39Heya, everyone! I'm finally able to give to you this new chapter! I'm still dealing with things, but know that I know you guys wanted more, so I worked a little every day until I got done! That being said, it might take this long for the new chapter, but just know that I'll be working on it for you all! Also Nicole, thanks for the concern :) Don't worry, it seems to be resolving itself but it'll take time. Anyways, onwards! Enjoy the chapter, everyone!
Erina Nakiri marched through one of the many halls of Totsuki, fuming at the seams as she attempted to ignore the whispers and gestures of students around her. "Look." She heard someone say. "That's her fiance right behind her."
She felt her face heat up as she turned her head to glare at Soma Yoshida, who was trudging behind her with his usual impartial expression. Erina's brain was practically overloading with malice towards the male teen.
'Why does God wish me misery?' she thought to herself as she continued towards the exit of the building. 'What horrendous act did I commit to earn such a punishment?!' As she walked, she heard a female student squeal to her friend "Oh my God! They're, like, the cutest couple I've seen!"
Erina audibly choked on air as she quickened her pace, both to go somewhere more private and to try and ditch Soma. Unfortunately, only the former goal was accomplished as the duo exited the building. In front of them was a sleek black car with a driver and a security guard at the door.
Erina turned to Soma, and whispered so no one could overhear. "Well, idiot, this is my ride. Go back to whatever hole in the wall you came from, and don't even think to try and follow me!" Soma merely sighed.
Then, he turned around and began to walk in another direction. Erina momentarily hesitated, wondering if she maybe had been a little too cruel in her words. Before she could make up her mind, however, her guard tapped his earpiece, nodded, then ran towards the retreating redhead and caught up to him.
Erina's eyes widened in total disbelief as the guard gestured Soma to return back to the car, and even ignored her as he brushed past her and opened the door for Soma, who eagerly hopped inside. Then, Soma's head popped back out, and looked at her. "Hurry up, Erina!" he whined, then went back into the car.
Erina's eyebrow began to twitch as her head felt like it was being crushed. She slowly shuffled towards the car and lowered her head to peek inside.
Sure enough, Soma was inside, his legs folded as he exuded a (bored) manly aura. Erina weighed the pros and cons of sitting next to him like that when he tsked at her. "Hurry up already, Nakiri!"
Before she could react, he grabbed her hand and pulled her inside. "Hey!" she cried. "Wait a-" Erina was cut short when her face plowed into Soma's chiseled torso. She mewled softly (much to her embarrassment, of course) as her cheek rubbed against the fabric concealing his muscles.
Soma didn't seem to notice her reaction, even though Erina felt as though her heart was beating loud enough for everyone in the car to hear. Erina's mind went haywire as her body reacted to him against her will. Forced her to stay clinging to Soma even when the car began to move.
She shivered as she inhaled Soma's scent, which was, by far, more enticing than any dish she had ever encountered. It's sweet, yet sour smell made her mouth water as it seemed to reach deep inside her and rekindle the few fond memories of her childhood, when she was innocent enough to be joyful and carefree.
"Erina, are you okay?" Soma asked as he stared quizzically at her as she began to lightly press herself against him. Erina froze as Soma's voice jump-started her brain. Her face erupted with a rosy hue as she quickly looked up to meet Soma's face, but once she did her jittery feelings all flushed away, replaced by awe at the sight.
His normally blank expression had been replaced with a curious expression. She stared in fascination. There had only been one other time she had seen his face change, and that was when he was cooking. So what could this possibly mean? Erina continued to stare until Soma began to speak. "Erina, your hands are kind of ripping my shirt. . ." Erina looked back at his chest to see that she had, in fact, ripped his t-shirt enough to peek at the glistening muscles on his torso.
She suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to touch his chest, to rub it, to even cuddle against it… "Erina. Snap out of it already, will ya?" She blinked once as she registered Soma's fingers snapping not an inch from her face. She blinked once. Twice. Then, her eyes widened as she reasserted her control over herself.
She quickly sprung back up to an erect sitting posture as she tried to rid her head of these unnecessary thoughts. 'What am I doing?' Erina frantically thought to herself. 'I've never felt anything like this before!' She turned slightly to gaze at him from the corner of her eyes, and inhaled sharply.
Soma himself seemed to have returned back to normal. He sat in his normal lax position, and his face was once again that face of emotionlessness as he stared out his window. However, what threw Erina off was that there was one crucial difference than how he normally looked: his cheeks seemed to have lit up a little, looking a bit pink instead of its normal color.
Erina turned away, her throat letting out a little squeak. They sat in complete silence throughout the rest of the car ride, the only communication between them being their body language and the constant glances at each other (To be honest, that was mostly Erina though).
Once they reached the Nakiri estate, Erina couldn't decide on whether she was relieved or sad that she had to leave the confined space that she and Soma shared. However, she kept her insecurities to herself as she walked up the polished steps to her gigantuous home. She paused, then looked back at Soma, who was following her up the steps.
"What are you even doing here, Soma-kun?" She asked him. He just shrugged, his face changing into one of nonchalance, which only irritated her. Before she could kick his butt off her property though, the doors flew open with a bang that froze her in her tracks.
Senzaemon Nakiri stood with a wry grin. "Well, well. I've heard some very interesting things happened today at school. Fiancees now, are you? Rather quick teens these days are. . ." Erina's eyes bugged out as she gritted her teeth. 'Don't blush.' She thought desperately.'Don't blush don't blu-' Senzaemon zeroed his gaze in on Erina.
