Parents remarried. Now my lover starts referring to me as "Onii~chan" - Chapter 1 Part 5

–W-Why was Neneka coming in, when I am taking a bath!?

From the very first day of living together, an outrageous incident unfolded… and immediately afterwards, we understood the cruciality of the thought of living together.

“W-Why? Why are you here Daiki?”

Neneka asked me across the door that separated the bathroom from the changing room.

“Rather than that, why are you coming in while I’m taking a bath though!?”

I asked her right away.

The reason for this situation was definitely because Neneka came in earlier.

“Don’t tell me that you came in knowing I was here…?”

I imagined a scene where she said, “Let me wash your back.” I was shocked to learn for the first time that Neneka was such a bold girl.

However, soon later, words of denial flew from Neneka’s side.

“I-I wouldn’t do that! I came here thinking that you were already out of the bath though! It’s already been an hour since I heard from your mother that you went to take one, and there was no sound of water too!!”

“Huh? It’s already been that long! I’m sorry. I’ve been soaking in the hot water while listening to music through my earphones…”

I checked the clock on my phone and sure enough, an hour had passed. It seemed that while I was occupied in thinking, I seemed to have completely lost track of time.

Furthermore, Neneka added.

“You didn’t even leave a change of clothes here!”

“A change of clothes? Ah! I forgot to bring it!”

“What do you mean by “forgot to bring it!?” Were you planning on going back to your room naked!?”

“That’s actually what it has been! I’ve always had this habit of coming out of the bathroom buck naked and then returning to my room being naked…! Today as well, I did it again by accident.”

“Huhhhhh?”

Neneka then lamented from behind the door saying “If you do that, there is no way I would have noticed that Daiki was still taking a bath…”

–I screwed up…

From the very first day my new family moved in and started living with me, I had screwed up.

In the first place, I should have completely sealed the habit of moving around naked when there was a girl who was now in the house.

Usual habits were really scary and doing this unconsciously was terrifying.

Because up until now, I had been living alone with my mother, who usually came home late. No one was bothered with me for hanging around naked… rather, let’s not word out this excuse.

There were cold sweats forming on my forehead even though I should have been warm after taking a bath.

“I’m sorry… I’ll make sure I never do that again…”

I apologized but there was no reply. Had I offended her?

As I was checking out the condition of Neneka for a while, she moved behind the frosted glass of the door.

“Hey… earlier, you saw me… didn’t you?”

Why now? Even though there was no point in asking, since what I saw earlier was definitely Neneka without even a piece of cloth on her.

“Yes… I saw…”

There was no point of hiding here. I felt this was much better than trying to deceive her in an awkward manner.

“It was obvious right… you did see it after all.”

I felt like I knew what type of face Neneka was making right now even without seeing her. I was sure she was trying to endure the shame caused by that by squeezing her eyes shut, tightly.

What was even the right thing to say to her in this situation?

If I were to say something like, “It was beautiful…” I would die of embarrassment and in reaction to my snappy dialogue I was afraid I would make Neneka feel even more embarrassed than she was now.

That said, “Don’t make a fuss about it, it’s not like you will lose something or the other.”

If I said that… I would definitely offend her.

If I said something like that. While looking at me with cold eyes she would say, “What?” was the only future I could see happening.

Rather, I thought it would be safer to not mention anything about what I had seen earlier.

“Neneka… are you all right…?”

When I approached her speaking nervously, at that very moment, Neneka abruptly said “Shh!”

“Quiet! Someone might be around the corner!”

“Huh?”

When I listened carefully, I heard a kon-kon-kon sound struck from behind the glass door. This was the sound of banging on the bathroom door.

“Neneka-chan. Have you already taken a bath?”

I heard my mother’s voice and I involuntarily sank nose-deep into the hot water.

“Ah… I was just about to go in…!”

When Neneka answered, my mother asked.

“Did you bring your shampoo and conditioner?”

“No, I forgot… May I borrow it?”

“Oh, then you can use whatever you like. Also, do you think you know how to use the shower?”

“Yes! Looks like it will be no problem!”

“Is that so, then take your time ok…”

As my mother’s footsteps moved away, I could hear Neneka sighing behind the door.

“That was dangerously close…”

“Nope, it isn’t anything dangerous and close! What are we going to do about this situation… Arre!? There seems to be someone still in here in the bath! Wouldn’t it be better if I had screamed like that now…!?”

“Ah!! Now I see!! Wa-aa, what should I do…!? And suddenly I had this impulse to hide the fact that Daiki was in the bath…”

“Even though it was such a great opportunity…”

“T-That is… I was afraid that if she found out that you were still in the bath, she would think of me as a bad younger stepsister who tried to sneak into the bath when her Onii-chan was already in there…”

“If you had just realized it moments ago, something could have been done about it probably… Now, my mom already thinks it’s Neneka who is in the bath at this time. What am I supposed to do about the fact that I was in the bath in the first place…”

“But, but, but… even Daiki, when your mother and I were talking, you could have just made a fuss saying, “Hmm? Is someone there?” couldn’t you?”

“Ah!! There was that option as well!!”

But it was already too late. We were unable to make a calm decision at that time, we were now put into a predicament by our own hands.

“For the time being, start the shower! It would be really dangerous if they find us talking by any chance, thus, let’s camouflage our voices with the sound of the water!”

“Oh! Ok, understood!”

I got up and reached for the shower.

Thinking that it would be a waste to leave it running out of the sink, I decided to turn on the hot water and let it run into the bathtub. The sound of running hot water hitting the tub reverberated into the bathroom.

Now, even if anyone passed by the halfway, they wouldn’t be able to hear the conversation going on inside, unless they tried to listen very well.

“Do you want to… have a go? I’m… ok though.”

However this made it difficult to even hear the voice of Neneka. “Eh? What? What did you mean to say.”

I got out of the bathtub and crouched in front of the bathroom door.

Then, behind the frosted glass, I saw Neneka’s shadow move as if to crouch down.

Across the frosted glass door, just beyond it, was a naked Neneka.

When suddenly remembering the naked body of Neneka I saw earlier, I felt a warm current circling around my body.