When I brought my childhood friend back home after a long time, she suddenly started undressing and said, "I want you to hold me..."

11:24 PM.

A week passed away in the blink of an eye, and the day for our hot-spring date arrived.

I reached Aoi’s house at our supposed meeting time in the morning and rang the intercom, but after so many tries there was no response from the other side. I then knocked on the door a few times, but as that also didn’t seem to work, I pressed the intercom button multiple times in a short duration. After getting frustrated I shouted,

“Hey, are you ready?”

“Not yet…!”

Aoi answered hurriedly, and at the same time, a dull sound of something falling reached my ears. Worriedly, I twisted the door knob and surprisingly it opened up without any extra effort. I sighed in relief that I didn’t have to break it in order to enter her house, but…

‘…How careless of her, she should have at least locked the front door. What if something bad would have happened to her?’

And as expected it’s something only Aoi can forget about, but this is no laughing matter, a person’s safety is at risk here.

“Hey, I told you many times to lock the— Aoi? Are you alright?”

“—Uh, yeah… I accidentally slipped.”

Aoi forces a smile and tells me to not worry about it, while rubbing her buttocks. She was clearly forcing that smile earlier. I sighed seeing such a clumsy sight of her who was about to go on a trip.

“Ehehe~”

“Haah… It’s not a laughing matter, get up quickly we are getting late.”

I reached out my hand towards her so that she could grab on it and lift herself, but I accidentally stepped on the same piece of cardboard on which Aoi slipped earlier. Due to it, I lost my body momentum and fell on top of her. If someone were to see us from the side, they would witness a situation where I was embracing her while being on the top and a blushing Aoi underneath me who couldn’t even look at my eyes directly.

“…Move aside.”

She said while blushing profusely and in a very low voice.

“Heh~, but we are in this situation because of you Aoi.”

Aoi was still embarrassed, was fidgeting now, and had problems standing up because of her dizzy eyes. Looks like it was too much for her.

“Hold on tight… I’ll help you get ready, we will be late on time otherwise.”

“Yeah… Thank you.”

“Okay then, let’s start it…”

And that’s how I started helping Aoi in her preparations for the trip.

I don’t think that I would hate to go to any other place, but I am a little worried about how things started here.

‘… I’m really glad that I came 30 minutes earlier. As expected of Aoi’s clumsiness I think?’

In the early morning, I sighed looking at my childhood friend who is lazy in the mornings. It looks like the preparations here are only half done, it was a good thing that the stay at the hot spring inn is relatively shorter.

If you think about it that way, then there is no need to bring a change of clothes, and the time to prepare everything will be relatively shorter.

— But we are talking about Aoi here.

“Nope, not at all.”

“…Hm?”

“It’s nothing. Let’s get it ready faster.”

And so the preparations began.

Aoi was repeatedly putting things in and taking things out of her backpack, and when she tried to put her hand on the outside of her backpack…

“Argh, it’s no good.”

“Eh?”

“Wait, wait… that isn’t good either.”

After saying that, she grabbed my hand at a terrifying speed.

When I turned my gaze toward her, I found her blushing? And her cheeks were too red.

“I’m sorry, but…”

She puffed out her cheeks and tried saying something, but no words came out from her mouth, and after inhaling and exhaling repeatedly she said after finally deciding on something.

“… Well, there is my underwear, so…”

“Ah… I see.”

Even though I have seen her fully naked, I wonder why she is getting embarrassed on such small things. But as though I thought she might have various circumstances for stopping me, so I withdrew my hand.

“I understand, and I’m sorry. I won’t do anything, but please make it fast.”

“Yes!”

With a small reply, she resumed her packing and I spent the next half an hour skeptically observing Aoi, wondering what kind of underwear she didn’t want to be seen in.

Finally, the preparations were over and the two of us walked to a car rental store near to the station.

We asked the rental car receptionist for the cheapest AT car and signed various insurance policies for a total of about 8,000 yen. It was a little tight on the wallet of a college student, but considering the price of the hot spring hotel, it was a surprisingly cheap deal. Besides, the place we were going to this time was deep in the mountains, so transportation was not very convenient.

