Chapter 114: Helping Shinobu Dry Her Hair
Nakano household living room.
Nino and Sakurai Saki were frozen in an incredibly awkward position.
"Don't move. Close your eyes," Nino ordered.
Sakurai Saki obeyed, slowly closing his eyes.
Nino crouched down, picked up the towel from the floor, and wrapped it around herself again.
"Done. You can open your eyes now."
Sakurai Saki opened his eyes and glanced downward—round white.
Then immediately turned his face away.
"What's wrong?"
Sakurai Saki didn't answer, continuing to search through the cabinet. His luck was decent—he found her contact lenses in the very first drawer he opened, along with a pair of regular glasses with an old-fashioned black frame.
He personally helped Nino put the glasses on.
Then Sakurai Saki slowly made his way back to the sofa.
A few seconds later, he heard Nino groan softly behind him.
"Uuungh~"
It sounded like the adorable whimper of a small animal.
Nino in a flustered state might just be the cutest among the five sisters—Sakurai Saki couldn't help but think.
Nino looked down at her chest.
She'd messed up when rewrapping the towel—an important area hadn't been properly covered.
But now—she could only pretend nothing had happened!!
Just act like nothing happened!!
She took her contact lenses from the drawer, feigned composure, grabbed the hair dryer on the sofa, and went upstairs.
'Let's pretend this never happened!'
( //>///
After she left—
Sakurai Saki also brought his hand to his face.
"(ノ _ <,, )
He realized that every time he came to the Nakano house, some kind of Fan-Service event would happen.
At this rate, give it a few more months and he'd end up seeing all of their bodies one by one.
Sakurai Saki genuinely wanted to keep his tutoring job separate from his personal life, but wasn't this streak of romantic luck a little too strange? It's not like he had some kind of weird "harem protagonist" physique like in those anime. And even if he did, why were all the "benefit events" happening only with these five sisters?
After several minutes of zoning out, Sakurai Saki's mind went completely blank.
Outside the window, the rain hadn't let up. He had school tomorrow, so it looked like he'd be spending the night here.
'Time to shower.'
Sakurai Saki stretched and headed to the bathroom.
In the changing area, he glanced into the laundry basket.
(╭ರ_•́)
'Black…'
Probably Nino's. The design was quite cute and fairly modest.
It wasn't like he did it on purpose—this was just an unavoidable situation. A man being drawn to women's underwear was an unchangeable truth of nature.
Good thing Newton got hit in the head by an apple instead of a durian, otherwise the law of universal gravitation might've been renamed.
He took off his outer shirt.
There were clean towels in the bathroom—Itsuki had said earlier that he could use them.
Just as he stepped into the bathroom—
From the shadow under Sakurai Saki's feet, a blonde-haired girl swam up from below.
And just like that, without warning, Sakurai Saki was pulled into the bath by Shinobu.
Dozens of minutes passed before Shinobu finally settled down.
One could only say: vampires have no concept of shame when it comes to these kinds of things—bathing together didn't bother them in the slightest.
While in the bath, Sakurai Saki hadn't thought much of it, but once he got out, he realized—he had clearly been influenced by a vampire's skewed sense of modesty.
As he stepped out of the bathroom, Sakurai Saki saw Nino lying on the sofa, hair dryer in hand—yet she had fallen asleep.
Maybe she had intended to return the dryer.
It wasn't that urgent, really—it could wait until tomorrow.
Maybe... she was going to give him the hair dryer to use? After all, there was only one dryer in the bathroom.
Sakurai Saki walked closer to Nino.
She was fast asleep.
He gently nudged her a few times, but there was no response.
Sakurai Saki sighed and lifted her up in a princess carry.
He had seen instructions online—if done with the right technique, it wasn't as exhausting as people imagined.
As an Esper, Sakurai Saki's physical strength was already far above the average person, so carrying a girl weighing around 50kg was easy for him.
Nino rested her head against his chest, still sound asleep.
Step by step, he gently carried her to the bed.
...
From upstairs, Sakurai Saki came down and took a book out of his bag. He had a habit of reading before sleeping.
