Shurabara!:Volume 1 Chapter 3

Part 1[edit]

“Kazuhiro, let’s go home together!”

Saotome approached Kazuhiro as the afternoon’s class was over.

“Oh, yeah, sure.”

Kazuhiro absentmindedly agreed, and Saotome hugged his arm from his back.

Her boobs… they came in contact with his elbow.

So “soft”… Ah, no. Her boobs were so soft.

This softness… was truly unimaginable if one only looked at them.

“Those two are showing off again!”

“Kazu, good luck!”

Drowned by the classmates’ — mostly girls’ — encouraging words, Kazuhiro was dragged outside by Saotome.

“Wait! Slow down…”

“We already behaved like that this morning. This can’t be helped.”

Saotome drew her lips closer to Kazuhiro, and whispered in his ear, so close that Kazuhiro could feel Saotome’s intermittent stream of hot breaths on his ear.

“Seeing how we started off in the morning, I think we would be best off playing the role of a pair of newly-wed, oblivious couple.”

Ah, so that was it. As an actor, Saotome made an accurate assessment of their current situation, since it would seem really unnatural if they suddenly behaved differently than before.

This meant even more trouble for Kazuhiro, who was only dragged into the whole mess.

To be honest though, Kazuhiro could no longer tell whether he was happy about or bothered by the whole thing.

Saotome unexpectedly tightened her grip on Kazuhiro’s arm. She drew her face closer to Kazuhiro’s as well. A pleasant fragrance, possibly either her shampoo or her perfume, rushed into his nose.

“What happened?”

“N-nothing.”

Saotome looked up and stared intently at Kazuhiro.

He was drowning in her fragrance and the tender sensation of their skin in contact.

This kind of feeling could not be acquired through only talking with “female friends”.

“Alright, let’s maintain this position. It's bad if we act like strangers as soon as we get out of school. We might encounter acquaintances.”

Saotome gripped his arm even more tightly. They were approaching closer and closer toward each other.

Even though there were couples who were holding hands all around them, Kazuhiro and Saotome were the only pair who acted so intimately.

Kazuhiro felt as if he was floating in the air.

It was all a sham, she was not his real girlfriend.

Even though he should not be too pleased with the circumstances, he still couldn’t help but feel thrilled.

“Concentrating all firepower in a short amount of time will make it end faster. This will make it easier as well for Kazuhiro to get a girlfriend,” Saotome had said something like this.

After they exited the campus, Saotome once again put up distance between them. She gradually released her hold on Kazuhiro’s arm, finally letting it go altogether.

“Ah…”

Kazuhiro could not control his voice.

“Ok, this is it for today. I am off for work.”

She had said, that she must be somewhere for the recording of a children’s puppet show.

“I-is that so? Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

Having seen Kazuhiro waving his hands, Saotome nodded her head in response.

“So… this is how one would feel…”

“What… what’s up?”

“This is how one would feel when her boyfriend try to cheer her up… I feel really happy, almost as if I have received some sort of mysterious power…”

Saotome produced a winning smile, with her cheeks a tad bit flushed, making Kazuhiro’s heart beat in a frenzy.

“But, you are still a fake boyfriend. Don’t fall for me for real.”

She turned and ran toward the entrance for check-in as she left those words for Kazuhiro.

Kazuhiro glared at her receding figure with a dull expression. Then, his phone rang in his pocket.

“Ah, shoot!”

It wasn’t an incoming mail nor a phone call. It was a warning for the alarm clock that he had set previously.

Saotome was not the only one who was busy. Kazuhiro also had some urgent matters to attend to.

He jogged toward the “Honey Drops”, and entered through the backdoor.

He didn’t have a shift today, but he came anyway because of Sanae’s request. The two of them had promised to meet in a prearranged spot.

“Yagimoto-san, sorry for the trouble.”

“Sorry, I am late.”

Kazuhiro was late to the appointment by two minutes. Sanae was already there, in her sailor uniform.

“Eh… so how can I help you today?”

