Everything Comes with a Price

Even though there was one more Chika than before, Ren didn't care at all. After activating [Sentimentally Compassionate], he began teaching the class very naturally.

(Eh? Is his voice so good?)

Hearing his intriguing voice, Chika was slightly surprised.

In her memories of Ren, his voice was always plain, not enthusiastic or indifferent, without any emotional fluctuations.

But now, for some reason, she started to think his voice sounded better.

Could it be that she was delusional?

(No, I'm here to find faults. I can't let it go just because his voice sounds good.)

After shaking her head to calm herself, Chika regained her energy and continued to find flaws during his lecture.

(By the way, Kamikawa-kun looks quite good like this...)

However, after a while, Chika unintentionally focused on his face, momentarily forgetting that she was supposed to find faults.

She had seen Ren without his glasses, so she imagined how he looked now without them.

As a result, she realized she couldn't understand it, especially because the black-framed glasses were too striking.

(It feels like a teacher.)

After continuing to listen for a while, Chika started accepting the setting that Ren was a tutor.

Impossible, she couldn't find any flaws in his lessons, even small situations like accidentally saying the wrong word, like a robot.

She couldn't find any mistakes.

(Kamikawa-kun's lecture is quite impressive.)

In the end, Chika had forgotten her initial intention and immersed herself in his lecture.

"It's break time."

After explaining the last grammar application, Ren stopped teaching and announced the end of the class.

"Fujiwara-san, how do you feel?"

After carefully listening to the lecture, Ichika noticed that Chika still seemed dazed, so she took the initiative to ask how she felt about the lecture.

"It was said very well." Chika gave a very high rating.

Regardless of any aspect, Ren's just-concluded lecture must be considered the best tutoring, allowing her to immerse herself in the ocean of knowledge.

As soon as she uttered these words, she realized something was wrong.

Wait, wasn't she intentionally looking for faults?

Why was she praising him?

"Kamikawa-san is very skilled in teaching." Ichika agreed.

Chika had no intention of listening to Ichika's words. Instead, she turned to Ren, who had just sat on the sofa to rest.

Seeing him talking with Itsuki and the purple-haired girl whose name she didn't know next to him, and surrounded by Yotsuba, Fumino, and Rizu, the more she looked, the more surprised she became.

Wasn't Ren too popular?

It seemed she had underestimated Ren before.

······

"I just passed by without doing anything this afternoon."

After the tutoring session, on the way home, Chika and Ren walked side by side on the road and sighed unhappily.

Initially, she asked them to try that table game again, but in the end, she listened to Ren's lecture all afternoon and got to know Itsuki's sisters a bit.

Moreover, because her house was far from the Nakano family, she specifically asked Ren to drive her home; that's why the two of them were alone now.

"You received my guidance." Ren didn't feel he had done anything this afternoon.

"Listening to a lecture doesn't mean much."

After seeing his tutoring abilities, Chika automatically ignored the fact that he was only one point higher than her in the last exam.

Clearly, Ren must be hiding his abilities, and his grades shouldn't be that low.

Speaking of his grades, she thought about how he exaggerated his abilities and tried to compete with him in the final exam.

Fortunately, he didn't agree; otherwise, she would have definitely lost.

From this incident, it showed that Ren still had a conscience and wasn't too arrogant.

"So what does it mean?"

According to her, most things in the world have meaning.

There are very few nonsensical things, and classes certainly make sense.

"Assistant, are you sure you want to ask this question to me?" Chika looked at him sideways and used the title assistant.

"Can't I ask?"

Her rhetorical question made Ren wonder if she was asking an inappropriate question.

He remembered seeing some questions on the Internet that should not be asked to women; could this be considered a question not to be asked to women?

"Of course, you can ask." A smile appeared on Chika's face. "However, everything comes with a price. Because you asked me, you also have to answer my question."

"OK."

Ren accepted this condition, and it was a fair proposal to change one problem to another.

"For me, interesting things are meaningful." Chika answered with a smile.

"What's interesting?"

Ren was slightly worried about this.

"This is the second question, and I won't answer it." Chika reminded him, "Now it's my turn to ask you."

"You ask." Ren wasn't worried about her question.

After thinking for a while, Chika asked, "Among the girls at Yotsuba's house earlier, which one do you like the most?"

"I don't like any of them." Ren answered honestly.

"Not even one? You have to tell the truth; you can't lie."

Chika didn't trust him.

Those girls earlier were all beautiful without exception. There were many types of girls. How could Ren not like any of them?

"I'm not lying."

Ren didn't need to lie about this.

"Your standards are quite high."

After a long silence, Chika held back those words.

"It's not high." Ren countered her statement.

Chika asked with curiosity, "Then why don't you like them?"

"This is the second question." Ren reminded her with his words.

"Then ask me another question."

To find out the answer to that question, Chika didn't mind answering another question.

"There are no more questions to ask."

Ren gave up and continued to ask.

"Haven't you just asked me something interesting?" Chika didn't expect Ren to do this. "Why don't you have something to ask?"

"Because I can ask that question to someone else." Ren said without hesitation.

He could get the answer no matter who he asked, so he didn't need to ask Chika.

"No one is like you! You're outrageous!!!"