Stealing Spree
chapter-238

"Un. I love you too, Ruki. Keep holding onto me and teach me more."

Rae replied as her arms tightened its hold on me. Though the way she looked at me didn't change that much from when she started having curiosity over me, I know just how hard for her to express what she wanted especially if it's out of her knowledge.

She still needed to get the hang of thinking for herself and I'll be there for her, supporting her along the way.

"It's a bit laughable that I got so angry from your piece back then, now I'm like this with you…"

She remembered that time again. Though I wrote that piece calmly, only after submitting it I did realize the shamelessness of its content. And now, Ishida-senpai wanted to entrust me with the future of the club. Since it's a literature club, I've already thought of what to do for the Cultural Festival that will be in the scope of it. I'll have Kana and Ishida-senpai judge it when we get a proper club session.

"I think your anger to me was well deserved. I couldn't think of anything but that back then. Though I couldn't say I changed from bad to good, at least I could now feel what you all felt to me clearly. Unlike before when I moved to steal you and never thought of what you would feel afterwards, I now took better care so that none of this would inconvenience you."

That's also all I could do for them after all. Letting them feel my love. I talked about experiencing something normal with them but until now I only experienced it with some of them due to always not having enough time.

Date to the amusement park, the movies and the hotel with Akane.

Accompanying Aya to the bookstore.

Karaoke with Kana.

Date at the cake shop with Satsuki.

I wonder what I can do for the other girls…

"Un. Just now, I felt how much you took care of me. It's not only gentle but it's full of consideration for me. I was watching you the entire time. If I didn't get angry at you back then, we will not have a chance to talk at the infirmary."

"Right. Now you're in the arms of the guy you called a shameless pervert."

"You're a lot better than those guys who's words are all embellished with lies to hit on girls."

The way she said it probably came from experience. Those boys who tried to get close to her always have the same approach. But yeah, I'm not any better than them, in fact, I'm worse.

"I wouldn't say I'm better but I guess it's just a matter of perspective. Now then, do you have something prepared to teach me, Rae?"

It's time to move to the next purpose of this Agreement with her. Well, the distinction between her time and my time can now be removed but I guess putting it up can put our mind at ease.

"Un. I have something, this probably will not count as me teaching you but answering your previous question. You wanted to be successful in the future, right? Then based on my knowledge, the sure way to be successful is to marry someone rich."

Ugh… I don't know if she's joking or not but the way she said it was full of seriousness. It's as if she really researched her way through her knowledge bank and she came up with that answer.

"Rae, are you serious about that?"

She nodded her head and appeared to be recalling something as she explained how she ended up with that answer.

"Un. I accounted for what you wanted to do in the future. You wanted to live with us so taking the path of the normal salaryman will not suffice, who knows how long will you stay at the bottom. Business is also somewhat rocky due to how the market changes on a whim. Gambling is more of a no go. Before you know it you will get addicted to it and lose everything you have. You can have a career in some kind of sport if you want to but like you said, it will take too much of your time so that's impossible if you continue your lifestyle with us."

"That's all valid points but marrying someone rich? Will that not just end up as me leeching off of my wife? I have you all and I planned to marry all of you if possible."

And I planned to marry Akane right after reaching that legal age.

Ah. I'm the one who kept on putting restrictions on me but will it be better if I change it? It's not like I will really marry someone rich just to leech off her money just to build my ideal future with them.

But will I be able to refuse if one of them proposed that? I don't know. I never accounted for that occurrence yet.

Himeko and Otoha could be called as rich but it's not them, it's their families. Also, my intention of stealing them isn't about their backgrounds.

Haa. I'm probably naively thinking that everything will work out as long as I work my ass off for that goal even if I was already slapped with real talk by Akane's father as well as Miwa-nee and Shio.

If I try to become realistic now, this suggestion from Rae will really solve most of the fundamental problems for what I planned for our future.

But do I have to? Among all others, I'm the only one who needs to decide about this. I can't just rely on anyone if I can't decide on something important such as this.

"Un. Unfortunately, that's the sure way to become successful according to my knowledge. And there are slower alternatives."

Ah. Right. It's also based on her knowledge. We could use that as a reference but we didn't need to base everything through it. Just like how I taught her.

"Such as?"

"Counting not only yourself but also everyone else who wanted the same future with you. If you continue aiming for that future while only accounting for your own involvement, it might become too heavy for the others whether or not you succeeded in the end. So before you start on your plan, talk to me and everyone else to get our opinion about your decision. When do you think you will start building it?"

"After graduating from High School."

"That's still more than two years from now. Then you can just start with laying the foundations."

"I see. Thank you for this knowledge, Rae. I'll think about it and tell you the result next week."

I kissed her again to express my gratitude, just by how she explained it in a way I will understand better. Rae put in the effort to help me and I will always remember this.

"Un. You don't really need to rush it. You'll just burn out if you do. I don't want to see that."

Rae happily received my kiss as she reminded me about the same thing the other girls kept on reminding me.

Don't rush eh? But even if they said it's still more than two years from now, the days just continue to pass without any result on my part except loving more girls…

After that, we continued spending my time on the agreement without moving from our position. In the end, Rae ended up using my chest as a pillow as we talked closely like that. During it, I asked her some other knowledge which I am unclear about or I am curious about and she will answer all of it according to her knowledge. Just from the number of questions I got, Rae always had an answer to it which showed how much knowledge I lacked.

When I ran out of things to ask for her, we continued to spend our time just closely snuggling with each other. There were times she would ask me about the other girls. Unlike the others, she asked me about all of them.

According to her, in the off-chance that she will meet them, it will not be hard to act around them. This is her first relationship but the way she accepted things as is can only be said as unnatural. After all the years of her only basing everything on her knowledge, the first time she started thinking for herself, she accepted this abnormal relationship with me. Apart from her slight jealousy from how I treated her and Kana, Rae never voiced out any complaints.

I guess none for now since we're still just starting but whatever problem that might come in the future, we agreed that we will talk about it first before coming to a decision.

Soon enough, the time of our agreement ended along with the ringing of the bell to indicate the last Period of the day.

I helped her wear her pants again and wipe away the sweat which accumulated on both of our bodies.

Before reaching the School Building, Rae asked for another kiss with an excuse that she needed it for a recharge of energy. I played along with it and gave it to her. She's mine now but we still have a lot of things to teach each other.

Well, I will see her again later when I come to the club.

Though my knowledge bank increased, I was also met with more things I needed to think about and make a decision. Will I stubbornly do everything on my ideal or twist something for the sake of realizing it?