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18/25
00:15. Deep in the night, the second-floor hallway of the darkened Hoshikawa house suddenly echoed with light footsteps.
Click.
Creak.
Harutaki’s bedroom door was slowly pushed open. A small figure, like one of the dwarfs from Snow White, slipped sideways through the gap, tiptoeing into the room.
“Harutaki…”
“…”
“Harutaki…”
“Mm…”
Half-asleep and just about to thank Sae properly in his dreams, Harutaki squinted through drowsy eyes. By the faint moonlight seeping through the curtains, he focused on the person nudging him beside the bed.
“In the middle of the night… Fuyuno, don’t you want to grow any taller anymore?”
“My build is a super rare resource, you know~”
Even past midnight, Fuyuno was bursting with energy, showing no sign of wanting to sleep. Her cherry-pink eyes gleamed like a cat’s, reflecting the moonlight.
Not just her size, but even her daily rhythm had completely synced to that age range, huh?
Complaining inwardly, Harutaki lifted the blanket, intending to get up and carry Fuyuno out. For someone who’d just fallen asleep and started having nice dreams, he didn’t care who it was—he just wanted to crawl back into bed and sleep properly.
It wasn’t exactly morning grumpiness, but being shaken awake before he’d had enough sleep definitely irritated him.
However, the moment he groggily lifted the blanket, he failed to stop her. Seizing the opening like a sprinter diving at the finish line, Fuyuno slipped straight into his bed.
“Going to sleep this early is so boring. Play something fun with me, okay?”
“Let go first, and I’ll show you something interesting!”
Harutaki pressed down on Fuyuno’s head, stopping her from climbing any further onto him.
Her muffled voice came from under the blanket.
“It’s not like I haven’t seen your ‘thing’ before…”
“Something more interesting.”
As he said that, Harutaki lifted the blanket and crawled in as well. By the faint moonlight leaking through the gaps, he and Fuyuno stared at each other, her face full of confusion.
“So where’s the interesting thing?”
Looking at Harutaki’s vaguely defined handsome face in the darkness, Fuyuno pressed her pink lips together and asked quietly.
No matter how small she looked, she was still a girl about to enter high school. Normally stuck at a private girls’ academy that strictly forbade boys, and with nowhere to go during breaks, she spent her days holed up at home.
The only boy she ever interacted with was Harutaki.
As for going out with classmates?
Yeah, right.
Ever since being treated like someone’s little sister—or even their daughter—Fuyuno had flatly refused to go out with other girls.
It wasn’t that anyone bullied her. On the contrary, everyone took good care of her. But what she wanted was never that kind of “cute little sister” treatment.
“Harutaki, you’re not saying the ‘interesting thing’ is just you, right?”
Fuyuno stared at him, waiting for his answer.
“Huh? Am I not interesting?”
“If you’re willing to play with me, then you’re interesting~”
“An interesting thing, huh? Watch closely…”
Harutaki kept a straight face and extended his left hand between them. With a flick of his wrist, a glow instantly lit up the pitch-dark blanket.
“…”
“See? A glow-in-the-dark watch. Pretty cool, right? Your Chouko-oneesan gave it to me tonight~”
“Go die, idiot.”
Realizing she’d been tricked, Fuyuno immediately lunged at him in embarrassment and anger. But she hadn’t considered the difference in their builds. Moments later, she was like a lamb walking into a tiger’s den, locked firmly in his arms.
“You useless, premature, soft—!”
“You shameless little potato…”
“Zako!”
“Potato.”
“Virgin!”
“Potato.”
“That’s enough!”
Fuyuno struggled angrily, but after realizing escape was impossible, she gave up entirely.
This won’t work… at this rate I can’t even carry out the first step of my plan…
Calming down, she suddenly noticed something.
Why did she have to fight him head-on?
Or rather, Harutaki wasn’t the type who responded to force. He was the soft-hearted kind who yielded to gentleness. So why was she insisting on being aggressive?
Realizing this, Fuyuno switched tactics. Thinking back on all her grievances, her voice gradually began to choke up.
“Sniff… even you don’t care about me anymore, Harutaki…”
“Huh?”
Harutaki had thought she was about to pull some trick, pretending to be weak and then striking unexpectedly. Instead, her genuine, tearful tone threw him completely off balance.
This has to be a trick.
With Fuyuno’s little devil personality, he scoffed inwardly. Crying just because an attack failed? No way.
“Stop pretending. I’m not falling for that.”
“Sniff… Aya-chan too. She’s always thinking about that idiot brother and never cares…”
“A-Ayaka does scold you all the time…”
“Mom and Dad’s love was stolen by you from the start… sniff… no one ever wanted to play with me. Everyone treats me like a kid…”
Recalling how she’d always felt like an outsider, the more Fuyuno thought about it, the angrier and sadder she became. What had started as an act turned into something real, and tears finally spilled out uncontrollably.
When Harutaki felt his chest getting wet, he immediately knew something was wrong.
Wait—she’s serious?!
“T-That is… Fuyuno, I…”
For the moment, he couldn’t think of how to comfort her.
He had memories too. Even though he’d discarded most of the negativity, if he thought carefully, he could piece together Fuyuno’s situation from the details.
As the eldest brother, he’d taken much of their parents’ attention. Ayaka’s focus had also largely been on him. Chiaki was introverted. And so Fuyuno, precocious from a young age, ended up being overlooked.
Because she, Hoshikawa Fuyuno, could take care of herself.
No matter what, this was something he owed her. Something he wanted to make up for.
“Sniff…”
Seeing Fuyuno still wiping away tears, he could only sigh and try to negotiate.
“Can’t you think about something age-appropriate and healthy?”
“No.”
“How about I let you ride on my back like a horse?”
Smack.
Harutaki clutched his side where her elbow had struck him, sucking in a sharp breath.
“Stop treating me like a kid!”
“Hiss… then what do you actually want?”
Don’t tell me it’s—
“Hehe. Of course it’s squeezing cream and having a midnight snack~”
Hearing the excitement and anticipation in her voice, Harutaki momentarily questioned his life choices.
Was there something wrong with Fuyuno, liking that kind of thing? His ex-girlfriend had frowned and spat it out immediately.
Or was there something wrong with him? But… it wasn’t like he could test it himself.
In any case, Fuyuno was never the type to sit still. While Harutaki was tangled in his thoughts, she slipped free from his arms and immediately launched a counterattack.
Under her skillful flanking and evasive maneuvers, Harutaki’s so-called Maginot Line collapsed completely. Half-resisting, half-giving in, he raised the white flag.
“Harutaki, look~ Aah—”
Leaning against the headboard with vacant eyes, lost in self-reproach and criticism, Harutaki watched as Fuyuno grinned and showed off her “spoils.” Her triumphant expression was like she was parading victory down the streets of Paris.
Such a great start to her corruption plan, she thought happily. Rubbing her belly, she hopped down, slipped into her slippers, and sneaked out of the room like a cat, barely making a sound.
Click.
The bedroom returned to the same quiet as half an hour earlier.
Only now, its owner lay there with his head a complete mess, his thoughts tangled, wondering where on earth his bottom line had gone.