Sanae also asked Kazuhiro to be her fake boyfriend, but he was not aware of the exact details yet. It couldn’t be that she was also a voice actor, and needed his help in earning credits and graduating from Dating101?

“I-I am truly sorry for the trouble…”

Her eyes were looking downward, and she kept moving her fingers in circles.

Sanae and Saotome requested the same thing from them, the difference was that Sanae would not resort to hugging him from behind to coerce him into help her. This rather fitted her elegant appearance.

“We need to get rid of the uniforms. Can you come with me?”

“What!”

Sanae extended her hand, quite a bold move for her. She grabbed Kazuhiro’s hand and started running, dragging him along.

Without giving a chance for Kazuhiro to ask any question, they had already arrived at a high-end brand store near the station.

He had heard of this brand before, and it was expensive. He probably couldn’t even afford a single handkerchief under its name.

Usually, Kazuhiro took a lot of care in his appearance. Due to the lack of bills in his wallet, he employed the cheapest method, maintaining a clean, tidy look.

“Lady Sanae, welcome.”

As Sanae entered the premise, all the salesman and saleswoman lined up on both sides of the entrance, in a low bowing position.

“Good work.”

Sanae responded with a confident smile.

Kazuhiro, on the other hand, stood there with his mouth hanging open.

What happened? Am I still living in the same world? Is this normal life for an elite?

This was really shocking, to think that the kind of creature known as noble ladies really exists.

“The products that you ordered have already arrived.”

“Thank you. Moreover, can you pick a set of clothes for him?”

“Of course, please come this way.”

Then, without a moment of pause, Kazuhiro was dragged into the changing room, changing into several set of clothes, with the help of quite a few employees at the store.

A pair of simple yet elegant pants and a jacket in blue and gray, matched with a slim necktie and a bright-colored shirt, looked formal enough without losing class.

High-quality products were high-quality without a doubt. The set of clothes felt light, despite being very formal. By comparison, the uniform that Kazuhiro usually wore was almost unfit for his body.

“Ah, Yagimoto-san, you look really nice.”

Sanae, who has already changed into her formal wear, said with her arms crossed on her chest.

She had shed her uniform, in favor of a chic gown.

“I am really sorry. I should have also ordered a custom-made suit for Yagimoto-san, but I was really out of time.”

Sanae’s gown was custom-made, as mentioned earlier. Kazuhiro’s getup was also not cheap. Still, custom-made clothes would be even more expensive, so expensive that it was hard to make a guess on the price.

“Let’s go, Yagimoto-san… ah.”

Before Sanae’s hand reached Kazuhiro, she shouted.

“What’s up, Tenkyuuin-san?”

“We are lovers, so I should call you Kazuhiro-san.”

Sanae nodded her head, and said with a smile on her face, “Please call me Sanae as well.”

“Emm, yeah… Sanae…-san.”

Calling Saotome by her name was already stretching it. As for a demure, elegant, and intelligent female like Sanae, calling her name was really embarrassing.

To make it worse, Sanae referred him by “-san”.

Since Sanae already offered, as a man, Kazuhiro should take the initiative, and just standing there like an idiot was quite bizarre as well. Kazuhiro also extended his hand and clutched on Sanae, letting her wrap her hands around his arm.

This was quite different from Saotome’s case. With the formal wear on both of them, they looked like social elites or Hollywood star or something.

“Eh… where are we headed now?”

“An art gallery that I frequently visit. Shall we go there and drink tea?”

A frequently visited art gallery… that kind of place sounded really high-class. Kazuhiro would not normally be associated with that sort of thing.

Kazuhiro has always had a feeling, ever since Sanae got hired at the maid’s café, about Sanae not knowing about a lot of things in the real world, almost as if she did not truly live in this world. Who was she?

Besides, he was still not sure of the reason for her request.

Kazuhiro led the way toward the art gallery, while Sanae told him the directions. Male walked on the outer rim of the walk, and was always half a step in the lead. They maintained a moderate pace, so that the girl wouldn’t get tired.

