Arc I: A Woman's Dream II

"What do you think he is doing?"

Chizuru Ichinose wasn't jealous. Jealousy was an emotion which was counterproductive to her job as a rental girlfriend. But he wasn't one of her clients, he didn't hire out her services and she was not here pretending to be his girlfriend. Their relationship was strictly professional. He was her tutor, she was his student, nothing more, nothing less. But as she watched him chatting with the beautiful waitress on the other end of the restaurant, just out of earshot, she couldn't help but feel a little tinge of something, which she refused to admit was jealousy, seep into her otherwise normal tone of disinterest.

"He is flirting."

Nino Nakano watched Ichinose trying to hide her dour expression behind a styrofoam cup only to realize it was empty and brought it down with an irritated huff. Having had her fill of amusement at the other woman's expense, her eyes travelled across the room and took in the appearance of the waitress. She was a young woman, around the same age as them, beautiful in a quiet and reserved kind of way. Yet, she talked with him and he didn't seem to brush her off. In fact, it looked like he was genuinely enjoying the conversation. When she had told Ichinose that he was flirting with her, she had meant it as a joke. But now as she noticed the small smile on his face and the light reddening of the other woman's cheek she had a small feeling that it might actually turn out to be true.

"He is not flirting with her." Chizuru stated. "Hikigaya doesn't know how to flirt."

"How do you know?" Nino asked. "Besides, I doubt he would flirt with you. He doesn't go for floozies."

"I'm not a floozy!"

"She seems to be his type."

Utaha Kasumigaoka didn't lie. The third year university student was interested in him. He was her muse. The next light novel she planned to write would feature a male protagonist which would share his likeness, his unusual way of viewing certain things in life and to an extent even his complex personality which was a potential treasure trove from a writer of her caliber. She couldn't wait to dissect him and make him whole, infuse her own creativity and imagination and give birth to something which might even end up amazing her. But before she could take up the herculean process of writing things down and make a rough draft of the story, she had to spend time studying him as a character and that meant getting to know him on a personal level. His quirks, his habits, his wants, his desires, his motivation, everything which made him the person he was now before her had to be taken into account in order to write his next adventure. This simple exercise, though tedious, provided her with a window into his beautiful mind and unlike the women in his study group, she had the advantage of knowing certain things which the others couldn't possibly know. Like his taste in women for example.

"Long black hair, purple eyes, a sharp, piercing expression on her face." Utaha noted. "It's his type alright."

"Her hair isn't that long." Nino fussed. "In fact, my hair is longer than hers. Besides, isn't she a bit too tall? There's no way he likes bigger woman. I mean, can you imagine her showing up to a date wearing eight inch stilettos. They would look ridiculous."

"You have eight inch stilettos?" Chizuru asked.

"You're saying you don't."

"Well I'm not particularly short like you, Nakano-san."

Nino Nakano flushed. "I'm not short. I'm average."

"I thought I would never hear you use the word average to describe yourself, kohai-kun." Utaha said.

"Why you –"

"What on earth is he doing now?"

Seishirou Tsugumi was taken aback. Like the other women in their booth she had watched him talk to the female waitress with interest. However she had kept her own thoughts to herself and didn't quite feel the need to join in their nonsensical conversation. When Utaha-senpai had talked about his type, the woman he might be interested in, Tsugumi had taken out her mobile and using a simple mirror app she had checked her own reflection. So he liked women with longer hair, she had thought, well who gives a damn. She didn't know why but she had felt a bit angry, which wasn't unusual given her present company. Trying to be subtle she had taken a good look at the other talkative women. Chizuru Ichinose had waist length chestnut brown hair, Nino Nakano had reddish pink hip length hair and Utaha Kasumigaoka-senpai had mid back length dark hair. Even the waitress they were all envious of because she was successful in having a pleasant chat with him had shiny black hair which tumbled down her back in waves. Looking back at her reflection, she didn't need to be told of the condition of her own hair. It was short, boyish and reached only about chin-length, the only thing feminine about it being the white and blue ribbon attached to its left side. As she wasted her time thinking about stupid things like how she might let her hair grow out a bit or whether the others were dead wrong and he might actually prefer women with short hair, she spotted him returning to their table with two plates in his hand. Now she was both surprised and livid. Really, was he desperate enough to think that by helping out the waitress with their order he would end up impressing her somehow.

