Seeing that Yanami Anna completely ignored him, Imaizumi Keita had no choice but to close the door, change into his slippers, and follow her.
As soon as he entered the living room, he saw Yanami Anna standing in front of the refrigerator with a confused expression, looking at the ingredients inside.
"I say, Keita."
Yanami Anna turned around and complained to Imaizumi Keita with some disappointment, "Why isn't there any delicious food in your refrigerator?"
As she spoke, she stretched her neck, still not giving up.
Her gaze scanned back and forth across the simple shelves of the refrigerator's cold storage, seemingly trying to find a pudding or other snacks among the eggs and dairy products.
"What do you mean 'nothing'?"
Imaizumi Keita walked over to her and pointed to the neatly arranged rows of boxes on the side of the refrigerator door.
"Aren't there several boxes of pure milk and yogurt here? If you want to drink some, just take it. Supplement your nutrition."
"Ugh... fine."
Yanami Anna pouted. Although she didn't find any delicious snacks, she still got something.
She took a box of original yogurt from the refrigerator, unwrapped the attached straw, and began to drink it with a look of enjoyment.
As she drank the yogurt, she scanned the not-so-small living room of the apartment.
The apartment Imaizumi Keita rented was a typical 1LKD Layout, and the living room was his main activity area besides the bedroom.
Thanks to his decent hygiene habits, the living room was kept quite clean.
"Speaking of which, your home is quite clean, Keita."
Yanami Anna's gaze fell on the cleaning tools in the corner of the kitchen, "Do you usually live alone? How often do you clean?"
"Sometimes my parents come to see me, but usually I live alone."
Imaizumi Keita leaned against the kitchen doorframe, looking at her and casually replied, "About once or twice a week."
"Eh—"
Upon hearing this, Yanami Anna's face not only didn't show praise but instead revealed a hint of disappointment.
She turned her head and re-examined Imaizumi Keita from head to toe, her tone full of regret.
"I thought that someone like you, Keita, who seems not to care about anything, would be a slob in private. Like, your room would be piled with unwashed clothes, and takeout boxes would be casually thrown everywhere... but you're actually so diligent."
By the end of her sentence, she even shook her head seriously and let out a long sigh.
"Honestly, there's no contrast at all, not interesting at all, what a shame."
Listening to her rather unreasonable evaluation, Imaizumi Keita found it somewhat amusing.
"I say, Anna-chan."
He deliberately steered the conversation in a dangerous direction, a playful smile on his face.
"If I were really a slob with terrible living habits, as you described, would you still come to my house without hesitation like this?"
"Would you still... like me?"
"Eh?"
This question made Yanami Anna pause in her yogurt-drinking.
She looked at Imaizumi Keita's eyes, which held a teasing smile, and her cheeks uncontrollably flushed a suspicious red.
She instinctively began to imagine that scene in her mind.
A messy room, air filled with strange smells, and... that man who, even in such an environment, was still handsome enough to make her heart pound.
It seemed... not entirely unacceptable?
No, no, how could that be!
She was Yanami Anna; she wouldn't fall for a slob who couldn't even manage personal hygiene!
"I-I don't know, actually..."
After a brief internal struggle, Yanami Anna ultimately couldn't give a definite answer.
She averted her gaze, biting her straw with a 'crunching' sound, and mumbled vaguely, "A-anyway... Keita, you're fine as you are now, why assume such strange things...?"
Looking at her cute, troubled expression, some unhealthy images flashed through Imaizumi Keita's mind without warning.
He remembered similar scenes in some films he watched in his previous life.
The male protagonist would imprison the female protagonist in his dirty, messy basement, forcing her to live with him.
Two days later, when he would release the physically and mentally exhausted female protagonist to go home.
But on the third day, the female protagonist would voluntarily return to that place herself.
Sigh...
The world was degenerating; he hadn't seen such plots much in this life...
The main reason was that watching films here cost money...
So, such things could only be fantasies for now...
However, at the thought of Yanami Anna being driven into a corner by him and having no choice but to take the initiative to return to his side, an indescribable smile couldn't help but appear on Imaizumi Keita's face.
"Pfft."
In the end, he couldn't hold it back and let out a light chuckle.
"Keita, what are you laughing at?"
Yanami Anna was currently troubled, and hearing his laughter, she immediately spotted the strange smile on Imaizumi's face and began to protest, "Was what I just said that funny?"
"No," Imaizumi Keita shook his head, forcibly suppressing the messy thoughts in his mind. "I just thought of something else."
"Oh..."
Yanami Anna gave Imaizumi a strange look, then nodded and didn't pursue the matter further.
She tossed the empty yogurt carton into the trash, then looked up at the wall clock and asked naturally:
"By the way, Keita, what are we having for dinner?"
"Hmm?"
"Aren't you going home to eat?"
"I'm not going back."
Yanami Anna's answer was crisp and decisive. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and waved it in front of him. "I already told my parents at noon that I'd be eating at a friend's house tonight, so they don't need to wait for me."
"...Your parents sure are relaxed about you."
Looking at Yanami's fearless expression, Imaizumi Keita suddenly felt a bit helpless.
A beautiful daughter in the prime of her adolescence, not coming home late at night because she's eating at a male friend's house.
In any family, such a situation would be enough to trigger a maximum-level alarm.
However, given Yanami Anna's personality, she probably didn't mention she was going on a date with a boy when she left...
"Because I thought Keita would have today's schedule packed, and that we'd be eating out..."
A trace of disappointment appeared on Yanami Anna's face as she continued, "Besides, I'm not going to do anything out of line, so what's there to be afraid of?"
"I won't be like those two..."
"Those two?"
"Sousuke and Karen!"
There was an obvious hint of distaste and disdain in Yanami Anna's tone.
"Those two, they haven't even been in a relationship for long, and they... they..."
She stopped abruptly in the middle of her sentence.
An ominous premonition belatedly rose from the depths of her heart.
A boy and a girl.
Alone in a room, having dinner together.
Moreover, this boy was her nominal 'boyfriend'.
And she was the one who had taken the initiative to ask her boyfriend to take her home...
This kind of scene... this kind of development...
No matter how you looked at it, it was full of strong suggestive implications.
Although she had long since seen through Imaizumi Keita's principles, she also knew that hormones were unreasonable things...
In case the two of them got a little intimate later and the atmosphere suddenly reached that point...
Yanami Anna's cheeks suddenly burned with a "whoosh."
She subconsciously looked up, stole a quick glance at Imaizumi Keita, and her heart began to throb uncontrollably.
He... he wouldn't...
He couldn't be thinking about doing *that* to her right now, could he?!
Given Keita's personality, it wasn't entirely impossible!
When they were in the sea before, he... he did such an outrageous thing to her!
And now they were in his own home...
What if, what if he really turned into a beast and forced her?
All sorts of messy thoughts flashed frantically through her mind, leaving her momentarily unsure of how to react.
Her body tensed slightly from nervousness, and her eyes began to wander uncontrollably.
Another inexplicable thought surfaced.
What if...
What if Keita just treats her as an ordinary friend...
And when she starts to lose herself in the romantic atmosphere, Keita rejects her?
If he really does something worse than a beast, wouldn't she be incredibly embarrassed?
Yanami Anna was not confident in her ability to resist Imaizumi's charm...
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