"Let's get one thing straight. Although I did say I hope to continue staying by Tetsuya-san's side, nothing like what you guys are imagining actually happened between us!"
Uika declared with a serious expression:
"Or rather, for a very long time to come... I won't easily progress to that step with Tetsuya-san!"
"Eh... why is that?"
Sakiko, who had long since willingly become a slave to her desires, was quite puzzled by this.
"Could it be that you're the type who has a strong psychological block against that kind of thing, Uika?"
"It's not a psychological block at all. It's just because... what I want right now isn't an overly intense relationship like that!"
Uika said with a blushing face:
"For me, just being able to occasionally stay quietly under the same roof with Tetsuya-san is already enough! Anything beyond that... at least for now, I don't need it!"
"...That's really quite ascetic of you."
Ai couldn't help but let out an incomprehensible sigh:
"As for me, I'm wishing I could be together with Tetsu twenty-four hours a day."
"And that's why you lost the finale position for the [TGC] this time!"
Uika retorted grumpily:
"Originally, both the teachers and the managers thought you were the best candidate for the finale. Yet, because you indulged too much, your body was never able to maintain its peak condition!"
"Mhm, perhaps that is indeed the case?"
Recalling the subtle soreness and weakness in her waist every time she woke up during that period, Ai shrugged noncommittally.
"But even so, I don't regret it at all. Leaving aside the fact that being with Tetsu is my highest priority... losing to you doesn't make me feel frustrated at all. After all, it's Uika..."
"You say it so casually... Even though I had to work desperately hard just to get to this point..."
Faced with Ai's relaxed attitude, Uika, who attached great importance to the [TGC], felt as if all her hard work and competitive spirit up to this point had been a punch landing on cotton. Combined with her experience of fighting a battle of wits and courage against thin air over the past week, Uika just felt that the more serious she was, the more thoroughly she lost.
"Sigh, forget it. Since the matter has been resolved... I'll head back first for today."
Soyo, who was still struggling with how to entertain Uika next without ruining her diet plan, looked at her in slight surprise upon hearing this:
"Eh? You're not going to stay a bit longer?"
"I still have a radio show tonight, so I want to go home and get a good rest this afternoon."
She stood up somewhat unsteadily, preparing to temporarily leave this place that made her feel so mentally exhausted.
Seeing this, Tetsuya immediately stood up as well.
"Ah, then I'll see you out—"
"Wait a moment, Tetsuya-kun."
Suddenly, Sakiko pressed down on Tetsuya's shoulder and spoke up before he could:
"Let me see Uika out today."
As she spoke, she smiled at Uika beside her:
"I happen to have a lot of private things I want to talk to Uika about alone!"
"Is that so..."
Tetsuya nodded first upon hearing this, then picked up the tulle skirt that needed to be altered next.
"Then I'll go alter the outfit for Uika first—"
"No way. Even Uika knows she needs to go home and catch up on sleep before working, you should learn from her!"
Soyo took the cloth bag containing the skirt from Tetsuya's hand and directly hooked her arm through his.
"Anyway, let's go back to your room first! Let me see... mhm, you have to sleep for at least two hours before working, do you hear me?"
"But I'm not that sleepy right now..."
"It's fine. I'll take proper responsibility and coax you to sleep!"
"Eh..."
And so, under Soyo's forceful execution, Tetsuya was directly led into his room.
Seeing this scene, Uika couldn't help but remark:
"No wonder he proactively came to my house to seek refuge before..."
"We've been holding back a lot lately! We leave at least one day of rest for him every week now!"
"..."
She couldn't help but feel that if things continued developing according to the current trend, there was still a possibility he would come to her house for refuge in the future.
Forget it... that's fine too.
"Anyway, let's get going first."
To avoid hearing sounds she shouldn't hear later, Uika decided to leave the building quickly.
...
"Sorry for troubling you, Sakiko."
After walking out of the apartment building, Uika spoke up first.
Hearing this, Sakiko froze slightly for a moment, then answered with a smile:
"Troubling me? Not at all. Rather, I'm very happy. This way, even if the band disbands or we graduate from being idols in the future, we'll still be together."
"But even so, having one more person to divide Tetsuya-san's love, it's still a bit unfair to you, isn't it?"
Uika said:
"After all, you originally had the chance to monopolize him."
