'Ugh... Kiyotaka-senpai!'

Ichika-chan, having experienced something completely new—being princess-carried by Kiyotaka-senpai—was overwhelmed by a mixture of embarrassment and happiness.

"We’re here."

"Y-yes! Let’s go in right away!"

Even after arriving at our next destination, the karaoke box, my heart still wouldn’t stop pounding.

If anything, it felt like it was getting worse.

"You’ve been blushing and looking down for a while now... maybe you really didn’t like me doing that earlier. Amasawa, I’m sorry."

"T-That’s not it! It was embarrassing, sure, but it also made me happy! So please don’t worry about it!"

"I see..."

There’s no way I could have predicted that Kiyotaka-senpai would pull off something like a princess carry on our first date.

"By the way... was the princess carry also advice from Matsushita-senpai?"

"No, that one was advice from Ike. He boasted, 'Any man in the world would at least do that much!'"

‘Um... don’t you think you might be asking the wrong person for advice?’

Thinking that, I entered the private karaoke room together with Kiyotaka-senpai.

* * *

"~~~♪♪♪"

"........."

One hour after entering the room...

I had already sung around ten songs. The main genres I sang were idol songs and pop music.

Back in the original world, whenever I stopped by karaoke with Kiyotaka-senpai, I often sang songs from these genres.

Once I remembered that feeling, singing them was easy.

Meanwhile, every time I finished singing, Kiyotaka-senpai would compliment me with, "That was good."

Normally, Ichika-chan would already be completely satisfied with just that.

But today...

For some reason, it still feels like something’s missing.

"Kiyotaka-senpai, you should sing too~!"

That’s right.

I want to hear Kiyotaka-senpai’s singing voice again after so long!

"Me as well? I don’t mind, but I might be worse than you. The White Room where I was didn’t have any choral curriculum."

"But~! Didn’t it at least have piano or instrument-related curriculums?"

"That’s true, but when it comes to singing, I don’t have that much confidence."

"Then it’s totally fine! As long as you have decent pitch sense, it’ll be easy~!"

"If you say so..."

Perhaps unable to resist my insistence, Kiyotaka-senpai reluctantly agreed to sing.

And so...

He started singing.

'No... he’s way too good, isn’t he? What mouth says they have no confidence and then sings like that...'

Just like in the original world...

Kiyotaka-senpai showed off his outstanding singing talent.

While feeling slightly annoyed about it, I also felt a bit reassured.

And before long, his song ended.

"What do you mean 'I might be worse than you' or 'I don’t have confidence'!? Kiyotaka-senpai, you big liar~!"

"No, the members of my group say 'You’re good!!' mostly because they’re being considerate toward me. Objectively speaking, I’m definitely below—"

"Um? Are you seriously saying that? If your level of singing is considered bad, then my singing would practically be trash!"

There’s no way he isn’t amazing.

The seniors from the Ayanokōji Group must have praised him because he really is that good.

* * *

"Kiyotaka-senpai~! Let’s go eat something soon!"

"That’s surprising. You already had popcorn, so I thought you wouldn’t be hungry."

"If you sing that much at karaoke, you use up all the energy you stored up, so naturally you get hungry~!"

"I see..."

And so!

Let’s take Kiyotaka-senpai to a restaurant!

When we arrived at the restaurant, there were more empty seats than I expected.

So we chose a nearby table for two, sat down and looked over the menu.

"Let’s see... Ichika-chan will go with the steak set meal!"

"I’ll have the hamburger steak..."

The restaurant wasn’t particularly crowded, so it didn’t take long for our food to arrive.

"Let’s eat!"

"........."

We slowly enjoyed our meal.

The food I’m eating right now tastes better than anything I could cook myself, and better than dishes from any other restaurant.

But you know...

It’s not because this restaurant’s food is especially amazing.

It’s because I’m eating it together with the Kiyotaka-senpai I love!

'Ahh! Food eaten together with senpai is so delicious!'

Meanwhile, Kiyotaka-senpai sitting across from me continued eating quietly without showing much reaction.

'I hope the taste suits senpai... well... at least it’s probably not bad to him.'

Around the time when both of our plates were about halfway finished, Kiyotaka-senpai finally made a move.

He cut a bite-sized piece from his remaining hamburger steak with his fork.

Then—

"Here, Ichika... open your mouth."

Amazingly, he held the bite-sized piece of hamburger steak toward me, prompting me to open my mouth.

'Eh... ehhh!?'

This is...

That thing couples normally do, right?

The 'aah' feeding thing!?

And on top of that...

Without even realizing it, Kiyotaka-senpai started calling me by my first name—Ichika.

And furthermore...

I was so focused on eating that I didn’t notice earlier, but the tailing group we thought we had shaken off had taken seats near us and were watching everything!

'Wait a second~! What do I do... this makes me super happy, but Ichika-chan still isn’t mentally prepared for this yet~!'

Maybe Ike-senpai bragged again and taught something ridiculous to Kiyotaka-senpai, who already lacks common sense.

GOGOGO!!!

By the way...

Among the tailing group, the blonde one from the gyaru pair—Karuizawa-senpai—is releasing an unbelievable killing intent toward me!

'I swear, this time it wasn’t something I asked for~!'

What on earth should Ichika-chan do now?