Upon returning home, Nakano Yu was already ready to make dinner when he discovered that Nino had already prepared it, just waiting for him to come back and eat.
Nakano Yu, of course, did not hesitate. After praising Nino several times, he began to eat.
After dinner, Yotsuba and Itsuki talked about their impressions of Shuchi'in Academy, while Nino was fully focused on painting her nails, and Miku, with headphones on her ears and her phone in hand, was probably reading some historical light novel.
At that moment, he felt a little superfluous.
Thinking that today's system mission was already completed along the way, Nakano Yu decided to return to his room and rest a little.
When he reached the door of his room upstairs and was about to open it, the door to Ichika's room beside him suddenly opened. Immediately after that, Ichika cautiously peeked out. Seeing Nakano Yu, her eyes sparkled, and she quickly waved at him, whispering with a laugh:
"Psst! Psst psst! Sweet potato calls potato! Do you hear me!"
Hearing Ichika's voice, Nakano Yu took a deep breath. He turned to her, looked at her sneaky posture, and curiously asked:
"Ichika, is this… a performance? Yotsuba learned this from you, didn't she?!"
"Hey! Yu, lower your voice, come here, I have something to tell you!"
Seeing that Nakano Yu wasn't attempting to speak more quietly at all, Ichika panicked. She quickly put her finger to her lips and then said seriously.
"Hm?"
Nakano Yu was confused, but upon thinking about it, it was probably that thing about the fake boyfriend Ichika had mentioned earlier, so he didn't ask further and headed toward her room.
Ichika had already opened the door wide, and Nakano Yu did not waste time and stepped inside.
The room was completely dark, curtains drawn, no lights on. Although this did not bother Nakano Yu, he couldn't help but wonder how Ichika usually read scripts under such conditions.
"Click!"
At that moment, the room door suddenly closed and locked from the inside. Before Nakano Yu could ask Ichika what she was doing, someone approached him from behind and hugged him tightly.
"Ichika?"
Feeling the girl's hug from behind, Nakano Yu wanted to free himself, but at the same time, he was curious about what Ichika actually intended.
"Yu, I like you!"
"Yu, Itsuki already told us that you will choose one of the five of us as your other half, so… I want you to marry me."
Ichika immediately got to the point, pouring out her sincere feelings. There was a plea and a trace of pity in her voice, like a girl never noticed by her parents, now begging to be seen.
Listening to Ichika's words, Nakano Yu remained silent, giving no response. Ichika, however, did not care and continued speaking herself:
"Yu, can it be… just me?"
Her voice trembled slightly, more like excitement at finally saying what was in her heart than a true sob.
"Ichika…"
After hearing her words, Nakano Yu quietly sighed and then gently separated Ichika's arms that were holding him tightly.
"Just as I thought… it's impossible, isn't it?"
Ichika's tone was despondent, as if she had expected rejection beforehand.
Seeing how much Ichika was dramatizing, Nakano Yu twisted his lips, turned, and lightly tapped her on the head, nervously saying:
"Ichika, where did you get this script? It's so uncomfortable it gives me goosebumps."
"Ugh! My agency gave it to me! And I think it's strange, I'm just not the type of person who can say something like this."
Although the touch was gentle and did not hurt, Ichika still held her head and said mournfully.
"Click."
Nakano Yu turned on the light in the room, faced her, and said:
"Ichika, is your agency even reliable?"
Such an awkward scene left Nakano Yu speechless; he didn't know what to complain about first.
"I don't know, but my manager is really good to me! She's just a little older, some aunt who can't get married."
Sitting on the bed, Ichika spoke nonchalantly. She herself felt that the script was awkward, but the problem was that the show focused on couple interactions. And when it came to interaction, ambiguous things like confessions and sweet words were inevitable.
It was just that Ichika, who had never been in love, always felt that the lines her agency gave her were so embarrassing that she felt like she would dig a three-room apartment into the floor out of shame.
"This… why does this sound like Hiratsuka-sensei?"
Hearing this, Nakano Yu was a little confused. At that moment, in Tokyo Bay port, Hiratsuka Shizuka, enjoying the evening breeze and the speed in her red sports car, suddenly sneezed.
"I have a feeling someone is speaking ill of me."
Returning to Ichika, she began rummaging through the pile of clothes on the bed looking for the script. After finding it and glancing at it, she secretly observed Nakano Yu's expression.
Seeing him sitting aside, calmly looking at his phone, she could not help but feel a slight disappointment.
"Does she really have no attraction to Nakano Yu at all…?"
Thinking this, Ichika's hand holding the script unconsciously clenched.
Ever since they returned from the school field trip, every time she saw Nakano Yu and Nino together, a strange feeling arose in her, as if something… had been taken from her.
"Hey, Ichika, has the filming schedule been decided?"
Just as Ichika secretly felt uneasy, though she didn't know why, Nakano Yu's voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Ha?! Yu, Yu, what did you just say?"
Raising her head absentmindedly, Ichika asked with a forced smile. However, she did not notice that tears had already gathered at the corners of her eyes at some point.
Seeing Ichika's face, simultaneously smiling and tearful, Nakano Yu frowned:
"Ichika, you're crying."
"Ha? Am I? I… I shouldn't be crying, right?"
Hearing this, Ichika finally realized it and quickly reached out to wipe her tears.
"Did something happen?"
Standing and approaching Ichika, Nakano Yu helped her wipe her tears and quietly asked.