Even though Kazuhiro never got a chance to practice these formalities, he did at least know them well beforehand.

However, perhaps it was because of his nervousness, his motion was quite rigid.

“Hehe… Kazuhiro-san, are you perhaps nervous?”

“Eh… yeah, a bit…”

They stopped before the crosswalk. Kazuhiro stretched his back, and Sanae laughed at the sight.

Kazuhiro usually helped the clueless Sanae with her job. Today, he has seen another side of her.

“Usually I have a ride, though it is pretty close from here.”

Sanae said, as she pressed on the button for crosswalk.

“Ahh!”

Again, too late to stop her.

As Sanae’s hand touched the button, the traffic signal’s red light flashed violently. The warning sound for the traffic light also changed its tone, constantly emanating noises.

“S-sorry… I always wanted to press on it, so I just pressed it without thinking…”

“Sanae-san, you forgot again that you can’t touch any machine.”

A passer-by saw the unusual scene, and promptly reported it to the police. Even though the scene was quite disordered, no catastrophe came out of it.

It was lucky that the light was still in red. If it was in green, a traffic accident could have happened.

“What… do we do? It was my fault…”

“You didn’t do it on purpose. Please be careful next time.”

Kazuhiro comforted Sanae, who was in an agitated state.

It was useless to talk to the police about Sanae’s special ability, that any machine would go out of order upon her touch. The best decision was to immediately leave the venue.

As Kazuhiro turned his head and thought about the incident, he spotted a few suspicious individuals.

They were not people who were disturbed by the malfunction of the traffic light.

They were staring at him, and they hid themselves as their eyes were about to meet.

That was not quite right. The three strangers weren’t hiding at all.

One of them was an older woman who wore black suit. She looked above twenty, and wore a pair of sunglasses, covering up her face.

Behind her, two men wearing the same attire followed. They wore black hats on their head.

They were a hundred percent suspicious, and looked like freelance workers in the black market, otherwise known as gangsters.

If pressed to come up with a few more examples, they looked like the kind of creature often seen on TV, the kind of creatures that would erase the memory of people who accidentally caught sight of UFO.

Sanae… could it be that she is an alien?

If that was so, then everything make sense.

All of her uncharacteristic traits, not knowing much about how the world worked or the special ability to make machines malfunction with just a single touch, could be explained logically.

“Excuse me… do I have something on my face?”

“N-no. Nothing.”

Kazuhiro forced an unnatural smile, desperately trying to abandon the absurd hypothesis.

No matter what, that was not possible.

His childhood friend was a karate master who could easily beat a wild bear. His classmate was a voice actor. He was asked to do a weird request by three girls on the same day. Against these odd occurrences, Kazuhiro was already used to the daily absurdities.

Still, an alien was out of the question. It couldn’t be true. Even absurdity should have its limit.

“Sanae-san, I think there are suspicious people following us right now.”

Kazuhiro resorted to inquiry.

He knew that he himself did nothing dubious. Thus, the one being stalked must be Sanae.

“Shh, don’t make a sound. Please pretend as if we haven’t seen them.”

“Yeah, sure…”

Sanae whispered while holding her finger on her mouth. Kazuhiro replied softly as well.

“I am really sorry. I can’t explain the details right now. The only thing that I can say… is that our relationship is really intimate. In other words, we are lo… lov… lov…” Sanae stammered.

Her voice grew smaller and smaller, and her snowy cheek was gradually colored with a tint of pink.

“The fact that Kazuhiro-san and I are lovers… must be seen by those people!”

“Whoo!”

Sanae’s persistence caused Kazuhiro to let out a squeal despite himself. He immediately covered his own mouth afterward.

“We are on a d-date, right? Anyways, we need to let them see that we are together, or else…”

what is happening? Presently, the situation did not allow any time for Kazuhiro to inquire more.

One thing was known for sure. Sanae must be a dilemma. If the trio who was following them heard Sanae’s explanation, that this date is just a pretense, everything would come to light. Kazuhiro could only go with the flow and keep acting.

