"Saotome, are you alright?" Seeing Saotome distracted, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka spoke up to remind her.
"I'm fine! Ayanokoji, have you booked the room?"
Saotome shook her head and quickly changed the subject, afraid that Ayanokoji Kiyotaka would know what she was thinking.
"I went down and asked. Although there are empty rooms, they won't rent them to me. They said each student can only rent one room, even if I pay extra."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka complained: "I didn't see any such rule when I rented."
"Oh, right... The school does have such a rule." Hanatemari, who had returned after putting the bathrobe in the bathroom, nodded, hearing their conversation.
"This seems to be a rule set to prevent people from monopolizing rooms and selling them at high prices on Valentine's Day or during certain events. I just remembered it."
Hanatemari Kazura rarely visited hotels, so she had only just remembered this rule.
At this moment, the sound of water in the bathroom stopped. Ayanokoji Kiyotaka called out towards the bathroom: "You heard it, right? That's how it is. If you want to rent a room, you'll have to go down yourself."
"How can I go out looking like this?" Kurume said this as she walked out of the bathroom.
Kurume was only wearing a pink silk bathrobe. She hadn't used a hairdryer, but was instead wiping her hair with a dry towel as she walked over.
Water droplets from her hair slid onto her shoulders, giving her the fresh beauty of a woman just out of the bath. She certainly didn't look like she could go downstairs right now.
"Where are your clothes?"
"I put them in the washing machine. It'll probably take an hour to wash and dry." Kurume said with a smile: "In short, I can't go out before then."
She was smiling cheerfully as she said this, seemingly quite happy.
"Then... which of you two will go and get her a room? I'll pay the cost." Ayanokoji looked at Hanatemari and Saotome. Since Kurume couldn't go, it would be the same effect if they went to get one.
"I'll go." Saotome stood up, eager to send Kurume away.
With Kurume here, she couldn't even bring herself to plead with Ayanokoji.
"Let me make it clear, you'll stay in the room you open. There's no way I'm going there!"
Kurume Laiwei plopped onto the soft sofa with a thump, stretching lazily with a giggle: "I've decided, I'm staying here tonight!"
"What, you're not planning to leave?" Ayanokoji said, speechless.
"Don't forget, we still have an agreement between us. Of course I won't leave."
Kurume looked at Ayanokoji, slowly lifting the hem of her bathrobe to reveal her fair, jade-like calves, her eyes full of provocation: "Coincidentally, this is also a hotel... Shall we fulfill our agreement today?"
"Kurume, I'm still here!" Saotome gritted her teeth: "Even if you want to show off, you should pick your moment!"
"This is a hotel, isn't it perfectly fitting for the atmosphere that I'm wearing a bathrobe?"
Kurume lay on the sofa, propping her head with her hand, lying sideways, and teased: "Speaking of which, it's fine for Hanatemari to stay here, but what are you doing here? Are you cheering us on as part of the atmosphere team? Or... have you also prepared to offer yourself?"
"I'm not like you!" Saotome retorted angrily.
Hanatemari also thought Saotome staying here was inappropriate. She tugged on her sleeve and whispered: "Meari, it's raining so heavily outside now, you probably can't go back. Why don't you get a room for yourself to stay in, and I'll stay here to watch Kurume? How about it?"
Leave herself, and leave Hanatemari and Kurume, two girls, to face Ayanokoji? How could she possibly do such a thing!
That Kurume might immediately start fawning over Ayanokoji the moment she left. Looking at Ayanokoji, he probably wouldn't be able to resist the temptation. By then, Hanatemari wouldn't even be able to stop them, and might even get herself involved.
No, she couldn't leave! But if she stayed here, her intentions would be too obvious... Saotome thought of the game room in this hotel and suddenly came up with an idea.
"Oh, right, let's play Mahjong, the four of us!" Saotome Meari suddenly said.
Kurume scoffed, uninterested: "Play Mahjong? Today is a good day, Mahjong is such a buzzkill, isn't it? How about we do something more fun…"
Kurume's gaze remained on Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, a suggestive smile on her face, as if she would be willing to take off her bathrobe with just one word from Ayanokoji.
"It's not ordinary Mahjong, we'll play strip Mahjong!" Saotome blurted out in desperation.
No one expected these words to come from Saotome's mouth.
The usually proper her would actually suggest playing strip Mahjong... Even Hanatemari looked at Saotome in shock, thinking she had been "possessed" by someone.
"Hey... are you serious?" Ayanokoji looked at Saotome, speechless, and reminded her: "Although I have no objection to this, that's strip Mahjong. Are you really sure you didn't say it wrong?"
She regretted it a little after saying it, but seeing Ayanokoji's reaction, Saotome knew that Ayanokoji was interested in it.
She didn't say it wrong, Saotome firmly believed this: "That's right, we'll play strip Mahjong, but the stakes must be set!"
Saotome Meari remembered seeing many chips when she entered the game room. She had a sudden inspiration: "Each of us starts with 25,000 points, and we'll bet with twenty-five chips, with one chip equivalent to 1,000 points.
If anyone runs out of chips, they can exchange clothes for chips. One piece of clothing is ten chips."
"What if you lose everything?" Ayanokoji couldn't help but ask.
"...If you lose everything, the gamble ends, and the person with the fewest chips must grant one request to the person with the most chips."
Saotome's face was slightly red, as if she felt a bit embarrassed saying this herself, but she paused and then said: "Any request is fine."
"Meari... Let's not do this." Hanatemari quickly pulled Saotome.
"Hanatemari, trust me, I can do it!" Saotome turned and gripped Hanatemari's hand, her eyes sincere: "I will definitely win."
When Hanatemari heard Saotome say that any request was fine, she understood that Saotome wanted to use this condition to exchange for her "overnight rights."
But the problem was... she had already given herself to Ayanokoji. Even if Meari won in the end, Ayanokoji couldn't give her first time back to her.
Meari doing this now was just throwing herself into the fire!