Want to be human, but cube-like

I've never been very good at dealing with Rakuna's Aine, and now I'm having a problem.

"Little Lena, you're too young to know this yet!"

She had no choice but to resort to this tactic that adults often use on children to appease them.

"Well……"

But Lenai was clearly not buying it; she puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction.

But Aine immediately squeezed it flat, and air came out of its little mouth.

It feels even better in the hand.

"...Okay, I'll treat you to a matcha parfait later!"

Frowning, Aine thought for a while before finally trying to speak.

"In exchange, Xiao Lena is not allowed to tell anyone else what she just saw, and she has to forget about it."

She tried to bribe Lena with her favorite things.

"...Three cups!"

Upon hearing "matcha parfait," Lena's beautiful heterochromatic eyes lit up, but then she hesitated for a moment before calling out again.

"Only one cup! Eating too much will give you a stomachache!"

They even dared to raise the price on the spot, Ai Yin ground her little tiger teeth.

"Three cups, please!"

Colona wasn't going to give in so easily. Even when facing Alex, she managed to pester her relentlessly until she got her to pay.

She ate the matcha parfait, and little Ai-yin easily won it over.

"...Two cups! That's all we can have!"

Puffing out her cheeks, Ai Yin hesitated for a moment before gritting her teeth and saying.

She's been saving up to buy a new laptop, and she hasn't even bought new headphones since they broke. Yesterday, she worked hard all afternoon to earn some temporary wages from Xiangzi, and now it looks like she'll have to spend it all on this greedy little cat.

A matcha parfait isn't cheap, and the shop that Lena likes to go to is quite expensive, so it would hurt to treat her to one.

"Good~"

It seems that Lena's price range is two cups, and she immediately nodded with a smile.

After all, Aine wanted her to do two things.

Then of course, I'd have to order two matcha parfaits.

Cats never do business at a loss, nor do they make extra money from unethical parfaits.

With her cheek released, Lena smiled faintly, glancing at Aine who had rubbed her head, and then at Alex who came out of the soundproof room.

However, Aine and Ellie look so alike!

She really liked this little burger joint, and she liked the three people working there.

It feels like a place I could stay for a long time.

"Ellie, how does it feel to kiss me?"

Following behind Alex, who was carrying a speaker, Lena looked up and asked curiously as they walked downstairs.

"Ah! I told you not to mention this!"

Behind her, Ai-yin, who had just sighed helplessly, immediately blushed and shouted in dissatisfaction.

"But Ellie isn't just anyone."

Lenai was quite self-righteous.

After all, Alex, like Aine, is one of the parties involved.

"It feels very comfortable."

Alex thought for a moment before replying.

"Hey! Ellie, just ignore questions like Xiao Lena's!"

Aine glared at her lover, feeling both embarrassed and annoyed, and complained.

"I want to try it too~! Ellie, kiss~"

Lenai immediately became very curious about this, and her eyes sparkled.

"no!"

This time, Aine's tone became very resolute.

Judging from Alex's doting attitude towards Lena, she might actually get her way.

Aine cannot tolerate this happening!

Resist it wholeheartedly!

"Aine once said that kissing is something you can only do with one person."

With both hands full of things, Alex, who was having some difficulty, simply looked down at Lena and spoke.

"This is something you can't just do with anyone else, little Lena!"

Ai-ne, clutching the guitar that belonged to Alex, jogged a few steps to catch up and spoke earnestly to Ryuna.

Rather than having Lena pester Alex and even Shoko for answers about kissing, she was more worried that Lena might develop a strange misunderstanding about kissing after seeing the two of them being so intimate.

It would be terrible if she were to be deceived by some other bad girl outside.

After all, Lena is so cute, she might attract some strange guys.

"Can Aine do it with Ellie?"

Lenai was completely baffled. She opened her big, confused eyes and asked.

"Uh……"

Aine's face flushed red again.

How is she supposed to explain this?

"Because, Ellie and I have already..."

