Seeing Mahiru and Charlie sitting close together beneath the shade of the tree, Chitose's eyes sparked brightly.
The flames of gossip suddenly flared violently within her heart.
Without a second thought, she immediately stepped in front of them, leaning her body toward Mahiru at quite a close distance, and began launching a barrage of questions without a pause.
"Shiina-san! Are you two currently on a date?!"
"How long have you been carrying on this secret romantic relationship? And, and... what does it feel like to be in a taboo romance between a teacher and a student like this?! Tell me everything, Shiina-san!"
Itsuki, who was standing behind her, immediately slapped his own forehead, feeling incredibly embarrassed to see the behavior of his girlfriend, who always acted impulsively and had the potential to make others feel uncomfortable.
With swift movements, Itsuki stepped forward, grabbed Chitose's shoulders, and pulled the girl's body away from the couple in front of them.
"Chitose, stop it! You're making them uncomfortable." Itsuki rebuked in a half-whisper, before turning to look at Charlie and Mahiru with an apologetic smile. "Please forgive Chitose's impolite attitude, Charlie-sensei, Shiina-san. She really doesn't mean any harm at all, she's just... too curious and can't help herself."
"..."
Mahiru didn't actually know the short-haired girl in front of her very well since they rarely interacted, but she certainly recognized the guy because they were classmates at Seijo High School.
Trying to diffuse the suddenly awkward situation, Mahiru put on a formal, polite smile.
"It's alright, Akazawa-san. But what your friend said is completely unlike how it appears."
"Charlie-sensei and I only happened to run into each other at this zoo by pure coincidence, that's all. This is absolutely not a date agenda or anything of the sort."
Charlie, who was sitting beside her, immediately joined in and improvised smoothly for the sake of keeping their secret.
"Ah, what Shiina-san said is entirely correct. I still highly value my job as a teacher at the school. It would be impossible for me to engage in a romantic relationship with a student. So please do not spread this misunderstanding, Shirakawa-san."
Hearing such a firm clarification from Charlie, the corner of Mahiru's eyes twitched faintly.
There was a flicker of discomfort that suddenly gripped her heart when she heard Charlie call her by her surname.
Even though her common sense knew perfectly well that Charlie was doing it for the sake of a charade to cover up their close relationship in front of the public, there was still a nagging feeling that caused her mood to drop slightly.
Chitose, hearing that unified answer, immediately let out a long breath with a disappointed look on her face, her shoulders slumping limply.
"Eeeh? So it was just a coincidence? And here I was getting all excited... How totally boring~"
Unlike his girlfriend who was fooled, Itsuki, who possessed a higher sensitivity, had apparently caught a fleeting, subtle glimpse of displeasure in Mahiru's eyes right after Charlie uttered his clarifying sentence just now.
As a man, Itsuki could sense that there was an unusual dynamic between the teacher and his classmate.
Even so, Itsuki chose to be wise by not bringing it to the surface. He gently wrapped his arm around Chitose's waist, then bowed slightly toward Charlie.
"In that case, once again we apologize for disturbing your rest time, Charlie-sensei. We will take our leave first to see the other areas."
After a brief farewell, Itsuki immediately guided and led Chitose away from the ginkgo tree area, leaving Charlie and Mahiru alone once again in the middle of the zoo's silence.
Charlie turned toward the girl beside him, noticing her juice cup which was now already empty.
"How about it, Mahiru? Do you still want to continue the journey to see the other animal areas?"
"..."
Mahiru fell silent for a moment, staring straight toward the zoo's pathway before finally shaking her head gently.
"No... I think I just want to go home, Charlie-kun."
Seeing that the spark of enthusiasm that had briefly appeared had now evaporated and turned into a total loss of interest in looking around, Charlie did not force her any further. He nodded in understanding.
"Alright, let's go home."
The two of them walked back toward the exit gate and boarded the city bus for the return route in a rather long silence.
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
However, the micro-tranquility they had just built at the zoo instantly collapsed into a complete mess the moment they stepped out of the elevator and arrived at the apartment floor corridor.