Amidst their hurried conversation, the couple have arrived at the said art gallery. It was a petit building built with red brick. There was an open-air café inside.

“It can’t be, lady Sanae? Welcome to our gallery.”

The manager of the gallery, similar to the salespeople, made an effort to come out and greet Sanae. She talked on and on about the works exhibited in the gallery, about how this artist was a local-born youngster, who won a prize in New York last year, and had a bright future ahead.

“Don’t worry about us. Today I am on a date, just a quick visit.”

“What? D-date?”

“Yes. Let’s go in, Kazuhiro-san.”

“Yeah, sure… I am not too confident on my knowledge of paintings. Please enlighten me, Sanae-san.”

In order to cooperate with Sanae on their act, Kazuhiro suddenly adopted an extremely polite attitude.

Since Sanae was a frequent visitor, Kazuhiro decided to leave everything to her, or else he might make mistakes.

Sanae also seemed to understand Kazuhiro’s intention, and proceeded to give details about the art works.

“This is the first painting to obtain the highest honor in Paris.”

“These paintings have their own unique art style.”

…… Sanae was quite cheery as she went on and on.

Kazuhiro could only stand there and listen, trying to not let his mouth hanging open.

Because of frequent request by girls to plan their dates, Kazuhiro used to stay up all night figuring out everything there was to know about date.

Sanae’s professional tour was a first-hand experience of real knowledge, instead of Kazuhiro’s all-night cramming. She probably came here very often.

“A question… Is Kazuhiro-san bored? Because I am speaking all the time…”

“T-that can’t be. I am really happy to see another side of Sanae-san.”

“If you speak in this fashion, I will be really embarrassed…”

Sanae looked down, her face coated with a film of pink.

As they were about to depart from the art gallery, Kazuhiro took a sneak glance behind his shoulders, and discovered that the three of them were still following.

If they were only stalking, it was still acceptable. What if they wanted to harm Sanae? What then?

Even if he was only pretending, he was still her boyfriend. He had the responsibility to be the knight in shining armor if she was in distress.

Nevertheless, it was three versus one, and he wouldn’t have a chance no matter what… if only he was as powerful as Takana…

He couldn’t help but shake his head at this train of thoughts.

On a date, he was not supposed to think about other girls, even if this wasn’t a real one.

“I want two big-mac and a large orange juice, with fries.”

Right. I am even hallucinating about Takana’s voice.

What?

Kazuhiro couldn’t help himself but turned his head.

About ten meters away was a fast food restaurant, and Takana was currently there buying her meal.

This wasn’t a hallucination. This was real. Takana herself was standing there.

She was definitely planning to fill up her stomach before her club activity start.

From the look of it, Takana was only thinking of eating, and has not yet spotted Kazuhiro. However, if he was discovered, how should he explain this?

Could a lame excuse like “we are not actually dating” really solve the misunderstanding?

No, wait. Optimism was overrated. The best strategy was to get out of here quick, and evade all problems.

If Takana decided to fight here, this area would be in danger.

“S-Sanae-san, we need to get out of here!”

“Eh?”

Kazuhiro grabbed the confused Sanae and quickly exited the scene.

To confirm, he looked behind him to check if Sanae was actually there.

Sanae was trying hard to keep up with him. It seemed like she doesn’t jog often. It was more like she was stumbling. It looked rather dangerous.

After a while, the two of them left Takana’s immediate surroundings. She was far away, wholly absorbed in eating her hamburger.

However, the other group still kept following them.

The other group was, of course, referring to the three suspicious individuals in black.

Kazuhiro’s usual composed self was lost at the sudden appearance of Takana. He should have known that if he retreated in a hurry, the three of them would surely follow.

He could hear the footsteps of the two men beside the woman, loud and clear from a distance.

This was a misunderstanding, but he could not just stop and tell them that he didn’t mean to get away from them.

