"What? Rinka is very surprised."
Sakuragi Otome withdrew her small feet from her slippers and sat cross-legged on the bed, her gaze fixed on Rinka, whose eyes were darting around and who looked very flustered, her tone showing no emotion.
Flustered?
Of course, she was flustered.
Although she had been a bit excessive recently, Okino Rinka had always felt that her acting was flawless.
She figured Sister Otome wouldn't see through anything.
But… Sister Otome's previous words were actually meant for her.
In other words, all her disguises after that were useless…
No matter what she did, it wouldn't change her identity in Sister Otome's eyes.
If she hadn't gotten together with Brother Fuyumi, it would have been fine… but unfortunately…
Besides sighing about bad luck, what else could Okino Rinka do?
If only she hadn't been so curious back then.
In that case, she wouldn't have to be stared at by Sister Otome with that knife-like gaze.
It was too late to say anything…
Now she just had to think about how to make Sister Otome forgive her…
Rinka clasped her hands gently on her lap, head bowed, and apologized in a soft, anxious voice.
"I'm sorry..."
"..."
To be honest, Otome had intended to scare her a little, to teach her a lesson and not be so mischievous,
But on second thought, Rinka hadn't done anything wrong...
Should she blame her for not understanding her meaning?
Or blame her for ending up with Fuyumi?
Although if one were to truly analyze some of the things that happened during the process, she did indeed owe her an apology, but the final outcome was exactly what she had hoped for.
As an older sister, Otome didn't want to dwell on it too much...
Being too serious could lead to losing everything.
After a moment of silence, her ice-cold expression gradually melted, and her pretty face returned to its usual gentle warmth:
"Forget it... This can't be entirely your fault. If it weren't for Fuyumi, you wouldn't have misunderstood my words."
Otome didn't go into how Rinka and Fuyumi ended up together while she was still misunderstanding her words.
Instead, she skillfully brought the conversation back to the "misunderstanding."
Her sudden change of topic during the "judgment" surprised Rinka, but then she happily moved closer, reaching out to link arms with her, and she gently swayed it as if coaxing:
"I'm also at fault. If I had gone after Brother Fuyumi and asked, or if I had come home and told you... As long as I hadn't overthought things on my own, it wouldn't have turned out like this..."
Otome stroked her soft, silky hair and smiled, comforting her. "You care about us too, afraid of being disliked by Fuyumi, afraid of affecting our relationship...
You didn't do anything wrong. It can only be said that Fuyumi was too dishonest."
"Were he and Chifuyu very intimate at that time?"
Hearing that she was deliberately shifting the blame onto Fuyumi,
Rinka didn't mind standing together against the common enemy.
However, she didn't answer immediately.
She seemed to recall something, frowning and staying silent for a moment before speaking.
"Intimate... I wouldn't say that, but they were kind of ambiguous, chatting and laughing."
"Hmm... It was clear that Brother Fuyumi had feelings for Sister Chifuyu; otherwise, I wouldn't have kept thinking about them even after I got home."
Nodding in understanding, Otome clenched her small fists.
"In that case, we'll need to teach him a lesson."
"A lesson..."
However, when she asked what kind of lesson, Otome showed no intention of elaborating.
She only mentioned it briefly, then patted the thin blanket.
"Let's not talk about this anymore. It's very late. Let's sleep. We still have another day of exams tomorrow."
"Ah, oh."
Unable to guess what she was thinking, and with her current situation making it inconvenient to ask, Rinka responded and obediently burrowed into the covers, her bright, sparkling eyes glancing at the phone on the bedside table, before she silently apologized to Brother Fuyumi in her heart.
She had already tried her best to describe the situation in a way that wouldn't provoke Sister Otome too much.
But the actual outcome was there...
She couldn't do anything more.
If Sister Otome still insisted on punishment, she couldn't resist, after all, they were at fault... and she couldn't ask too much about the specific method either.
If old matters were brought up again, not only would Brother Fuyumi be doomed, but she would also be pinned to the bed and spanked.
With her mood fluctuating throughout the night, Rinka slowly drifted to sleep in the dark room, listening to the pattering rain outside the window.
Perhaps the sound of the heavy rain when she fell asleep left an impression on her.
After she fell asleep, her dreams were also related to water.
In her dream, she seemed to have been kidnapped.
Her hands and feet were tied, and her eyes were blindfolded, unable to move.
But strangely enough...well, as one expects from a dream.
She wasn't panicked in such a situation.
Instead, she listened rationally to the kidnappers' conversation.
'Oto... This isn't good for us...
She...'
'This is punishment... She was the one who was wrong first...'
'Saying it's not good, but the way you tied her up wasn't slow at all...'
Had she done something wrong?
After this vague thought arose in her mind.
Okino Rinka inexplicably felt that the voices of these two kidnappers were a bit familiar...
But she couldn't remember who they sounded like for a moment.
The ropes... The ropes that bound her and the blindfold all had a familiar scent, but she also couldn't remember where she had smelled it before.
Moreover, the ropes these two kidnappers used to tie her were not rough at all, and the blindfold was fragrant and soft.
It wasn't uncomfortable to wear at all; it was just a bit small, a bit tight on her head.
While she was thinking that these kidnappers were quite nice, considering they didn't mistreat hostages,
Okino Rinka felt that her original side-lying posture had changed to flat on her back, with her legs being propped up.
Her body also heated up at the same time... as if she had been thrown into a blazing fire.
But what she heard in her ears was a sound similar to 'slap, slap, slap', flesh colliding, mixed with water being splashed.
The sensation of the sound being completely opposite to the feeling in her body made Okino Rinka squirm uncomfortably.
And those two kidnappers, as if gloating, mocked her from the side, watching her miserable state.
'...Clearly already... still... her waist, truly... You usually didn't spare... her, did you? It's become a conditioned reflex.'
The voice of this kidnapper was very vague and indistinct, as if they were chewing something, but it wasn't hard to tell it was a female.
Answering her was another male kidnapper whose breathing was heavy and deep.
'...No...'
Hot and numb all over, Okino Rinka could no longer calm down and ponder the meaning of their words.
She could only endure the discomfort, biding her time, hoping they would show mercy and let her go.
She endured like this, not knowing how long it had been.
When the girl was being treated like a piglet, she couldn't help but scream out loud.
Perhaps they found it annoying.
Because, as her screams became more and more loud, the kidnappers gagged her.
But the gag was not cloth, but a piece of something shaped like a steamed bun, cut with a knife, covering her mouth.
That thing, she didn't know if it was because of her saliva, or if it was already wet, but it kept dripping, like the eaves of a house during rain, flowing incessantly.
During the gagging process, she inevitably drank some water...
'Hmm, how should she put it, it was a bit like concentrated sugar water diluted several times, sweet and tasted good.
Were they afraid she would die of thirst?
Thinking like this for a while, Okino Rinka voluntarily lifted her head.
But after she made this movement, a soft, immense force suddenly came from both sides of her head, waking her up instantly.
Upon waking, before she could look at the surroundings, the familiar feeling of fullness immediately told her what had happened.