Chapter 97: The Friend Who Is Actually a Woman.
"I’m a woman, Noah."
The room fell silent under a heavy tension after those words were spoken.
Noah didn’t answer and Ren didn’t add anything either, while Aria remained a few steps away, watching the situation with a far more serious expression than before.
Noah looked at Ren for several seconds before saying anything.
"Say that again."
Ren swallowed.
"I’m a woman."
Noah stayed completely still, because Ren had just confirmed what was already a fact.
Noah felt a large number of memories begin to rearrange themselves, making everything start to make sense, but another question appeared as well.
"Since when?"
Ren lowered her gaze.
"Since when what?"
"Since when have you had to pretend to be...?"
Noah stopped, and Ren raised an eyebrow, so Noah brought a hand to his forehead.
"I meant since when has everyone believed you’re a man."
Ren stayed silent, so Aria spoke.
"Since she was a little girl."
Ren looked at her.
"I don’t need you to explain it."
"Then do it yourself."
Ren pressed her lips together, so Noah looked at both of them and then at Aria.
"Can you leave us alone?"
Aria and Ren both looked surprised, so Noah continued.
"I need to talk to Ren."
Aria studied him for a few seconds and finally nodded.
"All right."
She took one of the folders from the table and, before leaving, looked at Ren.
"This was going to happen sooner or later."
Ren didn’t answer and Aria turned toward Noah.
"My offer is still on the table."
"You already know my answer."
"You can think about it."
"I don’t need to."
"I can change that."
Ren took a step toward her.
"Aria."
"Yes, yes, I’m going."
Aria opened the door and, before stepping out, looked at Noah again.
"We’ll see each other later."
The door closed, leaving Noah and Ren alone.
For several seconds neither of them spoke.
Ren sat down slowly, but Noah remained standing.
"Well."
Ren said, and Noah looked at her.
"Well?"
"I don’t know how to start."
"You can start from the beginning."
Ren took a deep breath.
"It’s long."
"We have time."
"Not that much."
"Then talk fast."
Ren noticed Noah’s tone. It wasn’t aggressive, but it wasn’t the usual tone he used with her either, and that seemed to affect her.
"All right."
Noah sat down across from her and Ren rested her hands on her legs.
"The Aoyama and Celestia families have had business relations for generations."
Noah listened without interrupting.
"When Aria and I were little girls, they decided to strengthen that relationship."
"How old were you?"
"We were small."
"How small?"
"Eight."
Noah’s eyes widened slightly, because in the series they had never specified that part.
"Eight years old?"
"Yes."
"And they decided you would get married?"
"Our parents did."
"And you two?"
"We didn’t have any say in it."
Ren looked at the table.
"At first I didn’t even really understand what it meant."
Noah stayed silent, listening.
"Aria didn’t seem very interested either when we were little, because for us it was just something our families kept repeating."
"And later?"
"Later they started preparing us."
Noah frowned.
"Preparing you how?"
"Private lessons, etiquette, administration, public appearances, and events for both families."
Ren let out a small sigh.
"Every time someone talked about my future, it was already decided."
"With Aria."
"Yes."
Noah began to understand better.
"And you didn’t want that?"
Ren shook her head.
"I didn’t want my life to depend on a contract they made when I was eight."
"Did Aria?"
Ren thought for a moment.
"Aria is complicated."
Noah almost smiled.
"I already noticed that."
"She was always much better than me at accepting our families’ expectations."
Ren looked toward the door.
"But I don’t think she liked them deciding for her either."
Noah remembered Aria’s ego.
"I understand."
Ren continued.
"When I grew up, I started arguing more with my family."
"Because of the engagement?"
"About everything."
Ren clasped her hands together.
"They wanted to decide where I would study, what activities I would do, who I would talk to, how I was supposed to behave in public."
"And that’s when the idea of presenting you as a man came up?"
Ren nodded slowly.
"It was my mother’s idea."
Noah raised his eyebrows.
"Your mother?"
"Yes."
"I thought it would be some kind of rebellion on your part."
"I couldn’t have done it alone."
Ren shifted in the chair.
"My family didn’t want to break the agreement with the Celestias outright."
"Because there would be consequences?"
"Commercial, legal, and social ones."
"So they looked for another way."
"Yes."
Ren looked at Noah.
"If I was publicly recognized as a man, the engagement became much harder to enforce."
Noah frowned.
"Why?"
"Because of the privacy laws."
Noah understood immediately.
What he had noticed ever since he reincarnated was that men in this world were protected by a large number of special rules, and he had already seen some of them.
"No one could check your records?"
"Not easily."
Ren shook her head.
"Men’s personal data is protected much more strictly."
"So your family modified your public identity."
"Yes, but not the internal records."
Ren clarified.
"That would have been a lot more complicated."
"But for school, other families, and society..."
"I was Ren Aoyama, a man."
Noah stayed quiet.
"And the Celestias couldn’t prove otherwise?"
"They could suspect."
"Aria knew."
"Yes."
"From the beginning?"
"Almost."
Ren paused.
"When our families started drifting apart, the Celestias tried to request access to certain documents."
"And they couldn’t?"
"The privacy laws blocked it."
Noah let out a slow breath.
"That’s..."
"Ridiculous."
"I wasn’t going to say that."
"But you thought it."
"...Yes."
Ren smiled faintly, which was the first time since the conversation began, but it didn’t last long, because Noah continued.
"So everyone started believing you were a man."
"Yes."
"Even the teachers?"
"Yes."
"And what about the doctors?"
"The authorized doctors know the truth."
"And other students?"
"No."
Noah stayed thinking until he asked.
"And me?"
Ren lowered her gaze, because the question had reached the point both of them had been avoiding, but it was time to face it.