Chapter 324: Golden Darkness
"Sakurai, why did you rent an apartment with three bedrooms and a living room?"
Shirogane Miyuki looked around, assessing the layout inside.
If it's two people in a relationship, at most two rooms would be enough, right? They could even have more private space that way.
"Leave one room for guests. If someone wants to stay overnight, it's less troublesome." Sakurai Saki replied.
"...Stay overnight, huh?"
"Don't overthink it. Having guests over is normal, isn't it? If it's late, or if something unexpected happens, should I let them sleep on the sofa, or sleep with me?"
The important thing was, Sakurai Saki thought that normally there wouldn't be any guys staying over at his place. Other than Shirogane Miyuki and Ishigami Yuu, he hardly knew any other male friends. Members of the kendo club or classmates all lived far away, and when they met up it was always outside.
So, to avoid the awkwardness of girls asking to stay over, having a separate guest room was necessary.
"Makes sense, but adding an extra room must've cost quite a bit."
While the two guys were talking, Shirogane Kei and Nino were whispering to each other, seemingly discussing what to eat tonight.
"Ai-chan has thirty million yen in savings, and she's also earning quite a bit from investments. My house isn't short on money at all."
"Sakurai, are you leeching off a woman again? As a man, how can you let a woman support you?" Shirogane Miyuki frowned.
In truth, he was a bit old-fashioned — or rather, most men in Japan were — believing that living off a woman was disgraceful.
"So what if I leech off her? My girlfriend is willing to spend money on me, that's proof she loves me." Sakurai Saki said with a big grin.
Of course, he was just joking.
Shirogane Miyuki realized that, but still advised, "If you want to be in a relationship, you need to have financial stability first. If only one side is giving, the relationship won't last."
"You've clearly never dated anyone, and yet you sound like a textbook." Sakurai Saki laughed as he led him deeper inside.
The hallway was still full of unopened boxes, leftovers from the move.
For valuable items, Sakurai didn't dare entrust them to the moving company, so he carried most of them himself, which took a lot of effort.
"It's always clearer from an outsider's point of view." Shirogane Miyuki followed behind.
"I give back too, and she understands that."
Just that one matter of quitting her job — Sakurai Saki had secretly helped a lot, even causing the Hayasaka family to separate from the Shinomiya household.
Sakurai opened the door to his room.
"Look, the walls are full of figures, and this bookshelf — so many light novels. Moving them was a real pain."
"I always wondered where your part-time job money went, turns out it was on this stuff…" Shirogane was speechless.
Sakurai's pay from working as a rental boyfriend had been quite high. Back then, Shirogane had been curious where he spent it all.
"It's only part of it. Actually, I saved most of it." Sakurai explained, "I remember you once said dating costs a lot, so I saved quite a bit. At the time, I was thinking, if I dated Chika or Ai-chan, I wondered how much it would cost — after all, the girls at Shuchiin are all rich Ojou-samas."
In the end, those two didn't actually cost him anything.
In fact, Ai-chan even spent money on him.
"You actually…"
"Don't say it. Back then, I didn't plan to 'have both' at all, I really just couldn't choose." Sakurai Saki sighed.
The bigger reason was that back then, he still couldn't control his ability properly, and accidents happened easily.
But now, the side effects of his ability had almost disappeared.
Maybe by next year, he'd be able to use it freely.
After that, the two of them checked almost everything in the house, even the bathroom.
There was no strange smell inside; a few days earlier, Sakurai Saki had already sprayed deodorizer and disinfectant in the house.
After the tour, they returned to the living room.
By this time, Shirogane Kei had already exchanged LINE accounts with Nino — Nino's communication skills were really good. She was pretty popular in her class, and her reputation in school wasn't bad either.
"Saki-nii, come to my house for dinner."
And in the end, they went to eat hotpot.
That night, after eating hotpot, Sakurai Saki and Nino returned to the new house.
...
Hayasaka Ai and Shinomiya Kaguya left the main house of the Shinomiya family on the fourth morning of spring break.
Yesterday, Ai-chan had received a photo from her boyfriend — it was him eating hotpot at Shirogane's house.
That made her breathe a sigh of relief — it seemed her boyfriend still had some restraint, not doing anything weird with his students.
On the plane.
"Hello, may I offer you something to drink?" a flight attendant approached to ask.
Since it was almost lunchtime, the flight was serving meals.
Kaguya and Hayasaka had already eaten breakfast, so they didn't take any.
"That kid over there is so cute." Shinomiya Kaguya suddenly said to Hayasaka Ai.
Ai-chan looked in the direction she pointed and saw a blonde girl with red eyes, focused on reading a book.
"Umu, she really is cute."
From Kyoto to Tokyo… a foreign middle school student traveling in Japan? But her parents weren't anywhere in sight — was she traveling alone?
As a foreigner unfamiliar with the area, it seemed a bit dangerous.
But Ai-chan wasn't the type of person kind enough to help everyone she met.
After getting off the plane.
At the baggage claim area, they met again.
Hayasaka Ai had just picked up her luggage when she noticed that girl standing not far away, looking at the crowd with a lost and slightly confused expression.
Ai-chan walked closer.
"Excuse me, do you need help?"
"..." The blonde girl turned her head to look at her, blinking her eyes.
Ai-chan frowned, then repeated the question in English.
In the end, she also said it again in German and Russian.
Just when she was about to switch to French, the other girl spoke: "Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Ai-chan smiled.
A child this shy toward strangers felt really cute.
According to the information the other girl provided, Hayasaka Ai helped her pick up her luggage.
"I'm Hayasaka Ai, what's your name?"
"S02. Golden Darkness, you can call me Eve." Eve said softly.
She wasn't good at dealing with overly enthusiastic people.
But she liked gentle people.
"Golden Darkness? Konjiki no Yami? Then I'll call you Yami."
Ai-chan and her exchanged emails. The other girl didn't have Line, truly giving off the feeling of a girl who's both old-fashioned and innocent.
"Yami came here to travel?"
"No." Yami shook her head, "I came to find my brother."
"Brother, huh, did he run away from home?" Hayasaka Ai imagined a blonde guy.
Blonde hair always gave people a slightly flirty impression.
No no no, with such a cute girl like Yami, surely her brother isn't that kind of guy, right?
"No, he's a traitor. The organization sent me to capture him." Golden Darkness said, clenching her fist.
So she's a chunnibyou type of girl?
"Well then, I'll be going first. I hope Yami can find her brother soon. If you need help, just call me." Hayasaka Ai said and returned to Shinomiya Kaguya.
Kaguya asked: "How was it?"
"Helping others really does feel nice." Ai-chan replied with a smile.
After the two of them left.
Yami also left the airport and got on a bus.
Destination: Minato District.