Chapter 17 You Really Trust Me
After entering the clubroom, Kaede saw Eriri, who looked completely drained, sitting down on the sofa.
"Ah... I can finally relax a little..."
Seeing her state, Kaede had a few guesses. He closed the door, pulled up a chair in front of her, sat down, and asked, "Are you very sleepy?"
Eriri nodded and said, "Yeah. After finishing the game yesterday, I hid under my blanket and read manga for a while. I was dead tired when I woke up this morning, but I can't sleep once I'm at school, and I still have to maintain my usual composure and interact with everyone..."
"Tsk tsk tsk, that sounds really exhausting."
Kaede shook his head, looking at Eriri, who was yawning widely and rubbing her eyes, and asked, "Should I go buy you a can of coffee?"
"Ugh... No need. Right now, I just want to get some good sleep."
"... You aren't planning on taking a nap here, are you?"
"Exactly! Isn't this a great place? No one will find out!" Eriri stood up smiling, walked over to the cabinet opposite, opened it, took out a bag, and pulled out a blanket.
"Hehe, I prepared for this long ago. I was afraid I might pull an all-nighter and get sleepy during the day, so I stored some things here."
Seeing Eriri's actions, Kaede said helplessly, "If that's the case, why didn't you ask Usami to come and stay with you?"
"I could ask her, but what would I do if she pressed me for the reason?"
Eriri looked at Kaede and said, "We are comrades-in-arms, aren't we? Is it really so hard to help me out with something like this?"
"Emmm~~~ It's not impossible. But you aren't planning on having me stay here with you, are you?"
"Of course. If I, a delicate girl, sleep alone here, what if I run into a pervert?"
You really trust me, then.
I have to admit, this Eriri is quite different from the tsundere 'loser dog' I had in mind.
Or perhaps, this is the real Eriri. Although she is an otaku, her excellent upbringing allows her to interact calmly with others. As for being a tsundere, even the most severe tsundere can't maintain that attitude all day long.
If my memory serves me right, Eriri's tsundere moments mostly occur when she is interacting with Tomoya and other characters. She is quite normal otherwise.
But speaking of which... is that classmate Tomoya also at Toyosaki?
Kaede thought about it for a moment and realized he hadn't seen him. But whether he was there or not didn't matter much; it had nothing to do with him, and there was no need to ask Eriri.
Looking at Eriri, who had already untied her twin tails and let her long golden hair fall loose, a trace of admiration flashed in Kaede's eyes. He looked at his watch and said, "It's 12:15 now. There are 45 minutes until the 1 o'clock class, so you won't be able to sleep for long."
"It's fine, it's fine. A short nap will be enough."
With that, Eriri picked up the blanket, covered herself, and lay down on the sofa.
"This sofa feels pretty good. It's quite comfortable to lie on."
After saying that, Eriri turned onto her side and saw Kaede sitting not far in front of her, scrolling through his phone.
Realizing belatedly, Eriri felt her cheeks heat up. She immediately wrapped herself in the blanket, turned around so her back was facing Kaede, and closed her eyes.
Lifting his head, Kaede realized that he could only see Eriri's back and her beautiful golden hair now.
Moreover, Eriri's figure seems quite good—better than he had imagined.
No, he couldn't think about that anymore. That sort of thing was impolite.
Kaede shook his head and focused his attention on his phone. Furthermore, to honor her trust, Kaede made no attempt to secretly take pictures.
More than half an hour passed in a flash. It quickly became 12:50. Kaede calculated the time, first went outside to buy a can of coffee, and then quickly returned to the clubroom.
"Sawamura, time is almost up."
After calling out, he found that Eriri was sleeping very soundly, which made him quite surprised by the level of trust she placed in him.
"Sawamura, wake up quickly! Class is about to start."
Well, she still wasn't awake.
Having no other choice, Kaede took out a jade green USB-shaped object from his pocket, held it near Eriri's ear, and pressed the button once.
"Cyclone!"
The sudden sound near her ear caused the sleeping Eriri to move slightly.
Seeing this, Kaede pressed it again.
"Cyclone!"
"Cyclone!"
Finally, Eriri was startled awake by the repeated sounds. She instantly sat up and instinctively blurted out, "Joker! Uh..."
Then, she saw Kaede sitting in front of her, smiling, holding a Cyclone Gaia Memory in his hand.
"Asakura? Why are you here?"
"Did you sleep yourself silly? It's only been half an hour."
Eriri, realizing what happened, blushed and shouted at Kaede, "You're the silly one!"
Kaede didn't bother arguing with her and said with a smile, "Alright, hurry up and get up. Tidy up your hair and blanket. Class is starting soon; we have less than ten minutes left. Also, how is your energy now?"
"Ugh... I'm okay now. There shouldn't be any major problems with the afternoon class."
Shaking her head, Eriri took out her hair ties and retied her twin tails, then put the blanket back in the cabinet.
Looking at Kaede, Eriri lowered her head, her face flushed, and said somewhat awkwardly, "Sorry, I made such an excessive request of you today. It was clearly my own fault..."
"You actually admitted your mistake directly? I thought you would be a bit tsundere."
"Urusai! Who is being tsundere?!"
"..."
Seeing Kaede look at her with an 'I knew it' expression, Eriri's cheeks grew even redder. She immediately stomped her foot and prepared to leave.
"Hey, wait a minute."
Kaede quickly stepped over and handed a can of coffee to Eriri.
"Just in case, drink a bit during the break to refresh yourself."
"You're really practiced at this, aren't you?" Eriri muttered before taking the coffee. "Thank you."
"Practiced? You're really overthinking it. Seriously, this is actually the first time I've ever bought a drink for a girl like this."
After replying with a smile, Kaede and Eriri left the Art Club room together, locked the door, and headed to class.
After only two steps, Kaede stopped and turned around to look toward the hallway behind them.
"That's strange. There's nothing there."
Eriri saw Kaede's action and asked curiously, "What's wrong?"
Scratching his head, Kaede explained, "In the first couple of days of school, I occasionally noticed a strange gaze secretly staring at me when I was at school, but I could never find the source when I went looking."
As he said this, Kaede failed to notice that Eriri's cheeks were slightly red.
"That gaze had disappeared after a few days, but it seems to have reappeared just now."
Now, it was Eriri's turn to be puzzled.
So, someone else is watching Kaede?