Stealing Spree

"Come in, Onoda-kun. Also, give me that. Since we're here, I'll put them in proper plates."

Upon opening the door to her house, Eguchi-sensei's movements were still a little unusual. She grabbed the lunchbox that I volunteered to carry from the back of her car and ran to her kitchen by herself after leaving me a pair of house slippers at the entrance.

Looking at her retreating back shrinking from the distance before disappearing at a corner brought a smile to my face. I couldn't help but see her more and more precious the more time we spent together.

I mean, who would've thought that she would turn out this sweet and lovable? In front of her class, she's like a Military Officer who wouldn't stand any undisciplined behavior.

Although there's still that story about why she hated rainclouds still a mystery to me, I, more or less, was already used to her contrasting behavior when she's in front of other people and when she's alone with me.

Following her inside, I took off my shoes and put on the slippers. Instead of going straight to her living room to wait for her, I gradually made my way to the kitchen while taking in the interior of her house.

From what I heard from her, she's living alone and this house was given to her by her parents when she moved out to live independently after finishing high school. Because they're worried about her, considering she came from an all-girls school starting from grade school, they picked a house not too far from their own home.

Apparently, her parents were living in the same area and she could reach them on foot in less than five minutes.

Most likely, they're just at another block.

She had neighbors but given that this also felt like a subdivision of sorts – kind of like Shio's former house – the surroundings were quiet.

No one was even around when she drove by and parked in front of her house.

From outside, it looked like a small house that could only house a small family but once inside, I found out how wrong I was.

It's too spacious. Just in the corridor alone, three people could probably fit if they walked side by side. And even though this was just a single-floor house, there were a lot of rooms, probably unused, further inside.

Upon entering the kitchen, the first thing I saw was how Eguchi-sensei carefully disassembled the tiered lunch box. It's tall and contains at least eight layers. Each layer was filled with one type of food while the bottommost layer was white rice. There were also the sandwiches that she told me about earlier.

When she saw me approaching, her serious expression was instantly replaced by a flustered one as she almost dropped what she was holding.

I hurriedly crossed the remaining distance, placing my hand beneath hers to steady it. But of course, that only made her more flustered.

"Onoda-kun… you could've waited for me to call for you. You're technically a guest so let me serve you."

"Uh. I have a habit of helping whether I am a guest in someone else's house or not. And I'm certain we'll finish faster if we work together."

Finding no words to refute that, Eguchi-sensei could only return a nod followed by handing me what was on her hand, "Y-you're right."

"I'm looking for this, sensei. They all look delicious." I said as I transferred the content of the food container to a plate before picking up a piece of sandwich and taking a bite of it. "See, I'm not wrong."

That's not a lie, of course. And before she could even think about saying it was not true, I lifted the sandwich next to her lips and urged her to take a bite.

I turned the sandwich to the other side, of course. She could be embarrassed with an indirect kiss, after all.

Knowing that she couldn't refuse me, Eguchi-sensei grabbed my hand before reluctantly taking a bite.

And while she was gently chewing on it, I never pulled my eyes off of her, waiting for her judgement.

Along with the sound of her gulping it down, Eguchi-sensei covered her lips before saying, "Un. This is good."

I nodded at her before eating the rest of it with delight. Following this, I continued helping her set the table.

With two people working on it, we finished it quickly.

But before sitting down and eating with her, I excused myself and asked her for directions to her bathroom.

It was already lunch break in both schools so I used the opportunity to check on my girls.

From messages to videocalls, I didn't miss anything. Nami and the others updated me on what happened after I left. We were all expecting chaos in the classroom because of what I did but surprisingly, she mentioned how peaceful it was. No one also bothered them that much.

However, apart from Chii and Aya, they had a single complaint. Hana joined them at their table and dined with them.

They still couldn't get along. No, it's just Hana was still acting the same, putting herself up as their rival. Nami and Hina were the ones dealing with her while Satsuki didn't want to bother with her anymore. As for Chii, she's meditating between the three along with Saki.

And when Rae joined them for a bit since she was with her friends, the knowledge girl faced off against Hana before handing her a thick notebook where ideas and the scenarios they'd written for the Cultural Festival were compiled.

She asked her to read it and provide insight as someone already part of our club.

With that, the situation calmed down and the girls ate their lunch in silence. Naturally, I also updated them on what was happening on my end.

I also checked on Haruko and the others. That girl along with Shizu seemed to have done something with the situation I created. They're together and both looked a little proud of themselves when I videocalled them. But when I asked them what exactly they did, the two only gave me meaningful smiles. Do they really have to act mysterious again? Uh. Not that I'm complaining.

Thinking about it, even though Satsuki and Nami were also there, they're probably the ones who came up with trapping Watanabe and making her work for us, or me.

Maybe, this wasn't the end and I should expect more from them. Their abilities and influence were their greatest asset. And they're using them to help me ease up the effects of my decision to become high-key.

Really, I should do something to make up for the mess I keep on making.

Watanabe also messaged me and told me how they made contact with Marika. Yes, she really asked her Ma-kun to bring her there. And unsurprisingly, Komoe followed her there. That girl had begun involving herself further in my affairs. I guess her desire to become the others was driving her forward. And knowing that Marika was potentially the same as her, she probably wanted to build some sort of connection with her.

But that's just my assumption so who knows what's in the girl's mind?

In the end, Watanabe sent me a photo of the three of them eating together at the cafeteria.

Yep. Masato-senpai was already nowhere around them and Marika's followers weren't nearby. Whatever trick Watanabe pulled to do that, she deserved to be given credit for it.

Anyway, the situation in the other school was fairly the same. With my girls already grouping up every break, the worry that Miyako might be dragged and bullied by those three bitches again was already gone.

Ah. There's one other thing that happened. Fuyu asked Akane to let her talk to me… The girl informed me of what my silly girl told me last night. That she's taking Akane with her to go buy a new tennis racket. It's like she's asking me for permission to allow Akane to go with her.

I interpreted that as the girl finally acknowledging me as Akane's partner and at the same time her prejudice against me had finally disappeared.

She might show up in our house again later at night. I guess I'll try to confirm that if ever she is.

After concluding everything and putting my phone back in my pocket, I returned to the dining room, acting a little embarrassed because the time it took to finish checking on all of my girls was more than ten minutes… I braced myself for the possibility that Eguchi-sensei would tease me for it.

But it didn't happen. As soon as the woman saw me returning, a pleasant smile returned on her face as she asked me to sit down so we could start eating.

As we started eating in silence, my mind wandered. With two schools still left to visit, I began calculating how much time we have in spare to spend in this house as well as what I should do to express my gratitude to Eguchi-sensei without crossing any line that she'd drawn…