Madam, believe me, how can I be a minotaur?

She said this with a mix of shyness and reproach, seemingly hoping that Asano Makoto wouldn't continue.

However, to her surprise, Asano Makoto not only continued but also took action.

"I can't help it, I'm really nervous right now, why don't you feel it for yourself."

After saying this, he immediately turned around and moved closer, then grabbed Miyajima Eriko's right hand and placed it on his chest.

"See, my heart is beating really fast, right?"

"!"

Listening to Asano Makoto's earnest words and feeling the rapid heartbeat in her hand, Miyajima Eriko's body stiffened instantly as she was forced to turn around.

Although the room was pitch black, so she couldn't see Asano Makoto at all, the inability to perceive her surroundings only made her more nervous.

"Asano-kun..."

She unconsciously called out Asano Makoto's name, but Asano Makoto seemed not to hear and abruptly shifted to the next topic: "Eriko, I want to hug you, is that okay?"

Hearing Asano Makoto's request, Miyajima Eriko was taken aback, she didn't understand why Asano Makoto would suddenly say such a thing.

But the next second, she became even more nervous, because she felt that Asano Makoto seemed a little strange right now.

"As, Asano-kun, I..."

So she called out Asano Makoto's name again, seemingly wanting him to wake up and stop doing these things and saying these strange things.

However, because of Asano Makoto's change, her voice had already begun to tremble, even with a hint of pleading.

But the "irrational" Asano Makoto wouldn't care about these trivial matters, but continued to plead: "I want to hug you, Eriko, really just hugging, doing nothing else, just hugging for a while, okay?"

The current situation is different from the previous dream. In the dream, because Yamada Yuta had been dead for a year, he only needed to have a good relationship with Eriko and then confess directly.

But that won't work in reality. In reality, Yamada Yuta is still alive and well, and he and Miyajima Eriko haven't broken up yet, so confession isn't a good move.

Although there is a possibility of success, it is too risky, and failure may even damage the relationship with Miyajima Eriko.

So the safest way is to take advantage of her weakness of not being good at refusing.

If she doesn't agree, then keep pleading sincerely, and she will eventually agree.

Although an ordinary person might get slapped and kicked out of bed the moment they made such a request, and she might even call the police.

But when facing Asano Makoto, a favorability rating of 95 wouldn't make her do these things.

After all, this value may already be higher than her favorability rating for Yamada Yuta.

She might even feel a little anticipation in her heart and accept Asano Makoto's request reluctantly.

In this way, as long as he slowly breaks through her defenses, lowers her bottom line, and then takes it step by step, he can successfully reach the end and completely take her down.

This is also why Asano Makoto has been waiting until now.

Because it's so late now, Miyajima Eriko has no way out.

As long as Eriko can't escape, then he can slowly implement his plan.

Moreover, in a pitch-black environment, because people can't see their surroundings, they are most prone to wild thoughts, which also makes it easier for him to break through Miyajima Eriko's defenses.

The fact is indeed so.

After hearing Asano Makoto's request, Miyajima Eriko didn't speak for a long time.

Because her already crashed brain made her completely unable to think of what to say.

On the other side, Asano Makoto, who had been waiting for a while without getting a reply, directly said: "If you don't speak, I'll take it as a default."

Then, he immediately hugged her, holding Miyajima Eriko tightly in his arms.

"Ugh—!"

Miyajima Eriko, whose mind was still not clear, immediately began to struggle subconsciously after being hugged.

However, Asano Makoto hugged her so tightly, as if he didn't want to give her the slightest chance to escape.

After a while, Miyajima Eriko, who had run out of strength, gradually stopped.

At the same time, her mind also became slightly clearer, and she finally realized her current situation.

Her guess came true.

The current Asano-kun seemed a little strange, he became very proactive, and even hugged her directly for some reason.

Then, will it be...

Thinking about what might happen later, Miyajima Eriko's heart began to tangle again.

She knew that this was wrong, was not allowed, but she didn't know what to do.

Because her heart was also faintly expecting something, and she couldn't refuse Asano Makoto's request.

Therefore, although she had stopped struggling, her body was still trembling slightly at this moment.

Just then, Asano Makoto, noticing this, immediately said: "Eriko, listen to me."

Unlike Miyajima Eriko, he, with a physical strength attribute value of 8, could still see the scene in front of him in a pitch-black environment.

Although it was a bit blurry, but after all, they were so close, he could still see the tangled expression on Miyajima Eriko's face.

He knew very well that Miyajima Eriko had not yet sorted out her heart.

