By now, it was about dinner ti. On both sides of the street, only a few family restaurants remained open.
Rinji walked into one and imdiately spotted Hayasaka Ai sitting in a corner.
She wasn't wearing her usual casual clothes today. Sitting there stirring the ice in her drink with a straw, she waved when she saw Rinji arrive.
Rinji sat down across from her and smiled slightly. "So, why did you suddenly ask out today?"
"Nothing serious. I just happened to have a rare day off," Hayasaka replied. "I figured with you having a girlfriend now, you probably wouldn't want to see ."
"Yeah… I was a bit concerned about that, so I asked Karura. She said she didn't mind, so I ca."
Rinji was bluntly honest.
"…You really care about your girlfriend, huh?"
"Of course. This is my first ti succeeding in a relationship. I've got to ask her about everything."
Rinji didn't really know what he was supposed to do now that he was dating soone, so he ended up checking everything with Karura.
But Karura didn't really understand this kind of stuff either, so every ti he asked, she would just say, "Do whatever you want."
Hayasaka seed like she wanted to say sothing, but stopped herself.
She no longer knew what she could say to Rinji.
Back at the fireworks festival, they had set off fireworks together and decided to remain friends. Hayasaka had planned to spend the upcoming sester gradually growing closer to Rinji, with the hope of confessing her feelings on Christmas.
But during sumr break, another girl beat her to it. According to Fujiwara Chika, the confession and acceptance had taken less than five minutes.
All of Hayasaka's plans were now completely ruined.
"…Can you tell about your girlfriend?"
"Oh? You're interested in Karura too?" Rinji smiled. "She's a wonderful girl—gentle and not picky. A bit lacking in common sense sotis, but overall, she's amazing."
At this point, Rinji's face clearly showed a gentle smile.
"And most importantly… she accepts my sins. Even soone as awful as —she accepts it all."
"I could accept it too…"
"Hm? What did you say?" Rinji blinked.
Bang!
Hayasaka suddenly slamd the table and stood up, loudly saying, "I could accept your sins too!"
"…Hayasaka?"
Her outburst startled Rinji.
"Sorry."
Realizing her loss of composure, Hayasaka sat down again, her face slightly red.
"Ahem… So, uh… what stage have you and that girl reached?"
"Huh?"
"I an…" Hayasaka, unusually shy, asked, "What's it like… to kiss soone?"
"…I haven't done anything like that yet."
"Huh?"
"Our relationship hasn't progressed that far. Even though she keeps saying we should hurry and have kids, we're both only sixteen. It's too early to be thinking about kids. Plus, I'm a bit conservative… so for now, we've only held hands."
"So you haven't even reached third base?"
"Yeah, basically."
"How pure."
"Why does everyone say that? You, Fujiwara… Isn't being pure a good thing?"
"It is. It's definitely a good thing."
Hearing how little progress Rinji had made with Karura, Hayasaka suddenly felt a bit of relief.
The pace of the relationship was fast, but beyond that, not much had happened. That could be a breakthrough point.
"By the way, Rinji, how do you even know soone from the Kure Clan?"
"Oh, because old man Katahara held a Annihilation Tournant. I was invited as a guest, and the Kure Clan was there too. We t on the ship."
"Kengan Association? So now you're involved with them too?"
"Yeah, I'm even a mber."
"If you know your girlfriend is from the Kure Clan, then you must rember what they did in the past, right?"
"I do."
Rinji smiled.
"The Shinomiya family once hired the Kure Clan to kill . I ended up dueling a girl a few years older than —and I lost. As agreed, I didn't seek revenge… Pretty lucky, huh? If we'd beco true enemies back then, I might never have t my girlfriend. Hahaha…"
"…"
Hayasaka could see it. Even if their relationship was still new, Rinji clearly cared a lot about Karura.
Thinking "I still have a chance" was probably just wishful thinking.
"By the way, Hayasaka," Rinji suddenly asked, "just now you said you could accept my sins. Is that true?"
"Yes."
"Then when you rejected before… was it for another reason?" Rinji asked curiously. "Was it really just the house rules?"
Hayasaka shook her head.
She had decided it was ti to be honest.
"I didn't know who you really were back then. I thought you were just a runaway kid. If I had accepted your confession then, the Shinomiya family would never have let it slide. I'm a servant of the family—I don't have the freedom to love whoever I want…"
Her gaze carried a tinge of sadness.
"So… you rejected because you were afraid the main family would hurt ?"
Rinji stared at her. Hayasaka bit her lip and then nodded.
That had indeed been her concern at the ti.
The Shinomiya family—or more specifically, soone in the family—would never tolerate her dating an outsider.
And the family would stop at nothing. She couldn't risk letting Rinji get hurt because of her feelings. Even if it ant breaking his heart, she had to reject him.
But in doing so, she had wounded him deeply.
Rinji looked at Hayasaka and suddenly let out a soft laugh.
"Thank goodness."
"Eh?"
"I was afraid you'd found out about all the awful things I'd done and hated for them. Hearing this… actually makes feel better."
Rinji's expression seed sowhat relieved.
"I went abroad not just because you rejected … but more because I thought you'd co to hate ."
There was a distant look in his eyes, as if recalling a long-past mory.
"At the ti… the one thing I didn't want… was for you to hate ."
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