"What's the matter? You look like something's weighing on your mind."
Shirai Mio glanced at Eriri. She'd known Sawamura Sayuri had come back just now, though she had no idea what the two of them had said—Eriri had come back like this afterward.
"It's nothing, just…" Eriri opened her mouth, but for once she couldn't come up with any halfway decent reason.
She let out a soft sigh and said, "I'm just thinking about something that has nothing to do with you. Go on and keep playing your game."
"Since it has nothing to do with me, then there's no harm in saying it, is there? I might even be able to give you a little advice." Shirai Mio pushed up a nonexistent pair of glasses, putting on the air of a caring big sister.
Her over-the-top acting, however, earned nothing more than an eye-roll from Eriri.
Whether or not she should like Shirai Mio—how could she possibly tell this white-haired little bitch about something like that?
Shirai Mio beat around the bush for a good while, but Eriri showed no sign of loosening up, so Shirai Mio stopped pressing.
To keep asking at this point would have been rude.
Setting down the controller, Shirai Mio rubbed her slightly sore eyes, then got up, walked over to Eriri's bed, and flopped down onto it without the slightest reserve.
"You really don't know the meaning of being a polite guest."
"It's your bed anyway, so I'm absolutely not going to be polite."
With her face buried in Eriri's pillow, Shirai Mio's voice came out a little muffled.
Eriri got up, went over to the bed, and gave Shirai Mio a smack on the rear. "Don't bury your face in my pillow. It makes you look like some perverted creep."
"A perverted creep would be more like this." As she finished, Shirai Mio took a deep breath and let out a sound of ambiguous meaning.
Her performance successfully made Eriri raise her hand again.
This time she used a bit more force. Shirai Mio turned her head, clutching her rear, and said to Eriri with a wounded look, "Haven't you noticed that the way you're acting right now is even more like a perverted creep?"
"I have not!"
Even as she said it, Eriri copied Shirai Mio and flopped down beside her.
The two of them just lay there quietly gazing at each other, neither one speaking.
Eriri's eyes traveled over Shirai Mio's face and finally came to rest on her lips.
Noticing the look in Eriri's eyes, Shirai Mio asked warily, "What are you trying to do?"
"I want to kiss you."
"Hm?"
Hearing that, Shirai Mio froze for a moment. She hadn't expected Eriri to answer so bluntly—this wasn't scientifically possible.
Going by Eriri's personality, even if she really did want to kiss her, shouldn't she tsundere-ishly insist she wasn't thinking anything of the sort?
"Can I?"
Shirai Mio didn't answer; she simply closed her eyes.
A moment later she felt that soft sensation press against her lips.
Shirai Mio had assumed Eriri would be satisfied with a single kiss, but she soon discovered that Eriri wasn't content with that and wanted to take things one step deeper.
Though her kissing was a little clumsy, it still wasn't something a pushover like Shirai Mio could hold out against.
Into the once-quiet room, faint and suggestive sounds suddenly rose.
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"You two, you can come out and eat now."
Sawamura Sayuri knocked on her daughter's bedroom door, but got no response.
Just as she was about to open the door and take a look inside, she found it had been locked from within.
At the same time, her daughter's voice came from inside the room. "Got it. We'll be down in a moment."
"Then make it quick, okay~"
Only after the footsteps had faded into the distance did Eriri quietly let out a breath of relief. She turned her head to glance at Shirai Mio, who was still catching her breath. It looked like they'd need to stay in the room a while longer.
After quite some time, though Shirai Mio had calmed down, a faint flush still lingered on her fair cheeks, and combined with her slightly hazy eyes, it gave her an intensely alluring air.
"Why did you suddenly want to do that kind of thing to me, Eriri?"
"I just suddenly wanted to know what kissing feels like, that's all. Don't read too much into it."
It was that familiar tone—Shirai Mio didn't need to think hard to know Eriri was pulling her leg.
She slowly crawled up from the bed and, after straightening out her clothes, said, "Come on. We should head down."
The two of them left the room and went downstairs, where Sawamura Sayuri, seeing them finally appear, couldn't help saying, "Just what were you two doing up there? Why did it take you so long to come down?"
"You should know that some games can't be paused." Eriri said it with a completely straight face.
As a fellow shut-in girl herself, Sawamura Sayuri of course knew Eriri was just tossing out a line.
While they were eating, Eriri seemed to think of something and said to her mom, "Mom, is it all right if she stays over tonight?"
"Of course it is. So, does that mean I should go and stay somewhere else tonight?"
Seeing her mom's utterly serious expression, Eriri instinctively wondered why her mom would go stay elsewhere—but she quickly caught on that her mom was hinting at certain other things.
"There's no need for that." Eriri said crossly.
"Then once you've finished eating, don't be in such a hurry to go upstairs. I'll cut up some fruit for the two of you, and you can carry it up on your way. I won't come up."
"Can you not make it sound like we're doing something weird up there?"
"Don't worry. We'll do our best not to disturb you." Shirai Mio joined in as well.
At Shirai Mio's words, a delighted smile spread across Sawamura Sayuri's face. "My, Mio-chan really is such a considerate girl."
If it had only been her mom, Eriri could still have gotten a few words in, but now that even Shirai Mio had entered the fray, with the two of them playing off each other, she'd completely lost the urge to retort.
Once dinner was dealt with, Shirai Mio didn't head straight upstairs. She helped finish washing the dishes first, then carried the plate of cut fruit back to Eriri's room.
Eriri wasn't in the room; there were faint sounds coming from the bathroom.
She had just set the things down when she saw Eriri step out of the bathroom.
"And here I'd been thinking I'd take a bath together with you tonight—I didn't expect you'd secretly go and wash up first." Shirai Mio looked at Eriri with a wounded expression.
"What do you mean, secretly? I did it out in the open, thank you." Eriri said crossly.
"Well, since you're done, then it's my turn."
"What's the big rush to shower?"
"My panties got wet."
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