"Kyle?"
Cynthia's voice is heard as she enters the house.
The distance between them is only about 3 or 4 meters.
Kyle and Hannah, frozen stiff as ice, exchanged silent glances.
"..."
"..."
Without a single word, the two nodded briefly and moved with perfect coordination, as if they had been rehearsing for a long time.
It was seamless and swift.
Click! Thud!
Kyle opened and closed the cabinet under the sink, and Hannah slipped inside.
The space wasn't generous, forcing her into a cramped position, but she was grateful for even that much.
'Whew...'
Hannah, quickly entering the confined space, curled up and let out a soft sigh.
"Huh?"
And then she belatedly thought.
'Why did I hide?'
When you think about it, there was no reason to hide at all.
Kyle and Cynthia weren't officially dating yet, or so she'd heard.
And she hadn't done anything wrong herself.
She had only responded to Kyle's request as per their contract.
The taste of him lingering in her mouth and the fact that she had satisfied someone else's sexual desire were a bit embarrassing, but there was no need to hide as if she were running away.
'Cynthia said that's what she used to do too...'
Realizing this, Hannah made a complicated expression in the darkness.
'This makes it seem like I'm having an affair...'
She sighed again.
'...No, maybe it's for the best. The fewer people who know about my and Kyle's secret, the better.'
From the start, Kyle Smith had said he sent a photo of Hannah to Cynthia.
If he was telling the truth, Cynthia also knew one of Hannah's secrets.
But that was a different matter from their contract.
Hannah didn't want anyone else to know about her sexual relationship with Kyle Smith if possible.
Rustle.
Finishing her thoughts, Hannah struggled to pull out her phone and sent a message to Kyle from under the sink.
[Clean up quickly and let me out.]
Cynthia had to leave for her to get out of here.
'Of all times, my battery is low. Ugh, this is so annoying.'
Turning off her phone screen, she frowned slightly and succumbed to the darkness, listening to the situation outside the cabinet.
"Oh? You were here. What are you doing in the kitchen, Kyle?"
Unfortunately, Cynthia didn't seem to be leaving anytime soon.
They saw each other every day without fail, and this was their first meeting in a whole five days.
Cynthia expressed her delight and added a question to Kyle Smith.
"Were you eating breakfast? Why are you sweating so much?"
But her happy mood was short-lived. She tilted her head, narrowing her eyes at Kyle Smith's strange atmosphere.
Wasn't Cynthia the one who had declared she would examine him thoroughly last night?
"What were you doing?"
Kyle was sweating bullets internally at her barrage of questions.
"It's nothing."
Of course, he tried his best not to show it outwardly.
"It's not nothing, is it? What are you hiding~?"
Cynthia asked again with a smile.
Her expression was definitely smiling, but there was an eerie atmosphere about her.
"I'm not hiding anything. More importantly, how have you been? Is your training going well?"
"Don't change the subject."
Cynthia's intuition had improved.
She had no intention of letting it go, and she looked around before saying,
"Oh, now that I think about it, there was a shoe I didn't recognize in the entryway? Is someone here?"
Kyle flinched.
So did Hannah, who was hiding under the sink.
"Who would be here? It's probably the shoes you left behind before. You used to bring them over to wash them together sometimes, remember?"
"But why are they in the entryway?"
"I must have put them out there while cleaning yesterday."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Silly. I don't have shoes like that."
Cynthia, gradually cornering Kyle, made a playful expression.
She was worried about what Kyle was hiding, and if he had gotten into some kind of trouble, but for now, his troubled appearance was cute and funny.
You always made things difficult for me, Kyle, didn't you?
It's my turn to tease you this time!
She was bothered by the woman's shoes sitting in the entryway, but she doubted he would bring a strange woman into the house.
Even though Kyle Smith had been changing for the better recently, he originally couldn't even make a proper male friend.
To skip the intermediate steps and meet a woman so boldly was absurd.
'But if Kyle is really seeing another woman...'
If that really happened, she definitely wouldn't let it go.
"Kyle, are you hiding a woman from me~?"
Cynthia asked about Kyle Smith's situation in a tone that was half joking and half serious.
"Of course not."
Kyle shook his head.
He was briefly flustered by Cynthia's unexpectedly early visit, but he quickly regained his composure.
'Thankfully, Hannah doesn't seem to want to be caught by Cynthia either, so I just need to get through this crisis.'
He didn't want the two women to meet at this point.
Regardless of the situation.
Leaving aside Hannah, who was bound by contract, Cynthia, whose favor he had worked so hard to gain, would clearly be greatly disappointed.
'If she's just disappointed, that's still good.'