But what he didn't know and couldn't know was, what kind of conclusion would Miyajima Eriko come to once she sorted out her thoughts.

So what he had to do now was to take advantage of this opportunity to continue striking while the iron was hot and lower Miyajima Eriko's bottom line to the very bottom.

So, he used his last trump card: "Believe me, Eriko, believe me, I just want to hug you for a while, just for a while, I'll let go immediately, I won't do anything."

Saying that, he paused slightly, and then said with some loss: "I just want to say goodbye to you, and to the thoughts that shouldn't have arisen in my heart."

His words were unfinished, and even sounded a bit inexplicable.

But it was enough.

Miyajima Eriko understood the sentence instantly.

Because she herself was the same, she had thoughts that shouldn't have arisen in her heart, and she had been troubled by this feeling.

So the moment she heard this, she was directly stunned.

She never knew, and never even thought about it.

It turned out that she wasn't the only one who was enduring so hard because of this feeling that shouldn't have existed.

Asano-kun was also like this, and he was stronger than her.

Before today, he had never shown it, but silently hid this feeling in his heart, not even revealing a trace of it.

Because she "sympathized" with Asano Makoto, Miyajima Eriko naturally knew how difficult it was, and how difficult it was to endure.

So in the next instant, her body no longer trembled, and even the slightest suspicion of Asano Makoto that had arisen in her heart because of his actions just now had disappeared.

"Asano-kun, I..."

Miyajima Eriko opened her mouth subconsciously, wanting to talk to Asano Makoto.

But before she could finish her words, she was directly interrupted by Asano Makoto: "Eriko, don't say it, save me some face."

Asano Makoto said with a wry smile: "Right now, I just want to hug you like this for a while, okay?"

Hearing this, Miyajima Eriko was silent for a while.

After a long time, she nodded lightly: "Okay."

And after hesitating for a while, she stretched out her hands around Asano Makoto's back and hugged him back.

In this way, the two quietly hugged each other, feeling each other's body temperature, and did not separate for a long time.

Then, Asano Makoto said calmly.

"Eriko, do you know? Actually, from a long time ago, probably from the day you saved me, I fell in love with you."

Faced with Asano Makoto's sudden confession, Miyajima Eriko was stunned, and after a while, she nodded slowly: "Yeah."

"After realizing this, I felt very painful, because the person I fell in love with was a woman who already had a boyfriend, and her boyfriend was still my friend... I felt very tangled, I didn't know what to do, and in the end, I could only hide my thoughts in my heart."

Speaking of this, after pausing slightly and giving a wry smile, Asano Makoto continued: "But how easy is it to hide feelings? As I became more and more familiar with you, I also began to like you more and more."

"And every time I was with you, I would always try to attract your attention... Later, because of my lack of self-respect, we had a dispute, do you remember this?"

"Yeah... I remember, I remember very clearly."

Miyajima Eriko certainly remembered, because that was the first time she recognized her feelings for Asano Makoto.

After getting Miyajima Eriko's affirmative reply, Asano Makoto continued: "At that time, I really felt like the sky was falling, I was very regretful, I regretted why I was so frivolous, why I said those words, now it's good, I'm going to lose contact with you."

"But I'm very lucky, because later we re-established contact, although only as friends, but friends are also very good, at least this way, I can always stay by your side."

"So later, every time I was with you, I would try to control my words and actions, and try not to do anything in front of you that might make you hate me, after all, I really don't want to experience another separation from you."

Hearing this, Miyajima Eriko was immediately stunned.

For some reason, the more she listened to Asano Makoto, the more familiar she felt.

Because those things that troubled and tangled Asano Makoto were exactly the same as hers.

In a certain moment, she even felt that Asano Makoto was simply another her.

And she didn't expect that she hadn't misunderstood at that time, Asano Makoto really had feelings for her.

She also didn't expect that Asano Makoto had always attributed the responsibility for that conflict to himself.

And later, his constant gentlemanly behavior was actually because he was afraid of being disgusted by her, afraid of losing contact with her, so he deliberately pretended.

But in fact, his performance at that time was not a big problem.

So in the final analysis, it was still I who misunderstood on my own...

Thinking of this, Miyajima Eriko immediately wanted to explain, and at the same time comfort Asano Makoto, who seemed a little sad at the moment: "Asano-kun, actually at that time..."

"Eriko, actually you don't need to comfort me."

But before she could finish her words, Asano Makoto directly interrupted: "I'm not saying these things in the hope that you will do anything, I just simply want to tell you, I like you."

"But, I can't let down my friend, Yuta is a good person, so I must be honest with you and then let you reject me."