However, it wasn't just Wise attracting attention. Even Ellen, walking beside him, had become the center of countless stares.
"Dammit..."
"Hm? What's wrong?" Wise glanced at her. "Why do you look so upset, Ellen?"
Instead of answering immediately, Ellen pursed her lips and shot a sharp look at the female students nearby.
"You're drawing way too much attention."
Her mood had clearly soured. Almost every girl around them stared at Wise with sparkling eyes full of innocent admiration, as though they were already trying to steal him away from her.
Normally, if she hadn't been around, that would've been one thing. But now she was standing right beside him.
In the past, Lycaon or Rina usually attended her parent-teacher conferences. While they attracted attention too, it had never been this excessive.
Of course, it wasn't only the girls staring at them. Quite a few male students were throwing hostile looks at Wise as well.
Wise understood exactly what Ellen meant, but there was little he could do about it. After hesitating for a moment, he simply gave her a helpless smile.
Under normal circumstances, he would've comforted her by casually wrapping an arm around her shoulders. But today, he was attending the conference as her older brother.
Doing something like that here would definitely lead to a serious misunderstanding.
After enduring the constant whispers and stares surrounding them, the two finally arrived at the classroom, where Ellen's homeroom teacher was already waiting.
She was a young woman, and the moment she noticed Wise beside Ellen, surprise visibly flashed across her face.
"Ellen, may I ask who this is?"
"Teacher, he's my boy... cough... my brother. Everyone else at home is busy today, so I asked him to come instead."
Ellen nearly let the wrong word slip, but corrected herself at the last second without the slightest change in expression.
Fortunately, the teacher didn't notice anything strange. Her attention was completely focused on Wise.
"Ah, I see. Nice to meet you. I'm Ellen's homeroom teacher."
"Nice to meet you too. I'm Wise."
Wise greeted her politely with a nod. After exchanging a few simple words, Ellen led him into the classroom, where they quickly ran into Ruby and her two friends.
The moment the three girls saw Wise attending Ellen's parent-teacher conference, their expressions froze in shock before slowly turning awkward.
Naturally, their minds immediately raced with speculation.
Why was Wise attending Ellen's parent-teacher conference?
And what was with the animal ears on top of his head?
Could there actually be some forbidden secret between them that nobody knew about?
The more they thought about it, the more desperately they wanted to drag Ellen away and interrogate her.
Ever since the incident at the Carnival, Ruby and her friends had never returned to the video store.
Back then, all three of them had suddenly fainted for reasons they still couldn't understand.
When they woke up, they found themselves inside a hotel room with pounding headaches, only vaguely remembering the scene of Ellen and several other girls surrounding Wise and attacking him.
Setting that matter aside, once the parent-teacher conference officially began, the students gradually filed out of the classroom.
The moment Ellen stepped outside, her three best friends immediately pulled her away.
The four girls headed to an empty stairwell, and unsurprisingly, Ruby was the first to break the silence.
"Ellen... are you and Wise still together?"
It wasn't just Ruby. Monna and Lynn were obviously desperate to know the answer too.
After all, from their perspective, after everything that had happened before, there was no way Ellen and Wise should still be together.
Or... had Wise finally given up on the other girls and chosen Ellen in the end?
Faced with the expectant looks from her friends, Ellen didn't bother hiding it and nodded without hesitation.
"Yeah, we are."
"What?!" Monna blurted out before quickly lowering her voice. "Then... did you finally 'fix' him?"
Back then, they had all assumed Ellen and Wise had broken up, which was why none of them dared bring it up again. Instead, they focused on quietly comforting her.
But now, the reality was clearly much more complicated than they had imagined.
Hearing Monna's question, Ellen let out a long sigh.
"I wish it were that simple."
She shrugged helplessly.
"But I was already one step too late."
The moment those words sank in, the three girls felt their brains freeze again.
One step too late...?
Did that mean Ellen was actually the one who came later?
And judging from what she said, Wise was still involved with the other girls too?!
Even with things that messy, he somehow managed to keep everything from completely exploding?
Just what kind of absurd charm did that man possess?
'Well... he's handsome, capable, financially stable, and unbelievably gentle...'
After thinking about it for a moment, the three of them realized it actually wasn't that hard to understand.
"Then..." Lynn suddenly spoke up hesitantly, "would you mind if Wise ended up with one more girl?"
The instant those words left her mouth, everyone turned to stare at her.
This girl really was something else. Most of the time, she stayed quiet, but whenever she spoke, she dropped a bombshell.
Ruby and Monna were completely dumbfounded, their mouths hanging open.
Even Ellen looked stunned. She was still trying to figure out how to stop Wise from attracting even more girls, while her own best friend was apparently considering becoming another candidate.
Realizing how terrible that had sounded, Lynn panicked and frantically waved her hands.
"N-No, that's not what I meant!" she hurriedly explained. "I'm not saying I want to make a move on him... yet. I just meant that I think the teacher might be interested in Wise."
Honestly, Lynn didn't even need to point it out.
The moment Ellen introduced Wise as her brother earlier, she had already noticed the strange sparkle in the teacher's eyes.
And to be fair, it wasn't surprising at all. A man with Wise's temperament was especially attractive to women like her homeroom teacher.
The problem was...
"Wait, how do you even know that?" Ruby asked suspiciously.
Lynn cautiously glanced around before lowering her voice.
"Actually... I think the teacher really likes Thirens..."
"W-What?!" Monna exclaimed in shock. "How did you figure that out?"
"Well..." Lynn hesitated awkwardly. "Last time I went to the office to turn in homework, I saw her secretly reading a manga. And while she was reading it, she kept muttering to herself..."
Lynn trailed off there, but honestly, she didn't need to continue.
The type of manga the teacher had been reading, along with the things she had apparently been whispering, was already more than enough for the others to understand.
The three girls instantly connected the dots.
No wonder Lycaon always mentioned after every parent-teacher conference that Ellen's teacher seemed unusually attentive toward her.
Looking at it now, it clearly wasn't because she cared about Ellen alone.
"But it shouldn't really matter, right?" Monna said after thinking for a moment. "Wise isn't actually a Thiren."
Everyone there knew Wise was a pure human. The animal ears he wore now were obviously nothing more than part of his disguise for Ellen's parent-teacher conference.
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