Emerging from the cafe, Noshiro and Lu Chen chose to go their separate ways.
The reason was simple: she was going home and couldn't spend the night at Lu Chen's place again today.
Noshiro wasn't angry. To be precise, the focus of her anger was strange: she wasn't mad at Lu Chen and Hutten for what they did, but for not choosing a better, more private location and for being watched by the two maids.
"Um, if you have an exhibitionist tendency, I-I can't participate right now. I-I can't accept that kind of play yet. B-But I'll try to adapt, one step at a time, okay?"
Lu Chen spent a considerable amount of effort to barely convince Noshiro that he wasn't an exhibitionist, but that Hutten had made a bet with him, and he had lost miserably.
Of course, Noshiro never fully understood why they had to make such a bet in the first place.
On the way home, Hutten, now wearing the same casual clothes she had on this morning, looped her arm through Lu Chen's. She felt comfortable and happy. The most crucial step had been taken, and the future looked bright. She curled her lips and smiled. "Lu Chen, don't we look like a couple?"
"I don't date delinquents. You'd be a bad influence on me," Lu Chen said casually. He certainly had been corrupted. Since Noshiro didn't object, he had given up on himself for a moment and thoroughly enjoyed Hutten's special service.
Frankly speaking, it was genuinely stimulating, not just physically but mentally, like the dark thrill of intentionally breaking someone's window with a slingshot.
"Tch, you're so troublesome. You were clearly enjoying my tongue piercing just now." Hutten reached up and removed the various accessories from her ears—earrings, studs—all of which were fake. Then she took the tongue piercing out of her mouth, holding the little trinkets in her palm. "Here you go. The delinquent has gone straight. Are you satisfied now?"
Lu Chen's hesitation was fleeting. "You... you don't have to go this far for me. You should think more about yourself."
"Think more about myself, huh... What nonsense. It's because I'm considering my own feelings that I'm doing so much for you," Hutten thought of something and scoffed. "I get it. You were fond of my delinquent look. One thing on the surface, another behind closed doors. You're quite the hypocrite. But thankfully, you met me. I can reluctantly be your personal delinquent."
"I admit that I have a certain desire for your unusual look, but that's not the main reason." Lu Chen paused, then laid out his innermost thoughts. "You don't have to go to such lengths to please me, treating yourself like a tool to satisfy only me, rather than a living person. That's pathological."
Hutten nodded contentedly. "You're finally starting to confront your desires. It seems my methods are quite effective. But you've misunderstood one thing: I'm not just trying to please you. I'm getting my own satisfaction out of this."
"?"
"I knew for a long time that Sister is an incredibly excellent person. To try to keep up with her, I would strive to do my best in everything, seeking her praise," Hutten recalled the past. "But Sister's reaction was always very flat, as if my excellence was a given for her younger sister. Gradually, I morphed into a girl with a people-pleaser personality. How's that for an explanation?"
"You're lying," Lu Chen said decisively. Friedrich's personality was so gentle that she would practically praise someone to the heavens even for just washing a dish. And a "people-pleaser personality"? Lu Chen had never heard of a people-pleaser with so much agency, one who would recklessly cause so much trouble every time. Whose people-pleasing path is that wild?
"It seems you haven't been blinded by desire. Not bad, not bad. I'm becoming more and more fond of you." Hutten showed no guilt about being caught in a lie. "I'll make up another one then. Because Sister and I are increasingly at odds, I deliberately do everything she doesn't want me to do. She's the successful high-and-mighty one, so I'll be the lowest of the low delinquents. Every time I serve you in a filthy alley, a sense of vengeful exhilaration flashes through me. The more I debase myself, the happier I am. How's that story?"
Lu Chen's voice was complex. "If you had told me that one first, I might have believed it."
But ultimately, he didn't believe it. He knew before this that Hutten was actually a chaste delinquent, and he was the only man she had ever had contact with.
Hutten waved her hand impatiently. "Simply put, don't think you're the only one who enjoyed it. I enjoyed it too, even got a bit addicted, but I don't know why. Damn it, I even think you might have drugged me, trying to control me with chemicals."
She knew perfectly well why. It was the intimate, almost cursed connection between a Commander and an Oath Ship, far beyond what mere drugs could achieve. Besides, Ship Girls were not flesh and blood; no drug would have any effect on them.
"That's a baseless slander," Lu Chen retorted. He hadn't expected Hutten to turn the tables on him. Objectively speaking, he had benefited greatly, but she had been the one throwing herself at him.
"Oh, don't worry about it so much." Hutten carefully put her small accessories away. Those things would probably be used often in the future. She looped her arm through Lu Chen's again. "Answer my question: do we look like a couple now?"
The two of them passed a clothing store window. Judging by their reflection in the glass, he and Hutten looked no different from an ordinary couple, except for the girl being unusually cute.
Even Lu Chen had to admit that they looked like a pair of lovers.
"Hehe, looks like you've tacitly agreed," Hutten stood on her tiptoes and kissed Lu Chen on the cheek. "A reward for you. I thoroughly cleaned my mouth, so there's no strange taste."
Lu Chen was already used to the girl's closeness. Since no one else cared, why should he continue to agonize? In the end, he just looked like a fussy clown.
The two returned to the apartment and stood at their respective doors. Just as Lu Chen was about to push his door open, Hutten called out to him.
"Um, go and kiss your girlfriend quickly. A French kiss would be best," Hutten was uncharacteristically bashful. She reached out a hand and unconsciously fiddled with a lock of hair that fell across her face. "I want to know what a kiss tastes like. Ah—never mind. Forget I said that."
Hutten pushed open her apartment door. Friedrich was standing in the entryway. The two made eye contact, and Friedrich asked with surprise, "Sister, where are your ear studs?"
"I don't feel like wearing them anymore. Lu Chen doesn't like others seeing me like that. He's very possessive," Hutten said with malice.
"Really?" Friedrich quickly stepped out of the entryway, stood in front of Lu Chen, and said happily, "Lu Chen, you good boy. You solved a problem for me. What reward do you want? Tell me, and I, your sister, will satisfy whatever it is."