Chapter 91 – Cooking (Patreon)

That day, Kouma finished his bath early and went back to his room to sleep.

He had a feeling that tonight, one of the two Yukinoshita sisters would definitely sneak into his room. If he had to guess, the most likely candidate was Haruno.

But to his slight surprise, he had barely been lying down for a few minutes when the black-haired, straight-haired girl crept into his room on silent, tiptoeing footsteps.

"Yukino-nee?"

In the dim room, the little boy's youthful voice rang out. Upon reaching the girl's ears, her entire body stiffened.

"Kouma-kun... you're still awake."

Yukino's cool, clear voice betrayed no ripples of emotion whatever. With perfect nonchalance, she walked over to the bed and lay herself down upon it.

"Your big sister was worried you might be... lonely sleeping by yourself. So I came to keep you company."

Yukino could feel her own face heating up. Thank goodness the lights were off and Kouma couldn't see her expression—otherwise she wasn't sure she could have gotten those brazenly dishonest words out of her mouth. It was, quite clearly, she who couldn't sleep without Kouma...

"Alright, let's get to sleep now."

Yukino wrapped her arms around the little boy and closed her eyes. Kouma's bed wasn't particularly large—spacious enough for two, but certainly incapable of accommodating a third.

This was something Yukino had known from the very start. Knowing Haruno as she did, her sister was highly unlikely to obediently stay in her own room, but now that Yukino had seized the position first, even if Haruno came, there would be no room for her to squeeze in. This was Yukino's preemptive strike.

One hour later.

A tall, graceful figure arrived at Yukino's room. She pushed open the door, flicked on the light. Staring at the empty, unoccupied bed, Haruno let out a soft hmph.

"Just as I thought."

She had long guessed that Yukino would secretly sneak off to Kouma's room to sleep. However, judging by how early Yukino had made her move, the girl's intent was likely only to seize the initiative so she could hold Kouma as she drifted off to sleep.

"Little Yukino... you're still far too naive."

A faint, knowing smile curved the corners of Haruno's cherry lips. What use was seizing the initiative? The battlefield could be shifted. Once Yukino was sound asleep—the deep hours of the night—that was when she would make her move. Haruno quietly padded to the door of Kouma's room and slowly eased it open. Her tall, graceful figure slipped inside.

...

The next morning.

Yukino awoke in a gentle daze. The little boy was still nestled snugly in her arms. Lifting her upper body, she checked the other side of the bed—no sign of Haruno.

"Huh? Would Haruno-nee-san really be this well-behaved...?"

Yukino furrowed her brows slightly, finding this hard to believe. The Haruno she knew was not someone who gave up easily. After mulling it over and failing to decipher Haruno's thinking, Yukino sat up. At that moment, a certain familiar sensation struck her, and her face immediately flushed red. She hurriedly glanced down at the bedsheets—only normal, faint wrinkles. Yukino let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness... it's not like yesterday..."

Still, she hastily scrambled out of bed and returned to her own room to change. The instant she pushed open her door, a faint yet familiar scent drifted into her nose. A flicker of confusion and awkwardness surfaced in Yukino's cool, clear eyes.

"The smell from yesterday's sheets still hasn't gone away...?"

Yukino quickly threw all the windows wide open. After changing into fresh clothes, she went into her own bathroom to wash up.

"Huh... were there this many tissues here yesterday?"

Yukino looked at the wastebasket tucked in the corner and fell into deep thought. For some reason, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was off this morning.

Stepping out of her room, she immediately ran into Haruno emerging from her own room, stretching languidly and revealing a slender waist with faintly visible abs.

"Little Yukino~! Good morning!"

Yukino's beautiful eyes settled on Haruno's face. Perhaps it was because she had never looked carefully enough before, but she suddenly realized that Haruno had grown even more beautiful. Her already stunning, heaven-bestowed features now seemed even more radiant and luminous. Between her brows, there was an added touch of mature, womanly sensuality. Even her figure seemed to have become even more striking.

Yukino glanced down at herself with a trace of discouragement. Compared to her sister... she had experienced absolutely zero growth whatsoever.

...

