บท 52: L- Like?!

"What's that? An urban legend?" Chihiro scratched her ear while saying nonchalantly.

'Hmm? Shouldn't Kanda Sorata have already arrived at Sakurasou by now? And Chihiro-sensei wouldn't intentionally hide such small matters, which means... that guy doesn't exist?' Homura said inwardly, then said, "Probably. I just heard it by chance. Since even Chihiro-sensei doesn't know, then it must be nothing important."

Homura threw the thought out of his mind. Since the person wasn't there, he didn't need to worry about it.

Approaching the several girls who were chatting, Homura asked, "Mashiro, are you getting used to the school on your first day?"

"Homura." Mashiro's eyes looked toward Homura, and Mashiro's expression had a slight change. "It's okay. Chihiro brought Nanami along; she helped me a lot."

So, Nanami has already been in contact with Mashiro?

"So, Mashiro, what kind of person do you think Aoyama Nanami is?" Utaha asked with interest.

"A good person."

The answer came so quickly!

Nanami definitely couldn't have imagined that she would be given a "good person" card by Mashiro. Homura chuckled to himself.

"It looks like Mashiro has a good impression of Nanami," Homura said, and Mashiro nodded.

"I think you two would get along, so from now on, let Nanami take care of you, okay?" Homura smiled and asked.

Mashiro tilted her head, somewhat puzzled, and asked, "Doesn't Homura take care of me? After all, Homura is my first male."

... A deathly silence fell, and Homura broke out in a cold sweat. His clothes were about to get soaked.

Utaha spoke up, and her words were filled with blackness.

"Ara? I see. So you two have this kind of relationship! I see... I see..."

"First time with Homura felt really good," Mashiro added fuel to the fire!

'You are Mashiro, not Makuro, right?' Homura screamed in his mind. {TN: Kuro - Black/Dark}

The air became even tenser, and it felt like everyone's gaze was piercing him like needles. He quickly opened his mouth to explain, "Wait a minute! Don't think too much! You know what happened, right?! At least Eriri knows, right? You went to call Mashiro this morning, Eriri!"

Eriri opened her mouth, but Mashiro spoke first, "In England, everyone around me was girls. Homura was the first male friend I had a good relationship with."

"You should have said that sentence first..." Homura groaned weakly.

After Mashiro finished speaking, the atmosphere suddenly changed, from being tense and anxious to being filled with awkwardness.

"Ahahaha!" Chihiro laughed crazily, vigorously patting Homura's back.

This laugh eased the awkwardness to some extent, and Megumi stepped forward and said, "Sorry Homura-kun, we should have believed you. Even though we all saw Mashiro-chan's lack of common sense, we still misunderstood because of what she said."

Homura was moved and held Megumi's hand, saying, "Megumi, it's really great to have you! Actually, it's not your fault, anyone would misunderstand after hearing Mashiro's words."

Eriri and Utaha looked on enviously, but no one interrupted, considering it as paying the price for their own distrust.

"Hmm?" Mashiro looked at everyone's interaction, still confused and tilting her head.

Returning to the main topic, Homura thought for a moment about how to phrase it and said, "Mashiro, it's not that we don't want to take care of you (I actually wouldn't mind, but the glances behind my back make me feel under too much pressure!), but we're all busy with our own things, and I've already invited you to join the club, so you should understand, right?"

"Moreover, you can definitely get along well with Nanami!" Homura gave a thumbs-up to Mashiro.

Mashiro was silent for a moment, looking at Homura's smile, and raised her hand to give a thumbs-up in return.

"Okay."

"Great! Let's go home then!" happily bidding farewell to Chihiro, "Goodbye, Chihiro-sensei!"

Chihiro smirked, "Oh! Take care of your body!"

Homura felt a bit annoyed and thought to himself, 'Are you really a teacher? Doesn't this teach the students bad habits?!'

"Cough! Cough! Um, Homura-kun, speaking of which, shouldn't you let go of your hands now?" Utaha said unhappily, 'It's been a while already, isn't it time to stop? Why hasn't it ended yet?!?!'

Homura, still holding Megumi's hand, pretended to be clueless and said, "Huh? What are you saying, Utaha-senpai?"

Eriri directly stepped forward and slapped away their intertwined hands, "Ah! There's a mosquito!"

Homura was full of black lines. Mosquitoes in April?

Megumi rubbed her red and sore hand back, and Homura felt like she was sulking. Was it just his imagination?

As they were walking, Mashiro suddenly stopped, and everyone followed her gaze to see that they were in front of a convenience store.

Homura suggested, "Let's go in and buy something."

No one objected, so they crossed the street and ran into Nanami, who had just come out of the convenience store. Homura greeted him, "Hey, Nanami, what a coincidence. Are you working here?"

Nanami, who was looking down, heard the familiar voice and looked up, stunned to see Homura and a group of beautiful women beside him. She was speechless.

Homura looked at the dumbfounded Nanami and said, "Let me introduce you to everyone."

He turned to Utaha, Eriri, and Megumi and said, "This is Aoyama Nanami, the first voice actor of Another Dimension!"

"Um... hello, I'm Aoyama Nanami." Nanami was a bit at a loss and didn't know what to do with so many people staring at her.

"Ara, is this the Aoyama Nanami you dug so hard to get?" Utaha was a little surprised and carefully looked at the girl in front of her.

"Di- Dig so hard?" Nanami was flustered and covered her face.

"Oh? What a cute reaction!" Utaha teased, "Does Homura-kun like this kind of thing?"

"Li- Like?!" Nanami was about to faint. 'Why was I being teased like this? Did Homura-kun really like me? No! I couldn't think like that! Nanami, you must be imagining things!'

Seeing that Utaha was still trying to tease her, Homura interrupted, "Ahem! Um, Nanami, this is Kasumigaoka Utaha, our club's scriptwriter, and she is also the popular novel author of 'The Metronome in Love'"

Utaha nodded slightly and said, "Hello, I am Kasumigaoka Utaha. Nice to meet you."

"Eh? Another amazing person?" Nanami exclaimed in surprise, upon realizing that she was speaking to another big shot. "I'm Aoyama Nanami. Nice to meet you, Kasumigaoka-san."

"Just call me Utaha," she replied. Then she looked at Nanami, who seemed a bit uncomfortable, and said, "Of course, if you're not used to it, you can call me "Senpai" like Homura-kun. I'm a third-year student by the way."

"Don't be so nervous. They're all nice people!" Homura comforted Nanami and praised the other girls.

"Yes, U- Utaha-senpai" Nanami chose to use the same title as Homura.

Homura continued to introduce Nanami.

"This is Sawamura Spencer Eriri, responsible for the character designs and original illustrations in the club, also she is a... she is... uhh... we'll tell you more when you move in!" Homura hesitated to reveal Eriri's identity here.

Eriri nodded in satisfaction.