Ririka sat next to Mary on the bed. The older girl's intense stare was making Mary feel a bit self-conscious. She hadn't ever seriously considered she'd go this far with anyone, there were few incidents when Yumeko had made some semi-serious passes on her, but she had turned these down, some of these had been in the presence of a very uncomfortable Suzui-san. Even the kiss and infatuation she felt for Ririka had only just come to a realization a few minutes ago. But the way the Vice President just swept her off her feet, making her head spin and feel incredibly dizzy had awoken something inside her that was completely new and exciting. She was not ready to stop exploring this feeling yet.

"So, my punishment for losing?" Mary demanded an answer.

"Who said it'd be a punishment?" Ririka asked, leaning closer to the younger girl. "The thing is," she continued with a calm decisive tone. "—there's a small thing I want you to do for me, Mary—" Ririka placed her other hand on Mary's thigh, startling the blonde who had been concentrating on keeping the eye contact. Other than the deep permanent blush Ririka had on her cheeks, her expression didn't waver when she moved her hand higher up, slowly, "—I want you to show me—"

RRRRIIIIINNNNNGGGGG-

Mary jumped up. "Who the fuck dares to interrupt—" The sharp ring of the doorbell still echoed in the apartment.

RRRIIINNNGGG- RRRRIIINNGGG-

"For fuck's sake, COMING!" Mary stumbled to the door. She felt extremely irritated, whoever came unannounced had managed to get through the door downstairs without alerting them. Only spare key she had was with her parents, she didn't have time to wonder why they would just come without any notice. Opening the door with unnecessary force, she found someone behind the door she was not expecting at all. "W-what are you doing here?!"

"Is that a way to greet your seniors?" nonchalant voice asked. Momobami Kirari stood in the hallway, her dark-haired assistant standing a few feet behind her; looking as though she wanted to escape the situation.

"How did you get in?!" Mary asked, clenching her fists.

"I have my ways. Aren't you at least going to invite us in?" The Student Council President requested.

"No. Say what you have to say and leave," Mary hissed between her teeth.

"Fine. We can settle this here in the hallway with all your curious neighbors listening in if that's what you wish. I got a rather interesting phone call from one of our drivers just a while ago. My sister had left the school today, accompanied by a blonde classmate and somewhere around this neighborhood the blonde classmate had dragged my sister forcefully away from the car. Am I to assume you kidnapped my sister, for whatever reason you might have?" Kirari finished her accusations coldly.

"W-What?! You know very well that is not the case… Please come in and see Ririka yourself, she's doing just fine." Mary hated to be cornered like this and unwillingly gestured the two to step inside. She closed the door behind them after they were both inside. "No need to remove your shoes, this is as far as you are welcome to—" Mary tried to say but the President had already shot past her to the living room. "—some fucking manners you have, just waltzing into people's home with your shoes on—"

"Don't worry, Saotome-san, my shoes are cleaner than your floors." Kirari shot coldly. Sayaka stayed behind, close to the exit.

Ririka also got up from the bed and walked up to greet her twin sister. "Good afternoon, Kirari. I heard your commotion from the hallway, I'm doing just fine, like Mary said. This is ridiculous, please leave."

Both Mary and Kirari looked like their jaws might drop open any second. Sayaka's small gasp was almost inaudible from the hallway. Mary was not sure how the sisters usually addressed each other but this sounded like her dear Riri had just thrown a bucket full of ice to Kirari's direction.

"This is ridiculous, you hanging out here playing friends with Saotome-san, acting out in front of the staff and making them worry for your safety." Kirari started with a condescending tone. She gave off an expression as if she was standing in a middle of garbage, her eyes were wondering around until they stopped when she spotted the red blazer on the kitchen floor. Mary nervously shot a look at the kitchen floor too when she saw what Kirari was looking at and tried to catch Ririka's eyes as if to telepathically send her a SOS message of the possible shitstorm ahead. Too late. Kirari gave a curious look at Mary's direction, probably counting 1+1 in her head. After a short quiet break where each of the three seemed to have noticed the same thing, Kirari broke the silence. "—Interesting… So, Saotome-san, you must be really desperate if you have already let this creep of a sister of mine have her way with—" Kirari's words were interrupted when Mary gave a spontaneous slap across her face.

Ririka covered her mouth with both of her hands. Sayaka ran to the room. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" Sayaka was about to come between the President and the blonde, but the President lifted her arm to stop Sayaka from approaching.

"Leave it, Sayaka. This does not concern you," the President said, not showing anger or any other feeling to imply what was to come of this sudden outburst. "This does, however, concern you two." Kirari held a hand against her sore cheek and had a strange glint in her eyes when she took turns staring at Ririka and Mary. Mary took a step closer to Ririka, blocking partially the sisters apart.

"Leave Ririka out of this, I slapped you, just take it out on me if you have to." The blonde said, feeling disappointed in herself for letting a small taunt get the best of her.