Tonight he brought a light novel—the one he was halfway through from the night before.
It was a typical rom-com harem story, with some "Shurafield" moments, the kind of book where you "buy toilet paper and get an illustration as a bonus." But since the heroine was really pretty, it was fine. With these kinds of books, as long as the heroines were attractive enough and the male lead wasn't too annoying, Sakurai Saki could read through it.
Halfway through the book, the blonde-haired little vampire climbed into Sakurai Saki's lap.
"My Master, dry my hair."
(*ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)ꕤ*.ﾟ
Sakurai Saki recalled how, earlier in the bath, she had looked like a drenched puppy—unbelievably cute.
"Feels like your hair got a little shorter. Shinobu, can you control your hair length?"
"Umu, do you prefer short hair?" Shinobu asked curiously.
Sakurai Saki plugged the hair dryer into the socket. "No, I don't have any particular preference for hairstyles. As long as it suits you, that's enough."
After testing the temperature with his hand and finding it just right, Sakurai Saki began drying Shinobu's hair.
Her golden hair was smooth like a waterfall, soft to the touch like silk.
"My Master… it tickles~"
( ˶>˶˶<˶)
Shinobu said, face red.
There was nothing weird about his technique, but it was surprisingly comfortable.
And kind of… sensual.
"It tickles?" Sakurai Saki's hand gently slid across her pale neck, lifting her hair from underneath.
"Umm~" Shinobu let out a tiny, adorable moan.
Shinobu: (,,Ծ‸Ծ,, )
A few minutes later, her hair was dry.
"..." Shinobu's face was still red as she dove straight into the shadow under his feet.
Sakurai Saki had a confused look on his face. It was just drying hair, wasn't it?
After that, he returned the hair dryer and continued reading the light novel.
Sitting on the sofa, he heard footsteps. He looked up.
One of the sisters.
Probably Miku.
She was rubbing her eyes, clearly still sleepy. "…Umu?"
(* ´ ﹃｀*)
Sakurai Saki sensed that she wasn't fully awake.
She was probably wondering why he was in her house in the middle of the night.
He watched her as she walked straight to the bathroom.
Then he looked back down and continued reading.
The living room was very quiet. A few minutes later, Sakurai Saki saw a figure wobble out of the bathroom.
'That's probably Miku, right?'
To be honest, among the five sisters, the hardest to tell apart were Miku, Nino, and Itsuki. Because they all had long hair, and if they weren't wearing hair accessories, it was nearly impossible to tell who was who.
Nakano Miku walked over to the sofa, then—
Lay down right on Sakurai Saki's lap.
Sakurai Saki: (っ º - º ς)
Being that half-asleep was kind of overkill, wasn't it?
"Hey, Miku, wake up." Sakurai Saki pinched her cheek.
"Umm~" Miku slowly opened her eyes.
(っᆺ -｡)
Then closed them again.
And started breathing steadily.
Sakurai Saki realized—besides being bad at studying, these five sisters had a lot of problematic daily habits.
Nino refused to wear glasses when going out and cared too much about her appearance.
Ichika slept without clothes and liked teasing him with her "Ara ara~" act.
Miku got super clingy after waking up.
Yotsuba didn't know how to say no to people.
Itsuki was obsessed with meat buns and high-calorie food.
Totally hopeless… "( – ⌓ – )
Sakurai Saki sighed inwardly, put his light novel aside, and got ready to carry Miku back to her room.
Anyway, he'd already carried Nino once tonight.
Lifting her gently, Sakurai Saki carried Miku upstairs.
He opened the door and laid her on the bed...
"..."
His shirt was being tightly gripped—and her strength wasn't weak, either.
"Miku, you're awake, aren't you?"
Useless.
Sakurai Saki had no choice but to pinch her cheek—Miku puffed her cheeks up like a sulking hamster.
Miku: ( ,,⩌'︿'⩌,,)
So girls could sulk even in their sleep… truly eye-opening.
After a few more soft cheek-pinches, Sakurai Saki left her room.
He felt like aside from being a tutor, he was also playing the role of babysitter.
...
Note: two light-hearted chapters.