After numerous other incidents at the 'OreDere Beauty Pageant', a 10-year-old fourth-grader had won the contest.
Her speech on how she had been very thankful that her father took her to the beach even though he was busy with work, apparently had been a great show of her 'dere appeal'. Even though she expressed it very clumsily, the sincere effort received very favorable reviews. I never expected there to be any competitors like her, but she was definitely the cutest, and she captured the hearts of everyone the best. Apparently, this was the age where 'girls' surpassed 'women'. I guess we can say that the so-called girly power had became more widespread than female power.
As for the members of our 'Jien-Otsu', only Chiwa had barely managed to be mentioned honorably. Anyways, the prize was 'a year's worth of gal-games and otome-games' in software, and Chiwa didn't even have a game console.
As for Masuzu and my own performance, neither of us had got a pick.
While the audience had been very excited, the judges commented in a tsukkomi fashion, 'erm, this guy was just confessed to by contestant number two (laughs)'. With that, the approving cheers I had gotten from the audience immediately turned to disgust in a second, so it ended up with not being helpful to the contest. Whatever! After all, I guess I was too popular! I should have just disappeared!
After the contest, no one had been able utter a word.
For dinner I had made potato stew but everyone gloomily stayed in their own rooms. I put their dinners in front of their doors, to see if they were willing to eat at one point. Even though this was the last night of camp, this made me feel rather lonely.
Well, I guess it had been just my fault.
I guess Chiwa, Hime, and Fuyuumi didn't want to see my face.
But, why had even Masuzu been gloomily hiding herself in her room? It would have been okay if she were full of rage or hate, but it was frightening that she isn't responding.
I had resolved to ready myself for the utmost consequences after she came out of her room, but that little that had built up turned out to be an 'one-man show'...
♦
The following morning.
When I woke up, Masuzu's beautiful face was in front of my eyes.
"[...] ...?!"
She was straddling my stomach and gazing down at me in light blue pajamas. Her hanging silver hair brushed across her cheeks.
"W-What are you doing? Masuzu-san?"
"I was looking at the sleeping face of the man who deceived me."
"O-Oh."
"I was going to kill you, heh."
"[...]"
Even though she was saying something really frightening, Masuzu's face was calm.
It was a complete change from her crestfallen expression yesterday, where it seemed like she was possessed by some evil.
"You should have slept a little longer. I was going to return you the favor from your sneak attack last night."
"Sneak attack?"
Aah, she must mean the kiss on stage.
"But, in the first place, you were the one who told me to kiss you."
"I didn't tell you to do it in front of so many people. We didn't even discuss or rehearse it."
"I didn't have a choice, right?! There was no time for that!"
Besides, even if we had discussed it, there was no way it would have turned out that way. It would have probably become some anxious, stammering and stumbling unnatural confession.
It was better to get a kiss done without any rehearsal, leaving it to the flow of things.
"Just to make sure, I want to verify something."
While still riding on me, Masuzu's face closed in.
"Your confession was a total act, right? You didn't really fall for me, right?"
"…That's obvious, isn't it?"
Her face peered into me just inches away and I averted my gaze.
"I really hate you. Once you return my notebook, I'll break up with you. Regardless of how beautiful your face may be."
"———I see."
Masuzu's eyes narrowed and her face came even closer.
"You're acknowledging that I have a beautiful face?"
Her sweet breath fell onto my nose. I felt faint.
"Hey, am I really that beautiful?"
"…D-Don't say something a person with a lovestruck mind would say."
Masuzu giggled.
"Say, if Harusaki-san's beauty points amount to 1, how much would mine amount to? Hey, hey."
"A-Are you really asking that!? You really have an extraordinarily bad personality!"
Upon saying that, Masuzu acknowledged that by puffing out her chest in an unapologetic way.
"Didn't you say it last night as well? My personality is the most horrid. That I am ill-natured, shameless, insolent, impudent, brazen, vulgar, always humiliating, scorning, mocking, speaking ill of others, demeaning others, and..."
"Did I go to that extent!? Wasn't I much more lenient than that?!"
She could actually speak that badly of herself. Well done.
"...Stuck up, arrogant, willful, absurd, full of nonsense, unreasonable, pathetic, tragic, wretched——— and also a girl who loves you very much."
"[...]"
"Remember this well, Eita. Your 'girlfriend' is 'that' kind of a woman."
…Now, the last part was fake, right?
Masuzu?
"By the way, the last thing about 'loves you very much' is the most tragic part."
"Why?! Why is loving me tragic?!"
"That's obvious, right? To follow you to the place of mayhem between 2 x childhood friends + ex-girlfriend, there's nothing more tragic than that."
