"Aside from Jhin and Sawamura-san taking leave for these four days, everyone else is present. Very good."
Tachibana Chizuru closed the attendance book with satisfaction.
Irisu Makina raised her small hand curiously:
"Chizuru-Chizuru, why did Onii-chan and Sawamura-san both ask for leave?"
"Sawamura-san has some urgent matters that require Jhin's help, so they took leave together. Please don't disturb them for the next few days."
"Eh!? To think they are going to be alone together for four days? That's so nice~"
"I already said it was urgent. Makina, you don't think they are playing around, do you?"
"Muu... Even I haven't been alone with Onii-chan for four days!"
Michiru Matsushima immediately pricked her bubble of lies:
"Didn't you spend the whole summer vacation alone with Jhin?"
"Th-that was just training at school, it doesn't count as being alone! Honestly, Michi-Michi, be careful or Irisu Kiyoika will come find you at night!"
"T-that kind of thing won't happen, stop joking about that all the time!"
Michiru Matsushima had only learned some time ago that Irisu Kiyoika, whom Irisu Makina occasionally brought up to curse others, was her deceased, malicious mother.
Although she knew that things like evil spirits claiming lives were impossible, Michiru Matsushima still felt a chill. After all, according to the description she heard from Jhin, this Irisu Kiyoika was not a good person.
Urgent business, and alone in a room with Jhin for four days?
Kasumigaoka Utaha could only think of the possibility that the doujinshi couldn't catch up with the deadline for the exhibition. She followed the account "Kashiwagi Eri", so naturally, she saw that resurrection declaration. If there was any large-scale doujin exhibition that matched these four days, it would only be Comic Treasure, the largest male-oriented doujin exhibition.
Kasumigaoka Utaha wasn't a fan of Eriri, and although she really didn't want to, she had to admit that Eriri's painting talent was even above her own talent for novels.
Of course, such words could only be thought in her heart; Kasumigaoka Utaha would absolutely never tell that "get-praised-and-stick-nose-in-air" Eriri such a thing.
I know the two of them took leave to draw a doujinshi, but it's hard to say for the others. A man and a woman taking leave together for four days—no matter how you think about it, it feels very ambiguous.
Thinking this, Kasumigaoka Utaha quietly glanced at Sakaki Yumiko's reaction.
She still wore an expression of complete indifference as she flipped through the textbook in her hand.
Are you really Jhin's girlfriend?
Your boyfriend specifically took leave to be with another girl for four days, eh?
Kasumigaoka Utaha could never have imagined that the current Sakaki Yumiko's brain was filled entirely with thoughts of how to go further with Jhin, paying no heed to such trivial matters as asking for leave. According to Kazami Kazuki's revelation, currently only she and Michiru Matsushima had made no substantive progress with Jhin.
We agreed to advance and retreat together, yet you group of vixens actually stole a march one by one!
...
Time rewound to yesterday night. Jhin spent about twenty minutes completing all the backgrounds for the entire manuscript.
Eriri walked quickly to his side, bringing a waft of fragrance with her, and snatched up the manuscript. Her cute face was full of surprise. After checking the entire manuscript, Eriri put it back on the table and rested her hands on Jhin's shoulders with a fanatical expression:
"Jhin, you have a lot of talent. Do you want to learn painting from me?"
"Let's forget about that." Jhin leaned his body back, actively keeping a distance from Eriri.
"Eriri, calm down first."
"I won't!" Seeing Jhin avoiding her, Eriri's stubborn temper flared up instantly, and she insisted on holding Jhin down.
No matter how you put it, I am a bishoujo, you know? Others would be wishing they could agree if I begged them like this, so why do you actively distance yourself from me?
Is this old lady not pretty enough, or do you think I'm too flat?
"Eriri, stop using force, we are very dangerous like this."
"No! What danger could my little bit of strength cause?"
The strength in the hands on Jhin's shoulders gradually increased. Leaning against the back of the chair, it was hard for Jhin to exert force to resist Eriri. Under her continuous exertion, the chair's wheels rolled slightly, taking both of them directly falling backwards.
"Wah!" Eriri saw the ground getting closer and closer and closed her eyes in fear.
Fortunately, Jhin was a substitute user. He quickly reached back with his right palm to brace against the ground, while his left arm wrapped around Eriri's slender waist. His substitute—The World—crouched behind the chair and used its sturdy hands to support the chair, keeping the back of the chair at a sixty-degree angle with the ground.
Eriri curled up in Jhin's arms like a frightened little animal, shivering, anticipating the pain—
"Eriri, you'd better get off me quickly. I can't maintain this posture for long."
"Huh?" Eriri opened her eyes and realized she was being held in Jhin's embrace. She jumped up, her face flushed red, and squatted in the corner covering her cheeks, not daring to look at him. She had grown up this big without ever being hugged by a boy her age; she never expected her first embrace would be stolen by Jhin, a taken man.
But this was also the result of her not listening to advice and bringing it upon herself, so she had no reason to blame Jhin.
"Eriri, are you okay?"
"Mn..."
"I told you to calm down. Fortunately, I reacted quickly. If you had fallen and injured your hand, the doujin exhibition would have been completely ruined."
You should consider yourself first! With you as a meat cushion, if we really fell, you would be more seriously injured than me!
Eriri knew she was in the wrong, but she remained stubborn as a mule: "Who asked you to refuse to learn painting from me!"
"Your talent might be even higher than mine, why waste your talent?"
"After becoming a famous artist, the salary is very high!"
Eriri got angrier the more she spoke. She actually took the initiative, placing her hands on her hips in righteous indignation, baring her teeth at Jhin like a golden cat with its fur standing on end: "Don't waste your life in vain!"
"Eriri, perhaps you can integrate your interests into your work, but I can't. I don't have the same enthusiasm for painting as you do."
"As for making money..." Jhin took out his phone, opened a banking APP, and showed Eriri the frighteningly long string of numbers on the deposit page: "I actually don't worry about that aspect."
"Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands... ten million... one... hundred million?" Her finger trembling as she pointed at the numbers on the screen, Eriri felt her mouth go dry. Even as the daughter of a diplomat, she had never seen such a massive amount of money.
How could the little bit of money from being an artist compare to Jhin's savings?
Realizing that she couldn't move Jhin no matter what she said, Eriri sat on the floor dejectedly, her words full of envy: "If only I had talent like yours."
"Eriri, do you think I am a genius in painting?" Jhin calmly gazed at the depressed Eriri.
Eriri drew circles on the floor with her fingertip, unhappy: "Of course you're a genius. Whatever you say, I count as a professional artist; I still have that much discernment."
"Then why does the artist that this genius supports think that she herself has no talent?"
____
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