The President chuckled. "I have no need for such vulgar methods to express myself." The glint in her eyes had not disappeared, seeing Mary take such a strong stand, literally, to cover her cowardly sister had only piqued her interest even more. "I did not come here to fight; I came to get my sister home back for dinner. I'm extending the invitation for you too, Saotome-san. Sayaka is also joining us."

"No, thank you. We're good, we already have plans for—" Mary declined but was interrupted by the President.

"I'm not asking." The silver-haired heiress gave a meaningful glare. "Car is downstairs, I give you 5 minutes to get your things." She turned on her heels and walked to the door, Sayaka following her footsteps.

They arrived to the Momobami residence in one car. Kirari had insisted to sit in the back with her sister and Mary. Mary had been unlucky to get the middle seat, she had kept staring in front of her the whole long ride, feeling the curious stares burning her cheeks from both sides. Nobody had said anything and the atmosphere in the car had been so heavy you couldn't have broken through it with a chainsaw.

Ririka was wearing her mask again, Mary had protested heavily against it but given up back at the apartment when Ririka had made a strong case against more unnecessary fights before they got to the estate. Ririka had also offered to cover for Mary if she wanted to skip the dinner but Mary was rather curious to see what Kirari had planned for the evening. Of course, she had also been curious to see where Ririka was staying but left that detail unsaid.

Mary was happy to get out of the car; she took long breaths of fresh air and quietly examined the surroundings. The Momobami estate was a lot smaller what she had imagined. It still looked mighty expensive, 3 medium sized buildings aligning a round clean yard, few town cars in a clear line on a small parking lot close to the entrance gate.

"This is where we stay with Ririka while we're at school," Kirari explained, clearly noticing Mary's curious looks of the surroundings. "The family estate is higher up north, it's like a small village compared to this one. Ririka didn't tell you?" Kirari teased.

"Thanks for the intro, we had more interesting topics to talk about than the Momobami family assets," Mary replied while trying hard not to think about the topics they had discussed earlier and avoid heavy blushing.

"That wing is where Ririka sleeps," Kirari pointed the building on the left side of the yard, and obviously got the response from Mary she wanted when a small blush rose to the blonde's cheeks. "You can stay over night if you like, of course, and ride to school tomorrow morning with Ririka."

Mary was turning bright red but did not respond immediately. She knew exactly what Kirari was trying to imply with these kinds of comments and was once again very disappointed in herself to show such strong involuntary reactions. Once again, Ririka's reactions, whatever these might have been, went unnoticed by everyone under her mask. Mary hoped for a moment she could borrow one of the masks too but remembered why she was so disgusted by them in the first place. This led to another realization.

"Maybe I will," she said, flashing the President a smile, a bit on the pretentious side, but a smile, nevertheless. Mary was sure she heard a small cough coming from Ririka's direction. Sayaka was glaring at Mary, not even trying to hide the jealous aura emitting from her, apparently the over night invitation had not been extended to her.

The President gave a rather hearty laugh, "That's what I like about you, Mary-san! Let's get going, the dinner is getting cold." She said and started walking towards the building in the middle. The three girls followed.

When they got inside, an older woman wearing a plain dark kimono greeted the party overly politely, Mary felt a bit uncomfortable having someone kneeling and bowing so deeply in front of her. Mary kept eyeing the others to see what she had to do, this level of living was very unfamiliar and left her feeling a bit self-conscious of her background. After following the others with the polite necessities, Mary noticed they had emerged to a small hallway, she also noticed Ririka had finally removed her mask which made her heart feel a bit lighter.

Ririka grabbed Mary's arm gently and stopped. Either Kirari didn't notice or didn't care, as the other two kept walking ahead the corridor. "...Hey, can we talk?" The Vice President whispered and started dragging Mary to a small room, checking it was empty, she quietly closed the door behind them.

"Uh, yeah, sure. What is it?" Mary asked, keeping her voice quiet.

"I know my sister can be a lot, and I mean, a lot, to handle…" Ririka started.

"I can take care of myself, no need to worry," Mary interrupted.

"No, it's not maybe you I'm worried about. She might tell some… uhm-, details about me. I was hoping we would have gotten to know each other a bit more before she starts messing with me again," Ririka said quietly, looking a bit embarrassed. "I just didn't have time to tell you everything yet and—"

"Hey, it's totally fine. I know what kind of mind games she likes to play, I'm pretty sure I can match whatever she has to throw at me," Mary said encouragingly, "And whatever she says about you, I'll wait to hear your version first before I decide what to think about it, OK?"

"Thank you, Mary, we should probably go before she sends the hounds after us," the Vice President sounded surprisingly serious about the hounds. Mary winced at the thought of some ferocious Dobermans chasing her tail, she was afraid of big dogs and was now worried she'd have nightmares for few weeks.

Mary was taken aback when the taller girl suddenly turned and placed a soft kiss on her lips, the kiss lingered for a moment longer than what Mary was prepared for and she needed to break it to catch her breath. "Sorry, that was a bit sudden… Didn't have time to catch my breath." Mary gave a playful punch on Ririka's arm. "Great, now I need to gather myself, again."

