Not to mention, if their families found out they were Pretty Cure, DokiDoki! Pretty Cure might have disbanded on the spot today. Naturally, avoiding that outcome was for the best.
Just as expected, Ash-sensei wasn't an unreasonable person!
"Ash-sensei—" Ai still wanted to say something to Ash, but this time, Ash spoke first.
"Aida Mana."
"Hm?"
Ai tilted her head when he suddenly called her name.
"I wasn't calling you. I was just saying the name." Ignoring Aida Ai's resentful stare, Ash continued musing. "Aida Mana. Your name is Ai, meaning love, but everyone uses the katakana pronunciation and calls you Mana."
"That's really strange."
At first, everyone thought Ash was cooking up some bizarre scheme. When they heard what he was actually thinking, though, they nearly collapsed.
So that was what you cared about?!
"Wait, how can you call someone else's name strange?!" As one of Ai's childhood friends, Arisu immediately became displeased at Ash picking apart Ai's name.
Ignoring Arisu and the others' complaints, Ash continued in his own way. "Rather than Mana or whatever, how about I call you LOVE? I used to call someone Luck, after all."
"No, there's no need! Ash can just call me Mana, like Rikka and the others do!"
Ai frantically waved her hands. She was already used to being called Mana, so changing it suddenly would feel strange. Besides, calling her Love felt like it would overlap with someone else.
"Oh? So we're already close enough to call each other by our given names?"
"Eh...?!"
Ash's sudden question made Ai, who had not been thinking along those lines at all, suddenly realize something. Seeing the mischievous grin on his face, warmth rose in her heart, and her cheeks flushed faintly.
"I-I wouldn't say no."
Although she wanted to say more, Kentaro