Natsuya knew he would accept. With Harutkun's personality, he would never refuse such a request, even if he knew that he would be placed in danger.

Although she felt apologetic to him about this, she was also delighted that he was willing to protect her.

She really did need protection.

She could withstand taunts or laughter, but she was truly unable to bear even the thought of

that

person attempting to get closer to her.

"Thank you, Harutkun."

"No need to be so polite, President."

Natsuya felt warm inside, but she still felt one small dissatisfaction, or perhaps desire.

"Could I make one more request?" she asked softly.

"Sure."

"Don't call me 'President' anymore. From now on, could you… call me by name?" The scion felt her heart thump loudly immediately after saying this, and she couldn't help but feel nervous.

Seiji fell silent for a moment. "Okay… Natsuya."

Seiji had wanted to say it in a calm voice, but he failed as he was a little embarra.s.sed.

Unbeknownst to Seiji, when the scion on the other end of the phone heard him address her by name, her face flushed a cute shade of red, and her eyes became watery. Even her lips were tugged into a smile that seemed somewhat foolish.

Her smile right now was incredibly moving! It was a pity that n.o.body was around to see it.

"I still have one more request," Natsuya said quietly. "Is it alright if I call you by name as well?"

"Of course."

"Thank you… Seiji."

Seiji received a heavy cannonball to his chest! The impact surpa.s.sed his imagination!!

For Natsuya to shyly say his name like that… the attack power far surpa.s.sed what he'd antic.i.p.ated.

Seiji's face was rather flushed, his heart itchy, and he felt rather awkward. Fine then, he was simply unable to calm down!

Despite it being a phone call, the attack power was unbelievable.

'If it were face to face…' Seiji reflexively imagined that scenario, causing his blush to deepen.

"It… it's fine, just calling each other by name. There's no need to say something like thanks… Natsuya."

*Plop!* The student council president collapsed on her sofa as if some invisible force had just knocked her over.

Her face was red-hot lava, and a boulder was pressing down on her chest. She couldn't help but hug herself and roll around and around on her sofa.

She felt so embarra.s.sed to hear him call her name!

But she really wanted to hear it… she wanted to always hear him calling her by name…

A moment of silence fell between them.

"Then… I suppose that's all regarding this matter, then." Seiji finally pacified his emotions and scratched his face awkwardly. "On the day of the Winter Snow Festival, I'll accompany you to this Yin-Yang Master party. We're going to have to perform another ritual for my temporary Spirit-Branded Retainer contract, right? Shall we do it one day before the party or on the same day?"

Natsuya made a herculean effort to calm herself down and said, "Let's do it one day before the party, so that you can get used to that condition again."

"Alright then," Seiji said. "Let's talk again at that time."

Seiji was about to hang up when he suddenly recalled the original purpose of his call.

"Oh, right, what time does this party begin and end, by the way?"

"It's scheduled to begin at 10:00 A.M. on the Winter Snow Festival and continue until 3:00 P.M."

"Oh, that's good, then."

Natsuya felt strangely nervous. "…Do you have another date?"

"I'd like to spend the evening together with s.h.i.+kchan and Reo-chan," Seiji explained. "I called in order to tell you about this."

"I see…" Natsuya could feel the complex emotions swirling about in her heart.

"Is that alright?" Seiji asked.

"Eh?"

"I promised before to accompany you for the entire day, but now I want to accompany s.h.i.+kchan and Reo-chan on that night… is that alright?"

"Of course."

She couldn't possibly refuse.

Even if there wasn't the matter of the party, accompanying one's family members in the evening—er, people that were living together with him—was a reasonable request. Besides, he had agreed to accompany her to that troublesome party.

She felt like it would be way too much to take up his entire day, including the evening.

'Yes, but still… if it's possible—no, that isn't good.' Natsuya stopped herself from being too greedy.

"I'm already very grateful that you're willing to attend the party together with me, Seiji," Natsuya told him in a gentle tone. "After that party ends, go back home and do a good job accompanying them."

"Okay… then that's it for tonight. Have a good night, Natsuya."

"Good night."

They ended their phone call there.

A goukon… and he would become her temporary Spirit-Branded Retainer again. Seiji was quite curious what type of person would be so greatly disliked by the president and also what spirit would be randomly summoned for him this time.

Would Light-chan come once again? Or would a different form of his pop up?

'It'll be great if it's the same Minamoto no Raiko.'

It would be best if he could partner up with the same Light-chan once more. Well, a different form or an entirely different spirit wasn't bad either… at any rate, he was looking forward to it.

Just as he was thinking about this, Seiji's phone started ringing. He checked the caller and saw that the call was from Kaho Miyamoto.

Kaho was rather nervous, as this was the first time she had ever called Seigo Harano.

'It's fine; I'm just going to ask him if he wants to go to the upcoming doujins.h.i.+ convention with me. This is a normal thing for friends; it's not a date or anything.'

A date… Kaho couldn't help but imagine happily touring the doujins.h.i.+ convention together with the handsome Seigo, causing her face to redden.

He picked up the phone.

"Good evening, Kaho."

"G-good evening!" Because she was too nervous, her voice sounded rather strange.

"What's the matter?"

"N-nothing…" Kaho made an effort to calm herself down. "Would… would you like to go on a date?"

"Eh?"

"No, no! I wanted to ask if you wanted to go to the doujins.h.i.+ convention with me! Not a date!!"

'My mouth made a mistake! Ahh!' Kaho was so embarra.s.sed that she really wanted to roll around on the floor right now.

"Of… of course I'm going to go to the doujins.h.i.+ convention," Seiji said. "Let's go together—Mika and Chiaki are coming along as well."

"Eh…"

"I already agreed to go together with them and was planning to invite you as well, but I couldn't find an opportunity to ask you at school. I was going to call you and invite you later but I didn't expect that you would call me first."

'This… is only natural.' Kaho realized.

It was only natural that Mika and Chiaki would go together with him as well! She had actually forgotten about them and imagined various things on her own, which was so…

Kaho realized how foolish she had been.

"Let's all meet up together for the doujins.h.i.+ convention—how's that sound?" Seiji said.

"Yeah… okay."

"That's it, then. Is there anything else?" Seiji asked.

Kaho wanted to say that there wasn't, when she suddenly recalled that he had been absent from school for two days, and she was curious what he had done.

'Should I ask?'

"Seigo… why did you take two days off from school right before the final exams?" her mouth asked without her realizing.

On the other end of the phone, Seiji was silent.

Kaho started to get a little nervous.

"I was helping out Editor Yos.h.i.+zawa and Amami-sensei, and as for the specifics… I'm sorry, but it's not convenient for me to tell you," he said in an apologetic tone.

"It's… it's alright!" Kaho said hurriedly. "I shouldn't have asked. I apologize."

"There's no need to apologize, Kaho. It's only natural for you to be curious about what I was doing. I just have some reasons that I can't say, so please forgive me."

"Oh…"

"Is there anything else?"

"No…"

"In that case, good night, Kaho."

"Good night… Seigo."

He hung up after she said good night to him. Kaho dazedly stared at her cell phone for a while, with an indescribable feeling in her heart.

He had agreed to go together with her to the doujins.h.i.+ convention, which was a good thing, but… why was it that she wasn't feeling too happy right now?

Was it because he was clearly hiding something from her?

No, that wasn't it. It was only natural that he would have some private affairs. It wasn't like he was intimate to the point of telling her everything about him.

Kaho faintly detected what it was that she truly minded, but she forced herself to stop thinking about it.

'I'm his friend, just his friend… nothing more.'