Shuichi heads home and then goes to work out.

Thirty minutes later, Shuichi was in his convertible once again with Ruruka beside him, driving back toward his apartment on the highway as the evening sun just began to set.

“Wow, we’ve only just had our first date and you want to spend the night at my place already?” Shuichi asked as he drove. “I mean, I’m not complaining, I’m just a little surprised.”

“Hey, after everything we did today, I don’t think we have to worry about going too fast anymore. Besides, I want to take a look at your ex-bachelor pad myself!” Ruruka replied, looking up from her nails when she noticed that Shuichi passed by the exit that would have put them on the road toward the wealthier part of town. “Uh… hey, Shuichi, I think you missed your exit. The north end of town is the other way.”

“Huh? But I don’t live over there,” Shuichi replied, confused.

“Oh! My bad then,” Ruruka replied. “Hmm… I didn’t know they had any mansions out in this direction. Did they just have some built? Or maybe he has a penthouse?” Ruruka wondered silently to herself. “Wait… I know this neighborhood! This is middle-class at best!”

Ruruka watched with a look of pure shock on her face as she watched Shuichi drive his car into a part of town known for its cheap apartments. She prayed and begged some unknown **** that Shuichi would just drive past them all to a richer part of town, but to her dismay, he stopped at the single biggest apartment complex in the area.

“Okay, here we are.” Shuichi pulled into his usual parking space and attached his parking pass to his driving wheel. “I hope you don’t mind walking, because we don’t have an elevator here.”

Ruruka didn’t reply and just walked in stunned silence up to Shuichi’s apartment. When he unlocked the door, she almost recoiled when she saw that the inside was even smaller than she imagined it was. There was only one fridge, one bathroom, one dining table, and one small bedroom.

“This… this can’t be happening,” Ruruka thought to herself, horrified as she walked around the apartment. “There has to be some kind of mistake. This is how an otaku should live, not the Ultimate John!” She then entered his bedroom and saw the art he bought from Angel earlier that week. “No… even an Otaku would be living better than this! This fucking traitor! He tricked me into thinking he was rich just so he could get into my pants, didn’t he!?”

Ruruka clenched her fists and began to pant.

“That bastard! He must have brought me to all those public places just so he could get his hooks into me! So I’d feel too awkward to think about breaking up with him!” She shouted inside her head. “Well, you’re not the only one who can play dirty, you filthy traitor!”

“I’m sorry if things are a little bit messy - I wasn’t expecting to have any company tonight,” Shuichi said bashfully as he walked in behind Ruruka, oblivious to her rage. “I have plenty to eat at least, though! What would you like me to start making for dinner? Maybe some chicken, or pasta…”

“Oh! That would be so nice of you to cook for me, Shuichi!” Ruruka cooed, her face instantly returning to its usual happy expression. “But, I just realized that I left something really important back at my place! You see, I have this… medicine that I have to take regularly. Very serious stuff. I better go back and get it.”

“You forgot some medicine?!” Shuichi gasped as he put his shoes back on. “Well, we better go get it right now then! Don’t worry, I’ll drive you there!”

“That’s fine - I’ll just take the bus,” Ruruka replied, putting up her hand.

“O-oh…” Shuichi took his shoes back off awkwardly. “You’ll be back to spend the night with me though, right?”

“Totally! As soon as I take care of a few other things; groceries, errands, things like that,” Ruruka explained casually. “It’ll probably take a few hours.”

“Okay, then; have fun, Ruruka.” Shuichi walked up to Ruruka and gave her a sickenly sincere kiss on the cheek. It made her want to vomit just feeling it. “Oh, and we should probably exchange numbers in case we ever have to call each other.”

“Right, of course!” Ruruka took out her phone and read Shuichi a fake number while not even bothering to pay attention to his.

“Oh, one more thing, Ruruka,” Shuichi said just as the confectioner was just about to leave. “Uh, some friends and I meet up at Kokai park every night at nine to work out for an hour. I don’t know what your exercise regimen is, but… it’d mean a lot to me if you came to work out with us.”

“That sounds lovely, Shuichi! Working out at the park at night… so scenic and romantic!” Ruruka swooned. “I’ll be sure to get ready for it as soon as all my errands are done! It might take a little while, but just wait for me there at the park, okay?”

