Chapter 10
After our meeting at the café, Shota and I went our separate ways.
Truthfully, I wanted to keep him there longer. But sensing the awkwardness between us, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
It was a shame, but if I wanted to secure my future, the best thing to do was let Shota go and wait for another opportunity.
“So, would you care to explain, miss?”
After everything had been settled at the mansion, I spoke to Kaede, who was quietly waiting for bedtime. Since I wasn’t pleased with how things had gone today, my tone was somewhat harsh.
“…W-well, you see.”
When I snapped at her, Kaede scratched her cheek.
Kaede. You adorable thing.
But this time, I won’t let you off so easily.
This is a serious matter.
My life depends on whether your romance succeeds. If you fail at love, I’ll have no choice but to remain in this world.
Forever trapped in a woman’s body I never wanted, living in this false world.
Surely, if that happened, my precious sense of self would gradually be corrupted by reality and this body. And then, one day, I’d give up and stop being myself.
I don’t want that kind of life.
Kaede, you have to be happy for my sake.
You must keep your feelings for Arai unchanged and use everything you have to win over the heart of the protagonist, ‘Arai Shota.’
That way, we can achieve the absurdly demanding ‘ending.’ For the sake of both our ‘happy endings.’
So, Kaede. I absolutely cannot accept you acting so hopeless at romance, or the way your relationship has somehow grown even more awkward.
“Don’t keep me waiting, miss.”
“…Ugh. A-all right.”
The way she reluctantly began to speak as soon as I snapped at her made it clear she’d been planning to make excuses. That was a little annoying.
The very person who’d referred to herself as my ‘big sister’ was planning to deceive her little sister. How impressive.
“Umm. Like you told me, I realized I was in love, right?”
“Yes. After it took you several months, no less.”
“Ugh. A-anyway!”
When I mercilessly brought up her embarrassing behavior from the past, her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment.
She looked every bit like a girl in love. Seeing her like this only made me wonder even more why her relationship with Arai had gotten worse.
I didn’t understand. What on earth had she been doing all this time?
I did my best to hide my frustration and desperation as I looked at Kaede. Please, let her come up with an excuse I can understand.
“Once I realized it, I, um, became way too conscious of him? It felt like we were the only two people left in the world, and my heart started pounding on its own. My face got hot as if I had frostbite, and my head felt foggy, like I had the flu. Anyway――”
“……Don’t tell me, miss.”
“…I’m too embarrassed to talk to him. Mmm.”
“Sigh.”
I’d suspected as much, but I never thought the reason would be so childish.
Kaede. No wonder she’s the heroine of a rom-com. She’d been acting so frustratingly this whole time.
Hah, I’d been too complacent. I thought that once she realized she was in love, she’d at least take small steps toward improving her relationship with Arai on her own.
But instead, the opposite happened.
I’d underestimated the world of this rom-com far too much.
“You can’t talk to him because you’re embarrassed? Are you in elementary school, miss?”
“Ugh. W-what am I supposed to do? I get so nervous I can’t get a word out! It’s all your fault. You kept saying love, love, and now look what happened!”
“…So it’s my fault in the end.”
Kaede had nothing to say, so she didn’t answer me. Instead, she pulled the blanket that had been covering her lower half up to just beneath her eyes.
“………”
Kaede hid her face behind the blanket like a little child, blinking repeatedly. Despite being the mistress, she was watching her maid’s reaction.
The roles had been reversed.
‘Kaede. She realized what love was and turned into an idiot.’
Still, I’d gotten to feast my eyes on the sight, so it wasn’t all bad.
Ahem. Anyway, back to the point.
I said good night and left Kaede’s room shortly afterward. Once she got like that, any further conversation was basically impossible.
“Hmm. What am I going to do?”
I murmured to myself as I walked down the dim corridor. The words had slipped out while I was going over the situation in my head.
‘Rom-coms tend to have a lot of frustrating developments.’
If the hero and heroine got together too early, the story wouldn’t have anywhere to go.
‘Even so, that’s an awful lot of fumbling around.’
She realized she was in love and now couldn’t act the way she used to. Just how girlish could she be?
Hmm. Wouldn’t most people get more proactive, if only because they wanted to win the person they loved?
Or maybe not? Could it be because she looked like a woman on the outside but was a man on the inside? I didn’t know.
The only thing I knew for sure was that I wouldn’t act like that if I were Kaede.
‘I’d make a move.’
After all, what was I lacking? Looks, wealth, even social standing. Frankly, if I put my mind to it, I could win over just about anyone.
So if I’d ever desperately wanted someone to love me, I’d have made a move on them myself.
Because I knew it was an effective way to get what I wanted.
