Do You Have a Crush on Me?

"..."

Listening to her insistence, Ren only looked at the earring piercing on his hand and remained silent.

He truly wanted to continue piercing her ears as he was doing now, without hesitation or burden.

But he realized he couldn't do it.

After a while, when Nino started to impatiently wait, Ren said slowly, "You should give up on piercing your ears."

It was the first time he influenced someone's thoughts.

"Why?" Nino turned and stared at him in confusion. "What's wrong with piercing ears?"

"He's not worthy of receiving this." Ren whispered.

"What do you mean?" Nino immediately became displeased. "You don't know him, how do you know he's not worthy?"

At this point, Nino suddenly realized something and asked suspiciously, "Wait a minute, you have a crush on me, don't you?"

She couldn't think of any other reason for Ren to pass such judgment on an unknown guy.

But if Ren had a crush on her, then everything would make sense.

"Not really." Ren hurriedly explained that he didn't want her to misunderstand something like this.

"Then why did you say bad things about Naoki?" Nino wasn't quite convinced by his explanation.

Although she didn't interact much with Ren, judging from his usual behavior, he wasn't someone who spoke ill of others.

But today Ren said something like that, making it hard not to make people doubt something.

After thinking about his words for a moment, Ren continued, "I'm just giving my advice. What if he doesn't want you to do this?"

"Eh? Ummm..."

It was something Nino hadn't considered.

"But it's just a trivial thing like piercing ears, so you don't want to specifically ask for his advice."

"What you consider unimportant might be a burden to him." Ren whispered.

Not knowing how to face Nino now, he had to try his best to prevent her from doing anything for him.

He didn't want to bear this heavy burden.

"It seems like you know a lot about this issue." Nino looked at him and said, thinking, "Is this your experience?"

Ren shook his head. "No, it's just my impression."

"I think you have a specific experience before saying that." Nino stood up and stretched. "But what you say makes sense. I'll ask Naoki, no need to rush piercing my ears."

"Um."

Seeing Nino convinced, Ren felt a little more comfortable.

"Okay, you go down first. There are still some things I need to do. It's not good if we stay together for too long."

After retrieving the earring, Nino started to leave.

"Excuse me."

After saying this, Ren walked towards the door.

After thinking for a moment, before leaving the room, he added, "And, I'm sorry."

After saying that, without waiting for her response, Ren closed the door and walked downstairs.

Nino who was in the room, looked a little confused when she heard the apology before he left.

"Weird."

But she didn't delve too much into it, so she took out her phone and sent a message to Naoki.

Once Ren arrived downstairs, he was stared at by someone.

"Where's Nino?"

After glancing up, Ichika asked with curiosity.

"She has business in the room." Ren explained.

Ichika teased on purpose: "Maybe she just pierced her ears and didn't want to come down?"

"She didn't pierce her ears."

Ren sat on the sofa, took a glass of water, and sipped it.

"She finally gave up."

Ichika didn't feel anything strange about this.

Moreover, Nino looked very scared and eager to give up, so giving up now was normal.

But why did Ren look so uncomfortable?

....

Gabriel's house.

"You're back."

Gabriel opened the door, saw Ren, and welcomed him with a smile.

"Um."

Ren nodded lightly, followed her to the room without saying anything else.

He sat at the table, put down his school bag, turned on the laptop, clicked on the game, and waited for an invitation from Gabriel.

"What's wrong with you? Is something bothering you?"

Sensing his expression a bit strange, Gabriel took the initiative to ask.

Every time Ren behaved strangely, something important usually happened.

After knowing him for a long time, she already understood his behavior and habits.

"Yeah, I don't know how to deal with Nino."

Ren didn't hide anything from her and told her about his experience when Nino asked him to help pierce her ears.

He had a good memory, so repeating it wasn't difficult.

"Meaning, Nakano Nino likes you?"

After listening to his story, Gabriel quickly understood the key points.

She had sensed this before, but she didn't expect the feeling to become a reality so soon.

It was truly unpleasant.

"Yes, but no, because she likes Kamikawa Naoki, not Kamikawa Ren." Ren argued.

"Isn't this the same? Aren't you Naoki?" Gabriel couldn't understand his logic.

"Not the same."

Ren wanted to explain their relationship to her, but after thinking for a long time, he couldn't formulate the right words.

Until now, he still couldn't express his thoughts properly.

"Well, because you said it's different, then it's different."

In this matter, Gabriel had no intention of arguing with him.

"But why did you say you don't know how to treat her?" Gabriel returned to the topic. "Is it because she likes you, so you don't know what to do?"

"Yes." Ren admitted.

"Why?" Gabriel said casually, "Someone likes you, aren't you happy?"

"A little happy, but more restless."

After carefully considering his current mood, Ren answered honestly.

He was glad someone liked him, but as he said before, he felt unworthy of receiving someone else's love.

After looking at him for a moment, Gabriel then asked, "Kamikawa, have you ever liked someone in the past? Even for a moment?"