Vol 7 Prologue (1/2)

Prologue

“Just for a little while will be fine— Please become my boyfriend!”

Miichan declared so with a nervous voice.

Her cheeks were coloured bright red and her eyes, looking at me in an upturned gaze, were filled with a mixture of hope and worry.

Embarra.s.singly enough, I thought for a moment that I was confessed to and was thus a bit surprised, but….I got the feeling that it wasn’t really like that. For starters I should think about it rationally.

A certain day in the later half of summer vacation. Nazuna’s friend Sakurai Miyuki aka Miichan had come over to our house to consult with me.

On the other hand, I just had returned home from the bookstore, where I purchased the long-awaited new volume of a novel. I had wanted to read it right away, but I had shown up in the living room, where Miichan brought up “I have a favour to ask…” and then spoke the sentence from earlier.

But it weren’t just Miichan and me in the living room. My little sister Nazuna and our three freeloaders— Luna, Machina Liebelei Orangelo and Elni were here too.

There was really no need to bring that up in front of them, besides I found Miichan’s words to be strange to begin with.

“Hey, what do you mean by ‘just for a little while will be fine’? Don’t tell me, you’re just after my body?”

“Wh- What would you do if… I said I was?”

On my light joke, Miichan responded with a flirtatious glance.

To be honest, to me she only looked like a little kid, who played a mischievous little devil by stretching herself. I felt sorry for Miichan, but it was at least five years too early.

“…Miichan, if you’re really only after my body, then I will lecture you for nearly an hour now… What do you say?”

“I, I’m sorry! I told a lie! I don’t want to be hated by you!”

Good, she apologized honestly. A certain maid would have kept her cool with “O- Oh my, s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama, do you plan to train me through scolding!? This is really perverted. Just bring it on!”.

Miichan indeed was a weird girl. But this honest side of her was cute.

Not like the perverted maid Kaorun aka Kaoru wasn’t cute, but… that aside here. It was about time I asked about the circ.u.mstances.

“So, why do you want me to become your boyfriend? I take you have some kind of reason for it.”

“…Uhm, this could take some time. Do you mind?”

“No, it’s okay. I have time. Let me hear it.”

Placing the paper bag with the novel on the table, I sat down on the sofa and urged her with a smile.

Miichan opened her mouth with a somewhat distant look in her eyes.

“It happened during the cleaning after school on a school day during summer vacation. When I went to throw out the trash, the trash bin was heavier than I imagined, so I tripped in the hallway.”

“…Ehm, you didn’t get hurt?”

“No. It was no problem, since I’m used to tripping.”

So Miichan tripped a lot. For some reason I could easily imagine that. While thinking something kind of rude in my heart, Miichan continued with a “But”.

“when I tripped, a nearby uppercla.s.sman reached out a hand for me with a “’Let me help you’.”

“Hee… Sounds like a nice person.”

“Indeed. It was a really cool and kind senior. At that time we didn’t have much time to talk, but Senpai asked someone like me to become friends. We also exchanged our cell phone numbers.”

…Wait a moment. Exchanging numbers out of the blue? Wasn’t he just hitting on her? It might be too early to reach a conclusion, but instead of a nice guy, he was more of a frivolous guy, in my opinion.

“Then while we exchanged mails and talked over the phone, we got to know each other better. I was really happy to get a new friend.”

Raising the corners of her mouth, Miichan showed a smile. In regards to that Nazuna slowly raised her hand as to signalize that she wanted to say something.

“What is it, Nazuna-kun?”

“Yes! I was a bit jealous just now! I’m worried Miichan might be taken away from me!”

“Yeah, good to see you’re so honest. But let’s talk about that later. Can you stay quiet for the time being?”

“Meow!”

Nazuna saluted full of energy. She obediently closed her mouth. But, now Miichan raised her hand with att.i.tude.

“What’s up, Miichan?”

“Yes! I was really moved just now! I want to emphasize that Nazuna-chan is my best friend!”