"Monopolize, huh..."
Hearing this word, Sakiko pondered for a moment before saying:
"You also know, Uika, that up until we first met half a year ago, I was still a pitiful person with a broken family, burdened with debt. Let alone monopolizing Tetsuya-kun, I was even worried whether my existence would become a burden to his future. But now, that debt has been completely resolved through the collaboration between Tetsuya-kun and Jean-san. My father has stepped out of the shadows of the past and pulled himself together, and my mother might even become the leader of the Togawa family in the future with Tetsuya-kun's support. And I myself have not only made the most reliable and handsome lover in the world, but I also have a band with enough potential, and a fashion brand that's about to step onto a world-class stage..."
At this point, she tilted her head up and let out a long breath.
"Compared to whether I can monopolize Tetsuya-kun, I'm more worried about... is it really okay for me to become this happy? Could this just be a beautiful dream of mine?"
"..."
Hearing Sakiko's words, Uika couldn't help but nod silently.
Because of Tetsuya, the fates of everyone around him had almost all undergone changes to varying degrees, and among them, Sakiko's life had undoubtedly been the most deeply affected.
"Honestly, under these circumstances where I'm already happy enough, I completely no longer harbor the thought of monopolizing Tetsuya-kun. Even if I did, it would only be at night."
Sakiko continued:
"Besides, you must know that when you're with someone for a long time, your way of thinking and the like will involuntarily gravitate towards them. Just like now, I occasionally think like Tetsuya-kun, pondering how I can make all the people I care about around me become happy just like me... If it were the past me, I absolutely wouldn't have this kind of leeway and arrogance."
"..."
Hearing this, Uika fell silent for a long moment before saying:
"So, it's out of this kind of thinking that you support me joining you all..."
"Mhm, and it's probably not just me. Ai likely has similar thoughts."
Sakiko smiled.
"Could the past you have ever imagined this? That the person who originally would have stopped at nothing to get Tetsuya-kun has now also started learning to care about the people around her."
"...Ah, you can feel that in her idol activities, too."
Uika nodded.
"Before, whether in front of the camera or on stage, the only person she looked for and gazed at was Tetsuya-san. But now, she's also gradually starting to learn to listen to the voices of other supporters, and answering the expectations of more people... This is probably also because she's already received enough love from Tetsuya-san to be able to share it with others."
"That's exactly right. So... you don't need to worry at all about whether your existence will cause trouble for us, or whether we'll lose something because of your existence. After all, what we've received from Tetsuya-kun is already more than enough. Even if I became greedier than I am now, I truly can't imagine what else I could possibly get from Tetsuya-kun."
"Let me think... more time spent together?"
"For that kind of thing, as long as you just mention it to Tetsuya-kun a little, he'll immediately drop everything he has on hand and stay by your side like a dog that's been given a command."
Sakiko waved her hand.
"The way this person spoils his lovers is far more exaggerated than you can imagine... Furthermore, I'm inherently not the super clingy type. After all, I have a lot of things I need to do myself, too, like the next stage of menswear design for [Starry Sky], and the new songs for our band's future."
"Heh... is that so?"
Guided by Sakiko's explanation, Uika's tone finally returned to its usual relaxed state.
"According to the intel I heard from Tetsuya-san, you seem to be the one who demands the most from him out of everyone."
"Cough, cough, that's only limited to when we're doing that kind of thing at night..."
Sakiko averted her gaze somewhat embarrassedly.
"More importantly, did nothing really happen when you were alone with Tetsuya-kun last night?"
"If you ask if nothing happened... that's not quite true. I just told you guys too, because of my momentary carelessness, I failed to hold onto my dress..."
"Ah... you guys just mentioned that. And then?"
"There was no 'and then'. Tetsuya-san just helped me put the dress back on. During the entire process, he didn't do anything unnecessary at all."
Touching upon this slightly embarrassing memory, Uika's volume involuntarily dropped a few notches.
However, faced with Uika's shyness, Sakiko shook her head:
"Doesn't that mean nothing happened?"
"...I personally think having your entire body seen is already quite a major accident."
"For people in the fashion industry, that's absolutely nothing. Plus, Tetsuya-kun has already seen the bodies of who knows how many models before this, so it's completely not something to care about."
"...Eh?"
