August 21st. I was getting ready to head to Reona and Riona’s birthday party. I changed out of pajamas into yesterday’s purchase, was straightening bedhead at the sink when Mio came in.
“Onii-chan wearing clothes like that is making my brain hurt.”
“My brain too.”
“Anyway, once you’re ready let’s go.”
“Yeah, let’s.”
Mio was also invited, so we were going together. Apparently the birthday party was normally a family-only event.
I’d been declining at first, not wanting to crash family time — but Reona and Riona had pushed hard enough that I gave in.
Their stated reason: Ryouya and Mio-chan are basically family. I’d at least met their parents during the hospital stay and had a brief conversation with them, so the air wouldn’t be unbearable.
“What’s Reona-san and Riona-san’s place even like?”
“Honestly? First time for me too — no idea.”
Reona and Riona liked invading my house, so we’d been doing study sessions and everything else here. Result: I’d never been to their place.
We finished prepping, picked up a pudding box as a gift on the way, and arrived at the address they’d sent me. The building in front of us was a mansion.
”…Hey, this is — definitely it?”
“The address matches.”
“Are Reona-san and Riona-san secretly mega-rich?”
”…Looks that way.”
Mio and I were intimidated just by the exterior. The Yagami family is middle-class. The Tsurugi family was clearly old money.
These were people who lived in a different universe than us. We were frozen at the gate when the front door opened.
“Ryouya-kun, Mio-chan, morning.”
“You weren’t ringing the intercom, so I came out.”
So Reona and Riona had emerged. Confirmed: this was their place. Mio and I were led inside, where the interior was as opulent as the exterior, and we felt deeply out of place.
“Ryouya, Mio-chan, you’re both quiet — you okay?”
“Just a little tense.”
“Right, this is your first time in a girl’s house, isn’t it, Ryouya-kun.”
Actually, on that axis I was not tense at all. Several months ago I’d have been a wreck, but my sensors had recalibrated. I did not, however, want to invite teasing, so I kept that to myself.
“Mom and Dad need a bit more time getting ready, so let’s go to my room first.”
“Sure.”
“Thank you.”
We were led into Reona’s room. Tidy, organized, distinctly girl’s-room feminine.
“Impressions of your first-ever girl’s room?”
“It’s cleaner than I expected.”
”…Why did you expect it not to be?”
“I just expected what I said.”
Reona looked dissatisfied. Look — Reona is kind of slovenly, I have evidence. As I was thinking that, Riona started talking.
“We tidied this morning. Nee-chan’s room was a wreck.”
“Hey, Riona — please do not break my cool-image in front of Mio-chan.”
“It comes out eventually.”
“Also, the strips-while-asleep habit alone disqualifies Reona from any ‘cool’ branding.”
I was riding Riona’s roast — and immediately realized I had stepped on a massive landmine.
“Wait — how does Onii-chan know about that habit?!”
That kind of detail is normally only available if you’ve slept beside someone. I’d slept next to Reona and Riona enough times that I’d lost track of how unusual it was, but normally, people who are not dating do not share a bed.
I started constructing an excuse. Reona and Riona — of course — beat me to it with a more direct option.
“There’s no covering it up now, so I’ll just tell Mio-chan straight: Riona and I are already that kind of relationship with Ryouya-kun.”
“Ryouya has already seen all the embarrassing parts of my body.”
Mio froze completely. That kind of relationship plus embarrassing parts of my body can really only point to one conclusion.
“To think… Onii-chan made a move on Reona-san and Riona-san…”
Thanks to them, Mio had locked in a maximally bad misunderstanding. I needed to fix it. Whether it would land was another question.