He could not predict what would happen if they caught up with him. Perhaps their location would be discovered by Takana, if they cause a scene.

“Let’s go, Kazuhiro-san! Let’s go to Heaven hotel.”

“Yeah, sure!”

Anyways, the best plan right now was to keep a distance away from the trio, and also from Takana.

Kazuhiro and Sanae ran all the way to Kyuuhito’s Heaven hotel.

The Heaven hotel was a first-class hotel in this city. No matter its height from ground, price, or quality, it was the best in town.

They crossed through the front gate, manned by a security guard in uniform. In front of them was a lobby decorated with red carpet and a grand chevalier, illuminating the entire lobby with tender light.

For a normal high school student, this kind of scenery belonged to another world.

“Whew… it should be fine here.”

Kazuhiro checked around him. The trio as well as Takana was nowhere to be seen.

“Kazuhiro-san… why did we run so hastily? What happened…?”

“Eh? Whoa! Sorry!”

Kazuhiro rapidly removed his hand from Sanae’s, as he just realized that he was still holding onto it.

“Well, it’s ok. It was kind of like playing hide-and-seek when I was a child. It was quite interesting. Also… Kazuhiro-san and I are lovers… so it is really ok.”

Sanae’s face was as red as tomato, and she covered her mouth with her hand, previously held by Kazuhiro.

At that moment, Kazuhiro finally realized an important matter.

Even though they might have escaped from stalkers, they were in a hotel.

Were they left with no choice but to spend a night here? A boy and a girl?

No matter how imperative the circumstance, didn’t checking into a hotel on their first date seem a little bit inappropriate?

Fortunately, Sanae was braver than a normal girl.

No, wait. It was best not to anticipate too much from this. What if this was also a god’s shenanigan?

In Kazuhiro’s pocket, his cellphone rang, interrupting his thought.

“It looks like Kazuhiro-san’s phone call. Please don’t mind me, and pick up the call.”

“Yeah, excuse me for a second.”

“Ah, is it Kazuhiro? It’s me, you okay?”

Kazuhiro almost let out a squeal upon hearing this.

The person who called Kazuhiro was no one other than Saotome.

Why did she have to pick such a time?

Kazuhiro wanted to respond with a simple “what’s up?”, but he decided against it at the last moment.

What if those MIB (Men in Black) were still shadowing him?

If he reverted back to his normal self, he would not look like Sanae’s boyfriend.

“Hey! You okay? Even if I am a fake, I am still your girlfriend, right? Are you not happy at all to get my call?”

Calm down! Calm down!

The best solution in this crisis was to keep acting like Sanae’s boyfriend!

“Hey… hey! Why the sudden call, did something come up?”

“It’s time for intercession break. I suddenly recalled that in TV drama, girls would call their boyfriends, only to hear their voices. That’s why I decided to call you. Is it similar to how real couple would do?”

In TV drama, there was a clichéd scene where a man would get a call from his wife in the middle of a date with his mistress. Was it this kind of feeling?

That wasn’t right, wait… in this case, who was the wife? Who was the mistress?

No, no, no. Calm down. None of them was the wife. They were all fake!

“I-I see. Ah, I feel honored, truly happy.”

Kazuhiro held his breath, and said in a low tone, desperately trying to maintain his act.

“Huh! You are not talking like your usual self. The way you are speaking is pretty weird.”

Saotome let off a laugh at the other end of the call.

Even Kazuhiro knew that there was beyond ridiculous.

However, the only way out now was to act in his designated role no matter what. This was no other way!

“Sorry, I am seriously really busy right now. Is it possible to contact me later?”

“Haha! My nervousness was cured thanks to your antics. Because of you, now I have incentive to do the second part of my work. Thanks.”

Saotome thought that Kazuhiro was only joking. She ended the call amidst her mirthful laughter.

“Sigh…”

A sudden fit of fatigue invaded Kazuhiro, causing him to slug his shoulders.

Kazuhiro hoped that a horrifying assault like this do not happen again.

