Later that night, Seiji purchased some desserts on the way and arrived at the Fuuma family's residence.
He rang the doorbell, and it wasn't long before the door was opened up by a little blue-haired girl wearing a one-piece dress.
"Onii-san, welcome."
"Hello, Fuumchan." Seiji smiled.
Airi's face flushed slightly red upon seeing his smile.
"Please… please come in."
"Sorry for the intrusion."
Seiji entered the Fuuma residence.
He saw a rather handsome blue-haired middle-aged man with slicked-back hair who wearing casual attire in the living room.
"Nice to meet you, Harano-kun. Welcome." He greeted Seiji with a husky voice. "My name is Hiroto Fuuma… Thank you so much for your help at that time."
"Nice to meet you, Fuumsan. No need to be so polite. I just did what I should have," Seiji responded. He recognized this voice as belonging to the man who had talked to him on the phone before.
He gave Hiroto Fuuma the desserts he brought over as a present, and Hiroto Fuuma politely accepted, before asking him to sit on the sofa and personally pouring some tea for him.
"Airi, call Hiroshi over here for me."
The little girl nodded and was about to go when her older brother appeared by himself.
"Hello, Harano-san… welcome." Hiroshi Fuuma arrived at the living room and greeted him. His expression was slightly cold and distant, but he was polite enough on the surface.
"Hello, Fuumsan. I'm happy to see that you're fine now," Seiji said to him. He felt that Hiroshi looked much better than last time, and at least had a normal person's complexion now.
"Thank you for your assistance." Hiroshi thanked him by bowing.
"You should say 'I'm truly grateful,'" Hiroshi's middle-aged father Hiroto told him in a rather strict tone. "Bow deeper, and use a sincere attitude!"
"It's not necessary…" Seiji felt there was no need.
"No, it's necessary." Hiroto looked towards Seiji. "He needs to express his gratitude for more than one thing alone. Before the incident happened, you were concerned about Hiroshi's condition and went to the trouble of bringing him back home, helping him avoid any accidents, which is another debt he owes you. If it wasn't for you, Hiroshi might not even be standing here anymore… He has to thank you properly for that."
Seiji remained silent.
To be honest, if he didn't drag Hiroshi away when Hiroshi was almost about to be hit by a truck and sent to another dimension, Hiroshi really might have died.
After hearing what Hiroto Fuuma said, Seiji figured that Hiroshi's father didn't know about the truck accident that almost occurred, but thought of the possibility… which meant that Hiroshi Fuuma didn't mention anything about the near brush with the truck.
"…I'm truly grateful for your help!"
With his father pressuring him, Hiroshi bowed again, this time at a ninety-degree angle as he spoke loudly.
"No need to be polite, Fuumsan."
Although Seiji still felt like Hiroshi wasn't being very sincere, it didn't matter too much to him. It was fine as long as they went through the motions.
Hiroto was still rather unsatisfied with his son's behavior, but didn't say anything else, and allowed Hiroshi to sit.
"Could I ask, at the time… why was Fuumsan in such a condition?" Seiji asked the question that he had been wondering about.
Hiroshi remained silent.
"About this question, I'll explain later to you, Harano-kun," Hiroto said. "For the time being, let's talk about something else."
During dinner, Seiji met Hiroshi and Airi's mother, Aiko Fuuma.
She had dark blue hair pinned on top of her head and beautiful red eyes. She had a sweet appearance, and dimples would appear by her lips when she smiled, which were quite beautiful.
Airi greatly resembled her mother. Seiji figured Airi would grow up to look like her mother.
The food was abundant and delicious. Seiji had fun chatting with the Fuuma parents as well as Airi during dinner.
Hiroshi, however, was obviously rather grim and dark, and barely spoke at all. Hiroto noticed his son's behavior and had a helpless expression.
After dinner, Hiroshi immediately returned to his room.
Airi helped her mother in cleaning up the table and washing the dishes.
Hiroto led Seiji to his study.
He had Seiji sit down in the study's sofa and poured some tea for Seiji. After he poured some tea for himself as well, he sat down and slowly took a sip before speaking.
"About what you asked earlier, I'll answer you now… Hiroshi changed into the way he is now because of a strange girl."
"A strange girl?" Seiji blinked at this.
The middle-aged father took out his cell phone and showed Seiji a picture saved on his cell phone.
The picture was one of Hiroshi Fuuma together with a beautiful girl.
This girl had shiny brown curly hair, light red eyes, and bright red lips. On her beautiful face, she was smiling faintly and ambiguously, and her eyes and even her very aura seemed obviously seductive.
"She's the girlfriend that Hiroshi started going out with at the beginning of this month… According to him, she came over and started flirting with him when he was walking by himself on the street, which was their first meeting," Hiroto explained in a low voice. "She called herself Riko Aoda, and was supposedly a first-year student at Tomosei High School, and a member of their drama club.
"She saw Hiroshi's performance as the Ice Prince during Genhana High School's festival performance and felt that he did a great job, giving her a good impression of him. That was why she worked up the courage to talk to him when they coincidentally met on the street.
"After that, she met with Hiroshi every day and was extremely proactive in the relationship. A few days later, she brought up the idea of formally going out with Hiroshi as boyfriend and girlfriend, and then… that very weekend, the two of them began to start having sex with each other."
Seiji didn't know what to say to all this.
He recalled the so-called "truth" that the short red-haired boy named Nakajima had mentioned during the drama club's study group.
Was that really the truth after all?
"They did it many times with each other, and met each other on two days before the incident as well, on Monday… and on Tuesday, the day before the incident, as you know already, Hiroshi fainted due to excessive fatigue."
The middle-aged father had no expression on his face as he said this.
'It really was the truth after all!' Seiji tugged at his lips.
"I was on a business trip at the time, and although Aiko noticed that something was off about Hiroshi, when she asked him about it, he lied to her. After he fainted, he didn't say anything about it whatsoever, and met with that girl on that same night.
"Then, on Wednesday, that incident you know of happened." Hiroto's gaze suddenly became much sharper. "After I learned what happened, I immediately canceled my business trip and rushed back on the next day, questioning Hiroshi about what exactly happened.
"At first, he wouldn't even tell me. Only when I got angry and forced him did he finally say what was going on.
"He said that he was dazed at the time, and was under the impression that it was his girlfriend Riko Aoda who was approaching him, which was why he pushed down his younger sister… I continued asking him about things and made him tell me everything.
"I felt that there was something off about this girl named Riko Aoda, so I told Hiroshi to contact her, and call her over for a meeting.
"However, when he called her, we found out that her cell phone number was no longer in service! It was the same result no matter how many times he tried.
"I felt then that Hiroshi had met with a scammer, but Hiroshi said that she never asked for anything from him. I confiscated Hiroshi's cell phone, and had Aiko watch him as I went over to Tomosei High School, trying to see if I could find this girl.
"What I found out was, there wasn't any girl currently at Tomosei High School by the name of 'Riko Aoda.' However, there was one by that name ten years ago and that student… committed suicide within that school."
Seiji furrowed his brows slightly at this.
"Ten years ago… suicide?"
"Yes. My first reaction was, Hiroshi met with some girl that pretended to be this deceased student. The high school teacher at Tomosei High School that I talked to was of the same opinion, and was quite angered that someone would use a dead student's name like that." Hiroto had a grave expression. "However, when I showed that teacher the picture of Hiroto together with this girl, that teacher's expression greatly changed and he was obviously astonished.
"He had taught Riko Aoda ten years ago and was even one of the witnesses to her suicide. And... this girl in the picture with my son Hiroshi, just happens to look exactly like Riko Aoda!"