Chapter Eleven: The Childhood Friends in a Small Book
After Kanade watched Nagi leave with her notebook, Suzuki and Tanaka eagerly caught up with her from behind.
“Tsukimi, have you had a fight with Hoshimiya lately?”
“Why do you ask that all of a sudden?” Kanade responded, puzzled.
“Because—” Suzuki and Tanaka exchanged glances, confirming they were thinking about the same thing.
Tanaka explained, “Hoshimiya-san has been acting a bit strange today.”
“Yeah, it’s nothing like when she came to see you a while ago,” Suzuki nodded in agreement.
“Is that really the case?”
“It used to be that she couldn’t wait to get close—”
“—but now it feels like she’s intentionally keeping her distance.”
Suzuki and Tanaka took turns speaking.
“She’s cute, but it doesn’t feel like she’s as cute as before. Do you understand?” they concluded.
“No, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Kanade replied immediately.
“Sigh, you really are clueless.”
“If I didn’t know you were clueless, I’d think there was a guy who was good at winning girls’ hearts right next to me.”
Suzuki and Tanaka sighed in unison and returned to their seats.
While Kanade vaguely sensed that Nagi was a bit different today, she completely disagreed with their claim that she wasn’t as cute.
If anything, in her heart—
Nagi was cuter today than usual.
……
……
At noon.
Nagi took the opportunity of going to the restroom.
Secretly holding the notebook that Kanade had given her.
She snuck into a single stall in the restroom.
In many ACG works, this is a fairly common comedic trope.
The protagonist’s beautiful childhood friend unexpectedly discovers he is looking at a risqué book.
Since Kanade had actively handed her this situation.
She knew she had to take full advantage of it.
This thing could serve many purposes.
For example, she could pretend to be jealous of the female lead in the book.
First, to hint at her “feelings” for Kanade.
Second, to signal that she was no longer a little girl, but an adult who understood these matters between men and women.
Then, when she returned the book to him, she could act bashful, creating a scene by suggesting that he could have just come to find her.
She wanted to implant the signal in his mind that “whenever he wanted, he could approach his caring childhood friend to do this or that.”
This way, the chances of him falling into the temptation of other bad women would greatly decrease.
Yep, perfect~
Thanks to Kanade’s carelessness for giving her such a great opportunity.
Nagi was very pleased with this.
After all, she had once fantasized about similar scenarios as a guy.
“A small mistake of mine made the person I care about jealous of a character in a book.”
Hmm, just a fantasy.
“Speaking of which, has Kanade been a bit too desperate lately?” With a mix of leisure and curiosity, Nagi opened the things she had never looked at in her two lifetimes.
At the same time, she continued to critique Kanade in her mind.
She hadn’t called him at bedtime for just a few days and he couldn’t help but look at stuff like this?
Was this kid a bit too intense when it came to these matters?
After a long time of looking at such dishes, Nagi unknowingly felt her modestly cute face slowly blush with seductive crimson.
—Wow~ While she thought it was normal in the past, looking back now, are those dimensions really okay?
—Eh? What is this position? Can a girl really pose like this?
—This one, no way, definitely no way, even if Kanade were to bring it up in the future…
“No, no, no, why did you suddenly identify with the girl in the book! And why assume it’s Kanade?”
Nagi closed her eyes and shook her head vigorously, trying to dispel the wicked thoughts in her mind.
As she put down the book, she was already blushing without realizing it.
But immediately, it seemed she couldn’t resist the temptation.
Peeking with one eye open, she looked at the book in her hands again.
At the same time, she couldn’t help but continue her earlier thoughts.
In fact, she had considered this matter regarding Kanade in her heart.
She felt that it would be very cruel to do so.
Perhaps out of a desire to atone for her guilt, or perhaps to create an even more painful regret for life.
Nagi believed she should provide a bit of benefit to Kanade.
No, not just a bit.
From her perspective.
As long as she didn’t expose her real intentions and identity.
Whatever Kanade asked for, she would satisfy him…
At that time, she thought that with the starlight, everything would be fine with just a blink of an eye.
But if the starlight really couldn’t be used anymore…
She should also have the corresponding awareness—
“Hmm? Can the girl have that many times?”
As Nagi continued to look, she couldn’t help but swallow hard.
Some things she had never paid attention to before were now making her heart race.
—Could she really experience that many times too?
Suddenly, she noticed something was off.
Why were the content and themes so extreme?
And there was a line that sounded vaguely familiar—
“Madam, you wouldn’t want to…”
Nagi frowned and flipped over the cover.
On the cover was a large character for “sleep” with “night” written underneath.
Beside it, three capital letters were thoughtfully circled.
“……”
Nagi remained silent for a while.
Her brain found it difficult to accept and process the information her eyes had just seen.
Finally regaining her composure, she gently placed the book on her lap.
Then, she suddenly covered her head with both hands—
“Kanade is actually a Minotaur enthusiast!?”
“W-why? With his pure and lovely childhood friend by his side, why is he interested in such themes?”
It made no sense!
No matter which side of the story he identified with, it felt very wrong.
Especially as the passive party.
A preference for gaining “pleasure” through “loss.”
What if she died in front of him one day, and he felt thrilled about losing her instead of being sad?
No way, she had to take back her earlier words.
If Kanade ever asked her for such play, she would definitely kill him on the spot.
While she respected every kink,—
Such a protagonist could never save the world!
Was there a problem with her long-standing educational philosophy? Had the starlight clouded her judgment?
N-no, calm down.
This book may not belong to Kanade.
He was the protagonist.
Isn’t it normal for protagonists to occasionally have such “romantic comedy” developments?
However, it seemed to her memory.
If the female lead encountered such themes, it was never a romantic comedy.
It seemed the female leads would end up on a heartbreaking irreversible path…
What to do? Should she pretend she didn’t see this book?
After all, the themes inside definitely wouldn’t allow her to blush and say, “You could’ve just come to find me.”
To maintain her pure and natural childhood friend persona, she might have to act in the next scene.
But what if she just pretended not to know?
What if Kanade really had this kind of kink?
No way.
As long as there was a 0.001% chance, she had to crush this kink in the cradle.
She needed to test Kanade.
While also making him understand the benefits of pure love!
