After I Started Living Alone, My Place Turned Into a Hangout Spot for Beautiful Girls

Chapter 36: Birds of a Feather

The final exams had ended, and club activities resumed.

When Mizutani came over after club practice to borrow the shower, she finished up and came into the living room where I was…

“Man, club practice after so long was tough.”

She looked utterly exhausted.

I ended up asking her,

“Your test results looked bad—didn’t you have to quit the club?”

“Ahaha… If the next midterm goes badly too, then yeah.”

“You’re really up against it, huh.”

“And when I said I had no plans for summer cram sessions during vacation, they gave me this insane stack of workbooks as a present.”

I could not stop a wry smile at how genuinely screwed Mizutani seemed.

Just then, Sakuya, who had been cleaning upstairs, came down to the living room.

“Oh, you’re here.”

“Yeah! Club activities started up again, so I’m back to borrowing your shower starting today. Where were you, Sakuya?”

“I was cleaning my room upstairs.”

Mizutani placed her hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eye.

“Teruaki, you really should do some cleaning yourself, at least.”

It was as if she were calling me a total slacker.

Well, I supposed I could tell Mizutani about it.

“During summer vacation, Sakuya’s going to live at my place. And she was cleaning the room she’ll use as hers from now on. I offered to help, but…”

“Oh, really?”

“You’re not surprised?”

“Well, you’re cousins, right? Stuff like that happens, I guess. Though I’m curious about how you ended up living together.”

“Uncle’s going to be away from home more, so he got worried about leaving her alone and asked her to stay at my place. Her house has been burglarized a few times in the past, and weird visitors show up every now and then.”

Had I explained it okay? I wondered anxiously, but Mizutani nodded in understanding before flashing a sly grin and teasing me.

“You better not pull any pranks on Sakuya.”

“I won’t.”

“Well, if you just can’t help yourself with pranks on a girl, you can do them to me instead.”

“So it’s okay if it’s you, Mizutani?”

“I might end up pranking you back if you’re too much of a perv, though!”

Hmm. Yeah, this was definitely it.

Mizutani totally had a thing for me.

As I mulled that over, I tossed a probing question her way to test the waters.

“So, saying it’s okay to prank you means you like me a whole lot, huh?”

“I’ll leave that to your imagination, Teruaki.”

“But really?”

“Hehe, why not find out for yourself?”

An ambiguous relationship like this was way more relaxing in all sorts of ways.

If Mizutani straight-up admitted she liked me, then I’d have to settle things properly one way or another…

Mizutani might actually be pretty shrewd, I thought as I asked her,

“You said pranks are okay, but how far is fine?”

“Oh, if I say that, won’t it just turn into ‘go as far as you want’?”

“Nah, I have no intention of pranking anyway. I was just wondering what I’d get away with in my current state.”

“Lightly pinning me down would be safe.”

Was not that basically anything goes?

Stunned by how welcoming she was, I shot back with some banter.

“Keep talking like that, and I might actually do it.”

“If you take responsibility, sure.”

As Mizutani and I bantered, Sakuya, who had been watching, chimed in.

“You two should just start dating already.”

Mizutani shrugged like oh brother at Sakuya’s words.

“Come on, the time before dating is the most fun, right?”

“That sounds like you’re admitting you like Teruaki… But since you two haven’t known each other that long, you’re probably holding back. If you take it that slow, though, someone else might snag him.”

Sakuya was probably thinking of Sato.

Mizutani gave a wry smile at her words.

“Ahaha… Yeah, that’s true…”

I felt certain then. The way Mizutani had lit a fire under me earlier meant she totally liked me for real.

According to Uncle, Dad had nearly gotten stabbed because he dragged out ambiguous relationships with all sorts of girls.

I needed to give Mizutani an answer sooner rather than later.

As I pondered that a bit seriously, Sakuya turned to Mizutani with a beaming smile and started prying about the pranks.

“That reminds me from hearing about pranks… Mizutani, you haven’t gone digging through Teruaki’s underwear, have you?”

Sakuya confronted her head-on.

In an instant, Mizutani’s smile turned dead serious.

Sakuya, seeing that oh-she-totally-did face, closed in on her with gleeful relish.

“What’s with the sudden silence?”

“It’s just that you said something weird out of nowhere, Sakuya.”

“Well, can I help it? Teruaki was considerate enough to hide his underwear from girls, but somehow it had been dug out from the laundry pile when I saw it. So, any idea who?”

Mizutani’s eyes darted all over.

She was so suspicious—why not just come clean? I chuckled at the thought.

Then a tiny voice muttered,

“…Well, if a guy’s used underwear is right there, you’d be curious, right?”

Sakuya shot me a grin.

See, she seemed to say, girls all have a bit of a naughty side and get intrigued by guys’ underwear sometimes.

I got that already, I laughed, as I teased Mizutani.

“So Mizutani’s a closet perv, huh.”

“It’s totally normal.”

“I’m not that much of a neat freak myself, so next time, be sneakier about it.”

“I-I-Is that your way of saying you’ll let me keep digging through your underwear without learning my lesson?”

“Nah, I did not say that. Well, Sakuya admitted to stealing mine once, so you two might end up fighting over them—good luck.”