By the time we reappeared from behind that tree, we found An-rin standing next to Kushii facing our direction. The former had her eyes narrowed while the latter couldnt look straight at me. But instead of her awkwardness earlier, its more about being apologetic for not being able to send An-rin away.

I searched the vicinity and found no Hino, Ogawa, or Fukuda around.

Did they return to the professor or did they go and finish the task by themselves?

Well, theres no way to answer that myself.

At my side, Hana and Chii tried to compose themselves by straightening their backs and raising their chin. However, with their legs being wobbly while walking alongside me, that alone was enough indication that they were still a little out of it. Furthermore, theyre still donning their lovely and satisfied grins with flushed cheeks.

I did let us rest for a while there, but its surely insufficient to fully bring them back to normal like nothing happened.

As for me, my ears were probably still red but my face was probably glistening after wiping the traces of their love juices that sprinkled on me.

Of course, thats not enough to say nothing happened. So instead of alluding to it, I just decided to be as shameless to it as possible as we neared the two gyarus.

Dont look at me like that, Kushii, An-rin Ill be embarrassed.

While scratching my cheek, I awkwardly smiled at the two.

They rolled their eyes incredulously, not believing one word coming out of my mouth. Then, they took a glance at the two girls at my side.

Thats thick coming from you, Onoda-shi. Like, we could totally hear them clearly from here.

Hmm? What are you talking about?

I tilted my head and pretended to be oblivious to her meaning.

Well, if its as she said then its probably when they couldnt hold it back anymore. Hana and Chii ended up asking me to slow down at that point by tugging at my heart. But instead of granting their request, I intensified my movements, which made their moans uncontrollable.

An-rins face twitched at my thick face. She probably wanted to argue more but understanding that I would continue playing dumb, she couldnt bring herself to do it anymore. On her side, Kushii was shaking her head. She had nothing to say but if I have to guess, shes just holding back airing out whats in her mind.

I couldnt just press her on it, right? And thinking about our current situation, its better this way.

Ah. Enough about us, An-rin. Have you found the professor?

Um, excuse me? Are you for real, Onoda-shi? Like, seriously, youre just going to brush it off like nothing happened? Ugh Putting a hand on her forehead, An-rin stared at me in exasperation. Nevertheless, she could only keep that up for a few seconds. She knew that it was pointless to press me on it as well, after all.

What? Should we report to her about what we did? Give her a second-by-second account of what happened? Even if shes as shameless as me, shed definitely be uncomfortable with it.

But then again, she probably just wanted to take a stand for Kushii who got left behind here.

Chii, who eventually recovered, ran up to her and rubbed her cheeks with her gyaru friend to appease her fleeting anger. Before long, An-rins face softened up as she berated her friend.

Girl. I wouldve never guessed that you could be as wild as this when youre in love. I get it. Onoda-shis charm is like, next level, am I right?

Y-yeah. Sorry if we left behind Kushii. But you know how it can be uncomfortable for her.

But you didnt think about that yesterday.

An-rin sneered at Chii, causing the girl to be tongue-tied. She couldnt deny it, after all. It was Chii who stopped Kushii from leaving the tent.

In a way, apologizing this time was pretty much hypocritical of her since shes already dragged Kushii to be involved with me.

With a guilty and awkward expression, Chii hugged An-rin. Although thats Chiis way of admitting to her fault, An-rins face immediately softened up.

She pinched Chiis cheeks before sighing before turning her gaze back to me.

Looking at her eyes, I could see right through what she was thinking.

Its about time I step up, right?

Alright. You can scold me too, An-rin. Im the one who should apologize here, after all.

Forget it. Like, Im totally not ignorant, Onoda-shi. Its useless to tell you things when youre running on your own rules. You better wise up and take good care of my friends, hear me?

I thought she was going to go off on me But this I dont know anymore. Its really hard to figure out a girls mind, isnt it?

Friends?

Yes. This girl too.

Hey, An-rin!

Hmm? Why? We all know Onoda-shi is the kind of guy whos out of the norm. Probs everyone close to him has the same relationship as our Chii.

Despite Kushiis protest, An-rin nonchalantly gave her evaluation before sneering at me. No matter how I look at it, shes now at the point of being convinced that theres more to my relationship with the girls around me.

In any case, its also about time for them to figure that out, right? The snack bar declaration was just to send them off the rails. Ever since that time, my girls and I started becoming more and more high-key. Hana and Nami even kissed me right in the middle of our class.

Thats why its not that surprising that An-rin could reach this conclusion. However why is she pushing Kushii as well?

Look at the poor gyaru. Shes now like a bird whose feathers were flocked. While she still looked the same, her behavior became more docile compared to before. She couldnt even afford to be playful anymore.

Is getting interested in someone can make you change that much? No, right?

If Im not wrong, this was temporary as the memory of confessing to me and seeing me in that state was muddling her head. Once she got that out of her system, Kushii would return to normal. Or thats what Im hoping to happen. Well see when we return to school.

After another back and forth with An-rin, we soon reached a stalemate and we finally got filled in about the progress of our activity.

As I previously guessed, the three went back to the professor. Or rather, An-rin sent them back there, saying she was going to wait for us in order to bring us there.

I asked for a few minutes more to let Hana and Chii recover first. That An-rins eyes roll again but what else could she say?

While waiting, I approached Kushii and thanked her for her help. Since I heard her attempt to misdirect them, its only natural to be grateful.

But then, finding out that I also heard her made the girl flustered. She tried running back to An-rins side but because of her hasty movements, she almost tripped.

The result? I managed to catch her. But like the previous instances, that ended up making her more flustered that An-rin called me out again for teasing her friend.

Yep. Looks like I should just let Kushii return to her normal self before approaching her again. Itd be bad for her heart, no? And this is even when she said shes not hoping for anything else.

Onoda-shi. Youre the man here Take the lead.

A while later, with Chii and Hana already feeling refreshed, we soon crossed the stream to rejoin the others to finally finish our first task.