The Heroines Want to Confess.

Chapter 136: Caught in the Act

After the volleyball practice ended.

Sakurai Saki separated from his teammates.

Then walked out of the gymnasium together with Itsuki.

[My Master, under the feet of the meat buns girl, there's a pincers poking out!]

Inside Sakurai Saki's head, Shinobu spoke up.

Earlier, Sakurai Saki had woken her. She usually slept during the day, only becoming lively at midnight—such a troublesome habit of vampires.

[Pincers? And hey, is "meat buns girl" a nickname for Itsuki?]

[Ka ka~ she does look quite tasty (˵ ¬ ؂ ¬˵) . Oya~ I'm talking about an Oddity, not the meat buns girl. ┐(´～｀ˇ)┌]

[That "pincers" thing—what kind of creature is it from? Lobster? Crab? And hey, stop trying to guess my thoughts without permission. I have zero interest in a girl who's 159cm tall and weighs nearly 60kg.]

Sakurai Saki could only think of two animals with such claws.

[But that thing seems very shy, doesn't want to show itself. Ka ka~ we'll need to use a small trick to lure it out.]

A type of arthropod that eats away at someone's weight.

"Itsuki, when did your weight drop the most sharply? Or rather, when did it begin?"

Hearing that, Itsuki thought for a few seconds, then answered: "Since the time you slept over at my house."

"So it's been quite a while."

"Umu, ever since that day, I started doing morning runs. At first, I thought it was thanks to running 2km every day…"

Sakurai Saki interrupted her: "2km?"

"Are you just warming up? That kind of morning jog that ends in under ten minutes—what effect does it even have?"

Meat buns girl, think about it simply: a single meat bun might even have more calories than the amount you burn running.

Well, with her math skills, she probably can't calculate it anyway, so asking like this is useless.

"I feel like it's quite a lot though." Nakano Itsuki said seriously.

Every time she finished running, she was panting heavily.

"Yeah, running 2km every day, losing 15 kilos is totally normal." Sakurai Saki tilted his head as he spoke.

Itsuki glanced at the vending machine nearby—she was feeling a bit thirsty.

Sakurai Saki was also thirsty.

The two of them, in perfect sync, headed toward the water source.

"Totally not normal!" Itsuki retorted.

"See? You knew it yourself." Sakurai Saki said helplessly.

Humans are always deceiving themselves—same goes for losing weight. There are even people who ask — [Hey, coach, does the cheat meal come before the main meal or after?]

Of course it's before! Otherwise, how would you trick your stomach?

If you manage to trick your stomach, it won't digest the next portion of food.

Yeah right, that's a lie, don't believe it. If you eat a cheat meal, don't eat rice anymore.

...

(Note: I don't go to the gym or diet so I don't really understand this part.)

...

"What do you want to drink?" Nakano Itsuki asked.

"I'll buy it myself." Sakurai Saki didn't want to accept anything for free.

"Treat it as payment for listening to me vent, is that not okay?"

"Then I'll take this one." Sakurai Saki changed his tone.

If it's payment for being bothered, then he definitely had to accept!

"Black coffee? Ara~ Sakurai-san, so you actually like drinking this stuff? Heh~, are you pretending to be grown-up?" Nakano Itsuki teased: "Even if you drink bitter coffee, it won't make you an adult~"

Itsuki: (≖⩊≖)

"What are you talking about? Everyone has their own preferences, right, meat buns girl?"

Hmm, no matter how you hear it, that nickname sounds like a magical girl codename.

Breakfast lineup: Steamed Bun Girl, Fried Dough Girl, Ramen Girl…

Just hearing it makes you hungry. Sakurai Saki was getting hungry too.

[You're hungry, aren't you?]

[Shinobu-san, please stop eavesdropping on my thoughts without permission, thank you.]

[Last time you seemed to react to this version of me…]

[I only like big breasts, Oppai is Eternal.]

( • )( • ) ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧

[Liar!]

After a short and quick exchange in his mind.

Sakurai Saki took the can of coffee that Itsuki handed him.

He took a big gulp, as if to prove that he wasn't drinking coffee just to act like an adult.

But in Itsuki's eyes, that action only further proved that her earlier guess was right.

"Meat buns girl?" Only now did Itsuki realize.

