The Day After I Told My Shut-In Genius Childhood Friend, Who’s Highly Dependent on Me, “I Got Confessed To,” She Showed Me a Hypnosis App - Chapter 11

I woke up, and I didn’t know where I was for a moment.

(Huh…?)

The room was messy. Thick books. A monitor. A strange Moai statue.

It looked just like Mio’s room… I glanced to the side and saw Mio curled up, sleeping next to me.

“Whoa!”

“…Mmm? What…? What’s wrong…”

She spoke in a sleepy voice. The blanket rustled as she slowly sat up.

She still looked tired, her head barely lifting. Her head wobbled like a metronome, then finally stopped, and her eyes met mine.

“Honami?”

“…It’s Honami.”

Her mouth curved into a sleepy smile.

“Good morning.”

“…Good morning.”

She squinted her eyes and smiled.

It had been a while since I’d seen Mio, just waking up.

She’s a genius, but she’s still kind of like a kid inside.

She’s always been like this, but seeing it now, she’s surprisingly cute in a sly way.

…No, I shouldn’t just stare. I need to find out why I was sleeping here.

“Mio. I have a question.”

“Mm…? Good night…”

I wanted to ask why I was here, but she couldn’t fight her sleep, and her head flopped back.

She started to lean over.

“Hey! …Careful!”

I quickly slid a pillow under her.

She adjusted it a little, then went back to sleep with a happy look on her face.

(…It looks like she’s not waking up anytime soon.)

I sighed and sat up for now.

◇

For now, I went down to the kitchen on the first floor to make breakfast.

It was still pretty early. I had plenty of time before school.

Mio always keeps ingredients at her place, so I could make something simple right away.

I decided toast and a fried egg would be fine and started cooking, while my mind wandered back to yesterday.

(…Wait, why was I sleeping at Mio’s house?)

I usually only help Mio until dinner.

After that, I go back to my own place next door if nothing happens.

I hadn’t really stayed overnight at her place before so―.

(Some… of yesterday’s memories are missing?)

I dropped an egg into the hot pan.

While cooking, I tried to remember why I was in Mio’s room, but I couldn’t find the reason.

I roughly remembered going to Mio’s room in the morning, going to school, and attending classes. But memories of the afternoon and evening were fuzzy.

I glanced at my phone and saw a message I apparently sent to my mom, “Mio isn’t satisfied, so I’m staying over.”

…Did I really send that? Satisfied? What does that mean? What was I doing yesterday?

“Am I starting to lose it…?”

“―Yaaawn…, Good morning, Honami—”

I froze, and Mio came down the stairs, and she was still looking sleepy.

…I still didn’t understand what happened yesterday.

But when strange things happen, it’s usually her fault.

“Mio, why was I sleeping in your room yesterday?”

“…Huh?”

There were a few seconds of silence.

“…I-I don’t know?”

“Hey, what was that pause just now?”

“W-What do you mean?”

“Don’t tell me, you did something to me—”

“Honami, look at this!”

“Huh?”

Suddenly, she held her smartphone up in front of me.

On the purple screen, heart shapes multiplied and split over and over, making a strange myon, myon, myon sound echoing in my head―,

◆ “Shinonome Mio”

“…Phew.”

Honami, who was under hypnosis, froze in place with empty eyes.

That was close. He’d just woken up, and I let my guard down. I almost got found out.

But I learned one thing.

“…So the hypnosis breaks when he sleeps?”

Does it end because he sleeps? Or does it just fade with time?

Either way, it helped that his memories while hypnotized became unclear.

(If he doesn’t remember yesterday, maybe I could’ve waited a bit longer.)

I rushed and used hypnosis too fast. For testing, I probably should’ve waited until he tried to remember. I felt a little regret.

But now, I should think about the next hypnosis.

“…Maybe I’ll have him hug me again?”

Thinking about yesterday made my lips loosen into a smile, but I shook my head lightly.

I made a hypnosis app to fight against the person Honami confessed to.

Using it for my own wants. For something else, is that really okay?

Last night, I kept Honami tied up the whole time. That really wasn’t good.

Because of that, he felt something was off and almost questioned me.

“Yeah… I need to remove any chance of being found out…”

To be safe, maybe I should just erase the strange feeling in his memories from yesterday.

“…”

That would be fine but.

“…But, I still haven’t tested when his memories come back.”

And about the confession, I should make sure he “can’t decide yet.”

Still, if it’s a tiny hypnosis, he’d just sigh in disbelief. Something so small that even Honami finds out. Maybe that’s okay?

“Alright then, today’s instructions are―”