Ch.130Chapter 130

Starting with Karen, Sera and Aria entered the Professor’s Research Lab.

As soon as Sera came in, she stared at Ouro with wide eyes. She seemed startled by the red eyes, but appeared more shocked by something else.

“…Two Ourrs?!”

“I’m Ouro.”

Though Ouro insisted she wasn’t Ourr, Sera paid no attention to her words and immediately approached her, slightly lowering her posture. Since there wasn’t much height difference between them and Sera, they could easily make eye contact.

Ouro looked at Sera with a blank expression.

She had apparently met everyone here once before, but seeing them just once a week wasn’t enough to develop any special friendship.

The three of them seemed to have quickly taken a liking to Ouro, but that was because of my and Ouro’s uniqueness, not because they had truly become close friends.

As the ones directly involved, Ouro and I had seen countless people either approach us with familiarity or distance themselves in fear, so we remained indifferent to such reactions. Now that we were becoming friends, their excitement felt pleasant, unconsciously making me smile.

Unlike me, Ouro didn’t feel much connection with Sera. So naturally, she felt uncomfortable when Sera suddenly approached her with sparkling eyes.

Ouro blinked repeatedly and took a hesitant step back. She glanced at the Professor, silently asking for help. The Professor just sat at her desk, watching Ouro with a gentle smile.

It seemed the Professor just found the troubled Ouro cute.

“Ouro? Are you a twin sister? Or wait, are you the older one? Which is it?”

Sera looked back and forth between me and Ouro with sparkling eyes. Then she stared at me, seeking a proper answer. I blinked, hesitating about what to say, then straightened up and said:

“I’m the older sister.”

I almost added “Mom,” but I didn’t want to mention that behavior in front of my friends, so I glossed over it.

“Then Ouro is the younger one. How cute.”

“Let go. I’m not the younger one.”

Ouro, apparently disliking being called the younger sister, rejected Sera’s touch with a sullen expression. Sera stared blankly for a moment, then looked at her rejected hand with a slightly hurt expression.

“…Not the younger one, I see. Then let’s just go with Ouro. Ouro, I’ll buy you something delicious, so let’s be friends?”

“Um, that…”

Sera started trying to win Ouro over. Seeing my friend fixate on Ouro and offer to buy her things gave me a strange feeling.

Of course, it was nice that Sera was being friendly, but since Ouro and I looked exactly the same, it felt like Ouro was stealing my friend.

No, it should be good that they’re becoming friends, so why just Ouro!

Plus, the lines Sera was using to persuade Ouro sounded like something a suspicious stranger might say, making me break into a sweat. I flinched, glared at Aria, Karen, and Ouro, and quickly wedged myself between Sera and Ouro.

“No way! She eats a ton when she has pizza.”

“That’s right, I saw it too.”

The person who nodded at my words wasn’t Sera but Aria. She had been fiddling with her phone and now played a video featuring me.

Apparently, as the view count skyrocketed, it was appearing in other people’s videos too. Whether the algorithm was recommending it or not, the views were climbing higher every day.

The golden eyes in the video were my eye color, but anyone who had seen Ouro during the past week would know that Ouro had golden eyes at that time. So they correctly recognized it was Ouro, not me.

Besides, Ouro’s name was written below, so anyone who could read wouldn’t be confused.

Aria played the video, and Sera and Karen squealed with delight.

“She really does eat well. I saw that too.”

“Me too. I was really surprised! Come to think of it, I wanted to ask—was this filmed at the Professor’s house, Ouro?”

Karen pointed at the house with the sofa in the video. The Professor, hearing the keyword “video,” remembered there was only one video of Ouro and gave an affirmative answer.

“Yes, with Ourr and Ouro together.”

“Wow, it’s really spacious.”

“I never thought we’d get to see what the Professor’s house looks like.”

Having received confirmation that it was the Professor’s house, Karen and Sera seemed to find it even more interesting and tried to see the background behind Ouro.

