Cote : I Just Want to Grant Your Wish!

The next morning, Sakayanagi Arisu and Kaoru Mitoma both took leave, which immediately became a hot topic in Class 2-A.

Since Arisu's reason for taking leave was the same as last time, nobody really thought too deeply in that direction. Instead, they quietly wondered why Kaoru, who was perfectly fine, had taken leave together with her.

Could it be that he was worried about Arisu, so he had taken the day off with her?

Although it was only a random guess, they had actually gotten half of it right.

Once Arisu returned, everyone would probably be stunned.

Ichinose Honami was the first to learn the truth.

Even though she already believed her boyfriend had supernatural abilities, when Kaoru told her that he had cured Arisu's heart disease, Honami still froze for a long time.

It felt like she was dreaming.

No wonder her boyfriend could handle five girls at once.

Honami accepted the truth.

After all, this was her boyfriend.

The only thing that made her a little unhappy was that Arisu had still become one of Kaoru's women.

It was not that Honami regretted supporting Kaoru's harem in the beginning. Rather, Arisu had always given her the impression of someone who could never accept being part of one.

Even if Arisu did accept the harem, with her personality, she would probably be the type to fight for the main wife position.

Letting her join in might not necessarily be a good thing.

Honami did not know whether Arisu would upset the delicate harem relationship she and Kikyō had worked so hard to maintain.

However, since Kaoru had already done it, Honami would not object.

Right now, compared to the possible impact Arisu might bring, she cared more about another matter.

While Kaoru was away, Honami quickly gathered the others in his room for a secret harem meeting.

"Ahem. I called everyone here tonight because I want to talk about Kaoru."

Honami cleared her throat and looked toward Horikita Suzune, Kushida Kikyō, Karuizawa Kei, and Sakura Airi. "First, I want to know. Regarding Kaoru's past, who here still doesn't know?"

After Kaoru revealed his past to Kei, Kei naturally told Kikyō and Honami, which led to tonight's secret meeting.

Honami had known about Kaoru's past for a long time.

She knew he had once been the Producer at 283 Production.

She also knew that he had died and come back to life, and that he possessed supernatural abilities.

As the trusted main wife among them, she should have told everyone these things earlier. But she had endured until today.

Because she felt that these things should be told by Kaoru himself. She could not cross that line for him.

Now that Kei and Kikyō both knew, Honami felt that the time was about right.

She wanted to know what everyone thought about it.

Kei was also observing everyone's reactions.

Although she felt a little disappointed that she had not been the first to know, it seemed she had at least known earlier than Kikyō and the others.

"Oh, that. Master told me about it."

Kikyō seemed to have already grown used to calling Kaoru "Master" in private.

"Aside from us, Master apparently has more than ten other women. They're idols from the agency. I'm so jealous."

Kei looked at this little angel in confusion, not knowing what exactly she was jealous of.

Kei and Kikyō had a very good private relationship and often teamed up together, but even Kei sometimes could not understand what this little angel was thinking.

"Idols?"

Suzune thought for a moment. "He seems to have told me something about that too, but I'm not interested in those matters. No matter how many women he has, it has nothing to do with me."

Suzune's reaction was fairly calm.

She even had a book in her hands, and she was not sitting with the others. Instead, she sat alone on a chair.

By comparison, Kikyō and Kei were sitting on the bed, while Honami and Airi sat properly beside the low table.

"You'd better hope it really has nothing to do with you."

Kikyō gave a small snort. "A boring, stubborn woman like you will sooner or later make Master lose interest."

Suzune replied coldly, "Even if you don't speak, nobody here will mistake you for a mute."

"Hmph. Says the person who only knows how to sneak ahead."

Kikyō curled her lips.

The reason Kikyō was dissatisfied with Suzune was rather complicated.

At first, she simply disliked Suzune.

Later, because Suzune often sneaked ahead, Kikyō became even more irritated.

Why did she say Suzune often sneaked ahead?

Suzune might not have been the person who did the most with Kaoru, but she was definitely the one who spent the most private time alone with him.

Kei had practically treated this room as her own, yet even she could not outdo Suzune's sneaking around.

Who knew what this seemingly cold woman did in private?

Of course, this was not Kikyō's discovery alone.