Morning. After finishing breakfast, Yukino was just thinking about where to take Kouma this weekend when, unexpectedly, Kouma stood up and wiped his mouth.

"I promised Eriri-nee I'd go to a doujinshi convention today."

Yukino and Haruno both froze. Their hard-won weekend together—and someone else had already staked a claim?!

"Alright, I'm heading off now."

Kouma called for Akemi, who drove him to Eriri's house.

Ding-dong! The moment he pressed the doorbell, the door to Eriri's house flew open instantly. A pair of slender, graceful hands pulled him straight inside. Then Sayuri Sawamura poked her head out and peered cautiously toward the neighboring Yotsuya residence.

After observing for a few seconds and detecting no movement, she breathed a sigh of relief and closed the door.

Sayuri gathered the little boy into her arms, her beautiful eyes blooming with deep affection.

"Kouma-kun, it's been so many days since I last saw you. Did you miss your auntie?"

"Of course I did!"

"And where did you miss me the most?"

Sayuri suppressed the pounding of her heart. Her red lips parted slightly, her breath as fragrant as orchids. Several days apart seemed only to have intensified her craving for him. Right from the start, she was unambiguously turning up the heat.

"Sayuri-obasan is so beautiful—I missed all of you."

Hearing the little boy's words, Sayuri's face bloomed with a deeply satisfied smile.

"Kouma-kun, I was just about to start making bento, and here you are!"

"But I already ate breakfast..."

"That's fine—we're making a bento for the afternoon. Your auntie can't manage it all by herself. Would Kouma-kun like to make bento together with me?"

Sayuri spoke softly, a subtle, glimmering light flickering in her beautiful eyes. Meeting her gaze, Kouma read a familiar emotion within those eyes.

"Of course!"

"Then let's put on our aprons. I'll go get yours from the room."

With that, Sayuri carried Kouma into the kitchen, then retreated to her own room. One minute later, beneath Kouma's gradually widening eyes, Sayuri emerged from her room. Yes, she had put on an apron, and yes, only an apron.

...

Second floor. Eriri's room.

A blonde beauty in a thin, lightweight nightgown stretched a long, pale, perfectly straight leg out from under her covers, her sleeping posture an utter mess.

Last night, her mind consumed with thoughts of her mother's intentions, she had fallen asleep very late. Her sleep had been fitful and shallow, and now, in the early morning, familiar sounds drifting up from below instantly jolted her from that light slumber.

She shot upright in bed.

"Kouma-kun's here!"

Eriri hurriedly opened her door and clearly heard Kouma's voice drifting up from downstairs. Her heartbeat accelerated sharply. Nerves seized her. She rushed back to her room to wash up and changed into a JK uniform with a skirt much shorter than her Shuchiin Academy one.

It wasn't that she particularly loved JK uniforms—it was that a JK uniform happened to pair best with the high-end white thigh-high stockings she had bought just yesterday.

She knew full well that white stockings weren't something everyone could pull off. Black stockings had a slimming, elongating effect—even someone with relatively short or slightly thicker legs would look much more slender in them, but white stockings were different.

Their more translucent, faintly-sheer texture could ruthlessly expose any flaws in leg shape. Short legs would look even shorter, thicker legs even thicker, but Eriri was the complete opposite. Her legs were straight and slender—on her, the white stockings were even more enhancing, the slight squeeze at the top making her long legs appear fuller and more shapely.

The absolute territory formed between the stockings and her short JK skirt gleamed like fine jade and white jade. Her blonde twin-tails cascaded downward, forming a striking contrast with her skin and the white stockings, exuding a uniquely distinctive, refined beauty.

Eriri took a slow, deep breath. She had just opened her door when fragmentary, intermittent sounds reached her ears. Eriri's footsteps froze on the spot. Her lovely face visibly flushed crimson. Even though she was on the second floor and couldn't see what was happening below, her mind subconsciously conjured the scene she had witnessed during the school festival—when she had been hiding beneath the table.

"Mom, seriously... she's not even trying to hide it from me at all!"

Eriri bit her lip, a rush of indignant frustration surging through her. Sayuri wasn't avoiding her—but Eriri herself wasn't ready to lay all this out in the open.

