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Scene change—
A luxurious penthouse apartment located in the Northern District of Itogami Island's city center.
After finishing dinner at home, the blonde-haired girl returned to her bedroom and closed the curtains, removing the clothes she had worn during the day one by one.
Under the room's warm, soft lighting, neatly folded pajamas lay placed at the edge of her bed.
Although still a student, for Asagi Aiba, summer vacation didn't exactly mean complete freedom. As a special-level programmer for the Itogami Management Corporation, she could handle most of her tasks at her home computer. Still, sometimes she needed to head out to the Keystone Gate for essential procedures.
For instance, tomorrow.
In simple terms, tomorrow Asagi Aiba was an eight-o'clock-on-the-dot office lady.
Precisely for this reason, she had to rest early today. No longer could she happily stay up late watching dramas and gaming until midnight or even dawn, sleeping in comfortably until noon as she'd previously done.
"Haah… Well, once tomorrow's done, I'll probably get to rest again for a bit… Speaking of which, Bokue hasn't been here for the past two days either. I wonder where he's off to again…"
Casually throwing her white tailored shirt onto the chair in front of her desk, the golden-haired girl absentmindedly muttered to herself. Her hands reached behind her back, fumbling with the clasp of her lingerie.
But she stopped mid-motion and mid-sentence, pausing suddenly, raising her head forty-five degrees to blankly stare up at her bedroom ceiling for two seconds. Immediately after, she shook her head decisively.
"Ahhh~ Geez, why am I even thinking about that stuff? Who cares whether that guy shows up or not? I'm not a kid…"
"Who's a kid?"
Without warning, an intimately familiar voice resonated behind her.
"KYAAAHHH!!!!!"
Caught completely off guard, like the jump-scare from a horror movie, Asagi spun around a full 180 degrees, startled.
At the exact same moment, the purple lace lingerie she'd just managed to unclasp lost its support and shot straight forward. Flipping gracefully in midair, each cup perfectly landing on the suddenly appeared young man's face, thoroughly blocking his entire field of vision.
"Uhh…"
With his vision suddenly engulfed in purple fabric, Bokue instinctively sniffed—hmm, a faint pleasant scent.
However, just as he raised his hand to remove the lingerie from his face, a warm and soft embrace suddenly clung to him from the front. Immediately followed by the golden-haired girl's startled voice, her tone mixed with a blend of relief, joy, and lingering embarrassment.
"Baka Bokue, what was that about?! You suddenly appeared out of nowhere like some kind of ghost—You really scared me! Next time you come here, can't you give some advance warning or something?"
"Advance warning…?" Bokue said uncertainly, still holding the purple lace lingerie, arching an eyebrow. "And how exactly should I do that? Like some angel descending, with golden rays filling the room first, and then a magic circle slowly appearing on your ceiling as I gently float down? Wouldn't that be way too much trouble?"
"I—I didn't say you had to do that much!" Asagi imagined such a ridiculous scene herself, feeling it would be way too absurd. "Just don't suddenly materialize out of thin air! Maybe, you know, like knock at the front door or something…"
"Asagi? Is everything alright up there? Mom heard you shouting downstairs…"
Before she could finish speaking, a mature woman's voice drifted through from outside the bedroom door.
In the next second, the bedroom door opened, and a middle-aged woman with facial features seventy to eighty percent similar to Asagi's peeked inside. Her gaze quickly fell upon Bokue… and then her own daughter, who was currently clinging tightly onto him, completely topless.
"…"
"…"
An awkward silence instantly filled the air.
Both sides froze, exchanging stares for exactly one breath's time, before the middle-aged woman blinked once and then firmly gave a thumbs-up.
"It's okay, you two. Keep going!"
With that, she swiftly withdrew and carefully closed the door behind her.
Watching the bedroom door slowly shut again, Asagi's expression gradually transformed—initially attempting to explain, then hesitating, shifting to a complicated look, and ultimately giving up altogether.
After all, her mom probably already knew everything. Especially after those two previous times when she'd inadvertently screamed so loudly—her mother must've long since pieced together the actual progress of their relationship.
Probably… no point explaining anymore, huh?
At that moment, from above her head came Bokue's voice again.
"Your mom already left. You can probably let go now, right?"
"…No." A surprisingly firm refusal came from Asagi.
Bokue raised a questioning eyebrow. "Why not?"
"Wh-why else…" Asagi slightly puffed her cheeks, her face flushed. "I was literally in the middle of changing when you appeared. Losing my outer clothes is one thing, but even my lingerie is now in your hands. If I let go now, you'd…"
Huh? What exactly would happen?
Bokue stared at the increasingly flushed cheeks of the girl in his arms, briefly lost in thought.
"…you'd see everything clearly." With her ears now completely scarlet, Asagi shyly buried her face deeper against his chest, voice reduced to a whisper.
???
Hearing that statement felt like experiencing the Big Bang of the universe all over again—Bokue's entire world momentarily spun around inside his mind.
"Does it really matter that much? Haven't I already seen everything there is to see? Even the things I shouldn't have seen—"
"It's different!" Asagi, blushing furiously, quickly interrupted. "Before, we were both undressed. But right now, only I'm undressed—it feels incredibly embarrassing and strange! Anyway… just hurry up and strip yourself too!"
He had to strip too?
Bokue opened his mouth to respond, paused, and took a deep, calming breath instead.
"What exactly are you thinking? I just came here to invite you downtown for some shopping."
"…Eh?"
The delicate, romantic atmosphere they had been building abruptly shattered, like a romantic movie suddenly losing its pink-filtered lighting. Even the golden-haired girl's eyes instantly returned to clarity.
Huh? Go shopping… shopping?
"That's what I was trying to say earlier. You never gave me a chance to speak clearly," Bokue explained, his gaze increasingly amused and affectionate.
Oh… so that's what was happening…
Asagi felt a tinge of embarrassment for her earlier indecent thoughts but couldn't help a faint spark of happiness igniting inside her.
Although they'd been childhood friends since they were kids, whenever they met up, it was usually either at the arcade or at home, mostly focused solely on gaming. As for proper dating activities like shopping, they'd practically never happened in her memory.
Even now that they were officially a couple, they'd yet to have a single real date. Every single time they'd met recently, they'd ended up doing nothing but that kind of stuff, making her feel somewhat like… that kind of girl.
"W-well, if that's the case, then fine. Wait a second, I'll change first, and we'll head out. Actually, I recently bought a yukata for you—it matches mine perfectly…"
Still stammering slightly, Asagi released him from her embrace, turned towards her wardrobe, carefully covering her chest with one arm as she opened the closet and brought out a pristine white yukata decorated with graceful cranes and delicate blossoms.
Bokue received the yukata, spreading it open to examine.
"Hmm, the sizing looks pretty spot-on."
Of course it does!
Asagi silently shouted within her mind.
She had personally taken her time measuring every single detail with her own body. How could it possibly go wrong!
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