"Despicable." Tsugumi muttered.

"Huh?"

Hachiman Hikigaya couldn't exactly hear what she said over the hushed chatter of the others. He didn't really care. He was in a good mood. With practiced ease he placed the two plates he was carrying on the table and from memory recited what he had read about them from the menu.

"Nakano, for you I got the Affogato. It's an Italian espresso dessert with vanilla ice cream and fresh-brewed espresso. I know you like ice cream, so I thought you will rather enjoy it."

"Who doesn't like ice cream?" Nino Nakano took a small taste. "It's great."

"Happy to be of service, Nakano-san. Now for Ichinose, I have a slice of tiramisu cake. What we do with it is you saturate an angel food cake with coffee and liqueur and create a coffee liqueur and cream cheese filling. And if you think there isn't enough java, well it has a coffee infused whipped topping as well. You know, I picked a heavier dessert for you because you have work afterwards and I thought with this, it would be okay for you to skip a meal, like I know you planned to do afterwards."

"Thanks." Chizuru Ichinose blushed at his thoughtfulness. "I appreciate you didn't make a big deal about me skipping lunch."

"You are a big girl and can take care of yourself. Now Tachibana-san, if you would kindly…"

"…Yes."

The four women heard the soft voice of the waitress. So her last name was Tachibana. Nino Nakano briefly wondered whether she was related to Hina Tachibana-sensei from back at their campus. She knew their teacher had a younger sister who went to Akihabara-U, but she had never met her or heard about her, which meant she didn't ran in the same circles as her and was not really all that popular around campus. As she watched the waitress place two plates, one at their table for Tsugumi and the other on the opposite table for Kasumigaoka-senpai, she realized there was a chance she might actually be related to their teacher. As it would turn out she wasn't the only one who came to this realization.

"Are you Hina Tachibana-sensei's sister?" Chizuru asked.

The waitress shook her head. "No. I am Akira Tachibana." Looking at Hachiman, she had the briefest smile on her face as she inclined her head back towards the counter. "I will be back with your order in a minute."

"Thanks."

"You haven't lost your touch."

Hachiman smiled and watched her leave before turning to the group of women before him who had varying looks of interests etched across their features. But instead of asking a stupid question and landing himself in an unnecessary troubling spot of bother with the lot of them, he continued with what he was doing and told the rest of them about their order.

"Now Tsugumi, don't think for a second, because you lived in America and have a tendency to shoot things, that I got you these Texas brownies."

"You think you are being funny, huh, Hachiman Hikigaya?" Seishirou Tsugumi blushed.

"I try. Now I have been told coffee and chocolate are a perfect pairing. I mean lattes are proof enough. But these brownies showcase the duo in baked form by adding a full cup of coffee to the batter. It's also topped with chocolate frosting. You'll have a hard time eating just one."

Seishirou Tsugumi blushed harder. What the hell was he saying, did he have no shame. Throwing caution to the wind, she circled her arms protectively around the plate. "I see. This is your clever ploy to eat food from my plate. Well, I have seen through your scheme Hachiman Hikigaya and I will tell you right now, I don't plan on sharing my food with you. It's, it's…" she sputtered, not having the nerve to say, romantic, because clearly it was and they didn't have a romance between them and really she should start stuffing her face instead of having these stupid thoughts run around her head.

"Huh, guess she really likes brownies." Hachiman said as he watched a flustered Seishirou-chan dive into her dessert. "Or maybe she misses America."

"Hikigaya-kun."

"Ah right, forgot about you senpai." Hachiman cleared his throat. "What you have there is called a Coffee Flan or Flan de café as it is known in Spain. Basically its espresso added to baked vanilla egg custard. It adds a delicious twist to a famous recipe."

