Footsteps sounded from outside, accompanied by Sakura's voice.
Hayato instinctively turned his head.
Miyajima Tsubaki quickly shouted, "Close the door!"
Sakura absolutely couldn't find them both in the restroom together.
And, and, she was in such a humiliating state.
With a 'thud', Hayato closed the restroom door.
At the same time, Miyajima Sakura also seemed to have just reached the doorway.
A narrow escape, a narrow escape.
Miyajima Tsubaki breathed a sigh of relief.
Only then did she realize something even more important... wasn't she sitting in front of Hayato as if she wasn't wearing anything on her lower half...?
She desperately wanted to scream, but in this situation, any sound she made could instantly alert Sakura outside to her presence.
I, I need to put my pants on first.
Miyajima Tsubaki thought, and Hayato was also looking at her with such an expression. But sometimes, the more urgent the situation, the less smoothly things go.
"..."
Miyajima Tsubaki's face was crimson, and her body swayed.
...No, don't look... don't look over here...
"Murae-kun...?" Hearing no answer from inside, Miyajima Sakura, who was already at the door, asked worriedly.
"Oh, oh, nothing, nothing, I've already found it." Hayato averted his gaze, trying his best to look at the tightly closed door behind him.
Whether it was her imagination or not, after hearing Sakura's voice, Miyajima Tsubaki's heart pounded even more violently.
At the same time, her breathing couldn't help but become more rapid.
"Um, that, Miyajima-senpai, it might take me a while to finish." Hayato quickly used a loud voice to cover up the sounds Miyajima Tsubaki couldn't hold back: "You go down and wait for me, I'll try to be as quick as possible."
"Mm... No rush. Then I'll take my leave." Miyajima Sakura said with a smile.
Outside the door, she pursed her lips, a blush creeping up her cheeks.
Ah, it was still too rude, eavesdropping at the door while the other person was in the restroom...
However, as expected of Murae-kun, even his peeing sound was so... majestic and powerful.
"...Hoo, hoo…"
Miyajima Tsubaki exhaled several times.
She was trembling with all her might, as if all her strength had left her.
Hayato couldn't help but glance over.
Even if it wasn't described as a complete mess, it was pretty close.
Miyajima Tsubaki was sweating, her mouth slightly agape, trying her best to breathe in air... but the air quality at this moment was truly...
Hayato wiggled his nose.
It was a bit unpleasant.
Miyajima Tsubaki happened to look at him, noticing his small gesture.
She quickly turned around and pressed a button.
Then the toilet water beneath her bottom still swirled.
"..."
"..."
The two looked at each other in silence.
Miyajima Tsubaki gestured with her eyes, and Hayato nodded.
"She's already gone."
Phew, Miyajima Tsubaki could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Hayato thought for a moment, then reminded her, "Drink more hot water."
"..."
"If you're feeling passionate."
Miyajima Tsubaki's cheeks flushed even deeper, and she almost gritted her teeth: "Shut up!"
Hayato nodded, then.
Miyajima Tsubaki, however, didn't know what to say, only meeting Hayato's gaze once more, her already large eyes widening even further, as if she wanted to kill or eat Hayato.
After about thirty seconds of such silence, Hayato finally couldn't help but say,
"How about... we put your pants on first?"
"Ah!"
Miyajima Tsubaki immediately reached for her pants to pull them up, then realized there was still a young man standing in front of her.
"Don't 'Ah' anymore, if you shout again, Miyajima-senpai will come back..."
Miyajima Tsubaki quickly shut her mouth: "You, you turn around."
Hayato: ...
Everything's already been seen, yet... never mind, just pretend it's for some sense of ceremony.
Hayato turned his head back.
Sigh, even when putting on pants, one shouldn't just do it haphazardly, at least know which leg to put in first.
Hayato thought to himself, don't look at him with his back turned now, but he could actually clearly see Miyajima Tsubaki's every move. It wasn't that he had learned the 'Byakugan' skill from Hinata Sae, it was just... there was a very large mirror next to him, probably for grooming. He just had to tilt his head and he could see the reflected scenery...
"Ah!" Miyajima Tsubaki screamed again.
Hayato retracted his gaze, thinking his peeking had been discovered.
Unexpectedly, Miyajima Tsubaki rushed over like an arrow released from a bow, grabbing the cherry blossom hairpin placed on the washstand.
She had been, been, been, been, been, been, been, been discovered!
Miyajima Tsubaki began to despair. This hairpin could be said to be the last straw that broke the camel's back...
