Chapter 86.
Erina's composure was completely unravelling. The moment she heard Shijun explicitly reject Joichiro Saiba's invitation, she threw herself across the leather seat, desperately lunging for his phone.
It was a futile effort.
With her delicate frame, overpowering Shijun was impossible. He simply extended his right arm—his left hand still holding the phone—and effortlessly caught her wrist, giving it a light tug to neutralize her momentum.
But the physics of the moving car and his sudden counter-pull sent her entirely off balance. She collapsed backward, falling squarely against his chest.
The resulting tableau in the back seat was undeniably compromising.
Erina was pressed against him, his arm instinctively wrapped in front of her to keep her steady.
To a casual observer, they looked like a couple sharing a quiet, intimate embrace. The atmosphere in the car instantly thickened, suffocating under a sudden, strange tension.
Hisako watched the entire exchange unfold in the rearview mirror. Her eyes went wide with such absolute shock that she briefly forgot she was operating a motor vehicle. The car drifted slightly into the next lane.
"Keep your eyes on the road!"
Shijun barked, his face hardening. He had the physical constitution to survive a crash, but the two girls would not be so lucky, and he had no desire to deal with the wrath of the Nakiri patriarch over a traffic accident.
Her face burning furiously, Erina struggled against his grip.
"You... let go of me!" she stammered.
"Not unless you promise not to lunge for my phone again."
"I won't... I won't try to grab it!"
"Why don't I believe you?"
"You—you jerk! Let go of me right now, or I'm telling Rindo-senpai!"
Her ears were bright red, radiating heat as the close contact overwhelmed her senses. In her panic, she actually used Rindo Kobayashi's name as a shield.
As if I'm a man who's afraid of his girlfriend.
Shijun thought with an amused scoff.
Still, he smoothly released her and leaned back. He wasn't afraid of Rindo finding out, but he had a sense of propriety. Blurring the lines with a girl he wasn't actually dating wasn't his style, even if he had to admit—just to himself—that the fleeting softness of her pressing against him left a lingering, distracting impression.
"Hisako, ignore him. We are going to the Polar Star Dormitory!"
Erina ordered, her face still flushed as she scrambled back to her side of the seat.
"No, we're not."
Shijun countered, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"Don't listen to him! This is my car, and I say where we go."
She glared defiantly at the infuriating man beside her.
Shijun just chuckled, a cold, authoritative sound.
"Hisako. If you dare turn this car toward Polar Star, I promise you, the second we return to campus, I will use my authority as President of the Cuisine Research Society to have your precious Miss Erina scrub every single toilet in the building."
Hisako flinched as if she'd been struck by lightning. She didn't dare look back, but her knuckles turned white on the steering wheel, and her face drained of color.
I'm so sorry, Erina-sama!
She cried internally. She could never allow the pristine God's Tongue to be subjected to such degrading manual labor.
Defeated, Hisako steered the car smoothly past the academy gates, charting a direct course for the eastern district. Toward Shijun's private dormitory.
"Hisako, you..."
Erina gaped in absolute betrayal. She hadn't expected her fiercely loyal aide to fold at the critical moment.
The sheer indignity, the embarrassment, and the overwhelming frustration finally shattered her composure. Tears welled up in her eyes, spilling over her flushed cheeks as she quietly began to cry.
Shijun froze.
What is happening?
Dealing with a crying girl was entirely outside his skillset. He couldn't exactly consult an online forum right now. What would he even type?
'A rich girl is crying in my car, but it's her own fault because she wanted to meet someone's dad?'
It was absurd.
He opted for the most practical solution he knew: ignore it.
In his past life, growing up in an orphanage, the caretakers didn't have the time to coddle every tantrum. If a kid cried and no one paid attention, they eventually stopped. He figured Erina's arrogant streak was just the result of Senzaemon spoiling her rotten. If he ignored her, she'd calm down on her own.
It didn't take long for Erina to realize her tears were completely ineffective.
Hisako was hyper-focused on the road, terrified of crashing, and the man beside her was staring blankly out the window as if she didn't exist.
She had half-expected him to soften and yield, like the male leads in the shoujo manga she secretly read.
Instead, this absolute blockhead of a man was completely unmoved.
The sorrow morphed back into blistering indignation. She wiped her eyes, fixing Shijun with a lethal, red-rimmed glare. If looks could kill, he would have been reduced to ash a thousand times over.
Under the weight of that intense, teary gaze, Shijun's resolute indifference finally cracked.
Fine, this is getting a little too awkward.
He admitted to himself, especially given how intimately tangled they had been just minutes ago. Playing the heartless villain was suddenly a lot harder.
He let out a long sigh.
"Look, I already told Joichiro Saiba that if he wants to see me, he has to come to my place. You can come up to my dorm and wait for him there. Whether he actually shows up or not is out of my hands."
"Really?"
Erina blinked, genuinely caught off guard by the sudden invitation.
If she waited at his place, she might actually get to see Saiba. But the realization hit her a second later—this would be the first time in her life she was entering a boy's private room.
The blush returned with a vengeance, warring with her lingering frustration. She looked torn, anxious, yet undeniably desperate to accept.
It was a potent, vulnerable expression, and for a second, Shijun couldn't look away.