“Ah, don’t worry about it. Everyone makes mistakes if they get butterflies in their stomach like that. I’m not the kinda small-minded man who holds a grudge over that stuff, ha-ha-ha!” he’d said after her apology.
Nayuta breathed a visible sigh of relief, then took an even deeper breath.
“Also, I love you, sir. Could we maybe be a couple?”
“Hyah! Hah…hah…urrp. Krpbbbhh?!”
The mask of the broad-minded published author peeled itself off as Itsuki completely lost all presence of mind in the most pathetic of fashions.
“Wh-what are you talking about, Ms. Kani?!”
Nayuta’s editor looked just as surprised at this turn of events. Nayuta didn’t let it faze her.
“Ever since I first saw your work,” she began, “I’ve always been in love with you. When I got to meet you at the awards ceremony, that made me realize how real that feeling truly was. It’s not that I love your work or that I love you as an author—I love you, Itsuki Hashima, in the romantic kind of way. I am infatuated with you. I need you to be my lover.”
Every piece of her body language indicated she was telling the unadorned truth. It made Itsuki fall into a panic. “…Um, um, l-let me think about it? A little…?” he managed to stammer as Nayuta was all but dragged out of the room by her editor.
Then he rolled into his bed and pondered over it, mind racing. This was the first time a woman had done anything like that to him. He’d never had a girlfriend before. To him, this was as life changing an event as winning that award. Nayuta wasn’t the little sister he wanted, strictly speaking, but she was beautiful and buxom, and being told by her that she loved him certainly wasn’t a depressing thought.
So, as he regained his composure over time, Itsuki’s mind quickly became tinted with shades of red and pink.
“Ohhhhhhh, maaaaaaaannnnn, what am I gonna dooooooo?! I mean, I know I don’t wanna lose my V-card to anyone except the person I marry, but… Pfft-hee-hee-hee-hee! We don’t really even know what we’re like or anything yet, toooo… It’s not just about your face or your body, riiiiight? There’s also, like, personality and stuff? It’s not like we can go out and, and, and start p-p-playing a-roouuund or whatever? We take it slow, get to know each other, and gradually get closer, right? That’s how it uuuusually works, um…?”
His eyes fell upon a paper bag on the kotatsu table with his publisher’s logo on it. It contained the box of chocolates and a single book from Nayuta—The Silvery Landscape, her first work, due out wherever books were sold the following week.
…I’m not a big fan of the cover art. The title’s pretty plain Jane, and based on the back-cover blurb, it doesn’t have a little-sister heroine or anything, so I’m not exactly thrilled about it. But maybe reading this will teach me a little about her…?
These were the types of feelings Itsuki had as he began reading through The Silvery Landscape. They didn’t last long.
“This… This is on a totally different level…,” he said, voice shaking, after finishing the book in a single sitting.
He then replied to Nayuta’s offer three days later.
✦ ✦ ✦
