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"Sorry, I'm late," Asakura said without the slightest hint of guilt.
"It's fine, I just got here too," Yanami said, flipping through the menu.
Wagnaria, a family restaurant, offers cheap and delicious food. Aside from its unique staff, it's the most cost-effective family restaurant near Soubu High School.
"Are you two on a date? What a classic line…" Yakishio Lemon, who was nearby, quipped.
"If it's a date, can we split the bill for our orders?"
Yanami asked excitedly.
Asakura glanced at the page she was flipping to on the menu, which read 'Manager's Recommendation: Yachiyo Strawberry Galore Deluxe Parfait Promax Edition (6480 yen).'
Good heavens, one of those would cost him more than two months' worth of living expenses, with 480 yen left over.
"You'd do anything for food, wouldn't you?" Asakura couldn't help but retort.
"Of course not!" Yanami replied without hesitation.
"Oh, oh!" Yakishio Lemon looked at Yanami as if she had heard some interesting gossip.
Girls in love tend to be a bit love-struck; she was probably expecting Yanami to say something like, 'It's because of you that I'd say that,' to Asakura.
But Yanami was clearly not such a superficial woman. She said righteously, "If I can't do math, I just can't do it!"
"Well said. I have a copy of 'Five Years of College Entrance Exams, Three Years of Mock Exams' here. It's quite effective for dealing with the Japanese academic proficiency test…" Asakura began rummaging through his bag: "It's a precious book from across the sea, so you should cherish it."
"Hmm, I'll cherish it well," Yanami replied distractedly.
"…You're not talking about the kind of cherishing where you don't even turn a single page, are you?" Asakura stopped what he was doing, his gaze sharp.
"Wow, the hamburger steak set here is only 500 yen!" Yanami began to play dumb while looking at the menu.
Asakura's gaze grew increasingly dangerous, and cold sweat began to bead on Yanami's forehead.
"Th-that!" Yuigahama Yui felt that if this continued, some rather disharmonious scenes might unfold later, and considering the unnecessary trouble it would cause the family restaurant, the girl bravely spoke up to interrupt the dangerous atmosphere.
However, she didn't have the courage to provoke Asakura, so she could only turn the topic to someone else: "Lemon-chan, where's Ayano-kun? Why isn't he here yet?"
"Mitsuki has to go to cram school today." Speaking of this, Yakishio Lemon's mood instantly dropped quite a bit. She grumbled indignantly, "His girlfriend invited him on a date, but cram school is still better, huh… Damn it, thinking about it makes me feel even more pathetic for losing to cram school. When evening comes, I'll definitely go to Mitsuki's house and make him treat me properly!"
"Lemon-chan… so open…" Yuigahama Yui's face instantly turned red, and who knows what she was imagining in her little head.
"Huh? Wait, no, it's not what you think!"
Yakishio Lemon only then realized that her words just now were indeed a bit ambiguous, and hurriedly tried to salvage the situation: "Mitsuki and I are childhood friends, so it's normal for our houses to be close. I used to often go to his house for dinner, and his aunt and uncle are very kind to me. It's no problem even if I stay overnight there…"
"O-overnight…" Yuigahama Yui was shocked. If this were a manga, her little head would probably be steaming by now.
"So I said it's not like that!" Yakishio Lemon, whose explanation was only making things worse, explained with wild gestures.
But rather than shyness, her tone carried a hint of showing off and happiness.
"That's so nice, childhood friends…" Yuigahama Yui couldn't help but whisper.
"That's not necessarily true."
Yanami's eyes began to look like dead fish, and she muttered while biting her drink straw. That appearance reminded Asakura of the last time he saw her in this restaurant.
"While childhood friends are indeed the best attribute—everyone else is a homewrecker—it's precisely because they are childhood friends, having been together since childhood, that they become accustomed to each other's presence to the point of numbness. Even if one day they suddenly realize, 'Ah, I actually like that guy,' their heart still can't feel the reality of love. Their feelings for the other person, rather than love, are more akin to familial affection."
As soon as childhood friends were mentioned, Yanami became excited. Chewing on her straw, she rambled on: "Only when a homewrecker suddenly appears and draws away the person who was naturally by your side, do you feel the real sense of loss, like something of yours has been snatched away. So, from an outsider's perspective, childhood friends seem to have every advantage in love, but they always end up losing everything. This is because they don't know that the feelings between childhood friends are not as superficial as love… Yes, it's something more noble, more pure, something I don't understand but definitely exists!"
Saying this, she looked at the somewhat bewildered Yuigahama Yui: "Yuigahama-san, do you have anything to say?"
Yuigahama Yui, somewhat confused by the long monologue, looked at the others. Yakishio Lemon hadn't understood anything and was still sulking about her lover not coming to accompany her, while Asakura was calmly flipping through a textbook without any change in expression. Finally, she could only say softly.
