Therefore, she gave up.
They bid each other farewell.
After they finished their goodbyes, Hiko said to Ai, "Come with me."
Ai nodded and followed him to Ichigo's office.
At this moment, Ichigo was sitting in his chair, intently looking at the computer, seemingly searching for something.
Miyako stood next to Ichigo, watching him work.
"You're here," Miyako greeted them as they entered.
Hiko nodded. Ai, however, was still surprised by Miyako's presence.
Ichigo heard the voices, turned his gaze to the two of them, and then said, "Let's go."
Hearing him, Ai glanced at Hiko beside her, seeing that he showed no surprise and had no intention of asking questions, so she could only ask Ichigo, "We? Where are we going?"
"Of course, we're going together to buy you a phone," Ichigo said as if it were obvious.
After Miyako came in earlier, she had lectured him, which made him feel humiliated.
Usually, he was the dominant one. But after Miyako arrived at the office and saw no one else, she reprimanded him without mercy.
As a guardian, he didn't care about Ai, and he hadn't even bought her a phone... In short, Miyako had caught him red-handed and thoroughly scolded him.
Since he was indeed in the wrong and hadn't done well in this matter,
he could only let her scold him, not daring to retort.
Now that the main person was here, he no longer had to be lectured.
Ai was very confused by Ichigo's answer; she had only learned from Hiko last night that he was supposed to accompany her to buy a phone.
'Did he lie to me?'
Ai recalled the situation last night and found no indication that Hiko had lied to her.
'Something must have happened after that, right?'
Ichigo stood up from his chair, walked toward Hiko and Ai, and urged them, "Let's go quickly."
"I know you're in a hurry, but don't rush yet," Hiko stopped the President from leading everyone out of the office.
"Oh, by the way, Hiko, you just asked me to wait for you in the office. What was it about?" Miyako remembered Hiko's direct instruction to her to come to the office when they met earlier.
Ichigo glared fiercely at Hiko upon hearing this.
'So it was you, kid, who snitched and told her to come here and scold me!'
Hiko ignored Ichigo's murderous gaze and replied, "Nothing much, I just thought it wasn't a good idea for you to enter the practice room to find Ai just now."
He then added, "I'm afraid that tomorrow, other members' parents might also come looking for their daughters."
"It wouldn't go that far, would it?" Miyako asked in response.
"Better safe than sorry," Hiko simply replied with four words.
"So, are we going out together for this reason?" Ichigo asked.
"Yes, and no," Hiko shook his head.
"Is it because the fact that I am Ai's guardian cannot be revealed?" Ichigo looked at Hiko again. "But didn't you introduce her to the company employees before? Why don't you want her adoption to be exposed now?"
"Times have changed," Hiko thought for a moment and said, "Now everyone in the company knows Ai. There's no need to use your identity to endorse her anymore. My backing alone is already enough for her. If you're added to that, every employee in the company, upon seeing Ai, would probably try to curry favor with her, befriend her, and flatter her."
"This would make her growth environment unhealthy."
"Forget it, you're overthinking it. Let's do as you say. You're truly a little adult, considering everything," Ichigo felt helpless upon hearing Hiko's words.
As an adult, he was less thorough in his considerations than a middle schooler, which was truly embarrassing.
"It's not that I think of everything, it's just that you think too little about things."
Hiko thought of the new members joining, which would increase the management cost of Ai, and complained to Ichigo, "Also, you arranged for two people to join the group at once today. You really have no brains. You don't even think about it, the group is about to perform, and you just shove two people in without consulting me or the leader of B-Komachi about new members joining. Forcibly adding them like this is not good."
"You should know, I only became a coach these past two days, and my authority is just being established. You shoved two people in, almost destroying the authority I've built," Hiko exaggerated the situation.
"If it's really not working out, just fire them," Ichigo, hearing Hiko's objections to the new members, gave him the power to dismiss them.
"They haven't caused too much trouble; it's just that your act of adding people directly without consulting the group members is not good," Hiko was still quite satisfied with the new members' behavior after joining the group, but he knew that Ai's side wouldn't be so easy. "You need to find a way to compensate Ai and, at the same time, help her re-establish her authority as the leader."
"You're quite the schemer." Before Ichigo could say anything, he felt Miyako's intense gaze and had to change his words, "Alright, I'll cooperate with you."