"Sure."
Facing her request, Ren agrees without hesitation.
"Um... Please give me some time. I need to think about the words."
Itsuki looks a bit nervous and hesitant to say anything. Instead, she sits beside him.
"Um."
Although Ren is a bit confused about why Itsuki didn't think about the question before asking, it's not an important issue, so he doesn't pay too much attention and patiently waits for her question.
But why do they keep looking at him and Itsuki?
Ren is sharp in observing and easily notices Ichika and others glancing strangely in their direction.
And they're still whispering.
He's not the type to eavesdrop, so he doesn't know what they're talking about.
However, judging from their looks, they should be discussing him.
If not, they wouldn't have a reason to keep glancing at him like this from time to time.
Feeling that Itsuki can't think of a question for a while, Ren takes out his phone and asks Chika about her progress.
He hopes Chika can successfully find out what Gabriel likes, rather than asking so many questions without getting useful information like he did.
However, Chika doesn't reply, and the message he sent doesn't appear to have been read.
It seems she's busy and hasn't seen it.
(Haven't you formulated your question yet?)
Putting away his phone again and waiting for a few moments, Ren looks at Itsuki sitting next to him with some doubt. Itsuki sits very upright, as if she's holding something back, unlike thinking.
And for some reason, her cheeks are flushed. She looks very sweet when her face is so red that people involuntarily want to pinch her.
As if realizing his gaze, Itsuki quickly stands up and stammers, "I've thought about it; it's better not to trouble Kamikawa-kun. I can handle the matter myself."
After saying this, Itsuki leaves his side as if running away and returns to her original position.
"?"
Ren doesn't understand what's happening.
"Okay, the challenge is over."
Itsuki, who just sat down, hurriedly said to them.
That's right, the real reason she came to Ren wasn't because she had a question to ask him, but because she lost in the truth or dare game.
Sitting next to Ren for three minutes was the challenge she had to complete.
She initially thought it would be easy to solve, but in actual operation, it was still a bit difficult.
Luckily, she found a suitable excuse; otherwise, it would have been challenging.
"This is really hard work." Ichika says meaningfully.
"Prohibited from choosing anything related to Kamikawa-kun for the next challenge. It will cause him difficulty." After calming the restless atmosphere, Itsuki continues.
She doesn't mind playing truth or dare with her sisters, Fumino, and Rizu, but it's a bit inappropriate to disturb Ren, who is taking a break.
Ren is not a participant, so break time cannot be delayed.
"In fact, we've decided not to play truth or dare."
Fumino intervenes.
"Why? Didn't we just play one round?"
Itsuki doesn't understand too much. Could it be that they want to escape after winning?
Miku takes out her phone and checks the time. "Time is not enough."
"How could it be? I only sat with Kamikawa-kun for three minutes."
"Um... Itsuki, you actually sat next to Ren-san for fifteen minutes earlier." Yotsuba weakly reminds her.
"Eh? Fifteen minutes?"
Itsuki blinks, her eyes filled with doubt.
In her mind, she sat next to Ren for a short while; when she stood up to leave, she was a little worried because three minutes weren't enough.
"Um."
She is answered with unanimous nods from everyone.
"Sorry..."
In an instant, red color fills Itsuki's cheeks again, and she lowers her head, apologizing stutteringly.
...
After the tutoring session, Ren arrives at Gabriel's door after wandering around for a while as usual.
Knocking on the door very skillfully, the door quickly opens.
But this time, it's not Gabriel, but Raphiel who opens the door.
"Kamikawa, you came very quickly."
Raphiel looks very pleased to see Ren standing at the door.
"Um."
Ren doesn't quite understand what she means, but he still pretends to know everything and enters the room.
"By the way, we were just talking about you." Raphiel says casually.
As Ren takes off his shoes, he suddenly sees a pair of women's shoes lying on the floor.
It seems they don't belong to Vigne or Satania.
"What's there to talk about?"
After suppressing the doubt in his heart, Ren becomes concerned about what Raphiel just said.
"There's a lot to talk about."
After finishing taking off shoes and officially stepping into the corridor, Raphiel waits there for a moment and intentionally lags behind.
"Can you give me an example?"
While asking, Ren enters the living room.
Then he sees someone sitting in front of Gabriel unexpectedly.
"You're here too, Kamikawa-kun."
Chika turns around, looks at Ren who just entered, and tries hard to smile.
"Why are you here?"
Just as Ren is about to pass by her and go to Gabriel, he is stopped by Raphiel and forced to sit next to Chika.
"Your location today is here; don't move around."
After reminding him, Raphiel sits next to Gabriel.
Originally, that was her position.
"There's a little surprise."
Seeing Ren next to her, Chika uses her thumb and index finger to create a small gap and defends herself.
"What accident?"
Ren feels that the accident she mentioned is not the same as the one mentioned.
"It's just that Gabriel wanted to invite Fujiwara-san to her house, and Fujiwara-san agreed." Raphiel answers for her.
"Is that so?"
Ren confirms. Even so, he doesn't need to sit here.
"It's a bit deviated, but generally the same."
Chika looks away, not daring to look at him.