The words that had just come out of Rena made everyone put their food aside to focus their attention on her… But everyone had their thoughts about it.
Akio just took a sip of his glass of water while he tried to ignore the situation a bit and Rena was the only one who kept trying her food while she felt all the delicious flavors that were in her mouth.
"Why…?" Shizune was about to ask a question, but he wouldn't have much time due to what Kurono would say next.
"Sounds like a good idea to me." Kurono had kept silent the whole time since he was thinking about what Rena said, and in the end, he let out those words quite calmly.
"But, Kurono..." Shizune wanted to give him her opinion on the matter again, but she still couldn't speak without being interrupted... Although what she heard served as an answer to the questions and doubts that were in her mind.
"It's enough for me if Kurono-san agrees, if you want to stay, then I won't let you use the room." Rena was threatening Shizune... Although all this sounded just crazy. "Don't worry about the luggage, Akio and I will take care of accommodating everything."
Akio almost choked on the water he was drinking since he knew how all this would end for him... Although no one paid any real attention to him.
Shizune didn't know what to say due to how the situation developed, but she would hear something that would calm her down enough.
"There is something I would like to talk about with you, so I agree with Rena-san's opinion." Kurono knew that everything had taken Shizune by surprise, so he said that to calm her down and that she really had a reason to go with him.
"Okay... But I feel like I'm being forced against my will..." Maybe Shizune's thought wasn't entirely wrong, especially since Rena was laughing to herself at the same time Kurono closed his eyes and went back to focus on his food.
…
…
"Fine, Kurono said he'll bring me early in the morning, but call me if anything happens." Kurono had just told Shizune that the taxi had just arrived, so she wasn't going to miss the opportunity to remind Rena what to do situation that could arise.
"I know, I know. And I appreciate that you care about me so much, but I'm also a responsible adult." Rena said that fully convinced, Shizune also accepted that, but she couldn't completely eliminate that feeling of uneasiness every time she didn't know Rena's status… But, as always, she decided to trust her, besides that Akio was also there to take care of her.
Both Shizune and Kurono said goodbye before going down the stairs of the building to the place where the taxi was waiting for them. Shizune only carried her bag with her since she remembered having left some of her clothes at Kurono's house… Which made her realize that she had gotten a bit used to this kind of situation.
A small greeting from the taxi driver had reached the ears of both and they respectively responded to it. The cold environment, as well as the darkness outside that, was reduced a little due to the streetlights on the sides of the road, indicating that it was late.
There wasn't much to mention along the way, Shizune and Kurono just took that moment as a way to rest from the long day that had been, although there was no shortage of small talk between them that wasn't strange at all.
The small calm was not interrupted since they were in their own world, besides that the driver simply concentrated on the road in front of him...
It wasn't long before Kurono's house was visible, so it was only necessary to wait for the car to stop, which also didn't take long.
"Huh?... Okay, I'll go ahead then." Just as the taxi stopped, Kurono told Shizune to go down first while giving her the keys to open the front door while he took care of paying the driver.
Shizune didn't refuse, she got out of the car and quickly walked away while she was busy with her thoughts…
…
…
Kazuma considered himself a very unlucky man, having recently reached his forties and still didn't know exactly what to do with his life. He had walked away from his family of his own accord since he didn't want anything to do with them, and as far as he was concerned, get involved in stupid situations.
He was just a bachelor, as he had been most of his life, and the few guys he considered friends never missed an opportunity to remind him of that, which always made him annoyed, though he tried never to show it in front of them.
He didn't care much about taking care of himself, and it showed in his body complexion as well as the lack of caring habits in some aspects. He couldn't say that he liked his current job, but it was enough for him since he could have a plate of food on his table thanks to him... And he learned to have fun in his way even though it could put him in many problems.
Tonight was one of them, he had received a call from the main office telling him that he had to go pick someone up, which made him swear a little since it was almost time to go home, but his thoughts changed a lot.
And the reason for that was because of Shizune... It wasn't too hard to guess that Kazuma's eyes had widened the instant he saw Shizune's attractive figure, his mind was already filled with many thoughts that only he would keep for himself, although it was not strange to know what they were.
The bright side was that he was still aware of his position and had to act professionally, there was also the fact that, in addition to Shizune, he had also seen Kurono, which had caused him to subconsciously shake his head to calm down... Although that was not what would stop him altogether.
Kazuma greeted them politely before checking that everything was in order and starting to drive. Throughout the drive, he took advantage of any moment to take a quick look at Shizune since at no time had he turned off the light inside the car.
He wanted to go unnoticed, and Kazuma had a rather characteristic small smile on his face due to the hidden intentions behind it, but unfortunately for him, the trip didn't last too long… Even so, that wasn't a big problem for him.
Kazuma saw Shizune get out and didn't miss the opportunity to take one last look, he also noticed Kurono getting out of the car after that, but he didn't pay much attention to it until he heard how someone touched the glass of the driver's seat.
Kazuma opened it so that Kurono's figure appeared on the other side, Kazuma received Kurono's payment and it seemed that this little journey would end there... But that would not be the case...
"Thank you for your hard work." Kurono had a small static smile on his face as he thanked Kazuma and raised his hand to him in farewell.
"It was nothing... Agh!" Kazuma had taken Kurono's hand without much trouble, he didn't care about the thanks, but he couldn't be rude to a customer, but that small calm had turned into a totally different situation as Kazuma felt like his hand was being crushed by Kurono's and couldn't stop some groans of pain from coming out of him as he tried to break free of his grip.
In the end, Kurono released his hand after a few seconds, Kazuma was about to confront Kurono for what he had just done to him, but when he saw his hand, cold sweat broke out all over his body, and Kurono's words, which complemented the ones he said earlier only made him feel even worse.
"But... I think this will be the last work for a long time..." Kurono walked away after that as he calmed down and took his cell phone to make a few simple calls without caring about anything else.
On the other hand, Kazuma was looking at the pieces of what used to be a small video camera, it wasn't the one he was forced to carry in the car for safety purposes... No, he knew that small camera very well and although he didn't know it yet, he would realize that his bad luck could be even worse…