisa, Tenka burst out laughing again.
Apparently, it had really hit her funny bone.
(…A devil of a woman, huh.)
Yuzuru felt like he was beginning to understand why Hijiri had described her that way.
To put it mildly, her personality wasn’t exactly great.
…Though, thinking about it, Hijiri wasn’t exactly a saint either, so in a way, they suited each other.
“You two seem awfully close, Yuzuru.”
Right on cue.
With a sly grin, Hijiri threw the question at him.
There was no way the excuse we just happened to run into each other at the cinema would hold up now.
“You look just like a couple.”
Tenka narrowed her eyes as she said it.
The refined, gentle air she’d had before had vanished somewhere along the way; now she wore a faintly wicked smile.
“We’re not a couple.”
“That’s right.”
Yuzuru and Arisa both denied it flatly.
Though neither Hijiri nor Tenka looked particularly convinced.
Their matching expressions practically said, Oh yeah, sure, keep telling yourselves that.
…They really were a similar kind of couple.
“So you two also go to the cinema together, huh?”
Yuzuru turned the question back on Hijiri and Tenka.
In response… it seemed both of them had decided there was no point hiding it anymore.
They shrugged.
“You know Ryouzenji and Nagiri are in a business partnership right now, don’t you?”
“‘Business’ is quite the flattering way to put it.”
“Business is business.”
Hijiri replied bluntly, as if doubling down.
Sensing something a little ominous, Arisa cautiously asked them:
“Ryouzenji-san and Nagiri-san… what do your parents do?”
The two answered with straight faces.
“We’re in personnel dispatch.”
“Counselling, I suppose.”
“Oh, really?”
Kind-hearted Arisa accepted that at face value—
so Yuzuru supplied the truth.
“In other words, yakuza and a cult.”
“Eh…”
Arisa’s face stiffened.
Then she muttered quietly—
“…So that’s why my adoptive father warned me. I see.”
But it seemed both Hijiri and Tenka took issue with that description.
Hijiri spoke up first.
“We’re outside the scope of the Anti-Boryokudan Act, so we’re not yakuza to begin with. And for the record, we’ve never done anything illegal. Don’t go around saying misleading stuff. We’re strictly a personnel dispatch business. Make that clear.”
“‘Cult’ is just a label people slap on us. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t. I’ll admit we’re a new religious movement, but we’re a perfectly legitimate and wholesome religious organisation. And while we’re still minor in Kanto, we’ve got a fair number of followers back home in Kansai.”
“Yeah, yeah, got it. My bad.”
Both of them looked dead serious, so Yuzuru raised his hands in surrender.
It was true—Ryouzenji fell outside the legal definition of a designated organised crime group, and Nagiri’s religion hadn’t engaged in any antisocial activities.
“Still, yours is pretty shady, isn’t it? What’s ‘wholesome’ about that? Don’t make me laugh.”
“That’s rich coming from you.”
“Hah? You picking a fight?”
“What? You want one? I’ll take you on.”
Hijiri and Tenka suddenly started bickering.
Yuzuru and Arisa simply sipped their tea and watched.
Just as the two looked ready to grab each other, Yuzuru stepped in to stop them.
“Alright, alright, whatever. Anyway… I’ve heard Ryouzenji is helping Nagiri expand into Kanto. Go on.”
He forcibly steered the conversation back on track.
Hijiri replied curtly.
“Then you already get it. That’s why we know each other.”
“So it’s fair to say you’re dating?”
““That’s not it.””
They answered in perfect unison.
Then, realising they’d spoken at the same time, both frowned in irritation.
“I wanted to see that film. But going to the cinema alone is kind of pathetic, right? And the couple’s discount is cheaper. So I invited Hijiri-kun, thinking it probably wouldn’t work.”
“What do you mean ‘probably’? You were the one goading me, asking if I was scared.”
There seemed to be slight differences in their recollection, but for all intents and purposes, they were just friends of the opposite sex.
Yuzuru and Arisa exchanged a glance and silently agreed to stick with that same story.
“Anyway, we’ve explained ourselves. Your turn, Yuzuru.”
Prompted by Hijiri, Yuzuru answered calmly.
“We’re about the same. Arisa invited me. …Though I wasn’t provoked into it.”
“I didn’t want to watch it alone. So I invited Yuzuru-san. …But we’re strictly just friends.”
Arisa spoke in her usual composed tone.
Tenka seemed satisfied with their explanation.
Hijiri, however, still looked unconvinced.
“You’re really just friends?”
“Do you see any reason to doubt it?”
“Hmm… well, let’s leave it at that.”
It seemed Hijiri had noticed Yuzuru was hiding something—
and, as a friend, chose not to pry.
“Sorry.”
Yuzuru apologised quietly.
Since he’d already told Soichiro, maybe he should tell Hijiri too—but…
If he could get away with glossing it over, he’d rather do that.
Even close friends didn’t usually go to the pool alone together—but a film was perfectly plausible.
If the just friends excuse held, he intended to stick with it.
“…I don’t like being the centre of attention. Could you keep this to yourselves?”
Arisa asked Hijiri and Tenka.
They both nodded.
“We’re not gonna spread it around.”
“I’d appreciate it if you kept quiet about us too.”
Hijiri and Tenka made the same request in return.
Just like that, they became bound by shared secrets.
Relieved that nothing would spread around school, Yuzuru and Arisa quietly let out a sigh of relief.
