The Beast in Her Heart Slowly Awakens (10/10)

Since the housing agent had greeted her, they must have known each other. And the person in question was Kei Karuizawa.

She'd been planning to go out, and hadn't expected to run into the housing agent here.

"Ah, I'm cleaning up the dorm for the boss. What, heading out to have fun?"

As he spoke, the housing agent looked Karuizawa up and down.

Hmm, a T-shirt and shorts. It looked like a pretty nice outfit. The only downside was that the shirt wasn't cropped.

That made sense, though. She still had that scar on her stomach, so she wouldn't want to show it.

"Yeah. Are you here to clean up Ryuen's room?"

"Yep. She hasn't been back for days, so I'm tidying up her dorm. Wouldn't want any trash left around for days to start stinking."

"Ahaha. Well, don't let me keep you."

Karuizawa wanted to say a little more to the housing agent, but she didn't know what to talk about. So she just stood there laughing awkwardly, unsure what to say.

"Right, I'd better get to work. Go have fun if you want."

"Um... Hoya."

"Hmm?"

"Could we exchange contact info?"

"Ah, sure."

Although Hoya didn't know why Karuizawa had suddenly brought it up, he agreed.

After all, he had been planning to get closer to Karuizawa, but this seemed... even easier than he'd expected.

He'd been busy with Plan A lately and hadn't had time to focus on Plan B, yet somehow Plan B was going smoothly too.

How strange.

Hoya quickly forgot about chatting with Karuizawa when he saw Ryuen Shoko's dorm room.

Was this seriously not a pigsty? No wonder she didn't want to come back. Who would? It was a complete mess.

"This is unbelievable. Just unbelievable. How can a girl's dorm room be this messy?"

Looking at the clothes and trash scattered all over the floor, Hoya couldn't help sighing.

Well, he'd just have to clean it up bit by bit.

First, he gathered all the clothes strewn around and put them in the washing machine.

Fortunately, there was detergent here. Otherwise, he wouldn't have known what to do.

He felt a little awkward handling a girl's underwear, but first of all, there was none of that fabled "girl scent." Instead, there was an indescribable smell. Second, these were Ryuen's clothes, and Ryuen's clothes automatically lost a level of appeal. Finally, he was busy, and the mess was irritating him. He didn't have the time to think about any of that.

Just stuffing all the clothes into the washing machine had already given him a headache.

As for the rest... Oh, the bedroom was even worse.

The kitchen and bathroom were the cleanest places. She couldn't cook, so the kitchen had never had a chance to get trashed; she'd just been using it for storage. And there was only so much mess she could make in the bathroom, since she couldn't stay in there for long.

The real problems were the living room and bedroom.

After stripping the filthy sheets, duvet covers, and pillowcases off the bed and putting them in the bathroom to wash, he started sweeping and mopping.

Halfway through sweeping and mopping, he heard the washing machine finish, so he went to hang the clothes up to dry. Then he washed more things and went back to sweeping and mopping.

By the time he'd gotten Ryuen's dorm spotless, several hours had passed.

"Ah... Next time she asks me to do something like this, I'm charging her. Wait, why was I cleaning her room again? Oh, right, so she could come back and sleep in her own bed."

He'd been so busy he'd nearly worked himself dizzy. Hoya pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to calm down.

Maybe he needed to get some proper rest.

"They should be delivering it soon, right? Let me check the phone number Ichinose gave me..."

When Ichinose had gone to help, she'd gathered everything he needed, making it easier for him to take care of the arrangements.

She'd left him a phone number so he could get in touch, which would make it more convenient when the food was delivered.

"Hello, I'm the student who ordered the roast leg of lamb. Yes, that's right. How's it coming along? It's ready? What sauce? Honey glaze is fine. Yes, please cut it up for me. Great, thanks for your hard work. Have the points been paid? They've already been paid? All right, wonderful. Then could you deliver it to the dorm I specified? Yes, that's right. All right, thanks for the trouble."

After ending the call, Hoya sent Ichinose a message to thank her and paid her back the points she'd spent. She'd used her own points to buy everything for him, after all. He couldn't just take a free meal.

Once he'd finished everything, Hoya saw that the clothes were all hanging up to dry and nodded in satisfaction. He could come back and tidy the rest tomorrow... No, what was he thinking? She could clean it up herself tomorrow. What did he care?

He closed the door again, said goodbye to the dorm supervisor, and left. What a weekend. Next week was going to be hectic all over again... Ah, just thinking about all that crap gave him a headache.

"Ugh."

"Why are you sighing the moment you walk in? Not happy?"

"No, I'm just thinking about how busy I've been ever since I got to school."

Hoya shook his head and said nothing more. Instead, he put his apron back on. "All right, I'm going to make dinner."

He'd bought a little extra rice at lunch, so they could just heat it up for dinner. Neither of them was fussy about food. A simple meal was enough.

"Okay."

"Oh, someone's going to deliver food later. Remember to answer the door."

"What did you order this time?"

"You'll find out when it arrives."

Leaving her curious, Hoya went to the kitchen to make dinner.

Less than twenty minutes later, someone knocked on the door.

"Coming."

Ryuen opened it and saw the delivery guy holding a dish wrapped in foil. "This is the right place, isn't it? Let me check... Yes, it is. Enjoy your meal."

