After lunch, everyone drove back to the residential complex where Ichin's family lived.
There were three apartments here in total. Utaha's parents stayed with Ichin's parents, while everyone else could comfortably stay across the other two apartments without any issue.
Although it definitely was not as spacious as a hotel, where everyone could have their own room, compared to that, they all preferred staying here instead since it felt livelier.
After arriving, Ichin had Utaha go upstairs with their parents while he brought Eriri and the others to the apartment they would be staying in over the next few days and arranged rooms for them.
As for Ichin and Utaha, they would still stay at his parents' place, in his original room.
Once the rooms had been assigned, he told everyone to rest for a bit first. His parents had already prepared plenty of snacks, fruits, and drinks for them beforehand, basically anything they could want.
After putting down her luggage, Hajime excitedly raised her hand.
"Ichin-kun, can we go out and play later?"
"Hm? Go out and have fun?" Ichin smiled and nodded. "Of course you can. You're all pretty familiar with the area already, and language won't really be a problem. If you want to go out, that's totally fine, just pay attention to safety. Tomorrow, we'll be going to the hotel where the wedding banquet will be held to take a look, but you girls don't need to come. Sleep well and go wherever you want. Once Utaha and I finish our stuff, we'll come meet up with you."
"OK! Then we're heading out right away!"
Looking at how excited every single one of them was, Ichin could already tell they had planned this ahead of time.
Looking toward Haruno and Yukino, he asked:
"Are you two going too?"
Yukino shook her head.
"I'm not going. I want to take a nap this afternoon and stay home to read for a bit. But my sister's going."
Haruno smiled.
"I haven't really had much rest lately either, so this is a good chance to go out, relax, and have some fun."
"Alright then, go ahead. What about dinner? Are you coming back to eat, or eating outside?"
"We're eating outside~~~" x6
Hajime clenched her little fist dramatically.
"We're going on a gourmet adventure!"
Unfortunately, none of them had local driver's licenses, so if they wanted to go out, they could only take taxis. Thankfully, using ride hailing apps was very convenient here, and nowhere near as expensive as in Japan.
After the six girls noisily left together, Ichin looked toward Yukino.
"If you're tired, then get some rest."
Yukino nodded.
"Then stay with me for a bit."
And just like that, Yukino dragged Ichin into the bathroom.
It seemed that knowing she would not be able to sleep beside Ichin for the next few days had left Yukino feeling a little dissatisfied.
After accompanying Yukino for nearly an hour and coaxing her to sleep, Ichin finally returned to his parents' apartment.
The moment he entered, he saw Utaha and his mother sitting in the living room watching TV.
"How come it's just the two of you?"
Utaha smiled.
"Dad and Mom were a little tired too, so they went to take a nap."
Just as she finished speaking, Ichin's father walked out of the kitchen carrying a teapot. Clearly, he had just gone to brew some tea.
Seeing his son return, Ichin's father poured him a cup of tea as well.
Ichin's mother asked, "You came up alone? Where's everyone else?"
"They all ran off to have fun. Yukino was a little tired, so she didn't go out. She's planning to take a nap and stay home reading and studying."
Utaha hugged Ichin's arm, then caught the faint scent of body wash on him. It was different from the scent he had when they left this morning.
She immediately understood, narrowed her eyes, and poked his waist, the meaning in her gaze obvious.
Ichin simply smiled and gestured back to her with his eyes.
While drinking tea, the family watched TV together and talked about tomorrow's schedule.
Ichin's mother said, "We'll go check out the hotel tomorrow morning. No problem with that, right?"
Ichin nodded.
"That's fine. And the wedding dress fitting is on Monday, right?"
"Right, Monday. Ichin, make sure the groomsmen from your studio don't forget the time either. Men's suits are relatively simple, so don't let them wear their own. Just have them come pick a set directly."
"Mhm, don't worry. I'll remind them again tomorrow and have them all come on time Monday."
There was nothing much to do in the afternoon. After watching TV for a while longer, Ichin started feeling sleepy too, so he and Utaha returned to the room and took a nap as well.
Honestly, after coming back home, even sleeping felt especially comfortable. By the time he woke up close to dinner, he felt completely refreshed.
Yawning as he walked out, Ichin saw Yukino had already come over and was currently chatting with his mother in the living room.
When she saw Ichin and Utaha come out, his mother said:
"You're awake? Come help me stir fry the last two dishes. We're eating soon."
"Okaaay~~"
Leaving Utaha in the living room, Ichin followed his mother into the kitchen.
The ingredients had already been cut and prepared. After washing his hands and putting on an apron, Ichin skillfully heated the wok and started cooking.
Then his mother shut the kitchen door and moved beside him to chat.
Naturally, the topic was about Utaha and Yukino.
On this matter, Ichin naturally did not dare argue back about anything. The entire time, he obediently nodded while stir frying the dishes.
Once the food was done, Utaha's parents also returned from outside.
The two of them had gone out to buy alcohol, along with some snacks to go with the drinks. There was a shop selling all kinds of cold side dishes not far outside the residential complex, making things very convenient.
When dinner started, Ichin once again could not escape the fate of drinking a few cups with his father and father-in-law.
Only this time, it was baijiu instead of wine.
Red wine was manageable, but baijiu was something Ichin genuinely could not handle very well. After only a short while, he already started feeling dizzy.
Seeing this, Ichin's father laughed and said:
"You really need to improve your alcohol tolerance. At the wedding, all your uncles are definitely going to come toast you. You can't just refuse to drink."
"It's fine. I'll just mix it with Sprite when the time comes."
There were plenty of ways to fool people, and Ichin knew them well, so he was not too worried. Besides, they were all elders. There was no way they would actually force him to drink until he collapsed during the wedding banquet, right?
Hearing his son's response, Ichin's father gave him a look of disdain before continuing to drink with his in-law, leaving his son to do whatever he wanted.
Ichin felt like he had narrowly escaped disaster. He quickly picked up his bowl to scoop himself some rice.
He absolutely could not keep drinking this stuff.
Looking at the tiny amount of baijiu left in Ichin's small cup, Utaha curiously picked it up and lightly tasted it with her lips.
The next second, the spicy burn made her shut her eyes tightly.
"So spicy! It tastes awful!"
Laughing, Ichin took the cup away and poured more juice into Utaha's glass.
"You should stop being curious and trying it. Didn't you already try it once before?"
"That was before! I thought my alcohol tolerance had improved recently."
Utaha gulped down several mouthfuls of juice before finally recovering.
"I'll just stick to drinking red wine from now on."
.....
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