“Is Kazuhiro-san finished with phone call? Let’s go to the top floor.”

Sanae said with her head tilted.

In this hotel, the top floor was not for accommodation, but rather a lookout restaurant.

There were a lot of servers in the elevator. On a simple request, they would gladly serve customers, so that there wasn’t any need for pressing the buttons.

“So… is it really expensive here?”

Kazuhiro couldn’t help himself but asked, because this building was not only tall in height, but also terrifyingly expensive.

“Please don’t worry about it, Kazuhiro-san. It’s I who asked the favor, so of course I would pay for it.”

Everything that followed was the same as before. The two of them again were treated like VIPs. They were brought to a table with the best view.

The waiter pulled back the chair for Sanae, allowing her to sit down. Kazuhiro sat across her accordingly.

Then, another waiter– no, even though she was wearing a waiter’s uniform, she was a girl, so she should be called a waitress– brought the menu to the table.

“Hello, this is the menu.”

“Wow!”

Kazuhiro was so scared that he almost shouted out, but he managed to cover his mouth in the last moment.

“Sir, is there something of matter?”

He has seen this rigid smile before. Even though she changed into waiter’s uniform, there could be no mistake.

This waitress was one of the trio who followed them earlier– the beautiful short-haired woman. She almost went unnoticed, because she switched from wearing sunglasses to frameless glasses.

Kazuhiro glanced across him. Sanae’s lips was slightly stiff as well, trying too hard to look composed.

“Sir and madam, is there… something of matter?”

The short-haired, beautiful woman spoke in an unyielding tone, filled with menace. She did however maintain a polite demeanor.

From close up, she had a pair of slender eyes. She was definitely an intelligent beauty. However, she exuded an oppressing aura that prevented people from approaching her. She seemed to have a cold personality, almost like a big sister of numerous gangsters.

“No-nothing. Nothing at all.”

Kazuhiro took a deep breath, and reminded himself to not be afraid.

What was it that Sanae expected him to do?

Of course, that would be acting in the role of a lover, and showing his manliness.

Although Sanae was paying for the meal, in this kind of situation, a man gotta do what a man could do, not to mention that the waitress already brought over the menu.

If that was so, the only choice left was to improvise.

Kazuhiro glared hard at the mysterious beauty, and turned to Sanae, showing off a smile.

He resolved himself to not back down, and not give up.

As a man, and as a boyfriend, I will protect you.

That said, being a fake lover was still pretty sad.

“It’s still too early to eat dinner, and I have something to do later anyways. Can we just order some snacks?”

“Of course, please go ahead.”

Sanae replied with her head tilted.

Good. This wasn’t a wrong decision.

Though, it came with an enormous responsibility.

Kazuhiro quickly swept through the contents of the menu.

Most of it was composed of foreign language, hard to understand for Kazuhiro. Granted, there were tiny Japanese translations on the side, but terms like “Burgundy flavor” were confusing, and Kazuhiro was not able to comprehend such words.

“Please bring us two servings of chef’s daily special for the desserts.”

Finally, Kazuhiro came up with the safe card. He was not able to understand the katakana written on the menu, but was saved by a Japanese kanji, meaning dessert.

“What would you like for the drink?”

The short-haired beauty questioned with a pondering expression.

If he had to confirm with the lady before making any decision, he would not be the boyfriend anymore. Thus, he had to form his own opinions.

“This lady would like a black tea, while I’ll have coffee.”

Ok, no problem. Sanae usually drank black tea while at work, so it should be the correct choice.

“Black tea and coffee, ok. What kind of black tea and coffee would you like?”

“Eh?”

Another unexpected question.

This place did not specialize in tea, did they really need to go down to such minor details?

Honey Drops’ drinks did not go into such detailed categorization. Coffee was made from whole-sale cocoa beans and by a standard coffee machine. Black tea was made from tea bags, the kind that was easily purchasable from store.

“Kazuhiro-san, I don’t want Keemun tea, instead I’ll have Darjeeling. It’s not that I don’t trust this place. If there happens to be a small difference, the mouth feel would be drastically different.”