The delivery guy seemed busy too. He handed Ryuen the dish and hurried off, leaving her staring at it in confusion.

What was this?

She put it on the table and opened the foil. Inside was a heap of meat.

"What did you buy?"

"Oh, roast leg of lamb. You wanted some, didn't you? So I asked the cafeteria to make it."

Hoya came out with dinner just then. The meal consisted of stewed green beans, boiled greens, and chives stir-fried with eggs, along with the roast leg of lamb. It was just right.

Hmm, they probably wouldn't finish it all. There really was a lot.

He hadn't expected the serving of roast lamb to be so huge. It wouldn't even fit on two plates.

No wonder they'd charged so many points.

"You really are something..."

Ryuen Shoko seemed... a little moved?

Chapter 75: The Beast in Her Heart Slowly Awakens (10/10)

Whatever Hoya usually did, the surprise he'd given her this time had genuinely caught Ryuen Shoko off guard.

The roast lamb looked beautifully prepared, and it must have cost a lot of points. She hadn't expected him to remember something she'd mentioned offhand, let alone go out of his way to ask someone to make it.

The cafeteria didn't sell this, she knew that much. Otherwise, she wouldn't have started craving it when she saw some at the supermarket.

Hoya must have gone to a lot of trouble, and probably spent plenty of points too. Cooking a big batch of food was different from making a carefully prepared dish. He'd spent nearly four thousand points on the roast lamb alone.

"You really are..."

"All right, don't make that face. Here, you seem pretty much recovered, so I'll let you have one can tonight."

He took out a can of beer that he'd bought on the way back and hadn't chilled, letting her have one to relax.

"I... I know."

Holding the can, Ryuen Shoko popped it open. She looked at Hoya and tapped the table. "You. Drink with me."

"Sure, sure. I'll drink with you."

Hoya picked up a can of beer too. They clinked cans and began their dinner.

Ryuen Shoko didn't ask why he was being so nice to her. She was afraid to find out.

If the reason turned out to be different from what she imagined, she might be terribly disappointed.

When people became a certain way, it wasn't just their innate personality that shaped them. Their environment and family had even more to do with it.

Ryuen had been a good kid in elementary school, but for some reason, she'd gradually become a delinquent in middle school. She needed to toughen herself up, so she'd trained her body even harder than her counterpart in the original story. That was how she could defeat all her opponents.

She wanted to be the boss. That way, when she ran into trouble, she could send her underlings to handle it.

When she'd stood up on Monday and declared that she would become the king of Class C, she'd been nervous. She didn't know whether anyone in the class was secretly formidable. Even Albert had only lost because she'd caught him off guard.

Beating the big guy in three punches sounded impressive, but only those involved knew the truth. Ryuen understood exactly what had happened to Albert. He'd underestimated her on the first punch, and the next two had left him too unsteady to stay on his feet, so of course he'd fallen.

Otherwise, Ryuen might still have beaten the big guy, but whether she could have taken him down so quickly was another matter.

Maybe she would've had to rely on sheer grit and beat Albert little by little. Who knew?

"What's wrong?"

"Give me another can."

"Hey, we said just one."

"I said I want another."

"...Fine, one more. Don't drink too much."

Seeing the look on Ryuen's face, Hoya couldn't bring himself to force her to stop at one can of beer.

Whatever. If she wanted another, she could have another. She was pretty much better now, so it should be fine.

Sometimes, Hoya just couldn't bring himself to be harsh. He was an ordinary person like that: he had a tough streak, but he wasn't tough enough. It was especially hard for him to give strict orders to people he knew well.

That was his weakness, and a problem he had to face.

"Mm... It's hot."

Although they'd agreed she could have only one more, one led to another, and before long Ryuen Shoko had drunk quite a bit.

They'd finished dinner, and now they were drinking as they picked at the dishes. Gradually, they both started to feel the alcohol. Feeling hot, Ryuen Shoko took off her shirt.

"Should I turn on the air conditioner?"

"No, taking off a layer is enough."

"Mm..."

Her bare, pale body was exposed, and Hoya couldn't stop staring.

The alcohol had robbed him of his usual composure. He was a virgin who usually had to find ways to distract himself and hold back. But today, he couldn't resist. He stared straight at Ryuen.

"What? You're staring pretty hard. Do you like what you see?"

"Yeah."

When he realized Ryuen had noticed him looking, Hoya hurriedly glanced away and took another sip of beer, trying to hide his embarrassment.

But Ryuen Shoko didn't stop. She moved right beside Hoya and plopped down on his lap. "What's wrong? Didn't you want to look?"

"Um... I mean, not that much."

Having a beauty in his arms was... exciting. It made his young blood race—or maybe he should say, made him hard?

"Is that so? Then are you sure you don't want to take a good look? Or maybe touch me a little~"

Ryuen was getting bolder too. She leaned against Hoya and stroked his neck. "This morning, when I sat on your lap, I could tell."

"Tell what?"

"Someone wasn't behaving, was he?"

Ryuen smiled and wiggled her hips. She could clearly feel a little bump pressing against her butt.

She'd never felt anything this thrilling before.

Maybe they'd both had too much to drink and let their inhibitions slip. Ryuen Shoko opened her mouth and said, "Hey, feed me."

"Huh?"