Love Fest!

"You girls want to keep asking her? You know I could ask the chairwoman for an alternative solution." He thought he could probably ask the chairwoman for help. If it comes to the point of asking Mamako for help, the success will probably be high.

Honoka waved her free hand before continuing. "Yes, you don't have to trouble yourself again." The help he did before was enough. It was time for them to show that they can do things by themselves. If they kept on making him do the work, then they might get depressed and feel incompetent about many things.

He smiled helplessly. "Why kept asking that girl, you now know her personality right?"

"It's my gut feeling and even if she had said bad things to us, it doesn't mean we can't just ignore her." Honoka had a wonderful smile even though Nico had bad mouthed her. She heard Nozomi's words and just felt that Nico was unlucky.

"Nozomi senpai said that she was alone after all these years. Maybe that was why she doesn't allow us to join," Kotori added. The member of her club had left because of her high standard so they probably aren't friends with her anymore and distanced themselves from her. Putting up with their dislike will just make them more angry and unresponsive to her effort. She had that mindset of aspiring pro idol rather than troubling her for more. Afterward, they didn't care and gave a cold shoulder when seeing her.

"So you want to empathize, well. It's not like I will not help her in that situation, but with her, I just can't help but reconsider what we just planned." Hiroto saw Maki looking at him with a caring expression.

"Hiroto..." Maki looked at him. She knew he was just worried about them. Wasting time in this unforeseeable and troublesome plan, it was better to look for another solution and he already had one but they didn't want to change it.

"Hah...If that's what you girls want I won't bother anymore." Hiroto didn't speak anymore and just listened to them.

"We just need to convince her but it won't be easy." Kotori had a troubled face, the others agreed to her.

"Nico-senpai has a high standard, I doubt we could move her through our performance." Umi got worried, she didn't know if she would give them the chance to even persuade her.

"Will it be so hard? She likes idols, right? And from the looks of it, she admires them a lot." Honoka wondered if she was interested in them. She might probably accept if they gave her an incentive that she will like.

"That's not very specific," Umi said, Honoka agreed that they don't have a lead on where to start. But they noticed someone's umbrella in the gates of the school in the stairs to the roadside.

"Who's that? Ahh!" Rin asked while looking seriously in the distance and realized who it was.

"It's Nico-senpai," Hiroto replied, even now she was spying on them? What's pushing her curiosity towards them? As Nico saw their attention, she immediately hides behind a cover near the stairs before feeling tired. She decided to go home, she walked down and gone home.

"What should we do?" Umi asked, even if they reached out to her, she will probably run away from them.

"How about asking her to join the school idol?" Hiroto had this idea when they talked to her before.

"Hmmm?" All of them got enlightened since it was a plausible idea.

"Yes, given her knowledge in school idol, I think it will be profitable if we invited her!" Hanayo said energetically as she nodded vigorously. If that happened, she can watch the LLL compilation and that would be heaven.

"We just have to give her something that she won't be able to forgo. If she was spying on us right now, it means that she wanted to join, right?" Honoka pumped her fist through the air.

"What should we give her?" Kotori looked at Honoka and asked.

"The ability to help and manage us!" Honoka said aloud.

"Or you could just maintain her position as the club president?" Maki suggested while looking at his side.

"Yeah! That's right!" Honoka agreed to her proposition.

"That's possible...But we still have to wait for tomorrow." Hiroto smiled at them.

It was raining, Hiroto had to pass by the supermarket to buy some ingredients since the house will be filled with some gluttonous girls. After being a chef in months, he had become accustomed to their diets, what they liked and whatnots and they were happy that he was willing to cook for them after all his cooking was unresistable.

"I need to buy ingredients for cooking. Who wants to come?" Hiroto looked at Maki first but it seems she didn't want to join him and gave him a waved of denial.

"Mama will be checking up on me, so I need to wait for her at you're home," Maki said to him. Shio might join them today, and Maki wants to persuade her to not join if she can. It wasn't because she didn't want her to join the overnight but she will just be embarrassed through the entire night having her Mom at her boyfriend's house. The teasing from Mamako was already enough, adding her Mom will make the house amazingly lively.

"I'll join, I-i need to buy some things so.." Umi suddenly declared, she decided to help out in cooking later. She will try and make her favorite dishes that everyone will like, Honoka and Kotori suddenly grinned. Hiroto and Umi parted from the group.

