The Strange Emotion
"Sorry, there's something I have to do, so I'll go first."
After a moment of thought, Ren stood up, took the unfinished Frappuccino, and walked towards the door.
He couldn't handle this situation.
Therefore, the best solution right now was to escape.
"But Ren-san, didn't you just come here?" Yotsuba wanted to persuade him to stay.
She had just called Miku and Itsuki, and she hadn't done anything yet.
"I want to go home for dinner."
Ren gave a random excuse.
No matter what, he couldn't stay here any longer.
"Goodbye."
After saying that, Ren rushed to the door, began putting on his shoes, and prepared to leave.
"Wait a moment, I have something for you."
Ichika followed him to the door and stopped him as he opened the door.
"What?"
Ren was slightly puzzled.
"Candy."
Ichika took out a lollipop from her pocket and handed it to him.
"As promised, call me Onee-san and I'll give you candy."
"Oh."
After hesitating for a moment, Ren took the lollipop.
He deserved it.
"Goodbye, Ren-chan."
Seeing him accept it, Ichika smiled and waved to him and bid farewell.
Ren didn't reply, just walked out and closed the door.
"Ren already left?"
Miku, who arrived a bit late, only saw the door that had just been closed.
"Well, he just left." Ichika nodded, "If you drive me away now, you might still be able to see Ren-kun."
"Forget it."
Even if she drove her away, she didn't know what to say.
"Did Kamikawa-kun leave just like that?"
Seeing Ichika and Miku walking back, Itsuki asked gently.
"If not?" Ichika sat back on the sofa and sighed helplessly.
"It's not because all of you wanted Ren-kun to call you Onee-san that made him leave so quickly."
"It's all Ichika's fault. If you hadn't asked Ren to call you Onee-san first, we wouldn't have thought like that." Miku said confidently.
Previously, she had never thought to ask him to call her Onee-san.
But since she heard Ren call Ichika Onee-san, that thought grew uncontrollably.
Therefore, this was all Ichika's fault.
"Why am I being blamed?" Ichika complained.
"I really don't know what's the point of asking him to call you Onee-san. Why don't you just call me Onee-san?" Nino crossed her arms and laughed at them for arguing about this again.
Ichika asked back, "Nino, think about it, Kamikawa... Naoki, calling you Onee-san?"
"It's... unlikely. He can't call me Onee-san. Moreover, I don't even know if he's younger than me."
Nino couldn't imagine what it would feel like, but for some reason, she was looking forward to it.
"You don't even know his birthday?" Ichika found it surprising.
"I don't know. I don't know if I've asked..." Nino tried hard to remember, "If I asked, I should be able to remember. But there's definitely no memory of this in my mind."
"You haven't even asked his birthday..."
Ichika understood Nino's meaning, and her tone softened slightly.
"I'll ask him personally when we meet again later."
Nino made a decision.
"Why don't you ask now?" Yotsuba was slightly confused.
"For something as important as a birthday, I have to ask directly."
Nino said without hesitation.
"That's true."
Ichika also thought so.
"Now that Kamikawa-san has left, you can do whatever you need to do."
After saying that, Nino stood up and went upstairs again.
"Um."
······
On the way home, Ren still thought about his emotions at that time.
"A strange emotion."
After thinking for a while, he realized that he couldn't understand it, so he could only make a simple summary.
He took out his phone and opened the selfie camera. After making sure his face was no longer red, he confidently put away his phone.
He knew very well that his blushing face couldn't be separated from that strange emotion.
And that strange emotion was not an emotion he wanted to master.
Especially because it made him very uncomfortable, or more precisely, unfamiliar.
Do ordinary people have strange emotions?
He seemed to not know.
Among his little common sense, shouldn't emotions be as simple as laughing, crying, etc.?
This was beyond his expectations.
Indeed, being an ordinary human being was not easy.
At the moment, Ren had no intention of strolling around, and just continued to walk towards his house.
It wasn't suitable for him to continue wandering in such a state; it would just be a waste of time.
As he walked, he tried hard to reproduce his psychological changes at that time.
Anyway, it was an emotion he finally experienced, and he would be willing to do it again if he could control it.
However, no matter how he remembered it, he couldn't find the feeling he had at that time.
He seemed to have returned to his usual state without any mental fluctuations.
In this situation, there was no problem for him to call them Onee-san again, and he wouldn't run away like this again.
"..."
Ren's eyes dimmed slightly.
He thought he could at least master one emotion, but in reality, he hadn't changed yet.
However, he had made great progress compared to before.
Ren quickly adjusted his mentality and accepted this reality.
Ten years ago, he only laughed once; now, only five months after he was released, he laughed once and felt a strange emotion.
If this continued, it wouldn't take long for him to master all his emotions.
Ren was very confident.
With hope for the future, he arrived at the door of his house.
"I'm back."
Taking the keys and opening the door, Ren unconsciously shouted.
"Welcome back."
Hearing the door being opened, Asumi, wearing an apron, walked out of the kitchen with a spoon in her hand.
Seeing her smiling face, Ren had an inexplicable illusion.
Had he experienced something like this before?
"Didn't you say earlier today that you wouldn't be home in the evening? Why did you come back so early?"
Asumi went back into the kitchen again and asked casually.
"I didn't want to stay long, so I came back."
The appearance of that emotion made him lose the idea of strolling for a while.
"That's it." Asumi reminded with a smile, "You can wash your hands now and get ready to eat. The food will be ready soon."
This sentence sounded familiar.
He seemed to have heard Gabriel say similar words.