"Guh."
I can't argue with that!
Following that, in a covering fashion, she collapsed onto me. In between the cotton blanket, she pressed against me and consequently, I came to know her exact body shape.
"E~ita ♪"
"...?!"
This woman, just where did that voice come from?
Did I hear it wrong? It was like this voice of a really lovely girl...?
"Uwufufu. Eita. E~i~i~t~a~a. Such a wonderful person is my boyfriend. Fufufu."
"...Ma—"
Masuzu's broken! She's finally broken!
No, wait—
"T-This is also an act, right? You're faking it, right?"
Masuzu then looked up.
"That's obvious, right? Did you think that I'll seriously do such a loathsome 'flirtatious lovey-dovey' act? Please don't insult me."
"Y-Yeah, so true. Aah, I was surprised."
"Jeez. Eita gets so easily deceived."
"Hahaha, I got fooled."
"I also love this about Eita."
"...?!"
While lying on me and hugging me, Masuzu started rubbing her cheeks against my chest.
As if she was rubbing a scent onto my body, she kept rubbing. Consequently, the bed creaked.
Just like that time on the bus.
The only thing different from then was that her body was glued to mine and my entire body was shaking left, right, up, and down. What's this? Geez. Jeez! Aah— things are becoming really strange!
"M-Masuzu-san? What are you doing?"
"A trick."
"Am I still in elementary school!"
"Breathing with gills."
"Why a fish?! I'm asking you what's all the cheek rubbing for!"
"Aah, this? This is———— 'monyo-monyo'."
My head went blank.
"[...] ...M-Mo-nyo?"
"Yeah, mo-nyo-mo-nyo. It's very good for the health."
Masuzu's eyes were sparkling'
"I've always had a frail body up until elementary school. Even for school lunches I was the last to finish. For track sprints, I was also the last. I always got gloomy when the annual autumn sports meet came, and as the day drew near, I would hang the Teru Teru Bozu[1] upside down. At that time, I chanced upon the 'mo-nyo-mo-nyo'. Just by doing five minutes of this exercise in the morning after waking up and before sleeping every day, day after day, my stamina gradually increased, my appetite came, my waist became narrower, and even my luck with money got better. I was so much healthier than before. Even now, my friends and relatives have recommended continuing with it."
"…It's impossible to improve your luck with money…"
"Just my humble opinion."
"Aah, then say that at the beginning!"
"By the way, frankly, a person who experiences mo-nyo-mo-nyo has an eighty-seven percent chance of getting pregnant afterwards."
"That's a lie, that's just not possible!"
"Just my humble opinion."
"THAT'S NOT AN OPINION, IT'S CLEARLY YOUR IMAGINATIOOOOOOON!"
The comeback line was so intense that my throat went hoarse.
As I was gasping for breath, Masuzu snuggled up to me.
"Hey, Eita."
"…What?"
"Coming to the beach and staying overnight with a boyfriend, mucking and flirting around in the morning on the bed, all that makes me feel as if my body is rotting from the core."
"Yeah, totally."
While listening to the sound of waves, we exchanged such idle talk that can be said to be downright completely useless.
There was nothing to be gained, nothing of value to obtain from speaking or listening to it.
However, as to whether I disliked that or not—
Masuzu hit both my cheeks with her hands:
"Rotting and returning to the earth with you, may not sound like a bad idea."
"[...]"
What does she mean by that?
Does she mean she is going to give up on being anti-romance?
At that moment.
"Eita, are you awake?"
After a knock on the door, I could hear Saeko-san's voice call out to me.
It seemed like today, she was in awake-mode.
"Stay quiet", I told Masuzu with my eyes and then replied:
"I-I'm awake. What's up?"
"I came to see you before going back to the office. There's something I need to talk to you about, can you come down for a while?"
"All right. I'll be right there."
After waiting for a while for Saeko-san's presence to disappear completely.
"Masuzu, go back to your own room."
"I wonder what does your aunt want to talk about?"
"Who knows...?"
I was quite sure it was about the contest yesterday, though.
Masuzu's shoulders drooped.
"I didn't manage to win the contest after all. Perhaps, she really has no intention of accepting me as your girlfriend."
Quite frankly, even as her family, I didn't know either.
I wonder how Saeko-san took what had happened yesterday.
"Well, at any rate, I'll be going."
"Will it be okay? Shall I come along?"
I said to Masuzu who was looking at me anxiously:
"Trust your 'boyfriend', would you?"
"—Hm, got it."
'Be careful', Masuzu whispered into my ear and kissed me lightly on the cheek.
...Ermmmm.
Somehow