Striving to Become the Ideal Man in a World of Reversed Chastity

After that, nothing particularly problematic happened, and we were able to purchase the equipment at the sports shop. Now we had just exited the sports shop after finishing our shopping.

“What should we do now? Should we go back to school?”

“Hmm, it’s not much to carry, so let’s just head home for today.”

“Okay, understood!”

Since it had gotten quite late, we decided not to return to school and instead walked toward the station.

We reached the station area after walking about 10 minutes from the sports shop. Since Hikasa and I used different train lines, we decided to part ways at the station entrance.

“Thank you for today, senpai.”

“Yeah, see you, Hikasa.”

“Yes, see you tomorrow!”

I watched as Hikasa went through the ticket gate. After everything that happened, I was really glad to see her smiling at the end.

After seeing her off, I headed toward the ticket gate for my train line. On the way, I recalled the various events that had happened today.

(Sigh… today was really tiring with all that happened.)

Even though I’d only interacted with Kashima-san and Hikasa… thinking back on it all made me feel suddenly exhausted. Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be a dream? Why was I experiencing such realistic fatigue?

——Ping

“…Hm?”

As I was thinking about this, my smartphone in my pocket suddenly rang. When I took it out and checked the screen… there was a LINE message from a certain person.

“Coming to your place tonight.”

“Ugh…!?”

The sender of that message was my childhood friend, Shirayuki Himeko. Why did I have to meet my childhood friend even in a dream?! …No, wait, seriously though…

“When is this dream going to end…”

I thought to myself as I decided to head home.

◇◇◇◇

I went shopping at the supermarket near my station before returning to my apartment where I lived alone. It was just past 6:30 PM.

My parents were currently working overseas, so they were not in Japan. They invited me to go abroad with them, but I declined and decided to live alone in Japan. I mean, it was scary when I couldn’t speak any language other than Japanese, right?

I thus started living alone for such a cowardly reason, but it’d been almost a year now. I’d made many mistakes at first, but my household skills had improved, and I’d come to enjoy living alone quite a bit… however…

“Sigh… so Himeko is coming today…”

There was one arch-enemy threatening my peaceful life alone. That was my childhood friend, Shirayuki Himeko.

Himeko was a 17-year-old high school second-year like me, and she attended an all-girls high school a little further down from mine. She was of average height with a slender figure (no comment on her chest). Her hairstyle was semi-long, tied in a ponytail.

Her personality was… well, how should I put it? It was hard to explain due to our ambiguous relationship. Sure, I talked to Himeko normally, but if you asked whether we were especially close just because we were childhood friends, the answer would be not at all.

Well, it was true that when we were kids, I’d often play with Himeko. My parents and hers were friends, so our families were close, and I frequently had sleepovers at her house.

But that was just when we were kids.

When we hit puberty, we naturally stopped playing with each other as much, and since we went to different high schools, I thought our relationship would gradually grow distant… but that’s not what happened. The reason was that I started living alone.

My parents had asked Himeko’s parents to occasionally check on my living situation.

As a result, Himeko had started invading my house every few days to inspect how I was doing.

She checked whether I was properly handling cooking, cleaning, laundry, and other household chores… and if I was not doing well, she reported it to my parents without question.

The inspections were unreasonably strict, so I dreaded the days when Himeko would come over. By the way, in my heart I called her my “nagging sister-in-law”, but that was absolutely a secret from her.

So that was how our ambiguous childhood friend relationship had continued even after becoming high school students.

“But that’s in real life. I wonder what my relationship with Himeko is like in this dream world?”

The Kashima-san and Hikasa I’d talked to today had completely different personalities from their real-life counterparts. So then Himeko must also be…?

“Hmm, I wonder…”

But still… no matter what, we were childhood friends. So even if chastity morals were reversed in this world, our relationship probably wouldn’t change, right? Well, I didn’t know for sure.

——Ping

As I was thinking about this, a message arrived from Himeko.

“Got delayed with school stuff. Will be there in about an hour.”

It was a notification that she would be late coming over. I replied with just “Got it” and closed my phone.

“Hmm, still got some time before Himeko arrives.”

With an hour to spare, I could do something. Oh, come to think of it… I was really tired today, so maybe I should take a bath now?

“…Alright, I’ll take an early bath today!”

Having decided this, I took off my uniform and headed to the bathroom.