Chapter 480

“Ugh.”

Looking at the plastic cup in her hand—white milk on top and a clump of strawberries resting at the bottom—Hiyori mimed a gag.

Then she jabbed her straw into the cup, aggressively mixing the milk and strawberry syrup.

“What are you doing?”

“Mixing my Strawberry Latte. They could have just given it to me already mixed...”

She even let out a grumble, glaring back at the cafe where we had bought it.

I let out a bewildered scoff. “But why were you dry heaving?”

“Because I felt like it.”

Did looking at the milk remind her of what had gone into her mouth earlier?

That was probably it. She was acting pretty damn cute.

“Sure.”

“You aren’t scolding me today? Is this some kind of reward for working so hard?”

“What reward? And why would I scold you?”

“In the past, you would have hit me for having a disrespectful attitude.”

The eyes of several people nearby immediately snapped toward us.

It happened the moment the word ‘hit’ left her mouth.

Startled, I moved to clap a hand over Hiyori’s mouth, but stopped, realizing it would only make us look more suspicious.

“Don’t say things that cause misunderstandings.”

“Sorry. So, is it a reward?”

It was her roundabout way of asking, Can I mess around with you a bit?

“No.”

“Okay.”

Hiyori’s energy seemed to be returning.

She must have felt at ease after receiving a massage for so long.

Her newly bought underwear seemed uncomfortable, though, as she would occasionally walk with an awkward, waddling gait.

“What’s up with your walk? Is the size too small?”

“Size of what?”

“Your panties.”

“The size is fine, they’re just a bit... unfamiliar.”

“If they’re uncomfortable, why don’t you just take them off?”

“How could I do that? Who knows what you’d do to me.”

“I only said it because you’re wearing undershorts anyway. Stop having dirty thoughts every second of the day.”

“No nagging allowed.”

“You’re the weird one for thinking that’s nagging.”

“Banned, banned...!”

Clicking my tongue at Hiyori’s stern expression, I lightly flicked the stray tuft of hair sticking up from her head.

Instantly, Hiyori slumped her shoulders like a flower with a snapped stem.

“What was that? Why are you sulking?”

“Because you hit my weak point.”

“That stray hair is your weak point?”

“Yes. It’s connected to my nervous system.”

“You’ve lost your mind.”

“This is all because of you, sunbae-nim.”

“Right.”

“Look at that...! You’re agreeing...!”

“What’s wrong with agreeing?”

“You’re teasing me on purpose, aren’t you?”

“I’m not.”

“You totally are.”

“I said I’m not. Trust my words for once.”

“I would if they were trustworthy...”

Pouting her lips and bringing her mouth to the straw, Hiyori looked incredibly coy.

Why did her acting like that remind me of Renka?

Deciding I needed to torment Renka tonight, I spent the rest of the day sightseeing around various tourist spots with Hiyori until evening, then walked her home.

“Get back safely.”

“Yeah. Did you get some relief?”

“Ah, what relief...! I didn’t even have any sexual desire to begin with, okay? Honestly, the way your mind works...”

I hadn’t even mentioned sexual desire, but she was digging her own grave.

Of course, that was exactly why I’d phrased it that way.

I watched Hiyori grumble as she got out of the passenger seat, carrying the plastic bag with her underwear inside. As soon as I returned home, I sent a message to Renka.

[What are you doing?]

I took a shower and checked my Cell Phone when I came back, but the chat window only showed the sentence I had sent.

Twenty minutes passed, and though the read receipt appeared, there was no reply.

Was she doing this on purpose? To get revenge for what I did to her?

If so, Renka was making a grave mistake.

[I said what are you doing, you sow.]

Vzzzt—!

Less than ten seconds after sending the highly insulting message, my Cell Phone buzzed.

The caller, of course, was Renka.

Trying to play hard to get when she was going to react like this anyway... She was acting up for a total amateur.

—Hey, you little shit! What did you just say!?

Renka’s roaring voice blasted through as soon as I hit the answer button. I briefly pulled the Cell Phone away from my ear before bringing it back and speaking.

“What do you mean?”

—Don’t play dumb! A sow? Do you want to die? Have you actually lost your mind? Have you finally gone crazy?!

“I listen to you curse at me dozens of times a day, President.”

—So what! You don’t understand why I can’t accept you cursing at me?

“Well... strictly speaking, yeah.”

—There’s a limit to what someone can accept...! Such an insulting word...

“The insults you constantly throw at me are plenty insulting too, President.”

—What are you...

Renka trailed off.

It seemed she just remembered calling me a son of a bitch, a lunatic, and Trash.

“Right?”

—Ah, shut up! Just shut up! Where are you right now?! I’m coming over to beat the crap out of you, so tell me where you are!

“I’m at home. I’ll be waiting, so come on over.”

—.....

“Guess you don’t have the courage to actually come? So why do you keep acting out of line?”

—A-acting out of line... That’s not me, that’s you...

“Ah, enough noise. Let’s set a date. When is good for you this week?”

—I’m never meeting a piece of Trash like you!

She probably thought I was asking her out on a date.

I kind of wanted to clear up the misunderstanding, but leaving it as is seemed fun too.

“This isn’t a request.”

—W-what? What does that mean? Are you giving me an order right now?

It meant my slave was always double-checking her master’s intentions.

Well, checking to be sure was definitely better than vaguely misunderstanding.

“That’s right.”

—You think I’ll listen?

“What are you gonna do if you don’t? Are you trying to rebel again?”

—R-rebel? Don’t talk like that! And if you want to meet me, ask politely!

“‘Shall we meet?’ ‘Please meet me?’ Something like that?”

—Isn’t that normal?

