She checked Hikari's little brother. Then very quickly, her eyes widened.
Because Hikari really wasn't wrong.
He hadn't tricked her at all.
His little brother was genuinely good. Even a bit too good.
At this hour, wasn't he a little too energetic?
"If this keeps up, I might not be able to sleep at all tonight," Hikari said to Suiren with a bitter smile.
"Th-then… then hug Nee-san to sleep!", Suiren hesitated for a moment, her face a little red as she gritted her teeth and said it.
"Is that really okay?", Hikari asked.
"It's… it's fine. It's my fault for dragging you into chatting so late that you can't sleep. As long as you can sleep comfortably, that's enough," Suiren said.
"Alright."
Hearing her say that, Hikari didn't hesitate anymore. He directly reached out and wrapped his arm from behind around Suiren's slightly soft and slender waist.
The moment he hugged her, the tip of his nose caught a rich fragrance, like musk and lotus. That soft body with a slight fullness felt extremely comfortable to touch.
At this moment, her back was pressed against his chest. Their two hearts seemed to be connected, leaning tightly against each other.
Suiren could clearly feel the warm breath naturally coming from Hikari brushing against the back of her neck.
This overly intimate distance made her tremble faintly.
After all, from childhood until now, she had never been this close to a man.
Even though she already had a fiance, she had never hugged a man before.
Breathing in the scent unique to a man from Hikari's body and feeling the heat coming from him, Suiren's pretty face in the dark was already flushed red.
She quietly shifted her body, planning to pull a little distance away from him. She still felt a bit uncomfortable being this close.
But just then, a gust of wild wind suddenly blew outside the window, making the flowers and trees in the yard rustle loudly. A sharp wailing sound came from the window.
Maybe it was because they had just watched a horror movie at night, but a strong sense of fear instantly spread through Suiren's heart, making her very afraid.
Shaken with fear, she no longer cared about embarrassment. The little distance she had just pulled away disappeared as she instead took the initiative to burrow into Hikari's arms.
Feeling the soft body trembling as it pressed against his chest, Hikari immediately wrapped his arms around her.
"Suiren-nee, are you scared?" Hikari asked.
"Mm! A little…", Suiren replied somewhat embarrassed. After all, she was already this age yet still so timid.
"It's okay. I'm here," Hikari comforted her.
"Mm, thank you, Hikari-kun. It's lucky you're here," Suiren whispered, quietly moving a bit closer into his arms.
Feeling her trembling body, Hikari opened his arms and hugged her tighter, soothing her with gentle actions.
Suiren wriggled a little and lightly covered her mouth.
Besides the noisy commotion outside the window, Hikari's actions also made her feel nervous and a bit scared. She was worried they might wake her younger sister, Aoi, who was sleeping soundly.
But even though her cheeks were burning and her body tense, Suiren didn't make any move to stop him.
She let him mess around while also giving her a sense of comfort and safety. She herself played the role of a considerate big sister helping her little brother solve his troubles.
In the darkness, Aoi's breathing was even, as if she had already fallen completely into dreamland.
Meanwhile, nervous and afraid, Suiren covered her mouth and endured it without letting out a single beatbox-like sound.
———
The rain outside was still noisy, droplets tapping against the roof.
Suddenly, a brilliant giant thunder dragon slashed across the night sky outside the window, followed by a deafening roar like cannon fire.
Along with the huge sound, the two hearts in their chests that had still had a slight barrier between them seemed to have that barrier suddenly disappear.
"Ah… Hikari-kun, wait!", Sensing something was off, Suiren hurriedly said anxiously.
"What's wrong, Suiren-nee?", Hikari asked as if nothing had happened.
"I feel… I feel like something isn't quite right!", Suiren said nervously.
"Is there? It's probably just an illusion or accidental…"
"Let… let go of me," Suiren's voice trembled.
"Didn't Suiren-nee say before that you'd take responsibility to the end?", Hikari asked.
"That's not what I meant!", Suiren said anxiously. After all, she really was a little scared about this kind of thing. Helping was one thing, but completely throwing herself in was too unimaginable.
"Then what did Suiren-nee mean?", Hikari asked.
"In any case, if it's real, then… then it's not allowed!", Suiren stated her bottom line in a tone that sounded firm.
But Hikari leaned close to her ear and said, "Suiren-nee, even though you always say it's to help me and Aoi, and even though you always act guilty afterward, deep down you enjoy it a little too, don't you?"
"I'm not… I don't!", Suiren hurriedly shook her head to deny it.
"Really? If you really didn't, why would you help us to this extent? And every time you're quite proactive, almost like you can't wait?", Hikari said.