-

After parting ways to the two, Honoka instantly locked her gaze at Maki with a curious face. She approached her with fast speed before saying.

"How is your couple relationship going?" Honoka put an avid expression. Hanayo and Rin heard her gossip and had surprised faces. Maki turned red and leered at her, she just exposed their relationship and it seems there wasn't hiding anymore.

"Iyah, I'm sorry Maki-chan please forgive me!" Honoka bowed 90 degrees, she just blew her cover even if they already had an inkling about it.

Kotori smiled wryly at Honoka's revelation but she heaved a sigh of relief.

"What does she mean by that? Is she saying that you're going out with Hiroto-nyah?!" Rin turned wide-mouthed. Maki sighed before looking to the side and turned slightly embarrassed.

"Well, even if we hid it, everyone would find it out sooner or later. That's right I-I'm going out with him do you have a problem with that?" Maki looked at her with an embarrassed face. Rin saw her cute face before walking to her and hugging her.

"No! No! Rather I'm more surprised. I already had the feeling but I didn't think of it seriously." Rin waved her hand frantically. She had seen them so close to each other so it wasn't an impossibility that something was going on.

"Hmmm."

'But the looks of Umi who always gaze at him, it seems that she had some feelings at him as well.' Hanayo who was very perceptive to the others jutted in her notes, before blushing and putting her notebook in her face.

"It was to be expected," Hanayo mumbled.

-

Hiroto and Umi walked alongside each other with their umbrella's on top of their head as the rain continues to fall nonstop. It didn't help out the silence between them as Umi didn't know what to talk so she just kept talking in her mind while waiting for him to speak.

"Ummm, it feels like this is the first meeting we had, you remember the time at the bookstore?" Hiroto smiled as he looked at her. Umi blushed before nodding.

"Y-Yes, it was a nice meeting and thank you for helping us out many times." Umi looked to the ground as they walked in the light raindrops falling in the sky. Remembering the time she nearly falls down the ladder but was saved by him.

"Hmm." Hiroto understood.

She turned panicky, her delusion kept asking her to speak out her thoughts. It was something she didn't want him to know, what she kept removing from her mind. Being alone with him made her mind more active.

'Honoka and Kotori were at their fault, I'll scold them later!' Umi blushed.

"Wh-what do you think of M-maki-chan?" Umi suddenly dared to speak. He wondered if she was just curious.

"She's adorable and I like her a lot" Hiroto saw her embarrassed and blushing face, he couldn't help but compare it to the girls that fell in love with someone. Umi turned a bit sad hearing his reply.

"Uhmm, W-what about me?" Umi stuttered before asking him at a slow pace manner. He got surprised before looking at her shy and mushy appearance. It was really cute seeing her calm and stoic manner to be blushing and had some faint expectation in them

'Isn't she changing her character a lot? I have seen two changes in just a day and one of them is my fault?' Hiroto inwardly said.

"Umi-senpai, you're very lovable and with your disposition, I think everyone will like you and that counts me as well." If it wasn't for Maki, he would probably have pursued her. He was a loner in the past, he knew his limits. Maybe he neglected it in the past but the romance was already out of his bounds moreover making something called a harem?

'In the first place, I've been transmigrated here before I died. I have received a system furthermore it's an evolutionary thing too.' Hiroto thought the system will probably evolve in the future, into something much more diverse. In the long run, making a harem seems to be not bad, if you don't consider the global but only the universal perspective. If he was suddenly transferred to another world, he would be griefed and sad leaving behind those of his loved ones and close family.

'A harem...' But thinking of that is making his loyalty for Maki drop a bit. Two entities popped in his shoulders while they argued positively and negatively.

'.. I have been in love with Maki but at the same time my feelings for others are becoming special..'

'Am I obligated to have a relationship with someone? Is it okay to make a harem of my own?'

"You should he-he." The chibi dark Hiroto said before mischievously laughing.

"What do you mean you should? Being loyal to your girl is better than anything." The white chibi Hiroto appeared to his other side before spawning a white spear and pointing it to the dark one.

"Why not? The more the merrier," the dark chibi said.

"Oh geez, does that mean your current girlfriend is not enough for you?!" the white chibi refuted.

"You know that he had a system right?"

'Stop!' Hiroto shook his head and tossed away his current thoughts as he calmed himself down, suddenly the system responded to his call.