"Dear Granddaughter, is that sunburn upon your cheeks or are you blushing?" His words caused Erina to sputter and choke. She shot a pleading glare at her Grandfather, who chuckled. Then he sobered and turned to face Soma, who was maintaining his emotionless face while secretly trying not to grin.
"And if it isn't my soon to be Grandson-in-law! I must say, I always had a feeling you would be the one my Grand-daughter would claim to be her own!" Soma, unfazed by Senzaemon's speech, merely rolled his eyes. Senzaemon walked down to the pair and gripped their shoulders.
"Rest assured, I have already made preparations for you two lovebirds. Please enjoy them." Erina was too busy unleashing the inner tsundere she had within her (I don't wanna be with him! It's not like I like him at all! (Baka! x infinity)), so Soma sighed and grabbed her hand, then dragged her inside. Senzaemon fell in behind them, grinning happily.
In the mansion, Soma looked around in slight fascination. It seemed that the mansion had been redecorated to commemorate Soma and Erina. He seriously doubted that the mansion had previously had been filled with paintings of himself and Erina in various locations and positions, anyways. That wasn't the end of it, though. He also took note of the ceiling, which had also been painted to show Soma in a tux and Erina in a wedding dress, with a bouquet of roses in her hand.
Soma looked at Senzaemon drily. "So this is what you and the servants here were doing all day, old man?" Before Senzaemon could reply, a whole group of maids rushed into the room they were in, taking pictures and swooning over everything. "It's everywhere! Paintings and decorations of Erina-sama and that boy are EVERYWHERE IN THE MANSION!"
The maids started talking and screaming about how they saw it in their bedrooms, the bathrooms, and one even said the main bush in the garden was re-trimmed to show the boy twirling Erina around in a ballroom dance. Soma sweatdropped even more. "You did all this, old man? By yourself? In less than a day?" Senzaemon chuckled softly, then clenched his hands into fists as his laughter grew louder until it filled the mansion.
"Indeed, Soma-kun! It was I alone who created all this! Yes, in less than a day! You and Erina's love deeply motivated me! I simply had to make these masterpieces myself!"
Soma was speechless as Senzaemon was moved to tears as he spoke. Soma silently wondered if he was the only sane person in this school. Then, ". . .is that the kid?" Soma's head whipped to stare at the maids, who obviously had heard Senzaemon and now stared at the three.
Soma realized he was still holding an all out tsundere Erina (still going with that (Baka! x infinity) thing), and realized that the piranhas had targeted their prey.
The pack of maids descended upon Soma and Erina with gusto, bombarding him constantly with questions like: "What's your name?","How long have you two been dating?",and even "How'd that God Tongue feel all over your 'umaibo', kid?" (Oh that earned some squeals from the maids).
Finally, Senzaemon picked up Soma and Erina, and simply walked away with the two upstairs. "Alright. Back to work, you all. You'll have time later to question these two lovers." The maids dejectedly stopped and got on with their duties.
Soma scoffed and turned to look at Erina, sure that the fiery-tempered girl would be as dumbfounded as he was at all this. Instead, he found a girl with her hands covering her face whilst making soft squealing noises. Soma just stared at her as he watched Erina actually act like a girl for the first time. He started to feel something in the bottom of his stomach. . .something that made him feel empty, but also a little bit of hunger for something.
Soma quickly understood what he was thinking of, and turned to stop staring at Erina. 'Calm yourself, Yuki-Yoshida.' Soma thought. He slowly opened and closed his hand to help him regain dominance in his head. He then turned to look at Senzaemon, who had been admiring his own masterpieces the whole time. "Old man. Where's my room so I can get some privacy?"
Senzaemon turned to pat Soma on the shoulder. "Ah. Forgive an old man for dawdling. I shall escort you to your room, Soma." And with that, Senzaemon practically pushed Soma up the stairs to a set of doors that looked more expensive than the tuition to even get into Totsuki, and that meant something.
"Go on, Soma. Open it." Senzaemon spoke from behind. Soma sighed, then opened the doors. What he saw inside made him want to facepalm himself straight through his face. The room looked so wealthy he imagined only the richest lived in luxury like this. People like CEOs of businesses and politicians. However, there was one thing that immediately drew his attention.
Right there in the middle of the room was a huge circular bed, with curtains draping the entire circumference of the bed. It basically looked like something from a love hotel. He turned to complain at Senzaemon, but before he could Erina was shoved into his arms.
Senzaemon apparently had carried Erina with him when he was behind Soma, all the way to the room, then gently pushed her into him as soon as he turned around. Now he stood before the two with a huge grin. "Enjoy, you two." And with that, he closed the doors. . .and locked them inside together.
Soma rattled the doorknob and pushed against the door, but after a few seconds he decided that he couldn't break out. He turned and looked at Erina, who was just staring at him in shock. Her face was bright red, and she appeared breathless as she gazed at him. Soma didn't really like how Erina seemed to be in a trance while looking at him, and managed to break eye contact.
'Welp.' Soma thought as he slid down to the floor, his back against the doors, and looked at Erina again. 'Hopefully, it doesn't get any worse than this. . .right?'
Meanwhile, Senzaemon sat in his office, and chuckled. As if he had heard Soma's very thoughts, he fingered a golden ring with a diamond embedded into it. The ring was absolutely exquisite, and an inscription in the ring read "Faithfully yours, forever." He placed the ring in a box that read: "To: Erina From: Soma" and chuckled more.
"Oh Soma. This is only the beginning."