Chapter 176: Playing with Mashiro Until Dawn?
Chapter 176: Playing with Mashiro Until Dawn?
“Who’s gonna praise you!”
How could he say something like that without shame?
She never expected Mashiro to be like this!
“No need to be shy.”
“I am NOT shy!”
“A-ano, Himekoji-san?”
Nanami timidly spoke up, unsure how to join the conversation.
“Ah, sorry. My body just reacted to this stupid chat on its own.”
Himekoji felt embarrassed realizing how idiotic his ordinary exchanges with Mashiro must seem to others.
“That, uh, must be tough.”
Still standing after getting up from her desk where she’d been leaning, Nanami smoothed the wrinkles Himekoji had put in her skirt and gave him a deadpan look.
…
Mashiro suddenly tugged at Himekoji’s sleeve.
“Hm? Ah, she’s my classmate, Aoyama Nanami.”
He could probably guess what Mashiro wanted to ask.
After introducing Nanami, Himekoji turned back to introduce her properly.
“A-about her… This is Shiina Mashiro. She transferred in yesterday. She’s the one I wanted to ask you to help look after.”
“Ahh, I know. Shiina-san is pretty famous.”
Because of her graceful beauty and reputation as a genius painter, she’d attracted attention from the whole school from the moment she arrived. Though it hadn’t even been two days, there were probably no students left at Toyosaki who didn’t know Mashiro.
Even with her name mentioned, Mashiro stood quietly beside Himekoji as usual, face expressionless.
“Huh? Wait, you mean the girl you want me to help look after… is Shiina-san?!”
A beat later, Nanami finally processed the second half of Himekoji’s words and gasped.
“Yeah, that’s right…”
“So that means… that means… it’s true the two of you live together?! It wasn’t a rumor?!”
Himekoji nodded with a complicated expression.
“You! You’re already LIVING together!”
“It’s not what you’re thinking—”
Himekoji waved his hands urgently to explain.
“Akito.”
Even though Himekoji was desperately trying to handle Nanami, Mashiro acted like she hadn’t noticed at all and called out Himekoji’s name bluntly.
“Sh-she just calls you by your first name?!”
Nanami sounded shocked again.
Before Mashiro could speak, Himekoji already guessed what she wanted. He pulled out a piece of Baumkuchen from his bag and handed it to her.
“That’s the only one, so eat it carefully.”
Mashiro’s slender, pale fingers took the bag, but she didn’t seem to intend to eat it. Her gaze returned to Himekoji.
“I want Hashimoto Bakery’s premium melon bread.”
“Why do you keep asking for extra, impossible things…?”
“Don’t have any?”
“Of course I don’t!”
Feeling his tone might have been a little harsh, Himekoji softened his voice and added.
“Just eat that for now. Quickly.”
Mashiro nodded silently, opened the bag, and bit into the cake.
It felt like feeding animal pellets. Nanami watched Mashiro in astonishment.
Then, something amazing happened!
Mashiro closed her eyes without warning and fell asleep standing up… in less than three seconds!
Asleep!
“Don’t go to sleep!”
Himekoji gently poked her head.
Woken by Himekoji’s call, Mashiro, acting like nothing had happened, kept chewing the Baumkuchen. Then, after about ten seconds, Mashiro started dozing off again.
“I told you not to sleep!”
This time, Himekoji flicked her forehead hard with his finger.
Then, waking up again, Mashiro acted exactly like before, as if the mid-eating nap never happened, and continued nibbling her cake small bite by small bite.
“Shiina-san is really… how do I put it? Quite a unique individual…”
Nanami stood dumbfounded, carefully choosing her words for her impression.
“This is actually pretty good…”
“Is it?”
While Himekoji and Nanami briefly exchanged words, Mashiro embarked on her third journey to dreamland.
“Could you at least have a bit of restraint?!”
Himekoji decided to go for the final strike—a direct karate chop to Mashiro’s head.
“Sleepy.”
“At least pay attention to the place and situation!”
“It’s Akito’s fault. He wouldn’t let me sleep last night.”
“Huh?”
“Huhhh?!”
Himekoji’s confused noise and Nanami’s shocked gasp overlapped.
The next moment, Nanami shot Himekoji Akito a suspicious look.
“It’s absolutely NOT like that!”
Himekoji held up his hand as if taking an oath.
“And he made me wear Underwear I don’t like. Then, this morning, he got me all wet.”
“Shiina, could you please shut up for a second?”
“Himekoji-san, YOU are the one who should shut up!”
Nanami flared up at Himekoji immediately.
Her bright red face proved she completely misunderstood!
“Last night, he kept at it until dawn. It was too much already. Then, this morning, he still wouldn’t let me sleep.”
“K-Kept at it until… dawn? Dawn?! Himekoji, y-you! Pervert!”
Nanami shouted angrily.
“I was just trying to wake you up! Don’t make it sound like something else! And YOU stayed up drawing manga until dawn. Why blame me?! If I let you sleep any longer, you’d be late! YOU asked me to pick your Underwear. If you don’t like it, don’t blame me! How was I supposed to know what kind you like to wear?! Finally, getting soaked wet? That was MY doing? Wasn’t it your own mess while washing?!” Himekoji was practically going mad, spitting out the explanation in one breath.
“Is… is that really true, Shiina-san?”
Though Himekoji’s anxious look and tone as he explained didn’t seem fake, Nanami still wasn’t 100% sure. She turned to Mashiro for confirmation.
Right at this critical moment, Mashiro fell asleep AGAIN!
“Wake up, Shiina! This is life or death!”
Awakened, Mashiro glared at Himekoji like a cat whose territory had been invaded, clearly unhappy.
“What I said just now was all true, right?! Wasn’t it?”
“Yes. But I’m sleepy now. It’s Akito’s fault.”
“Haaaahhh—”
Mashiro admitted it. At least that cleared his name, right? Weakly throwing up his hands, Himekoji gave Nanami a “See? Told you” look.
“E-e-even so! The two of you living together… what on earth is going on?!”
“Look, it’s really not what you think. There’s actually a pretty complicated background to this…”
Mashiro, looking sideways as Himekoji tried to explain, seemed unable to stand steadily any longer. She leaned her whole body onto him, taking up more than half of the chair Himekoji was sitting in, and drifted comfortably off to sleep.
The feeling of Mashiro’s soft skin and the warmth of her body transferred to Himekoji where they touched.
Mashiro’s action was so natural, and Himekoji was so focused on explaining things to Nanami, that he completely missed his chance to dodge.
From Nanami’s perspective, such closeness only confirmed how incredibly intimate and ambiguous the relationship between Mashiro and Himekoji was!
Nanami’s stiff expression said it all.
“Himekoji-san!”
“W-what is it, Aoyama?”
Himekoji could guess what Nanami was going to say, the question was which part she’d start with.
“Are you two dating?”
Nanami asked clearly, word by word.
Already unable to face Aoyama Nanami with composure, Himekoji definitely didn’t notice the subtle trembling in Nanami’s hand.
……
……