“Don’t worry; I’ll be there for you, Ruruka.” Shuichi kissed her again, this time on the forehead. “Thank you again for spending time with me today. It was a little intense, but… I had a lot of fun too.”

“Heh, aren’t you just the sweetest~” Ruruka hugged Shuichi one last time before stepping back out his front door. “See you at the park, Shuichi!”

“Yeah, see you there!” Shuichi waved as Ruruka closed the door behind her. As he heard her footsteps fade into the distance, he sniffed the air and realized just how much he still reeked of sex, sugar, and ****. “I should probably take a shower, shouldn’t I?”

With that, Shuichi put some food into his oven and got into his shower, letting the steaming hot waters wash over him and clean away all the stress that had built up in his muscles throughout the day. Part of him could barely believe that this day wasn’t some sort of dream, but the heat of the water offered a constant reminder that he was, in fact, awake.

“I...I really have a girlfriend now, don’t I?” Shuichi thought to himself. “It’s not Kae, but… she likes me…” Shuichi smiled and looked toward the ceiling. “She actually, really likes me!”

A few hours later, Shuichi exited his car at Kokai park wearing his workout clothes and with his exercise bag over his shoulder. Only a few rays of sun over the horizon as he walked inside, but enough lights were glowing along the main trail that he could still easily tell that Maki and Mukuro were waiting under the same tree that they met him under the night before.

“Hey there, girls! It’s nice to see you both!” Shuichi said chipperly as he walked up to the deadly duo. “How were your days?”

“Pretty good, all things considered. I got work done early, so I took most of the afternoon to myself,” Maki replied as she sat on the ground. “The only bad spot was when my landlord tried to hire me for a job, and he got upset when I turned him down.”

“Ah - you mean he wanted to sleep with you?” Shuichi was surprised given how terrified he was of Maki the last time he was at her apartment.

“Oh, I would have slept with him if he offered me enough money, or even just a month off my rent,” Maki replied. “He didn’t want that, though. Apparently, I look like a character from a popular new anime, and he wanted me to dress up like her so he could take pictures and post them online. I’m willing to do a lot of things but, given my past, photos are out of the question.”

“Ah, yes, I guess that would make sense,” Shuichi said as he put his bag down. “What about you, Mukuro?”

“Today was relatively normal, but… I did notice that my sister was acting a little strange,” the ex-mercenary replied. “She seemed to be in a sour mood all afternoon when we worked together. She didn’t even cheer up when one of her clients attacked her with a knife.”

“Y-you don’t say,” Shuichi replied nervously. “Oh, by the way, I, uh… have the shirt that you lent me.”

“Ah; I almost forgot about that.” Mukuro held out her hand and Shuichi bashfully placed the lipstick-covered mess that the muscle shirt had become onto it. “... are you sure this is my shirt?”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Shuichi bashfully rubbed the back of his head. “The concert I went to last night got a little bit… wild.”

“At this point, I can’t even be surprised anymore,” Maki said as she stood up to start their warmup jog. “Would you mind telling us the story?”

“Well, I’d love to but… you have to promise that you won’t tell anyone, no matter what,” Shuichi replied, his voice serious.

“Shuichi… you do realize who you’re talking to, right?” Maki asked, giving Shuichi a sideways glance as they jogged.

“We practically live, eat, and breathe discretion,” Mukuro finished for Maki.

“R-right, of course.” Shuichi took a quick look around the park to make sure no one else was around, and to check if Ruruka had arrived yet, before taking a deep breath. “So, I was able to meet up with Pitch like I planned, but things took a bit of a turn when Yuki of all people showed up in Pitch’s dressing room right when I was talking to her.”

“Wait, Yuki? You mean the idol who was in that comedy movie I saw last week?” Maki asked. “The single most famous woman in all Japan, who has a billboard for her last album right outside my apartment?”

“Yeah, the very same. It turns out that Yuki and Pitch used to be in Black Cherry together, and they’ve been friends since they were kids,” Shuichi replied. “Though, now that I say it out loud, I wouldn’t blame you at all if you didn’t believe me.”

“I believe you,” Mukuro interjected without hesitation. “If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from living with my sisters, it’s that there is no such thing as ‘too unusual to be real’. Besides, my shirt is proof enough that something strange happened last night.”

“Yeah - what exactly does meeting Yuki have to do with that?” asked Maki.