"Right," Utaha-senpai fixed him with her scarlet stare. "I think we both know I wasn't talking about the dessert." She savoured a spoonful of dessert in her mouth, closing her eyes and rolling her tongue inside, letting out an embarrassing moan which she tried too much to hide. But from the looks of it, the woman heard it. They weren't extremely pleased with the sound she had made. Meanwhile, Hikigaya-kun tried not to look as affected as he was with her slight slip up.

"Sorry." Utaha offered.

"No it's alright." He mumbled as he tried to evade her eyes and looked at the others for a plausible distraction. He didn't have to look hard enough. "I'm guessing everyone liked their desserts."

"Are you kidding me?" Nino shouted. "From here on out, I'm letting you pick stuff from the menu all the time."

"Hikigaya-kun knows his desserts." Chizuru said.

"I'm okay with it, but next time I'm paying for my own share." Seishirou mumbled.

Hachiman Hikigaya smirked. It had worked. He had beat Utaha-senpai in her own game. He knew the woman was trying to do her job and he was kinda flattered that she had picked him to be the protagonist of her next light novel, but he was still the same man as before and he couldn't help but keep somethings close to his chest. He was a private man and though the inner otaku in him which he had long killed and buried, which said it was okay to be a harem protagonist in a light novel, there were just somethings he was not okay with in general.

For example, he didn't want to pick favourites. Choosing a single woman out of a bunch of other women was a miserable task and it wasn't worth the effort or the trouble it was guaranteed to cause over a long period of time. But did it mean, he didn't have a favourite picked out from the three of them. Of course not. Would he ever reveal such details, even in a joking or sarcastic manner to anyone let alone Utaha-senpai who had clearly stated she was interested in writing a light novel with him as a central character. Absolutely not. He was happy being the tutor who would help them out with their studies and get their grades up and he would leave it at that. Hopefully the day wasn't far enough when they might not need him anymore and though he would miss everyone of them in his own way, he wouldn't let it show on his face or speak about it to a single living soul. It was better to talk about futile stuff, much safer even to discuss about family restaurants and cute cafes, desserts from foreign lands or of a domestic variety and how they all missed to point out that all the desserts he had picked had some form of coffee in them.

"I like caffeine" He said. "It's the only drug I allow into my system."

"Hikigaya-kun."

Akira Tachibana was back with his latte. The two of them had been talking about silly things as well. It was easy to talk with her because he knew her before the chaos and anarchy of his eventful second year at Akihabara-U.

"Tachibana-san, how do you know, Hikigaya?" Utaha-senpai asked.

It stands to reason that when he wouldn't answer her queries, she would turn to the next best alternative.

"He used to work here back in his first year." Akira Tachibana replied.

"Are you two friends?" Chizuru asked.

"Yes."

Hachiman waited for them to ask a couple more questions. He was comfortable with Tachibana because she was a quiet and reserved girl who only spoke when she needed to and most of the time she was lost in her own inner thoughts. Though it didn't mean she couldn't be fierce when the unfortunate moment arrived. He had been wary of her back then, when he didn't know her all that well, but by now he had gotten a good feel of her personality. If the women in his group thought they could get some embarrassing detail out of her, well, they would just have to be disappointed.

"What's this in your latte?" Nino asked.

Now this was meant for him. Hachiman blinked in confusion. He had been paying close attention to the conversation which was taking place between Tachibana and Utaha and Chizuru that he hadn't been paying close attention to the woman who was sitting close to him. While he was being absentminded, she had inched closer and now with a spoonful of her own dessert in her mouth, she peered into the contents of his cup of latte.

There she found a heart, a latte art.

Hachiman waited for her to put forth a question for the simple minded, unassuming waitress who was responsible for his latte and the piece of art she had drawn within, but Nino didn't look at her. Her blue eyes which were now narrowed into a glare remained focused on him.

