When I Picked Up A Stunningly Gorgeous Downer-Type Beauty In Front Of The Entrance. - Chapter 18: I attempted to go buy retro games.

I attempted to go buy retro games.

What’s not good tends to overlap.

You trip once, hastily try to get up, lose balance, and fall again.

Was it my fault? Or was there a pebble in the path my feet were heading towards?

I don’t know the reason, but misfortunes pile up, and I end up scraping my knees.

End of July.

Summer vacation has begun, and there are no classes.

Instead, thick homework sits on my desk, emitting an oppressive aura. I’d rather the heat stay outside.

However, complaining won’t make the room any cooler, unlike the summer heat.

The break has just begun. Let’s pretend we didn’t see it.

Though I feel like I think the same thing every year, I can’t recall such thoughts amidst the early summer sense of liberation and lethargy.

To avoid feeling uncomfortable, I hide the eye-sore of homework under the bed.

…Still, I’ll inevitably remember the untouched homework by the end of August and end up crying, wondering where I put it! The me at this moment has forgotten about that, and no matter how many times I’ve experienced it, I’ll repeat the same mistake.

So, well. Despite sealing away the nuisance for about a month,

“I’m bored.”

Indeed.

It was strange… though it’s a funny thing to say, recently, Sajou-san hasn’t been home much at all.

She had a scowl on her face as she muttered, “…going to the pharmacy,” but she left without inviting me along, moving with a heavy step that caught my attention.

Worried, I almost said, “Should I come with you?” but ended up being insulted with “Pervert” and getting kicked in the shin. Why?

So, not really understanding why, I found myself alone, hugging a cushion in my room, rolling around on the bed.

Rolling, rolling.

Rolling from right to left. On this narrow single bed, even if I tried to lie vertically, I couldn’t roll around much. The end was either the wall or falling onto the floor.

Lately, I’ve always been with Sajou-san, so I hadn’t felt bored at all.

We cooked and ate together, cleaned together, cuddled together… Well, we cuddled together a lot. So, I wasn’t bored. Yeah.

Maybe because of that, I felt at a loss with this rare moment alone.

It’s like when a hobbyist office worker finishes all her household chores in half a day and sits alone in the middle of the room, not knowing what to do.

With a thud, I spread my arms wide on the bed and threw the cushion.

“What did I do on my day off?”

Memories from over a month ago seemed distant, tinted sepia and vague.

What did I do… furrowing my brows, I remembered, yes, retro games.

“Let’s go buy some games.”

Remembering my hobby of retro gaming, I sat up on the bed.

I couldn’t help but smile wryly at how much my daily life seemed colored by Sajou-san, even forgetting my own hobbies.

As I was about to leave with my phone, I hastily turned back.

My wallet, slightly worn out, its metal zipper part hazed over with rust. I grabbed it as if snatching it away from the desk where it was carelessly placed.

In recent years, I could get by with just my phone wherever I went, so I rarely touched my wallet.

Loyalty cards, payments, everything could be done with apps. It’s a convenient era, but also a scary one. Just losing one smartphone could render you helpless, and at worst, your life could be ruined.

Thinking that everything about oneself is condensed into this thin slab, I feel my own shallowness and fear.

Indeed, technological advancement has its flip side. The best and the worst are always two sides of the same coin.

Anyway, enough of that philosophical talk.

I went back to get my wallet simply because the retro game store I was about to go to doesn’t accept smartphone payments. Cash only. It feels like going against the times. I feel like there’s a direct rebellion, but maybe the store owner just finds it too troublesome to implement. 

It’s the only retro game store in the city, and I sincerely hope it doesn’t get left behind by the times.

“Uwaa.”

As I step out of the entrance, my face contorts with the oppressive heat and humidity. Sweat begins to trickle down my forehead as if it had been waiting for this moment.

Moreover, there’s a noisy cicada perched on the wall right in front of the entrance… Somehow, just at this moment, my motivation to go out evaporated completely. It’s as if someone pulled the plug on a balloon, pshew.

But there’s nothing to do by going back to my room.

“Don’t you dare fly, okay? You better not fly!”

I crab-walk across, keeping my eyes fixed on the cicada, which continues to chirp incessantly. I hate how suddenly they start fluttering and chirp gyuii and then fly away.

I heave a sigh of relief as I move away, still crouched.

Just as I’m about to pass through the corridor, the adjacent door creaks open with a clatter.

Is it Sajou-san? I think, but it’s not her.

What emerges is a young man in his twenties dressed in a suit, along with a woman who appears to be Sajou-san’s mother, whom I had passed by in the entrance before.

I try to just walk by, but involuntarily, I choke and almost drool from the corner of my mouth.

Not because she resembles Sajou-san.

The problem was her attire.

A thin, sheer nightdress resembling a negligee. Naturally, not only were her body lines visible, but her provocative nakedness was practically on display.

Furthermore, the underwear visible through it was white, and I couldn’t help but feel more anxious than aroused, considering how small the fabric area was.

Is that really hidden? Isn’t it poking out? Isn’t it basically just strings?

Wait, so these kinds of erotic underwear actually exist in the real world?

Feels like something straight out of an erotic doujinshi.

With such thoughts in mind, feeling overwhelmed despite being innocent, I tried to avert my gaze. But then…

Chuuu~, they kissed, as if it were nothing, Sajou-san’s (maybe) mother and a man.