Chapter 72 He's such a scumbag, so openly honest about it. ...

His movements were gentle and soothing, his expression tender and affectionate, and his deep, purplish-gray eyes were filled with a tenderness that could drown a person. The air seemed to become thick and sweet because of this overly beautiful atmosphere.

His fingertips slid down his hair, finally resting on the pink-haired boy's slightly warm earlobe. The boy held his breath, watching him slowly approach, stopping at an extremely close distance, their warm breaths mingling.

“Like now,” he chuckled, his breath brushing against the pink-haired boy’s cheek, “it will always be this moment of sunlight outside the window, this moment of the aroma of baking in the air, and…” He paused deliberately, looking at the pink-haired boy’s trembling eyelashes, “this moment of you being by my side.”

[The you of yesterday, the you of tomorrow, are not as valuable as the you I feel right now, touching my fingertips.] These were the words in Rei Furuya's purplish-gray eyes. [The one I love will always be the one who is breathing, whose heart is beating, who is right before me.]

Choose? There's absolutely no choice!

This is like your girlfriend asking you, "Which style do you prefer, a mature, sophisticated look or a sweet, girly look?" The correct answer shouldn't be, "I prefer XX style," but rather, "I like you no matter what style you have." Otherwise, the next question might be, "So you think I can't be sweet or mature?"

The same applies to boyfriends!

This isn't an aesthetic choice question at all; it's an emotional intelligence test. So choosing is out of the question. The shrewd Rei Furuya possesses true survival wisdom: escaping the deadly question and embracing the one who set it.

So, has he passed the test yet? Furuya Rei looked at Nekono Ikuya expectantly.

Of course not!

Because Nekono Ikuya didn't really want Furuya Rei to choose his favorite disguise from recent appearances; he just wanted to create a chaotic situation where Furuya Rei was a sea king and was discovered by one of the fish.

Or perhaps it's more accurate to say that Nekono Yuuya is interested in both the "death trap" and the "battlefield," and it's just a matter of seeing which pit Furuya Rei falls into. Furuya Rei passed the "death trap," but then plummeted into the "battlefield"—does that mean he's halfway through the challenge?

So this enchanting and tender feeling didn't last long. After a slight pause, Furuya Rei turned a potentially fatal question into an easy one, and while chatting and laughing, he displayed his charm to the fullest. The bewitched Nekono Ikuya was willing to give him full marks and was slightly taken aback to show his respect.

After a moment of stunned silence, the pink-haired boy blinked his clear pink eyes, and the almost melting flutter in his heart receded like a receding tide.

With a "smack," he suddenly slapped away Furuya Rei's hand that was pinching his earlobe. The force he used was seemingly loud but actually not heavy at all—acting aside, hurting him was another matter entirely, and Nekono Ikuya had no intention of "domestic violence."

"How cunning, Zero-kun."

The pink-haired boy narrowed his eyes and poked Rei Furuya's chest lightly with his fingertip. He tilted his head, a half-smile playing on his lips, "That's a textbook example of a Sea King's statement!"

"The one in front of you is the best, everyone you meet is your one and only... Hmph!"

He snorted in dissatisfaction.

Jiangu Ling:? ? ?

Matsuda Jinpei nodded in agreement. Yes, that blond bastard is cunning.

Isn't this a textbook example of a playboy's speech? Matsuda Jinpei's mind flashed through phrases like "You are different from everyone I know," "I only know what it means to be moved after meeting you," "I wish I had met you sooner," and even "You are all my wings" and "I was just playing around with them, but with you I am truly in love."

Rei Furuya's heartfelt words, while seemingly wrapped in sweet tenderness, conceal a cold, sharp edge. He appears to be expressing that the pink-haired boy is the one he loves most among them, but in reality, he's revealing that whoever stands before him will be his only one at that moment.

With a little closer examination, one can discern that this is actually a fluid benchmark, anchored to the absolute premise of "before one's eyes".

What's the difference between this and saying you can't choose from the cards when they're upfront?

How shameless and open about being a scumbag.

Furuya Rei is just too good at talking; he can wrap such sharp words in such tenderness. Matsuda Jinpei has truly seen something new. Ha, "Forever" can be this kind of "forever"?

From a different perspective, Furuya Rei's pure love statement became Matsuda Jinpei's "playboy" statement.

This "sea king" is so open and honest that he seems to disdain lying. Even if he speaks in a sweet and tactful way, he still shows his true attitude. Most people can understand his true feelings after a few careful reading.

Perhaps he was confident in his own charm, believing that even if he was a bit of a player, he could still bewitch people.

Just like the pink-haired boy in front of him, although it seemed like he was questioning him, Matsuda Jinpei intuitively felt that he was not really angry. He was even actually pleased when he heard Furuya Rei's sweet words that were actually full of cold wit.

? ? ?

Matsuda Jinpei didn't understand, and even doubted his own intuition and observation skills.

He looked at the pink-haired boy in surprise: "Hey, wake up! This candy only has a thin layer of sweetness on the surface, but it's full of glass shards inside. How can you eat this?"

Are you love-struck?

The lovestruck pink-haired boy glared at Furuya Rei with a hint of reproach, then deliberately misinterpreted the situation by drawing out his words: "Eh~ saying that it will always be the one in front of you, saying that I am the one next to you right now... it's just hard to choose, isn't it?"

Matsuda Jinpei: It seems that the love-obsessed boy isn't so love-obsessed after all; he's quite smart. He saw through it immediately and had the heart to expose it.

What will Furuya Rei do? Matsuda Jinpei wondered again.

Rei Furuya paused for a moment, then nodded honestly, "It's a difficult decision."

