The Saint Next to Me Who Sometimes Comes Without Wearing Underwear Tells Me What’s Under Her Skirt in Secret - 30-31

Chapter 30

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“Th-That’s not it! It’s a misunderstanding!!”

“That’s what all criminals say!! R-Right… I-I need to call the police!”

“W-Wait! Please, just listen to me…”

I tried to approach Sayaka, who was about to take out her phone, to explain myself. But that only made things worse—Sayaka stepped back with a wary look on her face. 

Wh-What should I do…

“Haruki-kun. Give me back my swimsuit.”

While I was panicking on my own, a voice called out from behind me. It was Seira, standing there with her face flushed red, using both arms to cover her chest.

Right. I was still holding her swimsuit.

“Ah, sorry.”

I hastily handed the swimsuit back to Seira.

“Sayaka. Let me explain, just give me a second.”

Seira said this and turned her back. She then hurriedly put her swimsuit back on. After that, she faced Sayaka again.

“Uh, okay… First of all, I wasn’t being assaulted or anything.”

“B-But he tore off your swimsuit and pinned you down!!”

…Looking from the outside, I couldn’t exactly deny that was how it must’ve looked.

“It was an accident. We were just messing around, and I fell over.”

“Normally, a swimsuit wouldn’t just come off, right? Is that kind of accident even possible?”

“Even if you say that…”

Seira gave me a troubled look.

Don’t drag me into this. I don’t even know how it ended up like that.

“I kind of started drowning, and when I flailed around, that’s how it happened.”

“Yeah, right! He did it on purpose, didn’t he!!”

Ahh… Yeah… This was starting to get really annoying.

“…Even if I did it on purpose, so what?”

“W-What do you mean, ‘so what’…!?”

“She’s my girlfriend, after all.”

““Eh?””

Both Seira and Sayaka raised their voices in unison.

What are you talking about?

That was the look Seira gave me.

Hey, don’t you give me that look too.

“What’s wrong with pinning down my girlfriend?”

As I said that, I forcefully linked arms with Seira and pulled her close. Maybe I pulled too hard since Seira lost her balance. She ended up leaning against me, like she was close to collapsing.

“Eh? Ah, ahh…”

It seemed like Seira finally caught on to what I was trying to do. In a bold move, she clung to me. I also wrapped my arm around her shoulder to make it look more convincing.

“S-So that’s how it is!”

Seira shouted, then bashfully buried her face in my chest.

“W-W-Wha-…!?”

Sayaka’s mouth opened and closed like a goldfish.

“J-Just because you’re a couple doesn’t mean you can do that kind of thing out in the open, under the blue sky, in front of everyone!”

W-Well… I mean, yeah.

But it was an accident, after all.

“Exactly. It’d be even weirder to commit a crime in broad daylight right in front of everyone, right?”

“T-That’s…! N-No, but… for Onee-sama to do something so improper…”

Sayaka started muttering to herself. She still didn’t seem fully convinced.

Even though Seira herself said it wasn’t a crime, can’t she just accept that…?

“Sayaka.”

Seira raised her voice while still clinging to me. Her face bright red, she turned only her eyes toward Sayaka in embarrassment.

“Y-Yes! W-What is it?”

“…As you can see, we have that kind of relationship.”

“B-But…”

“I wasn’t forced into anything. …So please, accept that.”

Seira said this in a voice so faint, it could have vanished into the air. Hearing that, Sayaka widened her eyes, then nodded, seemingly understanding something.

“…Understood.”

“Also, about this whole thing… Please pretend you didn’t see it.”

“…Yes. Understood.”

Sayaka bit her lip in frustration and glared at me.

If you’ve accepted it, could you at least look a little nicer about it?

“I’ll leave for now.”

She declared this, then walked away with large, heavy steps. …Well, I guess that cleared me of any false accusations, at least?

“Sorry, Seira. This got really complicated because of me.”

“No, it’s okay. That girl tends to jump to conclusions. As long as she doesn’t tell anyone, it’ll be fine. But more importantly…”

“Huh?”

“C-Can we, um… Stop holding each other now?”

“Eh? Ah, ahh… Of course!”

I quickly removed my hand from Seira’s shoulder. Then I loosened my arm that had been linked with hers, but Seira still clung to me.

“Seira?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“W-What is it?”

“…How much of that just now was true?”

