“Well?”
A foreign man with finely chiseled features sat on a sofa in front of Naoya. He was dressed to the nines—although not in a showy way—his silver hair was cut short and neat, and his eyes were sharp and discerning. For all intents and purposes, he looked like he’d just wandered off the set of a mafia movie. Koyuki and Sakuya both stood behind this man and exchanged concerned glances. They both appeared as if they were deciding whether or not to say anything.
“Sasahara, I’m waiting. I would like to hear your answer.”
“Well, uh,” Naoya mumbled, smiling awkwardly at the man. Internally, however, he was cursing the way this day was turning out while simultaneously going over its events. How exactly had it come to this?
✦ ✦ ✦
It had all started three days ago. Koyuki and Naoya were having lunch in their school’s courtyard, as always. On that day, however, Sakuya had also joined them.
“I appreciate the invite, but are you sure I’m not in the way?” the younger sister asked.
“Not at all. Actually, there was something I wanted to give you,” Naoya replied.
“Oh?” Sakuya asked as she expectantly watched Naoya rummage through his bag.
He found what he was searching for and passed it to Sakuya. “Here. A signed shikishi—a special art board—from Kirihiko Akaneya.”
“What?” Sakuya’s eyebrows knitted together in a movement so small that most wouldn’t have realized it even happened. Naoya also noted that her breathing had become irregular and that her hands were shaking slightly. She swallowed lighty and murmured, “This is their handwriting. How did you...?”
“I’m actually related to them,” Naoya explained.
Sakuya was left truly speechless—a rare sight, to be sure.
“Hehehe,” Koyuki couldn’t stifle a small giggle upon seeing that.
Naoya smiled as well as he recalled Koyuki’s reaction to finding out this exact same information. “Shirogane told me that you’re a fan, so I asked them if they could sign something for you. They were totally fine with it.”
“I-Is it really okay for me to have this?”
“Well, yeah. They signed it specifically for you—it’s got your name on it and everything.”
“O-Oh yeah, they did...” she practically gasped, then swallowed audibly. “Am I dreaming? They usually never do signings...”
“Yeah, they’re not too good with that kind of stuff. Actually, do you wanna meet them? They live around here.”
“Are you being serious right now?” She gawked, staring directly at Naoya. Just as quickly, though, the light in her eyes dimmed. “N-No... I’ll pass,” she decided, looking as though she had just made the choice to take a relative off life support. “I’m just a simple fan. I don’t want to be a bother to them while they’re working.”
“I don’t think you gotta worry about that. They’ve already told me that they want to meet you, being that you’re Shirogane’s sister and all.”
“Naoya, to be frank, a mortal gazing upon the countenance of a god generally results in the mortal’s death. As a result, I don’t think I’ll go,” she explained flatly.
“Fair point.”
“A real fan supports their idols from afar,” Sakuya gazed up at the sky with forlorn eyes before breathing a heavy sigh and turning back to Naoya. “Thank you. Really—thank you so much. You’ve gained affection points from me.”
“I did?!” Naoya exclaimed. He didn’t realize that the shikishi would be this important to her.
“I’m now in your debt. Whatever can I do to repay you? I’ll do anything in my power.”
“There’s no need for that, Sakuya. All I did was bring that to you,” Naoya demurred.
Koyuki butted in somewhat frantically, “Y-Yeah, he’s pretty much the delivery guy. Even a kid could do that, s-so there’s no need to repay him for anything, okay?”
“Shirogane, for the last time—I’m not trying to pick up your little sister. Please stop worrying so much about it.”
“What?! Would you please stop making weird assumptions about me?!” Koyuki yelled, working herself into a rage.
Sakuya quickly jumped in to interrupt her tantrum. “I ship you two too hard to get involved, Koyuki. Plus, NTR is always a minefield.”
“En-tee-are?” Koyuki sounded it out, confused.
“Please don’t teach her strange terms, Sakuya.”
“She’s my sister, you know. Oh, I almost forgot—why don’t you come to our house?”
“Wha?” Naoya asked, confused.
“What?!” Koyuki blurted out a split second later.
It was like a bomb had been dropped in the school courtyard. Sakuya took no notice of their reactions and continued in her normal monotone, “I’m actually quite good at making sweets. If you come to visit, I’ll allow you to gorge yourself on them. Afterward, you can flirt with my sister to your heart's content. How about it?”
“That is an enticing offer...” Naoya mused. He had been to their house before, albeit he had only stood in the doorway and then promptly left. Ever since then, he had been waiting for a proper invitation and a chance to return. As much as he would love to accept the one he’d just received, there was an issue that had to be tackled first—Koyuki’s feelings.
“Shirogane, how do you feel about all this?” he asked her.
“Well! I, uh...” she faltered.
“Can I come over to your place?” he pushed. The idea of going to his beloved’s house was enough to set Naoya’s heart aflutter, so he could only imagine the sort of havoc it was wreaking upon Koyuki’s fragile heart.
