There were still girls he needed to look for. That meant it was time for Kouji to search for them. Though as luck would have it, Teru was the one that ran into him.

If one could count ramming him with her skateboard as “running into”.

“Hey, look where you’re going!” He yelled at her, upset that she’s riding this stuff on school property. How does she not get in trouble?

“Maybe you should be looking where you’re going!” She countered. Sometimes he wondered how this girl ever belonged in a school like this. Even if her parents were as wealthy as he assumed they were.

“Never mind.” He stopped the arguing. This wasn’t exactly a bad thing to happen, given that he was looking for at least one of these girls. “Where are you planning on going?”

“What’s it too ya?” She replied, annoyed at hearing him. “We did our daily studies, I don’t see why you need to keep following me.” Kouji rolled his eye at her statement. As if that type of stuff were enough given the knowledge levels of these girls.

“Look, I don’t want to take any chances.” He said to her. “By the way, have you seen Yuma?” That was the only other girl he needed to find.

“Don’t know, she probably went home already.” She knew about that girl’s responsibilities. They all did.

“Then let’s go there now.” He offered, much to her chagrin.

“Tch, fine.” She doesn’t particularly care about going back to that place again. “But this time you’re not forcing me into some maid dress so you can get off.”

***

They arrived at Yuma’s place, and knocked on her door. The person that greeted them was a familiar sight.

“Oh hello.” Yuma bowed her head. “I didn’t expect to see either of you today.”

“Yeah, well we’re here so that I can help tutor you.” He told her. For a moment, she moved her eyes around. As if thinking of something.

“...But I already studied during our break, and during lunch.” Apparently these girls didn’t have much of a concept of doing more work during crunch time. Without saying anything else, she let the two of them in.

“So let’s get started then.” He said to her.

“I’m sorry.” She bowed her head to them once more. “But I can’t, not until I’m finished with my work.” That goes first for her, even when he’s here? No wonder this girl is falling behind so much compared to her peers.

“That sounds pretty lame to me.” Teru commented. “I’m sure your servants will take your job for school stuff.”

“No, that’s not possible.” Yuma replied. “You see… I’m the only one here right now.” It turned out that both her parents and all the servants, three in total, were out shopping. That hardly sounded efficient to Kouji, but he’s not the rich one here.

“Well, what if we help you get it done faster?”

“Oh no.” Teru immediately took a couple steps back from him. “You’re not putting me in that stupid outfit again.” She put up her fists, ready to fight him. Even if that wasn’t part of their deal.

“I mean, no costume changes. But it’ll get done faster if we pitch in.”

“...Fine.” Teru relented, pouting. So that’s what they did. Yuma instructed them to clean up the kitchen, while she was to take care of the dining room.

Judging by the way she was holding her posture, it was clear to him that the heavy work was going to fall on him. Kouji rolled up his sleeves so that he could get to washing this large pile of dishes. Meanwhile, she got to cleaning all the counters.

“Sheesh, how can a family so small, make such a mess?” She complained, something he kind of agreed with. Her parents couldn’t have possibly believed that one girl could take care of this kitchen. Not to mention that there was also the dining room to clean as well.

“You know how I say more working, less talking with homework.” Their feelings about this matter weren’t important. He was aware there was nothing he could do. “Same goes for this.” Though Teru was never one to listen to his advice. Instead, she just changed the subject.

“I gotta say, you’re a lot better housework than I thought you’d be.” She said. “Maybe you’re not actually the only boy at school.”

“Oh, haha. Real funny.” He laughed sarcastically. “And with that skateboard, I’m starting to think I’m not the only boy here.”

“Yeah real funny.” She replied with her own sarcastic response. They got back into cleaning, which gave him some time to think. According to Teru, her parents owned a pharmaceutical company. Actually, what role did they have?

“You’re parents were…”

“They’re scientists.” She answered him. “And don’t bother asking why I’m not like them.” His next question was already predicted.

“Really, I’d think they’d try and get you into the business.”

“Why should I? They’re just a bunch of nerds anyway.” Kouji wasn’t fan of the way she referred to her family. “I’m nothing like either of them, and I don’t plan on becoming them either.”

“They’re smart.” He gave his perspective. At least, he assumed they were smart people given their positions. “And I think you should at least try and be more like them.
“Listen.” She grabbed him by the collar. Her wet gloves soaked into his clothes. “I’ll listen when you want to help me study, but stay out of my life.”