True? Ahh…

“Of course, I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“Ah, yeah… I don’t really care about that part.”

You don’t? So then that means…

“The part about us being a couple.”

“Ah, ahh… That was, um…”

I hesitated for a moment before answering.

“…It was just an excuse.”

“I see.”

After hearing my answer, Seira finally let go and stepped away.

“Well, I’ll let it slide this time.”

Then she smiled slyly, as if she was genuinely pleased.

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Chapter 31

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It had been a week since the beach date with Haruki-kun.

Fortunately, neither my father nor my grandparents scolded me about it. It seemed Sayaka was properly keeping her promise. Maybe I had been a little too cautious. Still, ever since then, Sayaka had started questioning me every time I came back from Haruki-kun’s house.

“What did he do to you today?”

And just like that, today again, Sayaka asked me.

Is she really that curious about what I do with Haruki-kun? Well, of course she would be. After all, Sayaka thinks Haruki-kun and I are dating each other.

As far as I knew, Sayaka had never dated a guy, but as a girl her age, it wouldn’t be surprising if she was interested in those things. Unfortunately, Haruki-kun and I weren’t actually dating yet, so I didn’t have any juicy stories to share.

“Nothing special happened.” 

I told her honestly.

“…That can’t be true. He was alone with Onee-sama, and nothing happened? That’s impossible.”

Usually, she’d back off at this point, but today she pushed a little more. I had no choice.

Maybe I’ll just flex on my little sister with a cute story of me and Haruki-kun being lovey-dovey…

Or so I wanted to, but since nothing really happened, I couldn’t make anything up. There was no way I could tell her we played the “guess the underwear color” quiz.

“Seriously, nothing happened. We just played a game for a bit.”

Of course, it was an eroge, but that small detail was a secret to her. Telling my actual little sister, “We played a naughty game,” would exceed the limits of my shame tolerance.

“G-Games…?”

“Yeah. A game. …It wasn’t anything serious, really.”

Something about Sayaka’s reaction felt off. Sure, our family was strict about games and such, but it had always been tolerated when we played them at a friend’s house. Sayaka herself had definitely played games secretly at her female friends’ places.

So why was she so shocked? As I tilted my head in confusion—

“Knew it…! He did something lewd to you, didn’t he!?”

Fweh?

My mind blanked for a second.

Did something lewd to me?

In other words—are you asking if I did something lewd with Haruki-kun? Sure, I did play a lewd game at Haruki-kun’s place. But how does she know that!?

“N-N-Nothing happened!!”

“That’s a lie! That reaction is totally a lie!! He did something to you, didn’t he!? Wh-What kind of things did he do to you!?”

What kind of things…?

I recalled the game we played today. It was a classic romance visual novel. Nothing intense while playing it, but explaining it out loud would be far too humiliating for me.

“…Do I owe you an explanation for that?”

“W-Well…”

When I shot back with confidence, Sayaka fumbled and then fell silent.

Maybe I was a bit too cold? Silence settled over the room.

“I was just a little worried that Haruki-san might be tricking you…”

Finally, Sayaka squeezed out a response like that. Why would she think Haruki-kun would trick me based on what I just said? …Also.

“You seem awfully familiar with Haruki-kun. When did you two get so close?”

As far as I knew, Sayaka and Haruki-kun had only met for the first time at the beach. Sure, we went to the same school, so it wouldn’t be strange if they knew each other by name, but… I didn’t think they’d grown close enough to be on a first-name basis.

“We’re not close at all! That guy…!! I just thought he was a nice person, but…!”

The way she spoke made it sound like they already knew each other. Haruki-kun hadn’t said a word about knowing Sayaka beforehand.

…Why is that? It’s kind of irritating.

“When and where did you two meet?”

“Huh? Ah… we met at the beach. Thinking back on it now, maybe that was…”

Sayaka replied with a bitter expression.

“Maybe it was… Him hitting on me.”

…Hmph.

*****

“That’s what Sayaka said. Care to explain, Haruki-kun!?”

“Huh…?”

It had been about a week since the beach date. Seira suddenly said something incomprehensible.

According to her, Sayaka claimed I tried to hit on her. The big sister was something, but it turned out the little sister might be worse than the little sister. Besides, who would actually believe that? 

“…Alright, let me tell you what really happened—from my point of view.”

“Fine, I’ll listen.”