Hesitantly, Aine had no choice but to give Renai a little hint, hoping she wouldn't go around telling everyone... But Renai wasn't the type to blabber; on the contrary, she was usually quite quiet.

"Ahem...we're already in a romantic relationship!"

She leaned close to Lena's ear and whispered something in a low voice.

"love……?"

Before Lena could finish speaking, Aine gently covered her mouth again.

"Shh~ I'm not planning to tell everyone yet, so in exchange for telling Renai this, Renai has to keep it a secret for a little while, okay?"

She raised an index finger to her lips and whispered.

Ultimately, she wasn't mentally prepared to make it public yet. Although Aine didn't really care about keeping it a secret, she still told Rakuna about it first.

Let's delay it as long as we can.

Aine, who habitually avoids this choice, thought to herself.

"Lover..."

Alex, who was walking in front, listened to the conversation between the two behind her, but lowered her eyes and muttered something under her breath.

It's yet another new, unfamiliar word.

She had originally intended to ask Aine what the specific meaning of "lover" was, but after hearing what Aine said to Rakuna, she changed her mind.

Moreover, did Aine originally think that this matter needed to be kept secret?

Then shouldn't she have kept Xiangzi in the dark?

As they were pondering this, the three of them had already returned to the first floor.

"Do you need help?"

Standing in front of the counter, Xiangzi, who had nothing to do for the time being, looked at the three people coming out of the stairwell and asked.

"Aine-kun...?"

Then, she saw Aine's cheeks, still flushed.

"What happened? Your face is so red..."

With a slight frown, Xiangzi softly expressed his concern.

"Ah! No, it's nothing...!"

When asked, Ai Yin instinctively touched her still slightly flushed face and hurriedly shook her head.

"I was just... I was a little tired from working so hard, and I was just catching my breath..."

With a flicker in her eyes, Ai-yin offered a half-serious, half-joking explanation in a low voice.

It was indeed quite tiring... Alex's lung capacity was much better than Aine's, which almost caused her to suffocate every time. She had to push Alex away and catch her breath for a while before she could recover.

However... that suffocating feeling is actually quite addictive...

"Yeah……?"

Something felt off, but Xiangzi couldn't quite put her finger on it. Her gaze shifted, then she looked at Alex, who seemed perfectly normal, and at Lena, who was happily thinking about having two matcha parfaits later.

It's as if something has been taken away...

This strange intuition made Xiangzi unconsciously bite his lip lightly.

…………

It feels like it'll disappear in a second.jpg

Volume 1: Chapter 162 An Interesting Woman

As evening approached and the performance ended, he kept his promise and took Lena to have two matcha parfaits at Ai-on. Finally, he led the happy Lena back to the burger shop.

Compared to Rakuna, who was patting her tummy with a satisfied expression, Aine's expression seemed somewhat depressed.

So, it turns out I actually spent the most time with Xiao Le Nai this afternoon...

With that thought in mind, she pushed open the door of the hamburger shop, only to be greeted by the aroma of food.

It was only then that Ai Yin noticed that there were no other customers in the store.

Alex and Xiangzi were just coming out of the kitchen carrying their trays.

"Eh?"

Subconsciously turning her head to glance at the sign that had been flipped back over by the door, Ai Yin blinked.

Has it already closed down?

"I figured you'd be back soon."

"I'll close the door now and prepare dinner."

Alex put down her plate and smiled.

"I guess our restaurant is the only one that chooses to close its doors and not serve customers during mealtimes, right?"

With a helpless sigh, Xiangzi glanced at Alex, who didn't seem to see anything wrong with it at all.

Her boss was so capricious that he didn't prioritize making money at all, which left her speechless.

"Is that okay?"

Walking over and sitting down with Ryuna, Aine asked.

If you say you won't serve guests, won't that cause your reputation to suffer?

"It's okay."

Not caring about such things at all, Alex carried out a large pot of stew and placed it on the table.

"Just say that all the ingredients for today have been used up, that's enough."