"Explain, Hikigaya."

Hachiman sputtered. "It's a heart?"

"I can see it's a heart, but what is it doing in your cup?"

"Um, I can explain. Or better yet, Tachibana!" He looked at her for support.

"Yes." Akira said.

"Why is there a heart in my latte?"

"Because I can only make hearts. And you told me you were okay with it."

"What in the world –!? "

"Hikigaya are you – ?"

"You piece of shit – !"

"Interesting…"

Hachiman watched as utter pandemonium broke loose. All three women were shouting at him and he looked on in horror as his previous employer and his previous work colleagues gave him a silent look and pleaded with him to do something about the situation. Akira Tachibana, the women responsible for this mess with her shoddy explanation had run out, making an excuse about how it was time for her lunch break. He really shouldn't have let her talk.

"Look, Tachibana was saying something about how she is learning to make latte art. But she said she was unsure of her skills and didn't want to practice it on customers quite yet. I sort of thought it would be my good deed of the day if I helped her out a little bit. I know how to make latte art. I gave her some pointers and told her it would be okay if she tried it out on my order. If things didn't turn our quite alright, all it would happen was I would end up with a big white blob in my latte, no big deal. It would still be coffee."

"That still doesn't explain the heart." Utaha-senpai pointed out.

"I don't know what to tell you." Hachiman said exasperated. "Apparently hearts are easier to make than pandas or flowers."

The women were silent for a while. They had listened to his explanation and taken away different things from it. Chizuru Ichinose thought it was cute how this guy knew something like latte art. Nino Nakano wanted to pester him for more details about his relationship with Akira Tachibana. Seishirou Tsugumi wanted to find out if there was a way, to ask him, to teach her how to make latte art, which didn't make her sound quite undignified like most women. Meanwhile, Utaha Kasumigaoka wondered whether the phrase, 'big white blob' could be used in a particular ecchi scene in her next light novel. It would surely up the rating and appeal more to the male demographic.

"I need proof." Tsugumi blurted out. "When we return to the campus you are gonna make me a latte and there better be a heart like this floating on the top. Otherwise I'm gonna shoot you, because you are a filthy liar, Hachiman Hikigaya."

"But there's no-"

"There's a coffee machine at the sorority house." Nino Nakano added with a smirk. "I want mine with a tulip in the centre and two series of hearts on top."

"That's really complicated. I don't -"

"I want a panda in mine." Chizuru said.

"Rabbit for me, thanks." Utaha added.

Hachiman Hikigaya found himself trapped between a rock and hard place. He could make latte art because he had picked it up as a hobby back in his middle school, having nothing better to do. In his amateur, teenage years he thought this would make him popular with the ladies. But now he was certain, given his unfortunate set of circumstance, it might actually make him super popular with the ladies and that would inadvertently upset the status quo and change the overall dynamic in the sorority house.

He wanted peace.

He wanted a way out.

"You don't serve beer do you?"

"No, it's a family restaurant." Akira Tachibana politely told the customer. "We serve coffee."

Hachiman Hikigaya turned his head to the side as he recognized the voice. This might actually work out. All he needed to do was bring a character with a bit of authority and throw her into the mix and have her stop this conversation from mutating into something quite dangerous. But there was a fifty-fifty chance she could make it worse. After all she was a teacher who asked for beer in a family restaurant during lunch hours. Yet, he had to take this risk.

"Tachibana-sensei, over here." Hachiman Hikigaya called out.

Hina Tachibana-sensei was a gentle and pure hearted young teacher whose cheerful attitude mixed with her naiveté gave her an aura of tenderness which was impossible to go unnoticed. She had waist length dark brown hair that has trimmed bangs which are parted above her right eye. Green eyes, a well endowed figure, clumsy, a bit of an air head and rumoured to be horribly bad at cooking, she became really popular last summer when she wore a small two piece bikini to the beach with a bunch of her first year students. Because it was Akihabara-U, this didn't lead to much problems, though he had heard another bit of gossip which said that because of her bold display the university administration had changed some bylines and rules which now made it okay for teachers and students to date and be in a romantic relationship.

