The Affection Multiplier - Chapter 269: Back to School. (Patreon)

“W-What the hell!? Let me see it!” a girl exclaims.

“Of course! Look as much as you want, but don’t touch it,” Lilian says smugly, putting her hand forward for the group of girls surrounding her, Jessica and Olivia to see the ring in her hand. The two other girls do the same, eliciting loud squeals of excitement from the women in the classroom.

“Oh my God! I can’t believe you’re engaged!”

“I admit, I half-thought you guys were just messing around,” says another, “but you’re actually getting married? My God!”

Olivia thrusts her chest forward proudly. “Of course we weren’t messing around. Who do you take us for?”

“When’s the date?” asks a girl, and that makes the three engaged women wince.

“Not any time soon, I’ll tell you that,” Lilian sighs.

“We still have too much to do,” Jessica chuckles. “Studies, family, work… We know we’re going to be together, but there’s still things we need to finish before we can do that.”

“Aren’t you rushing things, then?”

“Fuck no,” Olivia answers immediately. “David, tell them!”

Olivia and the other women in the room look around, but the man is nowhere to be found.

“Where did he go?” Jessica asks.

“I think he got a phone call and went out to take it,” says another classmate.

“Good, that means he’s not here to stop this,” a girl says, grinning naughtily. “So? What happened after the proposal?”

“Oh dear, you just CAN’T imagine how amazing it was,” Olivia grins back.

________________________________________________________________

Sitting around a big table in the cafeteria, Emily and Megan are surrounded by their teammates, silently listening as Emily tells them the story.

“…so he had to reheat the food, but it was still really good!” the blonde nods. “So we’re eating and talking and everything is normal. But then he says that dessert is under the chair.”

“What? Under the chair?” a girl asks.

“Yeah, we were like that, too!” Megan laughs. “We were like, ‘why would you ever leave dessert under a chair!?’ But then we moved our hands under them, and I felt my fingers touch a small, soft box…”

The girls squeal in excitement at the story.

“The mad man actually did it!” Emily grins. “He taped the boxes under the tables, and inside the boxes were these!” She put her hand forward to flaunt her engagement ring once more. Her teammates still looked at it with shining eyes.

Meanwhile, Megan kept hers close to her, staring at it lovingly.

“God, I’m so fucking jealous!” one of their teammates said. “I want a boyfriend!”

“Me too! Your group always looks so happy. Don’t you guys ever fight?”

“Sometimes?” Megan says, sharing a look with Emily. “Not a lot, though. We talk a bunch, so no feelings are ever bottled up.”

“Still, it’s not all fun and games,” Emily sighs. “We’re engaged, but we’re getting married a few years from now. That wedding is going to be expensive as shit.”

“Oh, right,” one of their teammates winced. “The wedding dresses alone could maybe cover a normal ceremony.”

Megan furiously scratches her head at the mention of that. “Why? Why do things have to cost money!?”

“I’m sure your families will help…” another girl offers.

“I hope so,” Emily sighs.

________________________________________________________________

Back in the debate club room, Katherine and Sophia were being subjected to a barrage of questions they weren’t able to avoid.

“And what’s the wedding gonna be like?” asks one of their older teammates.

“Or is it weddings?” asks another.

“We don’t know…” Katherine sighs. “David says he’d like to give each of us a special day, but we know that’d be even more expensive.”

“And it’s not like we’re strangers to sharing,” Sophia nods with arms crossed. “I’m fighting for a single wedding. I mean, how many chances do you get to see a wedding with so many people? We’re already a weird as heck family, might as well embrace it!”

“Speaking of which, where are you going to live?”

“Umm…” Katherine starts. “That’s still under review,” she laughs nervously.

“We kind of want to stay in this town, but it depends on what jobs we’re able to get,” Sophia says. “There’s even a very small chance we end up moving to Japan in the future, but I don’t think that’ll happen.”

“Why Japan?”

“David’s family is there, and his older brother has been very supportive of us,” Katherine says. “I don’t want to burden him more than we already have, though…”

“Oooh, imagine if you moved to Japan and somehow you end up falling in love with your fiancé’s brother,” one of their teammates says, teasingly.

“NTR is a trash fetish,” Katherine says, narrowing her eyes. Though the moment she realizes that comment was extremely rude, the rest of the girls burst out laughing. Relieved, Katherine joins the laughter. People have started to accept her for who she really is.

________________________________________________________________

At the common teacher’s office, there are a few colleagues gathered around Emma. The unusually ostentatious necklace she’s wearing caught the attention of some.

“Emma? What’s with the necklace?” asks the history teacher. “You’ve never been one for fancy jewelry, woman.”

“I know, right?” Emma laughs. “I don’t know what came over me. I saw it at a store and it just called to me, like I was meant to have it. Now it’s my precious,” she says in a raspy voice as she clings onto it, hiding it from everyone else’s view. The history teacher understands the joke and laughs.

