Chapter 444

I'd assumed the display case Renka bought would just be a standard rectangular box, but it actually had tiered shelving inside.

This let us arrange the figures in a stepped formation. Since we'd bought quite a few together, they filled out the display case beautifully.

"Looks good."

I placed the empty boxes in a corner of the living room and gave my appraisal. Renka replied with a lukewarm tone.

"Yeah."

"Isn't your reaction a bit dry?"

"Not really."

"Got it. Thanks for the gift."

"Mhm."

Ever since her little display of affection earlier, she had been acting completely standoffish.

Her face, on the other hand, was so red it looked ready to burst. Indirectly confessing her feelings must have left her deeply embarrassed.

"So, what now?"

"I should head home. No need to walk me back. I showed up uninvited anyway, so I'll go by myself."

"Instead of doing that, why don't you sleep over?"

"...W-What...?"

"Stay the night."

"What... w-why are you suddenly saying something so weird...?"

Judging by her expression, she wasn't faking it—she was genuinely shocked.

Did she really not expect me to invite her to sleep over?

Any of the other girls would have at least seen it coming. It was funny seeing her act so utterly naive, completely at odds with her tough exterior.

"I'm telling you to sleep over."

"What are you... T-That makes no sense..."

"Why doesn't it make sense? You just stay here and sleep."

"F-For one thing, I didn't tell my parents, and I don't want to... Wait, no, it's not that I don't want to because I hate you, it's just too soon..."

Listening to Renka ramble like that was incredibly refreshing.

The fact that she rushed to correct herself so I wouldn't think she disliked me was just too cute.

Her charm was absolutely overflowing today. There was no way I wanted to let her leave like this.

"Didn't you say earlier that you really, really hated me?"

"I said that's how I usually feel, but not today...!"

"I didn't realize you could pick and choose your emotions on a whim."

"Stop being sarcastic...! I'll kill you...!?"

"Kill me, then."

"..."

"All talk, no action..."

"Shut your mouth...! Before I take the gift back...!"

"There's nothing lower than giving a gift and taking it back."

"Doing it to you isn't playing dirty...! It's justified...!"

"How petty."

I clicked my tongue and muttered under my breath. In response, I could hear Renka grinding her teeth.

She wasn't actually grinding them in anger. It was just her usual stubbornness flaring up to mask her overwhelming shyness.

"So, you really aren't going to sleep over?"

Her huffing expression instantly morphed back into bashfulness the second I brought up spending the night, completely confirming my theory.

"I can't... If I tell my parents out of nowhere that I'm staying out..."

"So it would be fine if you'd told them in advance, then?"

"Well... it's not like I've never spent the night away from home before, so that would probably be fine..."

"You've slept out before? Where?"

"I just sleep over at Chinami's place every now and then. And, as you know, the Kendo Club training camps require overnight stays... Wait, don't tell me you're interrogating me because you think I've slept at some other guy's house..."

"I was just curious. The problem with you, President, is that you always read too much into my words."

"...How annoying."

Leaving the grumbling Renka behind, I sat down on the mattress and patted the spot next to me.

"Do you want to wash up before you sit down? Or just sit as is?"

Renka flinched, her shoulders jumping, before she snapped at me.

"I told you I'm not staying the night...!"

"Who said you had to? I'm just telling you to rest a bit before you head back. Let's watch some anime together."

"W-What anime..."

"It's what you like, President."

"I don't like watching it with you."

"You said today was different. So maybe you might actually enjoy watching it with me today?"

"That's... not what I meant when I said that."

Renka's voice shrank to a tiny whisper, as if her own words were overwhelmingly embarrassing to her.

Fidgeting pointlessly with the hem of her t-shirt and wearing a sulky expression, she finally spoke up again.

"Where did you say the toothbrush was...?"

"Far-left cabinet in the main bathroom."

"...Then just for two or three hours..."

"Sure. Should we invite Master too?"

"I-I knew you'd do this...! You perverted creep...!"

It was hilarious how merely mentioning Chinami made her mind jump straight into the gutter before chewing me out.

Of course, getting that exact reaction was the whole reason I brought it up.

"What's perverted about that? I only suggested it because watching together as a trio would be fun."

"Chinami doesn't know that I like anime."

"I've never understood that. How does she not know? I know Master's lips are sealed, so why keep it a secret?"

"It wasn't that I specifically wanted to hide it... It just ended up that way..."

Renka and Chinami had first met sometime around their early years of middle school.

In that case... it was likely a secret she'd hidden during the height of puberty, an age when teenagers are sensitive about everything. Just as she said, she simply wound up carrying that secret all the way to the present day.

Chinami had absolutely zero interest in any anime unrelated to Momo-sama anyway, so the topic probably never even came up between them. Renka wouldn't have felt any pressing need to tell her.

And as for hiding her figures whenever Chinami visited her house... well, that was probably just an ingrained habit at this point.

