A Case in Which My House Is a Gathering Place for Girls - Chapter 29: There’s No Such Thing as a Peaceful Bath Time

“Umm… Kanna-san? Why are you here?”

I ask my childhood friend in a trembling voice while desperately soothing my shaken and panicked heart. I didn’t want to concede even a hundred or ten thousand steps, but I could at least accept the fact that she had come to the bathroom. Maybe, half out of mischief and half out of impulse, she had felt the urge to peek. That much, I could understand. However,

“I mean, why are you taking off your clothes and standing with a bath towel!? Isn’t it strange!?”

At my heartfelt scream, Kanna tilted her head slightly in confusion. I hated how I found that gesture adorable.

“It’s because I wanted to take a bath together as we used to. What’s wrong with that?”

“What’s wrong with you? We’re different now than you used to be!”

I scream again while looking away from Kanna, who asks simple questions.

For a brief moment, an unmistakable image burned itself into my mind—the way the towel, rather than concealing, only accentuated the ample curves of her body. Her skin was flawlessly smooth and pure, her legs slender yet well-toned. Sweat, brought on by the lingering heat of the shower, traced down from her chin, slipping along her collarbone in a way that was almost too seductive.

“Hehe. What’s wrong, Jinpei-kun? Your voice is shaking. And your face is blushing.”

“It’s just your imagination! And my face is red because I was in the shower! It’s not because I saw you naked!”

“…I see. Do you mean it’s all right to do this?”

Before I could ask what she meant, Kanna stepped closer. Then, she wrapped her arms around me from behind without hesitation and enclosed my head within her embrace.

“H-h-h-here… what do you think, Jinpei-kun? Will you be a little nervous?”

I’m not mature enough to say with a straight face that Kanna is more nervous than I am. This and that are all due to the soft feeling that smoothes against my back. My brain boils and my reason is being cut off at an accelerated rate.

“I-I’m sorry… I’m not alright, so I’d appreciate it if you could leave quickly.”

“If that’s the case, you just have to be honest from the beginning! Since when did Jinpei-kun become a perverse person? You weren’t like this before.”

“If I were to say that, when did Kanna become the kind of woman who would charge in while someone was taking a bath? That wouldn’t have happened in the past.”

“That’s because I didn’t have to barge in before! Have you forgotten that you used to say, ‘Let’s take a bath together!’ and invite me yourself?”

I wish she wouldn’t state such fabricated memories as if they were absolute truth. Sure, over a decade ago, we did take baths together plenty of times—but only because our parents told us to. I had never invited her of my own accord. Probably. Most likely.

“Well, I don’t care about the details. There’s something more important than that.”

“More important than you getting out of here already?”

When I said this, Kanna smiled somewhat invincibly and drew her face closer, whispering in my ear and said.

“I’ll wash your back like I used to. It’s a reward for Jinpei-kun for always working so hard.”

Her mysterious and charming voice which I’d never heard before, instantly obliterated the small amount of rationality I had just managed to recover. I wanted to say that I appreciated the offer, but there was no way this was okay.

“We are childhood friends, and we didn’t just wash each other’s backs as we washed all sorts of places together.”

By the time I found myself thinking, Well, now that she mentions it…, my fate was probably already sealed. Before I knew it, I had somehow ended up receiving a full-body washing massage from Kanna.

Asakura and Sasazuki, who sensed something unusual as soon as Kanna started playing, burst into the bathroom and put an end to the situation. For some reason, the two of them were wearing school swimsuits, which gave me a headache, but since their intervention both saved me and provided quite the visual treat, I decided to let it slide.

“Can you please don’t disturb my peaceful bath time!”

Of course, it goes without saying that the three of them, who soon began to make a fuss, were knocked out of the bathroom.