Seira said, placing her hands on her hips. She was acting like I was some sort of criminal.

“Remember that time at the beach, when I went to buy food at the food stalls?”

“…Yeah, I remember. You were late. Don’t tell me—that’s when you hit on someone? You left me to flirt with girls?”

Seira’s eyes sharpened.

How does she even reach that conclusion?

“I didn’t. In fact, I’ve told you this before, haven’t I? I saved a girl who was being hit on. That girl happened to be your sister.”

“…You didn’t mention that part before.”

“Well, I didn’t know she was your sister back then.”

“…That checks out.”

Checks out?

I didn’t think they looked alike, but maybe these sisters were more similar than I thought. Like how they both acted all high and mighty, always convinced they were right.

“But Sayaka said she was being hit on.”

“I wouldn’t know. …If anything, I was the one being hit on.”

“…You were? What do you mean?”

“Your sister asked if I wanted to hang out after that.”

“You never told me that!”

“Why would I?”

“Because you felt guilty?”

“Who brags during a date, ‘Hey, some girl just hit on me!’? No guy does that.”

And yet she got all sulky just from me saying I helped a girl. If I had told her everything, she definitely would’ve blown up.

“Y-Yeah… You’re probably right.”

Seira averted her gaze at that, even though just a moment ago, she was all assertive. Now, she looked oddly meek.

“But… She seemed really familiar with you. She even called you Haruki-san.”

…Familiar?

I didn’t think we’d grown close or anything just from that incident alone. 

“Even though I always called you by your last name until recently. …She closed the distance pretty fast, didn’t she?”

Seira sulked as she said that. It seemed that part was what really got under her skin.

If I were her, I’d be bothered too—if my little sister suddenly got closer to the guy I liked.

But none of this was my fault. Everything was an accident. 

“I didn’t try to get close. Your sister just decided to call me Haruki-san out of nowhere.”

“And you just accepted that?”

“Wouldn’t it be weird to say no?”

“…That’s true.”

“She even asked me to call her Sayaka-chan, by the way.”

“You called her that!?”

“Of course not.”

If I had to call her something, I’d go with Saotome’s little sister. There was no way I could call  her Sayaka-chan.

“So, am I in the clear now?”

“…Y-Yeah. I guess I jumped to conclusions a bit too hastily.”

Seira responded awkwardly, clearly feeling guilty. She looked a little small, curled in on herself.

This… Wasn’t a bad opportunity.

“Then I guess you owe me an apology.”

“Huh? An apology!?”

“Yeah. In fact, one for the trouble your sister caused, and one for doubting me. That’s two.”

It might be odd to demand her sister’s apology from Seira, but it should be fine. 

“H-Hmph. Well, I am the older sister… I guess it’s only natural for me to clean up after my little sister.So, what do you want me to do? If it’s something within my capability… I’ll do anything.”

Seira played along with my teasing surprisingly smoothly. She really was sharp—and had a good sense of humor. Her little sister would never roll with something like this.

“Anything, huh? Well…”

“…N-Nothing too lewd, okay?”

Seira said that with cloudy eyes.

…Huh? Was that… A setup? A trap? Was she expecting something? Maybe I messed this up…

Oh well. Let’s just go with it.

“Come with me to the summer festival.”

“…Summer festival?”

“Yeah. The one coming up in the neighborhood.”

When I said that, Seira looked genuinely surprised. Did she really think I was about to ask for something pervy?

If so, that’s a little insulting.

“Ah, ahh… The summer festival. R-Right…”

It was my most heartfelt date invitation, but her reaction was kind of lukewarm. …Was her affection level not high enough? No, that couldn’t be it.She was fine with a swimsuit beach date—why would a summer festival be off limits?

“Did you already have plans?”

“No, I don’t, but… The summer festival is at night, right?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s just… My curfew…”

Ah… I hadn’t even considered that. Right, her family was strict about that sort of thing.

“Well, I-I’ll try negotiating a little.”

“…You don’t have to push yourself. That apology thing earlier was just a joke anyway.”

I felt like I’d done something to make her uncomfortable. As I started getting a bit nervous, Seira shook her head vigorously from side to side.

“It’s not like it’s impossible or anything.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Because I…”

Seira averted her blue eyes.

“Because I want to go—with you.”

She said that, her cheeks turning a deep red.

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