Chương 816: Substitute for Meeting Parents

To find a place where he could speak calmly, Shinichi walked further.

In the diagonal corner between the field and the teaching building, there was a forest park adjacent to the maze garden.

It was a good place for chatting and dating, but coincidentally, he was the only visitor. His figure stepped on fallen leaves on the ground, scratched his ear, and leisurely walked into the forest.

After learning about Shinichi's destination, Itsuki followed him, her face gradually becoming displeased, puffing her cheeks.

"Asada-kun... Are you really here for a date?"

The sour and unhappy feeling in her heart unconsciously made her ignore the decency, and like a jealous little girl, she murmured while staring at his back with full of question marks.

"Hmm~ Excluding Nino, Fumino, Yotsuba, and us, is it Miku? Or Rizu?" Ichika touched her chin and murmured, "Besides everyone in the student council, who else does he know? Maybe his wildflower... Fujiwara-senpai? Kirisu-sensei?"

"Why does Kirisu-sensei have to be involved in this..." Itsuki was about to correct her, but suddenly furrowed her brow as if she had an understanding.

"No, maybe it's highly possible."

"Oh?"

Ichika exclaimed in surprise, then felt relieved: "Did Itsuki-chan finally get enlightened? So, I guess the concerns at the celebration party weren't unreasonable at all..."

Before she could say that she was joking, Itsuki clapped her hands happily, holding her phone and Ichika's face in her palm.

"Right! Besides, she is the counselor of the student council. It's reasonable if Kirisu-sensei suddenly approaches Asada-kun, who is the president if something happens!"

"Well, fortunately, I didn't doubt them for a moment~"

Ichika: "..."

Ichika lay weak on the bed, burying her face in the pillow, and sighed heavily.

"Now, I don't even know if you're really stupid or just pretending, Itsuki..."

At this moment, Itsuki suddenly spoke softly.

"Asada-kun stop."

Both of them immediately became serious.

Itsuki glanced at the nearby area, and luckily there was a row of green bushes under the maple forest. She bent down and hid inside, reducing the distance between her and Shinichi from the side.

"Fortunately, I'm wearing sportswear today..."

As if she had become a secret agent, Itsuki crouched and crawled on the grass. Joy in her heart accelerated her blood flow, and her movements became more careful and cautious, but it felt like she was playing and almost made her forget her main purpose.

To prevent her secret from being revealed, Itsuki also connected her phone to Bluetooth headset, raised her lens, and observed the scene outside the bushes through Ichika.

"Ichika, how is it? Can you see him?"

Ichika stared straight at Shinichi, who stood under the maple tree, and said, "Yes, I can see him, but if you were a bit shorter, it would be easier to see at this height."

"Understood!"

Listening to her pretending to be serious, Ichika couldn't help but laugh.

Itsuki is usually stiff and serious, appearing mature and adult-like, but she always shows her childish and natural side in some small things.

Itsuki is truly funny.

After sighing, she looked at the figure on the screen again.

Facing them sideways, Shinichi stopped under the maple tree and suddenly raised his phone to his ear.

"He's making a call." Without almost seeing the LINE communication screen that appeared at that moment, Ichika reminded Itsuki, observing his facial expression.

"I don't know who Shinichi-kun is calling..."

"He came to a place like this just to make a call?" Itsuki considered a possibility.

"So, it has nothing to do with Kirisu-sensei. Did Asada-kun come here because there's something important he wants to convey to Aunt Kazumi?"

"No, it won't be that simple."

Although she didn't see any clues from that charming face, Ichika still lowered her voice and spoke calmly:

"The only thing certain is Shinichi-kun doesn't want us to know about this phone call, so he went to such lengths to come here."

"There aren't many choices he could taboo... It seems to coincide with my initial guess."

As if a famous detective was possessing her, Ichika immediately made a straightforward judgment. The firm words reached Itsuki's ears with complete truthfulness.

"His purpose of coming here is to chat with the girls on the phone and have sex or ask the girls out for sex!"

"Itsuki, once you find similar clues and see a beautiful girl you don't know, you will jump out of the bushes and catch and rape them!"

"It's better not to do this..."

