Chapter 18 – Pien

“Nao-chan’s new apartment building is this one, right?”

We looked up at the high-rise apartment building in front of us. It was new, so it was predictably beautiful. But there was one thing bothering me more than that.

“Why are Watase-san and Fujimiya-san here too?”

That was right—for some reason, these two were with us as well. And they’d been acting weird for a while now. They absolutely refused to make eye contact with me. By the way, Nao-chan was the same. She hadn’t even answered my question and was just spacing out.

“M-My place is here too, you know… Also, please don’t look at my face so much… It’s embarrassing. If you’re going to look, look at my butt.”

“My place is here, too. Also, it’d really help if you didn’t look at my face so much… Because it’s embarrassing. If you’re going to look, look at my breasts…”

What is their standard for embarrassment? I’d look if they were permitting me, but I felt like they’d complain later, so I passed.

But more surprising than that was the fact that everyone happened to live in the same building. If that was the case, I could understand why they’d come all the way here with us. I probably shouldn’t try to understand it, but I had no choice.

Well, now that I knew that, I wished they’d hurry up and show me to Hidaka-san’s room. If possible, I wanted to quickly drop off this luggage in her room and go straight home. One of my hands was completely occupied by this futon, after all.

“Nao-chan?”

“Fueh?”

Not a flute. I meant the key.

“Eh, ah… yeah. This… is my new abode… ‘kay?”

You’re mixing a samurai and a quiet character. Pick a tone and stick with it.

◇◇◇

The four of us got in the elevator and headed up. Watase-san got off on the third floor, and Fujimiya-san got off on the fifth. As for Nao-chan and me, we got off on the top floor.

As expected of a popular voice actress—the room she was renting was top-tier too.

Following behind Nao-chan as she walked ahead of me, I heard the sound of the elevator stopping behind us. Then, Watase-san and Fujimiya-san came bursting out.

“What’s wrong? Or rather, how did you know?”

“Because we were watching to see where it would stop!” they both yelled.

Uhh… That’s kind of scary.

“Takuma. Going to a girl’s room all by yourself makes you feel uneasy, right? I’ll accompany you. Be grateful.”

“I don’t need it.”

“……Sniff.”

Are you crying!?

“Takuma-kun! I-I’m, you know? I’m actually pretty good at cooking! So I’ll make food for everyone! I even brought all the ingredients my mom just bought!”

“I already bought some, so we’re good.”

“……Pien.”

Are you crying!? Or rather, is that even… crying? More importantly, give those back to your mom. I’m sure she’s stressing out right now.

“Sniff…”

“Pien…”

Ah, geez. What a pain…

What exactly did they want to do? I had absolutely no idea. Were they emotionally unstable because of Leo-kyun? Sigh. It couldn’t be helped.

“A-Alright, I get it. But only after I ask Nao-chan, okay? Since this is my first time coming here too. Besides, I’m just here to help carry her shopping, you know?”

“Yes!”

“Yeah!”

Wow, what enthusiastic replies.

I then leaned in close to Nao-chan’s ear and spoke in a hushed voice. You see, her older sister, Hidaka-san, was a celebrity in the industry. Just to be safe.

“(Nao-chan.)”

“Fwaaahhh!”

“(Your voice is too loud. Listen, those two are saying they want to tag along… Is that okay? Probably not, right?)”

“Nn… Nnfu… fwaah…”

What was it? Did her ear tickle? But I couldn’t exactly speak in a loud voice, so she’d have to bear with it.

“(Hey, what do you think?)”

“N-No…”

No?

“No more… I can’t take it… I don’t care if they join us, just, please, cease speaking into my ear, I beg of thee…”

As you wish.

“I got permission from her. She says it’s fine if you join us.”

“…”

“? What’s wrong?”

“I’m so jealous…”

“I want him to whisper to me…”

They should just put on some earphones and listen to ASMR videos.

With a slightly unsteady Nao-chan leading the way, the four of us walked down the hallway until her feet stopped in front of a certain door. She pulled out a card, swiped it with a beep, and a keypad popped out from the side of the door. Nao-chan pressed the buttons—beep beep beep—and finally, the door opened.

I’ll keep it a secret that I got excited because it looked like a mecha anime cockpit.

However, it was even crazier once we stepped inside the room—a massive panoramic window overlooking the outside scenery.

All four of us glued ourselves to that window, our eyes locked onto the cityscape spread out directly below.

“Amazing… I might even be able to see my own house.”

“Amazing… If someone told me, ‘Look, the whole city is watching you’ in a place like this, I’d…”

“Amazing… If someone told me, ‘Let’s show them your embarrassing spots’ in a place like this, I’d…”

“Abaa—”

…………I want to go home now.