Tsubakihara Nina lowered her head and seriously read her book. Too lazy to bother with it, she casually replied, "So what if there is? At this age, dating is pretty normal, right?"
Hearing that, Tsubakihara Yuna immediately said, "I don't want that!"
Then she quietly muttered, "I don't want Hikari-kun dating other girls. If anyone's going to date him, it should be me first."
Even though she spoke very softly and didn't clearly say the subject or object, Tsubakihara Nina still heard it, and more or less guessed what her sister meant.
Tsubakihara Nina pushed up her glasses and looked at Tsubakihara Yuna, "Sis, don't tell me you like Hikari-kun? With our relationship, it's not very convenient for you to date him, right?"
Hearing Tsubakihara Nina's words, Tsubakihara Yuna's little face instantly turned red, "W-When did I ever say I wanted to date Hikari-kun?"
"You just—"
Before Tsubakihara Nina could finish speaking, Tsubakihara Yuna already ran upstairs in a flash.
Looking at the swaying butt hurrying away, Tsubakihara Nina helplessly took off her glasses, revealing that stunningly beautiful face, then shook her head helplessly.
———
Meanwhile, after returning to her room, Tsubakihara Yuna picked up her book again, preparing to study to distract herself.
But she realized it felt completely different from when Hikari had taught her earlier. Now it felt like she was reading some heavenly scripture. She couldn't focus at all.
"No! If Hikari-kun starts dating another girl, then who'll teach me? I absolutely can't leave Hikari-kun," While reading, Tsubakihara Yuna suddenly spoke up.
"So I can't let Hikari-kun date another girl."
"If he's going to date anyone, it has to be me!"
"That's right!"
Tsubakihara Yuna understood.
"Hehe!"
"But Yuna's right. With the relationship between me and Hikari-kun… it really isn't easy to become lovers…"
"If I want to break this family-like relationship and change these feelings, I need to think of a way."
Tsubakihara Yuna lay on the bed, quietly thinking with her clever little head.
———
Meanwhile...
Hikari also returned to Asou Apartment.
He walked through the entrance and headed upstairs, casually looking around.
He had only been gone for a few days, so the apartment layout was basically the same as before he returned to the countryside. Nothing had changed.
But when he arrived at the third floor where he rented his room, he suddenly noticed something different.
From what he knew before, only two households lived on the third floor of Asou Apartment.
One was him. The other was the Katsuragi family trio: Katsuragi Shoko, Katsuragi Sayaka, and Katsuragi Yuki.
Before coming back, he had already contacted Katsuragi Shoko and the others. They had been busy dealing with the house they bought before, so they weren't home today.
But to the right side of his door, several bags of trash had been placed there.
His rented room was in the middle. The Katsuragi mother and daughters lived on the left.
The right side used to be empty, but judging from the signs today, someone seemed to have moved in.
Hikari glanced at it but didn't say anything.
He turned around and went back inside to organize his things.
Compared to being curious about this mysterious neighbors, it was better to hurry up and finish packing so he could go see Yukino.
After all, Yukino had said she missed him.
Even the Water Curtain Cave on Flower-Fruit Mountain had frozen over.
And how could he not miss Yukino too?
The Great Sage's Golden Staff also had to subdue demons and eliminate evil.
Even though his trip back to the countryside had been full of all kinds of experiences, the taste of the Snow Woman was indeed unique.
So Hikari was also looking forward to reuniting with Yukino and Natsuha after being apart for so long.
But just as he was halfway through packing, the doorbell suddenly rang.
Hikari got up and walked to the door. Too lazy to check the peephole, he directly opened it.
Outside stood two people, a man and a woman.
The man looked close to middle age, around thirty-something. He wore a suit and tie, his features fairly decent, but his face carried a tired look. He looked exactly like a typical office worker.
The woman was a beautiful young married woman around twenty-five or twenty-six years old. She had fair oval-shaped cheeks, big eyes, long eyelashes, a delicate nose, and soft pink lips. Her looks were definitely at the level of a beauty.
Her waist-length hair was tied behind her head, with a few loose strands hanging beside her cheeks, giving her the mature charm of a young married woman.
Compared to her good looks, though, her figure drew even more attention.
She was only wearing ordinary home clothes, just a classic casual combination of a round-neck T-shirt and jeans.
But because her chest was too large, the loose round-neck T-shirt was stretched high and tight, even giving off a strangely tempting sense of fullness.
And the jeans that should have looked slightly long fit perfectly on those long straight legs, with barely any gap between her thighs, looking completely snug.
Whether it was looks or body, this young beautiful married woman could definitely be called top-tier.
But Hikari had seen plenty before, so his gaze only swept over her briefly. He wasn't like ordinary people who couldn't help staring.
After quickly sizing up the two people who suddenly appeared.
Hikari directly asked the strangers, "Do you need something?"
The office-worker-looking man didn't speak. He kept lowering his head and typing on his phone nonstop, his brows tightly furrowed, as if dealing with something urgent with a client or coworker.
Seeing him like that, Hisato could only helplessly shake her head and step forward herself.
She raised her hand and tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear, then smiled and asked Hikari, "Excuse me, are you Hikari-kun?"
"Yes, I'm Hikari. And you are?", Hikari looked at the beautiful married woman who suddenly called out his name in confusion.
Hisato smiled and said to Hikari, "Ah! Let me introduce ourselves. This is my fiance, Azuma Norihito."
