“You ‘think’?”
“Hey, if he dodges”—Julia gestured at Reen—“this, we’re going to slap him with the nickname ‘King Wimp.’”
Though Reen sounded unsure of herself, what she was wearing made her blush when she looked down at it. If she leaned against Sol wearing this and he didn’t lay a hand on her, he very much deserved the ignoble moniker.
Eliza asked, “Wouldn’t the All Dragon eat us alive for that?”
Julia clapped a hand over her mouth. “Whoops.”
Of course, if the name reached Luna’s ears, even Julia wouldn’t get off scot-free. Though the two were purposely using a joking tone, they were reminded that they were enjoying what felt like a sleepover a little too much.
“The history books won’t describe me as not being attractive enough, right?”
“No, no, it’s all on Sol. It’s true that when a boy looks at a girl in a sexual way, part of it is unrelated to whether they actually like the girl, but a boy who won’t take action even after a girl who’s liked him since they were children goes this far cannot be called virtuous. I won’t accept it,” Frederica replied.
It wasn’t that Reen had no confidence at all. She had a feeling that when she approached Sol in this getup, considering how he had been behaving recently, he wouldn’t leave her hanging. Thinking about what he would specifically do nearly made her head overheat, so she decided to simply leave it to him. It had hurt to see him accompany Mark and Alan on their nights out in the past, and she thought it very unfair that boys could practice these skills so freely, but thanks to that, at least they wouldn’t both be complete amateurs tonight.
If things still didn’t work out, Reen was quite sure she would never recover. Of course, that was ridiculous, and anyone looking in from the outside could tell how silly it was, but as illustrated by the phenomenon of mutual one-sided love, these situations had a way of feeling very real to those actually in them.
As Julia and Frederica gazed at Reen with warm, fuzzy looks, Eliza said, “Um, I don’t really understand how you seduce someone. Do you just act direct and say, ‘Please take me,’ or...um...is...there...?”
Being the most innocent on account of her youth and, in a way, the one with the most straightforward feelings for Sol, she voiced aloud what she thought she might say but trailed off as she saw the expressions the other three were making—some strange mix of half-lidded eyes and lips barely pressed together.
“She...isn’t wrong,” said Julia stiffly, “though I imagine it’s a bit hard to do when you’ve remained childhood friends with him for so long, isn’t it?”
“Uh...it is.” Reen nodded, blushing deeply.
For some reason, Frederica had averted her gaze, but the part of her face that remained visible was red too.
“I-I see...” Eliza realized that she had stepped squarely on a land mine that triggered the older girls’ embarrassment. Though she didn’t really understand, her cheeks turned crimson too as she sat in awkward silence.