Back home, the first thing Yukino Ritsuko did was rush into the kitchen to wash her hands.
She washed them several times, still feeling a bit disgusted... She was somewhat angry, angry at Takeuchi Akira, and angry at Fujiwara Reya. She thought, at the very least, at the very least, Fujiwara Reya should have told her what was going on, so she could help refute the accusations, rather than let others malign him behind his back.
"Sister Yukino, aren’t men just annoying creatures?" Kitagawa Ryoko said, her slender bare feet dancing lightly on the floor, "Whether it’s this one or that one, they all should just disappear from the earth."
As she spoke, her body swayed, and she almost fell, but just before hitting the floor, she quickly spun around, her hair whipping in a circle, doing a backflip towards Yukino Ritsuko, and then gracefully bowed with a smile.
"Sister Yukino, let Ryoko protect you!"
"You should think more about yourself..." Yukino Ritsuko felt slightly better and began taking out ingredients from the fridge to make dinner.
"What is there to think about for me."
"Do you have someone you want to marry?" Yukino Ritsuko asked with a smile.
"..." Kitagawa Ryoko frowned, walked to the kitchen, huffing and puffing, intending to hug her.
"Don’t make a fuss, I’m cooking!" Yukino Ritsuko skillfully dodged her.
"If Fujiwara can hug you, why can’t I?"
"He hasn’t hugged me either. Besides, he’s very polite to me, not like you with your hidden intentions."
"Sister Yukino only stands up for him." Kitagawa Ryoko gnawed on a cucumber, muttering, "Just wait, I’ll try to seduce him, and let you see how rotten he truly is! If he really dares to touch me, I’ll fight him, never letting him harm Sister Yukino. If he can’t beat me, I can love Sister Yukino with all my heart..."
"Hehe." Kitagawa Ryoko seemed to have thought of a good plan, laughing like a pig.
That night, she planned to sleep in the same bed with Yukino Ritsuko, but Yukino Ritsuko wasn’t used to having someone sleep next to her and ruthlessly kicked her out. Not wanting to sleep in Fujiwara Reya’s room, she ended up spending the night on the sofa in the living room.
The next morning, it was just barely light, and there was a light rain falling.
Early in the morning, Fujiwara Reya flew back to Tokyo, landing silently when no one was around. Approaching the store, he noticed it hadn’t opened yet, but from afar, he could see thick black smoke billowing out.
Could it be a fire...
Fujiwara Reya quickly ran back.
He pulled out his keys to unlock the door, and immediately saw that the source of the smoke was the back kitchen on the first floor. Amid the rolling black smoke, he saw a figure awkwardly fanning with a book, coughing and muttering continuously about something.
"Please don’t explode..."
This person, who else could it be but a silly woman.
Her face was smudged with black soot, and she was desperately trying to fan away the smoke with a book, her expression a mix of panic and indecision, as if contemplating whether to rescue the things inside. Just as she was struggling with her decision, she suddenly heard a noise and turned her head to see who it was, her expression instantly froze.
"Good morning." Fujiwara Reya couldn’t help but laugh.
After a few seconds of daze, Yukino Ritsuko also laughed, a bit embarrassed as she used the back of her hand to wipe her forehead: "Well, it’s raining today, and I didn’t want to go to the bread factory... so I tried making something myself to sell... but it seems like I failed..."
Her fair hand, when wiping her forehead and cheeks, kept leaving deep black ash marks. That elegant oval face was adorned with a panicked and bashful smile, but this startled rabbit-like expression, coupled with her soot-blackened skin, only made her appear pure and innocent...