Unfortunately, the camera was fixed, and the close-up shot only showed the table, sofa, pizza, and Ouro. It was impossible to tell how spacious the house was or what it looked like.

They had to be satisfied with just seeing part of the Professor’s home interior.

“But isn’t this much eating unnecessary? If Ouro is a Demon God too, she can just eat moderately.”

“That’s right. Ourr is making too much fuss.”

At Aria’s words, Ouro immediately shot me a glare. I flinched and averted my gaze.

I couldn’t deny the accusation of making a fuss. If she wanted to buy something, she could just buy it. It should have been that simple, but I had instinctively blocked her for some reason.

Fortunately, Ouro hadn’t said anything about it before.

I pouted and turned my head away. I could feel Ouro’s steady gaze. As I broke into a sweat, Ouro spoke up.

“I think Ourr is jealous of me.”

“N-No, I’m not!”

I immediately denied it when I heard the word “jealous.” I waved my hands frantically, but everyone’s attention was already on me. Karen, who had been giggling, blinked and then gently reached out to me.

She softly brushed my hair like a curtain and smiled.

“Ourr, your ears are really red.”

“…N-No! I’m not jealous!”

Even if I insisted I wasn’t, it seemed they already saw me that way. After saying that, it looked even more like I was jealous, which was mortifying.

If someone asked me deep down whether it was jealousy, we’d need a long discussion to figure it out. It was difficult to answer right away.

I clenched my fists, trembling and looking around. The others were laughing without listening to me, and Ouro beside me was looking at me with a satisfied expression.

Though her expression barely changed, she looked like she had scored a point against me, which was frustrating. Why make such a big deal out of this?

Groaning, I shuffled over to where the Professor was.

“Professor, I’m really not jealous…”

“Oh my, is that so? Then that must be the case.”

The Professor welcomed me with those words. I glanced at her sitting in her chair. The chair didn’t look sturdy enough for me to climb onto.

I had wanted to be held, but realized the chair wouldn’t allow it, so I looked around awkwardly. I couldn’t suddenly ask the Professor to move to a place with a sturdier chair, so I gave up cleanly.

Instead, I firmly held the Professor’s hand and glared at Ouro and the others.

Then Ouro opened her eyes wide and walked toward me.

“Shoo! Go away! I’m not jealous of Ouro!”

I gestured with my left hand (the one not holding the Professor’s) to shoo Ouro away. Ouro stared at me disapprovingly and pointed to where my right hand was.

“My turn. If you wait, the next turn is mine.”

“No? The next turn is mine too.”

When I shook my head, Ouro looked at the Professor with an expression that suggested she had something to say.

“Professor. If one person monopolizes for too long, the next turn never comes. That applies to the person enjoying it now too. There won’t be a later.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

I didn’t expect her to remember so well what she learned from the carousel. I pouted and shook my head.

“Is that because you’re jealous of me? Because I have the Professor?”

“…It’s not jealousy.”

“Hmm, I’m sure it’s not.”

I just laughed it off like my other friends had done.

There was no point in insisting “No, it is jealousy!” If she said it wasn’t, that was that. Conversely, I could just come to my own conclusion and understand it myself, regardless of what anyone said.

That seemed to work, as Ouro’s expression became slightly fiercer.

After staring at me intently, Ouro strode toward me. Though her stride wasn’t particularly wide, the fact that she was walking toward me startled me.

“Go away.”

“It’s not jealousy.”

“Then go.”

“It’s not jealousy.”

After repeating herself several times, Ouro mumbled something and then grabbed my head with both hands.

“This is what you did when you were angry, right? Respect the next turn.”

“Eek?!”

With my head grabbed, I let go of the Professor and grabbed Ouro’s head. Just like before, we pressed our foreheads together, holding each other’s heads and fuming.

“Let go.”

“You let go first!”

“Let go.”

“No!”

As we bickered, forgetting that the others and the Professor were watching, a stern voice came from behind.

“You two! Who told you to keep fighting like that!”