The connection of our lips lasted for more than a few minutes. To make it fair for the ringlet girl, I responded in kind while also delivering the same intensity as her. If she’s hungry for it, I matched that and played along with what she had in mind.

Furthermore, to extend it, I moved us to a more obscure and dark spot. Even if it became difficult for us to see each other’s faces, our eyes were mostly closed during the exchange so it didn’t matter at all.

Though I wouldn’t really mind if Ichihara Jun showed up to witness that, we still needed to be a little cautious. We’re on his turf, after all.

Anyway, with Marika’s acting skills, she managed to straighten up her expression before knocking on Ichihara-san’s door.

Right. Instead of coming in together, I returned inside first and I told Marika to wait for a minute before appearing before Ichihara-san.

As we both expected, the woman was surprised when she opened the door and found the ringlet girl there.

On the other hand, Koharu, who was about to accompany me back to the training room, somehow reacted in a positive way to Marika's appearance.

She excused herself to me as she joined her mother at the door and invited Marika in.

From that, what Marika told me concerning her closeness to Koharu was proven true. Even if the girl hated her cousin, she was really fond of Marika.

No wonder she easily answered the ringlet girl about me back then.

“Marika-san, it’s night time. Aren’t you going to have dinner soon? Won’t they look for you?”

Before Koharu could pull her inside, Ichihara-san who stood there like an obstacle to Marika’s path raised that question.

From the tone of her voice, she’s concerned about the girl bringing trouble to their household.

“I messaged Jun-kun that I will be skipping dinner today, Aunt Natsuha. No one is going to look for me,” answered Marika. Following that, she flashed her rather iconic elegant smile that could probably blind someone from how brilliant it is.

With her stable voice and unfaltering eyes, Ichihara-san failed to notice that the girl’s cheeks and ears were currently flushed red, partly from the cold of the night and partly from what we did just a few minutes ago.

Anyway, I hadn’t heard about what she just said from her. Either she made that up on the spot or she deemed it not important to relay to me. She said she sneaked away and used an alternate path to come here, after all.

Furthermore, she also left a note in her room, telling her escorts not to look for her since she was going to take a walk within the Ichihara Compound.

The only way she could be caught lying is if someone followed her or Ichihara Jun either showed up in her place or in this house.

“I see. But I don’t think it is wise for you to be here...”

“Why is that, mom? Marika-onee-chan is family.”

Upon hearing that, Ichihara-san’s expression appeared troubled. She also glanced at my direction. If I’m not wrong, she did that to check if I was watching. Perhaps if I wasn’t, she would adamantly turn her away even with her daughter’s disagreement. She’s aware of the trouble that Marika could bring them, after all.

And since my eyes were fixed on them, Ichihara-san carefully considered her words.

A while later, she replied to her daughter, “You still have to finish your session with Onoda-sensei, Koharu. Look, you’re keeping him waiting.”

Ichihara-san pointed at me. She probably thought that she could use me to stop Koharu from insisting to let Marika come in. However, it immediately backfired on her.

“Eh? Didn’t you say she also enrolled in his course? She can join me!”

“Is that Junior-kun? My, what a coincidence.” Marika said as she intentionally widened her eyes as her vision focused on me.

If I didn’t know better, I would probably call her out. That one line was bad in terms of her acting. It sounded forced.

Nonetheless, the mother and daughter pair failed to pick up on it.

While Ichihara-san’s forehead creased slightly as her troubled expression deepened, Koharu tilted her head in slight confusion. If I’m not wrong, Ichihara-san didn’t tell her about Marika’s connection to me. We’re only schoolmates, after all. There’s no indication of how close we are.

At least, initially.

“Junior-kun?”

“Oh. I’m sorry. Onoda-sensei is my junior at school, Koharu-chan.”

“Whoa... Is that true?” Surprised at what she heard, Koharu turned her head to me to confirm.

Ichihara-san looked at me with imploring eyes. Interpreting what she wanted to say, she’s probably looking at me for assistance.

But I acted ignorant about it and simply smiled before answering Koharu’s question with a nod.

With that, the girl’s excitement went up another notch as she once again turned her gaze to her mother, asking her to let Marika in so she could join us in that room.

After a minute of trying to come up with how to reject that, Ichihara-san eventually sighed in resignation. She stepped aside, allowing Koharu to pull Marika in.

As the two of them smilingly trotted in my direction, Ichihara-san who had just closed the door opened her mouth again.

“Koharu, go back to the training room with Marika-san. And sensei, can I talk to you for a moment?”

“Okay!” Although Koharu’s answer could be taken as somewhat innocent, I noticed her carefully watching her mother’s expression. She probably knew that by bringing Marika in, she troubled her mother again. In any case, even if there was the option to support her mother’s decision to turn Marika away, she might've been thinking differently.

If I have to guess, she believes that Marika is innocent and shall not be implicated in whatever problem they have with their family.

Well, take that with a grain of salt as it was still just my assumption.

With Marika acting like a proper guest to the house, she also only greeted me before following Koharu inside.

And with this, being left alone with Ichihara-san, I switched my gaze to her and met her troubled gaze.

Well, that didn’t last long because Ichihara-san washed away her complicated expression first. And after forcing another smile on her face, she invited me.

“Please join me at this table, sensei. Let’s talk here.” She turned around and moved back to the kitchen. After taking another glass, she filled it up with the same orange juice that Koharu was drinking earlier and slid it across the table, or specifically towards my direction.

I didn’t make it hard for her. I followed her and sat down across from her. However, before she could start with what she was going to say, I beat her to it.

“Ichihara-san, I know this is not my place to say and I probably have no right to do so since I turned you down earlier but is Kujou-senpai also troubling you?” Upon saying that, I reached for the glass of juice and downed it to half in one gulp.

Ichihara-san pursed her lips before answering, “... No. Not really.”

“I see... Koharu-chan seemed to be fond of her.”

“Yes, she is. She’s very kind to Koharu. But my nephew...”

“Your nephew?”

“He doesn’t want Marika-san to associate with us.”

As I expected, it’s like that. I could only guess for a reason but I better hear it from Ichihara-san herself.

Maybe, this would also answer why he’s bullying his younger cousin. Furthermore, it could be the explanation why this woman who’s supposed to be a part of the Ichihara Family looked like she’s suffering from them...

“Huh? Why? What’s his reason?”

Ichihara-san lowered her head, seemingly trying to recompose herself. Most likely, her state of mind was in turmoil.

Really, if not for this visit, I would probably still believe that she’s doing well as a daughter-in-law of this family. While she showed a little of her troubled look when I mentioned her husband back then, it’s not enough to tell that she’s actually having trouble with the whole family.

“That... He is—”

Unfortunately, when she was about to answer my question, the door to their house opened and a man wearing a business suit entered from it. He stopped at the entrance as he started removing his shoes but when his vision caught sight of us in the kitchen, he stopped and said, “Hmm? Natsuha, you haven’t told me we have a visitor. Who is he? Someone from your family?”

Without a doubt, considering he didn’t need to knock and he was addressing Ichihara-san by her first name, he is her husband. The second born of the Ichihara Family.