Ichinose Honami Is Taking a Bath

He has always been a student with an extreme gambling addiction; after all, he earned his original twelve million Private Points through gambling at the Sports Festival.

"I can get the Private Points from Ryo, but you must guarantee that if there really is a betting event in this area, you can only bet all your money on Suzune."

After hesitating for a while, Shiina Hiyori finally gave this answer.

"Investing such a large amount will only lower Suzune's odds significantly. Even if she wins, she won't make much. If you trust me, I'll handle all the points. This is never just about placing bets; there are things to consider both inside and outside the venue..."

"I never thought it was a good idea in the first place."

Shiina Hiyori interrupted Ryuen Kakeru's speech with unusual firmness.

"Placing all our hopes on this kind of thing only proves that our class is not far from being finished. Dragging Liang into this mess will also be pointless."

At this point, Shiina Hiyori took another deep breath, and as if she had made a decision, she spoke resolutely:

"The Special Exam is in a month. If you can prove that our Class D is still a class that can be saved, I'll agree to do everything I can to transfer Ryo to our class."

As if completely unprepared for Shiina Hiyori's answer, Ryuen Kakeru also stood there stunned for a moment before a knowing smile appeared on his right lip. He ran his hand through his long hair, rubbed the back of his head, and finally nodded.

Okay, I understand what you mean.

"What were Hiyori and Ryuen talking about just now? It seemed like they were chatting for quite a while."

"Some things happened within the class... I just asked him how he noticed Hui and me doing these things."

Perhaps feeling that lying in front of her closest friend was indeed a very difficult thing, Shiina Hiyori quickly changed the subject and looked at her best friend who had been with her for the past two weeks, discussing, preparing, and arranging everything.

"Speaking of which, doesn't Hui feel a little regretful today? It feels like she was just accompanying me and helping me the whole time."

"Hmm? It's alright, after all, we already agreed to help Hiyori deliver the ring smoothly."

Karuizawa Kei half-squatted beside the tree, propping her chin up with her right hand, watching the sun gradually move westward on the horizon, and lazily yawned.

"After all, I've seen Liang in class every day since he transferred here, so I won't care about a day or two. Besides, I've already done what I needed to do."

"... Wait, I don't think I've given out my gift yet. Hmm, it seems the cold gift hasn't arrived either. Well, that's alright."

When Karuizawa Kei mentioned her Valentine's Day gift, Shiina Hiyori was also a little curious. After all, the two had been inseparable for half a month, and she hadn't really seen the other make Matoba.

"It seems Hui didn't choose handmade chocolate?"

"Yeah, I even told Liang that other people would definitely give him chocolates, so I wouldn't. Anyway, he can't finish them all."

Karuizawa Kei stretched casually and took out a small gift box with equally exquisite packaging from her bag.

"Look, it's right here. I ran into Ryo at noon today, but I was so focused on telling you what to do that I forgot to deliver it."

"So what exactly is it? Hmm... it doesn't look very big."

Shiina Hiyori tilted her head in confusion. Her Valentine 'Shiina Hiyori gift today was, of course, the ring that was to be given away, but she was completely clueless about Karuizawa Kei's gift.

"Well, I'll keep that a secret for now, but Hiyori should find out soon enough. I'll give it to him when it cools down tonight."

Karuizawa Kei chose to remain in suspense, then put the gift box away and glanced at the time on her phone.

"Okay, it's already past three o'clock. Let's walk around for a bit more, then find a place to eat, and then go back to the dorm to take a shower before coming back. Setting this up is really time-consuming, mainly because Ryuen brought over a bunch of troublesome things from somewhere. But even without him, we would have spent the whole afternoon doing this, so it's not too bad."

"Indeed, the matchmaking event seems quite lively. Let's go check it out to kill some time—we won't go inside the Gymnasium."

"Uh-huh."