“The order will be as she said. For me, I’ll have Columbian coffee.”

“Chee… ok, please wait a moment.”

The beauty bowed, and did not forget to make a small “chee” sound as she departed, a noise that did not escape Kazuhiro’s ears.

So dangerous. It was good that Sanae helped. Keemun was already pretty high-end, but he had never even heard of Darjeeling tea. It was good that he didn’t pretend to know this stuff, or else he could have humiliated himself just now.

One thing was apparent from this crisis, though.

That was, this woman (and her underlings) must be related to Sanae somehow.

Another thing to note was that they must be pretty familiar with each other, as she even knew Sanae’s preference for tea.

If they are from the underground society, did that imply that Sanae was the daughter of a mafia boss?

If that was so, it was not hard to understand why Sanae didn’t know a lot of stuff about the real world.

“Kazuhiro-san, please.”

Sanae gazed at Kazuhiro, who was in contemplation. She had a serious expression.

“I know that Kazuhiro-san must have a lot of inquiries, and I can’t really explain them all clearly…”

“Don’t worry, I understand.”

Even though the crust of the matter might be quite complicated, he had already accepted her request.

Moreover, a man who asked around too much with the lady unwilling to speak was bound to be unpopular.

“Sorry for the wait.”

After a while, the beauty from before served them with cakes and drinks. Normally, a waitress was expected to leave after the service, but she hid behind a pillar near them and continued to observe him.

Her position was right behind Sanae, so Kazuhiro was able to see her every move.

Kazuhiro didn’t know whether she didn’t want Sanae to discover her, or she wanted to exert some pressure on him.

Calm down. Calm down.

The dessert was nothing rare. It was only normal baked cheese cake.

What was written on the dining decorum that he had so avidly scrutinized before?

If it was a triangular cake, one should start from the cake’s left side, to cut exactly one bite with the sharp edge of the knife, and bring it to one’s mouth.

Afraid of messing up the table decorum, Kazuhiro carefully cut the cake.

The soft cake meekly resisted against his fork, but was nevertheless split into two halves. He secured the bite with his fork, brought it to his mouth meticulously, and finally swallowed the bite. He was careful not to extend his neck in the process.

One must take care to be elegant when eating, with no sound, and swallow only when adequately chewed.

There was nothing to be afraid of in a high class observatory restaurant.

In the end, it was only a cheese cake.

Kazuhiro risked a glance at the trio, who was spying on him.

As expected, the beauty was spying on him. The other two was taking note on their surroundings.

We’ll see who have the last laugh. Even though I don’t know what you are after, I will uphold my role as a conscientious boyfriend.

Perhaps it was because his concentration was broken by observing the trio, the cheese cake collapsed due to decreasing ground work.

“Uhh!”

According to the correct decorum, what should he do in this situation?

How should he attack the cheese cake, which is laid down?

In a wrestling match, this kind of situation sometimes would arise.

Similarly, Kazuhiro was fighting with a fork.

What should he do, attack now or until it stood up again?

As a side note, he learned these from Takana, who loved martial arts manga.

The beauty was still spying on Kazuhiro.

Her eyes suggested that she was waiting for Kazuhiro to make a mistake, so that all of his efforts until now would be wasted.

What should he do? What was the best choice?

Inside Kazuhiro’s mind, a sad minor chord has resounded. His forehead even showed signs of sweat.

“Emm… Kazuhiro-san…”

“Eh?”

Kazuhiro raised his head as he heard the sound, and saw Sanae smiling at him.

“Is Kazuhiro-san… not happy when hanging out with me?”

“H-How can that be… there is no such thing.”

“Can you relax a bit? Seeing your scary facial expression, I am also becoming very nervous. I can’t even savor the cake.”

Looking closely, Sanae’s cake also laid down in front of her. She cut them into small pieces, and fed them into her mouth.

Right, so it was like this.

