Chapter 23:

She doesn’t think he’s a perv!

Having Trouble Coming up With a Decent Story


“Take them to his room.” Sumiye ordered while stopping the car. She got out of the vehicle and opened the trunk.

“Them?” Koshiro looked at the inflatable bear that was beside Sumiye, “Oh, of course.” “Hey!” the boy was now whispering from inside the car, “I can’t bear these two! Besides…” he looked at Sawada who was leaning against his shoulder, “How will I get out of this situation?”

“You should know better than everyone…” she closed the trunk with one hand while holding a bag with the other, “...that in these situations kids sleep like a rock. You can detonate a nuclear bomb besides them, and they won’t wake up.”

“Yes! Because they’ll be dead!”

“Stop bellyaching…” Sumiye opened the door from Sawada’s side, “... and learn how to do your job.” she quickly pulled the girl out of the car by her hair, ignoring the seat belt, and with only one hand.

“Wow...” Koshiro looked at Sumiye putting the little girl on her shoulders, “I always have to remind myself to never mess with her.”

“Dolaaki…” Sawada kept sleeping. Proving what Sumiye had said.

“Come on Koshiro! I’m doing the job for two here!” she started to hurry him.

“Okay!” the boy got out of the car and made his way to the other side of the vehicle to pick Sawada from Sumiye’s shoulders.

“Kuma-chan first, Koshiro.”

“Okay…” Koshiro opened Kuma-chan’s door and pulled her from the car.

“Great. Now take this…” Sumiye put Sawada on top of Kuma-chan, making Koshiro have to balance the two in his arms.

"Aah! Wait, no... Hmm… I thought they would be heavier.” the boy remarked.

“Let’s go.” Sumiye headed to the front door.

Koshiro followed the woman to his house. The two went up the stairs and entered a room closer to the stairs than Koshiro’s. The bedroom was simple, neat (although Koshiro couldn’t tell if this was because of the owner or because of when Sumiye stayed there), and the most notable things there were the single bed and the multiple monitors on a desk with a computer.

“Just put them on the bed while I unlock your parent’s door.” Sumiye uttered after leaving the bag in said bed.

“Okay.” the boy put Sawada and Kuma-chan on the single bed of the room and saw Sumiye leave the room. 

Koshiro sat at the chair before the monitors and thought: “Hmm… maybe I should text him?” but those thoughts quickly vanished. “Nah, it’s not like he wants my messages anyway, he told me he would come back quickly.”

“Koshiro idiot…” Sawada murmured, catching Koshiro’s attention.

“Hmm…” the boy looked at the two lying in bed, then turned his eyes to the bag beside them: “What is in that bag...?” Koshiro slowly approached it, “If I wasn’t supposed to see what’s inside Sumiye would have said so, right?” even though he wasn’t confident with his line of thought.

Koshiro grabbed the bag and looked at it for a moment, it was a simple black bag. He tried to open it right away, “Huh? the boy knit his eyebrows, “It’s stuck!” he grabbed the bag and for some reason, lifted it above his head while trying to pull the zipper. “Aargh! This thing won’t even budge!”

“What are you doing, Koshiro?” Scar appeared in the door.

“Huh?” the boy turned to the cat and the zipper finally opened, letting something soft fall in his head.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Sumiye followed Scar.

“Aaah!” Koshiro jumped back.

“What is wrong with you? Are you still the type we have to tell everything you can and can't do?” she crossed her arms, “If someone else saw you like that, they would think that you’re a pervert.”

“Huh?” Koshiro didn’t understand what she was talking about until he picked what had fallen onto his head. “A skirt…?” he murmured while looking at the garment.

“Yes.” Sumiye took it from his hands and then started to pick the ones on the ground.

“Well, good that it’s you then!” Koshiro concluded, “Since you know me, and won’t think of me as a pervert, Sumi-nee!”

“Yeah, I know you…” she was squatting to pick the jumble, “... that’s why I’m sure you’re one!”

“Hey! I…”

“Shhhhh! You’ll wake them up!”

“Ugh, weren’t you the one saying kids sleep like a rock in these situations?” the boy whispered.

“The situation changed.” Sumiye got up while pressing various school uniforms against her chest. She organized the pieces on the bed.

“What is this?” Koshiro observed her.

“I borrowed these to see which fits her for tomorrow, isn’t that obvious?”

“Yeah.” he looked at the sleeping girl, Sawada definitely couldn’t use the dirty uniform she was wearing now tomorrow.

“Which one?” Sumiye was done organizing the pieces, “Super big, big, medium, normal, little, very little, extra little, ‘Are you sure you are in High School?’, ‘Are you sure you are in junior high?’, or ‘Go back to the kindergarten?’” she indicated the sizes.

