"I can't believe Eriri would do something like that to me. Now I'll never be able to get married." Mio lay on the bed, bundled up tight in the covers.
Hearing that, Eriri shot her a sidelong look. "Don't make it sound like I did something weird to you. I just—"
She stopped there, suddenly at a loss for how to keep going.
Replaying what had happened in the bathroom, Eriri—who'd only just managed to calm down—felt a faint blush creep back onto her face.
When it came down to it, it was only because Mio had been teasing her at the time that she'd lost her temper and gotten handsy. And she'd only squeezed a couple of times, that was all—it wasn't like she'd done anything else.
"Forget it—how about I let you squeeze mine back, then we're even." Eriri thrust out her chest, but even so, there wasn't much rise to speak of.
Mio spared it a single glance, then looked away with a face full of pity—and that little shift in expression irritated Eriri to no end.
"Alright, I was only joking. You agreed to bathe with me—honestly, even if you'd done something way more out of line, I wouldn't have minded one bit~"
Even now, Eriri still couldn't work out what the point of bathing with Mio had been. The whole time they were washing, the other girl had been as well-behaved as could be—she'd barely even glanced Eriri's way. No matter how you sliced it, it hadn't looked like gathering material; it was more like Mio had simply, genuinely wanted to bathe together.
Whereas she herself—well, her eyes kept drifting over to the other girl's body, and that was the least of it. She'd even gotten handsy.
Cough cough!
Then again, come to think of it, Mio did sometimes do pointless things like this.
Before Eriri could think on it any further, Mio's voice piped up. "Tomorrow—what should we do?"
"Pretty much everything that needed doing got done today. So tomorrow, let's just kick back and enjoy this twice-a-year festival~"
"Mm."
Once her hair was dry, Eriri climbed onto the bed too.
The lights went out, and the room sank into darkness.
Thinking back over the day, Eriri suddenly remembered the question Mio had asked her that afternoon. She'd been too busy to give it much thought at the time, but now that she turned it over, there seemed to be quite a few things that didn't add up.
Once she'd confirmed Mio wasn't asleep yet, Eriri finally spoke up. "Shirai—you got recognized by someone this afternoon, didn't you?"
"Eh!? Where's this coming from all of a sudden?"
"Because you suddenly asked me what you should do if someone recognized you. No matter how I look at it, you're the one who got recognized."
Mio let out a soft sigh. "Yeah... an acquaintance did recognize me."
Just as Eriri was about to offer some comfort, the plot of the doujin she'd drawn herself flashed through her mind. It didn't seem like the sort of thing that could actually happen in real life—but she asked anyway, voice full of concern. "You okay? Nobody's going to use it to threaten you, are they?"
What Eriri didn't notice was that, there in the dark, Mio's expression had visibly stiffened.
"Ha... hahaha, no, nothing like that. The person's a senpai I'm on really good terms with."
"Speaking of which—the people you're close with all seem to be girls. You're not a yuri girl, are you?"
"That's right, I'm a yuri girl. So you'd better watch yourself, Eriri—don't go getting bent by me before you even realize it. I won't be taking responsibility." Mio said in a teasing tone.
Eriri scoffed and let out a cold little laugh. "You're about a hundred years too early to bend me."
I mean, come on—she was an iron-clad straight girl through and through. There was no way she'd get bent without noticing. She knew perfectly well that the one she liked was her childhood friend.
What the self-assured Eriri failed to notice was that, all day long, she'd barely paid any attention to said childhood friend—while her gaze, on the other hand, kept drifting back to Mio.
After the two chatted a while longer, exhaustion and drowsiness quickly swallowed them both.
She didn't know how much time had passed when Eriri opened her eyes again—it was already six o'clock the next morning.
Waking, Eriri found herself once again wrapped up in Mio's arms. She couldn't tell whether Mio had taken her for a body pillow again, or whether she herself had burrowed into the other girl's embrace.
Wait—there was absolutely no way she'd burrow into the other girl's arms, so it had to be that Mio used her as a body pillow after falling asleep.
Mm. That was definitely it.
She distinctly remembered there'd been a clear gap between them when they fell asleep last night.
Not that it mattered now.
Not long after Eriri woke, Mio stirred awake too.
Since there was no booth duty today, the two didn't bundle themselves up as tightly as yesterday—just a bit of light disguise.
Compared to the two of them, looking refreshed, Mio noticed that Eriri's parents were in an unusually sorry state: their dark circles especially pronounced, looking thoroughly sleep-deprived.
She couldn't help saying to Eriri, "Are your mom and dad really gonna be okay like that?"
"They're fine. They're like this every single time—I'm used to it by now."
"If you say so."
What caught Eriri off guard was that Aki Tomoya didn't look much better off either.
She couldn't help asking, "Tomoya, what were you up to last night?"
"I just... lost track of the time reading doujinshi, that's all." Aki Tomoya tugged at the corner of his mouth, barely managing to force out a smile.
"Honestly, every last one of you. Guess I'm the only one with any self-control." Eriri lifted her chin, a smug little smile on her face.
"Last night, somebody just couldn't help herself, and she even—"
Before Mio could finish, Eriri clapped a hand over her mouth and shot her a vicious glare. Is that something you can just say out loud?!
"Even what?" Aki Tomoya asked, a little curious.
"I'd love to tell you, but Eriri would be upset if I did. If you really want to know, Aki-san, you're better off just asking her yourself." Mio gave a helpless little smile.
"Then never mind."
How could Aki Tomoya not know Eriri's temper? Odds were that asking would get him nowhere.
He figured Eriri probably hadn't been able to resist either, and had stayed up looking over the new haul—just that, with Mio there to keep an eye on her, she hadn't pulled an all-nighter.
Seeing how flat Aki Tomoya's reaction was, Mio couldn't help pursing her lips. The only reason she'd said all that was because he was right there—so why didn't he have even a shred of suspicion?
Somehow, it all felt a little anticlimactic.
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