Chapter 57: Determination

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Translator: Soafp

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I never imagined that after Airi, even Nodoka would confess to me.

On top of that, Nodoka had even kissed me.

My mind went completely blank.

“Um… I'm still—”

“You don't have to say it. I know. You still haven't gotten over Yuzuki, right?”

“Well… yeah.”

“That's why I'll put myself on hold too.”

From the way she said it, Nodoka apparently already knew about Airi's confession as well.

In fact, Airi still hadn't come into the open-air bath.

Whatever the reason, she had probably given Nodoka space out of consideration.

“No… now that I think about it, being on hold is no good.”

“Huh?”

“I don't want to get rejected. So let's just count it as unconditional acceptance.”

“That's ridiculous…”

“W-What!? After making me dress like this and stealing my first kiss, you don't want to take responsibility?”

Putting the micro bikini aside, I had absolutely no memory of asking for a kiss…

If anything, wasn't I the one who got robbed?

When I couldn't answer immediately, Nodoka puffed out her cheeks.

“Do you hate the idea of making me your girlfriend that much?”

“That's not it… Like you said, there's still the matter of Yuzuki, and Airi's confession is still unresolved too. I can't just agree unconditionally…”

“I can compromise too! In exchange for not being rejected, I'll give up monopolizing you.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I-I mean!”

Nodoka hesitated, then continued.

“I-I'm okay with you dating two people… You can make Senpai and me both your girlfriends at the same time…”

“Huh? Are you serious?”

“I-I am serious! I absolutely don't want you to reject me!! No, if you reject me, I'll die!!”

She probably didn't mean literal suicide.

But it was obvious Nodoka was desperate.

Now that she had confessed, there was no going back to being ordinary friends.

And if I rejected Nodoka here and dated Airi instead—

At worst, Nodoka would lose both me and Airi.

“I understand how you feel, but even so, dating two people is a bit…”

“I've already talked it over with Senpai, so there's nothing for you to worry about!”

When had that happened?

“What are you dissatisfied with?”

“It's not dissatisfaction, it's that there are problems everywhere.”

“I don't understand what the problem is at all. Ren, putting everything else aside, if you could do… intimate things with me without taking any responsibility… would you? Or wouldn't you?”

“Well… If I didn't have to worry about anything, then… yeah…”

Honestly, a cute girl like Nodoka had kissed me while wearing a micro bikini.

Someone should praise me for keeping my self-control and not getting swept away.

If I had been wearing a smartwatch right now, the abnormal heart rate alarm would probably have been going off nonstop.

“Then just do it as you are!”

“No, what kind of crazy logic is that?”

“I-I'm prepared for it!”

Nodoka leaned back slightly, then grabbed my face with both hands again.

And forcefully pulled me toward her.

“Hya!”

“Ugh!?”

My face was buried deeply into Nodoka's soft chest.

Warm softness spread across my whole face.

I could faintly smell her skin too.

She deliberately rubbed against me while swaying her upper body side to side.

Just as she had bragged before—

They definitely weren't small.

I was made to understand that fact firsthand.

“Y-You're special to me…”

Nodoka's voice trembled slightly.

My reason was melting away.

Her heated, breathy voice brushed my ear once more.

“I-I wouldn't mind if you got me pregnant…”

At those words, male instinct reacted before reason could.

“Hm? Something suddenly got hard…”

“……”

“N-No way…”

Nodoka suddenly let go of my face.

Then she lowered her gaze slightly and looked toward my swimsuit.

This open-air bath had unnecessarily clear water.

“Hyaaaah!!”

Letting out a scream unlike anything I had ever heard before, Nodoka realized the change in my condition and bolted straight out of the bath.

Left alone, I looked up at the sky and muttered:

“I see… so you weren't prepared that far after all.”

The crisis Nodoka herself had caused was ultimately resolved by Nodoka herself.

---

“Uuu… I'm sorry about earlier. I got really surprised… P-Please don't hate me…”

When we got out of the bath, Nodoka was hanging her head completely dejected.