As agreed beforehand, Kitagawa Ryo and Ichinose Honami parted ways a little earlier after finishing dinner, each returning to their respective dormitories to prepare for the Fireworks Festival in a little over an hour.

However, Kitagawa Ryo did not return to his room immediately. Instead, he went directly to the club building, successfully obtained the key that Tsukishiro had his secretary place somewhere, and then pushed open the door to the Drama Club activity room.

"As expected, they prepared two different versions... Tsukishiro really knows how to handle things."

After receiving the two pairs of rings that Tsukishiro had specially ordered from outside the school at a high price, Kitagawa Ryo thought for a moment and decided not to take them both. Instead, he chose one that he felt better and put the other one in his closet and locked it away.

However, he didn't just take the one he wanted back to his dorm. Instead, he ran back to the Gymnasium and handed it to a staff member he had also spoken to beforehand. He told the staff member that the prop was in place before running back to his dorm.

"I'm back—Hotaru, did you bring the present...?"

As soon as he opened the door, Kitagawa Ryo greeted Hotaru as always.

However, he didn't have time to finish speaking.

Because there are still people in the room.

To be precise, there was someone standing in the entryway.

It's Horikita Suzune.

In that instant, Kitagawa Ryo suddenly had a sense of déjà vu, a feeling that came from a certain epilogue world line named 'Taming and Being Tamed'.

Hotaru happily wagged her tail on the shoe cabinet behind her.

Really.

A ring is the World's Smallest Collar.

Its function is not to tame, but to release.

Chapter 480: Ichinose Honami is taking a bath

"... Suzune?"

Without any expectation, or even the slightest thought, Kitagawa Ryo immediately deduced Shiina Hiyori's intentions the moment he was tricked at Shiina Hiyori.

But Horikita Suzune's appearance was completely unexpected by Kitagawa Ryo.

Moreover, at this particular time, in this manner, and in this Matoba, even if you said that Amasawa Ichika was lying in wait to give him a scare similar to that of Arisu in the morning, Kitagawa Ryo wouldn't be as surprised as he is now.

But it was Horikita Suzune who happened to appear here at this very moment.

"Hmm--Surprised?"

However, Horikita Suzune's own answer quickly pulled Kitagawa Ryo out of some unpleasant memories. After all, she was no longer the same person in Karuizawa Kei's first simulation of the world line, who had been dragged from one pitfall to another by Kitagawa Ryo who only wanted to deal with things casually. That almost extreme sense of inferiority and the resulting possessiveness were also gone.

Rather, what stands before Kitagawa Ryo is merely a lovestruck young girl, captivated by her lover's special gift. It's just that due to his own profound shock, he unconsciously developed some PTSD symptoms. After calming down and observing carefully, he regained his composure and began to subtly probe and try to understand the situation before him.

To be honest, although Kitagawa Ryo's own dormitory room is slightly less private, among the few people who have spare keys, Horikita Suzune is the one who basically won't raid without warning, let alone break in. She's practically never done it, even though Honami, who should be taking a Honami in her dormitory room upstairs right now, has done it a few times.

After school, the two of them would usually buy groceries and cook at Suzune's house. As for the reason, according to Horikita Suzune, her room had too many small and important things. Not to mention outside the kitchen, even inside the kitchen, the tea set in this cabinet was a gift from Karuizawa Kei, and the tea in that display case was brought by Shiina Hiyori, so as to avoid them getting bumped or damaged.

In fact, just like Horikita Suzune who went to the Student Council's office for lunch today, although she wouldn't say it outright, she still didn't like Kitagawa Ryo's excessive and mixed colors and smells. So most of the time, she would choose to bring Kitagawa Ryo to her place, to her room, so that he would be covered in her scent.

Kitagawa Ryo was also aware of this situation, and it was precisely because of this that there must be something strange about Suzune's appearance here, or something that had happened in a place and at a time that he was unaware of.

"It's alright, but I didn't expect to see someone standing in the entryway as soon as I walked in, so I was startled for a moment."

