Chapter 189: Listening to Nanami
Chapter 189: Listening to Nanami
“No! It’s not like that!”
“Like what?”
Nanami stared at him intensely.
“I mean… anyway, absolutely nothing happened!”
As Himekoji spoke, he suddenly realized explaining the whole situation seemed incredibly difficult.
“Completely naked, coming out of a girl’s room at five in the morning, you’re telling me nothing happened?”
Nanami felt like Himekoji was treating her like an idiot.
“Completely naked?!”
Crap! If Nanami hadn’t mentioned it, Himekoji had almost forgotten he wasn’t wearing any clothes!
Being naked all night, he’d practically gotten used to it!
He hurriedly covered his chest with his hands, his face burning.
Right now, the only thing he was wearing was an incredibly childish pair of boxer shorts printed with cartoon characters.
Nanami’s gaze swept over Himekoji’s lower body. She saw them, frowned, then suddenly seemed to remember something. She whirled around sharply.
The girl turned her back on Himekoji and, trying to be discreet, peeked inside her own loose pajama pants—
“Couple… couple underwear?!” Nanami exclaimed without thinking.
“Pervert!”
…
Pervert?
“They absolutely are not!”
That underwear was something he had carefully chosen for his Imouto!
How could someone who loved his Imouto be a pervert? Was buying underwear for his Imouto wrong? Don’t sully the pure and innocent sibling love between me and my Imouto with your filthy, dirty thoughts!
Himekoji was furious!
“Take them off! Yes, take them off! I’m taking mine off right now! I never want to wear ‘couple underwear’ with a pervert!”
“Hey! Don’t take them off in front of me!”
“Like I needed you to tell me that!”
Nanami threw the words at him, turned angrily, and ran back into the bedroom.
SLAM! The door closed heavily behind her.
However, a moment later, the door that had just been shut suddenly opened again. Nanami’s head peeked out awkwardly from behind it.
“Is there… is there any underwear I can change into? For… for a girl… n-new…?”
“No new ones. But I’ve got plenty of fresh ones!”
Himekoji rolled his eyes sharply.
This was ridiculous!
How could this idiot Nanami dare be unsatisfied?! She was wearing underwear he had meticulously prepared for his Imouto, and she still had the nerve to pick and choose and complain!
“Fresh ones? Huh? Are those the ones you were ‘sampling’ before?”
“I was not sampling!”
“So what were you doing? Holding Mashiro’s underwear up to your face, sniffing it…”
“Enough! Stop it! Please stop talking!”
Himekoji suddenly felt a sharp pain in his temples.
“Fine! Underwear! I’ll get you some, okay?!”
To silence Nanami, Himekoji had no choice but to make this humiliating decision.
He ran back to his room and returned in less than a minute.
“Here!”
Heart aching, Himekoji thrust out several pairs of adorable little underwear he had kept for his Imouto.
With this many choices, surely there must be one she likes!
Nanami took them and started picking through them.
But soon enough, she frowned again.
“What… what are these underwear?! The words and pictures on them, they’re… way too…! ‘Onii-chan Love’? ‘Loving My Imouto is the Best’? ‘Marry Big Brother’? You… you! You’re such a PERVERT!!!”
Nanami screamed, her face bright red.
The shrill sound was so loud it felt like it could pierce eardrums.
Frightened, Himekoji rushed forward and clapped a hand over Nanami’s mouth.
“Shhhhh! Quiet! Shiina just fell asleep!”
“Mmmph! Mmmph!”
Muffled sounds escaped Nanami since her mouth was covered. She glared at Himekoji, her eyes telling him to get his hand off.
Himekoji didn’t remove it. After all, he couldn’t just obey her demands just like that.
Then, the next moment—
“Ow! Are you a dog?!”
Caught off guard, Himekoji yelped in pain.
She… she’d bitten him!
“Not sobered up yet? Are you going wild from the alcohol again?”
Himekoji released her hand in pain.
The moment he mentioned “alcohol,” Nanami’s face flushed bright red.
The girl instinctively gulped, as if savoring the taste of the Kuchikamizake from yesterday…
She froze for a long moment before suddenly snapping out of it.
“Who’s wild?! Who’s wild?! You’re the one who’s wild!”
“Okay, okay, it’s me who’s wild, me…”
Himekoji had to console her.
“By the way… you said earlier that Shiina just fell asleep?”
“Yeah…”
“You… and her?!”
Maybe it was too shocking or bewildering. Nanami pointed at Himekoji, dumbstruck and speechless.
“It’s not what you think!”
“What else could it be?!”
Himekoji felt that, in this situation, explaining it to the girl clearly in just a few words was completely impossible. He sighed and pulled out the ultimate solution—
Seeing is believing!
“Look!”
Himekoji walked up in a few steps and pushed open Mashiro’s room door.
“You… you really did!”
But instead, it seemed like the misunderstanding had deepened…
“Did what?! Shiina was just drawing manga! She drew manga all night!”
Himekoji had wanted Nanami to see Mashiro’s art materials filling the room. However, Nanami only noticed the underwear scattered everywhere on Mashiro’s floor…
Well, admittedly, that’s what any normal person would notice first.
“See? The bedsheet is fine! And no weird smell! Mashiro just needed a model for her drawing!”
“A… naked model?”
Nanami stared coldly at him.
“Yeah, naked…”
Stuck now, Himekoji could only grit his teeth and answer.
“So why haven’t you put your clothes back on? Are you an exhibitionist?”
After snapping those words, Nanami tossed her ponytail and turned sharply, striding coolly toward the kitchen.
Huh? The kitchen?
“Where are you going?”
Himekoji clumsily yanked his T-shirt on while stumbling after her.
“Making bento!”
“It’s not that late though…”
“None of your business!”
“Um… Mashiro and I are really innocent.”
After hesitating, Himekoji added the useless explanation.
“You idiot!”
Sure enough, Nanami whipped around, firing the insult straight at his face.
Himekoji forced out a couple of dry laughs.
“Let me help,”
he offered after the awkward laughs, stepping forward.
But his eyelids felt heavy. Having stayed up all night, Himekoji stifled a yawn.
“No need! Go sleep! You’d just cause trouble like this.”
Nanami waved him off dismissively.
“It’s already this late… I’ll sleep in class.”
“Huh? Do you want to write another self-reflection essay? Go!”
“But I—”
Himekoji tried to object, but Nanami cut him off sternly,
“Go! Now! Be good!”
“Ah… okay,”
Groggy from sleep deprivation, Himekoji scratched his head and agreed without thinking.
…
Huh?!
Go? Be good?
Be good?!
Hold on—agree?
Unbelievable!
Was Nanami treating him like a little kid?!
…
…