"OK."
Staring at Nino standing in front of him, Ren immediately agreed.
So Nino turned around and walked upstairs, and he followed.
"This..."
Seeing the scene, Fumino and the others who were still playing had to stop.
"Nino just asked Kamikawa-san to help her pierce her ear. Please don't misunderstand."
Seeing their reactions, Ichika explained to them.
"So that's it."
After hearing her explanation, they sighed in relief and resumed their board game.
On the other side, after Nino went up to the second floor, she led Ren to her room.
"Please come in."
After opening the door and entering, Nino welcomed him.
"Um."
Ren followed and closed the door.
"Kamikawa-san, can you help me pierce my ear?"
Seeing him coming, Nino who was sitting in a chair, handed him the earring piercer.
The reason she chose to let him come to her room was to prevent others from seeing her getting her ear pierced, and it would be bad if she fooled herself.
"I don't know how to pierce my ears." Ren refused; he wouldn't agree to something he didn't know how to do.
"It's easy, just click and open."
Nino explained to him how to use the earring piercer.
"I see.."
After listening to her explanation, Ren understood what to do, then took the earring piercer and approached her.
"We will do it here."
Pointing to her earlobe, Ren emphasized that something like this should be taken seriously.
"Right."
For some reason, Nino couldn't look at him.
Clearly, it was just to help pierce her ear.
"Please don't move." Asking her to hold her ear, Ren directed the earring piercer to her earlobe.
"Wait a moment, I'm not mentally prepared yet."
Just about to press it, Nino suddenly panicked and stopped.
"Okay." Ren cooperatively released his hand and moved away from her.
"Still hesitating."
Seeing the earring piercer in Ren's hand, Nino was still confused.
"In that case, give up."
Ren gave his own advice.
"No, how can I give up when I've come this far?" Nino retorted, "I've even bought earrings, and I just need to pierce my ears."
"Earrings?"
"Yes, do you want to see them?"
To divert his attention, Nino found some new earrings from the side, shining and looking very girly.
"How about it? Looks nice?" Nino asked for his opinion.
"Not bad."
Ren didn't particularly like accessories like this, but he still acknowledged that it looked good.
"What do you mean 'not bad'? I took a long time to choose this before deciding to buy it." Nino was quite dissatisfied with his answer. "Forget it, you're a guy, so it's understandable if you don't know about this stuff."
"Um."
Ren had no intention of denying this.
Putting back the earrings in place, after a few moments, Nino continued, "I have to be mentally prepared; you can continue."
"Okay."
Ren came to her side again.
Feeling the earring piercer touching her earlobe, Nino closed her eyes, and her body couldn't stop trembling.
"Are you afraid?"
Seeing her reaction, Ren asked in confusion.
"Isn't it normal? After all, you need to make a hole in your ear." Nino said anxiously.
At this point, she no longer hid anything.
"If you're scared, why did you decide to pierce your ears?" Ren was puzzled.
As human beings, isn't the response to fear to run away?
But why did Nino continue?
"There are many reasons." Seeing him ask this, Nino explained to him, "One is because everyone pierces their ears, so I want to be the same. And the other is for the person I like..."
"For the person you like?"
Ren could understand the first reason, but he didn't quite understand the last one.
"Yes, what's the problem?" Nino glanced at him. "Isn't it normal to dress up for someone you like?"
"..."
Ren didn't answer, just thinking about what Nino said.
Seeing that he didn't react, Nino continued to ask, "Let me ask you, if a girl likes you and dresses carefully for you, would you be happy?"
"Yes." Ren answered honestly.
"In that case, that's enough." Nino said without beating around the bush. "So, you should understand why I want to pierce my ears."
"I might understand." Ren nodded. "You mean, you don't want to pierce your ears, but you decide to do it for someone else, right?"
"What weird logic are you talking about?" Nino complained. "Does that mean if I pierce my ears for someone I like, it's not my own idea?"
"I'm not sure." Ren shook his head.
"You..."
Nino didn't know what to say; she had been talking for a long time, but it was all nonsense.
Thinking about what Nino had just said, Ren asked with curiosity, "Who do you like?"
"It has nothing to do with you." Nino said cautiously.
"Sorry." Ren realized his rudeness.
This was the first time he had talked about such a topic with someone, so he involuntarily asked her a few more questions.
"It's okay. It's not impossible to tell you. His name is Kamikawa Naoki, and he is a magician." Nino waved her hand casually and said it directly.
"The person you like is Kamikawa Naoki?" Ren was stunned.
"Yes, what's wrong?"
Seeing his strange reaction, Nino turned around and asked curiously.
"Nothing."
Suddenly, Ren didn't know how to behave towards Nino.
He never expected Nino to actually like him.
No, it meant she liked his other identity.
But this still overwhelmed him a bit.
This was something he had never experienced before.
Could someone like him?
Unfortunately, Nino didn't like Ren but Naoki.
"Okay, don't be confused, and quickly pierce my ear. It will be bad if I regret it later."
Nino turned and urged him.