Chapter 244

A long period of silence fell between them.

"… Why aren't you retorting?"

Mika felt embarrassed and her face became even redder as she saw the two of them staring at her in a daze.

"Do you want us to retort you?" Seiji reacted.

"Of course, this … isn't it obvious!" Mika said with a reddened face. "I … I was just pretending to be stupid. I was just joking."

'You're acting a little too much, Uehara-san! '

Seiji and Chiaki exchanged glances and could only smile wryly.

"You succeeded in frightening us, Mika." Chiaki sighed. "Your performance was far too high. Both Seiji and I were astonished."

"What are you talking about … aren't you guys normally like this?" The double pigtailed girl was astonished. "I was just imitating you guys."

"Imitating … fine, I guess that's fine," Seiji said helplessly.

It seemed that Mika had only wanted to play a joke on him, but her acting was so good that no one could react to it.

Another period of silence fell between them.

"Alright, enough joking. What did you guys want to tell me?"

Chiaki forcefully changed the topic and changed the topic back to the main topic.

"It's like this …"

…

Seiji told Chiaki the gist of what happened "over there."

Chiaki was astonished by what she heard, but she was able to accept it rather quickly.

"The hidden dark side of the world, Yin Yang Masters and Spirit-branded Retainers … I didn't expect that reality would be as mystical as the movies.

But I suppose that's still possible. Reality is just like the movies or TV shows, or even more mystical … something like that. "

At this moment, the three of them were in a park, drinking soft drinks that they bought from a roadside vending machine.

The tomboy sighed and fell silent for a while before looking back at her two good friends.

"Thank you for telling me all of this."

She smiled.

"I'm very happy that you're telling me the truth instead of hiding it from me.

I don't know what else to say … We're good friends, and we'll always be, just like before, right? "

Seiji and Mika looked at her and smiled as well.

"Of course," the two of them said in unison.

The three of them exchanged glances and smiled.

After that, Seiji first took Mika back to her apartment, and then took Chiaki home.

On the way back, the two of them remained silent for a while.

"Seiji … I'm actually rather depressed right now."

After remaining silent for a while, the tomboy finally sighed and expressed her true feelings.

"I'm indeed quite happy that you guys told me about your secret, but at the same time … I feel like you're telling me that you're just an ordinary person, different from us.

I know that I'm overthinking things, but I can't control my own emotions … honestly. "

Seiji looked at her with a gentle expression.

"If you can't control yourself, then don't control yourself. Go ahead and express yourself, and I'll listen to your complaints."

"Just to listen to my complaints?"

"Then what else do you want?"

Something flashed in Chiaki's eyes as she looked at him.

"I want to drink alcohol! I want you to drink with me!! "

Seiji was rendered speechless.

"You're not allowed to reject me! You're not allowed to say anything, so it's settled! "

Chiaki acted shamelessly before Seiji could say anything.

She was just like a child throwing a tantrum.

Seiji could only sigh.

"How do you want to drink?"

"Let's go to a bar!"

Seiji silently raised his hand and clenched it into a fist, giving off an aura of "I'll punish you with an iron fist if you go too far."

Chiaki was terrified as she recalled the terror of being dominated by Seiji's iron fist.

"Then … come to my house to drink."

Seiji silently considered it.

"Come on, just drink a little at my house. It's no big deal." Chiaki grabbed his arm and shook it.

"I … I'm really quite depressed, and I want you to accompany me ~"

Seiji could only sigh yet again when faced with such a direct request.

"You really can only drink a little."

"You agreed!?"

"If I didn't agree, you'd probably drink by yourself as well." Seiji looked directly at her face.

"Heehee ~" Chiaki stuck out her tongue and chuckled.

She looked quite cute, but Seiji had the urge to punch her in the face!

Forget it, since she said that she was depressed, that was probably true … he decided to accompany her to drink just this one time.

After coming to a decision, Seiji accompanied Chiaki back to her apartment.

Chiaki brought him to her apartment, took the elevator upstairs, and arrived in front of her own apartment.

"Please come in."

"Sorry for disturbing you."

Seiji walked into Chiaki's apartment for the first time.

The living room was quite luxurious, just like the kind that would appear in an idol television drama. It was bright and spacious, and the decorations were exquisite and extravagant.

The most eye-catching part was the many paintings hanging on the walls. There were paintings of landscapes and people, realistic paintings, and even abstract paintings. They all seemed quite cool.

Seiji recalled that Mika mentioned that Chiaki's father was a famous artist.

These paintings on the walls were probably her father's work, right?

"Sit anywhere you want; I'll go get some alcohol!" Chiaki said as she went to another room.

Seiji didn't sit down. Instead, he looked at the paintings on the walls.

He didn't know how to appreciate art, so he couldn't tell the value of these paintings. He could only look at them based on his feelings.

He casually looked at a few paintings and felt that they were all quite good. Then, he saw a painting of a person.

The painting depicted a woman wearing a long dress. She was standing amidst falling cherry blossoms, twirling her hair as she suddenly turned around.

The entire painting was beautiful, but only the female lead's side profile was shown. Not only that, her eyes were blocked by the petals, so it was impossible to see her face clearly.

It was quite tempting, but the overall feeling … Seiji didn't know how to describe it.

This indescribable feeling made him feel rather conflicted, and he couldn't help but stare at this painting for quite a while.

"The alcohol's here!"

Chiaki's voice caused him to return to his senses.

When he turned around, he saw that Chiaki had brought out a rather expensive-looking bottle of red wine, as well as two tall glasses and a glass bowl filled with ice cubes.

The label on the wine bottle … seemed to be in French. Seiji didn't understand it.

At any rate, he felt that this wine wouldn't be cheap. Was it really alright to drink this?

"What kind of red wine is this, Chiaki?"

"I don't know. I randomly took it from my dad's collection."

"You couldn't possibly have taken some really expensive wine, right?"

"No, I just randomly took a bottle. I've drunk many similar wines … Cough, there seems to be many other similar wines, so it's not something rare."

"… I don't care if your father scolds me."

"Relax, that won't happen. If he scolds me, he'll have to be at home first, and not come back only a few times a year." Chiaki chuckled.

Her expression was quite natural, but Seiji could detect a trace of loneliness hidden deep within her words.

Staying at home by herself … how did Chiaki get by? He suddenly wanted to know.

At this moment, the tomboy put ice cubes into the two tall glasses, then took out a corkscrew, skillfully uncorked the wine, and poured the wine.

The rich aroma of wine instantly filled the air.

Just from this rich aroma alone, it was obvious that this wine was no ordinary wine.

Seiji wasn't a wine master, but he had plenty of experience. Once again, doubt arose in his heart. 'Did this bottle of wine really just randomly take?

Is it because the quality of wine in this world is higher, or is Chiaki's family just too rich? '

"Come, cheers!"

After pouring the wine, Chiaki picked up one glass and indicated for Seiji to pick up the other.

"… Cheers."

Seiji picked up the glass and lightly clinked it with Chiaki's before bringing it to his mouth.

After smelling the alluring aroma, he tilted the glass and slowly drank the rich, fragrant liquid.

The wine entered his throat, leaving a fragrant aftertaste in his mouth.

'This is truly good wine.'

Seiji sighed in relief after putting down the glass.