“Ahem.” Yuma coughed to get their attention. She had been done with her job for a while, and had seen this conversation. Though she didn’t speak up until now. Actually, she still hadn’t uttered a word, the silence between all of them was awkward. “...I’m finished.”

“Right.” Teru let go of him. “Sorry.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re better at this cleaning stuff than both of us combined.” The dining room was in much more of a state of disarray than the kitchen. Yet this girl already took care of it on her own.

“Well, we’re almost done. So let’s just finish this.” She returned back to her assigned task. Kouji also went back to his own job, acting as if nothing happened.

Once cleaning was taken care of, they could finally get to the studying part of their agreement. Though he also hoped there would be little distraction, this was just like his session with Himawari and Waa.

“I gotta say, it kind of sucks they dumped all this work on you.” Teru told Yuma. However, the latter looked at her like there was something wrong with that statement.

“What do you mean?”

“What do you mean, what do I mean?” Teru asked. “I mean, they all left to go shopping and you get stuck with cleaning that insane mess?” Kouji didn’t say anything, but he was on Teru’s side for this point. Her father’s behavior also didn’t make sense to him.

“That?” Yuma paused for a moment, looking up in thought. “...I was the one who told everyone to go.” Apparently she noted the sudden lack of supplies in their storeroom, so she informed her parents about it.

They said that they could make a family trip out of it, but she told them that she wanted to stay back and clean the house. There was going to be a lot of things that needed to be bought, so she also believed that it would be best if the staff came with them.

“Really? You wanted to clean all this up?” Teru didn’t enjoy doing it, and she only did a small portion of it.

“It’s fine… I don’t really like going out anyway.” Yuma told them. The last time she tried doing that, didn’t go so well. Talking with strangers was never something she was good at.

“I don’t really think that’s a good reason to do all this by yourself.” He advised. “I’m sure they would’ve loved to have you come over.”

“But…” Yuma paused, trying to think of something. Didn’t you come over?” She hit him with a counterpoint. “If I wasn’t here, then you wouldn’t be able to teach me, right?” She said with a smile.

“I guess not.” He relented, not that he wanted to accept that fact. “I’ll just go to the bathroom before we continue.” He left the two, this place was absolutely massive. How was he supposed to believe that this is what she wanted?

While Kouji was busy in thought, there was something about his walk to and from the bathroom that he missed. It would be the fact that he wasn’t alone. It happened as he was walking back to the room where he left the two girls.

Wack! Someone bopped him in the head, sending him down to the ground. Before things went dark, Kouji only caught a quick glimpse of the person that hit him. It was of a man he had never seen before. There was an intruder? What were to become of the girls?

“Miss, we are deeply sorry.” Those were the next words that Kouji heard, as light began to enter his eyes. There were a group of people standing near him as he was getting himself back up. Only three of them were familiar to him, Teru, Yuma, and Yuma’s butler Shinkai. Who were the other two?

“You see, I’ve never seen that boy before. So I thought he was going to do rather unsavory things to you.” It was the man that hit him, or at least the one that he saw before blacking out.

“What’s going on?” Kouji spoke up, still holding the spot where he got hit.

“Ah.” The man rushed up to him and bowed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that mistress was going to have guests.”

“Sheesh.” The other one that Kouji didn’t recognize finally said a word. This one was a woman. “You’re acting like you almost killed the kid. He’s fine.”

“What? But, I don’t want to get in trouble.” The man replied.

“Apologies.” Shinkai spoke for all of them. “These two are also servants for the family, as am I.” He introduced the two to him. The one that hit him, was Todoro Tanigaki. He was someone that was new to employment here. The other one was Mikune Hatono, she had quite a rather silver-tongue to her coworker.

“Apologies, accepted?” Kouji wasn’t really sure if he actually fine with what happened, but he didn’t want to make a big deal about it either.

“Honestly.” Apparently Todoro was the one that couldn’t accept the apologies. “I’ll do anything, just don’t stay mad at me.” His groveling was ended when Yuma put a hand over his head.

“It’s fine.” She gave him a pat on the head. “It’s Kouji, so I’m sure he’s not mad at you.” That girl’s touch calmed down this situation.

“Right.” Kouji backed her up. Besides, there was little time to be wasted. Exams were on the horizons, so tutoring was his goal today.