The next day, the second day of the school festival.
This day was open to the public. Because it was Saturday, many nearby residents, students from nearby schools, and junior high school students aiming to apply to Sobu High came to visit. The campus was bustling with excitement.
As the saying goes, with a big forest, there are all kinds of birds. With the surge in the number of people on campus, various unexpected situations also increased correspondingly. The workload of the executive committee members increased exponentially compared to yesterday.
Yesterday, Shinra and Yukino could still slack off and drink coffee. Today, they had no free time at all. The entire Executive Committee was operating at overload.
Fortunately, with the experience of yesterday's organizational work, although it was busier, they could still handle it.
Shinra wore an armband reading [School Festival Executive Committee, Record Group] on his arm and held a somewhat old-style camera, wandering among the surging crowd.
Hachiman did the work for him yesterday, but because today was the open day, Hachiman's sister Komachi also came to visit the school. As the older brother, Hachiman naturally had to accompany and guide her.
After all, Shinra wasn't a devil. Since his sister came to visit the school, he couldn't keep drafting Hachiman into service.
Fortunately, compared to other groups, the task of the Record and Miscellaneous Group only required wandering around various classes and recording the scenes of the event with the camera in hand. One could perfectly combine playing and working, so it wasn't hard work.
Unknowingly, Shinra had almost finished touring the entire teaching building, and the battery of the camera in his hand was about to run out.
Rather, Shinra was more surprised that such an old camera could last this long.
Just like the Japanese government still using fax machines from the last era for office work, most of the equipment in Sobu High was also products of the last era. Even the camera in Shinra's hand, launched five or six years ago, was considered relatively advanced among them.
Now that the camera was out of power, Shinra naturally had a reason to return to the conference room to slack off under the pretext of charging.
However, as soon as he arrived at the conference room, he regretted not staying outside longer.
No other reason, there was an idle Great Demon King sitting in the conference room right now—Haruno.
"Yo!" Haruno raised her hand to greet Shinra, as if she had discovered a particularly interesting toy. The bored expression on her face instantly became vivid.
"Excuse me." Shinra had just opened the door and was about to close it again. His hand didn't even let go during the process.
But unfortunately, he was still a step too late. Haruno moved her straight and long legs, blocking the door with a dodge.
The experienced former School Festival Chairman glanced at the camera in Shinra's hand and immediately guessed his purpose.
"Camera out of battery?"
After all, it was a camera from five or six years ago. Although the battery could be replaced, the endurance was still insufficient to support a whole morning of high-intensity shooting.
Haruno's batch of Record Group members had encountered such situations, and it would only be more severe now.
"Haruno-san, what are you doing here?" Shinra didn't answer Haruno's question but asked back.
Haruno didn't come in as a tourist but participated in the school festival performance as a volunteer performance group.
Although the school festival performance was in the afternoon, it was almost noon now. Logically speaking, she should go solve lunch and then take her place at the gymnasium performance site, instead of blocking him in the conference room.
"Well, Yukino saw I had nothing to do, so she arranged a lot of work for me. I just finished dealing with it." Haruno complained.
Shinra understood. Most likely, Yukino was pestered by her so much that she had no choice but to assign some tasks to her so she wouldn't bother her anymore.
As for the sentence 'just finished dealing with it', just listen to it. When he opened the door just now, he saw this guy Haruno sitting by the socket, charging and playing on her phone.
If she hadn't played for a long time, would she need to charge her phone?
As a severe phone addict, Shinra knew this very well.
"Thank you for your hard work. Then you continue dealing with work. I have something to do, so I won't disturb you." Shinra took the opportunity to say goodbye. His intuition told him that this guy in front of him definitely harbored malicious intentions.
"Come here, you."
Sure enough, seeing Shinra being so 'stubborn', Haruno stopped pretending. She hugged Shinra's arm directly and dragged him to the back row of the conference room.
Due to the large magnitude of movements in the process, it was inevitable to touch some places that shouldn't be touched and cause some physical deformation. Seeing their intimate behavior made the male executive committee members still working in the conference room envious.
Wishing they could replace him.
But unfortunately, they couldn't. Previously, male classmates also wanted to strike up a conversation with this big sister, but without exception, they all fell under her smiling face. Let alone asking for contact information, they couldn't even say a few words!
Seemingly easy to get along with, but actually keeping people thousands of miles away—this was Haruno.
Even though Shinra's body was tightly pressed against hers at this moment, he didn't know what this devilish big sister was planning.
"Can you say it now?" Shinra moved his arm, wanting to break free from her broad embrace.
But unfortunately, he didn't succeed. To prevent Shinra from escaping, Haruno hugged him even tighter. That deep valley was like a swamp; a little force would make him sink deeper, making Shinra wary of taking action.
Although Haruno had always shown a lack of boundaries in her interactions with him, such as sitting shoulder to shoulder and holding arms, which were common occurrences, they were basically superficial, looking intimate but actually just that.
Belonging to the category of 'just rubbing but not entering'.
But now, her behavior of firmly clamping his arm in public completely exceeded the previous scope.
Such abnormal performance made Shinra very uneasy.
Seeing Shinra's expression of hopelessness, Haruno smiled on her face, but was somewhat dissatisfied inside.
Don't be fooled by her usually playful and boundless interaction with Shinra; in reality, she always controlled a degree, maintaining within the scope of being close but not that close.
Her behavior today was partly because the news Shinra provided before brought unimaginable help to her and the Yukinoshita family, and partly because she was holding a breath of anger in her heart.
