Chapter 56: You’re going to touch me!! Just like in Eromanga!!

Late morning, with dazzling sunlight seeping through the curtains.

No, looking at the time, it’s probably afternoon?

“Huaaaam~”

The silver-haired beauty’s soft, golden, lazy yawn met the sunlight and seemed to shatter like glass shards.

Soon, the lazy beautiful girl blinked her eyes a few times, then turned on her smartphone to check the current time.

[3:42 PM]

“……”

Did I sleep too much?

But what can I do if I’m sleepy…

Yesterday, I played Another Phantasia until 6 AM and went to bed, so I had no choice but to oversleep like this.

“Uuum… Just a little more…”

I whined like a child grumbling “just 5 more minutes” to their mom during vacation.

Well, I was an orphan so I didn’t have a mom, thus no such experience.

…Anyway, I’m sleepy!

I want to sleep for just 5 more minutes!

It might be unsightly for a grown adult to laze around in bed, but if a cute beautiful girl like me does it, isn’t it rather cute?

Let’s just say it’s a Sleeping Beauty concept, yep.

Ding-dong~!

But perhaps my laziness couldn’t last forever?

Woken by the doorbell, I went to face the visitor with a heavily crumpled expression and disheveled hair.

And behind the front door I opened while yawning,

There was a very familiar face.

“Ah, I’m sorry. Did I perhaps wake you up?”

“No, it’s fine… I was about to get up soon anyway.”

It wasn’t a lie; I really was about to get up.

No, really.

Is oversleeping something to be ashamed of?

I’m not just trying to change the subject.

“By the way, why are you at my place?”

“I mentioned before that I’d come over to make you something delicious, remember?”

“D-did you?”

“Yes. I said I’d come since I couldn’t make it to your housewarming.”

Come to think of it, that does sound familiar.

I’m sure we made such a promise while exchanging messages last time.

Well, that’s good for me.

I get to eat free food.

Besides, Miho mamang has amazing mommy-vibes, so her cooking must be incredibly delicious.

“So, what’s for dinner?”

“I’m going to make omurice.”

“Oh! Omurice is great!”

I haven’t eaten it many times, but I think it was delicious.

Fluffy fried rice covered with egg.

And ham to add savoriness, with ketchup for a slight tang.

Mix it ssk-ssk and take a big spoonful…

Ah…

My mouth is already watering…

“Just a moment.”

It was then.

Miho suddenly started sniffing the air, her nose twitching.

Not long after, she frowned and pinched her nose.

“Ugh… What is this smell?”

“Smell? I don’t really smell anything?”

A smell?

I showered yesterday too…

And that incident when I got drunk and made a mess… I cleaned it up properly.

There shouldn’t be many things in the house that could smell?

“No. It definitely smells.”

However, Miho seemed to think differently from me, placing the ingredients she was holding on the floor and entering the house.

Then, the sight of the living room, sparsely littered with trash, unfolded.

On the desk, there were empty drink cans and 2-3 finished cup ramen containers piled up.

On the floor, the macaron box I received from Akari senpai last time was rolling around.

“…Yuki. When was the last time you cleaned?”

“Um… About 3 days ago?”

“…This won’t do. Cleaning comes before food.”

“Eh? I don’t want to…”

“What do you mean you don’t want to? People should at least live in a place fit for humans, not a pigsty, right?”

“Ueeeh…”

“If you understand, start cleaning right now!!”

And so, with Miho’s scolding, an unexpected cleaning session began.

---

The house quickly became tidy.

After clearing away the trash appropriately, all that remained was wiping off the dust.

It wasn’t as serious as Rin’s place to begin with, so in a way, it was an expected result.

By the way, Miho mamang is quite the neat freak.

It wasn’t even that messy, and I was planning to clean it tomorrow anyway…

I already feel my back aching because of this unnecessary deep cleaning.

It seems clean enough by now…

Thinking it might be good to wrap things up soon, I let my head droop and started whining.

“I don’t want to clean anymore… If I keep this up, I’ll turn to ash…”

“Be quiet and just clean quickly.”

“I don’t waaaant to…”

However, contrary to my expectations, Miho mamang continued cleaning without any reaction.

I don’t want to move…

I want to sleep more lazily…

I want to become a discarded tissue scrap next to the trash can…

“But we’ve tidied up most of it, haven’t we? Only the bedroom is left now.”

“Uwaah… I don’t waaaant… Miho mamang, you do it~”

“…Sigh.”

Miho looked at me wiggling on the floor like a caterpillar with a pathetic expression.

Sighing as if the ground would collapse, she opened the bedroom door next to her to continue cleaning and went inside.

“What’s this? The bedroom is surprisingly clean?”

“Um… I don’t use it except when I sleep, so…”

I’m the type who, once I brush my teeth, only drinks water because it’s annoying to brush them again.

So there’s no way there’d be trash in the bedroom.

If there is, then maybe…

Ah.

The leftover tissues from cleaning up…

And my boyfriends under the bed…?

“Wait a momeeeeeeeent!!!!!!”

Bang!

I immediately kicked open the bedroom door and rushed in.

My pupils, constricted in urgency, darted around, quickly taking in the scene inside the bedroom.

Wheeeeing~!

Reflected in my red eyes was a pink vibrator, softly emitting a golden, lazy vibration.

“Yu… Yuki…?”

And Miho, staring at me, her face flushed to its limit.

“Ah… Aah… …Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!!”

A few choked sounds turned into a scream.

