My Tsundere Childhood Friend, Who Was Always Haughty, Suddenly Showing a Sharp Increase in Affection and Directing Intense, Heavy Emotions Toward Me - Chapter 28-29

Chapter 28: If I Say It’s Fine, Then There’s No Problem

After enjoying lunch together, we resumed studying. We kept at it until night, and nothing notable happened while we ate the katsu curry Sana made for dinner. But just as we finished eating, a massive problem came up.

“Oh, by the way, I’m planning to stay over at your place tonight,” Sana said.

“…What!?” I blurted out, unable to stop myself from sounding like an idiot. Her announcement was so unexpected that it was the only reaction I could muster.

“That’s way too much, don’t you think?” I said.

“But we used to sleep over all the time,” she countered.

“Yeah, like how many years ago was that?”

“That’s just a minor detail,” she declared boldly.

Sana seemed completely set on staying over, but I had a bad feeling about this and tried to push back.

“Maybe when we were in elementary school, but we’re high schoolers now. That’s nothing but trouble,” I argued.

“Specifically, what’s the problem?” she asked.

“W-Well, you know, we’re technically at that age where we’re a guy and a girl, so if something were to happen by mistake, it’d be a mess…” I stammered, caught off guard by her direct question. Honestly, what other reason could there be?

“Even if something happens, I don’t mind, so it’s fine,” she said.

“…Is that really what you’d call fine?” I asked.

“If I say it’s fine, then there’s no problem,” she insisted.

The way she said it almost made it sound like she wouldn’t care if something did happen, which was a little concerning.

“Besides, I got proper permission to stay over at your place,” she added.

“Seriously? I’m having a hard time believing that,” I said.

Hearing my skepticism, Sana opened her phone and showed me a LIME conversation. The other person was my mom, and sure enough, the chat confirmed that she’d given permission for Sana to stay over.

“She actually gave permission? What is she thinking?” I muttered.

“By the way, I got verbal permission from my mom too, but there’s no proof. If you’re curious, you can totally ask her,” Sana said.

“No, it’s fine. I get it,” I replied.

With her saying it so confidently, she must have really gotten permission. Asking would probably just be a waste of time.

I didn’t feel like I could stop her at this point, so I gave up on trying to convince her otherwise. And just like that, Sana’s sleepover was decided. After cleaning up from dinner, we went back to studying as usual.

On the bright side, since I didn’t have to worry about when Sana would head home, I could focus better on studying. We studied seriously for a while, but when we reached a good stopping point, Sana spoke up.

“How about a bath soon?” she suggested.

“Yeah, it’s about the right time. I’ll go fill the tub,” I said.

I stood up and headed to the bathroom. Unlike Sana’s high-tech house where you can fill the tub with your phone, I had to use the bathroom’s control panel. I cleaned the bathroom first, then started filling the tub with hot water. All that was left was to close the lid and wait for it to fill.

After a quick stop at the toilet, I returned to the room, but the moment I saw what was on the desk, my blood ran cold. There, sitting on the desk, were several adult manga I’d hidden away, and Sana was staring at me with a piercing look.

“…Hey, Haruto. What are these?” she asked.

“No idea. Never seen them before,” I said, trying to play dumb.

For now, I decided to act clueless. Even if we’re childhood friends, getting caught with adult manga by a girl was just too much to handle.

—

Chapter 29: You Should Have Admitted It Honestly From the Start

“Hmm, if it’s not yours, then whose is it?”

“It’s Dad’s.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, Dad’s always gone into the adult section at the bookstore since way back, so there’s no doubt about it.”

This question had been within my expectations, so I answered without any particular agitation. It meant selling out Dad, but he would surely be happy to sacrifice himself to protect his cute son.

“Would an uncle read stuff like gal comics, class president ones, little sister stories, or childhood friend tales? He doesn’t strike me as that type at all.”

“I don’t know what image you have of him, but Dad’s a proper man too.”

I answered without any hesitation. Desperate to escape this predicament somehow, I planned to bulldoze through by pinning all the blame on Dad. By the way, there was no deep meaning behind the genres of the erotic comics I bought. I had just picked them randomly based on the covers.

“Then I’ll check with your uncle.”

“…Huh?”

Sana picked up her smartphone from the desk and took a photo of the erotic comic. Then she opened the LIME app and entered a chat room with someone. The profile icon was unmistakably familiar—it was definitely my dad’s.

“Wait a second, how do you even know Dad’s LIME account!?”

“We exchanged them normally, didn’t we? We message back and forth sometimes too.”

“No way, a grown man in his forties swapping LIME with a high school girl and even chatting—that’s straight-up a crime.”

It was a scandal way bigger than the erotic comics I had stashed away. I hated the idea of a sex offender coming from my own family.

“Oh, and for your uncle’s honor, I’ll say this: I was the one who asked to exchange contacts. Your mom isn’t home in the mornings sometimes, so I did it to have him let me in with the key when that happens.”

“Oh, that’s the reason.”

Mom often left the house earlier than Dad because of her part-time job. And since I’m weak in the mornings, I was often still asleep even when Sana came to pick me up. So she must have settled on Dad by process of elimination to open the door.

“Anyway, I’ll check with your uncle right away.”

“W-Wait.”

“Why are you in such a panic? Is there something shady going on by any chance?”

“No, I just figured Dad would absolutely deny it, so asking him would be pointless and a total waste of time.”

Well, he would probably deny it even if it really was his. Getting a question like that from a girl would be a nightmare for anyone except a select few maniacs.

“Oh, right, that reminds me. There was this slipped into one of the erotic comics.”

When Sana showed me what she meant, I froze completely. It was a receipt from an online shopping site, and my name was clearly listed as the delivery address.

I had tucked it away to hide it in case Mom found out I was buying erotic comics while taking out the trash or something, but I had completely forgotten about it.

“Well, but since Haruto says it’s your uncle’s, I guess I have to ask.”

“I’ll admit I bought it, so please spare me…”

Seeing Sana grinning, I realized everything and could only admit it cleanly. It seemed I had been dancing entirely on the palm of her hand all this time.

“You should have admitted it honestly from the start.”

“It’s just too embarrassing for a guy to have a girl find out about his erotic comics.”

“I think Haruto’s biggest mistake was hiding them in the English-Japanese dictionary case. I was going to grab it from the bookshelf to use for translating a problem, and there it was—so I was shocked too.”

I see, so the camouflage I had set up to hide the erotic comics had backfired. I had let my guard down thinking Mom would never pull an English-Japanese dictionary from the shelf, but with Sana studying hard lately, it was totally plausible. I had no choice but to admit that my assumptions were way off this time.

“And I’m confiscating these.”

“Hey, wait!?”

Out of the four books on the desk, three got confiscated. The only one that survived was the childhood friend erotic comic.

“I figured taking every single one would be too harsh, so I’ll specially let you keep that one.”

With that, Sana stuffed the three confiscated ones into her bag. It was sad to part with them forever, but at least I hadn’t lost everything, so that was the only silver lining.