In front of the door of Mahiru's apartment unit stood an adult woman in an elegant formal suit, but her facial expression was incredibly cold and unfriendly.
Mahiru's footsteps instantly ground to a rigid halt.
Her eyes widened, staring at the figure of the woman with an outpouring of sadness while biting her lower lip tightly, until it turned white.
Her body suddenly grew tense, overwhelmed by a deep psychological trauma.
Even though he had never personally known or met her before, Charlie could instantly guess the woman's identity from the similarity of their facial structures.
She was Mahiru's biological mother, Shiina Sayo.
Sayo, noticing her daughter's arrival, immediately turned her head.
Her sharp, cynical eyes scrutinized Mahiru from head to toe, before that searching gaze shifted toward Charlie, who stood beside her.
Sayo stepped closer, then let out a dismissive snort.
"Who is this man, Mahiru? Don't tell me he is your boyfriend?"
The woman crossed both arms in front of her chest, then let out a highly cold, sarcastic laugh—cruel words that absolutely should never be spoken by a biological mother to her own daughter.
"Ah, of course. At an age like yours, your heads really are filled with nothing but foolish romance. But honestly, looking at your taste... getting into a relationship with a foreign-looking man like this, have you grown desperate because no normal man wants you? How utterly disgraceful."
Mahiru, who was scolded so suddenly, could only hang her head deeply, staring at the tips of her shoes in silence. Her hands clenched tightly at her sides, accepting every single piece of those poisonous words without daring to refute a single word.
As if feeling not yet fully satisfied with hurting her daughter's feelings, Sayo turned her face away and now shifted her entire attention to Charlie.
With an incredibly arrogant stance, she looked up and stared at him with complete contempt.
"And as for you, young man... I am sure you only approached her because you were attracted solely by this girl's outward beauty, correct? Let me tell you one fact. With her flawed, rigid, and boring personality behind that mask of perfection, any normal man would definitely never be able to stand being with her for more than a single week."
"Don't waste your time on a defective item like her."
Hearing that barrage of demeaning words, a cold flash briefly passed through Charlie's eyes. However, he immediately suppressed his emotions.
Charlie understood the fact that his current status of living together inside Mahiru's apartment unit absolutely must not be found out by Sayo.
If this poisonous woman were to find out, Charlie was absolutely certain Sayo would, without hesitation, immediately humiliate her own daughter as a cheap whore.
"You seem to have misunderstood, Madam."
"I have absolutely no romantic relationship with your daughter. I am a new resident living on this floor. We only happened to ride up in the same elevator just now. Please do not scold others without a clear reason."
To prove his lie so that it looked convincing, Charlie stepped past Sayo.
He randomly selected one of the doors of the empty apartment units located at the end of the corridor.
Of course, he did not hold its access key, but for a Savior like himself, such a thing was a trivial matter.
Charlie touched the doorknob, using causality manipulation through the Hundred Gauntlets to reverse the concept of 'locked' into 'open'.
*CLICK!*
The door of that random unit opened smoothly. Charlie stepped inside, then closed the door back from the inside, leaving behind nothing but silence in the corridor.
Sure enough, witnessing that door open and realizing that she had just targeted the wrong person, Sayo's face turned red for a moment from the embarrassment of the misunderstanding.
However, instead of apologizing, the selfish woman threw the entirety of the blame and her vexation back onto Mahiru.
"Look at your behavior! Because of that suspicious facial expression of yours, I ended up mistaking a stranger for your boyfriend! A total jinx!" she snapped in an irritated tone.
After exhausting herself from venting negative emotions and satisfying her ego by hurting her daughter's feelings, Sayo waved her hand impatiently.
"Enough, open the door quickly and get inside. There is an important matter we need to discuss within."
"Yes, Mother..." Mahiru answered in a voice that was barely audible.
With trembling fingers, she pulled out her apartment key, opened the door to her own unit, and then stepped inside along with her mother.
In her heart, Mahiru could only put up an emotional defense wall, mentally preparing herself to receive the next wave of harsh words and other insults that would surely be delivered by her mother after that door was tightly closed.
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