"So this is the apartment building you live in?"
At the entrance of Aoyama Apartments, Konomi looked up curiously at the four-story apartment building before her.
"Yeah."
Sato nodded and pulled Konomi's suitcase inside.
"Come on."
"Okay!"
After reaching the third floor, they happened to run into Gabriel, who was yawning repeatedly with an unwilling expression on her face.
The two groups met and stared at each other for a moment.
After glaring at Sato unhappily for a while, Gabriel shifted her gaze toward Konomi and raised an eyebrow.
"Your girlfriend?"
Sato: "..."
He stared expressionlessly at Gabriel.
Why did everything this girl said sound so unpleasant?
Meanwhile, Konomi suspiciously examined the two of them for a moment before slightly bowing toward Gabriel.
"Hello! I'm Fujimiya Konomi. I'll be troubling the neighbors next door for a while."
After straightening up, she looked at Gabriel thoughtfully.
So this should be Sato's neighbor, right?
"Oh, just call me Gabriel! I live right next to this guy."
Gabriel waved casually while yawning loudly again. She shook her head and rubbed her eyes before finally waking up a little.
After becoming more alert, Gabriel sized up Konomi curiously.
"So what's your relationship with him?"
"We grew up together."
"Grew up together? So you're childhood friends?"
Gabriel looked at Konomi in surprise before clicking her tongue.
"That must've been rough."
"Hm?"
Konomi looked puzzled.
"Living with a horrible guy like this for so long must've been really stressful. You've worked hard!"
Konomi blinked, then turned toward Sato with a curious gaze.
What exactly did you do?
That seemed to be what the girl was asking.
What did he do?
The biggest reason Gabriel hated him was probably because he had raised the rent and made her clean the entire apartment building.
After thinking about it, Sato suddenly looked at Gabriel strangely.
"Why are you outside?"
The question sounded odd, but Gabriel normally never left the house on weekends.
"Heh heh!"
The blonde fallen angel let out two cold laughs and gritted her teeth at a certain someone.
"If a certain heartless landlord wasn't constantly chasing me for rent, do you think I'd go out and work part-time during my precious day off?"
Sato immediately understood.
He calmly looked at Gabriel and said:
"This is just like how debts must be repaid. If you rent someone else's place, of course you have to pay rent."
Suddenly, a smile spread across Sato's face. He patted Gabriel on the shoulder encouragingly.
"Ganbatte! The landlord's happy life depends on you!"
Damn it!
That single word echoed endlessly through Gabriel's mind.
"Hmph!"
She snorted coldly and stomped angrily toward the staircase, looking as though she wanted to smash several holes into the floor.
After Gabriel left, Sato turned around in a rather cheerful mood, only to see Konomi wearing a teasing smile.
The girl said with a grin, "Looks like you and your neighbor get along really well."
"Well, we see each other every day."
Sato answered calmly before walking to the apartment door and taking out his keys.
"You've traveled a long way, so come inside and rest first."
...
At the entrance.
While changing shoes, Konomi glanced around the apartment interior and revealed a slightly surprised expression.
"This place looks pretty spacious."
"It's alright. Two bedrooms, one living room, one kitchen, one bathroom, plus a balcony."
Sato answered casually. The reason he chose Aoyama Apartments in the first place was because of the large balcony.
"You live alone in a two-bedroom apartment?"
Konomi looked at him with interest.
Sato smiled calmly.
"The main reason is that the rent was pretty cheap. It wasn't much more expensive than a one-room apartment."
"Besides that... don't you have any other thoughts?"
Konomi clasped her hands behind her back while looking around the room, but suddenly leaned close to Sato's chest, her purple eyes staring up at him.
"What other thoughts could there be?"
"For example... bringing a cute girl home to live with you."
Sato immediately said speechlessly:
"If that were really the case, wouldn't a one-room apartment actually be better?"
How were they supposed to sleep with two separate rooms?
Sleep separately?
"Hm?"
Konomi blinked thoughtfully before pulling her head back and nodding.
"That actually makes sense..."
"Well then, I'll leave the luggage to you, little Sato. I'm going to look around and see if I can find any H-material!"
"Can you not call me that?"
Sato paused before helplessly complaining about the nickname. It reminded him of a certain guy nicknamed "Little Idiot."
Hm?
H-Material, huh...
His thoughts suddenly became active.
This world didn't seem to have Pokémon, did it?
That actually sounded like a pretty good project. Better write it down for later!
When he looked up, he saw Konomi walking toward his bedroom with her hands behind her back, curiously looking around.
Helplessly watching her back, he said:
"You're really going to search for that stuff? There genuinely isn't anything like that here..."
As he spoke, he carried Konomi's luggage into the other bedroom.
As for Kanna, he had temporarily entrusted her to Tohru.
After all, there was no way to explain why Kanna was living in his home, and he also had no intention of revealing anything about the supernatural world to someone who had never stepped into it.
Everyone had their own life. Only the world that belonged to oneself was truly one's own world.
By the time he finished putting away the luggage and came back out, Konomi was already sitting in the living room.
Clearly, her earlier words had only been a joke. At most, she had merely glanced around his room a bit.
After seeing him come out, Konomi said rather approvingly:
"Sato, your room is actually pretty clean! Not bad, keep it up!"
"Yes yes, thank you very much for the encouragement, Konomi-sama."
Sato could not help shaking his head before going to pour her a glass of water and placing it on the table.