"A friendly nickname." Sakurai Saki replied.

He wondered what Miku liked to eat for breakfast. Next time he could try asking.

Magical Girl Quintuplets, that actually sounded pretty interesting.

"Nicknames like that aren't fun at all." Itsuki twisted the cap off her bottle of green tea.

She was fairly strong—at least strong enough to open a bottle.

But maybe girls "can't open bottles" just to act spoiled in front of boys. After all, when they get angry and hit someone, they aren't weak at all.

"You can give me a nickname too, I don't mind." Sakurai Saki said casually.

"You saying stuff like that is really weird." In Itsuki's impression, Sakurai Saki was the strict type—at least when teaching or scolding people, he never held back.

"Among the five sisters, you're the one who gives me the most peace of mind—you're studious and very diligent."

…That was a lie!

The real reason Sakurai Saki didn't deliberately keep his distance from her was:

Because Itsuki had the lowest favorability toward Sakurai Saki, he was also the least on guard around her. In front of her, he didn't have to worry about the teacher-student relationship, because Itsuki was fundamentally incapable of falling for him—Sakurai Saki thought so.

"But I failed two subjects on the last test."

"It was just the midterms."

"My dad said your teaching level is really high. He didn't expect we'd pass so many subjects." When mentioning her father, Itsuki showed a slightly complicated expression.

Her father, although his tone at the time was as cold as usual, Itsuki could still hear that he was in a good mood.

What Itsuki didn't know was that the reason Nakano Maruo was so pleased was mostly because he felt that, with Sakurai Saki being so busy teaching, he had absolutely no time to develop romantic feelings toward his daughters! That's why he was happy. Finding such a high-quality peer-aged tutor for his daughters—how could he not be pleased?

"There's no shortcut to studying. Just take it step by step, and you'll eventually learn." Sakurai Saki said, glancing at Itsuki, "Shirogane said that to me."

Itsuki nodded: "If the top student says it, it's more convincing than if it comes from you."

"That second line just now was a lie."

Itsuki's expression instantly became complicated. In the next second, she reached to grab Sakurai Saki's collar—but he dodged, and as a result, she stumbled straight into his arms.

General Affairs Sakurai was just about to push her away.

Right at that moment —

"Ara ara~ Saki-kun, what are you doing hugging her like that?" Fujiwara Chika stood not far from the two of them, with a soft smile on her face.

But! That smile of hers seemed a bit dangerous.

Chika: (≖ᴗ≖ ✿)~

"Sneaking around outside to find stray cats is not a good habit~" Chika tilted her head, her light pink hair tilting along with it.

Sakurai Saki didn't notice the signs that she might pull out her legendary kitchen knife from behind her back. He simply pushed Itsuki away quickly.

Thank goodness—he almost spilled the coffee.

He glanced at Chika and finally noticed her slightly odd expression. Without thinking much, Sakurai Saki walked straight over to her and hugged her tightly.

"Sorry, I broke my promise."

A direct approach tactic to suppress the pink-haired yandere.

Chika stood dazed for a few seconds, as if steam was about to rise from her head—

(//Ò///Ó//)

"Saki-kun, someone might be watching…" After coming to her senses, Chika buried her face in his chest and whispered.

"I won't fall for her. You don't need to worry."

"I know, but this is next to the gym. There are a lot of people… Someone might see us." Chika anxiously tried to push him away.

But actually, there was no one. Sakurai Saki's positioning was very calculated—he didn't expose any viewing angles to others.

A dozen seconds later, once Fujiwara Chika gave up struggling, Sakurai Saki finally let go of her.

"Let's go to the game center. We had plans, right?"

Chika's hand was held by him. She lowered her head, not daring to look at him.

"Mm~"

( ⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)~

[Today's victory: Sakurai Saki wins (narrowly avoided a tragic yandere incident?)]

...

One minute later.

By the vending machine, where she'd been crouched since Sakurai Saki pushed her away, Itsuki finally calmed down.

She'd ended up hugging him…

"Eh? Where's Sakurai-san?"

Itsuki felt her phone vibrate, so she opened it to check.

Then read out Sakurai Saki's message aloud: "I have a bit of a lead on your problem. I'll explain it to you tomorrow, so don't worry."