Considering the main event of the original story that was about to happen, it could lead to the worst possible outcome.
"Hmm."
Suddenly, Cynthia lowered her posture and looked under the table.
"...What are you doing?"
"She's not here."
It was an undeniably tense moment.
"The refrigerator is out of the question, right?"
She smiled brightly and opened the refrigerator with a mischievous expression.
"It doesn't make sense, so why are you opening it?"
"Because your reaction is funny."
"Oh, geez..."
"Where should I open next~?"
"You look like you're having the time of your life."
"If you don't want me to do this, confess quickly. Before I search every corner of the house."
"I really don't have anything to hide, okay?"
"Liar."
With that assertion, Cynthia began to tour both the first and second floors of the house.
"Wow, you cleaned up more neatly than I thought?"
Inspecting the state of the house was a bonus.
"Right? I told you I did a big cleaning."
"Oh, did you hide her in the closet?"
Kyle rubbed his forehead at Cynthia's sudden opening of the closet.
"Tell me the truth. Do you have a girlfriend, Kyle? Is it that person you were with at the get-together before?"
"I told you, it's not like that."
"Then what are you hiding? And what about the shoes in the entryway?"
"The shoes must have come out while I was cleaning the storage room. They're probably Grace's or Celeste's. They both used to live in this house."
Kyle, having quickly thought it through, mentioned his half-sister and stepsister, and Cynthia had no choice but to back down.
"Is that so?"
Her suspicious gaze remained.
But she didn't push Kyle any further.
Thud!
It was at that moment.
Bang!
A dull sound came from the kitchen.
"What's that sound?"
Cynthia, her eyes wide, immediately headed to the kitchen.
It was a tense situation.
'Ugh, my legs are numb...'
Hannah, unaware of the quiet atmosphere of the house, adjusted her uncomfortable posture and muttered softly.
"How long do I have to stay like this? Just hurry up and resolve it, seriously."
But her complaints didn't last long.
"Huh? I definitely heard something? Could a burglar have broken in, Kyle?"
Cynthia's voice grew closer again.
And that wasn't all.
Her gaze, after looking around the kitchen, fixed on the space under the sink.
As she had just checked, there was no other place to hide in the kitchen.
Tap.
If a burglar had really broken in, that was the only place to hide.
The cabinet under the sink wasn't big enough for a person to easily fit in.
Cynthia realized that she hadn't checked that place earlier.
Tap.
Cynthia gradually approached the sink.
Swoosh.
Finally, at the very moment she grabbed the handle.
"Cynthia."
Kyle Smith turned her around.
"Huh? Why?"
And without hesitation, he kissed her straight away, ignoring her questioning expression.
"Mmph?!"
His tongue, forcing its way into Cynthia's lips, swirled around her mouth as if drawing a circle.
"Ugh..."
Cynthia, her eyes wide with surprise at the sudden action, quickly accepted his kiss and responded even more actively.
"Umm..."
A warmth was evident in her comfortable voice.
Smooch, smack.
The two people's tongues intertwined, and a series of wet sounds followed.
Smack, slurp, sluuuurp...
Their lips repeatedly met and parted.
"W-Why are you doing this all of a sudden?"
Cynthia asked, her face flushed, after the passionate kiss ended.
"All of a sudden? I've been holding back since earlier."
"You've been holding back...?"
Kyle nodded and gestured with his eyes to the tablet placed on the side of the table.
"Actually, I was watching porn before you came."
"Huh? P-Porn...?"
"This is embarrassing, but I have no choice but to tell you since you keep asking."
"So that's why you were sweating, wait, you watch that kind of stuff...?"
"Yeah. Most guys probably do."
"I-I sent you pictures."
"Wouldn't it be even weirder if I masturbated to your pictures?"
Cynthia inadvertently imagined it.
Kyle masturbating while looking at her pictures.
"Hngh..."
She couldn't bring herself to meet Kyle Smith's eyes.
Her face flushed with embarrassment, and she couldn't lift her head.
"Cynthia?"
"U-Um, anyway. Don't watch that kind of stuff anymore."
The thought of opening the sink was already gone from her mind.
"Don't watch porn?"
"Yeah. I don't like it."
"What don't you like?"
"You watching other women and d-doing that..."
Kyle Smith, having finally completely changed the subject, kissed her again.
"Okay. I won't watch it."
And he took things even further.
"Instead..."
You have to help me, Cynthia.
Kyle, swallowing the rest of his words, put his hand under her dress.
"Hngh?!"
Cynthia, her body shaking once, showed a strong reaction and gradually leaned on him.
Squeak—.
Unaware that the door of the cabinet under the sink was slightly open.