Chapter 394 395: Eriri's Relief

Nothing particularly noteworthy happened when Jhin entered Izumi Sagiri's rented apartment — aside from the sight of eight suitcases, which looked rather alarming. But that was no problem for him at all; he simply waved a hand and swept every suitcase into his storage space, then flashed a smile at his stunned foster sister and led her away.

As she herself had requested, when she moved into the café she didn't even meet the others. If Chisato hadn't happened to see Jhin coming up from the basement, she wouldn't have known the foster sister had arrived at all.

And just as he'd said, life at the café went on without any real change. The foster sister stayed down in the basement the whole time, never coming up to meet the others, and Jhin brought her meals down himself. If not for the trust she had in him, Chisato might have started to suspect he was committing some kind of illegal confinement.

It wasn't until later, when Jhin made a call with Izumi Sagiri right in front of them, that all the speculation about the basement finally died down.

During this period, Eriri came to the café quite often, mainly to go over the details and plot of the new manga with Jhin and Izumi Sagiri. Unlike her previous doujinshi work, this manga was serious material meant for actual publication.

To keep herself from slipping into her old doujin habits while drawing the manga, she needed to check in with Jhin's opinion from time to time.

"Hmm, look here and here — isn't the heroine's body line a little too suggestive? I mean, sure, the manga's going to have some fan-service panels for the readers, but I still want them focused on the story, not the naughty stuff."

"Sorry, I think I slipped back into old habits again. It's fine for standalone illustrations, but with manga it's really easy to subconsciously start drawing it like a doujin."

What she'd brought to the café were photocopies. Eriri marked them up on the draft paper without hesitation, jotting notes on what needed revision, the ballpoint pen spinning nimbly between her slender fingers. She turned to look at Jhin. "Anything else besides that?"

"Let me see." Not used to wearing a tie, Jhin had undone his collar button and loosened the knot. He leaned over, one hand braced on the table, checking the remaining pages.

Eriri shifted a little to the side, uncomfortable — the two of them were too close now, and just catching that faint, inexplicably pleasant scent off him was enough to make her head go fuzzy, never mind that she could see his collarbone through the open collar.

She didn't have any particular fetish, and she wasn't into collarbones specifically, but her eyes kept drifting there anyway, as if something was tugging her gaze there against her will.

Was it because he'd become Store Manager now, and started wearing some expensive cologne?

Eriri swallowed discreetly, her mind a jumble of scattered thoughts, unable to focus on the manga at all.

During the time Jhin had been away on his business trip, she'd sometimes pick up the manga during class breaks, planning to get up and discuss the latest chapter with him — only to find his seat empty, which left her with an inexplicable, stifling feeling in her chest. She could talk about these things with Makina Irisu and Michiru Matsushima too, of course, but it never felt as freeing as chatting with him.

There was a lot of plot and imagery she didn't even need to point out explicitly — just a slight mention was enough for him to catch on right away, and then they'd fall into easy, well-matched discussion about the best parts. Whenever a scene deliberately played with a running gag, he'd catch it instantly too, and they'd both burst out laughing together.

Ever since learning about Jhin's harem in Antarctica, she'd made a conscious effort to keep her distance from him — but she kept finding herself missing those free, easy conversations with him again and again. That contradiction kept tearing her in two directions.

As a devoted believer in pure love, she obviously didn't approve of this whole harem business, and so she needed to keep her distance from Jhin. But on the other hand, he really was a rare kindred spirit — set aside the flaw of being a flirt, and he was practically the perfect friend of the opposite sex: they shared the same interests, he supported her work as a doujin artist, and he'd even gone out of his way to make her feel comfortable in this new environment.

That contradiction lasted until the day he came back from his business trip and saw her again.

That day, Eriri was flipping through the new issue during her usual class break as always, muttering to herself that the manga's plot seemed to be entering an important stage, when the classroom door was shoved open with a bang. Jhin's voice instantly seized her attention, making her head snap up.

"Yo, Eriri, was this week's Weekly Shōnen Jump any good?" He seemed completely oblivious to the fact that she'd been deliberately keeping her distance, walking up to her desk with that same warm smile as always, tilting his head to see which manga she was reading.

Maybe it was because she hadn't spoken to him in so long, but Eriri felt her throat go dry, and her voice came out a little off-key. "It's... it's fine, I guess."

"Hey now, it's only been a week since we last talked — since when does your voice crack just from that? Don't tell me you're that excited to see me?"

"Huh? Don't flatter yourself. My throat's just a little dry, that's all." She flicked her golden twin-tails and spoke in her usual tsundere tone.

"Then drink more hot water."

"What kind of weird way is that to show you care."

"It's just something common back home, don't read into it." Jhin waved a hand and took the manga magazine from her, flipping it to the shonen action series they usually discussed. "So it really did go the way we predicted. Want to keep guessing what happens next?"

All the stifling frustration and inner conflict in Eriri's chest vanished in an instant. She let out a soft laugh. "You're such an idiot."

"Hm? What did you just say?"

"Nothing." She flashed a cute little fang. "I bet you anything — next chapter, War Devil rips off Chainsaw Man's head and uses it as a grenade!"

"That would be way too predictable a twist. I think..."

Honestly... why was I acting like an idiot, deliberately keeping my distance from him? We were just normal friends to begin with. I should just go back to treating him the way I always did.

Eriri didn't deny that she had some measure of fondness for Jhin — after all, she wasn't made of stone, and it would be strange if she felt nothing after receiving so much help from him. But that small amount of fondness alone wasn't enough to make her willingly join his harem.

She had her own pride to consider. Trying to conquer the famous Kashiwagi Eri wasn't going to be that easy!

Blinking eyes that had gone a little sore from staring off into space for too long, Eriri realized that at some point Jhin's endless explanation had stopped. He was watching her with a sideways smile. "Zoning out during work hours — didn't sleep well last night or something?"

"N-no, that's not it." She grabbed at the ends of her hair in embarrassment, twirling them. "I was just thinking about something else."

"Then let's take a break. Oh, right — cola or black tea?"

"Coffee. Extra sugar."

"Understood, my lady. One moment, please." Jhin placed his right hand over his chest and gave a small butler's bow, but with his loosened tie and open collar, he looked more like a devious butler who'd tease his master rather than serve her properly.

Eriri felt like she'd raised that flag way too early. If he actually tried to win her over looking like that...

...it would probably, maybe, be way too easy.

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