"I… I…", Hearing his words, Suiren finally recalled that every time she helped Hikari, she truly didn't feel any disgust. At most, there was a bit of guilt.
She had never liked close contact with other men. She had never even imagined any physical closeness with her own fiance. Yet in her heart, she occasionally looked forward to all kinds of contact with Hikari.
Sometimes she even thought it would be nice if she could just keep staying close to him like this.
This… this really was the true thought she had always avoided.
And because this true thought clearly went against her values, and because since childhood she had always been praised as a virtuous and sensible good girl, Suiren never dared to face it.
She had clearly already entered into an engagement with someone else, yet she kept thinking about her childhood friend Hikari. She wanted to be with him, to do all kinds of things with him, to boldly express her feelings to him like her younger sister Aoi did.
These thoughts hidden deep in her heart made Suiren, who was already engaged and had a fiance, feel that she was truly despicable.
So she always avoided these thoughts, using the excuse that she was helping Hikari and Aoi to numb herself.
But now those surface excuses were completely torn apart by Hikari. Her bloody, soft, sensitive heart was fully exposed.
This made Suiren's mind go blank. For a moment she didn't know what to say.
"Hikari-kun, don't… please!", Suiren couldn't refute his words at all. Even now, there was still a faint trace of expectation in her heart.
But the guilt and the sense of wrongdoing still made her say words completely opposite to what she felt.
"It's okay," Experienced, Hikari could hear her true thoughts and slowly tightened his embrace.
At a moment like this, just before the final step, Hikari naturally wouldn't suddenly hit the brakes.
As she felt her body being gradually held tighter, it was hard for Suiren not to guess what he would do next.
She said anxiously, "N-no! Nee-san… Nee-san already has a fiance!"
"Suiren-nee doesn't actually like him, right?", Hikari asked.
"Even if I don't, it's still not allowed," Suiren replied in a very, very soft voice.
"If you don't like him, why isn't it allowed?"
"I don't know… I… I… ahn~", After a few token words of resistance, Suiren could no longer speak, as if she had accepted her fate.
In truth, she had only been resisting with her words. She hadn't even made the slightest symbolic struggle in her actions, which already explained everything.
And in the darkness, Hikari didn't speak again.
He only proved his determination through actions.
Looking at the flashes of lightning weaving through the pitch-black night outside, at the heavy rain pouring down nonstop, listening to the crisp sound of raindrops falling from the eaves, a tear slid down from the corner of Suiren's eye. She raised her hand to cover her mouth, her pink lips pressed tightly together.
Her white teeth bit down hard on her lip, threads of blood seeping out, just to barely keep herself from making a sound.
Lightning flickered through the night, and the rain seemed to fall even harder.
Just as Suiren was immersed in laying bare her heart with Hikari, she did not notice that in the darkness, there was another hurried breathing sound beside them that did not belong to either Hikari or Suiren, only buried within the noisy rain.
———
In a certain hotel in the city next to Ino Town, the mature and beautiful Touka stood alone by the window, watching the light rain outside.
Her willow-like brows carried a trace of fatigue from recent busyness, yet also a hint of relief.
"Things are finally about to be settled."
"I wonder how Suiren and Aoi are doing at home."
The rain was fairly heavy. Thinking of her two daughters at home alone, as a mother, Touka couldn't help but worry a little.
But when she thought of the gentle, considerate, and sensible Suiren, she quickly felt at ease.
"With Suiren there, there shouldn't be any problem."
"And they said they invited Hikari-kun over to stay the night."
"With Hikari-kun there, at least there's a man in the house."
"Though he's still young, his build doesn't look bad. Protecting Suiren and Aoi shouldn't be a problem."
Thinking that Hikari was quite reliable, Touka relaxed.
"The engagement I arranged for Suiren some time ago is almost at its time. Once one daughter is married off, I'll be much more at ease."
"I heard her fiance is a decent person. Given how sensible Suiren is, she shouldn't repeat past mistakes."
"As for Aoi, that will take more effort."
"Men… reliable men…"
Touka lay back on the bed. Her mature and beautiful face still showed no expression, but beneath the quilt, her delicate body seemed faintly heated.
She didn't think much of it. With a cold expression, she suppressed the sudden surge of restlessness as skillfully as she had for the past ten years, then closed her eyes and fell asleep. [T/N: I guess, she's next on the list.]
———
The next day, morning—
Bright sunlight drove away all the dark clouds. The warm sun hung high in a clear blue sky.
On the wide green lotus leaves, many leftover raindrops touched by the sunlight refracted streaks of colorful light, decorating the countryside with its unique fresh atmosphere.
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