Episode Fifty-One
“Well? Answer me, Amami-san.”
“Well what—”
“Yes or no, please?”
“…Yes.”
“Huh. You’re not going to try to dodge it?”
A sharp click of the tongue escaped Haibara-san.
The stark contrast between that intensely demure, delicate face and that abrupt gesture nearly made my head spin.
Fans would faint, I bet. Like Momono-chan.
“So, about that question earlier. What’s your aim?”
“There’s no… aim, really.”
“Huh??”
Scary, her expression twisted.
“You’re letting her stay over for no reason? That’s impossible. You’ve got ulterior motives, so just spit it out.”
“Even if you say that…”
Admittedly, I do want to get along with Ibara.
But whether this counts as ulterior motives or just an eccentric friendship is something I’d rather ask myself.
Yes, Ibara. Does Ibara even know about this?
“…Did you hear about the living arrangement from Ibara?”
“Yes, I did. She only told me your first name, but I’d heard she was the model. I saw the online news about ‘Rêve’ and it clicked.”
“And you liked the design?”
“Actually, it was quite to my taste. The reason I arranged today’s meeting was to see you, Amami-san.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you.”
Haibara-san released my collar and clasped her hands together tightly.
Her eyes glistened as she looked up at me, her gaze intense.
“Um, Amami-san. I have a favour to ask of you. Would you listen?”
Then, abruptly, a cruel smile spread across her face. She traced my cheek with her fingertip, mocking me.
“—Just kidding. Surely you wouldn’t refuse, would you? Kind-hearted Amami-san, who’s so gentle with high school girls?”
†
After returning to the office, Momono-chan came straight over. She must have heard from Shindo-san.
I handed her the signed card, her dog-like eyes waiting for a reward.
“Wow! Thank you so much! So, so, how was it?”
“…How was what?”
“Hiname-sama in the flesh! What were your impressions⁉︎”
“………Um, well. Her face was incredibly beautiful. Her face.”
“Right?! I wish I could’ve seen her up close too… No, no, Senpai was there for work. Mixing business with pleasure isn’t good.”
“Ah, ahaha…”
“And to think she’s got a great personality too, she really feels like a natural-born idol, doesn’t she.”
“That’s right.”
My smartphone buzzed in my suit’s inside pocket. Not the work one, but my personal iPhone.
“Haa. Hiname-sama is so worth stanning… Right, I need to edit that recording and export it to external storage.”
“Sorry, I’ll step away for a moment.”
I moved away from Momono-chan, who was being tapped on the shoulder by Shindo-san asking, “Do you know about compliance, Momono-kun?”, and headed for the fire escape.
A message had arrived on my smartphone chat app.
The sender’s name was Cinderella.
The icon was a glass slipper. The content read──
──Meet here at ten o’clock on Saturday.
Below that was a link to a Tokyo café’s website.
Then, another message, like the final blow.
──If you don’t come, you know what happens.
After a moment’s anguish, I replied, “Understood.”
And so it came to pass that I found myself being blackmailed by an active high school idol, all because I was living semi-cohabiting with a former high school idol.
How.
How did it come to this…
†
Night.
“Shigure-san, you seem a bit down?”
After finishing our meal at Sereno, Ibara, who was spreading out her textbooks beside me, suddenly said that.
“Oh, really?”
“Did something unpleasant happen at work?”
“Ah… no…”
I couldn’t say.
Hiname had strictly forbidden me from telling Ibara.
To protect my social standing, I had no choice but to conceal it.
Still, the atmosphere wasn’t one where I could simply brush it off as nothing.
“Well. I was just… accosted by a strange person.”
“…A strange person?”
Ibara’s eyebrow twitched.
“Ah, well… a client? Sort of person. Yeah, sort of accosted me, I suppose.”
“…What do you mean, accosted?”
“Er, um, how should I put it? Threatened me to do what they said, sort of.”
“Excuse me⁉︎”
“Whoa!”
That startled me.
“What on earth? Are you alright⁉︎ Didn’t they do anything weird to you⁉︎”
“N-no, they didn’t! I’m fine, alright?”
“Really? They didn’t sexually harass you or anything?”
“No, absolutely not.”
“…Well, that’s a relief then.”
Ibara plopped down onto her haunches.
Hmm, this makes it even harder to talk about. Ibara and Hiname seem like friends.
Or rather, what on earth is that girl thinking?
Saturday, ten o’clock. Summoned to a café.
The other party is a world-famous idol. Surely it’s not some stingy request to get her to pay for coffee.
So it must be about Ibara, then?
Like, stop your semi-cohabitation with Ibara immediately, or something.
It’s possible.
From the outside, Ibara right now looks like a high school girl being led astray by an adult woman.
Maybe that girl is worried about Ibara in her own way.
If that’s the case, her blatant hostility towards me makes sense.
Which means what’s needed is clearing up the misunderstanding.
Right. That Ibara and I are absolutely not in an improper relationship—
A relationship—
A relationship, isn’t it…?
Huh?
Me and Ibara? We’re pretty improper, aren’t we.
We sleep together. We’ve bathed together. We’ve kissed. The other day, I even let her touch my chest.
Huh.
Am I just a bad adult seducing a high school girl?
Strange. Even if we were to end up in that sort of relationship in the future, I’d decided not to make a move until after high school graduation… But still…
“What’s wrong, Shigure-san? You’ve been pulling all sorts of faces this whole time.”
“Hey, Ibara.”
“What?”
“Do you think I’m seducing you?”
“Eh, yeah.”
“Really!?”
“Ah, you really haven’t realised… Oblivious Succubus Shigure-san…”
“What’s an oblivious succubus?”
I wish that didn’t roll off the tongue so nicely.
Oblivious succubus Shigure-san.
Anyway, time just kept passing without me being able to talk to Ibara about anything.
And then, Saturday arrived.
The day of my promise with the black-hearted, blackmailing Cinderella.