An hour had passed since then.
“I’m baaack!” a voice called out.
“Hi. Welcome back.”
“What’s with the atmosphere in here? Did something happen?” Kirihiko asked.
Something must have tipped them off—perhaps it was the fact that Naoya and Koyuki were sitting silently at opposite sides of the room, facing away from each other with matching crimson expressions. Kirihiko’s face was vacant for a moment, then a teasing smile crept across their features.“Naoya, I thought I told you no illicit relations in the house.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Naoya protested.
“Hm, I see.”
“Why did I do that?” Koyuki grumbled to herself. She was suffering through a severe bout of self disgust.
Kirihiko nodded in understanding. “I see. It must have been one of those wacky situations where one of you accidentally groped the other, right?”
“Please, Kirihiko. Phrasing,” Naoya admonished them.
“Sorry, occupational hazard. Still, I didn’t realize this sort of thing happened in real life,” they marveled, as if they’d just spotted Bigfoot.
Naoya’s head dropped toward the ground, which led him to glance at his finger. It was so warm... he recalled. It had been warm, and when she’d spoken with his finger in her mouth, he’d felt her soft tongue. When he thought back over the moment, a numbness tingled through his body, and he had to give his head a shake to wipe such recollections from his mind.
Kirihiko looked at the two of them and surmised that there was no more fun to be had at their expense. “Well, as long as it was relatively tame, then no harm, no foul,” they concluded with a wave. “Oh, by the way, Koyuki—did you finish the book?”
“No, I’m still only halfway through,” she answered.
“Oh, that’s too bad,” Kirihiko said as their eyebrows dropped sadly. “Next time you’re here, I’d love to hear your thoughts, okay?”
“That sounds great... Hey, wait,” Koyuki paused to think for a moment. “Are you a fan of this series, too?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“It’s great, isn’t it? This is the first light novel I’ve read, but I'm hooked on it. Fran from the first volume was my favourite—she’s so cute, and...” Koyuki fell silent.
After a short while, she shuffled over to the low table in the middle of the room and looked at the cover of the second volume. It appeared that she had finally noticed. She looked alternatively between the book and Kirihiko before reading the cover out loud. “Author: Kirihiko Akaneya... You wrote this?!”
“Yeah. I could never decide on a pen name, so I just went with my real one,” they answered.
“Sasahara, you have to tell me these things beforehand!”
“I just wanted to see the moment of realization, honestly,” Naoya replied with a faint smile. He couldn’t lie—a small part of the reason he’d brought her to Kirihiko’s place was so he could surprise her with this. Her reaction had been so funny he couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“Anyway, I’m glad you had a good time today, Koyuki. Come back any time—you’re always welcome,” Kirihiko said with a kind smile. Despite their friendly expression, Naoya spotted their eyes glittering with a mysterious dark intention.
“You just wanna use us to write a romcom, don’t you?” he asked them suspiciously.
“Guilty. Who cares, though. It’s not a big deal, right?” they replied simply.
“Well, Shirogane’s cuteness would be appreciated by the whole country, that’s for sure,” Naoya admitted. “Okay then—in exchange, you let me flirt with her as much as I want. Deal?”
“You’ve got yourself a deal,” Kirihiko agreed.
“No he does not!” Koyuki cried as she smacked Naoya hard on the shoulder.
We must look like a married couple right now, Naoya thought quietly to himself.