Afternoon classes started without major incident. A few classmates were still whispering about me, but I was ignoring all of it.
I’d been a little nervous in the morning thinking I might be a bother to Reona and Riona, but after hearing their actual answer the damage was negligible.
Homeroom finished and class was out. My classmates were in slightly higher spirits than usual — Friday afternoon, with Saturday waiting on the other side.
So they were all riffing about how they were going to spend the weekend.
Me, on the other hand: another study session with Reona and Riona today. At my house again, but with one important difference.
“Aw — Mio-chan’s not here today?”
“No. She’s sleeping over at a friend’s place tonight, so she won’t be home.”
“I wanted to see her.”
Apparently Mio had stolen Reona and Riona’s hearts. Well — she’s so cute it’s hard to believe she’s my sister, so fair enough.
“Dad’s not back either — he’s away on business. And Mom went home to Kurashiki to visit a friend. So today I’m alone.”
Usually Mio handles meals; with no one else around, prepping dinner solo was a vaguely depressing prospect.
On the other hand, having the place to myself meant total freedom from anyone bothering me, so there was an upside too.
“Oh, really? In that case — how about a sleepover study session at Ryouya-kun’s tonight?”
“Seconded.”
“Decided, then.”
So Reona and Riona were apparently planning to spend the night. Naturally, I had to object, so I objected.
“Hold on. I’m against this!?”
“What — but a sleepover was decided fair and square by majority vote, you know, the democratic way.”
“Important decisions like this should require unanimous consent, shouldn’t they?”
“Should we put ‘do important decisions require unanimous consent’ to a majority vote first?”
“No, no — I’ve already lost the moment you put it that way…”
I made some attempt to push back, but I lost outright. As a last-ditch defense I asked, won’t your parents say anything? — and got “they’re laissez-faire about us, it’s fine,” which closed off that avenue.
The sleepover plan kicked off with a prep-and-pack interlude, so we split up and headed home. I started cleaning my room.
“Right — anything they shouldn’t see needs to be hidden now.”
Once a sleepover was on the table, there were going to be windows when I was out of the room — taking a bath, for instance. Which meant there were going to be windows when they could go through it.
Finding ero-mags would be one thing. Finding the masturbator and lube would be a catastrophe. After agonizing over a hiding spot, I settled on under the bed.
Not just naked under the bed, either — disguised inside the empty box from a game console I’d bought years ago. And under-the-bed is such a stereotypical hiding spot that maybe people won’t even look.
Right as I finished hiding everything I needed hidden, Reona and Riona showed up. Each was carrying a large overnight bag. Fully equipped. We picked up the study session where we’d left off.
◇
“That genuinely wiped me out…”
In the bath, soaking in the tub, I muttered that to myself while reviewing the day’s events. Getting picked up at home in the morning, a snap sleepover plan — a lot of things had happened.
Including a more recent incident I’d been dealing with right up until I got in the bath: namely, Reona and Riona discovering the masturbator and the lube.
We’d kept studying till just past 8 PM, then decided to break for dinner. We agreed to order from a takeout place nearby, and the incident occurred during the fifteen minutes I was out of the room to pick it up.
“How they found it is, genuinely, a complete mystery.”
When I got back to the room with the takeout, the under-the-bed-game-box-disguised masturbator and lube were sitting on my desk. Reona and Riona were waiting for me with their arms crossed.
The blood drained out of my face. Needless to say. And on top of that, the two of them then proceeded to interrogate me, in uncomfortable detail, about what these items were for and how I used them.
I tried to keep my answers vague at first, but they refused to accept anything less than a full inventory, so I ended up describing it in absurd, granular specificity. My face has never been hotter.
“What kind of unimaginable humiliation play is getting forced to disclose your masturbation logistics to two girls from school…”
It may well have been the most embarrassed I have ever been. Apparently there exist niche enthusiasts for whom this kind of thing is a reward — I was simply mortified, so it’s safe to assume I don’t qualify.
In the end I couldn’t bear being in the room anymore, gulped down my dinner at top speed, and basically fled to the bathroom.
Anyway — ever since I got mixed up in that stabbing, things keep happening that I would not have believed before. It feels like I’ve been promoted to the protagonist of a light novel.