Chapter 311: Knew it would spread
Shirogane Miyuki was still too shy to talk about these things with others, so he excused himself and left after a short chat.
Watching Shirogane Miyuki rush off to buy other things, Eriri said with a smile, "Hehe, Senpai said Kaguya-senpai will visit later. So when I get home, I'm going to call her right away and tease her good!"
"...Are you really going to do that?"
"Of course!"
Putting a box of chicken wings into the shopping cart, Eriri lightly swung her twin tails and said, "It's rare to find such an opportunity; I can't let it slip away easily. Alright, Kaede-kun, we've picked out the meat, let's go look at the rest!"
After saying that, she pulled Kaede towards the vegetable section.
After buying a large pile of things, the two finally took a car home.
As soon as she entered, changed into slippers, Eriri grabbed her phone and rushed to the sofa.
"Kaede-kun~~ Please put the things away, I need to contact Kaguya-senpai!"
Kaede saw the girl's excited look and understood. He smiled, shook his head, took the groceries to the kitchen, sorted them, and then began to slice the beef, preparing for the lunchtime barbecue.
While slicing the wagyu beef, Kaede glanced at Eriri, who had already made the call, and softly muttered to himself, "Hmm... If we have barbecue for lunch, what should we have for dinner? We bought a lot of meat and vegetables. Sukiyaki? That's an option to consider. It's cold, so eating something warm would be nice."
Although this plan hadn't been discussed with Eriri yet, he figured the girl would surely be delighted... After the New Year's holiday ended, the final semester of the first year finally began.
The first day of the new semester, of course, they couldn't be late. Fortunately, Kaede had already trained Eriri's body clock to wake up on time.
"New semester, new semester~~~"
Humming a song, Eriri saw the school gate in the distance.
"Kaede-kun, the holiday was less than a month, but I feel like it's been so long since I've been to school!"
Kaede nodded in agreement: "Indeed, it's probably because we did a lot of things during this holiday, like traveling, New Year's, and getting engaged."
"Hehehe~~~"
Eriri's cheeks were a little flushed from the cold wind. She smiled and raised her left hand; she was wearing gloves, so the ring couldn't be seen, but she figured it would definitely be noticed by her classmates when they got to school.
Kaede also saw Eriri's movement and asked with a chuckle, "When it's discovered, are you really going to answer as you said before?"
"Yes!"
Eriri tilted her head up, her face serious, and said, "While it's the third semester, I need to let everyone in school know that Kaede-kun is already tied to me, so that people in our grade and second-year students don't get any wrong ideas. I don't want anything like someone confessing to you to happen again."
"Uh... It won't, that was a long time ago, wasn't it?"
"But there's no guarantee it won't happen again!" Eriri said confidently, "So, at least at school, I want everyone to know not to try anything with you, hmph!"
It must be said, she was quite possessive.
After entering the school and changing their shoes, the two went to their respective classrooms.
After Eriri entered the classroom, she greeted her classmates after a long time, then went to her seat, sat down, and took off her gloves.
She looked around and, seeing that no one was paying attention to her, breathed a small sigh of relief.
Although she had spoken boldly before, saying she would directly tell anyone who noticed, in reality, when it came to Eriri actually saying it, she was rather hesitant and needed to work up to it.
However, Eriri's relief didn't last long. During the break after the second class in the morning, when the class representative came to distribute the materials assigned by the teacher, she saw the ring on Eriri's hand.
The class representative of Class A was a very quiet girl, and she had a good relationship with Eriri. After seeing the ring on her hand, she pushed up her glasses and asked curiously, "Oh! This is the first time I've seen you wear a ring, Eriri. When did you buy it?"
"Ah!"
Eriri was startled, but quickly calmed down and said, "Ahahaha, I bought it a few days ago during New Year's. I liked the style, so I bought it, yeah."
"Oh~~~"
The class representative leaned in and carefully observed Eriri's ring, saying, "It's so beautiful!"
The class representative's lingering presence also attracted the attention of several other girls nearby, especially when they saw that Eriri's ring was on her left ring finger, they immediately became excited.
Where a ring is worn makes a big difference. In Japan, wearing it on the left ring finger, as the name suggests, indicates that the person is engaged or married.
Suddenly, without Eriri even having to say anything, the girls' circle became lively, unanimously concluding that Eriri must be engaged.
After all, she wasn't old enough to be married yet.
Eriri was also a bit bewildered. How did all of them know? Before, Usami and the others hadn't noticed at all.
To this, Usami, who was next to Eriri, whispered, "Um... I never used to wear rings, so I didn't know much about them. It was only after seeing yours, Eriri, that I looked into it specifically. I think it's probably similar for everyone else; maybe Utaha-senpai knows more, given her creative work."
Well-reasoned and convincing.
Finally, with no other choice, Eriri had to admit to the engagement and asked everyone not to spread it around.
She agreed, but how things would develop afterward, Eriri couldn't be sure at all.
Kaede's situation was similar. After Eriri sent him a message asking, she learned that his side had also pretty much found out.
"Ah... I feel like there's going to be trouble..."
At noon, when Eriri saw Kaede, she directly walked up to him with a puffed-up face, bumping her little head against Kaede's chest again and again, saying, "This morning I was surrounded by my classmates. How did these girls know I was engaged just by seeing the ring?"
Kaede smiled, patted Eriri's head and said, "They probably know the meaning of wearing a ring. Some people are very clear about it. If you wear it correctly, you can't hide it at all. Alright, let's go eat first."
"En, I'm hungry."
As a result, right after lunch, the two were informed by a teacher and summoned to the Grade Director.
Walking to the office, Kaede was not as nervous as Eriri, but said calmly, "Don't be nervous. Isn't it better to resolve it on the first day of school? And Sayuri-auntie also said that if there's really a problem, just call her. Besides, the Grade Director is quite easy to talk to."
As they spoke, the two arrived in front of the office. Kaede raised his hand and knocked on the door.