"Don't you guys think Yuu has been acting strange these past two days?"
Strolling under the blazing sun, Iori Kitahara felt like a squid on a hot plate. If he didn't flip over in time, he might be completely charred.
"Exactly..."
"Not only is he being secretive, but he also hides from us when answering the phone."
"He even asked the four of us to come out and buy ice cream in this heat. And seriously, is it really necessary for four people to go buy ice cream together?"
In response, his equally dispirited Kohei, and his colleagues Chisa and Aina, who were clearly annoyed, all agreed.
Although Yuu did give them a lot of money to buy ice cream and eat whatever they wanted, it felt like an adult bribing children to run an errand. Even while eating ice cream, they still felt disgruntled!
Chisa and Aina originally wanted to refuse coquettishly, but his heart was made of thousand-year-old mysterious iron. He actually threatened them with no dinner, which was simply too despicable!
"In this situation..."
Suddenly stopping in his tracks, Kohei Imamura's face was sorrowful as he clenched his fists. Tears flowed uncontrollably, dripping onto the asphalt road and instantly evaporating.
"He must be cheating! In a Galgame, if the girl suddenly becomes secretive, it must mean something was overlooked and an accident happened!"
"Nani? Cheating?!"
"Don't mind him, Aina. This guy was definitely driven mad by playing a Galgame last night!"
Stating the truth in one sentence, Chisa Kotegawa patted the instantly panicked Aina. There was nothing in her eyes but exhaustion.
As for how she knew, Kohei had been playing a Galgame at GrandBlue all day yesterday just to freeload on the air conditioning!
She personally witnessed his girlfriend being stolen by someone else, and at the time, she wondered why anyone would enjoy playing that kind of game.
"No! Sora has her reasons! Damn it! Why didn't the crappy game state it had NTL (NTR: Netorare)!"
"He's definitely been driven mad by the game, but if Yuu also had his reasons, like accidentally touching something, he would take responsibility, right?"
"Iori, now that you mention it..."
They all looked up. Although Yuu usually appeared carefree and scummy, he would absolutely take full responsibility if he accidentally harmed a girl.
If he accidentally messed up while drunk, he would probably grit his teeth and...
Four pairs of eyes simultaneously flashed with horror. Chisa Kotegawa was the first to snap back to reality and gave an awkward laugh of reassurance: "But the probability of that happening is virtually zero, right?"
"But anything is possible..."
"..."
The GrandBlue freshman dash suddenly began. The starting line was where the four contestants stood, and the finish line was GrandBlue!
After a brief silence, with no communication, Iori's jump-start served as the gun, and the remaining three also simultaneously started sprinting with gloomy faces.
The journey of over ten minutes was completed by the group in less than four minutes!
"Ha... Ha... Yuu! You can't do anything that would disappoint your sister!"
"That's right! If something happened, our Pab Club will figure out a way to compensate. There will definitely be a better solution than a marriage proposal!"
Pushing the door and rushing into GrandBlue, before they could even clearly see the situation, Chisa Kotegawa and Aina Yoshiwara immediately began to earnestly counsel him.
If Yuu were gone, Azusa-senpai and Nanaka-san would definitely be heartbroken. It wouldn't be impossible for the entire Pab Club to fall apart because of it!
"Huh? What strange things are you saying?"
Miyazawa Yuu, his face full of confusion, finished signing the acceptance report in his hand, gave a slight bow to see the installation worker out, and then had the time to turn around and look at the raving Chisa.
"Also, why are you back so fast? Didn't I tell you to play outside a little longer?"
"But..."
The installation worker who just walked past her was definitely male, there was no doubt about that!
Given that Yuu is a real man, Chisa Kotegawa suddenly realized awkwardly that her imagination might have run wild, and she wasn't sure if Aina had infected her.
But is Yuu also in charge of the maintenance issues at GrandBlue? And why would he hide from them just to install something?
"Ahem! Anyway, Yuu is definitely hiding something from us, right! Confess now!"
Coughing awkwardly twice, Aina Yoshiwara shielded the steaming-red Chisa behind her, then her small face suddenly became serious as she criticized: "The Pab Club strictly forbids secrets! Yuu, you don't want us to check under your bed, do you!"
"Well~ it's not exactly a secret."
Converting the second floor of GrandBlue into a home theater was a big undertaking that would occupy the entire room, and Miyazawa Yuu hadn't planned on hiding it from Aina and the others in the first place.
However, since the clue had been discovered, he frowned in thought for two seconds, then helplessly spread his hands and warned: "It's not that I can't let you see it in advance, but you might feel very uncomfortable after seeing it..."
