Chapter 725 - 725: They Broke Up?

When Ichin arrived at the development department, everyone had already picked up their milk tea and was happily chatting while enjoying their afternoon snacks.

As Ichin walked over with Utaha and Yukino, Kō had already set aside the drinks and desserts they had ordered. Seeing the three of them arrive, she smiled and waved them over.

"Come on, hurry up! We've been waiting for you three."

"The milk tea got here pretty fast today."

Picking up his drink, Ichin inserted the straw and took a long sip, narrowing his eyes in satisfaction.

"Mmm... tastes great too."

Hazuki smiled.

"That's because we placed the order early today. We even asked the shop, and they said business was slow around that time, so they were able to make our order immediately."

Everyone at the company had long since visited every milk tea shop in the area and selected several favorites for their regular afternoon tea.

Naturally, the shops valued such a large recurring order.

Unless they were extremely busy with walk in customers, the company's order always received priority and was delivered as quickly as possible.

Taking another sip of milk tea, Ichin asked, "When I came in just now, you all seemed to be having quite an animated discussion. What were you talking about?"

Immediately afterward, he noticed every girl present turning toward him, Utaha, and Yukino with unmistakably gossipy expressions.

Holding her milk tea, Kō walked over and bumped Ichin's shoulder with hers.

With a mischievous grin, she said, "Hehe, Ichin."

"First, someone your own age."

"Then, a junior one year younger."

"And now, even an older sister."

"So tell us..."

"Who's your next target?"

"..."

Ichin looked at everyone speechlessly.

So this was what they had been gossiping about.

Scratching his head, he sighed, "You girls..."

"Wouldn't it be better to spend all this gossiping energy on work?"

"What's so interesting about my personal life?"

"Because it's interesting, of course!"

Hazuki laughed.

"Cases like yours are pretty rare."

"Sure, among wealthy businessmen, it's not unusual for people to keep mistresses."

"There are even quite a few wealthy women who keep younger men."

"But your situation with Utaha and the others..."

"That's still pretty astonishing."

"It's not that dramatic."

Ichin smiled as he looked at Utaha beside him.

"Honestly, this was mostly Utaha's doing. I never expected things to end up like this in the beginning."

Utaha nodded. "That's right."

"There's nothing that surprising about it. A lot of things just happened naturally."

"And now we're all living together happily."

"That's enough."

Meanwhile...

Yukino had already focused all of her attention on a slice of chocolate hazelnut cake.

"Yukino."

"Don't you have anything to say?"

Hearing Eriri call her name, Yukino swallowed the bite of cake in her mouth before blinking innocently.

"There's really nothing to say."

"I'm already his."

[Insert G-Eazy & Halsey's Him & I]

"Ooooooh~~"

Everyone teased her with playful looks.

But Yukino barely reacted with any embarrassment.

After all, they had all known each other for so long. Everything that could be teased had already been teased countless times.

Just then, Hazuki asked the question everyone had truly wanted to know.

"So..."

"How do you divide the nights?"

Ichin nearly choked on his mouthful of milk tea. He shot Hazuki an exasperated glare.

"If you're that curious about this kind of thing, why don't you experience it yourself?"

"You're not single anymore."

Hazuki stuck out her tongue.

"Sorry."

"I'm single again."

"...Huh?"

"...What?"

"...WHAAAT?!"

Everyone's collective cry of surprise was so loud that it attracted the attention of employees throughout the entire floor.

In an instant, they surrounded Hazuki, staring at her in disbelief.

Ichin looked completely confused.

"What happened? Didn't everything seem to be going well at first?"

"Exactly!"

Aoba nodded repeatedly.

"Weren't you already dating?"

Seeing everyone's determined expressions, Hazuki suddenly regretted blurting it out so casually.

"It's actually not that complicated. Things really were going well. We were even planning to move in together."

"But a few days ago..."

"On my way home after work, I happened to catch him abusing a small animal."

Her expression turned serious.

"That's something I absolutely cannot tolerate."

"So..."

"You can probably guess the rest. I broke up with him immediately."

"I see..." Kō frowned, still looking shocked.

"I never would've imagined something like that."

"So this is what people mean by not truly knowing someone's character."

"I can't believe he'd do something like that."

As an experienced cat lover, Yukino despised that kind of behavior even more.

"If that's really what happened..."

"Then breaking up was absolutely the right decision."

"If she hadn't found out now..."

"Who knows?"

"Maybe Mozuku would've been abused one day too."

"Exactly." Hazuki nodded. "That's what I thought as well."

Taking another sip of milk tea, she smiled.

"So I discovered the problem early and eliminated an unstable factor from my life."

"From now on..."

"Your big sister is officially returning to the life of a proud single woman."

"So?"

"Anyone want to go to an izakaya tonight?"

"Me! Me! Me!"

Kō immediately raised her hand.

"A new one just opened near the company."

"The interior looks really nice."

"And I heard the grilled skewers there are amazing!"

Since Kō was going, Rin naturally planned to join as well.

Watching them, Aoba looked conflicted.

"Ugh..."

"I already promised my family we'd have dinner together tonight."

"So I can't go."

Ichin smiled.

"That's alright, Aoba."

"Besides, you're not much of a drinker anyway."

He then turned toward Hazuki.

"Hazuki, do you mind if the three of us come too?"

Hazuki readily agreed.

"Of course!"

"Don't forget to invite Haruno as well!"

After afternoon tea ended, everyone returned to their desks and resumed working.

Ichin, Utaha, and Yukino also headed back upstairs to the office. Once inside, Utaha sat down on the sofa and stretched lazily.

"I really didn't expect something like that to happen to Hazuki."

"Yeah."

Yukino frowned.

"I especially didn't expect the man to be a teacher."

She was still visibly upset by the whole incident.

Sitting down at his desk, Ichin woke his computer from sleep mode.

"Alright. Don't stay angry. There's nothing we can do about things like this. This kind of thing happens far more often than we realize. We can't protect every animal everywhere."

"But if we happen to see it ourselves..."

"We should do what we can. Fortunately, that kitten was discovered early."

"It wasn't seriously injured."

"Hazuki took it to a veterinary hospital and has already decided to adopt it herself."

"So..."

"Aside from the breakup, I'd say the ending was actually pretty good."

Yukino nodded.

"Yeah."

"Someone like that never deserved Hazuki's feelings in the first place."

Utaha smiled gently and patted Yukino's head in comfort.

Only after being soothed for a while did Yukino finally calm down and return to reading her book.

...

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