"You know them?"
Sakurajima Mai subconsciously turned her head when she heard someone call Mori Shinra's name.
She saw that the person who had stopped him was a tall, chic urban beauty, with a pure and lovely girl beside her. The two looked somewhat similar and were probably sisters.
"A classmate, and her older sister," Shinra said concisely, his expression calm, not flustered in the slightest.
Hilarious. Setting aside whether the Yukinoshita sisters could even see Sakurajima Mai, so what if they could?
He, Mori Shinra, was an upright man. What was wrong with taking in a homeless, beautiful high school girl for the night?
Didn't that just prove... that he was a kind person!
Ahem. After answering her question in a low voice, a look of surprise timely appeared on his face. "Haruno-san?"
"Good evening. It really is you. I saw your back and thought it looked familiar, so I thought I'd try calling out... Are you planning to make a late-night snack?" Yukinoshita Haruno asked curiously, glancing at the shopping bag in his hand.
"Yeah, just a simple curry," Shinra said, showing her the block of curry roux he had just bought.
It was a good thing the toiletries were in Mai's hands. Otherwise, he really wouldn't be able to explain why a grown man was buying pink women's pajamas.
"Eh, you know how to make curry?" Haruno said, her eyes narrowing with a fox-like smile. "Men who can cook are rare, you know. Don't you think so, Yukino-chan?"
Yukinoshita Yukino said, "Sister, don't you still have things to buy? Let's hurry up and go home. It's getting late."
After saying that, she looked at the curry in his hand, hesitated for a moment, and then reminded him, "Be careful with the fire when you use the stove."
She was clearly treating him like a complete kitchen novice.
It wasn't her fault. In her impression, he had never cooked before and basically relied on convenience stores and family restaurants to get by.
"Don't worry, no one understands making curry better than me," Shinra replied confidently. He didn't cook simply because he was lazy, not because he actually didn't know how.
Of course, knowing how to cook was one thing, whether it tasted good was another.
But a dish made with a block of curry roux probably couldn't be that bad.
Yukinoshita Haruno's interest in him at this moment had clearly surpassed her interest in continuing to shop. She said to her sister, "How about we buy the rest of the things next time and just follow him home?"
A '#' symbol visibly appeared on Yukinoshita Yukino's forehead. She said in an unfriendly tone, "Next time, don't even think about dragging me out."
She hadn't wanted to go out in the first place because of the rain today. It was her sister who had insisted on pulling her out.
Saying something about how the two of them hadn't gone shopping together in a long time, and that they could also enjoy the city in the rain.
She didn't understand what was so enjoyable about the city in the rain. And shopping too. It was Thursday! Haruno didn't have university classes in the morning tomorrow, but she still had to go to school!
"Alright, alright. Then bye-bye, Shinra-san~" Haruno waved at him with regret.
Yukinoshita Yukino also nodded at him, signaling for him to leave first.
"Goodbye," Shinra said. He had no intention of staying either. After all, he still had an invisible ghost with him.
As an observer of the entire process, Sakurajima Mai, after the Yukinoshita sisters had left, said for some reason, "They are both rare beauties~"
"Indeed," he agreed.
"I thought you would use this opportunity to praise me."
"Mai-san is also a rare beauty," he said, going with the flow.
Sakurajima Mai folded her hands behind her back. "Not a shred of sincerity!"
"I didn't try to keep them, but you're coming home with me now. Isn't that sincere enough?" he retorted.
"That's sophistry," she said. "And the way you say it makes you sound so in-demand."
"Am I not?" He was very confident. It was hard not to be when you looked like him.
Even she had to admit this point. His looks, even in the entertainment industry, were top-tier.
Even if his acting wasn't great, he could still make a lot of money.
An ordinary girl really wouldn't be able to resist his looks.
Fortunately, she was no ordinary girl. She said, "What does that have to do with me?"
"Eh, I thought Miss Mai was into my type. You were holding on so tightly just now."
"Weren't you the one who asked for it?" she said, unable to hide her blush.
He retorted, "If I ask, you'll give?"
Sakurajima Mai: ...
She decided not to argue with this guy anymore. No matter what, she was the one who would lose out.
Looking at the girl who had turned her back to him in a huff, Mori Shinra smiled.
Adorable.
Back at home, he placed the shopping bag on the table.
"I'm already looking forward to the curry made by Mai-san."
"Hmm? Didn't you just say that no one understands curry better than you? I thought you were going to make it."
"Understanding is one thing, but I'd rather eat food made by you. Because I can't imagine how many people would die of envy if I told them," he said smoothly.
Mai was clearly receptive to this. She pushed him out of the way, took the ingredients out of the shopping bag, and sorted them one by one. Then, she took an apron from the side that hadn't been used in who knows how long and tied it around herself.
"You can go sit over there now," she said, unceremoniously kicking the irrelevant person out of the kitchen area.
He was happy to be idle. He went to the living room and started watching a TV series. Yes, one that Sakurajima Mai had starred in.
She was completely unfazed by his actions. If he thought this would make her shy, he was greatly mistaken.
Besides, this was nothing.
During the peak of her career, her posters and advertisements were everywhere. She had long since gotten used to the scene of people watching her work.
It had to be said, her cooking skills were surprisingly good. At least, he felt that the curry she made was in no way inferior to what you'd get at a family restaurant.
"I didn't expect you to be so skilled at cooking, Mai-san. You'll definitely be a good wife in the future. I've really lucked out," he commented.
She raised an eyebrow. "I don't think I ever said I was going to marry you."
"Wouldn't that be an even bigger win for me? Getting another man's wife to cook for me," Mori 'Cao Cao' Shinra said.
She was speechless. "How do you even calculate it like that?"
After the late-night snack, Shinra helped her set up the guest room and then returned to his own room.
The night passed without a word.
The next morning, Mori Shinra woke from his sleep.
As soon as he opened his bedroom door, he saw a busy, beautiful figure in the kitchen area. He squinted his sleepy eyes, his mind already scheming on how to make her cook for him for a lifetime.