"And my name is Azuma Hisato. I'm Natsuha's aunt. Natsuha probably mentioned me to you before, right, Hikari-kun?"
"Oh! I remember now. Natsuha did mention you," Hearing Azuma Hisato's words, Hikari recalled what Natsuha had said over the phone before he came to Asou Apartment, and nodded.
"Hello, Hikari-kun. Natsuha said over the phone that you were pretty handsome. I was a bit doubtful at first, but after seeing you in person, I realized she was actually understating it," Azuma Hisato looked at Hikari's young handsome face and teased him with a smile.
"Aunt Hisato is also very young and beautiful. You look more like Natsuha's older sister," Hearing Azuma Hisato's praise, Hikari smiled and politely complimented her back.
"Haha! No need to be so polite. Even if we might only stay here temporarily, we're neighbors now after all. I'll have to trouble you to take care of us in the future, Hikari-kun," Azuma Hisato said warmly.
"Sure, let's take care of each other," Hikari nodded.
Seeing that her fiance beside her was still lowering his head and staring at his phone, Azuma Hisato frowned slightly and nudged him with her elbow, softly reminding him, "Norihito…"
"Ah! Hikari-kun… Hikari-kun, right? Hello! Hello!", Azuma Norihito slightly raised his head and rather perfunctorily greeted Hikari before lowering his head again and continuing to operate his phone.
Azuma Hisato quickly apologized to Hikari, "I'm really sorry, Hikari-kun. My fiance is a complete workaholic. Once he starts working, he ignores everything else. Sorry."
Seeing Azuma Hisato politely bow, bending so much that her T-shirt looked ready to burst under the pressure, the collar revealing a deep patch of snowy white skin.
Hikari waved his hand, "It's fine, it's fine. I understand. No need to be so polite, Mrs. Hisato."
"Ah! Thank you so much for understanding."
"Anyway, Hikari-kun, if we get the chance later, let's interact more. Sorry for disturbing you "
Azuma Hisato's bright eyes shifted slightly, and a charming smile appeared on her lovely face as she spoke.
"Mm, okay, Mrs. Hisato," Seeing her being so enthusiastic, Hikari also politely smiled and nodded at her.
"Then we won't disturb you anymore. We still have plenty of things to clean up after moving in," Azuma Hisato smiled.
"Mm, alright," Hikari nodded.
Watching Azuma Hisato pull her fiance Azuma Norihito back into the room next door, Hikari also closed his door.
———
While Hikari went back to continue packing his things.
After returning to their room, Azuma Hisato couldn't help complaining to Azuma Norihito, who was still looking down at his phone.
"Norihito, haven't you already gotten off work? Why are you still so busy?"
"You weren't even paying attention while greeting someone you just met. That's a bit rude…"
Without even raising his head, Azuma Norihito casually apologized, "Sorry, sorry. Something suddenly came up at work. It's pretty urgent."
Seeing him acting somewhat abnormal compared to usual, Azuma Hisato also became a little worried.
Her pretty brows slightly furrowed as she asked with concern, "Norihito, did something happen?"
Hearing Azuma Hisato's question, Azuma Norihito's body suddenly trembled, but he immediately raised his head and smiled at Azuma Hisato, "Ah! It's nothing really."
"It's just that the president recently assigned me too much work, so I'm a little overwhelmed."
"But it's not a big deal. It's fine, it's fine. You don't need to worry, Hisato."
Hearing him say that, Azuma Hisato didn't think too much about it and smiled while nodding, "I see, that's good then."
"Then I'll go clean up my room first, okay?"
"There are two rooms. The one with the tree outside the window is mine, and the one facing the road is yours."
"Anyway, you leave for work very early every morning, so noise doesn't bother you, hehe~"
Azuma Hisato spoke to Azuma Norihito somewhat playfully.
"Alright, alright. We'll do it your way," Azuma Norihito smiled and waved his hand, then lowered his head to look at his phone again.
Azuma Hisato immediately grinned and turned around to clean the room, not only tidying her own room but also cleaning Norihito's room for him.
And after Azuma Hisato entered the room.
The smile that had been on Azuma Norihito's face instantly disappeared, his expression immediately turning gloomy.
He tightly gripped his phone with his right hand and quickly walked into the bathroom.
After locking the bathroom door, he hurriedly made a phone call.
"Hello? Is this the person in charge of Inuma Corporation?"
"I'm Azuma Norihito, the one who previously purchased a large batch of goods from your company. Do you remember me?"
"Because the transaction amount was very large, you still remember me? Good! That's good!"
Azuma Norihito let out a sigh of relief, then continued asking, "I want to ask you something. The product model I told you our company wanted to purchase before, wasn't it A-71? Why does the contract you sent over say the model is B-93?"
"What? You said I originally asked for B-93? That's nonsense! What I wanted was clearly A-71! Isn't your contract mistaken?"
"That… the contract was indeed handed to you from my side, but the president also gave it to me at the time. Maybe I didn't check it carefully and made a mistake…"
"So, um… could you possibly make an exception and let us revise the contract."
"What? You're saying the goods are almost finished being produced already, and because the order amount is too large, the contract can't be changed?"
"If we change the contract, over eighty percent of the losses will be paid by me?"
"Are you kidding me? That's an amount close to one hundred million yen! How could an ordinary employee like me possibly afford that?"