Kei's nose was very sharp too, and she could often smell Suzune's scent on Kaoru.

This was something Kikyō and Kei had discovered together.

Suzune did not want to deal with Kikyō.

By now, she understood that no matter how hard she tried, there was nothing she could do about this person.

Besides, Suzune did not think she was sneaking ahead.

She had only appeared in front of Kaoru a few times and then been caught by him. Even she herself found it somewhat confusing.

Even so, Suzune had not resisted.

She had always believed that she was Kaoru's cup, and he could use her however he wanted.

Because she was only a cup, she did not even think she counted as Kaoru's woman.

Unlike someone like Kikyō, she had not surrendered beneath Kaoru.

"Ahaha. Looks like Kikyō and Suzune know too."

Honami smiled and clapped her hands.

The atmosphere whenever those two met was terrible, and it was not very helpful for the topic she wanted to discuss next.

"What about Airi?"

At the moment, the most awkward person in the room was probably Sakura Airi.

She had been dragged over by Honami in a daze, and she still looked a little lost.

Perhaps because the effect of their previous honest meeting had been too strong, Airi could still clearly remember what had happened back then. Her pretty face had been red the entire time, and she did not dare meet anyone's eyes.

'Uuu, who could have known that the two cutest angels in the whole year would make those kinds of expressions in bed?'

Especially that little angel who had smiled while flashing a peace sign. Airi felt that every beautiful filter she had once placed over Kikyō had shattered completely.

"Uu... I-I know a little..."

Airi lowered her head.

In truth, she knew more than just a little. After Kaoru told Kei, he later also told Kikyō, Kei, and her.

Because Airi cared a lot about the Producer and the idols, she had actually asked the most detailed questions.

Kei and Kikyō, on the other hand, had been unwilling to face reality and only knew about the existence of 283 Production.

However, Airi did not know that she was the one who cared the most. She only knew that everyone else seemed surprisingly calm, which left her confused.

At a time like this, weren't they supposed to be fiercely jealous and angry?

Uuu, although she probably did not have the right to be angry.

In terms of seniority, the idols outside had known Kaoru much earlier than she had. She was the one who had stolen a taste.

She should be the one worrying about whether someone would steal her man away.

Thinking of this, Airi became even more dejected.

Fine.

As long as Kaoru was willing to keep liking her, she would do anything.

"So everyone here knows about Kaoru's past. Then I won't explain too much."

Honami's expression became serious. "Since Kaoru isn't here today, I want to talk to everyone about 283 Production."

Kikyō immediately became interested. "What about Komiya-san? She's from the agency too. Can we call her over?"

"Eh? Why would we call her over?"

Kei was clearly resistant. "They're our enemies, right? I asked Kaoru. They don't have rings. Kaoru only gave rings to us."

Yes. Including Airi, every girl here had an engagement ring.

They were all winners.

Even though Kei had not asked too many details, she had still found out that not a single girl at 283 Production had ever received a ring.

There were only a few people who were suspected to have been girlfriends.

"Don't look at it that way, Kei. They've known Master the longest, and Master clearly can't cut them off."

Kikyō spoke with great interest. "I think they're also part of Master's harem. Komiya-san is probably their way of testing us, to see what attitude we have."

Honami nodded. In truth, she thought the same thing.

"But isn't that too strange? They failed to keep Kaoru back then, and now they want him to return. How could I possibly agree to that?"

Kei carried strong distrust toward them.

Kikyō was momentarily speechless. When it came to fighting over a man, everyone would instinctively feel disgust and rejection.

"Did Kaoru tell Kei why he took his own life back then, or why he came to Advanced Nurturing High School?"

Honami's face was serious.

Kei froze.

She seemed to have forgotten to ask that. Her mind had been completely full of thoughts about not letting those girls steal Kaoru away.

"Eh? He doesn't seem to have told me. Does little Honami know?"

Kikyō widened her eyes. Even Suzune put down the book in her hand.

Honami shook her head. "He never told me clearly. It might involve some things he did back then."

"What things?"

Kei almost blurted the question out.

"I looked into 283 Production. Aside from the once-sensational Producer suicide incident and the grand stage, that agency has a huge amount of gossip around it."

At this point, Honami paused. She did not know how to describe the feeling she had when she read those gossip articles.

