Tokyo: Idol Girls have absolutely no bad intentions!

Asada choked for a moment, then her face turned slightly red: "...I have both."

“Oh.” Ito nodded. “Your wrestling skills need improvement. Remember to watch where you're going next time. As for your uncle,”

He glanced at Asada, the streetlight light falling on his eyes, making him appear calm. "Concern makes one lose focus, that's understandable. Next time I see him, I'll remind him to be mindful of how he asks questions."

"..." Asada didn't know what to say.

Ito's reaction was so bland that all the explanations and excuses she had prepared stuck in her throat.

Does he really believe that he's her uncle? Or... does he actually see through it, but is just being considerate by not pointing it out?

Her mind was in turmoil.

The pain in my knees, the frustration in my heart, and the speculation about Ito's reaction were all mixed together.

They clearly agreed not to interfere, and sending that guy Iketani Rin to observe wasn't enough, but now they're coming over in person.

That untrustworthy bastard!

Asada, who was internally criticizing the middle-aged, dejected man, momentarily forgot the dull pain in his knees and had no recollection of how he had climbed the stairs.

The key made a slight clinking sound, and the moment the apartment door opened, Hayakawa rushed out.

Fortunately, Ito reacted quickly and had a general idea of ​​what was going on when he smelled the alcohol.

He shifted his body slightly to the right, causing Hayakawa to miss his target.

Hayakawa was clearly quite drunk; his cheeks were flushed, his eyes were glazed, and he was swaying unsteadily as if he were walking on cotton.

"Xiao You~ and Xiao Yingli~ you're finally back? Welcome home~" She slurred, her smile sweet and cloying.

"You go back next door too," Ito said, his face dark. "Can't I drink at home? Why do you have to leave all your trash here?"

"Waaah~" Hayakawa sobbed as Ito scolded her. She grabbed Asada's clothes and pointed at Ito with her finger. "Sakura, you have to stand up for me! I stayed until now because I wanted to be able to welcome you as soon as possible."

“Don’t touch Asada,” Ito said, looking at this unreliable guy speechlessly. “She’s injured.”

"Ah!" Hayakawa's expression changed instantly as he carefully examined Asada's body.

She leaned closer to Asada's knee, looking at the redness and swelling and the cartoon bandage, her face full of genuine concern.

"Sakura, are you alright? What happened? Does it hurt?"

Only at times like these does she barely act like a decent person.

Unfortunately, this thought only existed in Ito's mind for a brief moment before being destroyed by Hayakawa's next words.

"Yu!" Hayakawa turned around abruptly, staring at Ito with an unusually serious expression. His eyes were somewhat unfocused due to the alcohol, but his tone was exceptionally solemn. "Until Sakura's knee injury is fully healed..."

"Absolutely! You absolutely cannot do those things, do you hear me?"

She even held up her index finger and waved it in front of Ito's eyes to emphasize it.

"?" Ito rubbed his tired brows, feeling a lot of pressure.

"W-What is it?" Asada looked at Hayakawa and then at Ito, trying to get an answer from them.

Her cheeks inexplicably felt hot. Hayakawa's ambiguous emphasis and suggestive "those things" made her mind uncontrollably flash through a jumble of messy, blush-inducing images.

Chapter 193 Lunch Date, First Aid for Failing an Exam

On Friday, the last day of school this week, Hibiya High School organized an exam.

In the classroom of Class 3-A, Mr. Toji was trying his best to play the role of an authoritative proctor.

Her petite figure was wrapped in an outfit that clashed slightly with her temperament.

Eye-catching red-soled high heels, black stockings covering slender legs, a tight-fitting pencil skirt, and a white shirt that seemed to have been deliberately unbuttoned at the top.

Every three to four seconds or so, the crisp sound of high heels hitting the wooden floor would be particularly clear in the quiet classroom.

His small face was tense, as if he were trying to play the role of a lion patrolling the examination room, but his height of less than 1.6 meters made it hard for anyone to be afraid of him.

"clatter!"

Aside from the sound of ballpoint pens scribbling on the test papers, Mr. Toji's voice was the loudest.

Ito glanced at Ms. Toji, who had just walked past her. Ms. Toji should also be wearing indoor shoes.

After finishing the last question on the exam paper, Ito stared blankly out the window. He didn't have the habit of handing in his paper early.

He wasn't worried about his exam results. Although he dreamed of his grandfather's private school every day, he didn't neglect his studies at all.

However... he was worried about that reckless guy, Asada.

Her thoughts drifted back to last night. If it weren't for Fujikawa wailing on the phone like a wronged woman, "I'm doomed! I didn't study a single word for the exam tomorrow!", Ito wouldn't even have known there was an exam today.

When this news unexpectedly reached Asada's ears, her reaction was nothing short of classic.

He sprang up instantly from his lazy state of lying in bed, his pupils dilated, his face turned deathly pale, looking like a cat whose tail had been stepped on and whose fur had stood on end.

After announcing that he was taking over Ito's room, he studied all night...

We still don't know why Asada didn't know there was an exam, how she managed to study all night without her textbooks, or why she was studying in Ito's bedroom.

Damn it! Asada must just want to sleep in the bed!

Thinking about his experience of sleeping on a tatami mat all night, Ito clenched his fist.

