I endured the humiliation and humiliation while being besieged by the ghost story elder sister.

In terms of exam difficulty, if Nozomi and her friends' school, St. Martin's Private High School, claims to be second to none, then probably no other school would dare to say that its exams are the most rigorous.

However, this was still within Hio's control.

As Hiyo packed her things and walked out of the exam room, she turned around and saw Arisa taking the exam in the next room.

The girl's tall figure was very conspicuous in the crowd, so much so that Ximiao was able to find her easily and walk to her side.

"how do you feel?"

"It should be alright... I don't really know how to put it. This exam feels quite different from previous ones, and I'm not very confident..."

Arisa said this to Himo, and the expression on her face was also somewhat disappointed, indicating that she really thought that the results of this exam would not be ideal.

Seeing this, Nozomi didn't continue chatting about the topic. She and Arisa walked side by side back to their classroom, packed up their things, and prepared to go home.

Inside the station.

Each carrying their own schoolbag, Nozomi and Arisa sat on a bench, waiting for the train to arrive, their feelings quite different.

After finishing her exams, Nozomi was only thinking about how to spend her upcoming vacation, but Arisa's mind kept replaying the conversation she had with her mother that night.

She couldn't help but look at Xi Ling with a complicated expression.

It's been almost a whole week, and Arisa still doesn't understand what kind of existence Nozomi holds in her heart.

If he were to say he was her boyfriend... she would instinctively resist, and he bit his own tail.

But she would deny that it was just a spur-of-the-moment purchase of a toy that was prone to breaking.

For a moment, the girl was in a state of great inner turmoil. She wanted to ask someone what was going on, but her reason told her that she could only keep this to herself.

Before Arisa could continue pondering this question, she heard the sound of a tram slowly pulling up to the platform not far away.

"Let's go, Arisa."

Hiyo, who was standing next to her, said the same thing, took Arisa's fair wrist, and the two of them walked into the carriage.

"Have you thought about how to tell Aunt Ashi how you did on the exam later?"

This time, Arisa did not ask Himiko to sit on her lap, and Himiko assumed that Arisa was in a bad mood and did not pay much attention.

"No... let's wait until the results come out before we talk to her."

"That's it..."

Himio couldn't help but glance at Arisa beside him, wanting to say something to comfort the girl, but no matter how he organized his words, he felt that he was missing a little bit of the meaning.

Fortunately, the two remained silent the entire way, each pondering the things that were troubling them.

Once they returned to the apartment, since the exams were over, Nozomi no longer needed to go to Arisa's place to tutor her.

The two said goodbye in the elevator and went back to their respective residences.

"Fanxia-nee, I'm back!"

As always, after taking off her shoes in the entryway, Ximiao called out towards the living room.

"Oh, Mio, you're back! How did your exams at school go?"

As you enter the living room, you can see Fanxia sitting cross-legged on the sofa, her long, white legs displayed in front of the boy. She is asking him curiously about the final exams.

Xi Ling was already used to this scene. She calmly sat down on the sofa, rubbed her sore shoulders, and then replied.

"I feel fine, just like always."

Little did she know that her rubbing of her shoulders was being watched by Fanxia, ​​who was standing nearby.

After dinner, sitting on the cushion, Hime suddenly spoke to Honoka.

"Hey... Honoka-nee, don't you think Arisa's been acting a little strange lately?"

"Really? I haven't seen her much lately. I only saw her once last week when I went to their place for sukiyaki."

Although she felt she had seen the demon less often recently, she felt that this wasn't so bad.

But ultimately, not knowing what Arisa was plotting still made Honoka somewhat uneasy.

Seeing that she couldn't get the information she wanted from Fanxia, ​​Ximiao sighed silently.

"What's wrong with you two? Did you have a fight?"

As she said this, Fanxia could clearly see the corners of her mouth turning up involuntarily, with a hint of schadenfreude in them.

however.

When she saw Himiko shake her head, she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

"No... I just felt something was a little off when I came back this afternoon."

"Forget about all that, let's go take a nice, relaxing bath!"

After saying that, Fanxia pulled Ximiao towards the bathroom, not wanting him to focus his attention on that devil.