The price of the hot spring hotel was 14,000 yen per room including breakfast and dinner, and the room itself was inexpensive for a 10-mat Japanese-style room with an open living room. The maximum number of guests it can accommodate is three, so it was also a good point that the room could be used leisurely by us.

Well, there is no deeper meaning to luxury in this as it is after all a cheap place.

“All right then, let’s go.”

“Wear your seat belt.”

“Ah, that’s right. It would have been dangerous without it.”

“Hold on tighter.”

“I don’t want Aoi to remind me of it.”

“It’s fine.”

With the argument not going down any moment, I started the engine and departed to our location.

It took us about 1 hour to reach there by car. We left the city and headed for the mountainous region. After having lunch at a roadside food stall which was on our route, we finally arrived at our destination at around 2 PM in the afternoon. I parked the car at the hotel’s parking lot and headed out to check in at the reception.

We were about an hour earlier than the reserved time, but we somehow managed it.

“Welcome. May I ask the name of the guest who made the reservation?”

“Ah, yes, I’m Aoi Takanashi and I made a reservation for 3:00 P.M. But we arrived earlier… Can we check in ahead of time?”

When Aoi said so, the receptionist of the inn started typing something on her computer. While glancing around I noticed that the place was relatively big, with a Japanese style adorning the interior. I was truly surprised that this place could have been this good, it was definitely worth coming here.

After waiting for about a minute, the receptionist smiled and said,

“It’s alright. The person there will guide you to your rooms. Please leave your luggage here, it will be delivered directly to your room.”

“Yes, thank you very much!”

“Please make yourself comfortable here.”

She bowed deeply and shifted her gaze to the next customer in line to begin the reception process. I was a little impressed seeing how things worked here so smoothly.

We handed over our luggage to the two waitresses and were shown the way to our room on the second floor. One of them asked us if she misunderstood something or was it just her curiosity?

“Um, have you two come from far away today?”

I was a little surprised by the sudden question, but I answered immediately.

“Yeah we are not from this area, it took us about an hour by car to reach here.”

“Oh is that so… Thank you very much for visiting our small inn.”

“No, no, it’s not like that. The scenery and atmosphere here is quite good and I feel so calm here.”

“I’m honored to hear you say that. Besides, you are tall and cool.”

The other waitress said to me in a flattering tone. I was surprised by the sudden praise, but as Aoi was next to me, I paid very little attention to it.”

“Haha, you flatter me, don’t you?”

“No way… I really mean it. And you also have a beautiful wife with you.”

Well, that’s right… And Onee-san’s are also beautiful.”

“Ara~ you are good at it.”

“No way.”

“Heh, but I really mean it!”

“Then I’ll take that as a compliment.”

While keeping the conversation alive on the way to our room, I finally asked the question that had been bottled up in my mind for so long.

“Ah, by the way do you know any other good places to visit around here other than the hot springs.”

“Hmm, there is also an open air bath in the hot spring and there is also a footbath.”

“Footbaths huh, I see.”

“Yes, it is. And, just in case you are wondering— there is also a mixed bath just around the corner to the right of this room.”

“Is that so?”

“You might want to try it with your wife.”

“No, please stop, hahaha.”

… I was suddenly taken aback by a word that came up in our conversation.

‘Eh? Did she say wife just now?’

Well, from the waitress’s point of view, we were a pair of customers who drove all the way out here on such a weekend. And while the price is reasonable, it is by no means the price of a business hotel, where college students are more likely to stop.

And so we were misunderstood as Husband and Wife. I tried to correct the misunderstanding, but…

Aoi, who was walking next to me had her face completely beet red up to her ears, her eyes were misty and she was fidgeting in her steps.

“Ma’am are you okay?”

Out of concern, the waitresses reached out to her.

“… I–I’m fine.” She said while stuttering in between her words

“Is that so? Your face was red so I thought that maybe you were not well and had a fever.”

“I see…”

Meanwhile looking at all of this an involuntary smile came up on my face, and I burst out in laughter.

“Pffttt…..”

“… W-Why are you laughing?”

:No, I’m not laughing.”

“Wah?! Stop bullying me.”