“If I act polite to my subordinates, they’ll mistakenly think they’re important and get arrogant... I can’t have that. It ruins their discipline.”

—S-subordinate...? Discipline...?

Even without seeing her face, hearing that bewildered scoff through the Cell Phone painted a perfect picture of Renka’s dumbfounded expression.

—You... Haa... This is seriously ridiculous...?

“Why?”

—I’m warning you for the last time...

“I don’t even know how many times I’ve heard that ‘last warning.’ Just tell me when you’re free to meet this week.”

—.....

“Are you not going to tell me?”

—You son of a...

“I’ll give you five seconds.”

—Ah, fuck...! We can meet for lunch on Wednesday!!

“Got it.”

Click.

She hung up the exact moment I answered.

Looking at the blinking red text signaling the call had ended, I let out a chuckle.

It was because Renka had been cute enough to specify the time instead of just throwing out the day.

Since today was Sunday, the 3P... no, the 4P would be in three days?

If so, I needed to give Miyuki a heads-up.

“It looked like it was going to rain today, but it hasn’t.”

Miyuki spoke, gazing up at the pitch-black sky.

With my hand resting on the small of her back, we walked into the playground as I agreed.

“Yeah.”

“I wonder if Tetsuya is doing alright?”

“Why bring him up?”

“Coming here just suddenly made me think of him.”

“Did you feel that way last time we were here too?”

“No. Just today.”

There wasn’t a hint of Miyuki trying to gauge my thoughts on Tetsuya.

It truly meant she had just remembered him out of the blue. The fact that she was wondering how he was doing also proved she hadn’t contacted Tetsuya in any way until now.

She was treating him like someone she met a long time ago... like a friend she hung out with briefly in middle school. At this point, it seemed perfectly fine for me to stop paying any attention to the guy.

Not that I was paying him any attention to begin with, of course.

“If you’re curious, give him a call.”

“Forget it. If Tetsuya is reflecting on his actions, he’ll be the one to apologize to me first.”

“Suit yourself, then.”

“Yeah.”

Nodding, Miyuki trotted over to the center of the playground, crossing the sand that was still slightly damp from the recent rain, and stopped in front of the swings.

Then she looked back and forth between me and the swing, acting as if she wanted something.

“What are you doing?”

“Hurry up and sit down.”

“You want me to wipe off the water on the swing with my pants?”

“I do not! There’s no water on it...!”

“Got it.”

I messed up the flustered Miyuki’s hair and sat on the swing. Immediately, she plopped her butt down onto my lap.

Figuring she would do this, I wrapped my arms around her waist and slowly began to rock the swing back and forth.

“Hey.”

“Hm?”

“Are you comfortable?”

“Yeah. Are you uncomfortable, Matsuda-kun? Am I heavy?”

“No.”

“You aren’t lying, are you?”

“You’ve gotten really suspicious lately.”

“I’ve gained weight recently... Ah, don’t touch...!!”

Hearing that, I started massaging her belly, and Miyuki tightly grabbed my hand to stop me.

After briefly wrestling with her like that, I brought up the main topic.

“I set a date.”

“A date for what?”

“That thing. What you mentioned last time.”

“R-really...?”

True to her quick-witted nature, Miyuki grasped my intentions immediately.

No matter how I looked at it, I should have been her childhood friend instead.

“Yeah.”

“When...?”

“Wednesday.”

“I-is that so...? Then what am I supposed to do...?”

“What do you mean? You just show up. Why? Is the date bad?”

“No... that’s not the issue, it’s just so sudden...”

“Should we push it back a bit?”

“I don’t think there’s a need to do that... But Senior Inoo and Senior Nanase are super close with each other, right...?”

“They are.”

“Then won’t it be really awkward...? It feels like I’d just be intruding without reading the room... The atmosphere might get weird...”

“As long as there’s four of us, the atmosphere is bound to be awkward no matter what.”

“You think so...?”

“Of course. None of you have ever done anything like this before.”

“We-we have. Senior Nanase and I... It was really awkward back then too...”

“That wasn’t doing it properly.”

“What I mean is... if it was awkward back then, how much more awkward is it going to be when we actually do it for real...?”

Her face flushed red just from imagining it, and she began fanning herself, not knowing what to do. I buried my face into Miyuki’s back, blowing a warm breath against her as I asked, “Then what do you want to do?”

“Hmm... I want to think about it for a bit...”

“Does that mean you don’t want to do it?”

“No... that’s not it...”

“Are you saying you’re not going to join in?”

“Shouldn’t I sit it out...? I-I don’t know... I’ll think about it properly before I go to sleep tonight...”

Now that the day was actually approaching, she seemed a little scared.

Just as Miyuki said, Renka and Chinami were very close friends.

It wasn’t unreasonable for her to think she’d be left out if she forced her way between them.

From my perspective, Miyuki was worrying over nothing.

Because I fully planned on making sure she wouldn’t feel left out.

Still, well... Rather than forcing a 4P, it might be better to just do it with Renka and Chinami this time, and pair Miyuki up with Hiyori instead.

After that, once the four of them got used to group activities, we could just do a 5P all at once.

Honestly, that was the best-case scenario.

Pitter-patter.

It suddenly started to rain.

It seemed God had caught onto the strange atmosphere flowing between Miyuki and me, and decided to change the subject for us.

“Let’s get up for now. It’s raining.”

“Yeah...”

“Wanna go to a ramen shop?”

“Let’s go... I’m suddenly getting hungry, I need to eat something...”

Didn’t she literally just say she gained weight?

Swallowing those words, I straightened my knees and stood up, keeping Miyuki wrapped in my embrace.

“Got it.”