"Can I have some fries?"
"Get a large one," Yanami waved her small hand, "I want some too!"
While waiting for the fries to be served.
"Speaking of which," Yanami looked at the people present and asked, "Are we the only ones attending the study group today?"
"Yukino said she doesn't like studying with a lot of people." Yuigahama Yui glanced at Asakura, who was doing problems, then quietly lowered her head and took a sip of her drink: "Sorry…"
Actually, Yukino's words were even more radical, but since the person in question was right there, Yuigahama Yui didn't dare to actually say them.
"Ruri has a shift at her part-time job today, so I can only say that someone's timing for arranging the study session was problematic," Asakura said pointedly, casually drawing auxiliary lines on a geometric diagram.
"What can I do? Sousuke and them are holding their study session today," Yanami said with a pained expression.
"Also, I invited Chihaya… Asagumo-san, but she also has to go to cram school today," Asakura continued.
"Ugh…" Yakishio Lemon's expression became uneasy.
"Don't worry, Asagumo-san doesn't seem like a person who would be so… uh, fond of interfering in other people's relationships," Yuigahama Yui comforted her.
Asakura, who had witnessed Asagumo Chihaya's severe case, remained silent.
"Speaking of which, I wanted to ask this earlier, but it seems like the President suddenly became very close with Asagumo-san, even calling each other by their first names."
Yanami leaned towards Asakura and asked, "Did something happen between you two at the hot spring inn?"
Yuigahama Yui, who was nearby, also quietly perked up her ears, seemingly quite interested in this as well.
"I traveled through time and rescued a girl trapped in an infinite loop."
Asakura said with a serious expression.
"If you don't want to say it, then don't…" Yanami retorted, "There's no such absurd thing in reality."
"More importantly, isn't this a study session?" Asakura closed his exercise book and looked at the few people who were chatting animatedly about love topics: "Aren't you going to study? You haven't even taken out your textbooks, have you?"
"Even if you say that…" Yanami chuckled awkwardly.
Just then, a petite waitress with a youthful face and ample chest came over carrying a plate that was a bit too large for her. The golden-fried fries on it were giving off an aroma that screamed 'eat me while I'm hot,' and next to the plate were several small dishes containing different dipping sauces.
"Here are the 'Extra Large Fries' you ordered, please enjoy them quickly," the cute ponytail-wearing waitress said as she placed the plate on the table, then scampered away like a little deer.
"They're finally here!"
Yanami cheered and began to gobble them up.
Asakura sighed helplessly, picked up a fry, and dipped it in ketchup.
"Tsk tsk tsk," Yanami, seeing this, smugly picked up her own fries and showed them off to him: "The real connoisseurs eat these fries with yellow mustard!"
No one wants to know such completely useless trivia.
Asakura looked at the girl with half-closed eyes.
After that, he spoke very little, merely observing the three girls' 'study session' with a detached gaze.
As expected, after that, they hardly mentioned studying. Instead, they were interested in topics related to love and other more girlish subjects, chatting about many things that made Asakura wear an 'old man on the subway looking at his phone' expression.
"That was fun! Let's have more study sessions like this in the future!" Yanami finally concluded.
'Thump.'
The sound of Asakura forcefully placing his drink cup on the table made the girls instinctively look over.
Then they noticed that several completed test papers had appeared next to Asakura.
"Can you really call this a study session?" He posed a soul-searching question to them.
"Wh-what can we do? If we don't know something, we just don't know it…" Yanami said weakly.
"Isn't a study session for learning things you don't know?" Asakura asked.
"Even if you say that… Hmm, should I say that the food at the family restaurant is surprisingly delicious, or that I just don't have any motivation to study…"
Yuigahama Yui also said, somewhat embarrassed, while fiddling with her fingers.
"Although I do want to study, every time I see text, I can't help but want to go out and run a few laps," Yakishio Lemon added from the side.
"So, subjectively, you all want to study, but for various reasons, you can't keep studying, right?"
Asakura confirmed seriously.
The three of them nodded like chicks pecking at rice.
"Very good. It's a weekend, so let's have another study session at my place tomorrow," Asakura began to pack his things.
"Eh? Is that okay?" Yanami asked, somewhat excitedly.
"Mm."
Originally, it wasn't very convenient, but after acquiring the Clubroom, all the rewards Asakura had obtained from the system had been transferred to the Clubroom. His current house was just a place to rest, nothing particularly significant.
"Won't it be too much trouble for Asakura-kun?" Yuigahama Yui asked softly.
"If you have no intention of studying at all, then of course I don't have to do it, but since you want to learn, I also have my own ideas."
Asakura showed a kind smile, slung his backpack over his shoulder: "Look forward to it."
With that, he strode out of the family restaurant, leaving the girls looking at each other.
By the time they realized he hadn't paid, Yanami was already crying, having scrounged up every last coin from her wallet.
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