Hearing Sakiko's incredibly unconcerned tone, Uika's eyes widened slightly before she said:
"So, you really didn't propose that punishment to warn Tetsuya-san... but purely for the sake of enjoyment, didn't you?"
"Ah."
Realizing she had accidentally exposed something, Sakiko hurriedly covered her mouth, while Uika on the other side shook her head helplessly.
"Everyone's way of loving really is different."
Compared to the other four, Uika, who had obtained everything she wanted through her own hard work right from the start, had received relatively much less from Tetsuya. Precisely because of this, she wouldn't habitually rely on and cling to Tetsuya like the other four did, but instead mutually took what they needed from each other in this currently limited and restrained manner.
"If you guys bully him too severely in the future, I'll still keep my door open for him so he can come to my place for refuge, you know."
"Mhm, I think that's pretty good too!"
Faced with Uika's "threat," Sakiko's response could be said to be incredibly straightforward.
"After all, as long as we're with him, we won't be able to resist wanting to sneak a bite. If that's the case, it's better to let him occasionally go to your place to get a good rest."
"Could I ask you guys to restrain your desires just a little bit..."
"That kind of thing is impossible... You definitely can't understand if I put it like this, right? Sigh, you'll understand once you've done it once yourself, Uika."
"..."
Faced with Sakiko's unfathomable look, Uika realized that if she delved any deeper, she would only hear more things that would disrupt her peace of mind. So she decisively shut her mouth and began thinking about the next topic.
"You said earlier that you hope to make more people around you happy... In other words, if more people fall in love with Tetsuya-san in the future, you'll indiscriminately agree to all of them?"
"Of course not! It's only because you already had a very close relationship with us, Uika, that we accepted you so naturally. If it were an outsider, of course it wouldn't be allowed!"
Sakiko frowned and said:
"Do you remember my original purpose for establishing the 'harem plan'? It was precisely to isolate any other people outside of this plan!"
"Then what if it's someone within this plan?"
Uika continued to press:
"For example, Mutsumi or Tomori. If they also fall in love with Tetsuya-san in the future, what do you plan to do?"
"Well about that..."
Hearing this, Sakiko first pondered for a brief moment, then raised her head and said in an incredibly refreshing tone:
"For that kind of thing, we'll just leave it to Tetsuya-kun to judge for himself."
"...Hah?"
This overly casual, laid-back answer completely exceeded Uika's imagination. She had thought that the serious and cautious Sakiko would give a more definite answer, but she never expected her to simply hand the right to choose entirely over to Tetsuya...
"There's no helping it, is there? Leaving aside the fact that this is still just a baseless hypothetical right now, romance is something that naturally falls into place! If Tetsuya-kun himself believes the relationship between them has reached a point of no return, then I will also trust his judgment. But if it's just a one-sided feeling, even if I don't interfere, Tetsuya-kun naturally won't accept it so easily."
"Is that so."
Uika nodded.
"It seems you really trust him."
"If that weren't the case, I wouldn't have entrusted my life to him."
"Mhm, that's true."
If it weren't because she trusted him, she wouldn't have still believed he would give her everything she needed, even when he already had so many lovers...
...
"Alright, Sakiko, sending me off up to here is fine."
At the intersection, Uika stopped in her tracks.
"After chatting so much about Tetsuya-san just now, you must really want to go back and stick to him, right?"
"Oh my... you saw right through me."
Sakiko smiled somewhat playfully.
"But you're also very important to me, Uika. If it's for you, I can completely reduce my time spent with Tetsuya-kun a little bit!"
"Forget about that kind of thing. I don't want anyone to hold back because of me, whether it's you or Tetsuya-san..."
September, the final period suitable for observing the Summer Triangle.
Uika had thus completely found her answer.
Everyone's way of treating romance is different.
For Uika, since she had already found the right person, all she needed to do next was to continue moving forward tenaciously and diligently, just as always, under his reassuring gaze.
And after that, who would be the next person thirsting for an answer...
...
[Next weekend, we're holding a banquet at home. Because we've invited quite a lot of guests this time, I need you to come back and show your face.]
On the other end of the phone, Mori Minami said to Mutsumi:
[Given that you've always disliked attending banquets alone... If you think bringing Sakiko back is still too early, then why not have Chihaya Tetsuya accompany you. What do you think?]