TL: Mowaso

ED: MPK

Prologue

It was on a certain evening.

When I opened the front door, a flashy-looking girl with long, gold-ish chestnut hair stood there.

“Yo, Nagumo-kun.”

“No thanks.”

“Wait, what?”

She slid her shoes into the door that I was trying to close and said.

“Stop trying to drive me away. You agreed to have me help you with the chores, remember?”

“Oh, that’s certainly the case.”

Indeed, we had made such a promise.

But since I wasn’t the one who came up with the idea, I was still uncomfortable with it.

Takarai Yua, the conspicuous-looking gal, was a classmate of mine, and for some reason, she started to immerse herself in the Nagumo household.

“Ah, Yua-san is here!”

Tsumugi said as she came running down the stairs.

My “step-sister” was the reason why I had to bring in such a gal into our house.

Unlike me, Tsumugi has a soft spot for Takarai, so as soon as she saw her, she was so delighted that she actually started to dance.

“Nagumo-kun tried to drive me away.”

Takarai said to Tsumugi.

“Shin-nii?”

“…Sorry”

Tsumugi looked at me with reproachful eyes, and I had no choice but to sincerely apologize.

I didn’t want to make Tsumugi sad by any means so I wasn’t going to do anything contrary to Tsumugi’s wishes.

“Well, Nagumo-kun, allow me to intrude, okay?”

Takarai looked at me with a smug face.

Takarai, who seemed to be having fun, had an incredibly pretty face, and loners like me, who had nothing to do but study, couldn’t look at her directly.

“Ah.”

That was all I could say.

★

After eating the dinner that Takarai had made for us, I felt like I was at someone else’s house even though I was sitting on the sofa in my living room.

Takarai was my guest, so it was only natural for me to wash the dishes, but Takarai, who was already in the kitchen, turned me away saying, “Just rest quietly there,” and so, here I am. No matter how much we had agreed to it, I couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable leaving the chores to my guest.

Takarai often came to the Nagumo household to cook meals, do the laundry, and clean the house, thus reducing my workload.

Due to my parents’ work, I had to take care of Tsumugi at home, and until now, I’d been so busy with chores that I couldn’t even take time to relax and do nothing.

This was something I originally wanted to do for Tsumugi and if possible, I didn’t want to ask for anyone’s help, but since Tsumugi asked Takarai, there was nothing I could do.

“…I suppose it means I’m not doing enough.”

I muttered to myself as I felt disappointed that I had made her worry, but Tsumugi was sitting on the sofa across from me.The thought that she might have heard it made me panic, but she seemed to be playing some game on her phone, and didn’t seem to hear me.

“What? What’s wrong?”

A voice came from behind me.

Unlike the sweet smell of her perfume that she had at school, Takarai had a faint lemon scent of the dishwashing detergent. For me, the smell of dishwashing detergent was much more pleasant than the unfamiliar scent of a girl’s perfume.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“I heard you mumbling something.”

Takarai sat next to me. Although it was a two-seater sofa, the distance between us was too close. Our bodies were almost in contact. She should have sat with Tsumugi…

“Ah.”

Tsumugi suddenly turned her gaze away from her smartphone and looked at us.

“I just remembered something.”

Tsumugi stood up from her seat and grinned wickedly.

“Shin-nii, you should relax with Yua-san once in a while.”

With a grand misunderstanding, she quickly left the living room.

“Ah, I want to relax with Tsumugi though…”

I extended my hand to her, hoping she wouldn’t leave me, but Tsumugi never came back.

“Well, should I go to Tsumugi’s room?”

I was about to stand up, but Takarai grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

“Stop wasting Tsumugi-chan’s concern.”

I lost my balance and my head landed on Takarai’s lap. Where did her slender arms get that kind of strength?

“I’m a little sweaty right now, okay?”

“So what?”

Takarai stroked my head in an unusually gentle manner.

“Hey, stop that. It’s embarrassing…”

“It’s okay, no one’s watching us.”

Well, I was embarrassed because Takarai was watching me.

I wanted to push away Takarai’s hand that was going back and forth on my head, but my body wouldn’t cooperate with me at all. I wasn’t supposed to be tired, so could it be that my instinct was telling me that I didn’t want to leave Takarai? The thought of me becoming less and less myself was scary. ..

This kind of situation would have been unthinkable until recently.

At school, I couldn’t even talk to anyone, let alone put my head in Takarai’s lap.

It was a small accident that led me to interact with Takarai.

To begin with, the circumstances that brought Tsumugi to this house were complicated… In fact, there were a lot of things that I couldn’t handle on my own, so I was very grateful that Takarai had come to help me. I guess I could honestly admit it now.

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