“By the way, Yagami-kun — what’s the relationship between you and Reona and Riona? I know you saved their lives, but it seems like more than that.”
“That—”
As expected, Kaito-san was probing. He’s their father; of course he’d care about his beloved daughters. While I was assembling a careful answer, Reona dropped something.
“Ryouya-kun and we’re the kind of relationship where we accept pair rings as birthday gifts.”
“Wait — seriously?!”
“Onii-chan, really?!”
“I want details, please.”
Mio and Kaito-san were stunned; Eren-san was very interested. Said in that phrasing, it was guaranteed misunderstanding. I was about to scramble to correct it when Riona delivered the follow-up.
“Me and Ryouya are the relationship Dad and Mom are imagining.”
“You’re kidding — guy was a literal nonentity just a while back, and now?”
“Two girls on each side, Ryouya-kun. Sneaky.”
”…And here I thought my shy, friendless older brother was incapable of romance.”
Everyone in the room had now firmly misunderstood, and any visibility I had of how to un-misunderstand them had vanished. This was, in chess terms, checkmate.
I spent a long stretch fielding Eren-san’s enthusiastic questions, Kaito-san’s “you-are-not-taking-my-daughters” energy, and Mio’s interrogation-style probing. Eventually the food was done and the talk had wound down, so Mio and I stood to leave.
“Right, we’ll head out.”
“Oh — Ryouya-kun, wait. Aren’t you forgetting something?”
“Forgetting…?”
“You have something to give me and Nee-chan.”
”…Oh, the gift. Right.”
The birthday gift had completely slipped my mind due to all the misunderstanding-management. Hand over the rings and bail.
“Just receiving the gift would be a little flat, no?”
“I want Ryouya to put the ring on me.”
“Th-that’s—”
After the psychological pummeling they’d just given me, they were not done. As I was thinking that, Reona and Riona pulled the pair rings out of the box on the table.
“The proposer goes first — Riona and I will put yours on you, Ryouya-kun.”
“Hold still.”
”…Wait—”
The two of them took my hands simultaneously, slipped a ring onto my right ring finger and left ring finger.
“Now it’s Ryouya-kun’s turn.”
“Left ring finger, please.”
Reona and Riona held out their left hands at me as if this were obvious. With Eren-san, Kaito-san, and Mio all watching, refusing was not in the option space.
So I obediently slipped a ring onto each of their left ring fingers. They looked radiantly happy. Was this actually fine?
“Oh, and — you’re wearing your rings every day.”
“You don’t have permission to take them off.”
“At school too…?”
“Of course.”
The dress code at our school is loose — accessories are permitted. So technically I could wear the rings to school — except they would absolutely draw attention.
“Could you let that part slide, please.”
“No. Done deal.”
“I’ll be checking every day, Ryouya-kun, that you’re wearing them.”
Resistance to this version of them was futile. The school year ahead, already depressing, had its depression-quotient doubled.
And — needless to say — the misunderstanding had been further entrenched. There was no recovery from this point that I could see. Now what.