When a cake laid itself down, there was no need to make it stand up again. Simply eating it normally until the last bite would do.

After relaxing, Kazuhiro was able to savor the cheesecake. No matter the softness, the fineness, or the mouth feel, it was excellent. There was a saying that a master dessert chef could make the most average dessert taste amazing.

“T-This cake was quite delicious.”

“Yes. It seems that this trip was not in vain.”

It was a miscalculation.

On a date, he fussed over such trivial matters, making his girlfriend worry.

He already accepted the request to pretend to be her boyfriend, so he should take this role seriously. How could he cause her more inconvenience?

Showing discontented expressions just because he was nervous, he really had no right to act as a fake boyfriend.

It seemed that merely prepping was not enough, he must learn to improvise.

“Thank you, Sanae-san.”

Kazuhiro said softly. Sanae replied by squinted her eyes.

After the last bite, Sanae put her fork inside the napkin. Kazuhiro did the same.

Sparing a glance toward the beauty, Kazuhiro saw half of her body behind the pillar, biting into the napkin as if with regret.

What did she want?

“Sanae-san, let’s go.”

“Ok, Kazuhiro-san.”

After finishing the tea, the two of them chatted about work. Afterward, Kazuhiro stood up.

He pretended as if there was no problem, and looked around him. The beauty was nowhere in sight. He released his breath as he confirmed the fact.

“So… Kazuhiro-san, thank you for today.”

“I am glad as well.”

Kazuhiro replied as they exited the restaurant.

As a side note, the bill was paid on Sanae’s credit.

“Sanae-san… perhaps I can’t help much, but please notify me if something come up. I will help as much as I can.”

Even though he didn’t want to force Sanae to tell him the whole circumstance, but he knew that he would regret it for the rest of his life if Sanae was in some kind of trouble and he didn’t know about it.

The fact that Sanae asked him to act as her boyfriend meant that there was no other people she could trust.

“Kazuhiro-san, there is nothing to worry about…”

“Is that so? About the people who were just stalking us, you know nothing?”

“It…”

Sanae suddenly became incoherent.

“Sorry. I can’t speak of it right now. If I talk, Kazuhiro-san will…”

“If you speak like this, I can’t just leave it alone.”

Seeing Sanae turned her head with a pained expression, Kazuhiro asked despite himself.

“…I swear, this matter won’t harm me physically in any way. The details… must wait until I mentally prepare myself.”

“There is really no danger.”

“Yes.”

Sanae did not look away this time, staring right at Kazuhiro bravely.

It didn’t seem like that she was lying.

“…Ok, I trust you. You can come to me if anything come up.”

Usually, the two parties should exchange their contact information. The problem was that Sanae didn’t have a cell phone, so Kazuhiro could only resort to writing down his cellphone number, email, and address on a piece of paper.

“It is a promise.”

Sanae extended her right hand, and uncurled her pinky finger.

“Eh… I heard that one should do this for a promise… is it strange?”

“Nope, not at all. Let’s do a pinky promise.”

The nervousness from before completely disappeared.

Kazuhiro extended his own pinky, and hooked onto Sanae’s, both of them shaking their hand.

“Cutting one’s finger and getting beaten up ten thousand times, liars will be cursed to swallow a thousand needles~”

Sanae softly hymned, and Kazuhiro followed.

At that instant, the cellphone in his pocket rang.

“Ah!”

“Kazuhiro-san, what happened?”

“Hmm, something came up…”

Kazuhiro replied as he turned off the alarm clock on his phone.

“Then, by all means, please I’ll excuse myself. I am really ok.”

“Seriously, there is no problem?”

“It’s true. If something come up I will for sure go talk with Kazuhiro-san.”

Since Sanae already put it this way, the only choice was to trust her. The current situation was that she didn’t want to speak about what was the problem, and so he couldn’t help her even if he wanted to.

“Ok. I’ll be off. Bye.”

Kazuhiro nodded, and immediately sprinted into the elevator just now arrived.

The next mission could not wait, not even for a single second.