Airi was giggling beside her.

“I never imagined Nodoka-san would run away at that point.”

“I feel pathetic myself…”

“Well, things like that happen. Don't be too hard on yourself.”

“The fact that you're acting so calm kind of annoys me!?”

If things had gone all the way with Nodoka back there, I had no idea how things would have turned out.

Honestly, because Airi was so recklessly aggressive, I had let my guard down around Nodoka.

Maybe out of the three of us, Nodoka was actually the one most likely to get swept up in the mood.

“So then, Ren-kun. I think Nodoka-san already told you, but both of us love you, and neither of us wants to be rejected by you.”

“No, but if neither of you wants to be rejected…”

“Then logically, the only path left is for Ren-kun to choose both of us, right?”

“Isn't that logic flawed?”

“If you rejected me, I'd have no reason to keep living anymore… Ah, forget I said that. Saying things like that is unfair.”

No, after saying that much already…

And though she hadn't told me directly, if the ending of that ‘nightmare' came true, she really did have the kind of dangerous instability that could drive her to take her own life.

Nodoka, while not as extreme as Airi, wasn't mentally strong either.

“…Alright. I'll seriously think about it. I understand how serious both of you are.”

“That's great, Nodoka-san. This means we can become Ren-kun's harem heroines.”

“I still haven't said yes though?”

“Come on, be manly and answer right away at times like this!”

“Isn't being able to answer immediately the weird part?”

There was a lot to think about.

…Even having one girlfriend would increase the trouble and situations requiring tact.

Two of them?

It was obvious the complications would double.

(And if I dated two people, I'd feel like the same trash as Nagasawa-senpai.)

Of course, it wouldn't be stealing someone else's girlfriend.

But if I cheated, I'd lose the right to blame the future Yuzuki for doing the same.

Honestly, just like Ito said, maybe I'd just become selfish trash.

“Ren-kun, your flaw is that you overthink things sometimes. We're on a trip right now, so for now let's just have fun, okay?”

“Yeah, you're right. But it's kind of an awkward time right now. Is there anything left to do?”

“When you two were out earlier, I walked around the ryokan. They even have mahjong tables here!”

“Oh, mahjong? Nice.”

I casually nodded, then suddenly realized something.

I immediately turned to Airi.

“Um… mahjong is probably kind of bad, right?”

“Why? I'm not very good, but I know the basic rules.”

“No, I mean… because of your father.”

Airi's father—Hideki—liked gambling, and that included mahjong.

I was worried it might bring back unpleasant memories.

“I don't mind. The game itself isn't guilty. Whether it's blackjack or mahjong.”

“Really? Then okay… Nodoka, can you play mahjong?”

“I only know the basics too. Sometimes at family gatherings, the adults taught me.”

“Then let's go play mahjong. Both of you would rather do that than table tennis, right?”

The two of them nodded together.

None of the three of us were particularly fond of physical activity.

We left the room and headed to the recreation room lined with several mahjong tables.

Maybe everyone had gone to play table tennis, because no one else was there.

“But now that I think about it, isn't mahjong a four-player game?”

“You can play with three too. It's not that hard. If anything, the pace is faster than four-player, and the rules are simpler.”

“I see. Ren, you know a surprising amount.”

“When I was in middle school, I got really into a manga where cute girls played mahjong.”

Because of that, I used to call kan unnecessarily just to aim for Rinshan Kaihou.

We set the table for three-player mahjong and took our seats.

The first round progressed while I explained the rules to them.

“As always, the hands and score calculation are hard, but being able to declare riichi quickly is kind of fun.”

“Right? Though if you go deep into it, three-player mahjong can actually be harder in some ways.”

“Hehe, Ren-kun. Can I add one more rule?”

“Out of nowhere?”

“There's no one else here right now besides us.”

…That face.

She was plotting something.

My bad feeling, as expected, was right.

“The loser has to remove one piece of clothing each time.”

You don't know the rules of three-player mahjong, so why do you know strip mahjong?”