Koyuki was flustered for a moment before she looked up at Naoya and said in a small voice, “You’re not going to do anything... lewd, are you?”
“I will not,” he quickly reaffirmed. He had been trying his hardest to regain her trust ever since the incident at Kirihiko’s house. “It’s true I want to express how much I like you directly and openly, but I also want to take this one step at a time.”
Koyuki sighed in relief at Naoya’s quick response. “Really?”
“Really. I promise I won’t do anything to make you uncomfortable,” he assured. It was true that he was a male high-school student, and that he had wants and desires, but he wasn’t the kind of person to trample on another person’s feelings just to get what he wanted. He wanted to treat her right—that much was plainly obvious to him.
Sakuya, for her part, actually seemed to be somewhat disappointed. “I think you could stand to be a bit more aggressive, actually. You’re gonna end up like one of those beta males at this rate.”
“What? You’re the one who told her not to be alone with men.”
“I did tell her that,” Sakuya confirmed with a blank expression. “But what I meant was, ‘Don’t be alone without me there—I want to burn your embarrassed and vulnerable expression into my eyeballs.’”
“That’s what you meant?! Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m gonna be doing anything like that!”
“No, it’s just... I wanna see the perverted sides of my ship too, that’s all,” Sakuya pouted cutely in contrast to her rather adult words. Naoya could tell that Koyuki was confused about what her sister was talking about once again—for this, he was glad.
Koyuki cleared her throat and then declared in a resolute tone, “Fine. You can come.”
“G-Got it. Thanks.” Her nervousness must have rubbed off on Naoya, as he nodded awkwardly. He found himself wondering if he would end up in her room when he went over and what exactly it would be like. She had mentioned that she had lots of plushies, and—in his mind—her room probably smelled great. She definitely favored beds over futons. They’d sit next to each other on the bed before Naoya would lighty place his hand on her shoulder and push her dow—Earth to Naoya! Weren’t you just literally saying you wouldn’t do anything like that?!
He shook his head to exorcise the lust demons. It seemed as if Koyuki wasn’t the only one who was getting caught up in wild fantasies.
“Is Saturday all right? I’m gonna make lots of sweets, so I’ll need you to help me out, Koyuki,” Sakuya said.
“Fine. I’ll have to let Mom know, too...” Koyuki trailed off as something occurred to her. Her face then turned white as a sheet. “This Saturday, Dad’s probably going to be home...”
“Oh. Oh yeah...” Sakuya murmured, some unspoken understanding having occurred between the sisters.
Naoya was confused. “What’s that about your dad?”
“Well, uh, our dad is, um...” Koyuki meandered while she searched for the words to explain. “He’s not a helicopter parent, but he’s got about as much brain power as a helicopter.”
“He’s protective. Like really protective. Like giga-ultra protective,” Sakuya insisted.
“I see...”
The sisters both shared grim expressions, which made Naoya shift around unconsciously.
“Our dad fell in love with our mom at first sight while she was overseas on a trip. He pursued her like crazy and eventually moved to Japan with her.”
“Wait, your dad’s a foreigner?”
“That’s right, although he’s basically Japanese already. He was naturalized, married my mom, and her family basically adopted him.”
“Wow, sounds like something out of a movie,” Naoya commented.
“They’re both still in their honeymoon phase—it makes even us uncomfortable.”
Naoya could tell that, despite the sisters’ grumblings, their father really loved his family. Apparently, he had a wall of photos in his study, and at night, he would get drunk and perform elaborate rituals with the intention of cursing his daughters’ future spouses. He had also been out of the country frequently as of late, and that distance had only made his heart grow fonder.
Sakuya gazed at Naoya’s face as she rubbed her chin, deep in thought. “If we tell him you’re Koyuki’s boyfriend, you’re probably not going to make it out of there with all your limbs...”
“He’s not my boyfriend, Sakuya. But yeah, it would probably be bad,” Koyuki surmised as she regarded Naoya. “What are you gonna do? He’s most likely not gonna be here next week, so we could wait until then.”
“No,” Naoya stated after a pause. Although he was reluctant to be torn from limb to limb, just as any sane person would be, it was the matter of the principle. He was going to have to meet her parents sooner or later, and he didn’t want to run away from that. “I want to meet him properly, I think.”
“I see,” Koyuki replied. She actually looked relieved by Naoya’s response. He could tell that she had been looking forward to having him come over and didn’t want to wait an extra week. This only served to stoke the fire of determination in his heart even more. As if ignorant to Naoya’s inner turmoil, Koyuki hummed happily to herself. “If Daddy actually does break you in half or something, I’ll look after you afterward, okay?”
“Wait, wait—what kind of ‘looking after’ are we talking about? This only makes me want to come more.”
“L-Like patting you on the head and stuff.”
“Roger. I’ll make sure to get pounded hard.”
“No way... My ship is flirting here, right before my eyes... Now this is progress,” Sakuya added, expressionless as always. The shutter on her phone’s camera punctuated the silence between her words.