Episode 29: Getting Shy About the Bath Now, of All Times, Is Just Too Convenient!
One night, spring break nearly over.
From the direction of the bathroom, Makina’s voice drifted out — thin, but oddly desperate.
“Yotsuka~, please~, there’s no towel~!”
I shot up off the sofa like I’d been electrocuted.
A cold, unpleasant sweat immediately beaded up on my palms.
…This exact pattern. I’ve heard this before.
“Déjà vu” doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Against my will, my brain instantly replayed footage from that rainy day — the infamous “Bathroom Frosted-Glass Door Wide Open” incident.
Back then, panicked by that not-normal scream, I’d sprinted to the changing room and thrown the door open, only to find myself staring straight at an absolutely defenseless figure standing in a cloud of steam.
Even thinking back on it now, the destructive power was on a level that honestly felt borderline criminal.
If I see that again, what’s even going to happen to me this time…?
Bath towel in hand, I steeled myself and slid open the changing room door.
The bathroom’s frosted glass door was shut tight — not a single millimeter of gap.
Lit from inside by the warm bathroom light, Makina’s silhouette glowed faintly through the frosted glass.
…Yep. That exact perfect level of “almost visible, but not quite” opacity.
Crisis averted, no criminal record today. I let out a breath of relief.
“…Hey, Makina, I brought it, okay?”
“…Thanks. Just leave it on top of the washing machine.”
“Huh? You’re already done, right? Here—”
“No, just leave it there.”
What’s going on? Suddenly she’s shy?
She used to take it from me with no modesty before.
“I mean, I was gonna hop in myself after this, so let’s just swap pla—”
“No! Stay in the living room a bit longer!”
“Wait, wait, what’s going on…?”
The frosted glass door cracked open just slightly, and Makina’s face peeked out from the gap.
“…Yotsuka… um, now that we’re dating, this is, like… kind of embarrassing…?”
At that, the towel very nearly slipped right out of my hands.
Her voice, coming from halfway behind the frosted glass, sounded slightly higher-pitched than usual.
Looking closer, her blurry silhouette on the other side was fidgeting, shifting a little, clearly restless.
Hold on.
I threw the full force of an internal double-take at that.
Isn’t this a little late to start now?!
We’ve been living alone together in this house for a while now, and she’s shown me plenty of unguarded, defenseless moments without batting an eye!
Even when we were both exhausted and dried our hair side by side in nothing but camisoles, even when she kissed me completely blitzed on chocolate liqueur, blazer half-falling off — Makina always looked completely unbothered!
I mean, sure, admittedly, there hasn’t really been one of those “lucky accident” type events since we actually started dating, so it has been a while, I guess?!
…No, but, still.
Embarrassed, now that we’re together.
I repeated the meaning of that phrase in my own head, which was steadily heating up.
Until now, there’d always been the excuse-shield of “we’re practically family,” of “we’re childhood friends.”
But now — we’ve become “that kind” of pair.
We’ve both clearly, consciously recognized each other as “girlfriends,” as someone special.
…Ah.
Somehow, that realization started making me embarrassed too, little by little.
I mean, come on — she kisses me over and over without hesitation.
But getting all shy over one missing layer of clothes, one sheet of frosted glass? That’s not fair.
…I mean, seriously, not fair at aaaaall!!
Before we started dating, she was literally the one saying “should we hop in together?” without batting an eye, that same night!
And now that we’re official, this is what happens? Getting this self-conscious is somehow way more suggestive than before!!
I could feel my own face heating up fast, no question about it.
“H-hey, Yotsuka, quit freezing up and just set it down and get out already!”
“O-oh, right…”
Before we started dating, she was, in a weird way, more unguarded.
Since we got together, the distance between us has, somehow, opened up in the strangest direction.
No — not opened up, exactly.
More like — the “meaning” behind every single little action has gotten too heavy.
“Yotsuka… um, thanks, for the towel…”
With that, the frosted glass door slid firmly shut again.
Beaten again.
This time, in a completely different sense.
I set the bath towel down on top of the washing machine, went back to the living room, and collapsed limply onto the sofa.
◇◆◇◆◇
Once Makina finished her bath, we sat side by side on the living room sofa.
…Well, “side by side” might not be quite the right word.
Usually she’d be pressed right up against me, shoulder to shoulder, without a second thought — but tonight Makina sat clutching a cushion tightly to her chest, perched a good two fist-widths away from me.
The faint, sweet smell of shampoo still drifted from her hair, damp above a t-shirt she kept tugging at the hem of.
“…Done with the bath.”
“Yeah…”
Neither of our eyes could settle anywhere.
Then, seeming to suddenly remember something, Makina spoke up.
“Hey, Yotsuka. That promise from before, about the big public bathhouse…”
“Yeah…”
“That might’ve actually gotten harder now, huh…”
“…Might have, yeah.”
“Right…?”
An oddly charged, heated silence settled over both of us.
“So, when do you think we’ll actually go…?”
“Once my self-control’s completely gone, maybe…?”
“H-hey, Yotsuka, what’s that supposed to mean?!”
Still clutching the sofa cushion to her chest, Makina glared at me, ears burning red all the way to the tips.
We should be so much closer now, both physically and emotionally, than we ever were before dating.
And yet, somehow, the day we can actually go to the bathhouse together felt like it just kept getting further and further away.
…Well. In a way, I guess that’s a good problem to have.
◇◆◇◆◇
But at the time, I still had no idea.
Starting tomorrow, we’d officially be third-years.
And I couldn’t have imagined, not even a little, that this milestone — moving up a grade — was about to make even “convenience” itself, the very thing that had been jerking me around this entire time, flip completely against me.