Episode 80: Maid ①

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Translator: Soafp

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At Airi's words, my eyes widened in shock.

A maid… there was no way…

But before I could say anything, Kokoa-san raised her voice first.

“Well, of course I've imagined it before! Wait, what? Is Secretary-san going to become my maid?”

“As if. I might consider being Ren-kun's maid, but being Miyoko-san's maid? Absolutely not.”

“When you reject me that completely, it actually hurts a little!?”

I grabbed Airi's wrist before she could pull out her phone and whispered into her ear.

“What are you trying to do?”

“I want to test it once. To see whether she'll really do as we say.”

“No, but…”

“If it's for saving Kokoa-san's life, the more people helping us, the better, right?”

Airi had a point.

At the very least, Yuzuki already knew about my precognition and believed me.

If we explained Kokoa-san's situation, she'd probably accept it too.

“Of course, if you really hate the idea, we can stop. But if you're going to have to face Kitayama-san eventually anyway, wouldn't it be better for her too if she could help like this?”

She was right.

The biggest reason I'd been trying to stop Airi was because facing Yuzuki felt awkward.

If I'd already accepted part of Yuzuki's proposal, then I needed to move forward too.

“…Alright. I'll contact her myself. Kokoa-san, would it be okay if I invited one more person? She's my, uh… classmate.”

“I don't mind. Is it a girl?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Oho, I knew it!”

Kokoa-san covered her mouth and giggled.

“You really are popular, Ren-sama.”

“It's not like that…”

“You have a fiancée, a mistress, and now another girl classmate you can call over at any moment. And on top of that, you've even got the heaven-chosen super idol Kokoa!”

“You can leave out the last one.”

“Why!? I'm an active idol, you know!? If anything, I should be the main attraction!”

I mean, idol or not, she was still a middle schooler.

And apparently she already liked another guy anyway.

Too tired to keep arguing, I pulled out my phone.

(…It feels like it's been forever since I called Yuzuki myself.)

The finger hovering over the call icon trembled slightly.

When we'd met during the trip, I'd felt mostly fine, so I thought the trauma had faded already.

Apparently, that had just been wishful thinking.

Maybe she noticed my reaction, because Airi quietly took my hand.

“Sorry, Ren-kun. I think I pushed my own opinion onto you too much.”

“No, you said it for my sake, didn't you? You weren't wrong.”

“Your condition comes first, Ren-kun. I'm happy you're listening to me, but don't ever force yourself too hard, okay?”

“Yeah, of course.”

Thanks to Airi, the trembling in my hand settled down.

I took a deep breath and finally tapped the call button.

Before the ringtone could even properly start, the call connected.

“R-Ren…? It's really you, right!?”

“Y-Yeah…”

Her voice was so excited that anyone could tell she was practically over the moon.

All sorts of emotions swirled inside my chest.

Honestly, after deciding to break up, I'd assumed I would never contact her first again.

“Are you busy right now?”

“No, not at all. What's wrong?”

“There's actually something I want to ask you. Could you come over for a bit?”

“Right now?”

“Ah… is that impossible?”

“No, I'll come right away. Where should I go?”

“I'll send you the address. Oh, and absolutely don't tell anyone else. I'll cover the taxi fare, so take a taxi here.”

“Okay.”

After I hung up, Kokoa-san grinned again.

“Ooh~ what was that conversation? Don't tell me she's your ex-girlfriend or something?”

“Ugh…”

This girl was secretly way too sharp.

Or maybe it had just been painfully obvious.

“Wait, really!? According to Detective Kokoa's deductions, Ren-sama was definitely the one who dumped her, right? And now the ex-girlfriend is desperately clinging to him!”

“I'm not sure ‘clinging' is the right word.”

“Well otherwise, what girl would immediately come running just because her ex-boyfriend called once~?”

…It felt like she'd somehow exposed things that really didn't need exposing.

People say sharing secrets brings people closer together, but did that include stuff like this too?

Still, Kokoa-san just seemed amused by it all, and it's not like I was famous enough for rumors to matter.

So I decided not to care.

“Anyway, let's seriously start the homework already. At this rate, the day'll end before we finish anything.”

““Ugh…””

Nodoka and Airi both turned their faces away at the exact same time.

There's no way they planned that, right?

The four of us sat around the large table in the living room.

Kokoa-san sat across from me, while Nodoka and Airi sat beside me.

