Rei Ao's usual air of overwhelming, invisible pressure seemed to have eased a little.
He was casually toweling his hair dry as his gaze swept over the two girls on the sofa—both looking like they wished they could sink into the cushions and vanish completely.
Sakurajima Mai leaned lazily against the doorframe of another bedroom, lips curved into a smirk that screamed she was enjoying every second of this.
First, she shot Rei Ao a look that clearly meant, This one's all yours.
Then, with a raised brow, she silently mouthed to Tōru and the others, Go on, let them talk.
They caught on instantly. In a quick, practiced move, they slipped into the other bedroom behind her and gently closed the door.
The large living room was now just Rei Ao and two girls whose embarrassment levels had gone nuclear.
For a moment, the only sounds were the three of them breathing and the distant hum of the city outside the window.
Rei Ao walked over and dropped into the armchair facing Furuhashi Fumino and Ogata Rizu.
He draped the towel over the armrest, leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, fingers loosely laced, and calmly looked at the two girls, who seemed ready to disappear into thin air.
"Ahem."
He cleared his throat, breaking the silence.
Both girls flinched like they'd been zapped, their heads ducking even lower. Rizu's glasses nearly slid off her nose.
"Earlier…" he began, his voice low and even, no obvious emotion in it.
"…was an accident."
Fumino & Rizu: !!!
An… accident?
That—that vivid, seared-into-your-brain scene—was an accident?
Their minds went completely blank for a second before the memory came back in even sharper, high-definition detail, looping like a cruel mental slideshow.
The shame hit them like a tidal wave all over again.
Rizu's brain felt like it had just overheated and shut down entirely.
Fumino's romantic-girl heart felt like it had just collapsed in an apocalypse-level disaster.
"You don't need to think too much about it," Rei Ao said, with a casual tone that somehow made it worse—like this was nothing at all. There was even the faintest hint of… satisfaction?
He leaned back in the chair, posture relaxing.
"I certainly don't mind."
Then, almost too casually, "Otherwise I wouldn't have… well, waited until we were finished to talk."
Fumino & Rizu: …!!!
Every single word hit like a sledgehammer to their fragile dignity.
Rizu's lenses fogged over completely—she couldn't even tell if it was from tears or sheer heat.
Fumino's face was burning so badly she had to cover it with both hands.
Rei Ao watched the two of them, both looking seconds away from either bursting into flames or evaporating on the spot. He shook his head faintly and sighed under his breath. Overreacting much…
"If you really want to blame someone…" His tone lightened, almost teasing.
"…blame that Ilias brat for not warning you. She lives for this kind of chaos."
He tossed Ilias under the bus without hesitation.
"And anyway," he added, a tiny, playful smirk forming at the corner of his mouth, "you didn't exactly ruin anything."
He paused, choosing his words carefully.
"…If anything, you might have made things… a little more fun."
Fun?
The girls froze, heads snapping up in jerky unison like rusty robots.
Four wide, shocked eyes locked on him. Both their mouths formed perfect "O" shapes big enough to fit an egg.
Fun?!
They'd stumbled into something so mortifying they wanted to erase it from existence—yet to him, it was fun?
The mental whiplash was just as bad as the original scene.
If that earlier moment was a physical hit, this was a direct shot to the soul.
Their worldview, their shame threshold, even their definition of fun shattered and rearranged on the spot.
Their minds went totally blank, the word echoing endlessly.
As that calm, unreadable face stayed perfectly composed, Rizu's glasses finally gave up and slid off, landing in her lap.
Without the lenses, her usually sharp purple eyes were now just dazed and overloaded.
Fumino's hands slipped away from her face, revealing a face so red it looked like it might start bleeding, paired with a completely blank stare. She opened her mouth to speak, but all that came out was a small, choked "Ah…"
In both their heads, the same horrified thought surfaced: We… were just part of their play?
Silence fell again.
Rei Ao looked at their completely short-circuited expressions and realized his "honest reassurance" had backfired.
Not that he cared—he was telling the truth.
That little interruption earlier hadn't dulled anything between him and Toyohama Nodoka; if anything, the tension and closeness after resuming had been beyond words.
Put simply—it had been amazing. So amazing he wouldn't mind it happening again.
His gaze shifted to the massive floor-to-ceiling windows. Outside, the night was deep, neon lights twinkling in the distance. The streets below were quiet, with only the occasional car or pedestrian.
Considering what these two had just been through tonight—and their current out-of-body state—sending them home alone didn't seem like a great idea.
"Ahem."
His voice cut through the silence again, back to calm and steady.
"It's pretty late," he said, nodding toward the window.
"Might not be easy to get a cab right now."