“…”
“…”
“So… Tsugumu, can you get up now? The base of my thighs hurts a bit…”
“Ahhh—I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”
After snapping back to his senses, Yuuma Tsugumu quickly let go of Akiba Sakura and stumbled several steps back.
‘I… what on earth have I just done…’
Tsugumu felt a sudden wave of fear regarding his actions.
To put it nicely, he had acted against the girl’s will; to put it bluntly, it was practically a crime.
He peeked cautiously at Sakura, who had stood up and was massaging her wrists.
He felt a sudden pang of guilt in his heart.
‘Tsugumu, oh Tsugumu. Even if you really hate Akiba Sakura, you shouldn’t have done something like that. Just to prove you aren’t a simp, you did that to a fragile girl…’
Tsugumu actually regretted his actions.
His plan from the start was to play the waiting game until Akiha Shiori announced dinner, but he hadn’t expected to lose his sanity over Sakura’s words, activating the state of [Pure Love Warrior’s Rage] ahead of time.
‘…’
“Akiba Sakura, I… just now…”
“No need to say it, Tsugumu. It was my fault—I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that.”
Sakura looked at Tsugumu with a bright, cheerful smile.
That smile only made Tsugumu feel more guilty.
Then, Sakura smoothed out the wrinkles in her clothes.
She walked over to the cushion she had been sitting on, bent down, and reached underneath it.
“???”
Watching Sakura pull a Remote Control from under the cushion, Tsugumu’s original guilt vanished without a trace, replaced by a frustration that made him laugh.
“So… I’ve… been played again?”
“Congratulations~ It’s a Double Bloom~”
Sakura playfully stuck out her tongue.
Then, she raised the hand holding the Remote Control toward the bedroom door and pressed a button.
With two crisp clicking sounds, the door unlocked.
“The lock is open, but you still have to open the door yourself. It can close automatically, but it can’t open on its own. Let’s go downstairs for dinner, Tsugumu~”
After finishing her explanation, Sakura casually tossed the Remote Control onto the bed and walked toward the door.
‘I got played by this girl again, damn it… So all those reactions earlier were just an act? How did I fall for it so easily? I’m going to puke!’
Tsugumu shook his head.
Just as he was about to follow Sakura to the door, he noticed her legs seemed to be trembling.
‘This girl… what’s wrong with her?’
“Hey—are you oka—”
Just as Sakura’s hand touched the doorknob, Tsugumu reached out to touch her shoulder, wanting to ask if something was wrong—
However, the moment Tsugumu’s hand touched Sakura’s shoulder, she spun around to face him and jumped several steps back.
“…”
“Uh… nothing’s wrong. Don’t… worry about me, Tsugumu. Let’s go down and eat!”
Upon seeing it was Tsugumu, Sakura hid the panicked expression she had shown while turning around.
She then gave the boy a very strained smile.
With that, she hurriedly turned the handle, pulled the door open, and rushed out of the room toward the stairs.
“…”
Tsugumu looked down at his slowly rising palm.
It felt as though the girl’s faint scent still lingered there.
The image of the panic-stricken expression Sakura had shown when she turned around flashed in his mind.
‘That was… the first time she ever looked like that…’
Tsugumu felt a sense of unease.
He truly hated seeing girls make that kind of expression, whether it was in anime, manga… or real-life girls.
—
“Here, have some of this—”
Shiori placed a chicken leg into Tsugumu’s bowl, but he remained staring blankly at his food as if lost in thought.
Sakura, who was usually a chatterbox at the table, was uncharacteristically quiet, keeping her head down and focusing solely on eating her vegetables.
“…”
Shiori saw all of this.
Her mouth opened slightly, but she didn’t know what to say—
“I’m full… Mom, Tsugumu, take your time eating. I’m going up now…”
As if her usual innocent liveliness had vanished, leaving only a hollow shell, Sakura hurried upstairs.
“Ah…”
Hearing Sakura’s voice, Tsugumu finally snapped back to reality only to find that the girl had already left the table.
“…Tsugumu, Sakura, what happened to you two?”
After hearing the upstairs door close and the distinct sound of it locking, Shiori finally asked the question.
“…We… we just… uh…”
Hearing Shiori’s question, Tsugumu stammered for a long time without being able to give a straight answer.
Sensing that something was wrong, Shiori suddenly put down her bowl and chopsticks.
She looked at Tsugumu with a serious expression.
“Did you two have a fight?”
“…”
Did it count as a fight?
Tsugumu didn’t know how to answer.
This was his first time facing such a situation, and it was also the first time he felt such heavy guilt toward Sakura.
“I guess… you could say that…”
‘She’s unhappy, and I’m the culprit… Maybe it really was a fight…’
Ever since he had labeled Sakura as his number one enemy, Tsugumu had wanted to break ties with her at every moment.
But now that it had actually come to this, he felt terrible.
He knew clearly that the reason Sakura had made that expression was definitely because his actions earlier had terrified her.
“So that’s how it is… No wonder you were both so quiet, as if you had things on your mind.”
After getting her answer, Shiori smiled and shook her head gently.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s not the first or second time that girl has gotten angry. She’ll be back to normal tomorrow as if nothing happened…”
“This time…”
‘It’s a little different…’
Tsugumu didn’t say the words out loud.
“…”
Tsugumu looked up at Shiori and said seriously, word by word, “This time it was my fault… I made Sakura… I made her unhappy…”
“…”
Hearing this, Shiori didn’t reply but simply watched Tsugumu in silence.
“I’m really sorry… Ma’am.”
Tsugumu didn’t dare to make eye contact with Shiori.
He could only lower his head and apologize in a small voice.
“But… the person you fought with wasn’t me, was it?”
Shiori rested her arms lightly on the table and propped her chin up with one hand—
“So you’re apologizing to the wrong person, aren’t you?”
“Then I’ll go right now…”
“Do it tomorrow—”
Shiori stopped Tsugumu, who had suddenly stood up, intending to apologize.
“But…”
“Trust me, do it tomorrow—”
Shiori smiled and shook her head.
“Maybe she won’t be so angry tomorrow.”
“…Okay.”
***
As the crisp sound of the door closing echoed, a small head peeked out from the corner of the stairs—
“Has Tsugumu left?”
After Shiori saw Tsugumu to the Entrance Hall and watched him return to his own home, Sakura heard the front door close and ran out of her room.
“He went back!”
Shiori nodded with a smile, then looked at her daughter with a hint of reproach in her tone.
“You brat, acting like that toward Tsugumu… isn’t it a bit mean?”
“Hmph, it was Mom’s idea in the first place. What, are you having regrets now?”
Sakura blinked her eyes playfully, her heart blooming with joy.
“Heehee…”
‘This plan… it worked! It really worked!’
The haevns themselves are against Tsugumu, what do you mean the mother and daughter are tag teaming?