The Tax Accountant’s Reaction

On a late Sunday in November, the afternoon of the day Nayuta was discharged, Chihiro was relaxing in the bath at Ono Tax Accounting’s office quarters, fresh off her part-time job handling paperwork and keeping the place clean.

Despite the office’s location in a mixed-use building, this was a pretty swanky bathroom, featuring a special-order cypress-wood tub and everything. Chihiro looked forward to soaking in it on a weekly basis.

“Ahhh…”

“What’s wrong? You look down.”

Ashley Ono, the blonde-haired lady who was Chihiro’s boss and Itsuki’s tax accountant, lobbed the question from the other side of the bath she was sharing with Chihiro.

“Oh… Well, my brother’s actually gotten into a relationship with a girl.”

“…Hmm…”

The revelation seemed to disturb Ashley somewhat. She narrowed her eyes.

“You know the girl,” Chihiro continued, failing to notice. “It’s Nayuta Kani, the writer. And Itsuki says I can keep on coming to his place like usual, but I’m still kind of nervous about all this…”

“Oh my… Itsuki’s with her, is he…?”

Hearing the name filled Ashley’s eyes with even more concern. Chihiro couldn’t help but wonder.

“Um, is something bad about that?”

“…It’s made me lose hope in him, that’s for sure.”

“Huh?!” Chihiro tensed up. “Wh-what do you mean?”

Ashley’s eyes darted between her chest and Chihiro’s, a peeved look on her face. “That girl… She’s pretty well-endowed, isn’t she?”

“……”

Chihiro followed Ashley’s eyes, checking the similarity between their chest sizes, then recalled Nayuta’s more bountiful proportions.

“…She is. They’re…uh, pretty big.”

“…You know, I hate big-breasted women.”

Chihiro leaned back a bit at this rather straight evaluation. “…Is there a reason for that?”

“You know why. There’s only one reason why a girl would hate big boobs.”

“Uhh…”

Chihiro didn’t.

“…One of them took my guy.”

“Your… She took your guy?!” Chihiro blushed.

Ashley looked at her ruefully. “It actually happened twice.”

“Twice?!”

“…The first time was my second year in high school… The second when I was a junior in college… And both of them had big boobs… And both guys were all ‘Oh, no, they’re fine small; you just keep on being you’… I never really believed that, so I studied up on assorted techniques to please them, no matter how small I was… But it was pointless. All men care about is size! And you know, I’m so small, my BF’s friends even accused him of dating someone underage! One time, we went to this love hotel for a little playtime, and they called the police on us! But so what?! What’s so bad about that?!”

“W-wow, sounds rough…”

The way Ashley bared her soul out of nowhere made Chihiro blush so hard, she thought her head would catch on fire.

“But… But I don’t think my brother chose Kani because of her—her boobs or anything…”

“You really think so? Are you absolutely certain Itsuki pays no attention to boobs at all?”

“Well, I…” Chihiro fell silent for a moment. But then she remembered Miyako Shirakawa, a woman who offered her love to Itsuki and was summarily refused. As far as Chihiro could tell, she was just as cute and charming as Nayuta. And what was the deciding difference between them? That’s right. Their chests.

“…No, maybe he does like them bigger…”

“No such thing as a man who doesn’t, let me tell you,” Ashley groaned.

“…Yeah…”

Ashley sighed, anger giving way to sadness. “…Ugh, I wish I had a man…”

Chihiro couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at how easily the accountant confessed to the desire of her id.

“You really want one…?”

“I sure do,” she replied, completely unashamed. “Next week is December, and thinking about how I’ll be alone on Christmas gets me so depressed… I just wish the world could end before then…”

“Ha-ha…”

When they had just met, Ashley struck Chihiro as someone who looked young, but was as clever as she was aloof from the world. That image was firmly a thing of the past now. She was a hard worker, for sure, but to Chihiro, she was less a grown woman and more a lazy big sister who’d fall to pieces if you didn’t watch over her.

“…I’m glad you’re a girl, Chihiro,” Ashley said out of nowhere, voice deep and serious.

Chihiro raised an eyebrow. “Huh? Why is that?”

“Because if you were a man, I might’ve found myself violating the laws of Tokyo…”

“Huh…?”

Ashley smiled mischievously at the suddenly concerned-looking Chihiro. “Hee-hee! Just kidding.”

“Oh, uh…yeah… Ha-ha-ha…”

It wasn’t funny to Chihiro. I hope this lady finds someone soon…