Xi Ling didn't say anything, letting Fan Xia freely rub his soft, light golden hair.

As the shampoo foam dripped onto the floor, which was covered in water, Nozomi felt inexplicably relaxed.

He found that he felt particularly relaxed and at ease when he was with Fanxia, ​​which was probably one of Fanxia's most impressive qualities...

"Fanxia-jie, when are you planning to show your recent artwork to the editor?"

"Eh?"

Honoka was taken aback when she didn't expect Nozomi to ask that question.

"What? Mio, are you concerned about my work?"

"No... I'm just a little curious about what the comic book that specifically asked me to be the model for is like."

To be honest, he has never seen any of Fanxia's works yet, but since she lives in a high-end apartment, her works must be very popular.

However, he had never heard of it before, which only shows that Sister Fanxia hid it very well.

Just as he was curiously waiting for Fanxia to tell him, she said...

"I'm not going to let Mio see it... It always feels so embarrassing to let acquaintances see what I've drawn..."

"Eh--"

Ignoring Nozomi's dissatisfaction, Honoka picked up the showerhead and poured water over his head, forcibly muting the boy's microphone.

Chapter Ninety-Seven: Arisa in Thought

The next day.

That is, Saturday morning.

Still wearing her shark-themed pajamas, Hiyo yawned as she walked out of her room and headed towards the kitchen.

In the living room, Fanxia, ​​who had also woken up early that morning and had even taken a bath, was drying her wet silver hair with a clean towel.

"Mio~ I want a fried egg and a ham and cheese sandwich."

"Know it……"

Nozomi responded weakly, seemingly not fully awake yet.

After a while, you could hear the sizzling sound of eggs frying in a frying pan in the kitchen.

After the boy placed the simple breakfast on the table, he headed towards the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash up before Fanxia could call him back.

It was as if everything had returned to the time when Ximiao first arrived in Xijing and was taken in by Fanxia, ​​a scene that made Fanxia feel nostalgic.

And downstairs from them.

Arisa is clearly used to waking up early and has developed a biological clock. Even if she wants to sleep in, she tosses and turns in bed, feeling uncomfortable all over.

On the contrary, Ami, who was still in her bedroom, showed no signs of getting up. In the living room, there was only the girl, sitting alone on the sofa, eating dry bread to fill her stomach.

On her smooth, oval face, two dark circles were clearly visible, indicating that the girl had not slept well the night before.

With the final exams over, she no longer had an excuse to ask Himo to come to her room for tutoring...

Just like the bond between her and the boy ended with the end of the exam, Arisa felt very uncomfortable.

She took out her phone, opened a social media app, and seemed to be hesitating whether to send a message to Ximiao or go upstairs to find him.

But what Arisa didn't know was that her melancholy sitting alone on the living room sofa was being watched by Asami in the bedroom.

The faint light emanating from those wine-red eyes slowly dissipated, but Ashi's lips couldn't help but curl up slightly.

She knew that what she had said to Arisa earlier was already starting to have an effect.

then.

"Going shopping? Does it have to be today?"

Arisa looked at her mother, who still had a face mask on, and felt a little puzzled by her mother's sudden decision.

"Yes, it would be best to invite Nozomi and Honoka as well."

"Hey—I can accept Mio, but why does Honoka have to come along too?"

The girl was completely baffled as to what her mother was thinking.

but……

As she put on her shoes and boarded the elevator to go upstairs, Arisa couldn't help but feel a little happy.

Just as having an excuse to go out with Ximiao would make her feel good, this made her increasingly puzzled about what kind of feelings she had for Ximiao.

Before she could figure out the answer, she was already standing in front of the apartment door. She rang the doorbell and waited a moment before hearing hurried footsteps coming from inside.

Then she saw Xi Ling opening the door, and her surprised expression when she realized it was her.

"Arisa? What brings you here?"

Xi Ling said with some surprise, and then quickly let her into the house. After all, it was still quite cold outside, and he couldn't bear to let Arisa stand outside like that.

"No... Mom asked me to ask if you and Honoka would like to go out for a walk this afternoon."

"Want to go shopping? Sure~ We've got nothing to do this afternoon anyway."

Without a second thought, Nozomi agreed and followed Arisa to the living room.