Of course, before finding clues and deducing the truth, Kitagawa Ryo remained calm and composed, changed his shoes naturally and went into the room. He then quickly caught sight of Hotaru, who had already put away her tail and was sitting upright on the sofa, looking obedient.

"When did Suzune arrive? Have you been waiting for a while?"

"It'll probably only take an afternoon, maybe three hours? Because I don't know exactly when Liang will be back."

Feeling a sudden, heavy atmosphere engulf him, Kitagawa Ryo picked up his teacup, poured himself a glass of water, and drank it all in one gulp. Fortunately, Honami needed at least an hour to get there, so he didn't have to worry about being suddenly and violently pushed open the door while chatting with Suzune.

"I didn't see Suzune at the Gymnasium today."

"Well, I was on the outer edge of the area this morning, had lunch at the Student Council, and then came here in the afternoon. At that time, Hotaru..."

At this point, Horikita Suzune herself hesitated and paused for a moment.

Based on her past personality and style of doing things, she would definitely bring up the strange thing that happened at the Student Council at noon, since it wasn't the first or second time that their conversation had turned to work-related topics. But at this moment, Horikita Suzune remembered the advice from Horikita Manabu, which she hadn't heard in a long time.

After all, compared to this matter, she had more important things to do, or rather, questions she wanted to get answers to from Kitagawa Ryo.

"What's wrong, Hotaru? Oh, Suzune must be referring to the gift I asked her to send you. How was it? Did you like it?"

Despite taking every step with caution, Kitagawa Ryo, who had no idea that the traitor was Hotaru, still stepped into the trap.

So, the firefly excitedly raised its tail once again.

As we all know, in various romantic comedy light novels or comics, cross-channel chatting mainly due to information gaps has always been a classic trope that authors have tried and succeeded with. After all, the various misunderstandings that arise from this often push the relationship between the two parties to the next stage by accident.

What I want to see is this set of teeth.

Perhaps because the corners of his mouth were turned up too arrogantly, Kitagawa Ryo also noticed Hotaru behind him, who was cosplaying the wicked smile of a sugar-free bread roll, and vaguely sensed something strange and abnormal.

Come to think of it, this seems to be the first time that Hotaru didn't come out to greet him when he returned to his room, especially considering her strange expression...

Although Kitagawa Ryo, a seasoned siscon who has been widely recognized and certified as such, generally wouldn't cast doubt on Hotaru, he also had to admit that his dear sister had given him quite a few major experiences this year.

Even setting aside her insistence on sleeping in the same bed with him again on his birthday, and the fact that her various statements reek of Germany incest, Hotaru in her cat form has already done a series of things that have caused trouble for her brother. For example, she took advantage of his Summer Vacation Special Exam to leave school, couldn't stand the loneliness, went out for a walk outside the dorm, only to be discovered by second-year student Asahina Nazuna (and Hotaru even initiated the encounter); she activated an automatic simulation without his knowledge, resulting in him gaining even more extraordinary talents; and she abandoned her work and secretly ran away on the day of the Cultural Festival, among many other misdeeds.

Sure enough, after being glanced at by Kitagawa Ryo, the pure white kitten immediately stood at attention and then darted behind the sofa.

However, Kitagawa Ryo didn't have time to ask his younger sister what she had done this time, because right after he asked the question, Horikita Suzune had already approached him, or rather, pressed down on him.

Although there is indeed a height difference between the two, considering that Kitagawa Ryo is sitting on the sofa at this moment, Horikita Suzune actually has the higher position.

She rested her hands on the soft armrests of the sofa, leaning slightly forward. Her long, flowing black hair cascaded down Kitagawa Ryo nose and shoulders, the tips of which carried his most familiar scent.

It smelled like the shampoo in his bathroom.

This afternoon wasn't just wasted waiting!

"I really like the gift, but I would have preferred Ryo to deliver it to me in person."

