Ch. 74.1 - Temporary Friends Pt1
“Hoshikawa-kun, do you want to eat first, take a bath first, or…”
“I already had dinner. As for bathing, I’d rather go after you. Doesn’t soaking in bathwater a cute classmate girl just used sound… erotic to you?”
“P-pervert…”
Having just filled the tub with hot water, Harutaki walked out of the bathroom and shot Chouko a speechless look. She was really a match for Nogami, nothing but a decorative pillow pretending to be sharp-tongued.
Not that he had any right to laugh at someone for that.
“And besides, before you say that, Shihou-san… maybe take a look in a mirror first?”
“What’s that supposed to mean!?”
He was throwing her own snide tone back at her?
Chouko stood in front of the bathroom door, left hand cradling her right elbow, right index finger curling around the longest strand of hair by her shoulder as she toyed with it.
“I’m very confident in my looks AND my figure, okay? It’s only a spineless idiot like Hoshikawa-kun who gets scared when a meal walks up to him and sits on his plate.”
“…I mean it literally. You might actually want to go look in a mirror right now.”
Those words alone were enough for Chouko to feel something was wrong.
She hurried back into the bathroom and raised her gaze to the giant wall-sized mirror,
[Idiot]
[Cocky Brat]
[Country Bumpkin]
And when she lifted her bangs, she even found a crooked, abstract drawing of a turtle on her forehead.
“…You really are an energetic little preschool gremlin, aren’t you?”
She let out a sigh, hesitated, then quietly asked the other thing she was concerned about.
“My uniform…”
“Didn’t I tell you already? I have three younger sisters. You can use their makeup remover and body lotion. I asked them in advance.”
“…Idiot.”
So the “threatening photo” he mentioned earlier… was just a picture of her being pranked?
Honestly, she wasn’t sure whether she was calling him an idiot… or calling herself one.
Probably him.
Probably.
That guy had a beautiful girl right in front of him and didn’t take advantage at all. Instead, like a kindergarten kid, he used a marker to scribble all over her face.
Who was the old-fashioned one here!?
This was the kind of prank she herself had played back in elementary school–
Sneaking in when Onii was asleep, dipping a calligraphy brush in ink, doodling all over his face, then dragging the half-awake boy outside so she could watch him stumble around, completely unaware of why people on the street were giggling at him.
So this is what being pranked feels like…
She thought back. Her only real playmate, and honestly, her only friend, had always been Onii. But the difference in personality was huge. With how stiff and earnest he was, he couldn’t prank her even if he tried. Instead, he’d always scold her seriously like some miniature adult.
She’d always been the one pulling tricks on others.
She’d always been the one teasing, provoking, and mischievous.
But with Hoshikawa… it was as if their roles had been completely reversed.
She was such a cute girl, couldn’t he at least pretend to go easy on her!?
“You childish idiot…”
Grumbling under her breath, she rinsed her body under the shower. Then a bold idea suddenly sparked in her mind.
If Hoshikawa wasn’t going to do anything inappropriate…
Then maybe she could afford to be a bit daring herself… right?
With that thought, she padded across the dark-brown anti-slip mat, cracked the bathroom door open, let the milky-white steam spill out, and poked her head through.
“Hoshi~ka~wa?”
“Hm?”
“Do you want to… maybe… bathe together…”
Harutaki spit out a mouthful of toothpaste foam, turned around, and instantly saw the mischievous look on her face. He cut her off without hesitation.
“Have a rubber duck battle in the tub? Sure. As the challenged party, I get to pick first. The biggest duck is mine.”
“T-together… I meant… blowing bubbles by making rings with our hands and squeezing body wash…”
Click.
The bathroom door shut again.
Chouko retreated inside and curled her toes in embarrassment.
One of the cutest girls in the class, no, in the entire school, is taking a bath in YOUR house!!
A naked beauty is just one thin door away from you!!
And this guy… THIS GUY… talks calmly about rubber duck battles!?
Sure, she did use to play alone in huge bathhouses as a kid, making two rubber ducks fight each other…
She looked down at her milky-white skin beneath the steaming water, fingers brushing lightly over it. Smooth as jelly, soft enough to leave marks, and so elastic it felt like it would spring back with a drip of sweetness…
And still, she held no charm for Hoshikawa at all?
“Hoshikawa-kun…?”
“What? You need me to count to a hundred before you come out?”
“Don’t talk to me like a dad scolding his kid!”
She slapped the edge of the tub in frustration, hesitated, then, after a long silence, finally whispered the question that had been sitting in her heart since she woke up.
“Why… why are you treating me like this?”
He was the one who approached her first.
He was the one who invited her to Starbucks for iced drinks in early spring.
He was the one who joked about liking her.
He was the one who showed her that infuriating gentleness, the kind that made it impossible to stay calm around him.
And though he said he’d do bad things to her… he never laid a hand on her.
If it were just a confession, just an “I like you”, rejecting him would be easy.
Whether he liked her or not was Hoshikawa’s choice.
Whether she accepted or refused was her own.
No one could twist her will or force her, not her father, not her mother, not anyone.
But THIS…
How on earth was she supposed to reject him like this?
…
Shihou Chouko had always been a rebellious, troublemaking child.
She would dress in pretty skirts and dresses, then run wild through forests and fields, more reckless than any boy. Torn clothes and scraped skin were her daily routine.
She had ruined expensive kimonos and yukatas, returning home looking like a stray cat dragged through a sewer. Her face was a mess of black smudges and white patches.
And her mother’s expression always matched, dark, stormy, ready to scold.
“How can a daughter of the Shihou family behave like this? Chouko, don’t disgrace our name.”
“You are the future head of the Shihou family. You represent the main house, the branch families. You must become someone people admire and fear.”
“Young miss, please have mercy on us servants… if the mistress and madam see you like this again, we’re the ones who’ll suffer…”
Everyone saw her as the future pillar of the Shihou family.
Everyone piled the weight of the entire legacy onto her shoulders.
But… but she only wanted to be an ordinary girl.
She wanted to run through the woods freely, splash around in rivers without worrying about anything…
She just wanted to be treated like a normal, cute girl.
But once her classmates learned she was the daughter of a prestigious household, they all backed away.
They avoided her during private conversations.
They never invited her to playful outings.
Even teachers spoke to her with stiff politeness, like she was the school principal.
Only Onii treated her like a mischievous sister, scolding her like an adult, but also playing with her like a normal friend.
She was his only friend.
And he was her only friend.
But then… after a huge fight with his mother, she threw a tantrum, cried, refused to eat, and finally got herself brought to Tokyo.
Only to discover that Onii had changed.
“To become someone worthy of you, Chouko, I have to study hard, get into Tokyo University, make something of myself…”
Overflowing with useless passion, saying all the right admirable things, while pushing her aside.
Since she entered middle school, except for a single trip to the zoo right after arriving in Tokyo…