They emerged back to the corridor that was now empty and walked to the direction the others had disappeared a while ago.

"But seriously, hounds?!" Mary asked, shivering at the thought.

The dinner was served to a large table, the four were seated in the other end of the table. The dishes were a lot fancier than Mary's usual cup noodles with hot dog pieces lazily cut up in the mix.

"Hope you enjoy the meal," the President said politely, addressing the two new visitors to their usual dinner table.

"So, it's just the two of you here for the whole semester?" Mary asked to keep a conversation going. She tried to keep the topics neutral to avoid any further confrontations.

"Yes—," Ririka started to answer but was interrupted by her sister.

"Yes, the two of us and the staff. Which some of us like to entertain a bit more than is necessary," Kirari hurried to add to Ririka's answer.

"Oh, I see. There's a lot of staff then?" Mary asked, trying to steer the conversation away from the obvious bait Kirari had just thrown in the mix.

"Yes, around 10 regulars and then all of those whom we have to let go for various reasons," Kirari baited again.

"I see, interesting. Do you entertain a lot of visitors here, or should I start feeling very special?" Mary steered the conversation to other direction.

"We host some gatherings for the Council members here from time to time," Kirari was getting bored when her hints were so boldly ignored. "But if you'd like to feel special, just ask my sister to show you her scrapbook of "The Amazing Saotome Mary"."

Ririka nearly choked on her food and turned bright red. Mary kept her cool and smiled politely.

"Sounds really nice, you need to show it to me later, Ririka!" Mary replied cheeringly.

"She keeps it in her bedroom, under her pillow. Maybe you'd have found it tonight without my help," Kirari was pushing the food around on her plate, looking very bored. Whatever she had thought to get out of this dinner, she hadn't gotten it yet.

The four finished their dinner in silence. The President hadn't touched her food much and had propped her elbow against the table, resting her head on it and looked rather uninterested about the company. Sayaka had been quiet for the whole dinner, politely finished her plate, she had a fairly serene expression on her face. Ririka was blushing and staring at her plate, lost in her thoughts. Mary also finished her plate and decided to break the silence.

"So, Ririka, should we go check your room now?" Mary tilted her head and tried to get an eye contact with the blushing girl.

The other Momobami twin awoke from her bored state and lazily gazed at her sister, raising her brows slightly. "Oh, she would like to show it to you, I'm sure, but the night is still young, let's do something fun before I let you enjoy the loving company of—"

"That's enough, Kirari. I do not need your permission to—" Ririka started to defend herself.

"Oh, don't need it now do we? Who was it that was too scared to go even talk to Mary-san before I ordered you to follow her around?" Kirari seemed to get her lost interest in provoking people back.

Ririka on the other hand, despite the heavy blush on her cheeks was giving her twin a very serious look that gave chills to the remaining party at the table.

"I'm doing just fine on my own now," Ririka replied coldly.

Kirari gave her sister a curious look, seemingly getting excited to poke around some more. Mary decided to chime in before things got too heated between the two sisters.

"I can vouch for that! You'd never know how much I enjoyed our afternoon," Mary said, grabbed Ririka's hand. Ririka was startled but didn't remove her hand. Sayaka noticed her mouth was gaping and soon closed it. "I can sincerely just thank you with all the help you've obviously given for your sister and the support, I wish we all had siblings who'd go to such lengths."

Kirari stared at Mary for a second, then burst into laughter. "Interesting! As expected, Saotome-san! Now we just need my dear sister to make a stand of her own, and I'll retire for the night, satisfied. So, how's it going to be, Ririka?"

Ririka was clearly thinking how to express herself, her face was burning bright of anger and she kept staring at Kirari intensely. She looked like she was about to say something but held her tongue.

"Nothing?" Kirari asked after a while. "Still need more help from me? I bet Mary-san would feel a bit different about standing up for you like this if she knew all the perverted things you, my dear filthy sister, have been doing for the past years…"

"ENOUGH! THAT'S ENOUGH! YOU KNOW NOTHING WHAT REALLY HAPPENED! YOU CAN'T JUST SPIT LIES AND RUIN OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES LIKE THAT!" Ririka screamed in tears.

"That's the spirit! Now calm down, there's no need to scream, that's not very lady-like." Kirari stated, her piercing blue eyes looked almost soft for a moment when she was looking at the sobbing mess sitting across the table. Her mouth twisted to a smug smile when Saotome Mary boldly grabbed the sobbing head between her hands and planted a kiss on her sister's lips in front of the whole party sitting at the table. Sayaka was too embarrassed to look in their direction but almost lost her balance when she heard the President address her directly, and she had to do a 180 turn on her seat. "Sayaka, if you feel too tired to go home tonight, you can also stay over for the night."

Sayaka's heart skipped a beat and she gave a way too eager, "YES, PLEASE!"

"I need you to sleep in the same room with those two to make sure—" Kirari started, seeing the overly ecstatic face also do a hasty turn to sour, she waited painfully long before continuing, "No, I'm just pulling your leg, Sayaka. I wouldn't force anyone to see that."