Chapter 445

Legs crossed in the passenger seat, Renka looked clearly dissatisfied with something.

From the moment we left my place until we were almost at hers, she hadn't dropped her sullen pout.

Her grievance probably stemmed from the sheer lack of physical affection.

We had just sat there with my arm around her waist watching anime without doing anything else, and it seemed she wanted to complain about it.

But what was I supposed to do?

She had told me herself not to expect anything more, and I had followed her instructions to the letter.

Now, all she could do was express her frustration through that pout.

"Thanks for the gift."

I shot her a sideways glance as I thanked her, but her reply was ice-cold.

"How many times are you going to say that? I heard you."

"I can't even thank you without getting chewed out."

"Just don't."

"Why are you sulking again all of a sudden?"

"Who's sulking...! Do you want to die?"

"Go ahead and kill me, then."

"You... just you wait... Haa... Never mind. I shouldn't even bother."

Look at her, grumbling away just because she had run out of comebacks.

How could I not love her when she acted like this? It was downright impossible.

"You're definitely sulking."

"I can't hear you."

"You wouldn't have answered if you couldn't hear me."

"Just focus on driving."

"President."

"What."

"I just called your name because I'm thankful you always answer me, even when you're mad. Keep doing that for me."

"Who do you think you are, ordering me around?"

"You sound like an angsty middle schooler."

Renka let her head fall back against the headrest with a soft thud.

She seemed intent on shutting down the conversation entirely by refusing to answer.

Chuckling to myself at her reaction, I stopped teasing her and quietly focused on driving.

Soon, we arrived outside Renka's house.

The moment I unlocked the doors, she pushed the passenger door wide.

As she stepped out, I called out to her softly.

"President."

"What now...!"

"Get inside safely."

"I'm literally right in front of my house. How could I not get inside safely?"

"There you go, getting all prickly again."

"...You get home safely too."

I loved this side of her—snapping at me one second, only to blush and shyly return my gentle goodbye.

I loved how she still hesitated even after saying her farewells, peering back at me through the open passenger window.

"Did you have something else to say?"

"Yeah. You're annoying."

It sounded like her roundabout way of saying she liked me.

I slowly nodded as if I understood perfectly, and the corners of her lips gave a sharp twitch.

She was probably dying to hurl a bucket of curses at me now that I had seen right through her.

"Don't just smile like that whenever you feel like it. It pisses me off."

Her scolding was the exact opposite of how she really felt. I kept my mischievous grin and gave a casual shrug, prompting her to snap one last word before turning away.

"Leave."

With that, her long legs carried her briskly through the Main Gate and out of sight.

Just as she had hit all the right notes for my tastes today, she must have found something she liked in my behavior just now.

Seeing her react like that all but confirmed it.

Letting out a quiet chuckle, I turned the car around.

It had been a deeply satisfying day. At the same time, my anticipation for the future had grown just as much.

There was plenty of room to uncover even more fresh sides to her.

A slave's growth was a continuous process. And I was going to make sure of it.

First thing the next morning, I texted Miyuki and got myself cleaned up.

I threw on a plain white tee underneath the Blue Shirt she liked so much. When I stepped outside, the refreshing morning weather had been overtaken by dark, looming clouds.

A dreary drizzle began to fall. Anyone else might have found it gloomy, but not me.

This was exactly the kind of weather I loved.

And Miyuki, who had been thoroughly molded to my tastes, felt the exact same way.

Since it was raining, maybe something good would happen today.

Harboring those expectations, I drove over to Miyuki's house.

When I arrived, I noticed the window to Miyuki's room was cracked open.

I could see her leaning on the sill with her arms crossed, just like she had done back when she was sick with a cold and had watched Tetsuya and me.

As I stepped out of the car, she waved one hand and flashed a bright, sunny smile.

Lately, Miyuki had been acting like the heroine straight out of a teen romance movie.

Amused by the thought, I waved back and went to ring the doorbell by the front door.

Click.

The door swung open almost immediately...

And the person greeting me from the other side wasn't Kana, Midori, or Wataru—it was Miyuki.

"Hi, Matsuda-kun."

"...What the?"

She had been up in her room just a second ago, and now she was already at the front door.

Had she learned how to teleport? Well, it wasn't strictly impossible given the timeframe, but still.

"What?"

I furrowed my brow, staring down at Miyuki as she beamed at me, clearly playing dumb.

"Did you run all the way down?"

"Yep."

"You must have sprinted."

"A little bit?"

"And why did you do that?"

"Because I like your outfit today."

"My outfit?"

"Uh-huh."

She was clearly just messing with me using some flimsy excuse. I slipped my hands under her arms.

Then, putting some muscle into it, I hoisted her straight up into the air.

"Ah...!"

Startled by the sudden liftoff, Miyuki clung to me, wrapping her arms around my neck and her legs tightly around my waist as I pulled her into a hug.

