“S-She actually called him Ren directly!”
Kashiwagi Nagisa also covered her mouth in shock.
In Japan, only very close people or extremely familiar friends called each other by given name, just like her and Shijou Maki, who had been best friends since kindergarten.
That meant the relationship between those two was definitely far more intimate than she had imagined.
So they had to be boyfriend and girlfriend!
After reaching that conclusion, Nagisa rushed out in righteous anger.
As Maki’s closest friend, she absolutely could not stand seeing a scummy man cheating.
And he was only a first-year in high school, yet he was already sneaking around with one girl.
In his second year, he would sneak around with two.
In his third year, he would sneak around with three.
By the time he reached marriage age, wouldn’t he be sneaking around with dozens?!
As Maki-chan’s best friend, I have to stop you ahead of time!
“Hey, Nagisa!”
Maki tried hard to pull Nagisa back, but she could not stop her no matter what.
She was clearly training her strength too, so why couldn’t she hold her back?
“Ayanokouji-kun, what a coincidence!”
Nagisa forcefully dragged Maki down to the first floor.
Her bangs cast a shadow over her eyes as she gave Ren a very “kind” smile.
“Are you also taking your girlfriend out to buy clothes?”
Ren’s pupils shrank slightly.
To be honest, seeing these two suddenly appear did surprise him.
Satou tilted her head, then suddenly reached out and tugged Ren’s sleeve.
“Ren, who are they?”
She really is calling him by name.
Nagisa gritted her teeth.
“Ayanokouji-kun, you should know me, right?
Even if you don’t know me, you should know her.”
Nagisa pointed at Maki beside her.
Satou looked over.
She saw a girl with light-brown twin tails.
She was very cute, and her eyes were a charming shade of purple.
But Maki did not make any eye contact with Satou.
She had been secretly looking at Ren’s eyes the whole time.
Only after Nagisa emphasized it did she finally react and awkwardly greet him.
“Yo.
L-Long time no see.”
Of course Ren knew Shijou Maki.
She was the fiancée his mother had chosen for him, so how could he not know her?
It was just that suddenly running into her here felt a little…
Like his interpersonal relationships had entered a crisis.
Commonly known as a shura field.
Ren did not speak.
While his brain ran at high speed, he suddenly opened his mouth.
“Mm.
Long time no see, Shijou-san.”
The crystal chandelier in Biancoro’s flagship store seemed to shake.
Maki felt as if she had been struck by lightning.
Shijou-san?
Putting aside the fact that they were already fiancés through an arranged marriage, they had known each other for so many years.
Yet he still called her Shijou-san?
Maybe girls were not the only ones who hated feudal marriages.
Maybe he had never even remembered her name in the first place.
“Mm…”
Maki lowered her head.
[Sorrow] appeared above her.
“What do you mean, Shijou-san?!”
Nagisa suddenly shouted at Ren as he reached toward Maki’s head.
“She’s your fiancée!
No matter what, you should at least call her Maki-san!”
Her eyes immediately fixed on Shijou Maki.
So she was Ren’s fiancée?
Being stared at by those emotionless eyes made Maki shiver, and she hid behind Nagisa.
The air fell silent.
The other customers in the shop suddenly stopped moving too.
After all, anyone who could enter Biancoro had more or less heard of the surname “Shijou.”
Whispers began to rise.
“Shijou Maki?
The young lady from the Shijou family?”
“That boy across from her is her fiancé?
She’s already engaged?
I never heard about that.”
“But it looks like he’s already cheating.”
…
The noise around them became a little annoying, but there was no reason to drive anyone away.
So Maki wanted to leave.
She wanted to leave this sad place.
“Nagisa, stop talking…
Let’s go.”
She lowered her voice and tugged on Nagisa’s clothes.
But inevitably, she looked toward Ren again.
He was still the same as ever.
Standing straight-backed amid the rumors and gossip, his eyes embedded with gold that refused to be killed.
In a daze, Maki returned to that tea party held by the Shinomiya family when she was seven.
