Ch. 71.2 - Hair Too Pt2
“H-Hoshikawa-kun, what are you… ”
“Shihou-san. Chouko. Or should I call you Kinako? Get a grip on reality, stupid girl.”
First Nogami.
Then his sister, Fuyuno.
And now Shihou?
Was he becoming some kind of serial assault suspect?
The thought pained him deeply, but he kept his face cold, just like the expression she’d seen right before she lost consciousness.
"Wh… what are you talking about? I… I don’t understand…"
"Don’t understand? Playing dumb, huh? Ha… "
He let out a short laugh and tapped his fingertip against the little beauty mark at the corner of her lips.
"Shihou-san, you wouldn’t want people finding out that you run a secret ura-aka(hidden account), and even sent lewd selfies to boys your age… right?"
"As the daughter of a distinguished family, the sole heir of the Shihou main household… what do you think your parents, the elders of your clan, would do if they learned you’d brought shame upon the family name like that?"
With Shihou’s brains, she should easily grasp what this implied.
If it were him, he thought, he’d definitely turn his family connections around as a weapon, use family, school, even life itself… resist to the bitter end and turn it into a bargaining chip against whatever bastard was threatening him.
After all, for high schoolers, the only ones capable of truly throwing away everything without thinking of the consequences… are those few delinquents.
He, Hoshikawa Harutaki, was clearly not one of those idiots with nothing to lose.
"So? Shihou-san, what are you going to do?"
Struggle?
Fight back?
He’d already prepared all the emotions and lines needed for Phase Two of the plan, he just needed a spark from her.
But unlike Harutaki, who could still think even while raising his ‘villain flag’, Chouko’s mind was a complete mess.
She stared at his shadowed face, the way the light behind him made him look a bit dangerous, and she couldn’t help thinking that even like this… he looked cool.
Like a wolf pinning down a trembling lamb, domineering, a little wicked.
No. No, no, no! Stop thinking like that!
"……"
She bit down hard on her lower lip, hoping the sting could chase out those indecent thoughts.
But… wasn’t Hoshikawa threatening her?
Like some scumbag forcing her to give up her body?
If she didn’t obey, he’d expose her deepest, darkest secret to the world…
If, if, her father, her mother, or worse, her great-grandmother the current head of the house found out, she’d definitely be dragged back to that mansion. Great-grandmother would scold her, lock her up in her courtyard… and wait until the day she chose a suitable groom to marry into the family,
Back into that cold room.
Back to being replaced completely by “Shihou Chouko.”
And until the night she shared a bed with some stranger chosen for her… she’d never see her Onii again.
"No…"
No. Never again…
She absolutely didn’t want that… she didn’t want to go back, didn’t want to be locked in that lonely, suffocating cage of a home. She didn’t want to be another tragic bird waiting for a chance to escape its gilded prison.
"Even if you resist, it won’t matter, Shihou-san. But… if you behave, I might delete the photos afterward."
Hearing her pitiful attempt at resistance, Harutaki felt a strange warmth, like he was watching a tiny animal cry out, so weak it stirred pity.
"…Anything… except the front… please… not the front… Hair, mouth, chest, the back, thighs… and… and even my feet are okay… just not the front…"
"Mhm, mhm… Mhm, ?!"
What are you saying, Shihou-san!?
Do you even understand what you’re saying, you adorable idiot!?
And, your hair? Your backside?
How does a sheltered girl like you even think of those!? And how do you say it out loud so calmly!?
Staring at the girl below him, rubbing her teary eyes with both hands, Harutaki felt his own eyes widen, the pure heart of this so-called scumbag cracked clean in half.
Why…?
How did it turn out like this!?
Clutching his head like he’d put on a mask of agony, his mouth fell open in a silent scream,
Shihou-san, you flipped the script with Nogami, didn’t you!?
Why is Nogami, who looks like a naughty gyaru, actually a fake veteran and a real shy virgin…
And yet this pure, elegant, noble, gentle, sweet, refined, slightly mischievous Shihou-san…