Chapter 2154: Did you sleep well?

Upon reaching the second floor, Marika and I ran into Tanaka-senpai.

The girl was pleasantly surprised to see us together and found we were closer than ever. Although she had yet to fully transition from being a follower to Marika's actual friend, I could see how much she was trying to throw away her old ways. There's also her conscious effort to atone for her attempt to use Marika as a tool for their vengeance.

Although I could only hear what she was doing from either Marika or Watanabe, she seemed to have started fighting back against those who continued to pretend to be Marika's followers when in fact, they were in Ichihara Jun's pockets.

As for the side of Takashima, the vengeful dude, she stopped associating with him. However, she could still pull some information from him - or rather his plans.

With Ichihara Jun taking this week off, Tanaka-senpai said he was planning to deal with the pompous bastard when he returns next week.

As for the specifics... she's not privy to it.

To ensure that Marika won't be dragged by whatever plan he's cooking up, Tanaka-senpai was going to work with him for the last time.

Or so I heard. Apparently, he put out that condition for leaving Marika alone.

That guy. What gives him the confidence to use Marika as a chip for Tanaka-senpai to continue following him?

What an annoying bastard but since he's going to deal with Ichihara Jun, I could consider him as a distraction. Whether he succeeded or not doesn't matter to me. However, since he's continuing to pull Marika into the equation even after I sent him my message not to mess with the girl, he's testing my patience.

"Oh... G-good morning, Marika-senpai? And... Onoda-kun." After recovering from her initial surprise, Tanaka-senpai smiled and greeted us stiffly. She's still navigating through addressing Marika like a friend and not a follower. It's quite a hard road to take after following her for so long - even if she was only doing it for their previous plan of using the ringlet girl for their vengeance.

"Good morning to you too, Saori. Are you going downstairs?" Marika returned her greeting and then urged me to continue upstairs and stand before the girl.

"Ah. Yes."

"See you later then? Ruki-kun is going to escort me upstairs."

"Yes! See you later. And Onoda-kun... Thank you for accompanying Marika-sa... uhm, Marika- senpai." She nodded and then turned to me, bowing her head in gratitude.

She didn't really need to act like this but thinking about it, she's now putting me up at the same level as Marika.

Does scaring her and advising her to become Marika's friend warrant that change in attitude? I don't know. And I doubt pointing it out to her will change that. It will be tied closer to her transition of being Marika's friend.

"No worries. It's my responsibility now after making her fall in love with me, no?" To clear the air around us, I put on a rather playful smile, making the girl next to me blush and the girl in front not knowing how to respond to it.

Before other students could come and see us here, I tightened my hold on Marika's hand and gestured for us to continue upstairs.

"Alright. See you later, senpai. And by the way, can I talk to you later?" I asked before we walked past her.

"Eh? Me?" She pointed at her, clearly not expecting me to request that.

I swiftly nodded and got straight to the point, "Mhm. It involves that guy."

With that, even Marika froze to stare at me, wondering what I was thinking.

"Oh... Okay. I'll wait for you." Tanaka-senpai answered after a few seconds of contemplation.

With that, we left her behind and continued upstairs.

Before we reached her classroom, I filled in Marika on my reason for asking Tanaka-senpai for her time.

It's not like I'm going to interrogate her. I'll just use the same tactic that vengeful dude was employing. Put pressure on Tanaka-senpai but instead of threatening her with Marika, I'll simply tell her not to be afraid of Takashima.

That won't be too effective but at least, it will make her think twice about who she should follow in this particular instance.

I couldn't care less if her participation could potentially raise the success of his plan against Ichihara Jun. We now have a bone to pick on each other for his continued affront of involving Marika.

If that's not enough. I might even do Ichihara Jun a favor by crushing the guy out for his blood. Of course, I'll still be dealing a final blow to him. Something that will end in his reputation crumbling further than now.

After Marika entered their classroom, I also checked on Minori-senpai and my other girls on the same floor.

Minori-senpai was still reluctant to interact with me outside of their clubroom but staring at her for almost a minute got her to stand up and approach me outside their classroom.

Of course, I got scolded by her for not reading her intention. In response, I only greeted her good morning along with my usual smile.

That somehow blew away her exasperation with my behavior. In the end, I got Minori-senpai giggling at my absurd way of getting her attention. After our talk yesterday, I've already breached her defense.

Perhaps if not for the other students in the corridor, she would have asked me to kiss her again.

I knew I had to be very careful in getting her to open up again. But it's quite effective to just act like an annoying guy who doesn't know how to read her mood. Not that I was planning to keep acting like that every time.

I'll do good with my promise of helping and taking care of them.

When I went down to the second floor, I also visited Yuika-senpai after I checked on Haruko, Shizu, and the others.

Although the orange-haired girl approached me without being annoyed like Minori-senpai, Yuika-senpai was quite hesitant about truly getting close to a guy. I also didn't push it. I just greeted her before wishing her a pleasant day.

With that, I turned around and left to get into our classroom on time.

Upon arriving there, I was instantly met with the meaningful gaze of Nami, Hana, and Chii. Even without saying anything, I could already guess what was on their mind.

To hear what happened in the sleepover last night.

I did inform them about it but because a lot has happened, I failed to continue updating them. This time, they're wondering what kept me so busy apart from taking care of Akane and Fuyu.

As I walked to my seat, I greeted all of them with a smile before turning to the girl on my left

who was also waiting for me to finish settling down.

"Ruki... Uhm... How was it? Did you get to sleep well?"

And there we have it, Aya started the questioning with a fairly innocent one.

"Mhm. I do. I also ended up sleeping in the room."

Upon hearing that, not only Aya but all of my girls paying attention to me staggered before rushing in to get a clearer and more detailed answer.

Well, my honesty was backfiring on me for this. Nonetheless, it wasn't troublesome. I never intended to hide it from them anyway. Just that, some things were still best kept hidden.