"We must see it, no matter how uncomfortable it is!"
Their curiosity was instantly piqued. Aina Yoshiwara immediately beat her chest, guaranteeing that she would know what Yuu was doing no matter what!
Seeing that Chisa and Iori were also equally eager, Miyazawa Yuu could only hook the key with his pinky finger and lead these demanding ghosts upstairs, then opened the room at the end of the corridor.
"Alright, alright... you asked for this. Please come in!"
"This room, I remember it used to be... a storage room?"
Staring at the pitch-black doorway in front of her, Chisa Kotegawa's first reaction was confusion.
In her memory, besides her sister's and her own rooms, before Yuu and Iori arrived, the only use for the other empty rooms at GrandBlue was as storage.
However, when she braced herself to be covered in dust and walked into the room, holding her nose at the tail end of the group, the expected smell of dust did not greet her.
Instead, as the door slammed shut behind her, boundless darkness instantly enveloped the four puzzled, curious members of the Pab Club.
"Eek! It's so dark!"
"Of course it's dark. These are new blackout curtains, double-layered, so no light can penetrate, even during the day."
Casually explaining, Miyazawa Yuu reached out and fumbled along the wall next to the door, quickly finding the light switch.
As the light sprinkled down from above once more, Chisa Kotegawa finally saw the room's arrangement clearly.
The clutter that should have been scattered everywhere was nowhere to be seen. In its place were a large screen, a projector, and a pair of stereo speakers.
"Is this... a home theater?!"
Stunned for several seconds, Iori Kitahara suddenly realized what the setup in front of him was for, his expression instantly becoming as horrified as if he'd seen a ghost.
"Wait! This set must be very expensive?! Yuu, we can't accept illegally obtained black money!"
"You bastard, so the money I have on me isn't clean, is that it!"
Veins popped out on his forehead. Miyazawa Yuu pried off the grabbing hand that was hugging and shaking his shoulder, then smiled and pointed to the door, spitting out one word from his mouth.
"Get out!"
"But on second thought, it's not impossible that Yuu earned the money himself."
Putting his hands on his hips and pretending he didn't hear anything, Iori Kitahara excitedly stuck out his butt and fiddled with the projector placed on the coffee table, his eyes full of the joy of an engineering student seeing something cool.
"Oh! This model seems to be the latest. The picture quality will definitely be super great!"
"Indeed, it should be a new product from the summer sale..."
As a fellow electrical and mechanical engineering student, Chisa Kotegawa would naturally pay attention to newly released projectors. If they bought this entire set, it would probably cost at least a million yen!
"Yuu, the money for this purchase?"
"It's prize money from a competition, but it was just barely enough for this set of equipment."
Knowing that Chisa was simply worried about him overworking, Miyazawa Yuu sat on the sofa, pointed to the curtain with his thumb, and continued to explain: "As for the purchasing and moving costs for the sofa and coffee table, Tou-san paid for and helped with those."
"I see..."
Walking out of the room with wide, dot-like eyes, Kohei Imamura returned shortly after, carrying two discs and consciously turned on the projector, then inserted the discs into the drive.
"Ohayo! Onii-chan~!"
"Oh-ho-ho, the screen is super big. It's so much fun to play on!"
Looking at the gigantic, life-sized imōto, he was instantly moved to tears. Compared to a PC, a phone is nothing, but compared to a projector and a large screen, a PC is nothing!
"Hold on a second, Kohei, you don't think everything's fine just by sitting down and starting to play without saying anything, do you?"
Miyazawa Yuu mercilessly pressed the screen off. Several extra veins popped out on his forehead.
This guy Kohei is actually using the surprise he prepared for Nanaka-san to play a Galgame. It looks like he's somewhat tired of living!
"Ha! What did you say, Yuu! Anyone who sees such a huge screen would be unable to resist playing a Galgame!"
"Urgh! Since you've already seen it, all of you get out! If anyone dares to defile this sacred place before Nanaka-san can enjoy it, just tell your family to burn more paper money by the sea!"
...
That evening, Nanaka Kotegawa found the atmosphere at the dinner table a bit strange. For some reason, everyone seemed quite unhappy!
Especially Iori and Kohei, they were distracted and kept muttering while hugging their AVs and Galgames. It looked bizarre but somehow also... comical?
"Um..."
She had just opened her mouth to ask what had happened, but the next second, Yuu gently interrupted her.
"Nanaka-san! Could I steal a little of your time after dinner?"
Meeting his eyes, which were filled with determination and anticipation, Nanaka Kotegawa instantly understood what the problem was, and she nodded gently.
"Mhm~ If it's for Yuu, anytime is fine~"