Chapter 166. Negotiations
Himiko’s smile turned from her slightly crazy one, and morphed into a proper smile that I had never seen before. “Why yes… I transferred in after the festival.” She said calmly and properly. My jaw almost dropped from what I just witnessed, and I wasn’t alone. Mina almost yelled her surprise, but Toru covered her mouth. I could tell because Mina brought her hand to her open mouth and took Toru’s invisible hand away. Shunji stared at Himiko a bit with a small almost knowing smile before nodding.
I just stared at Himiko as she refused to meet my gaze while she had her mask on... But I hated it. I hated seeing this mask that she had on. It felt so wrong, and she wasn’t the woman that I fell in love with. I bit my lip, while looking away. I felt like she was doing this for Momo and I. She was trying not to do anything that we didn’t want, and the only way to not talk too much was for her to put on her mask. And it killed me to watch her act like something she wasn’t.
“Are you ok?” I was startled out of my thoughts and looked over to the voice in surprise. “Hm!? Yea. I must still be a little on edge from flying.” I said with a fake smile to Shunji. She stared at me for a bit while she seemed to be in thought. “Hmmm… Ok!” She smiled back at me for a bit, before looking back at Himiko. I looked over at Momo with a pleading expression. Momo furrowed her brows at me, in a slightly saddened expression.
After a bit of thinking, and watching her gears turn she gave me a slight nod. I gave her a grateful smile. I then stood up, and gathered everyone’s attention. “Himiko…” I said in a serious tone, and she shrunk a bit until she noticed my calm smile. “Just be yourself… Please.” She just stared at me for a bit, and while she was doing that. Her smile grew more crazy, and she began blushing fiercely.
Himiko started giggling while running around the table, and enveloped my arm. She giggled more as she rubbed my arm against her cheek, and went off into her own world. I looked back over to see Shunji smiling calmly at us. I was surprised and confused how she seemed to almost expect this. She chuckled calmly while covering her mouth. “I was not at the head of business without being able to read people Denki…” I felt my stomach drop as I began to see the Shunji that was in her empress mode. ‘Is this how Mina saw me when I switched into my battling train of thought?’
Shunji chuckled more as she turned my seat towards me to sit down. I did so, and Himiko sat in my lap while leaning deeply into my chest. She was almost purring while rubbing her head into me. I couldn’t help but grin at what she was doing, even while trying not to smile in front of Momo’s mom. Shunji chuckled more while seemingly reading through me. “I knew Momo was close to you Denki… as soon as she mentioned you on the phone from when you saved her at the school camp…”
I saw Momo startle in her seat while listening to her mom at first, and then blush while sitting back in her seat by the end. It was cute to see her embarrassed, but I had to focus more on Shunji right now. I looked back over to her to see her grinning at me. She chuckled a bit while looking back over at Momo. “You started using his first name without even noticing it halfway through our call… Indicating that was what you normally used.” Momo blushed more and averted her gaze.
I could see the rest of the girls pondering whether or not they also may have done the same with their parents over the phone. Mina seemed to be silently panicking while thinking, giving the indication that she thought she might have. Shunji laughed a bit while looking around the table, making all the eyes in the cabin to be brought to her. “I see you all are wondering if you’ve done that too… But if you do have to wonder… What does that mean?” She finished her question with mirth in her voice, seemingly already knowing the answer.
The rest of the girls blushed as well. Kyoka’s earphones were spiraling while looking at her lap. Mina’s embarrassed expression was adorable, and she just kept trying to stammer an excuse. Toru was making a small whining noise while thinking, and put her hands close to her chest while squirming a bit. Himiko was still just content with being this close to me, as she kept squirming in my lap while off in her own world. I was blushing knowing that we were never hiding anything to begin with. Shunji was onto us the moment she saw us.
However I was also happy a bit from how much love I saw the girls had for me. I couldn’t help but grin a bit from how loveable they all were. I noticed Shunji’s gaze on me, and quickly looked away from her with my red face. She laughed again while adjusting herself in her seat to be more proper. She was being relaxed, but now she sat like a true queen. “Now… Let the real negotiation, commence…” She said to me in a smiling but serious attitude.
I gulped a bit from the fear of having to introduce myself as the boyfriend to a mother, with the added stress of her knowing that I was also seeing other girls besides her daughter. I subconsciously gripped onto Himiko’s hand a bit tighter as I was silently panicking on how to start the conversation now. Shunji seemed to read right through me again as she began to start it for me. “Let us start with how far you have gone with my daughter.”
Momo startled in her seat with her face beet red. She lowered her gaze, and covered her warm cheeks to help hide her embarrassment, and how she was the one that was pushing me with what she was wearing the first night we kissed. I began having flashbacks of that night too just looking at her and my face began to warm up as well, with sparks flying around my hair. I could only have Shunji in my peripheral gaze, there was no chance I could look her in the eye after just remembering what her daughter and I did.
“Hmmm…” Shunji said while looking down at me from her throne. I felt more anxious under her watchful gaze, and had to say something. “Umm…” I bit my lip while thinking of what we did, and tried my best to try and phrase it in as nice a way as possible. “We… Have kissed…” Was all I could say as my hair sparked more furiously and my face felt red hot. I managed to glance at Shunji a bit to see her expression, but I only saw the back of her head as she was looking at a steaming Momo.
Momo was just as red as I was, and just nodded silently while her hair was blocking us from seeing her eyes. The cabin was silent as we all just watched Shunji’s gears turning just like Momo usually does. She then looked back over to me with a gaze of a ruler judging a subject, and wanting off with their head. “So you are just stringing my daughter along while making her watch as you are also with her friends?”