The only emotion dominating my mind right now was shame.

All other emotions, along with Miho’s image of me, became a wisp of smoke and exploded with a ‘Pop!’ above my head.

“A-are you okay, Yuki?”

“Huaaaaaaah…”

I think I understand why Rin was on the verge of tears and so embarrassed back then.

No lie, I feel like shame is welling up from the tips of my toes to the top of my head, as if my whole body has become a single red lump of mortification.

“Guaaaaargh…”

“……”

In this situation where I wanted to hide in a mouse hole right away.

My embarrassment, far from shrinking, only grew larger and larger.

---

“Haaaah…”

A brown-haired woman sighed.

Rin was sprawled out on the sofa, which was cluttered with clothes, like water spilled on it.

With a hand on her forehead, she was lost in thought about a certain silver-haired beautiful girl… no, her unnie.

She hadn’t felt this way at first.

Their connection was originally just a flimsy one, that of workplace colleagues.

An always strangely bright person.

A person who habitually made lewd remarks.

A person who was a bit strange in the head.

That was the entirety of her impression of her.

…There was a time when it was like that.

“When did it become like this…”

She asked herself, but she already had a faint idea of the answer.

It was probably after ‘that day’.

The very day she had shown her a new world.

“Actually, even if you reveal you’re a yuri-fan, the viewers probably won’t care, you know?”

She had actually resented her for revealing her preferences on stream.

But before she knew it, people were already understanding her, and the coming-out had passed as an insignificant event.

Well… considering how many people liked even Yuki, who had more eccentric tastes than her, it was perhaps a natural outcome.

“……”

Rin, no, Arin, thought.

Perhaps she hadn’t intended it.

She might have just been acting on her whims as usual.

However.

Even if her touch wasn’t intentional.

She had been saved by her.

This much, was a certain fact.

“…Because unnie tempted me first.”

With a mutter that seemed to evade responsibility, Rin hugged a large doll tightly.

As if it were a precious jewel.

Stroking it with a gentle touch.

---

“……you.”

“What did you say?”

“…I’m going to be pounced on.”

Hearing my words, Miho made a face full of doubt.

At that, I feigned tears slightly and repeated what I had said earlier.

“Miho mamang is going to pounce on me… with the pink vibrator, mechakucha…”

(TL: Mechakucha means “a complete mess” or “terribly,” often used in lewd contexts.)

“…Seeing you make s*x jokes, I feel like an idiot for worrying.”

“Teeeehng…”

(TL: A cutesy, exaggerated crying sound, often associated with a specific meme character known for such wails.)

As I made a crying sound that made it seem like one should wear a green contact lens in one eye, Miho spoke to me in a reassuring tone.

“It’s okay. I’m not interested in girls who’ve already had their first period…… Ah.”

“…What?”

“P-please forget what I just said!!”

Perhaps having mixed up her direct speech and thoughts, Miho blurted out something astounding without realizing it.

And at its shocking content, my complexion instantly turned pale blue.

“M-Miho, you… surely not a lolicon…?”

“Ah, no… Th-that’s not it…”

“Are you giving money to young girls and doing strange things?”

“N-no! There’s no way I’d do something like papa katsu!!”

(TL: Papa katsu refers to compensated dating, often where younger women date older men for financial support.)

“Since Miho is a mamang, it would be mama katsu, right.”

“Anyway!!!”

(Papa Katsu: What happens when you follow a strange man because he offers you money.)

Goodness gracious.

That pure Miho… a lolicon?

I never dreamed she could be a lolicon.

They say the demure cat is the first to jump on the kitchen counter; to think that Miho, whom I considered the most normal among the 2nd generation, was the most extreme among us…

“It’s not like that!!! I just… since I’m nearing thirty…”

“Miho, you’re the same age as me.”

“A-anyway! I just admire cute young girls…”

“Excuses are useless, Miho. You’re planning to touch me! Like in an eromanga!”

“I won’t!!”

“Like in an eromanga!!!”

“Don’t say it twice!!”

Well, on one hand, I’m relieved.

A mecha-phile and an ero-gaki.

Since Miho was stuck between those crazy 2nd generation members, I had been feeling rather sorry for her.

But to think she was a lolicon.

Isn’t my appearance dangerous then?

I might have gotten close to the wrong person…

“Maybe I should stop calling you mamang from now on. I might really get pounced on.”

“…Stop it.”

“Ah, since I’ve had my first period, am I safe?”

“……”

“…Miho?”

I looked towards Miho, who had suddenly gone silent.

Her face was already flushed red.

Her restless hands kept smoothing down her skirt, and beyond her anxious eyes, which seemed to have been holding something back, flickered an indescribable, beastly look.

“M-Miho…”

“I comforted Yuki when she was embarrassed about being found out… but Yuki just teases me… and natters on about being touched…”

‘Are you perhaps trying to seduce me?’

At her chilling words that followed, I quickly backed away.

Miho reached out as if to grab me, but I shook my head repeatedly and evaded her hand.

“……”

“Hi-hic…”

Like a rabbit just before being eaten by a lion.

Having completely become the prey, I continued to step backward, my voice trembling.

“W-w-wait, I-I’m just g-g-going to the b-bathroom…!!!!!!”

Saying that, I hastily exited the bedroom.

And perhaps because I fled in too much of a hurry?

“…With Yuki’s looks… perhaps it might be possible…”

The words of the beast that followed.

I ultimately did not hear them.