“Oh? Let me see it, dear,” Mia says, casually getting into the conversation. She takes the necklace gently in her hand and examines it. “It’s really pretty. Was it too expensive?”

“More than a normal necklace, yes, but a girl’s allowed to buy herself something nice every once in a while, right?” the literature teacher says, grinning.

“Emma doesn’t indulge that much, anyway. Good for you, girl,” says the math teacher.

“Mmm…” Mia hums. “Would it bother you too much if I bought one in a similar style? The more I look at it, the more I like it.”

“Hey, not fair!” Julia says, jumping into the conversation from the other side of the room. “I already asked Emma that! Are the three of us going to be wearing the same kind of necklace?”

Emma bursts out laughing. “I don’t mind, I don’t mind!” she says. “I just saw it and liked it. If you did too, just buy one.”

The history teacher sighed heavily. “To be young again. Take these opportunities while you can, girls. When you’re married, you won’t be able to treat yourselves like this.”

“Ugh, shut up, don’t speak of marriage,” Mia says, shaking her head.

“Oh? Did that hit a nerve, Mia?” the math teacher chuckles.

“Problems with your boyfriend?” Julia teased.

“Maybe, but I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay, change of topic,” the math teacher said. “Have you heard the rumors that Mrs. Hayes is retiring?”

Emma, Mia and Julia are left satisfied with the results of their acting. Now nobody will suspect a thing when the three of them start wearing similar necklaces around school. They had to come up with this, because nothing would prevent them of wearing the symbol of their promise with their fiancé.

________________________________________________________________

Sitting alone in her office while classes were ongoing, Anzu speaks on the phone with her father.

“Yes, dad. He’s the same young man you tried to have me marry…” she sighs tiredly, speaking in Japanese.

“And after all you complained about not wanting to marry him!?”

“It was never about him, dad! It was about you and mom forcing me into it!”

“We could’ve gotten such a good deal out of it, Anzu! You should’ve just married him then!”

“Dad,” Anzu groans. “He’s not only marrying me, remember? There are other girls. Getting engaged to him back then would’ve been incredibly rude to them all!”

“His fault for not telling us beforehand!”

“He didn’t even know his own father was planning to marry him off! You’re being unreasonable. And besides, you got a better deal selling the company to Walker-san’s oldest son, right?”

“W-Well… yes, but…”

“No more buts. You’re just whining because you didn’t have things go your way. I’m going to marry David on my own terms, okay? Because I want to do it!”

She hears a heavy sigh coming from the phone.

“Are you happy at least, Anzu?”

A smile creeps into Anzu’s lips as she looks at the ring in her hand.

“Yes. Very much so.”

________________________________________________________________

You stand on the rooftop all alone with your phone against your ear. It’s the first time ever that your dad calls you while you’re in school, so it means he already found out.

“Can you talk?” your dad asks through the phone.

“There’s like 20 minutes left of lunch break,” you say.

“Your brother let it slip.”

“Figured. But what exactly did he let slip?”

“That you just got engaged to eleven women.”

“Not that I was trying to hide it. Last time I called you, your phone was off.”

“Why are you in such a rush?”

“It felt like the natural thing to do,” you shrug despite knowing he can’t see you.

“What are your plans for the future?”

“We’re still talking about it. Too many uncertain variables to make accurate predictions.”

“That’s what I mean by you rushing things.”

“Nothing will ever be certain, and I don’t mind. I just know I want to marry them.”

Your dad sighs. “Your studies?”

“Still going as planned. Still looking at law school.”

“The ceremony?”

“A ways off. Probably three years minimum,” you tell him. “This was more of a formality than anything else."

“I see. Well, at least you’re doing things properly. When do we get to meet them?”

“When I graduate Hayes,” you tell him.

“That’s too late.”

“Believe me, it’s for the best. I won’t give in on this.”

“Very well. I won’t press on that any further.”

“You’re being surprisingly agreeable.”

“And you sound more sure of yourself than you ever have.”

“…” You sigh. “On another note, I’m running for student council president next academic year.”

“Oh?”

“Figured it would help my record.”

“It would. Think you can win?”

“I’m confident enough to give it a try.”

“That’s good. Well, I won’t delay you anymore.”

“Take care, dad.”

“Take care, son.”

You let out another, heavier sigh. That was a standard conversation with your dad, only he didn’t question you as much as he usually would. Should you give Jonathan shit for letting it slip? Nah, he’s helped too much. You put your phone back in your pocket and walk down the stairs back to your classroom.

You’re engaged. Your family knows. Their families know (most of them). But in reality, not much has changed. Your priorities are still the same, your goals and desires are, too. This is nothing but another chapter. You know it’ll be filled with difficulties, but you also know how overcoming every single one of them is worth it.

Your girls are worth it.

Jessica once asked if you had a dream, and you didn’t really have an answer. But now you do. Your dream is to create a life where you and your girls can be one big happy family. It’ll be a long road, but one you will walk with eleven people right beside you.