"Why not take this chance to let her know? If it's Master, she'll definitely respect your hobbies, President."

"I'm worried she'll be disappointed and ask why I didn't tell her sooner..."

"Master? That makes no sense."

"Argh... Shut up. I'll figure it out myself, so don't say another word about it."

I pinched my index finger and thumb together and mimed zipping my lips shut as my answer.

My relaxed attitude seemed to rub her the wrong way. She jutted her lips out in a pout, snapped her head away, and marched off toward the bathroom.

Her antics were seriously adorable.

Even though she didn't look the type... of course, that gap was a massive part of her charm.

While contemplating exactly how I could tease her even more, I stood up and headed for the smaller bathroom.

It wasn't like we were going to kiss, but I still needed to brush my teeth.

Renka was sitting with her knees pulled tightly to her chest.

She even wrapped her arms around her legs in a highly defensive posture. It didn't seem like she was actually worried I would do something; rather, just being entirely alone with me in a guy's house was leaving her thoroughly flustered.

Sitting in a far more relaxed posture than her, I asked a question as we watched the cheerful opening sequence of the new anime.

"What genre is this?"

"How should I know? You're the one who picked it."

What a joke.

Her eyes had literally sparkled the second I hovered over this anime...

Talk about covering the sky with the palm of one's hand—she was clearly invested.

"You know what it is."

"..."

"Right?"

"...Yeah. It's just a high school romance."

"See? I knew it."

"Shut up."

"Is it based on a light novel or a manga? Or is it an original?"

"It's based on a manga... but it's a prequel to the original story."

"How does the story even work for a high school manga prequel? Isn't it a bit awkward trying to weave a plot in the past?"

"The main characters in the original series are childhood friends, so if they focus on when they first met as kids, there aren't really any narrative issues."

"I see. Is it pure romance?"

"Obviously."

"Why is it obvious?"

"If the heroine is a childhood friend and one of the main leads, it absolutely has to be pure romance. They've had a deep emotional connection since they were young, and the original work portrayed that perfectly. The readers wouldn't stand for it if it turned into a harem."

Fair enough. The heavy weight of the 'childhood friend' title really couldn't support anything other than pure romance.

It also guaranteed an above-average flavor for the story.

Still, it was a bit of a shame that they didn't consider a demographic like mine.

Was the original creator a man? Or a woman?

Were they married? If it was a man, I wanted to corrupt his wife; if it was a woman, I wanted to personally taint her tastes.

"I wouldn't mind if it went the harem route, though."

"The protagonist in this isn't a lecher like you, so that's impossible."

"'Lecher'? Doesn't that sound kind of cute?"

"Typical you. You lunatic."

"Are you swearing at me?"

"You crazy bastard."

"That's also a swear, you know?"

"You shouldn't take it as a swear. I'm just stating a fact."

"Right, right. Isn't your posture uncomfortable?"

"No, it's not."

"Don't be like that, come here."

I kicked off the blanket covering my lower half, spread my legs slightly, and patted the space between them. Renka flatly shook her head.

"No."

She was going to come over anyway, but she was still playing hard to get.

I scoffed and spoke again.

"I won't try anything weird, so just sit here."

"Don't lie."

"I'm not lying. I'm serious."

"..."

Showing a brief flicker of hesitation—as if she'd never actually planned on staying away to begin with—Renka carefully shuffled over and settled herself between my legs.

The second she was in reach, I grabbed her waist and pulled her flush against my body.

"Hey...! Y-You said you wouldn't try anything weird..."

"I'm just going to stay exactly like this."

"...Then don't even think about going any further."

She was spouting things she didn't even mean, when in reality, she wanted me to touch her all over.

"I won't."

I gave a firm reply and watched over her shoulder as she pulled the blanket back over her lower half, before turning my attention to the TV.

Renka was probably expecting me to slowly escalate the physical contact once we'd watched the anime for a bit.

But I had no intention of doing that.

Just as I promised, I planned on staying exactly like this.

Holding back my urges with Renka sitting right there was incredibly difficult, but I had to be patient until she begged me to touch her herself.

Her charm practically burst at the seams the more I peeled back her layers, so naturally, her education had to continue.

This level of physical contact was partly to satisfy my own desires, but it was also a gift for Renka for being so cute today... in other words, a carrot.

And it's only proper to portion out carrots sparingly during training.

And so, with my arms simply wrapped around her waist, I watched the anime. The first episode passed, then the second, and then the third, but I didn't move a muscle.

By the time I turned on the fourth episode, she squirmed around, pretending to adjust her posture while deliberately stimulating my thighs, but I endured even that.

Renka was a fruit currently in the process of ripening.

I would let her ripen even more before plucking and devouring her at her absolute sweetest.

I'll hold myself back now for the day she acts like a little lap dog—exhausted from a long walk, rolling onto its back, and begging its owner to hold it.