After a simple bite to eat, back in their room at the training camp—

Now, even someone as dense as Yukieda understood it.

Shizuku and Mari had impure designs on her cookies.

“No. This bag of cookies really has a very important use. If I find out they’re gone, or even just missing a few, I’ll be very, very, very angry.”

To make it clear just how angry she’d be, and how serious the consequences would be, Yukieda deliberately stressed that “very” three whole times.

In front of her, Shizuku and Mari lowered their heads like elementary school kids.

They’d never actually seen Yukieda angry before.

But that didn’t mean they wanted to.

Luckily, there came a knock at the door.

It was probably one of the female teachers.

“Girls, you can head down to the hot spring on the first floor now. The hotel has yukata for everyone to change into.”

—

The four of them got their clothes ready and prepared to head out.

“Ha-ha, heh-heh, tee-hee, hm-hm.”

Smiles bloomed across all four faces.

But the instant they stepped out of the room, the smile vanished from Yukieda’s face, and she shoved Mai back inside.

Bang.

The door slammed shut, leaving Shizuku and Mari staring at each other outside.

“I just remembered I still haven’t put my things away. Anyway, you two go on ahead first. I’ll be there in a second.”

Yukieda’s voice came from inside the room.

“Huh? Then Shizuku and I should just wait for Yukieda-chan,” Mari said, not understanding what was going on.

Shizuku folded her arms. She clearly meant the same thing. They could just wait by the door for Yukieda and Mai. It wasn’t like the hot spring was going anywhere.

Shizuku and Mari stood there with absolutely no intention of leaving.

Time was running out. What was she supposed to do now?!

“What’s wrong, Yukieda?” Mai asked in confusion.

“You’re asking me what’s wrong?!”

Yukieda started gesturing wildly.

“This is a hot spring. We have to change in the women’s locker room, and then stay in there with a bunch of girls. A hot spring!”

“So?”

“So?!”

Yukieda pressed a hand hard over her eyes like she couldn’t bear to look at him.

“Forget the fact that you’re a boy. What exactly are you planning to do in the women’s changing room and bath? That’s a crime. A crime!”

A relieved smile appeared on Mai’s face.

“So that’s what this is about. I wasn’t worried at all.”

Yukieda rose onto her tiptoes and grabbed his collar.

“You’d better be at least a little worried. If you get found out, you’ll be on the front page of every paper in the country tomorrow morning. Crossdressing pervert sneaks into hot spring, peeps on high school girls. I’ve already written the headline for you.”

“Mhm, I know.”

“You know, and you still—”

“To make sure no one finds out my secret, I already prepared a secret gadget.”

A confident look appeared on Mai’s face. To Yukieda, it was unbelievably punchable. This guy wasn’t panicking at all. She was the one freaking out.

“You idiot!”

Yukieda’s face flushed red as she leaned against Mai’s chest.

Punyu.

Punyu?

Punyu, punyu.

Yukieda squeezed his chest twice.

“What the heck is this?”

“Like I said, I prepared a secret gadget too.”

“Then what the heck is this secret gadget?!”

In her anger, Yukieda used a little too much force. She yanked Mai’s clothes open, revealing a pair of bouncing rabbits underneath.

Yukieda’s worldview took a direct hit.

What even was this...?

For a moment, she lost control of her body and buried her face in Mai’s chest.

Swish—

The door opened.

“Um, Yukieda-chan, we thought about it and figured we should just head over first,” Mari said, then abruptly cut herself off halfway through and made a strange sound.

“Gu.”

Like a pigeon cooing.

Yukieda struggled free from that swamp-like restraint and lifted her face out of Mai’s chest. When she turned around, she saw Shizuku, whose eyes were wide as bronze bells.

“Wait, Shizuku, it’s not what you think.”

Yukieda grabbed a cushion and held it in front of herself like a shield.

Shizuku staggered back two steps like she couldn’t stay standing. Then, just like in Van Gogh’s famous painting The Scream, she clutched both cheeks.

Yukieda looked at Mai with a miserable face. He was calmly fastening his collar, looking thoroughly post-incident.

“Mai, say something too!”

Mai cooperatively gave her a reassuring look.

That look belonged to a dependable best friend.