This was probably one of the softest and gentlest tones of Kitagawa Ryo Horikita Suzune's voice he had ever heard from her since they started dating. The girl's natural voice was clear and melodious, and the close proximity allowed him to see almost every detail on her face. The last rays of the setting sun shone through a corner of the window, casting a brighter shadow on her face, revealing even the fine downy hairs that hadn't completely faded during puberty, as if reminding them that they were in the prime of their lives.

Although Kitagawa Ryo himself remarked in the Valentine's Day letter he sent to Horikita Suzune that their relationship sometimes resembled that of a middle-aged couple who had been married for a long time, this was partly due to their personalities, but also because they had both unconsciously accepted, or rather, followed the continuation of the simulated story.

But from the perspective of age alone, they have all been reborn back to their high school or even junior high school days ten years ago.

Their mindset could have been younger.

Whether it's prioritizing work over romance, or the dynamics and atmosphere of getting along.

Horikita Suzune also cherished every moment they shared, whether it was pushing a shopping cart through the almost empty fresh produce section, picking and choosing, or finding each other waiting with an umbrella after finishing Student Council work and walking out of the club building after a sudden rain, from pots and pans in the kitchen to documents on the desk.

That's why it's said that human desires are insatiable.

Just like how she had always harbored conflicting thoughts about wanting to stay in the Student Council while also wanting to join the Drama Club.

However, for a long time, Horikita Suzune herself was unaware of this.

Because she was growing up all over again, and it was the first time she was learning how to date someone.

If Ichinose Honami wanted to pursue an ending where 'the prince and princess lived happily ever after,' then Horikita Suzune now wants all the stories that were missing before.

One is burdened by the past so much that they feel uneasy about the future; the other is filled with anticipation for the future but feels that the past is too thin and their memories are insufficient.

Under normal circumstances, Kitagawa Ryo could probably easily recreate the aforementioned psychological constructs for the girls in his mind.

But--

Who can tell him now?

What kind of gift did Hotaru give Suzune that made her rush over and say something like that?

However, Kitagawa Ryo was a seasoned veteran who had seen all sorts of situations, and even in this situation with completely unknown information, he still managed to make his own judgment in just a few dozen seconds.

The first thing Kitagawa Ryo thought of was naturally the 'sacred relics' that Hotaru had carefully preserved, namely the photo he had given to Karuizawa Kei as a gift, the 'Ichinose Honami, the ring from Shiina Hiyori, and the USB drive from Sakayanagi Arisu.

After all, although Hotaru always claims to be the god of the simulator, she can't conjure a gift out of thin air, so what she gives to Suzune must be something she already has on hand.

But Kitagawa Ryo quickly dismissed the idea.

Because he clearly remembered that the souvenir Hotaru pulled out of Suzune's simulation was actually the small net that they had torn while playing the goldfish scooping game at the Cultural Festival. It might indeed be quite memorable, but it was definitely not enough to make Horikita Suzune, who was diligently standing guard outside as Student Council member this morning, run straight to his room and stay for the entire afternoon, taking a shower, making a surprise visit, and saying all these things.

Etc...

Kitagawa Ryo remembered that the last girl who was usually reserved and subtle in expressing her feelings, but suddenly turned on him in a certain moment, was named Shiina Hiyori.

The opportunity that emboldened the other person to openly confess their feelings at the door on the day of the Cultural Festival, in front of many guests, was—

Ring.

Ring?

Kitagawa Ryo's thoughts stirred slightly.

But as far as he knew, no items related to the ring appeared in Horikita Suzune's simulation at all.

Rather, it would be more accurate to say that among all his simulations, the only ring that truly held sentimental value was the one worn by Shiina Hiyori.

So, putting aside the simulation, do such props exist in reality?

... There really is.

Kitagawa Ryo quickly connected the ring he had just received in the club activity room. Although theoretically it was a locked room that couldn't be entered without a key, a cat, or rather a cat with a human soul inside it, was definitely not within the scope of normal security measures.