However, the atmosphere on Cloud's end wasn't quite so "sweet."
While he was crooning tenderly into the phone, he completely failed to notice—
On the sofa beside him, a certain kunoichi's expression had shifted from sunny to cloudy to full-on thunderstorm.
Mai Shiranui's beautiful almond eyes were locked onto Cloud, looking ready to fire off two "Super Shinobi Bees."
Oh, so that's how it is, Cloud!
I'm here training with you, being your sparring partner, and you're behind my back calling other women and singing sappy love songs?!
"First time saying I love you," "holding your hands"?
The first hand you held was MINE! (Even if it was during a fight.)
The first lips you kissed were MINE! (Even if it was an accident.)
The more she thought, the angrier she got. The more she thought, the more wronged she felt.
A massive wave of jealousy mixed with fury surged from the depths of Mai's heart straight to her skull!
Her jealousy jar hadn't just tipped over—it had gone nuclear!
BANG!
She shot to her feet, the force pushing the sofa back an inch.
Both Cloud on this end and Athena on the other were startled by the noise.
"Cloud? What's happening over there...?" Athena asked with concern.
"N-nothing!" Cloud saw Mai's "I'm about to commit murder" expression and broke into a cold sweat.
"Just... my cat knocked over a vase!"
"Oh, handle that first then. I love the song! It's settled! I'll be waiting for you in Japan! Bye!"
Athena considerately hung up.
The room fell into deathly silence.
Yuri looked at Mai's iron-dark expression, then at Cloud's "am I about to die?" face, and very wisely grabbed a plate of fruit before quietly sneaking upstairs.
This level of "harem warfare" was above her pay grade.
Cloud swallowed hard, looked at Mai, and squeezed out an ingratiating smile. "Um... Mai, let me explain..."
"Explain?" Mai laughed coldly, advancing toward him step by step. Her long, beautiful legs tapped out a deadly rhythm on the floor.
"I'd love to hear how you explain this. When exactly did things progress to 'staying together forever' with that 'psychic idol'?"
[Ding! Warning! Target "Mai Shiranui" affection experiencing severe fluctuation!]
[Current Affection: +70 → +50 (This playboy! This liar! I'm going to burn him to ash!)]
Holy crap! Affection can DROP?!
Cloud's internal alarms blared. He knew this crisis was even more serious than facing Billy Kane!
"Misunderstanding! This is a huge misunderstanding!" Cloud's brain went into overdrive, beginning his "extreme survival" attempt.
"That wasn't a love song! It's a... critical realist commentary piece!"
"Huh?" Mai was thrown off by his bizarre logic.
"Think about it," Cloud bullshitted with a straight face.
"'The first time I said I love you, my breath caught, my heart wouldn't stop trembling'—isn't this describing young people today developing 'romance phobia' due to lack of confidence and social pressure? It's a condition! It needs treatment!"
Mai: "..."
"And 'the first time I held your hands, I lost direction, didn't know where to go'—this is even deeper!"
"This reveals how in today's consumer-driven society, young couples feel lost and helpless about the future due to sky-high housing prices and crushing life pressures!"
Mai's mouth began twitching involuntarily.
"Therefore!" Cloud concluded. "This song may seem like it's about love on the surface, but it's actually calling for society to pay attention to young people's mental health and survival pressures! It's a great work full of humanistic concern! I'm doing charity work! I'm sacrificing myself for art!"
His speech was righteous and moving.
Mai listened in silence for a full ten seconds.
Then she snorted and burst out laughing.
She'd been rendered speechless by Cloud's shameless "theme elevation."
"Keep making things up." She rolled her eyes at him, though most of the anger had already faded from her gaze.
"Even if everything you said is true, why were you smiling so tenderly at her? And why are you going to see her?"
"That wasn't tenderness—that was respect for an artistic collaborator." Cloud replied immediately.
"As for going to see her, of course it's to supervise her! I can't let her butcher my critical realist piece into some cheesy pop ballad! I'm protecting artistic integrity!"
With that, he seized the moment, grabbed Mai's hand, and gazed at her with impossibly deep emotion:
"Mai, in my heart, no one compares to you. The others are merely stars. But you—you're my only moon."
This classic cheesy line struck like a precision-guided missile, hitting the softest spot in Mai's heart.
Her cheeks flushed instantly. Her heart pounded traitorously, though her mouth still resisted: "Hmph... smooth talker. Who... who said I'm your moon?"
But that plummeting affection meter quietly climbed back up—and even... broke through to new heights.
[Ding! Target "Mai Shiranui" affection change: +50 → +72 (This jerk... even though he's a total playboy, the way he sweet-talks me is really hard to resist...)]
Cloud saw the system notification and let out a long breath of relief.
Crisis averted.
Sigh. Being a time management master is really... too hard.