She couldn't explain this anger herself. Anyway, it had been accumulating since she heard her sister's ringtone after taking a shower yesterday.
Haruno's current official explanation for this anger was jealousy of Shinra taking away her sister.
As for whether it was true, probably no one knew except herself.
"How did the cookies taste yesterday?" Seeing the timing was about right, Haruno didn't make things difficult for Shinra anymore. She loosened her arm slightly and asked.
"Okay..."
It would have been better without the wasabi cookies.
Yesterday, Shinra eventually ate all the cookies on that plate. To avoid encountering another cookie assassin, he would taste a small piece before eating, confirm it was matcha flavor and not wasabi, and then swallow it in one bite.
Until he carefully finished eating all the cookies, Shinra speechlessly found that there was only that one cookie assassin.
Logically speaking, this should be a good thing, but Shinra felt a sense of powerlessness like punching cotton.
"Right? Yukino-chan's skills have improved a lot, haven't they?" Haruno said with a smile, "Then do you want to taste even better snacks?"
"Better snacks?"
"Come to our house as a guest. Yukino and I learned our skills from our mother."
The dagger is revealed at the end of the map.
"Visit your house? Me?" Shinra didn't expect Haruno to suddenly spring this on him.
Why invite him to visit out of the blue?
"Yes, you." Haruno affirmed.
"I can, but why?" Shinra was puzzled. Why did they suddenly think of inviting him to visit?
This wasn't going to Yukino's apartment, but the Yukinoshita family home.
Could it be that Yukinoshita Mother knew about him and Yukino?
That's not right either. There's nothing between him and Yukino now, just a normal neighbor-classmate relationship of mooching snacks every day.
"Didn't you reveal a piece of news to me before? That news helped our family a lot. Reasonably and emotionally, we should treat you properly." Haruno said.
"Just this matter?"
If Haruno hadn't brought it up actively, Shinra would have almost forgotten about it.
"Just this matter."
Speaking of this, Haruno suddenly let go of Shinra's arm, turned around, took out a quite formal-looking invitation from the small bag she carried, and handed it to Shinra.
This counted as the Yukinoshita family formally issuing an invitation to Shinra as thanks.
"We should have invited you earlier, but due to various reasons, it was delayed until now. Here, on behalf of the Yukinoshita family, I express my sincere apologies to you."
When talking about serious business, Haruno seemed like a completely different person, becoming quite serious and dignified. Every move was impeccable.
Shinra looked at the invitation in his hand. After a little thought, he nodded and agreed: "Since that's the case, I accept. What time?"
"This Sunday afternoon. Of course, if you are busy, we'll go by your time. Just notify me when you are free." Haruno said.
"Let's make it Sunday afternoon." Shinra thought about his schedule. There was nothing too urgent on Sunday afternoon, so he agreed directly.
"Then it's settled."
Although she knew the other party wouldn't refuse, Haruno was relieved to see him agree personally.
After finishing the serious business, Haruno's face returned to its original appearance. She smiled and said: "Speaking of which, Mother doesn't know your relationship with Yukino yet. Want to take this opportunity to mention it? The chance is big~"
Shinra had a serious face. Is he the kind of person who expects repayment for kindness?
He glanced calmly at the golden commission above Haruno's head and replied immediately: "Then there is no need."
"Oh? Planning to take the underground route?" Haruno teased.
He and Yukino are innocent. What underground route? Completely don't understand.
"Will Yukino be there too?" Shinra asked.
If Yukino was also present, maybe this could be a breakthrough point.
"Hard to say, but if the guest is you, she should be willing to come back." Haruno knew her sister well. Usually, she wouldn't come back for guests at home.
After all, with her around, Yukino returning would only serve as a foil.
Plus, Yukinoshita Mother deliberately excluded Yukino from family affairs. Over time, Yukino stopped participating in these things.
"Listening to your meaning, Yukino doesn't seem to go back often?" Shinra asked.
Haruno spread her hands and explained with a slightly helpless tone: "Not 'doesn't go back often', but basically doesn't go back."
Unless Mother demanded it forcefully, if not necessary, Yukino wouldn't go back at all.
"Is that so..." Shinra nodded slightly. It seemed the conflict between Yukino and her family was more serious than imagined.
But considering the house Yukino currently lived in was provided by Yukinoshita Father, it could be seen that the father-daughter relationship was quite good. Therefore, rather than conflict with the family, it was better to say conflict with Yukinoshita Mother.
"Of course, if possible, I hope not to let Yukino participate this time."
Unexpectedly, Haruno didn't seem to want Yukino to go back.
Meeting Shinra's somewhat surprised gaze, Haruno gave an explanation.
"You may not understand my mother very well. Once she knows your relationship with Yukino, she will definitely intervene."
Shinra frowned. Could there be a drama of breaking up mandarin ducks?
"She will most likely try every means to bring you and Yukino together."
Shinra's brows relaxed. There are still many good mothers-in-law in the world.
"But you also know Yukino's temperament. The more Mother does this, the more Yukino will be disgusted. In this way, it will inevitably affect your relationship..."
Shinra frowned again. What Minister Haruno says is not unreasonable.
"But Yukino's side..."
Going to visit the Yukinoshita family without Yukino knowing seems a bit inappropriate, right?
"I'll tell her." Haruno obviously planned for this.
Haruno, who had read the 'Yukino User Manual' thoroughly, obviously knew her sister best. If she stepped in and explained the pros and cons, there would likely be no problem.
Shinra gave Haruno a deep look and said meaningfully: "You really like Yukino."
The smile on Haruno's face remained unchanged as she replied: "Who made her my cutest sister?"