“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.
Embarrassingly 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, Shinobu-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 circumstances.
“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 upperclassman 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 attitude.
“What’s up, Miichan?”
“Yes! I was really moved just now! I want to emphasize that Nazuna-chan is my best friend!”
“Miichan! I feel the same!”
Along with their words, Miichan and Nazuna clung to each other. Luna and Machina watched over them with a smile. While Elni casually hugged Nazuna and Miichan.
“…Well, we all know now that you’re best friends, so can we get back on topic?”
When I asked so while leaking a single wry smile, Miichan nodded small and got away from Nazuna regretful.
“Ehm, as we got along very well, it turned out that we would go play together with just the two of us…”
“Yes!”
For no apparent reason, Nazuna cut into Miichan’s words and raised her hand again.
“…I sure hope that you don’t want to say ‘I wanted to play with her too!’.”
“Ehh!? How did you know? Are you an esper, Brother?”
“Yeah, actually I am. I’ll convey my feelings to you now per telepathy. ‘Brother will be angry if you keep butting in. Be a good girl and stay quiet on Luna’s lap’. Did you feel it?”
“Yeah! I felt it! You’re amazing, Brother!”
I didn’t know what was so amazing, but Nazuna’s eyes sparkled and she rested her cheek on Luna’s cheek, like I had told her. Seeing that, Miichan faintly flushed her cheeks and looked at my thighs.
“Uhm, can I continue my story on your lap, Shinobu-oniisan?”
“Prepare 10k yen first, then we can negotiate.”
“Uhh! I wanted to buy a game this month, but if it’s for a lap pillow…!”
“No, no. Don’t start taking out your wallet while sobbing. Just to tell you, it was a joke. So put away the 10k yen bill. Same for you, Luna.”
A bit shocked, I gave Miichan and Luna a light warning then opened my mouth to get back on topic.
“—So, did something happen with that senior?”
“Yes. On the arranged day, I played with Senpai until evening, but when we split up, well, Senpai confessed to me. ’Please go out with me’ is what Senpai said…”
He really might have just been hitting on her. Somehow I got the gist of things. Miichan continued while showing a complex expression.
“Of course I declined politely. I certainly like Senpai. But I just couldn’t imagine being lovers. But Senpai just wouldn’t give up… so I told a lie.”
“A lie? What kind of?”
“Well, I ended up saying ’I already have a boyfriend’. Then Senpai made a serious face and lowered the head to me with ’Please let me meet him’. I couldn’t really turn down the favour, nor could I tell that it was a lie…”
“I see.”
I didn’t know if that senior just couldn’t give up on Miichan or if he saw through her lie. Still, my cute, younger friend was in trouble. I couldn’t just leave her alone.
“I understand. In other words, you want me to play your boyfriend in front of that senior, so that you’ll be left alone?”
“That’s right… Can I ask you to do that?”
“Yeah, leave it to me. I can manage at least that much.”
Well, it should work somehow as long as we matched our stories. I replied with a big nod to Miichan, whose eyes were rocking in worry.
There Machina pulled on my sleeve a bit worried.
“Hey, Shinobu. are you sure you should promise that so easily? Can you play the boyfriend role properly?”
“Don’t worry. On that day I’ll show you acting worth of a Hollywood star. I’ll make it a Die Hard development. Even Rambo would get pale.”
“…I’m worried after all. What do you think a boyfriend is? I’m getting pale on your idea as well.”
Machina wearily covered her face with one hand, but Elni and Luna both opened her mouth with a smile, as they didn’t seem especially worried.
“Machina, I don’t think you need to worry that much. The gigolo skill is a standard configuration for Shinobu. Just behaving like always will make the girls be at his feet.”
“Because Shinobu-san is so cool.”
“…Now that you mention it, somehow, I agree. Shinobu is a playboy.”
It was a quite unsatisfactory evaluation, but Machina was convinced by it, so oh well.
However, what about me was a natural gigolo or a playboy? For a while I continued to wonder in my heart…