“Hmm…” Koshiro pondered for a moment, “Definitely the last one!”

“I was afraid of that.” Sumiye held her chin and made a serious expression.

“That she would be a total pipsqueak?”

“No.” she punched Koshiro on the stomach, “That you’d give an idiotic answer.”

“Aargh!” the boy held his belly, “Why did you do that?”

“I’m serious here.” Sumiye stated, “Which one?”

“Okay, okay, geez.” Koshiro rubbed the punched part, “I think it is ‘Are you sure you are in High School?’”

“Hmm… I think so as well.”

“Great! So what now?”

“I’ll take a bath with her.”

“Huh?” Koshiro turned to Sumiye, “I’m sorry, I thought I heard you say that you’d take a bath with her?”

“That’s what I said.”

“Hmm. Okay.” Koshiro nodded.

“Great!” she lifted Sawada from the bed.

“Hmm.” Koshiro observed the two, “WAIT, WHAAT?!” he then rushed to the door, before Sumiye: “W-What do you mean?! That’s sexual assault! You can’t do that!”

“Oh, you’re so cute worrying about her.”

“W-Wait! I-Is this about inspiration?! I’d never write about something like that!”

“Maybe you should consider it.” Sumiye started to walk out of the room, “It doesn’t need to be good to be a great success.”

“That’s not true! You don’t understand the beauty of… wait, I’m getting sidetracked, why do you need to be there with her?!” Koshiro followed her through the corridor.

“From what I know, it’ll be difficult for her to take a bath by herself, especially in an unfamiliar house, so I’ll help her out.”

“Shit! This actually makes sense…” “B-But…”

“Hey, just remember that this isn’t Ecchi.” she turned to Koshiro, “So don’t try to spy on us, okay?”

“I would never!”

“Great! See you later!” Sumiye opened the bathroom door and disappeared inside it.

“Remember that this isn’t Ecchi, remember that this isn’t Ecchi! I would never press my ear against the door to try and hear what’s going on in there.” Koshiro thought to himself as he walked to his room.

***

Koshiro’s room was the one farthest from the bathroom door, but even from there, he ended up hearing some things involuntarily. Sometimes they made sense:

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

“Just stay quiet and help me out!”

“AAAAAAAAH! SOMEONE HELP ME AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.”

“Shut up!”

“THIS WOMAN IS CRAZY!”

“Aargh.”

Other times, not so much:

“...A HUGE TIARA!”

“A tiny one.”

“A BIG DRAGON.”

“These don’t exist.”

“YOU’RE ROCKING THE BOAT, YOU KNOW?”

And in others, it was just noise:

“BAKALAKAAEHASA!”

“Agragnf, inshih!”

“DUIWD THSSAFXI!”

“Yinfga.”

Koshiro spaced out for a moment, recovering his senses with the weirdest sounds yet: a bed shaking and the two yelling from the other side of the corridor.

“Yaaay” it was Sawada’s voice.

“Hey! Take your hands off of there!” it was Sumiye.

“Here?”

“Aaargh! Yes! Of course!”

“What the heck is going on there?” Koshiro darted out of his room and made his way to the other side of the corridor, where his parents’ bedroom was. He wanted to see what was going on before his imagination got too creative.

“What about here?” Sawada asked.

“I’ve told you that you can’t.” Sumiye replied.

“Better hurry.” Koshiro was a few meters from the room that had its door ajar. He closed the distance in an instant and peeped through the opening.

“Don’t act like a creep Koshiro.” Sumiye opened the door as soon as he arrived.

“Huh?” the boy looked at the situation in front of him: the little girl (who was actually his senior) was cheerfully jumping in his parents’ double bed with Scar accompanying her.

“Yay!” Sawada was wearing clothes that didn’t fit her at all (they were too baggy) and had a huge smile on her face. As always, she looked like a child.

“I told you to not touch that!” Sumiye yelled at her, but she was giving a small smile.

“Hehe!” Sawada kept messing with a painting that was above the double bed, “Oops!”

“I had to lend her some of my clothes.” Sumiye explained to Koshiro.

“Oh...” the boy observed the girl.

“I’ll prepare a quick dinner for you, and then I’ll go back home.” she touched Koshiro’s right shoulder, “I’m counting on you.”

“Wait.” Koshiro turned to her, “Why don’t you just stay the night?”

“I can’t. I have to take care of my mother…” she glanced at Sawada for a moment, “...and some other things as well.”

“Hmm…?” Koshiro followed her eyes, “Oh, I see.”

“Great, so see you tomorrow.” 

“See you...” he murmured while observing her go down the stairs.

Kerry Kamiya
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