“Hey, this totally defeats the purpose of doing homework together! Nodoka-san and Secretary-san are cheating!”

““That's because we're stupid.””

“You're saying that way too proudly!!”

“You three do realize homework is supposed to be done individually… Just ask me about the parts you genuinely don't understand.”

“Okaaay~”

After that, surprisingly, everyone seriously focused on their homework without much chatting.

Nodoka and Airi asked questions every now and then, but only when they'd genuinely gotten stuck.

Airi was the type who struggled with understanding the underlying logic, but once that was explained, she could handle applications herself.

Nodoka was the complete opposite—she memorized formulas and theories perfectly, but struggled with applying them to more complex problems.

(So her being ranked twentieth really was true.)

Kokoa-san solved problem after problem smoothly without getting stuck at all.

The only questions she asked were genuinely difficult problems that even made me pause for a moment.

It didn't seem like I needed to worry about her academically at all.

And then, while we were peacefully working through our summer homework—

Ding dong—

The doorbell rang.

Kokoa-san immediately stood up and checked the intercom monitor.

“Oho, so this is Ren-sama's ex-girlfriend? She's cute! And wow, her b00bs are huge!”

Even through a screen, that was a pretty rude thing to say about someone you'd just met…

Though to be fair, that was probably the first thing anyone noticed about Yuzuki.

Kokoa-san opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.

The rest of us followed shortly after, and before long, Yuzuki appeared as she stepped out of the elevator.

“N-Nice to meet you. I'm Yuzuki Kitayama.”

Yuzuki bowed politely toward Kokoa-san.

Maybe because she was standing in front of a real idol, she looked unusually nervous for her.

Kokoa-san responded with a bright smile.

“I'm Kokoa from Jirai-chan Syndrome! Nice to meet you, Yuzu-san!”

“Y-Yuzu-san?”

“Isn't it cute?”

“Uh…”

The exchange somehow felt strangely familiar.

Eventually, Yuzuki stared quietly at me.

She opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, but in the end, lowered her gaze instead.

“Sorry for suddenly calling you over, Kitayama-san.”

“N-No… I'm actually happy you called…”

“How much was the taxi fare?”

“It's okay. I barely spend any of my allowance lately, so I still have plenty left.”

Yuzuki looked slightly thinner than before.

…Was that because of me?

A quiet unease stirred inside my chest.

Then suddenly, I noticed the Don Quijote shopping bag hanging from her hand.

(Did she buy something?)

Ah, snacks, huh.

Well, this was technically a study session after all.

Yuzuki had always liked sweets.

While I was making assumptions on my own, Yuzuki turned her gaze toward Nodoka instead.

“…Feels like it's been a while.”

“Y-Yeah…”

They'd run into each other during the beach trip recently, but at the time Yuzuki had been too focused on me to exchange even a word with Nodoka.

Well, Nodoka had also been panicking the entire time.

Then Airi spoke up next.

“I suppose it's only been two days since we last met.”

“…Yes, that's right. Thank you for listening to my unreasonable request.”

“It's fine. In the end, Ren-kun was the one who made the final decision.”

In contrast to Airi's calm confidence, Yuzuki looked terribly intimidated.

Because of that, the atmosphere froze instantly.

At that moment, Kokoa-san suddenly grabbed Yuzuki's hand.

“Come on, come on, Yuzu-san, hurry inside! This is my beautifully cleaned home prepared just for you!”

“We were the ones who cleaned everything up for you!! Why are you casually acting like you did it yourself!?”

“Ehehe~”

The awkward tension vanished like a lie.

Kokoa-san had probably intentionally jumped in to break the mood.

Yuzuki timidly muttered, “Excuse me for intruding…” and stepped inside.

The moment she entered the living room, her eyes landed on the table.

“You were doing homework?”

“Yeah. But you've probably already finished all yours, right? You've always been the type to finish everything as soon as vacation starts.”

“Y-Yeah… You remembered.”

Apparently happy about that, the corners of Yuzuki's lips lifted slightly.

For a moment, the atmosphere felt fresh and innocent again, almost like when we had first started dating.

—And then it happened.

Kokoa-san pointed at the Don Quijote bag in Yuzuki's hands.

“Did you buy snacks? Can I have some too?”

“Huh? It's not snacks…”

“Eh? Then what is it?”

“T-That's…”

Yuzuki glanced at me for a moment before answering.

“A maid outfit…”