My stepmother's burden is my ex-girlfriend.

Page 58

"Irito-kun, you seem surprisingly comfortable around girls. Did you get used to it by spending time with Yui?"

My heart skipped a beat.

No, she meant that we live together, not that we were dating before.

I nodded ambiguously.

"Or...maybe so."

"Now we can only attack by physical contact."

Xiaoyue revealed an evil smile.

The student in the east corner took several steps back.

"W-What do you mean by physical contact...?"

"Come on, stop pretending to be innocent. Of course, I'm telling you to use this thing you're so proud of!"

"Ah ah!"

Xiaoyue quickly reached out and grabbed Dongtou's chest, kneading and rubbing it forcefully. Ouch! Her fingers sank in...

"Just stick those two lumps of fat on there discreetly! That way, it won't matter whether he thinks you're a girl or not!"

"No...no!..."

"...Oh. Oh oh? Oh oh oh oh──...Goodness gracious..."

"Eek! The way my hands are moving is so lewd—um!"

"Xiaoyue, stop right there! If you keep going, it'll be too explicit for adults!"

I grabbed Xiaoyue from behind and pulled her away.

Xiaoyue looked dazed, her hands, which had already left her chest, frantically opening and closing, grasping at the air.

"Yui...Yui...Miss...So this is how soft it is...It pushes my hand back...It can be kneaded and deformed...That's strange...? Then what are these two things on my chest...?"

"Don't think too much, it will shorten your lifespan."

The girl from the east side, panting heavily, covered her chest with her arms and leaned weakly against the washbasin.

"You actually want me to sneak up on you without making a sound... Wouldn't that make me look like a shameless person...?"

"Women who flirt with men are all sluts."

"The enemy! You're mass-producing enemies!"

I quickly looked around. Hopefully, no one heard what I just said!

"It's said to stick it on, but you only need to wipe it off."

Ignoring my concerns, Xiaoyue stretched out her finger and stopped just before it touched Dongtou's chest, then deliberately twirled it in a tantalizing circle.

"Huh? Did I just touch it? Am I just imagining things? This is just right! If you get too close, you'll just scare people away!"

"Xiaoyue...where did you learn all this professional knowledge?"

"I learned it myself! If a girl did that to me, it would get me super excited! It's just that, as a girl, I'm completely devoid of soft breasts!"

Let's not step on this landmine again.

Xiaoyue clenched her fists tightly and pointed them to the sky.

"In short, quantity over quality! Just take your time and repeat it a few more times, and Irito-san should accumulate this memory! Because no boy in the world can forget the memory of touching breasts! It's just that some guys don't even realize they've touched them!"

"At least don't step on your own landmines!"

All my efforts have been wasted! I'm at a loss now that you've done this!

“—Ah.”

Suddenly, Xiaoyue took out her smartphone, looked at the screen, and put on a serious face.

"Oh no, we've been discovered."

"What's wrong?"

"There's a radical voyeur. I need to distract him first—"

Xiaoyue clasped her hands together apologetically and said to me and Dongtou, who were puzzled:

"That's all for today! We'll discuss the details on LINE later!"

We watched in silence as Xiaoyue rushed out of the restroom.

...A radical voyeur?

"water……"

"water?"

In the library after school, next to Mizuto Irito, Higashi-go became like a shy cicada. (Note: The first character of Mizuto's name sounds similar to the sound of a cicada in Japanese.)

The next day, Xiaoyue and I used the front camera of our smartphones to peek at the two of them again.

I'm here today for no other reason than to observe the first day of the "Mimi Contact Operation" that Xiaoyue suggested the other day—I swear I wasn't the one who named it.

We watched nervously as Dongtou looked around furtively, then seemed to make up his mind and dragged himself against Shuidou.

"Mizuto-kun. Look here, here."

As she spoke, Dongtou handed the book in her hand to Shuidou. "Where?" Shuidou leaned in to look without any suspicion, but this was exactly the trap that Xiaoyue had taught her.

Squeeze...

Dongtou awkwardly and clumsily let his chest touch the upper arm of the water bucket that was leaning his shoulder towards him.

"(...She...she really did it...!)"

My eyes widened. Wow, I have to admit she's really something. I could never do that kind of thing; at most, I'd just wrap myself in a towel and deliberately show it off to him. Okay, she's definitely a female pervert too.

Xiaoyue giggled softly.

"(Dongtou is working so hard. To be honest, I thought she would soon cower and say something like, 'I don't want to change our current relationship...'"

"(It was clearly Xiaoyue who encouraged her...)"

