Chapter 19: Something Seems Off

Through these past few days of interaction, Kitahara Chiki had observed that the clothes Hayami Rina wore were somewhat old, with severe signs of wear—they must have been purchased several years ago.

And although Aya wore new clothes, the quality was quite ordinary, and the styles were very plain.

Considering her family’s financial situation, Kitahara could understand.

He planned to buy some better clothes for this mother and daughter, both to spend some money and to see if it could increase favorability.

After leaving the apartment building, sure enough, the weather wasn’t so severe anymore. Although the sky was still gloomy, only scattered light rain was falling now—it was just that the temperature was a bit low.

He was dressed lightly and felt a bit chilly.

Walking briskly to the department store, Kitahara went directly up to the clothing section on the upper floor and first picked out several sets of casual and sportswear for himself.

Since he was a freelancer, he had no need for formal wear, so he didn’t buy any.

Even so, because they were all high-end brand clothes, it still cost tens of thousands of yen.

Women’s and children’s clothing was even more expensive. Just casually buying a few dresses and a few pairs of shoes cost over a hundred thousand yen.

Of course, there were also more affordable brands here, but those weren’t what Kitahara considered—to him, those actually had no cost-performance value.

"Tsk tsk tsk, this lingerie is really nice. Rina-nee would definitely look good in it."

"So many sexy little dresses!"

"There are so many types of stockings here—black stockings, white stockings, fishnets, glossy... Too bad the time hasn’t come yet to buy this kind of thing."

Reluctantly leaving the women’s clothing section, Kitahara Chiki was full of regret. There were so many beautiful clothes he wanted to buy for Hayami Rina to wear at home.

Like stepmom dresses, tight short skirts, camisole lace, and so on—women’s clothing had so many varieties.

Unfortunately, their relationship hadn’t developed to that level yet, so he couldn’t buy them!

Even the things he had bought already seemed to have crossed a line.

He still didn’t know how to persuade her to accept them!

After buying clothes, Kitahara went on to buy ingredients. The department store staff, seeing he had bought quite a lot and that it was inconvenient to carry, proactively came to help him carry things.

Kitahara was quite grateful.

"Could you provide home delivery service?" he asked.

"Yes, sir. Our Mitsukoshi department store offers this service. For situations where there are too many purchased items to conveniently carry home, we have a dedicated vehicle that can send both the customer and the goods back together. Where do you live, sir? Is it far?"

"Very close, just a few minutes’ walk. Alright, I understand. I may need to trouble you for delivery later."

Kitahara nodded.

Being able to deliver was great. He wanted to buy more things today without worrying about not being able to carry them back.

For ingredients, he still chose some high-quality, expensive ones, and bought more of them so he could store them in the refrigerator when he got back, saving the trouble of buying them every day.

He also bought some vegetables, two bags of premium Hokkaido rice, milk, eggs, and so on.

Hayami Rina’s family refrigerator had plenty of space. Kitahara had noticed before that it was completely empty, and he felt this time he could fill it up.

Besides these, Kitahara also picked out some alcoholic drinks.

In his previous life, he often enjoyed a small drink when he had nothing to do, feeling that under the stimulation of alcohol, he would have more inspiration when writing.

Since transmigrating these past few days, he hadn’t quite gotten used to things—he always felt something was missing. Probably he missed that slightly tipsy state.

Kitahara wasn’t picky about alcohol and could drink a bit of anything. He picked a few brands of beer, one case each, selected a few bottles of Japanese sake and shochu, and also grabbed a few bottles of red wine.

At the final checkout, the total came to nearly five hundred thousand yen.

Mm, a bit pricey. The money he had earned yesterday actually wasn’t enough.

But Kitahara wasn’t panicked at all, because he would earn quite a bit again today. Even though some things were for his own use and the system wouldn’t give cashback on those—

Just counting the ingredients and the clothes for Hayami Rina and her daughter, that added up to three hundred thousand yen, and the cashback amount would reach over a million yen.

Delightful!

Two delivery workers pushed a cart full of goods and followed Kitahara home. Along the way, Kitahara was still thinking about how to persuade Hayami Rina to accept if she refused.

But when they arrived home and the delivery workers were moving things into Hayami Rina’s house, aside from initial surprise and fluster, Hayami Rina didn’t say much.

This instead made Kitahara quite puzzled.

"For the alcohol, except for leaving some beer, please move the rest to this unit. Thank you."

Directing the workers, Kitahara paid attention to Hayami Rina’s situation. He saw her calmly helping organize things while also occasionally glancing his way.

On her beautiful face, she appeared indifferent, but from the way she lightly bit her lip and the look in her eyes, Kitahara sensed she seemed to have made some kind of decision.

Huh? Why did the situation feel off?

Why did he feel inexplicably uneasy!

...

The workers moved everything into the room and left after placing it all.

Aya happily picked up each little dress to look at them, occasionally holding them up against herself, giggling uncontrollably.

She kept saying how great Kitahara-oniichan was.

Kitahara helped her try on the clothes and shoes. Mm, they all fit well—the sizes weren’t wrong.

Hayami Rina, still putting things into the refrigerator, was drawn by her daughter’s laughter and joy. A caring smile also appeared on her face from time to time.

It was just that she didn’t dare look at Kitahara much anymore—her gaze seemed somewhat evasive.

The atmosphere in the room had a faint trace of something off.

In such an atmosphere, after dinner Kitahara returned to his own home without lingering.

Something was off—too off. Favorability hadn’t risen at all. This didn’t make sense.

What was wrong with Hayami Rina? She had received so many things and didn’t show any reaction?

Or perhaps, she wanted to express it in another way?

Thinking carefully, it was terrifying.

Kitahara didn’t dare think further, afraid things would develop in the direction he was imagining.

Women’s thoughts were truly incomprehensible. Better to just write. Sigh, hopefully nothing unexpected would happen.

"Knock knock knock~"

At ten o’clock at night, Kitahara’s door was knocked on, making him jolt.

What did Hayami Rina want?

She hadn’t said earlier that she would come over at night?

Don’t mess with me!

Opening the door and seeing Hayami Rina, who seemed to have touched up her makeup and was wearing a cool, light nightgown, Kitahara became even more worried. Blocking the doorway, he asked: ℯℯ𝘭.

"Rina-nee, is something the matter? It’s so late. How about we talk tomorrow?"

Kitahara’s words made Hayami Rina somewhat taken aback. Could she have been mistaken? Kitahara-kun didn’t mean that?

Her pretty face blushed with embarrassment. She felt like she might have misunderstood something, but since she had already come:

"Kitahara-kun, you’re still working hard writing, right? I wanted to give you another massage. I brought some massage oil—applying and massaging it directly on the body will have a better effect!"