“Well, I was getting to that,” Shuichi replied. He spent the rest of the jog and their time doing sit-ups recounting what had happened with Snow White the night before, including his time at their recording studio and the orgy they had together. The only thing he left out was the reveal of Yuki’s real name, which he knew he didn’t have permission to share.

“Wow… sex with not just one, but five famous idols in a single night,” Maki said as they transitioned to push-ups. “How does this stuff keep happening to you? Do you have some kind of supernatural luck curse or something?”

“No… a-at least I don’t think so,” Shuichi replied. “Anyways, she gave me her number afterward and we’re still texting each other. She seems like a really sweet woman.”

“That’s good to hear; it would have been a shame if you left each other on bad terms,” said Mukuro. “Did you spend all day in bed today after that? I wouldn’t have been surprised if you needed a while to recover after a night like that.”

“Well, I did sleep in quite a bit, but I managed to get up before noon,” Shuichi replied. “After that, I went to hang out with a friend and, after that… well, I might have run into someone who’s even more remarkable than Yuki.”

“And who would that be? President of the universe?” asked Maki.

“No, no one like that this time!” Shuichi laughed. “Her name is Ruruka Ando, and she’s a sex worker like you two. She helped me out in the red-light district after some women started harassing me, and after that… well, one thing led to another and we sort of… might have… gone on a date together.”

“A date?” To Shuichi’s great relief, there was more curiosity than jealousy in Maki’s voice. “That was fast. You two must have had good chemistry together.”

“Oh, definitely! She’s pretty great.” Shuichi blushed as he spoke.

“What was your date like? And what is Ruruka like?” Mukuro asked curiously, slowing down the furious pace of her pushups to listen.

“Well, she has strawberry blonde hair, silver eyes, she likes the color pink, she grew up around here, and… uh…” Shuichi paused for a moment as he tried to remember more about what Ruruka told him about herself. “Oh, she really likes sweets! She’s the Ultimate Confectioner, and the pastries she makes are amazing! She also really loves shopping; that’s what we spent most of our date doing.”

“Shopping?” Maki eyed Shuichi curiously. “What did you buy?”

“Well, I didn’t get anything for myself, actually,” Shuichi admitted. “But I did get Ruruka a few things, like a new coat, a new watch, a necklace, those kinds of things. She was very grateful for all of it… and she looks pretty cute when she’s happy like that.”

“That’s… quite the list,” said Mukuro. She shot a concerned glance to Maki, who shot a similar one right back. “Did you do anything else besides shopping?”

“Well, a little bit of time sightseeing, and then we went to this bar called The Backdoor where I bought her and her friends a few rounds of drinks…” Shuichi recounted. “And then we went back to my place, but when we got there she realized she forgot something back at her place and had to leave.”

Maki and Mukuro looked at each other again as they switched to doing lunges.

“Shuichi, are you sure this woman you met is… trustworthy?” Maki asked after a moment of silence.

“What? Of course, I’m sure,” Shuichi replied, not a hint of doubt in his voice. “She’s so sweet and caring, and she’s worked so hard to help me out. Why shouldn’t I trust someone like that?”

Maki and Mukuro both had the same answer to that question, but they both decided it was best to keep that to themselves for now.

“Alright, if you like her, and can vouch for her, then I’ll believe you,” Maki eventually said.

“I’m afraid that I’m withholding my judgment until I meet with her face-to-face.” Mukuro tightened her black gloves. “You can tell a lot about a person by looking them in the eye, after all.”

“Well, don’t worry, you should be able to meet her tonight; I invited her to work out with us, and she said she’ll be here as soon as she can,” Shuichi replied before suddenly gasping. “Oh, crap! I just realized I didn’t ask you girls if it was okay to invite her! That is okay, right?”

“Don’t worry, I promise we won’t get into another ‘battle’ if she shows up,” Maki dryly assured Shuichi. “But keep in mind that whatever you do with her, you’ll have to do with us twice as hard.”

“Heh, good one, Maki,” Shuichi said with a laugh. “Wait, that was a joke, right?”

“I’ll leave that up to you to find out,” Maki replied.

“A-anyways, she should be here any minute, so keep an eye out for her if you can, okay?” Shuichi requested.

“Don’t worry, I promise I won’t miss her,” Mukuro replied. “... ah, I should have phrased that differently, shouldn’t I?”

“It’s okay, habits like that are hard to break,” said Maki.