‘Sigh. I wish Kaede would think that way, too.’
If she did, even if she couldn’t reach the ending, she could probably make a fair amount of progress. Of course, all those sweet, refreshing moments unique to a rom-com would disappear along the way.
Well, what did I care?
If they don’t like it, they can try getting possessed like me.
＊＊＊
“Big brother. So, what did you think of today? Did you have fun?”
After taking a bath, I was roughly drying my wet hair with my hand when Yuki, sitting on the living room sofa, spoke to me.
At Yuki’s question, Shota turned away from his room and toward his little sister.
“Yuki, because of you today――”
As Yuki spoke, Shota recalled what had happened that day. He was voicing his complaint when he trailed off.
He’d just witnessed a ridiculous sight.
“Mmm♪”
A pleased little hum escaped her, born of the sweetness lingering on her tongue. Shota had just seen his little sister scooping up ice cream and eating it.
All while watching a recently popular anime.
“Tsk.”
The sight before him made Shota realize why Yuki had gotten an upset stomach that morning.
“Sigh.”
Once the truth dawned on him, a low groan slipped through his lips. Exasperated, Shota stared at Yuki with a complicated look. Only after a little while did Yuki notice his gaze.
“Big brother. Why’d you stop talking? Hurry up and tell me. Hina-chan’s having her big moment right now.”
Yuki glanced sideways at Shota and said that.
You were the one who started talking to me. That thought came straight to Shota’s mind at Yuki’s shameless attitude.
Shota was annoyed with her, so he decided to give her a little punishment.
“Huh?”
As Yuki watched the anime while eating ice cream, Shota approached without a word. He’d gotten so close that she could hardly focus on the TV screen.
So Yuki looked up at Shota, who had come right beside her.
It happened in that instant.
Shota’s arm swept through Yuki’s field of vision. At the same time, the hand holding her ice cream suddenly felt empty.
“?”
Yuki looked at her hand. The ice cream that should have been there was gone. Could it be…? She looked at Shota again. The ice cream she’d been eating was now in her big brother’s hand.
“Ah!”
Yuki realized what her big brother had done a moment too late. She hurriedly stretched out her hand to reclaim her happiness. It was a sort of surprise attack.
But,
“No.”
Shota was quicker. He immediately caught Yuki’s movement and pulled his hand back, well out of her reach.
“B-big brother!! Give it back!! You idiot!!”
“Do you want another stomachache? No.”
Furious at having her happiness stolen, Yuki flailed around. Shota watched his little sister with a laugh, then turned around.
Then he walked away without a second thought, still holding the ice cream Yuki had been eating.
“Give me mine back!! Where are you going?!”
His little sister shouted at him from behind, but Shota completely ignored her. Instead, he leisurely savored the ice cream as he headed to his room.
“Ugh!”
Shota set the ice cream on his desk, then stretched to ease his accumulated fatigue. A refreshing feeling started between his shoulder blades and gradually spread down to his arms.
After enjoying that pleasant sensation, Shota picked up the ice cream and lay down on his bed.
“You ate quite a lot by yourself. No wonder you got an upset stomach.”
It looked like roughly half of it was gone. How had she eaten half of it with that tiny body of hers?
Thinking that, Shota put some of the remaining ice cream in his mouth.
“Mm.”
As he savored the sweetness, the events of the day suddenly came to mind. Mochizuki and Takamine, looking so happy with parfaits in front of them.
Who’d have thought the two of them were friends?
And on top of that, they’d met at a maid café.
‘Hmm. Maid cafés really are kind of strange, though.’
Still, if that was what they said, there was nothing he could do about it. For now, he had no choice but to accept it.
Anyway.
“Mochizuki. I thought she hated me.”
Today, they’d ended up spending quite a long time together without him intending to. And during that time, awkward as things still were, he hadn’t sensed anything like ‘hatred’ from Mochizuki.
They’d only seemed awkward around each other.
‘Was I mistaken?’
He wasn’t sure. All he knew was that she didn’t seem to dislike him all that much. If she really hated him, she wouldn’t have eaten parfait in front of him.
“What a strange day.”
Because of Yuki, he’d ended up talking to Takamine alone, and then Mochizuki had joined them and talked with him, too.
He’d spent time with two famous students from Seio Academy.
How had this even happened?
As Shota lay in bed, turning the question over in his mind, fatigue washed over him and his eyelids began to flutter.
With each blink, Shota’s consciousness grew hazier.
As sleep began to make his consciousness flicker, Shota murmured to himself.
“……Come to think of it, Takamine was cute today――”
Especially the way she ordered a parfait while carefully watching everyone’s reactions. She was so cute―――――Zzz