Having grown accustomed to seeing Nekono Yuumi's appearance change daily, he's become so used to ignoring his lover's outward appearance and focusing solely on their soul that he finds it difficult to shift his perspective and compare which disguise he prefers. They're both Nekono Yuumi; what's the point of choosing an appearance?

If I had to choose, would it be the original skin with black hair and blue eyes? But the others seem pretty good too. Hmm, they each have their own charm. Oh dear, he already has a hundred different lovers, what's the point of choosing? Can't he just go for them all?

Only children make choices; adults want both Rei Furuya and Rei Furuya.

"Oh—so actually 'every' is a true love, right?" Nekono Ikuya blinked, trying hard to suppress a laugh.

Looking at his lover, who was so enthusiastic about changing faces but was essentially the same person, Furuya Rei smiled genuinely and nodded without hesitation: "Of course, every single one of them is true love!"

boom--!

Matsuda Jinpei was completely petrified.

What's going on here? Why are they being so honest? It's not that being honest is bad, but...

? ? ?

You've become a player?

Time did not stop flowing because of Matsuda Jinpei's bewilderment. When the pink-haired boy heard Furuya Rei admit it, he was not angry at all. Instead, he raised the corners of his eyes and revealed a sly smile that said, "I knew it."

As if he had caught something incriminating, he deliberately leaned close to Furuya Rei's ear and said in a provocative, sweet voice, "So you're a scumbag—hmph, that's the final verdict!"

Ikuya Nekono wins!

To be honest, Matsuda Jinpei was starting to lose track of the conversation at this point. No, perhaps he had been struggling to understand it for a while.

No, he looked at Nekono Ikuya with a slightly smug expression, confused. As one of the people who were cheated on, what is there to be proud of?

"How can this be considered trash?" Furuya Rei's purplish-gray eyes widened slightly with a smile as he grasped Nekono Ikuya's hand, which was misbehaving on his chest.

That's right. Ever since Nekono Ikuya made that gesture of lightly poking Furuya Rei's chest with his fingertip, he hasn't let go of it. Just now, when he was smugly confirming that Furuya Rei was a scumbag, he was still drawing circles on Furuya Rei's chest.

Rei Furuya feigned a moment of hesitation: "Just a little bit of universal love? Like liking cherry blossoms in spring, and also loving the stars on a summer night, every flutter of the heart is—"

"Pfft, sorry, sorry," he couldn't help but chuckle as he played along, then bravely suppressed his laughter and said, "It's all sincere."

"That's sophistry!" The pink-haired boy couldn't help but laugh, and said relentlessly, "According to your logic, wouldn't all Aquamen be able to call themselves pure love warriors? That's absurd, that's utterly absurd."

"As long as this place is spacious enough, it can hold all the beautiful encounters." He placed his hand on Rei Furuya's chest, mimicking Rei Furuya's tone in a funny way.

"...The imitation is quite good," Matsuda Jinpei thought to himself, "but I really don't understand your interaction."

Shouldn't this be a tense, confrontational setting? Where's the tension? Why are you all starting to burst out laughing?

He started to doubt his own hearing and vision. Could the sound and the picture match up?

After laughing for a while, Furuya Rei suddenly became serious. He looked at Nekono Ikuya earnestly and said, "Really, I don't think I can be considered a 'sea king' (a player who enjoys playing the sea).

Matsuda Jinpei: ? ? ? That's not all?

"Oh?" The pink-haired boy raised an eyebrow, indicating that he was willing to hear more.

“You see, although the faces around me change frequently,” this is Nekono Ikuya’s fault, “I only date one person at a time. I’ve never dated several people at the same time, right?” Thank goodness Nekono Ikuya can only disguise himself and not create multiple clones.

Rei Furuya concluded: "So I think I'm still very much a pure lover?"

“...That’s true, he can’t be considered a sea king.” Nekono Ikuya remained silent, blaming him for not being able to split himself into two.

Huh? Matsuda Jinpei's eyes widened. Is that so?

So it turns out they don't just juggle multiple relationships at the same time, but diligently switch between them—that's fine, my foot!

Although Rei Furuya acts like he's in eternal love every time he changes ships, which seems genuine, and he's even willing to make troublesome soufflés for his "first date" lover, where is the pure love in all of this with his speed of changing relationships at least three times every two weeks?

Wholesale pure love stories?!

Even police academy students can only go out on weekends, or to be precise, at least three times out of four days. That's outrageous!

—Jinpei Matsuda didn't know that if it weren't for the fact that last week, when Ikuya Nekono disguised himself as a young man with wolf tail hair, he and Rei Furuya couldn't help but go to a hotel and spend two whole days on the hotel bed, he might have witnessed the bizarre sight of Rei Furuya changing lovers four times in four days.

But this level of performance is no different; it's still enough to surprise Matsuda Jinpei. He has no idea how Furuya Rei managed to do it so seamlessly.

Even a player like him needs talent, right? Like him, let alone a lover, he can't even get to know a new acquaintance every week.

Anyway, Matsuda Jinpei will never admit that Furuya Rei is purely in love. After all, with this frequency of changing partners, how can it be considered purely in love? Besides, there's a childhood friend in the fishpond, which is really strange.

The pink-haired boy agreed that Rei Furuya wasn't a player, but disagreed with his portrayal of pure love: "Rei-kun isn't a player, but pure love? Not necessarily~"

Rei Furuya raised an eyebrow: "Oh?"

“For example—” Nekono Ikuya suppressed a laugh: “Does Zero-kun still remember my name?”

Rei Furuya fell silent.