"I… I…"
Looking at Nakano Yu with his gentle expression, Ichika wanted to say, "I don't want Nino to take Yu," but the words got stuck in her throat, and she swallowed them.
In the Nakano family, she was the eldest sister, taught from childhood to yield to her four younger sisters, but…
"If Ichika doesn't want to say it now, then don't. Tell me later, when you've thought about it."
Seeing that Ichika was about to cry again, Nakano Yu quickly comforted her and changed the topic:
"You still haven't told me when filming starts. It's confirmed, right?"
As soon as his words fell, Ichika suddenly laughed. Wiping her tears with one hand, she placed the other on Nakano Yu's head:
"I'm fine, Yu, I was just teasing you, everything… was a joke."
Looking at Nakano Yu with a big smile, Ichika said. If she hadn't been still wiping her tears, she wouldn't have looked like she had just cried.
Faced with Ichika's smile, Nakano Yu remained silent. He said nothing, just calmly got up and headed for the door.
Seeing Nakano Yu leaving, Ichika wanted to call him, but she extended her hand and still did not dare to stop him.
"Ichika, next time I definitely won't fall for it!"
Opening the room door, Nakano Yu also smiled, clearly not angry at Ichika, but joking.
After that, he closed the door and left.
"No, Yu wants to."
Looking at the closed door, Ichika quietly murmured, unconsciously clenching her fists. A tear fell on her hand and burst into tiny droplets.
While Nakano Yu was idly resting at home, in the Shinomiya residence, Shinomiya Kaguya lay on her expensive, custom-made bed, listening to a report from a maid beside her.
Although she was called a maid, she sat beside Shinomiya Kaguya's bed, looking at a tablet, hardly resembling an ordinary maid.
The maid named Hayasaka Ai was Kaguya's close companion, having grown up with her since childhood. Although formally they were mistress and maid, their relationship resembled best friends more.
"Miss Kaguya, these are all the information I managed to find about Nakano Yu. Additionally, the Ogino family was destroyed by a meteor strike."
While looking at the information she had gathered, Hayasaka Ai spoke in a calm tone, but her wide eyes betrayed her surprise.
"What?! The Oginos were destroyed?!"
Shinomiya Kaguya lay on the bed, reflecting on the words Nakano Yu had told her that morning. Hearing that Ogino Hikaru's family had been completely destroyed, she immediately stopped thinking, suddenly sat up, and shock appeared on her usually composed face.
"Yes, I suspect it was Nakano Yu who did it."
Hayasaka Ai nodded seriously.
Her assumption was not without basis. Ogino Hikaru had been brutally taught a lesson by Nakano Yu that morning, and by the afternoon, he had sent people to deal with him. Hayasaka Ai knew this; she was among those people but had intervened to prevent it.
At Shuchi'in Academy, her identity was an ordinary gyaru student. She could not afford to offend others over complete strangers, so she planned to wait for the delinquents to take Nakano Yu away, or for the school guards to appear.
However, as long as Nakano Yu was not taken away, the guards did not appear, probably bribed by Ogino Hikaru. Having nothing to do, Hayasaka Ai could only secretly follow them.
She saw Nakano Yu and the delinquents enter the alley, and soon after, leave.
At first, she thought Nakano Yu had bribed them with money, but when she went to check out of curiosity, she discovered that all those delinquents were dead.
Their heads had been separated from their bodies, and the headless bodies lay on the ground. Soon after, police officers came to clean up the scene and even told her not to tell anyone what she had seen that day.
Thinking about this, a trace of unease appeared in Hayasaka Ai's eyes. She did not understand why Nakano Yu, merely the young heir of a conglomerate, had the right to treat human lives like grass.
It should be known that even the Shinomiya family must secretly dispose of bodies in Tokyo Bay when they want to eliminate someone.
And not long after Nakano Yu left, Hayasaka Ai received news that the entire Ogino family had been destroyed by a meteor. It was hard for her not to associate that with Nakano Yu.
Moreover, the explosion in the high school room probably wasn't that simple either.
"Impossible! He's my age, maybe even a few months younger than me, how could he… Hayasaka, didn't you say it was a meteor shower?"
As soon as Hayasaka Ai voiced her assumption, Shinomiya Kaguya immediately rejected it.
As the daughter of the Shinomiya family, she knew well that this society was governed by law. Even she had to act in secret when dealing with someone, so how could Nakano Yu openly destroy an entire family? And in such an absurd way, like a meteor.
No matter how it was looked at, Shinomiya Kaguya still found it hard to believe.
"Miss Kaguya, the information about Nakano Yu is not only what I have just presented. Just…"
Seeing that Kaguya still did not believe, Hayasaka Ai wanted to explain further, but intentionally paused to pique her curiosity.
"Just what?"
Shinomiya Kaguya, fully convinced that Nakano Yu did not have the ability to destroy the entire Ogino family, frowned, impatient with the delay, and asked directly.
Realizing that her young mistress was truly disturbed, Hayasaka Ai set aside her playful tone and spoke seriously:
"The remaining information on Yu is classified as absolutely confidential. Even I could not hack it."
Hearing this, Shinomiya Kaguya fell silent. She remained quiet.
Absolutely confidential…
Shinomiya Kaguya began to wonder what Nakano Yu's true background actually was. He could not possibly be just the ordinary young master of the Nakano family. There had to be something she didn't know, a background far surpassing the Nakano family.