Through Hiratsuka Shizuka's introduction, Ichin ended up meeting a male protagonist from an anime he remembered. However, this didn't really have much of an impact on him.
After all, the other party was still in high school and wouldn't be advancing to his third year until after spring break. There wouldn't be much interaction between them.
That said, their family's cakes really were quite good. In the future, Ichin and Utaha would probably become regular customers.
After driving home, Utaha took two pieces of cake next door to her parents, while Ichin opened the front door and went inside.
With Yukino away for a few days, all of her many cats had been left at Ichin's place. So the moment he stepped in, he was immediately greeted by a crowd of cats.
After playing with them for a bit and opening a can of cat food as a treat, Ichin headed to the kitchen to boil water and make some tea.
Ten minutes later, Utaha came back. Seeing Ichin in the kitchen, she said, "Ichin, I'll go take a shower first."
"Mm, go ahead," Ichin replied, lifting the kettle of boiling water. "Once you're done, I'll take mine, and then we'll eat the cake."
Utaha took her time in the shower, spending about half an hour. Ichin, on the other hand, was much faster—just over ten minutes.
After finishing his shower and drying his hair, Ichin came out to see Utaha curled up on the sofa, holding her phone and video chatting with Yukino.
Sitting down beside her, Ichin saw that Yukino was in her bedroom at the Chiba house.
"What are you chatting about?" he asked.
When Yukino saw Ichin appear on the screen, the smile on her face grew even brighter.
"Utaha is telling me about you two going to the cake shop."
"Oh, that junior," Ichin said with a chuckle, nodding. "It really was a pretty funny coincidence. Yukino, if you're at home right now, does that mean the banquet's over?"
"Mm, it just ended. Father and Mother still have some things to discuss with people, so my sister and I came back first. She's taking a shower now."
She had barely finished speaking when there was a knock on the door.
"Yukino, I'm coming in~~~"
It was Haruno's voice.
Once Haruno entered, the video call naturally turned from three people into four.
They chatted for another half an hour or so. Since both Haruno and Yukino were tired from the banquet, they ended the call and urged them to get some rest.
After hanging up, Utaha turned on the TV in the living room. Ichin opened the cake boxes they'd bought, and the two of them each took one and started eating.
Utaha had chosen a chocolate mousse cake, while Ichin went with a cheesecake.
After tasting them, the flavor really was excellent.
Eating happily, Utaha wiped the cream from the corner of her mouth and said, "Ichin, from now on, if we're buying desserts or ordering cakes, should we just go to that shop?"
"Yeah, I think that works," Ichin nodded. "It doesn't take long to drive there, and I saved their ordering number too. When we have group meals, we can just pre-order a day in advance."
After finishing her own cake, Utaha took several bites of Ichin's cheesecake as well, smiling as she said, "Hiratsuka-sensei may be a bit unreliable most of the time, but when it comes to food, she really has good taste. If there's anything we want to eat in the future, we should probably ask her first."
"Doesn't it feel like Hiratsuka-sensei's role is getting more and more off-track?"
Leaning against Ichin's shoulder, Utaha watched the TV and said, "Isn't that normal? She doesn't teach us anymore, and during school terms we'd never run into her anyway. Whenever we do see her now, it's always during our free time, so her role as a teacher naturally doesn't really come into play. Honestly though, even back when we were at Toyogasaki, I never really felt much 'teacher-like' presence from her."
"That's because we didn't need to listen in class, right?"
Utaha tilted her head, thought for a moment, then suddenly realized, "Oh! That's true. Once we got to university, we actually had to pay attention in lectures, so I almost forgot what classes felt like back in high school. Thinking about it now, we used to just sleep through class. Kind of feel bad for our teachers."
"That's not really a problem—as long as your grades were good."
Gently pinching Utaha's cheek, Ichin held her and relaxed as they watched TV.
They didn't go back to their rooms to work or watch shows separately that night. Tomorrow was Saturday, and they would be going out to look at villas.
They'd planned the housing situation earlier—it was time to start looking seriously.
Through introductions from Haruno and Sawamura Sayuri, Ichin had arranged viewings at three different villa complexes, located in Minato, Shibuya, and Chiyoda.
The one in Chiyoda was especially close to the Sawamura family's home—actually within the same villa complex.
That area had an excellent location and the villas were spacious. Although it was the most expensive of the three, Ichin still decided to take a look. If Utaha liked it, he was prepared to spend the money and buy it outright.
Since all three viewings were scheduled for the next day, the two of them went to bed early and also got up early on Saturday morning.
Besides the two of them, Utaha's parents would be coming along as well.
After all, the villa they were about to buy could be considered Ichin and Utaha's marital home. Since Ichin's parents weren't around, Utaha's parents naturally needed to accompany them.
After breakfast, the four of them got into Ichin's car and headed for the first villa in Shibuya.
The Shibuya villa was the smallest of the three. Although it had a nice backyard garden, it was only two stories tall. Its advantage was that there was a large shopping center nearby, making it very convenient for shopping.
But since they had a car, Ichin didn't really care much about distance as long as it was within Tokyo.
And if they were talking about prime location, the villa in Minato was actually closer to his company, had a larger area, and was three stories tall—clearly the better option.
After viewing the first two villas, Ichin indeed leaned more toward the one in Minato, and Utaha was quite satisfied with it as well.
After finishing the viewings, Ichin drove the three of them toward the final location.
While driving, he asked Utaha in the passenger seat, "Have you contacted Aunt Sayuri?"
"Mm, I sent her a message," Utaha replied. "She's already waiting for us, and Eriri's there too. She said we can go to her place for lunch later."
Glancing at the time on the navigation display, Ichin said in surprise, "Saturday morning at ten-thirty, and she's already up? Doesn't she usually sleep until noon? And if there's a new game release, she definitely stays up late—or even pulls an all-nighter—the night before."
Utaha smiled and nodded. "I was surprised too. But she was probably dragged out of bed by Aunt Sayuri."
If the first two villas each had their pros and cons, and the second had more advantages overall, then the third villa's biggest strengths were having familiar faces nearby and being the largest in size.
All it took was one look at Eriri's family home in the same complex to know.
And the security in that area was also the best—after all, it was a place where quite a few influential and prominent figures lived.
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