Thank goodness. At times like this, Mai really was reliable.

Thinking that, Yukieda tightened her grip on the cushion.

“I’m not really sure either. Yukieda suddenly rushed at me and pulled my clothes open. It gave me quite a scare,” Mai said in a surprised tone.

Crack.

Yukieda tore the cushion clean in half, and cotton flew everywhere.

After that—

Yukieda looked utterly exhausted. Beside her was Mai, and of course Mari and Shizuku were there too.

After a huge amount of explaining, Shizuku and Mari finally believed that clumsy Yukieda had tripped over the mattress and accidentally fallen face-first into Mai’s chest.

Mari was comforting Yukieda.

“Well, Yukieda-chan does look pretty young. And you totally have that loli-type build. There’s no need to chase huge boobs that hard.”

Mari seemed to have completely misunderstood her.

Whatever. A misunderstanding was still better than the alternatives... Yukieda’s mouth twitched.

“Thanks, Mari-chan.”

“Because Yukieda-chan is my best friend... If you really like that kind of thing, you can come to me too. I’m actually pretty confident in my chest...”

Mari’s voice got quieter and quieter as she spoke. By the end, she was sneaking glances at Yukieda while subtly puffing out her chest.

“Thanks, Mari-chan, but I’m not that kind of person...”

Luckily, Shizuku stepped in to save her.

“Alright, alright, Mari-chan. Yukieda isn’t like that. I’ve lived with her for a long time, and we’ve even bathed together. I know what kind of person she is.”

A moved smile appeared on Yukieda’s face.

Her daughter really was dependable. At a critical moment, only Shizuku understood the real her.

“Because Yukieda is a bottom. So her taking the initiative and going on the attack like that is basically impossible.”

Huh?

Yukieda’s smile froze on her face. She tilted her head at her daughter in confusion, unable to understand where she’d gotten the conclusion that she was “a bottom.”

Mari was clearly even more interested in this topic, and immediately started discussing it with Shizuku in excitement.

“Because I helped bathe Yukieda before. She sat on the stool like a kitten being held by the scruff of the neck. Even when I tugged her hair, she just gritted her teeth and didn’t make a sound.”

Mari’s eyes were shining.

“Then Yukieda-chan has a really high tolerance for that kind of play.”

Yukieda couldn’t understand the conversation after that. Or rather, her brain refused to process the information.

She slowed her pace and walked side by side with Mai.

After thinking it over, she asked, “Um... what was that?”

Even someone like Mai, whose face usually showed very little, looked a little shy now.

“Fake breasts.”

The silver-haired girl swallowed. Her face was full of admiration. Leaning against Mai, she lowered her voice and continued.

“Are you sure those are really okay? No one’s gonna notice they’re fake?”

Able to catch the scent of shampoo from Yukieda’s hair, Mai answered confidently.

“Of course not. This gadget is an imported product worth a hundred thousand credit points.”

Yukieda narrowed her golden eyes and stared fixedly at Mai’s chest. That tiny little thing was worth the same as a whole house.

Didn’t that mean Mai was literally wearing a house on his body?

When an ordinary person faces something unknown yet deeply attractive, the first reaction is usually shock. The next is wanting to understand it, to get closer to it, to touch it more.

Yukieda was no exception.

But they were in a hotel hallway right now, so that obviously wasn’t appropriate.

So she held herself back for the moment. She resisted the urge to make a move.

But she couldn’t control her eyes.

Under that uniform was something worth a hundred thousand credit points.

She’d take two steps, then sneak another glance.

No, this couldn’t go on. Mari and Shizuku kept turning back to peek at her. This was going to get very hard to explain.

Looking at the confident expression on Mai’s face, Yukieda felt a little annoyed.

I’m worried sick here, so why do you look completely unfazed?

So she asked a rather provocative question.

“Say, Mai... you don’t actually like boys, do you?”

For any normal man, that was an extremely sensitive question. It even carried a certain insulting edge.

Mai was no exception.

Because once someone asked you that, didn’t it mean they were already doubting your sexual orientation?

Looking at the smug grin on Yukieda’s face, Mai replied at an unhurried pace,

“No. Because when I see your body, Yukieda, I react.”