Supporting her thighs as she clung to me like a koala, I carried her inside, but tilted my head when I saw the empty living room.

"Are your mom and dad not here?"

"They are."

"Where?"

"In the master bedroom."

I guess I came over so often now that they didn't even bother coming out to greet me anymore.

I actually preferred it this way.

But what were those two doing in the bedroom?

They weren't doing anything funny in there, were they?

They clearly knew I was coming over, so they probably wouldn't.

I couldn't stomach the thought of Midori sleeping with anyone else but me.

Sure, she was a married woman, but I still couldn't allow it.

She was going to need some... re-education.

"What about Kana?"

"She's up in her room."

"Did you guys have fun yesterday?"

"Yeah."

"What did you do?"

"Just walked around downtown, grabbed some food... went shopping for clothes. Things like that."

"Sounds pretty normal."

"Pretty much."

Pat, pat.

Tapping her rear in a gentle, steady rhythm like soothing a baby to sleep, I started making my way up the stairs to the second floor.

As I walked, I gave a stern warning to Miyuki, who was still hanging onto me with no intention of letting go.

"Don't come running down the stairs like that again. If you trip, you're going to get seriously hurt."

"I'll think about it."

"Don't think about it, just say yes."

"I'm going to think about it."

"You really don't listen, do you?"

"Me too? Does that mean there's someone else who doesn't listen to you? Who is it?"

She latched right onto my slip of the tongue. Caught off guard, I scrambled to come up with an excuse, but she just giggled and patted the back of my neck to show she didn't mind.

"I'm just kidding."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course."

"Right... Okay, then."

I had noticed it before, but lately, Miyuki had become strangely alluring.

Actually, strangely wasn't the right word anymore—she was blatantly seductive.

This was the kind of situation that should have sent a chill down my spine, so why was all my blood rushing southward?

It was probably because, despite her new aura, she didn't project any actual malice toward the other heroines.

It wasn't good for someone to change this flawlessly... The moment we got to her room, I was going to strip her bare.

I would have to tease her until she begged, or I'd never hear the end of it.

As I made my way up the stairs with that goal in mind, a disgusted groan drifted down from above—someone clearly finding the sight of us grating.

I looked up to see Kana leaning over the railing, shooting us a dirty look.

"Morning."

I gave Miyuki a little toss to adjust my grip on her before offering a nonchalant greeting. Kana clicked her tongue.

"It's a terrible morning."

"Why is that?"

"Because I said so."

In some ways, Kana actually reminded me of Renka and Hiyori.

It was her personality. She felt like a slightly milder version of those two combined.

If I brought her into the harem, she and Miyuki could probably act as perfect mediators between the other girls...

But the most important part was the sheer appeal of having a threesome with real sisters.

Sleeping with two gorgeous sisters who were only a year apart in age.

There wasn't a man alive who could easily walk away from a prospect like that.

Rather than suffering in silence and letting my desires build up, maybe I should just go for it.

"Are you just acting out because you're jealous?"

"I am not. Jealous of what, exactly? Just behave yourselves while you're here."

"Sure thing, we'll play nice and quietly."

Twitch.

Kana's shoulders gave a faint shudder, too subtle for Miyuki to notice.

Her telling us to behave was her thinly veiled way of demanding we keep our hands off each other.

She was clearly still on edge about what had happened the last time I was over.

And my reply was a loaded promise—that we were absolutely going to sleep together, but I would make sure she wouldn't hear a peep.

Kana had caught my drift perfectly, hence the reaction.

Unlike Miyuki, who could be painfully oblivious to this sort of thing, Kana picked up on it immediately.

Who did she get that from? Midori, maybe? I certainly hoped so.

"I'm leaving. Have fun, you two."

Kana gave a dismissive wave and vanished into her room.

Just picturing her pressing her ear against the wall to eavesdrop on us was enough to turn me on.

Click.

Reaching the top of the stairs, I carried her down the hall and opened the door to her room at the far end. I took one step inside and froze.

"What the...?"

The entire layout of the room had changed.

The necklace I had hung on her door a while back—the one with our initials on it—was now pinned to the wall above her desk, right where she could see it every time she sat down.

Even her bedsheets and blankets had been swapped out. Her usual warm, pastel tones were gone, replaced by a deep, rich navy blue—my favorite color.

But the most important change was on the ceiling. The glow-in-the-dark stickers—her precious mementos of Tetsuya—were gone. In their place, directly above the bed, were the photo booth stickers she and I had taken together.

"I did some spring cleaning and changed things up a bit."

Her tone was totally casual as she continued to hang from my neck.

Hearing that snapped me out of my daze. A fresh wave of sheer delight washed over me as I carried her straight to the bed.

I slid my knee between the legs of the suddenly shy Miyuki, leaned forward, and pushed her down onto the mattress.