The next morning, I received a LINE message from Yume.
“Good morning, Ichigaya! ♡ ♡ It’s so hot again today, isn’t it? Today I have an afternoon shift at the café. I hope you’ll visit me there again sometime!”
We were still messaging each other, but things were slightly different now. I knew that she would always reply to me immediately, no matter when I sent her something. If I did the same, we’d continue chatting for hours on end, so I made an effort to quit the conversation after a few exchanges.
She’d still text me again after a few days, like she had just done, so we never went that much time without talking to each other. Kokoro had warned me against getting Yume’s hopes up too much, but I also didn’t want to completely ignore her, so I was stuck sending her half-hearted replies while keeping a safe distance.
I wasn’t sure that keeping things like this was a good idea though. Yume was an incredibly cute girl who seemed to like me a lot. I was happy about that, of course, but I also couldn’t deny that I was somewhat scared of her.
“Are you up yet, Ichigaya?” I heard Kokoro ask as she knocked on my door.
“Yeah,” I said, lying on my bed, phone in hand.
Kokoro, still in her pajamas, opened the door. By her feet there were two cardboard boxes.
“I’ve started packing my stuff! Can I put these in your room?”
“Oh, sure.”
We only had about a week before Kisaki would arrive home, and I was starting to get nervous. I was relieved to see that Kokoro was already preparing for it.
“This is, like, just the tip of the iceberg though... I’m gonna go to Ikebukuro today to sell some of my doujinshi and cosplay stuff.”
“Do you think you’ll be able to clear the whole room in time?” I asked.
“Probably...” she replied, with very little confidence.
If she can’t do it on her own, I’ll have to help her...
For once, I actually had something to do outside of the house that day: I was meeting Ai in Akihabara so we could go to some otaku shops and the arcade. I was waiting at the Electric Town exit of Akihabara station when I heard his voice.
“Sorry to keep you waiting!”
“Oh, no pro—Huh?!”
I was temporarily at a loss for words. He looked... different. He was wearing a bobbed wig that reached his shoulders, a pink hoodie, and white hotpants. Long story short, he was dressed up as a girl. He looked sort of feminine to begin with, but this was full-on cross-dressing. I couldn’t stop staring at him.
“Wh-Why do you look like that?” I finally managed to mumble in his direction.
“How do I look? Do you think I can pass as a girl?” he asked me.
If you asked one hundred people, I was pretty sure that ninety-nine of them would think that he was a girl. And a cute girl at that.
“Y-Yeah, I think so, but... tell me in advance if you’re going to show up like that. I was shocked, you know?”
“Oh? What’s the matter, Kagetora? You’re worried you’ll fall in love with me?”
“Why would I ever do that?!”
As he walked closer to me, I noticed a pleasant smell drifting in my direction. Did he put on women’s perfume?!
“Anyway, let’s go to the arcade!” Ai said. “I wanna play some rhythm games, claw cranes... and then we can take our picture in the purikura booths!”
“P-Purikura?! Are you serious?!”
“Of course! C’mon, I’ll pay for it!”
“O-Okay then...”
We went to the arcade, and Ai really did manage to coax me into taking purikura pictures with him. He even went so far as changing outfits for the photos—what kind of guy carries around a girl’s school uniform and a maid cosplay?! I suggested that he take some pictures by himself, but he got all offended for some reason and kept me with him for every one.
“You know, I love cosplaying, but dressing up in more ‘normal’ outfits like these is fun too!” he said.
He looked incredibly cute in every outfit that he tried on. When he moved closer to me to fit inside the frame, I couldn’t help but think about what I’d do if he really were a girl... I obviously kept all of these thoughts to myself, since Ai would only think I was a total creep.
Once we were done with the pictures, we played some rhythm games together, and then donated some of our money to the claw machines. We didn’t manage to snag anything, but trying to catch merchandise from our favorite games and anime was exciting enough.
Afterwards, we each bought a few goodies in one of the otaku shops and went to grab a bite to eat before calling it a day.
When I arrived back home I found the lights on, but Kokoro was nowhere to be seen. That mystery was solved when I heard the sound of the shower coming from the bathroom. I’d already told her that I’d be eating out with Ai.
I got comfortable on the couch and began my daily quests on my phone. After a while, I heard the bathroom door opening, so I turned around—the bathroom was behind the couch—to say hello to Kokoro.
“Hel...”
“...?!”
We stared at each other in a moment of terrified silence. Kokoro, who was standing right behind the couch—right in front of my eyes—was wearing nothing but her underwear.
“Eeeeeeek?!” she screamed, her face flushing as red as a lobster in the process of being boiled alive. “Wh-Why...?! Wh-When...?! Were you hiding?!”
“Why would I be hiding?! I was just lying down on the couch!”
Because the back of the couch had been in the way, Kokoro hadn’t been able to see me as she left the bathroom. She was now standing there, practically naked. I noticed that her breasts, covered only by a pastel-pink bra, were bigger than they’d always looked beneath her other clothes. Her waist, right above her matching pastel-pink panties, was also slimmer than I’d imagined. Her skin looked soft and fair and... Why am I still staring at her?!
Click!
“Huh?”
While both of us were still too confused to react, we heard the sound of a door opening.
Hm? What? But both Nishina and I are here... Who could that...?
Scared and confused, I looked toward the source of the noise.
“What...?”
A girl with a black bob was standing in the entrance with a shocked expression. A girl I knew very well. Her small stature had changed very little in the few months that I hadn’t seen her.
“Kisaki?”
“Who’s thaaat?!” Kokoro screeched as I stared, wide-eyed, at my sister.
“Wha... What’s going on here?” Kisaki asked, her eyes moving from me, to Kokoro, then back to me again.