Asada's drool was on the pillow. I wanted to go to the bedroom to change it, but she blocked me out with a sign that read "Focus on your exams, Ito, do not disturb me." As a result, Ito could only sleep with his arm as his pillow.

Oh, you slovenly idol, just pray you get good grades, or Ito won't mind arranging special tutoring for you in academic subjects.

He already had a picture in his mind of Asada begging for mercy.

"Hey, student, please answer carefully!"

Ms. Toji sternly tapped Ito's desk with her long pointer.

Having been warned, Ito had no choice but to abandon his wicked thoughts and lay down on the table to conserve his energy.

The exams are conducted simultaneously across the entire school, taking up both morning and afternoon class time.

Lunch break and club activities will proceed as usual.

At the time agreed upon with Mori, Ito arrived at the emergency staircase, which he hadn't visited in a long time.

Even after Ito protested, the lazy idol stopped preparing lunch, so for more than half a month, Ito relied on the convenience store for survival.

So when Ito received Mori's message, he agreed without hesitation.

Perhaps it was fate that allowed Ito to notice the message just as it was being sent.

Mori: "Only at times like this can I feel my senior's presence."

Ito selectively ignored the teasing remarks mentioned above, since he couldn't even accept such things.

So, the lunch date later? Well, it's fair to say it'll be a real den of dragons and tigers.

Ito did respond, at least offering an explanation for his ignoring her for a while.

Ito: "...I'm quite busy during the exam period."

Mori: "An excuse!!!"

Now that he'd been exposed, there was no point in hiding it anymore, so Ito simply gave up and ended things with his opponent.

Light, rhythmic footsteps echoed from above the stairs.

Ito looked up and saw Mori carrying a rather heavy three-tiered lacquerware bento box, carefully walking down the stairs.

The afternoon sun shone through the high skylight, casting its light on her pale purple hair and pristine white uniform shirt.

Her face wore her usual smile, a mixture of cunning and affection, like a little fox that had successfully caught its prey.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, senior~" Mori walked to the platform where Ito was, placed the heavy lunch box on the cleaned steps, and sat down next to him.

"I didn't expect my senior to actually come to our appointment. I thought he was going to disappear suddenly..."

Ito automatically filtered out the sarcasm in her words, his gaze fixed on the exquisite bento box.

The first layer is covered with bamboo leaves, on which are neatly arranged tamagoyaki, fish cake slices, teriyaki chicken pieces, and a few pieces of fried shrimp tempura.

The second layer: Rice was shaped into several small bear rice balls, with seaweed used to decorate their eyes and noses, and two of the rice balls had dried plums sandwiched between them. Next to them were blanched broccoli and cherry tomatoes, which remained bright green.

The third layer consists of fruit and small desserts. There are sliced ​​strawberries, honeydew melon chunks, and several small, delicate matcha daifuku, with red bean paste filling wrapped in glutinous rice skin.

"Thank you for your hard work." Ito still had to give enough respect to the great being who created noodles.

"Because it's to reward the senior who worked hard on the exam!" Mori smiled and handed him a pair of chopsticks.

"Besides, maybe this is the last lunch?" She changed the subject, her tone tinged with a hint of melancholy. "After all, my senior is about to be taken over by 'someone else,' and I won't have the chance to cook for him anymore."

Ignoring everything the other person said and focusing on finishing the bento in front of him was Ito's top priority.

"Where did you sleep last night, senior?" she asked suddenly, seemingly unintentionally, blinking her innocent big eyes.

This casual question almost made Ito suspect that the other party had installed surveillance cameras in his home.

Ito paused in his chewing motion, feeling that the delicious fried shrimp suddenly felt a bit dry.

“...The living room,” he replied listlessly.

"Eh—the tatami mats in the living room? How pitiful!" Mori's tone was full of "sympathy," but his eyes gleamed with "I knew it."

"Asada-senpai is really something, taking the comfortable bed for herself and making senpai sleep on the floor... Senpai, you don't actually... like this, do you? The feeling of being 'bullied' by your senior?"

"Wait, how did you know about this? And who would like to sleep on the floor?" Ito almost choked on his rice.

Could she have actually installed some illegal recording device, perhaps even the kind that streams live?

"So that means you're actually quite dissatisfied, senpai?" Mori pressed his advantage.

“When…” Just as Ito was about to say “Of course,” he immediately stopped himself when he saw Mori’s sly smile that seemed to have caught him red-handed. “…This is between Asada and me, and you don’t need to worry about it.”

Lunch took place in a subtle atmosphere, a mix of culinary satisfaction and verbal sparring.

Mori would occasionally feed Ito a piece of fruit or comment on which dish was the best. The topics seemed casual, but they always managed to subtly circle back to Asada and Ito's "cohabitation life," leaving Ito exhausted and only able to bury her head in her food.

When most of the food in the bento box had been eaten and both of them were about 70-80% full, Mori wiped his mouth with a tissue and seemingly casually posed a new question:

"By the way, senior, tomorrow is Saturday, do you have any plans?"

Ito was picking up the last matcha daifuku when he heard this and paused.

He thought for a few seconds, swallowed the food in his mouth, and then said, "Yes, I need to go to the hospital."