Chapter 1. Do you get it now?

Do you get it now?

“Ahhh! What is wrong with me?”

A high school student was mumbling to himself as he strolled down a road lit by streetlights. He wasn’t anyone suspicious, though. It was Masachika Kuze on his way back after walking Alisa home.

“‘I will be by your side.’ ‘Just take my hand.’ Who do I think I am? Somebody kill me. Ugh. I’m going to be cringing in the shower for years now… And talking to myself like this only makes me look even more pathetic.”

He vented his frustration and self-loathing aloud into the night air. Masachika had just shown Alisa that he was a real man for a change, yet he couldn’t help but dwell on his mortifying actions. The words he had said to Alisa played on an endless loop in his mind, and he was on the verge of dying of embarrassment and regret. Furthermore…

“Alisa said she was in love with me…didn’t she?”

…the smile she had shown him as they walked down the boulevard was like a flower in full bloom. The vivid memory of the soft touch of her lips on his cheek when they said good night made Masachika jittery. Until now, he’d thought Alisa’s Russian whispers of sweet nothings were merely a game to feel the thrill of being caught since she believed he didn’t understand a word. However, her behavior in front of her apartment obviously went beyond what could be considered a game. It was almost as if that was how she really felt…

“Nah…”

Masachika hastily shot down the idea forming in the back of his mind.

She was just in a heightened state of emotion like me. I bet she’s already returned to her senses and is cringing at the thought of it, too. Yeah… I’m sure that’s what’s happening.

But even after persuading himself of that, what Alisa had said and done still made his heart race…

“I thought I couldn’t fall in love anymore, but…”

Ever since that girl disappeared, Masachika had never felt romantically interested in anyone. He would still think some girls were cute or pretty, but that was pretty much it. He even felt lust from time to time, like anybody his age would, but he never felt love for anyone, and they’d never made his heart race like this, either.

Besides, I doubt any girl would fall in love with trash like me anyway.

Masachika despised himself most of all, so it was hard for him to imagine someone falling in love with him. Moreover, he didn’t trust the whole concept to begin with. He believed that most romantic feelings were temporary states of delusion that would fade away once certain conditions were met. He especially didn’t trust his own romantic feelings.

I can’t even remember that girl’s name or face…so there’s no way I could ever seriously fall in love with someone else, right?

Dating in high school was nothing more than a game to kill time. It was rare for high school sweethearts to ever go on and get married after graduation. The only time that ever happened was in fiction. Real high school couples were unstable, and the smallest thing could bring them together or break them apart. Even if Alisa really did have feelings for Masachika, she would most likely break up with him once she took a real hard look at him up close and spotted all his faults.

And the couples who do get married after dating in high school sometimes get divorced eventually as well.

He imagined his own parents, then smirked cynically before ultimately letting out a deep sigh.

“This is annoying…”

Those words fell unbidden off his tongue.

Getting worked up over something as uncertain as love was ridiculous. It was annoying. It wasn’t like he wanted a girlfriend, and it wasn’t like Alisa had asked him out, either. So why could he not stop thinking about it?

Mmm… I’m going to be single for the rest of my life with this mindset.

When he realized that he had become a heretic, he became even more depressed. But whenever he was feeling down, he would watch anime to feel better, so he picked up the pace and hurried home. Just when he was ready to escape from reality, he opened the door to his place…and noticed there was a pair of shoes there that weren’t his. Masachika froze.

“What happened to having ‘plans’?” he muttered. “Wait. I guess it’s not that weird.”

If today’s events were all part of some plot to get him to join the student council, then of course Yuki would have been involved. In fact, she might have been behind the whole thing.

“Tsk… I fell right into her trap…or I guess I should say she dragged me out of hiding and pushed me into the trap.”

He sighed deeply while sliding open the door to the bathroom when…

“Huh … ?”

“Uh … ?”

…their eyes met. Yuki was drying her hair with a towel…completely nude. With her eyes opened wide and an expression overcome with surprise, she promptly used the towel to cover her front, but…

“Eeeeeek! My brother’s a Peeping Tom!”

“Yeah, yeah. You were waiting for me to open the door so I would see you like this.”

“Was it that obvious?”

“You rushed out of the bath the moment I closed the front door.”

Masachika glared at Yuki reproachfully as she grinned, revealing no signs of guilt.

“You went way too far this time.”

He rolled his eyes and turned to leave the bathroom when…

“Hey, not so fast. Aren’t you curious as to why I did all that?”

“Yeah, I’m curious, but put on some clothes first, okay?”

“Hold on, Masachika. I just realized something extremely troubling.”

“…Something extremely troubling?” repeated Masachika with a hand on the door he was facing, even though he knew it wasn’t going to be anything worth hearing.

“Hmph.” Yuki smugly smirked and covered the right side of her face with her right hand as if she were an overdramatic emo teen detective who had just solved a mystery. It didn’t help that her towel had come undone, baring all. One could only describe the sight as surreal, and yet Yuki showed absolutely no concern as she sternly opened her partially hidden eye wide and shouted:

“We’ve lived under the same roof for so long, but we still haven’t had the scene where you walk in on me changing!”

“You never cease to surprise me with the garbage that comes out of your mouth!”

“All brothers walk in on their sisters changing at one point! It’s inevitable!”

“Yeah, in fiction! You nerd!”

“Takes one to know one!”

“Dammit! That actually hurts more today than it usually would!”

Masachika had been wondering only a few hours earlier if he was about to have an indirect kissing scene with his beautiful older schoolmate, like he was playing a visual novel. That’s why being called a nerd right now was like having habanero sauce poured into a wound.

“Gnnng!”

He naturally clutched his chest and groaned, but in spite of his agony, Yuki was already striking a troubling pose and facing the complete opposite way of him.

“Anyway, I know deep down inside you want to see it, so here I go. Eek! Stop staring at me like that! ♡ ”

“Who are you talking to?”