The adults at the table had probed and even insulted each other.
Then, someone deliberately shifted the topic to the children of the younger generation.
They were dragged onto the stage and turned into weapons for the adults to continue attacking each other.
Only Ren had been the sharpest blade.
He had drawn blood from the other side with cutting words, leaving the arrogant Shinomiya main family red-faced and speechless.
That mature and confident appearance had fascinated young Maki.
So now, asking her to attack that confidence was something she simply could not do.
But it was fine.
As long as he got tired of playing around, he would eventually return to her.
After all, that was what an engagement meant.
That was the greatness of the feudal system!
Maki praised it inwardly.
So for now, she just had to leave.
But Nagisa could not accept that at all.
“Maki, what’s wrong with you?
Aren’t you usually very sharp-tongued?
Show some aggression!”
Nagisa spoke beside Maki’s ear, sounding disappointed in her lack of backbone.
“I-I can’t!
If we argue here, it won’t end well for us!”
Maki pulled Nagisa around and turned her back to Ren.
“There are too many people.
Do you want the daughter of the Shijou family to act like a shrew in public?”
Divert the conflict.
In her panic, Maki used the Shijou family as her turtle shell.
Nagisa understood that logic too, but she still could not accept it.
“But you can’t just let him off like this!
He cheated behind your back and found a little wife outside!”
Maki felt a sour ache in her heart.
But she still could not help stubbornly saying, “He and I aren’t even—”
“But—”
“Ahem.”
Ren suddenly interrupted.
“What?”
Nagisa turned her head, looking angry.
“Was anything I said wrong?”
“It was wrong from the very first sentence.”
Ren spoke.
Perhaps many people would think this was a romantic battlefield, but to Ren, it was a vegetable field.
He had harvested one [Sorrow] and one [Anger], so he was in a good mood.
“The first sentence?”
Nagisa had already forgotten what her first sentence had been.
“Girlfriend?”
Ren casually fiddled with the price tag on a nearby clothing rack.
“Kashiwagi-san’s understanding of family relationships is truly unique.”
“Family?”
Nagisa looked at the petite Satou beside him and rolled her eyes.
“Don’t tell me you’re going to claim she’s your little sister.”
“Don’t even think about it.
I’m telling you right now.”
Nagisa pointed at Maki.
“Maki knows your family members!”
“Maki, have you ever seen this little sister?”
“No.”
Maki shook her head.
She really had never seen her before.
“Of course you haven’t seen me.
After all, I only just arrived at the Ayanokouji family.”
Satou suddenly took half a step forward.
“Hello, Shijou-san.
I am Ren’s…”
“Auntie.”
Even though Ren had already mentally prepared himself to hear that introduction, his face still inevitably twitched.
“?”
Nagisa and Maki’s eyes simultaneously turned into dots.
You’re lying, right?
In this day and age, when the little sister excuse stops working, people start switching to the auntie excuse?
“The adoption procedures were completed yesterday.”
Ren suddenly handed his phone to Maki.
On the screen, black text on white paper clearly showed the girl’s name as “Ayanokouji Satou,” complete with a seal.
“Shijou-san, you should have heard about it from your mother, right?”
Maki froze.
She vaguely remembered that her mother had indeed mentioned last week that the Ayanokouji family was going to adopt a distant relative.
But who could have imagined it would be…
Such a tiny auntie!
Still, wasn’t that pretty good?
At least he was not cheating, right?
Thank you, Auntie.
Thank you, Auntie!
Maki breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Satou as if she had narrowly escaped disaster.
“Hello, Auntie.”
Satou’s eyes instantly lit up.
“Good girl.”
“Uh…
Uh…
Uh…
Hello, Auntie.”
Nagisa looked at Satou, whose height barely reached her nose.
Although she still felt like they were being lied to, there was nothing she could do.
So Nagisa awkwardly greeted her too.
“Good girl.”
Satou smiled.
If only Ren would call her that too.