"Gossip?"

Kei complained, "I looked it up later too. Things like him deliberately controlling cute idols on stage, using his position against them in private, punishing disobedient girls, and always stealing their socks and little leather shoes. Those are obviously made-up rumors."

Kikyō stared at Kei.

Had this girl been made stupid by Kaoru?

For anyone else, those might be rumors.

For Kaoru, they sounded like ironclad evidence.

"N-no, that's not what I mean, Kei!"

Honami blushed and hurriedly waved her hands. "I wasn't talking about that kind of gossip. I mean Kaoru seems to have had a cold war with them. The agency apparently stopped functioning for a while. Some people wanted to quit, and some even wanted to change Producers. During that period, Kaoru almost lost all presence."

Kei tilted her head in confusion. "Wasn't that the agency's situation at the very beginning?"

"Mm. There was a similar problem at the very beginning, but it didn't last too long. I'm talking about something that happened almost half a year later."

Honami added, "It's very possible that something happened during that period. That might be why Kaoru doesn't want to talk to us too much about the past."

"There was a cold war. Master mentioned that before."

Kikyō did not quite understand. "But afterward, their relationship became very good, didn't it? The gossip about Master and those girls kept appearing one after another. It shouldn't have been that serious, right?"

It was not just Honami and Kei. Kikyō had also looked into 283 Production's gossip before.

At the very beginning, there had been basically no news. Later, the Producer started making moves, and everyone began paying attention to that small agency.

After the cold war ended, gossip about the Producer and the idols became especially frequent. In the period before the grand stage, those idols had practically stopped hiding it.

They were clearly aiming for the Producer.

It was also during that period that several girls suspected of being his girlfriends appeared.

"What if only their relationship toward Kaoru improved, while Kaoru's feelings toward them did not?"

Honami looked straight at Kikyō. "Some things can be buried very deep and hidden behind a normal appearance, Kikyō."

Kikyō and Kei both froze.

What did that mean?

Did Honami think Kaoru had been pretending back then?

"N-no, wait. Kaoru isn't pretending to like us, right?"

Kei found that hard to believe.

If Kaoru had only been pretending to like her from beginning to end, she felt she would never be able to accept that truth.

"That's not what I mean. Kaoru definitely likes us."

Honami hesitated. "But I don't know whether Kaoru ever liked them, or rather, whether Kaoru ever accepted their feelings."

She felt it was possible the idols had fallen for Kaoru, but Kaoru had not fallen for them, or had never accepted those feelings properly.

"That can't be right. He's that shameless. If beautiful idol girls were offering themselves to him, would he really hold back?"

Kikyō did not believe it. More accurately, she believed very strongly in Kaoru's tendency to be attracted to pretty girls.

Just as Honami was about to continue explaining, Suzune, who had been listening silently for a long time, suddenly spoke.

"I understand. Honami means he did something shady to them."

At some point, Suzune had closed her book. "If he only wanted their bodies, he had plenty of methods he could use. Do you still remember what he did to himself back then?"

As soon as those words fell, the expressions of Kei, Kikyō, and Honami all became somewhat unnatural.

"Because he initially only wanted to take advantage of them, his methods may have been rough and direct. That likely made everyone hate him, and perhaps that was the beginning of the cold war."

"Later, he probably changed his strategy. His personal image slowly improved, and he gradually became reliable and trustworthy. He may even have done certain things that caused some people to become deeply dependent on him. The gossip probably started appearing during that period."

"He didn't give them rings, but he prepared rings for us. That means this man had thought about rings before. He simply didn't use them on those girls for some reason. Otherwise, he wouldn't have immediately thought of giving rings to us. These different designs could not have been prepared in a short time, especially not in such variety."

"As for why he didn't give them rings, I think it was because he had done too many bad things. There may have been coercion. There may have been threats. The relationship between those idols and him was most likely abnormal, perhaps even more abnormal than our relationship with him. It cannot be summed up simply as girlfriends or a harem. That may be why he still doesn't dare go back too soon."

After Suzune finished, the entire room fell silent.

Although Suzune was only guessing, she had indeed sensed that Kaoru and the agency might have a very delicate relationship.

After all, who could have imagined that Kaoru had once been locked in a room and confined for a period of time?