Itsuki hesitated. Regardless of whether Shinichi came here specifically to date a girl, she didn't want to do anything that would make him feel embarrassed or unhappy. It felt like betraying her friend.

She had already violated his privacy. If she didn't need to do anything more, she was afraid Shinichi would take it seriously and hate her...

Ichika reluctantly nodded and sighed.

"Right, it's not a good idea. You've never kissed Shinichi-kun, so if you want to say that's okay, it's not enough..."

Itsuki blushed, and when she was about to say something, she heard Ichika say helplessly:

"Never mind, I'd better call Miku and ask her to come... Their relationship has been getting better lately. I think she'll be very sad after knowing this..."

"How many wildflowers did he pick outside besides us?"

Ichika muttered to herself as if she forgot that the call between them hadn't been disconnected, and she kept whimpering and sighing.

"..."

Itsuki's cheeks twitched, showing helplessness and dissatisfaction directed at Shinichi.

If Shinichi didn't act unlikable at all, would she be so entangled now and still be provoked by Ichika?

Finally, Itsuki had no choice but to speak up and give up.

"Okay, okay, I understand! If 'something like that' really happens, I'll jump out and become a spotlight!"

"Oh, don't make it look like I'm threatening you." Ichika changed the subject and chuckled meaningfully.

"If you don't want to do something from the bottom of your heart, honest and overly serious Itsuki will never force herself to do it."

"So, you actually don't want to see that scene, right?"

Itsuki shook her head: "I don't..."

Ichika said gently: "We're quintuplets. Onee-san can still feel that level of affection."

"..."

Her excuse got stuck in her throat; Itsuki bit her lip and fell silent.

Her cheeks were tinged with a blush, and her wandering eyes showed guilt and panic. After a few quiet moments, she spoke hesitantly.

"I... I haven't even figured out my own feelings. Asada-kun is indeed very important to me, but I've never been able to confirm if his feelings are the same as others'..."

"Itsuki..."

Not expecting this response, before Ichika could inquire further, the young man in front of her finally dialed the phone number, and his calm voice reached their ears.

"Sorry for disturbing you suddenly..."

"Well, do you have time later?"

These two sentences caused the girls to focus on Shinichi at the same time, regardless of whether his tone was gentle or polite. The standard sentence structure alone was enough to confuse them.

Itsuki raised her head from behind the trees, looking towards the sound, and unconsciously began to crouch.

If Shinichi really came here to chat with the girls...

Thinking about this, an inexplicable uneasiness arose in her chest, making her wonder what she should do.

She stared at Shinichi in front of her, but her thoughts were chaotic, and she couldn't think carefully.

However, Itsuki didn't forget what she had to do, which was to wait for him to jump out when he's on a date or chatting with a vixen and stop his flirtatious behavior.

Observing his actions, after nodding his head two or three times, Shinichi smiled faintly and finally mentioned the name of his conversation partner.

"Well then, I'll ask you to transfer it, Ebata-san."

Ichika and Itsuki: "..."

Ebata?

This name was like a lightning strike, causing both eavesdroppers to fall into an awkward atmosphere.

After a while, Ichika broke the silence with refreshing laughter.

"Ahaha~ Itsuki, suddenly I thought of an idiom, it's called 'chasing the wind and shadows'... or was it 'sarcasm'?"

The blush spread across Itsuki's face. She lowered her voice and shouted, "This is what we're doing now! Idiot Ichika, how many times has this happened!"

"Hey, Itsuki, you're going too far. You're blaming me..."

"Fortunately, I wasn't caught, or I would be too embarrassed to face Shinichi-kun..."

When Ichika pretended to cry, and Itsuki almost fell due to embarrassment, Shinichi didn't end his call. Instead, he placed his phone in front of him and looked at the call interface with a calm expression.

In no time, the voice call turned into a video call.

The cold and eerie split head appeared in the middle of the screen, and sharp black eyes like condensed ice stared at them emotionlessly through the screen.

"This is my first official conversation with you. First meeting, Asada Shinichi-kun."

Shinichi nodded and smiled politely.

"Pleasure to meet you, Nakano Maruo-san."