I'm in Tokyo, and I'm a professional boyfriend.

"Think what you want."

Miyahara Nagisa gave a cold snort with a stern face, flicked her ponytail, and turned her head away.

The face hidden in the shadows suddenly revealed a look of relief, as if it had survived a disaster.

After relaxing a bit, she casually took the phone from Kaoru Hisaishi's hand.

"Kaoru-chan, please clear this table."

"coming."

The banter was just for fun in his spare time. Kaoru Hisaishi had only been chatting for a short while when his classmates called him over to help.

Miyahara Nagisa sat behind the counter, twirling Iori's phone in her palm.

I didn't realize it when I was nervous, but now that I've relaxed, my gaze towards this phone has changed.

'Speaking of which, Iori's phone must hold a lot of secrets, right?'

'Does he usually talk about me with Shino and the others?'

Have the notes in the contact book been changed?

'...'

Just a little thought, and a lot of strange ideas pop into my head.

However, just like she adheres to many 'rules,' not rummaging through other people's belongings is also an almost 'habitual' reaction.

After staring at the screen for nearly five minutes, Ms. Miyahara reluctantly gave up the idea of ​​'checking her phone'.

"Om~~"

The moment she put her phone down, the sudden vibration startled Nagisa so much that she almost jumped off her chair.

I looked down and saw that my phone screen was already lit up.

The screen displays a LINE message labeled "[Aiba Chiho]".

The moment he saw the message, Miyahara Nagisa's pupils contracted instantly, his clear eyes reflecting the words on the screen.

[Chiho: Iori-kun, I'm at the entrance of Nanamisaki High School now.]

Chiho: Where are you?

......

"Hasn't that guy replied yet?"

In the car, Takiya Ai, who was sitting in the driver's seat, opened the window a little.

The cool autumn breeze seeped into the carriage through the gaps, bringing with it a slightly dry feeling.

Chiho Aiba remained seated in the back seat, holding her phone in both hands and staring intently at the screen.

However, the message suffix in the Line bar always shows the word 'unread'.

The fingertips gripping the phone case were slightly white.

"Chiho?"

After a long silence, Takiya Ai turned her head in confusion.

Seemingly awakened by the sound, Aiba Chiho quickly raised her head, her facial expression stiffening slightly for a moment before she suddenly smiled and raised her phone again.

Iori has replied.

I'm coming right now.

Stop looking so worried about kindergarten kids, Ai-jie~

The quiet girl, her eyes crinkling with a gentle smile, peeked out from behind her phone, her expression calm and natural.

Upon seeing this, Takiya Ai was taken aback at first, then seemed to relax and remarked, "This girl should have replied sooner! Speaking of which... coming to the high school's cultural festival on a weekday?"

"Is that Iori kid here on a date with another girl?!"

Thinking back to the fierce-looking girl she had met before, Takiya Ai felt that the more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed.

After all, the girl I saw last time, although she had a very large seal, looked to be only about the age of a high school student.

Maybe I'll go to school here!

The thought of this made her gasp inwardly.

"Oh right! Chiho... Chiho, wait a minute!"

"?"

Aiba Chiho, who was about to open the door and get out of the car, was taken aback for a moment, and then turned to look at Takiya Ai, who looked a little flustered.

"Um, did you see Iori near you last time...?"

"A high school girl?"

"..."

Chiho Aiba was taken aback. After a moment's thought, she assumed that Ai-nee was referring to Nagisa Miyahara.

After thinking about it for a few more seconds, I realized that Ai-jie didn't seem to know about Iori-kun's family situation.

For a moment, the expression on his face became somewhat subtle.

After mentally organizing my thoughts and trying to make my words as tactful as possible, I picked up my phone again.

Don't worry, she and Iori... don't seem to have reached that level of relationship yet.

"?"

Takiya Ai's expression clearly showed some doubt. After thinking for a while, she finally came to a conclusion using the logic of a normal person.

That girl...was she also pursuing me?

Or were they childhood sweethearts or like the older brother next door?

So Chiho knew about that girl's existence?

Hearing this, Takiya Ai finally relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief: "Then you can't lose to her!"

"come on!"

"Ok!"

Chiho Aiba nodded vigorously, opened the car door, and strolled into the open campus.

However, after getting off the bus, the sweet smile that had been on the taciturn girl's lovely face involuntarily slipped away, and her eyes showed a slight sadness.

She glanced down at her phone.

The message on the screen is still in 'unread' status.

I wonder what Iori is doing.

Is Iori ignoring me?

Or did you just see something through 'precognition'?

Or is it really as Ai Jie said, that he couldn't find the time because he was on dates with other girls?

Replying to emails immediately when you're not busy is a good habit.

Efficient replies themselves don't necessarily mean anything, but the attitude behind them often clearly demonstrates the importance both parties place on the message, and can also give the person who cares a strong sense of security.

Conversely, for someone who cares about "him" enough, even something as trivial as "replying a little late" can strip away the emotions that surround his fragile heart like a wall.

The more you care, the more severe the sense of loss becomes.

At least, Chiho, who was about to confess her feelings, felt as if a piece of her chest had been ripped out.

She couldn't even maintain the smile she had just managed to keep in front of Ai-jie.

'But... if we can't find Iori.'

'what to do?'

The girl felt a sense of panic rising within her just thinking about this.

It was as if if they couldn't say it today, they might never have this almost reckless courage again.

Driven by these feelings, she wandered aimlessly around the campus until... she bumped into a dense crowd coming from the opposite direction.

Chiho Aiba was startled at first, then subconsciously looked up in the direction of the crowd.

Then, you can see a dense array of cameras pointed at the sky at the very front of the crowd.

At the center of the crowd stood the tallest teaching building on campus.

A student was standing on the top of the teaching building.

He was holding a megaphone and shouting something at that moment.

Aiba Chiho's gaze paused slightly.

Then, a light gradually appeared in his eyes.

......

"I am Kurosawa, a third-year junior high school student!"

"What I want to say here today is, please, Ms. Kinoshita, who is our homeroom teacher, wear black stockings to class one more time!"

"Because it was so good, and it awakened a strange fetish in me, I couldn't stop thinking about it after watching it once!"

"This is my lifelong request before I graduate!"

Please—

"Hahahaha-"

After the students on the roof shouted out his request at the top of their lungs, bursts of laughter erupted from below. Only a female teacher standing in the front row covered her face and turned away, being teased and laughed at by her colleagues.

Wearing a mask, Shiina Iori watched the excitement from the crowd downstairs with a curious expression.

He was just in another building when he got curious and thought there was some juicy gossip going on, so he immediately ran over.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out that it wasn't someone under too much academic pressure who wanted to shine in front of everyone at this moment, but rather a reality TV show called "The Claims of Minors".

The show itself wasn't anything special; it was just a group of middle school students gathered together to shout out some funny things on the rooftop.