"Maybe I should just go back to my room..."

Eriri withdrew the long leg she had already extended toward the stairs. She stepped back, but just as she was about to return to her room, she realized that from this exact spot, she could glimpse a sliver of the kitchen through the gaps in the stairwell. She could faintly make out the movements of two figures cooking.

Eriri's breath caught sharply in her throat.

"I'll just... take a tiny little peek... for research and learning purposes... Yes, it's all for the sake of my art."

Just as Eriri had observed to the point where she was leaning against the wall, her whole body weak and strengthless, she had the vague sense that Kouma and Sayuri both glanced back toward her, but by then, even her consciousness was beginning to blur—she didn't catch the detail in time.

It wasn't until fragmentary bits of conversation between the little boy and Sayuri drifted into her ears.

"Sayuri-obasan, where's Eriri-nee?"

"Mm... she should still be asleep."

"Oh, I see. I was hoping Eriri-nee could make bento with us too."

"...Then let's call her down in a bit."

"Great! I know this really simple but delicious rice bowl. Let's make that later."

Hearing this exchange, Eriri's eyes instantly snapped crystal-clear. She scrambled back to her room, kicked off her shoes, and dove back onto the bed.

She haphazardly yanked the covers over herself, crafting the appearance that she had been asleep the entire time. This was the best way to avoid the awkwardness. There was no way she could let them know she'd been awake this whole time.

Another ten-odd minutes passed. Just as Eriri was on the verge of actually falling asleep, she heard her door being knocked upon.

"Eriri, still not up?"

Eriri's heart pounded with nerves, but she did her absolute best to keep her expression bleary and half-asleep. She mumbled vaguely, "Mom... come in..."

She kept her eyes slit, surveying the doorway through her peripheral vision. Once Sayuri's figure appeared, she slowly sat up and stretched, then looked toward her mother—now dressed in a simple dress—and spoke in a drowsy tone. "Mom... it's still early..."

Just as she felt her performance had been flawlessly seamless, she noticed Sayuri was looking at her with an expression of pure, amused playfulness.

"Wh-what is it?"

Eriri's heart skipped a beat.

"Eriri... do you sleep wearing your glasses?"

Eriri's face instantly went rigid. She reached up and touched her face, her eyes going blank with dawning horror. No wonder she'd been able to see so clearly just now... In her frantic nervousness, she had completely forgotten she was still wearing her glasses, but no—this could still be salvaged.

"My glasses are always by my bedside. I just put them on when I heard you knocking."

Eriri explained with an air of practiced naturalness.

"Oh, is that so..."

Sayuri chuckled lightly, then continued. "But Eriri... do you also sleep in your JK uniform? And with your hair done up in twin-tails...?"

One after another, Sayuri coolly, effortlessly dismantled Eriri's clumsy attempts at deception.

"And by the way... why is it a little slippery right outside your door?"

The moment these words hit Eriri's ears, her lovely face instantly flared a deep, burning crimson. A sinking premonition washed over her—Sayuri had definitely seen her on the stairs...

"M-must be the temperature difference lately... condensation from the humidity swinging between day and night."

Eriri averted her gaze and sputtered out a stream of nonsensical excuses.

"It's not good for things to be all wet and damp. You should make sure to wipe things down properly."

The corners of Sayuri's lips curved with a teasing, knowing smile. Eriri grew more and more convinced that her mother had absolutely seen everything and was deliberately toying with her.

"Right—come downstairs and help make the bento too. It's Kouma-kun's favorite rice bowl! It's really delicious. I'm sure you'll love it too."

Hearing her mother finally change the subject, Eriri let out a massive internal sigh of relief. "Sure, I'll come down right away." She agreed without hesitation, but she failed entirely to notice the complex, resolute look in Sayuri's eyes—the way she bit lightly at her red lip.

Sayuri understood her daughter's feelings perfectly. From all her probing these past few days, and from what she had just witnessed, she also understood Eriri's stance perfectly clearly. In that case, continuing to evade and avoid was utterly meaningless. She had to give Eriri a push forward. She, Sayuri Sawamura, was not the type to hem and haw and dither about.

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