It was the hairpin he bought for her; there was no reason he wouldn't recognize it.
Miyajima Tsubaki lowered her eyes, filled with humiliation. Her lips trembled for a long time before she finally uttered a syllable:
"…You…"
"Hm?"
"Don't tell Sakura."
Hayato smiled, "Don't worry."
"And this... you take it back, I, I don't want it anymore..." Miyajima Tsubaki stopped pretending, she laid her cards on the table, handing the hairpin in her palm to Hayato.
Hayato tilted his head to look, surprised: "Oh, so you were wearing it."
?
Miyajima Tsubaki showed a puzzled expression, and after a while, she let out a "?": "You didn't notice!?"
"Isn't this style of hairpin quite common?" Hayato smiled, "I only realized it was the one I bought that day when you brought it to me."
"..."
Miyajima Tsubaki almost fainted, pressing her hand to her forehead.
She took two steps back, then plopped back down on the toilet... this time, of course, with her pants on.
"Wait... you didn't notice this hairpin, but you weren't surprised at all to see it in my hand, which means... you knew who I was?"
"Yes." Hayato nodded as a matter of course: "I pretty much guessed it when Miyajima-senpai invited me to her house for dinner."
"Which means when you came in...!" Miyajima Tsubaki despaired even more. What exactly was all her effort to hide for? She even specifically chose a restroom that guests wouldn't normally use to avoid him... If she had known earlier, what just happened wouldn't have happened at all!
"Mm."
Hayato continued to nod, which made Miyajima Tsubaki break down a little more: "Then why didn't you say so earlier!!"
"As a matter of fact," Hayato said, "logically speaking, you should have known, right? Miyajima-senpai invited me to dinner after our outing that day."
"…Nonsense." Miyajima Tsubaki said, she had just fallen for this guy's evil, which was why she wanted Sakura to bring 'that boy' home.
Hayato looked at Miyajima Tsubaki very innocently: "I don't have a 'simp' attribute."
"…What do you mean?" Miyajima Tsubaki genuinely didn't understand.
"You haven't replied to my messages since that day." Hayato said, "Why would I keep sending you messages and getting no response?"
So... it's my fault!?
Miyajima Tsubaki didn't want to admit it, and she couldn't.
"Th-that's not because..." She suddenly raised her voice, then abruptly lowered it again: "...It's not because I felt it wasn't good for us to progress further..."
"What's not good?" Hayato asked.
"It's just... I'm Sakura's mother, and you're her friend. If our relationship gets any closer..." At this moment, Miyajima Tsubaki was like a young girl, pouring out her heart.
"'Closer'?" Hayato seemed unable to understand the word. He scratched the back of his head.
Then, after pondering for a long time, he finally seemed to have thought of something, striking his palm with his fist.
"Got it." He said.
"So, you should at least understand my difficulties, right?" Miyajima Tsubaki said, as if letting out her frustration, filled with resentment.
"Don't worry, I can make this worry completely disappear with one sentence." Hayato said faintly.
"…Is it that miraculous?" Miyajima Tsubaki showed a completely disbelieving attitude.
Of course.
Hayato gave a charming smile:
"I don't like you."
"..."
Miyajima Tsubaki froze.
Then she thought.
Yes.
If he didn't like her, then he would still be Sakura's friend, and their relationship wouldn't develop in a strange direction.
He could get along very naturally and harmoniously with her and with Sakura.
It was even more harmonious than an ordinary person's relationship with an elder; after all, their compatibility was actually quite good, and they could become very good friends if their age was disregarded.
However,
Miyajima Tsubaki took off her slippers and put them on her hands.
"Go to hell!"
She swung a punch at Hayato's head.
But didn't this just prove that all her previous worries and concerns were actually just her overthinking things?
"Die, die, die, die, die!"
Miyajima Tsubaki, as if enraged by embarrassment, threw punch after punch at the boy nearly twenty years her junior.
"Huh? Miss Tsubaki, why are you so angry?" Hayato asked, shielding his head.
"Because...because you didn't knock when you entered the restroom!" Tsubaki found a random excuse.
"But you didn't lock the door either," Hayato said. "Besides, this is Fantasy Killer's passive ability. Can you blame him? Aren't we even?" Hayato asked.
At first thought, Tsubaki felt it made a little sense.
But after a moment's careful consideration, she realized it was absolute Nonsense.
You... she was the one who got seen, you didn't lose anything!
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