"(I was originally planning to try to persuade her again as soon as she backed down, but it seems I don't need to worry about that.)"

Indeed, their relationship is so good, it's not surprising that they're afraid of things changing. But since I encouraged him, although Dongtou seems to lack confidence, he no longer shows any fear of not being able to be friends with her after being dumped.

Unlike me, who was terrified from beginning to end even after handing over the love letter, she might be the type who is surprisingly bold.

"—East end."

Shuidou called out to her in a calm tone, which made the student at the east end tremble.

"Your chest is touching me."

Although my previous experience has made me less surprised, I still have to say, is this guy heartless? How could he so openly remind her? Doesn't he have any sense of empathy or shyness?

"(Please, just follow the script...!)"

"Xiaoyue pleaded. We had anticipated this situation and had taught Dongtou the appropriate way to handle it beforehand."

The correct answer in this situation is—

"Ah!...I'm so sorry!..."

This! And then she blushed!

Xiaoyue's assessment of my suggestion was: "I can't be friends with that kind of woman, but it seems like it would be better if it were Dongtou." We're friends now, right?

We are eagerly anticipating Dongtou's blushing reaction and are closely watching how things develop.

Dongtou quickly jumped away from him, lowered his head slightly, and looked up at the water bucket.

""(oh oh……!)""

A perfect reaction! All that's left is a shy apology—

"I……"

Dongtou said:

"...I stuck it there on purpose."

"Huh?"

"(Huh?)"

Shuidou reacted the same way we did. Dongtou, what nonsense are you talking about?

"I wanted to teach Mizuto, who unexpectedly belongs to the flat-chested group, about the beauty of large breasts! Come on, feel this maternal love to your heart's content!"

"Wait...stop it—!"

Dongtou's heavy weight pressed down on Shuidou's back. Her large breasts were softly pressed against Shuidou's shoulder blades, but it all looked like a friendly prank.

(Illustration 011)

but……

"(That Dongtou guy is really something...)"

Xiaoyue was completely dumbfounded. This was understandable, because—

It's in a position where the water jets are absolutely invisible from behind.

Dongtou's eyes welled up with tears, and his face turned bright red.

"(Let him see this.)"

"You completely slipped away, using a friend's tone."

Dongtou was once again called to the girls' restroom closest to the library, where he stood dejectedly in front of us.

"I can't do that... How could I suddenly act out such cute, girly things..."

"How am I supposed to get a boyfriend if I don't become a cute girl?!"

"Okay, okay, okay. I can understand how Dongtou feels... How should I put it? You know, it's easier not to be treated like a girl by the other person."

"Yes, yes, that's it! It's much easier this way!"

The student in the east nods repeatedly.

I used to be like that too. I found it troublesome to be treated like a girl, so I had no interest in clothes or dressing up. Take my classmate Dongtou, for example; she often joked about her chest, which gave me a glimpse into her personal strategy.

"Okay, I can understand how you feel. But if you keep running away like this, it'll be even harder to get that Irito-san to even glance at you, right? At least you should let go of that 'friends' attitude from before..."

"...But, Mizuto and I are friends."

Dongtou spoke softly, but with a strong sense of resistance.

"I do like him, but we're just friends. Is it wrong to like a friend? Once you like someone, can't you still be friends...?"

Dongtou lowered her head slightly, but her eyes were fixed firmly on Xiaoyue's eyes. She became more and more excited as she spoke—she was emphasizing the line that she would never back down from.

Although she wanted to be boyfriend and girlfriend, she didn't want to end their friendship. Her statement might be seen as capricious, but it was accompanied by a heartfelt sincerity.

There may be a decisive difference in perspectives between us and the students from Dongtou.

Dongtou only wants to become a couple with Shuidou to get closer to him, not to pursue a relationship different from their current one.

For her, being in a romantic relationship is simply a further development of friendship.

Therefore, Dongtou will not sacrifice friendship just because he wants to be his girlfriend.

However, I am different from Xiaoyue.

We believe that romantic relationships are a more special kind of relationship. Unlike friendships, which can be multiple, we believe that romantic relationships are more special, should be considered separately, and have a different value...

"...I see. I see... Hmm, I understand."

Xiaoyue nodded repeatedly as if she understood perfectly, then gave a smile that seemed to be an attempt at reconciliation.

"I'm sorry, Dongtou. I won't ask you to change your attitude anymore—I think it's best for Dongtou to just stay natural."

"Oh, I see... That's great..."

Dongtou breathed a sigh of relief. He probably wasn't used to asserting his own ideas.

Xiaoyue, with a warm and charming smile, said:

"However, your lack of self-confidence is a problem."