Chapter 55: Triangle is the Most Stable Structure.
....
After reading through the Super Bride Training manual her younger sister had handed her, Lala had completely memorized every piece of advice inside. Clenching her fists to cheer herself on, she handed the notebook back to Momo.
"Big sister, do you understand what you need to do now?"
"More or less! Once I take action, the parts I don't get will naturally figure themselves out!"
What sounded like a thoroughly reckless declaration was surprisingly logical upon closer inspection.
The first step was always the hardest, yet for someone like Lala whose action meter was maxed out, such a hurdle simply didn't exist. As long as she followed the notebook's instructions, she would eventually grasp everything through Kihara's actual reactions down the line.
Watching her sister leave the room, Momo lightly ran her fingers across the warm cover of the notebook, whispering under her breath: "Brother-in-law, please don't be such a blockhead that you fail to notice even big sister's proactive moves."
Girl's Offensive Strategy #1: Cling to your boyfriend.
When Lala returned to the living room, Nana happened to be stepping out of Kihara's embrace. Fanning her slightly flushed cheeks, Nana murmured a quiet complaint about how hot it felt inside before heading into the kitchen to grab an icy drink to cool off.
Right now was the golden moment to strike, and Lala certainly wasn't about to pass up the opportunity.
She walked briskly over and claimed the spot Nana had just vacated. However, while her sister had been facing the television screen, Lala took the seat facing Kihara directly.
Kicking off her slippers, the press of her soft chest against his chest brought a suffocating wave of pressure. Wrapping her legs like tree roots around Kihara's waist, Lala curled her lips into a cheerful, breezy smile: "Kihara, the weather is wonderful today, isn't it?"
Kihara glanced out the window from the corner of his eye at the heavy dark clouds blanketed across the sky, nodding in agreement: "You're right. It's indeed great weather for a cool down."
"Did you and Nana have fun playing?"
"I successfully defended the controller and the TV screen from her hands, so yes, I'm pretty happy."
"Heehee, don't let her hear you say that, or she'll definitely blow her top at you."
Having said that, Lala realized she had run completely out of topics to talk about. Left with no choice, she simply blinked her lovely emerald eyes, locking gazes with Kihara at point-blank range.
An average person might have pulled their eyes away in awkward embarrassment after a few seconds, but Lala's personality dictated that she wouldn't feel shy over something so trivial. Examining Kihara from this close, she discovered that holding his neck while counting his eyelashes was actually quite entertaining.
"Brother-in-law, do you want to drink..."
Nana poked her head out from the kitchen holding two cans of juice, only to spot Lala seemingly getting intimate with Kihara. Surprised, she swallowed her words right back down. Instinctively loosening her grip, she made a move to step forward and separate the two.
Thud!
"Ow, ow, ow!!"
Her foot was mercilessly crushed by the falling juice can. Tears welling at the corners of her eyes, Nana plopped onto the floor, clutching her left foot.
"Nana, are you okay?"
Not wanting them to worry, she immediately blurted out: "I-I'm fine!"
The moment the words left her mouth, she instantly regretted talking so fast. If she had answered "I'm hurt," wouldn't that have forced the hugging pair to separate and come into the kitchen to check on her?
Since things had already come to this, Nana forced herself to shout: "Wait! My... my foot seems to be swelling up from the hit! Brother-in-law, big sister, come over and help me check it!"
"Coming!"
Two sets of hurried footsteps echoed from a distance, drawing close within seconds. Kihara and Lala stepped into the kitchen, though the latter's posture made Nana's lips twitch violently.
Lala was still wrapped like a koala around Kihara, showing zero intention of climbing down.
"Big sister, why are you holding onto brother-in-law like that?"
"Hmm..." Lala pondered for a brief second before offering a surprisingly plausible reason: "Because I'm absorbing Kihara-energy right now! That's the only way I can get inspiration to build new inventions!"
"But I'm injured right now! Can you please get off him so he can check my foot?"
"Mmhmm!" Lala obediently unclasped her legs and stood beside Kihara, watching him examine her sister's foot.
Nana's soles hadn't developed a layer of calluses despite her constantly running around with animal friends; in fact, her foot didn't feel like that of a girl who ran outdoors at all.
It felt warm, silky, and delicate in his hand, like a block of pure white, tender tofu.
Except right now, this piece of tender tofu had an unnatural, reddish swelling across the bridge of the foot where the can had struck it, making it quite pitiful to look at.
Kihara crouched down, supporting her gracefully curved arch with his left hand while gently massaging the swollen area with his right palm.
"Eek!" Nana let out a sharp gasp, instantly clapping her small mouth shut. Meeting their puzzled gazes, she shook her head frantically, gesturing for Kihara to keep massaging her foot.
'Is having someone touch your foot supposed to feel this embarrassing?!'
It was a simple gesture, yet it felt as though she were being roasted over an open grill. A rolling wave of heat rushed straight to her head, painting her cheeks red within a few breaths and sending faint wisps of steam floating off the top of her head.
Seeing that she couldn't offer much help, Lala recalled a line written in the Super Bride Training manual: When your lover makes the correct choice and takes proper action, immediately offer encouragement and feedback.
A bright lightbulb lit up above her head. Leaning forward with a beaming smile, she wrapped her arms around Kihara from behind.
"?"
Kihara admitted that having two soft cushions pressed against the back of his head felt great, but he couldn't grasp what Lala's motivation was.
'She can't possibly be rewarding me like this just because she thinks I'm doing a great job massaging Nana's foot, right?'
Little did he know, his internal complaint had landed dead-center on the actual truth.
The scene inside the kitchen at this moment was bizarre beyond belief: Kihara was massaging his sister-in-law's fair foot, the sister-in-law was staring blankly with a beet-red face as her big sister rewarded her fiancé, and all three maintained this strange posture for several long minutes.
It lasted until Anna Yanami—who had been complaining about being hungry ever since stepping through the front door—walked into the kitchen. She froze in absolute shock, staring at them with her jaw dropped, before asking with a pouting, disgruntled face: "W-What on earth are you guys doing?!"
Like receiving an electric shock, Nana yanked her small foot back, nervously rubbing the bridge of her foot where the swelling had already dissolved away: "My foot got crushed by a juice can earlier, so brother-in-law was helping me massage it."
There was indeed a juice can rolling across the floor, so Anna barely managed to accept the explanation. Turning her head, she glared at Kihara and Lala: "Then what is up with your posture?!"
"Because Kihara was helping Nana massage her foot, and I felt embarrassed just standing by doing nothing, so I hugged him!"
The answer was so thoroughly in line with Lala's do-whatever-she-thinks character that Anna couldn't find a single word to say back. She could only shoot a sharp glare at Kihara: "Blockhead-kun, I'm starving! Cook me something!"
"Anna, the food machine is fully operational now, you know! How about I use it to make you a snack!" Lala had grown quite addicted to making snacks for her sisters with the food machine lately, eagerly offering her services on the spot.
"Sure thing, I want to eat... Wait, let me look up which snacks have the lowest calories first."
"Mmhmm!"
A potential crisis was effortlessly defused by Lala just like that. After washing his hands clean, Kihara gently patted her head. This encouraging gesture solidified her resolve to execute the third rule in the Super Bride Training manual:
Crawling into bed at night is a mandatory skill every girl must master.
Slide inside, close your eyes, and everything will turn out wonderful!
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Thank you for reading.