[Ding!]

[A Special Quest had been received.]

[Congratulations host, the Companion Function had been unlocked.]

"Huh? I just goofed myself, did I?" He helplessly laughed, as he supposed thought of the conclusion that his subconscious possibly wanted what he had thought earlier. He first removed the sudden popups from the system and thought for it later.

"R-really?!" Umi got delighted hearing his praise but she looked down before saying meekly. He composed himself while lightly scratching his head. The implications on the other side but in the end, it didn't seem bad.

"Can you call me what you call Maki-chan, I don't want you to say honorifics to me even if I'm higher grade than you." Umi rubbed the umbrella with her hand gingerly.

"Okay, Umi-chan." Hiroto smiled gently.

"Un!" Umi nodded shyly.

"Seeing you like this is kinda refreshing, ha-ha." Hiroto smiled, so he probably had to speak without honorifics for the other two since they might get angry at him.

"Am I?" Umi got more embarrassed.

'Why am I proactive at this time? Is it because were alone?' Umi immediately got shocked at her thoughts. After experiencing it for 1 month she concluded that she had fallen for this guy but the point is that he was already in a relationship with her friend. She wanted to confess her feelings to him but she didn't want him to deny her. She was scared of getting ignored even though every time she saw Maki and him close to each other pricked her heart, there wasn't denying that she wasn't jealous of their current relationship. Hiding feelings was her forte after all.

"Why?" Umi looked at him with curiosity.

"Because you always looked so composed and strict to your friends," Hiroto plainly said.

It was already turning dark before they reach the storefront, he picked up two baskets on both sides of his hands. Umi appreciated his action before they head choose ingredients for everyone's food. Hiroto and Umi picked the ingredients they needed, Umi picked up the necessary ingredients with a composed and quiet actions. He waved his head removing his gaze from her and decided to finish picking everything. Meanwhile, after sensing him that he was looking at her, she was the one that continued to look from time to time and that made her imaginations on full throttle, she crouched down to pick the last ingredients she needed before putting it in the basket he was holding. She was embarrassed while trying to hide her face from his view.

"This banana looks like you Umi..." She imaged Hiroto with a grass stalk on his mouth while wearing a cowboy suit.

"Kyaahh!" Umi suddenly smacked her face.

"Oy!?" Hiroto saw her daydreaming before approaching her before putting his hand on her head.

"Eh?" Umi's face before she blushed and covered her face. He asked her if she was okay but was greeted by a furious nodding while a blush had turned permanent on her cool-looking face. His patting was kinda nice though.

'Straight yourself up!' Umi talked to herself before calming her mind.

"I wonder how you get to know Honoka and Kotori? you seem to have a very different personality with their energetic selves.." He chuckled, her face had a look of surprise before she spoked and calmed herself to her usual composed manner.

"I was a shy girl during my childhood, I got to know Honoka and Kotori when they invited me to play and after that, we become best friends." Umi described their friendship with a smile on her face, it seems their relationship was really good and even now, they had been with each other. It was an enviable situation for others.

"That's really nice! You were so close to each other after all." He agreed that was maybe why they had that kind of synergy towards each other. It was because they were really close even during their childhood. Any relationship that the past 8 years is something that will be held in your heart and mind throughout your lives.

"What about you?" Umi felt curious, he didn't have good memories from his past life but in this life, he had some memorable experience that was lingering in the side of his brain.

"I had one best friend during my childhood but she suddenly moved from another country, since then, we haven't seen each other." He smiled while lightly scratching his cheek. He didn't even remember her name and probably don't remember him as well.

'A girl huh..'

"Let's pay the bill," Hiroto suggested before she nods, Umi insisted that she buys her portion since she was going to cook it herself. It was a treat for the group and she wanted it to be bought herself.

Carrying the stuff they bought, Hiroto leads onwards while Umi looked at his back. The rain had let up, she wasn't able to speak what she wanted to say to him.

Touch.

Umi suddenly held his clothes at the back and it made him look back.

"C-Can I hold like this when we go to the house." Umi looked at him shyly. Hiroto felt speechless before nodding albeit inwardly sighing.

'You know I have a girlfriend right? You're making me commit my other thought!' Hiroto felt speaking but he didn't do so, it might make her sad and he didn't want that especially that they had a study group later. If the others saw her sad disposition, they might get angry at him.

""