"Hikigaya-kun?" Hina Tachibana murmured softly. "Hikigaya-kun!" Hina Tachibana shouted and before he knew it the older woman had raced towards him with breathtaking speed and without having any regard for his personal space or the women he was currently keeping company with, had thrown her into his dumbfounded arms and buried her face into the crook of his neck, before pretending to sob into his chest. At least he thought she was pretending, he couldn't exactly be sure.

"Tachibana-sensei?" He tried to coax a reply out of her without physically touching her. In fact to make matters look even harmless, he kept both of his arms up in the air in a plea of surrender. He was not overdoing it, mind you. Seishirou Tsugumi was armed at all times and she would have shot him if he so much as gave her an excuse and acted improperly with the overly emotional woman.

"I need your help." Tachibana-sensei said into his chest, still not meeting his eyes. "I got into some trouble and only you can get me out of this mess. You will help me, right?"

Hachiman Hikigaya remained quiet for as long as it was deemed proper. Nino Nakano glared at the woman. Chizuru Ichinose glared at him. Utaha Kasumigaoka-senpai took out her phone and started typing something into it while actually nodding at him to carry on with the ensuing drama and play his part as the male protagonist. Meanwhile Seishirou Tsugumi turned the safeties off on her firearm and fixed him with a murderous gaze.

Hachiman felt his throat go dry and he swallowed his own spit before answering the sobbing woman who had nestled herself into his chest.

"Anything for you, Tachibana-sensei."

"Okay."

In the blink of an eye the sobbing, emotional woman had vanished and now she had returned to her cheerfully bright self and he should have expected this from her. She was known to be extremely childish and act immature and do things her own way and he should have known better than to fall for the crying woman, the damsel in distress routine. In fact, now that he got a good look of her face, she wasn't really crying. It would explain why she hid her face in his chest. Well played, sensei, he thought.

"You tricked me."

"I did not." Hina rebuked. "Now remember, you promised. I hate a man who goes back on his word. Ooh~" She cooed. "Nice latte. Would you mind if I take a small sip? I haven't had anything to eat all day."

Hachiman Hikigaya looked at the older woman and shook his head. In a way it was oddly anticlimactic. The latte which had caused him so much grief was now going to be consumed by this new woman, a teacher of all people, who had tricked him into taking up, what he assumed, no doubt, to be quite a herculean task. Or it could be something really stupid and a complete waste of his time. Either way he now had to help her because he was sure it fell within one of his multiple responsibilities and duties on campus. Life was unfair at Akihabara-U and he couldn't wait for it to all be over.

"What do you need, sensei?"

Hina Tachibana smiled as she took a big sip out of his latte. Taking a sweeping look at the other women in his immediate vicinity, she thought she had found the right group of people to undertake this little task which was put on her shoulders by the university administration. He would need all the help he can get and from the looks of it the women he kept company with would be more than happy to help him out. In fact, she was pretty sure she was helping them out with this new, enriching life experience.

"I will get to that in a bit. But first, tell me what do you guys think about getting married?"

A/N: It's been a long time since I wrote a 4100+ chapter. Now we have all the women of this arc. Things will become even more interesting from the next chapter onwards, because it will feature one-on-one interaction with these lovely ladies.

Here are the options:

Option 1: Tsugumi x Hachiman – Damsel.

Option 2: Nino x Hachiman – Family.

Option 3: Chizuru x Hachiman – Heroine.

Option 4: Utaha x Hachiman – Dream.

Option 5: Hina Tachibana x Hachiman – Taboo.

Please pick any of the above options.

Hope everyone enjoyed reading this chapter.

Leave lots and lots of reviews, follow and fave.

Won't betray your dreams.

P.S.: Akira Tachibana is from 'After the Rain'

Hina Tachibana is from 'Domestic Girlfriend.'

Members of the harem unlocked: 5 out of 72.