When Matsuzaka Satou woke up in the morning, she found herself lying in a man’s embrace.
Her vision was filled with pale skin, and she could not see the other person’s face.
She was startled badly.
That feeling of her brain crashing and her heart instantly jumping into her throat was unfamiliar.
And she hated it.
She did not want to experience that feeling.
But in the next instant, she reacted again.
The familiar scent and build of the man holding her made it obvious that he was Ayanokouji Ren.
Even so, Satou still lifted her head and shifted her gaze upward slightly to confirm it.
Only then did she relax.
But she could not help thinking in her heart.
What a strange change in emotion.
“Dislike.”
Even though it had only lasted for an instant, Satou understood what “dislike” or “disgust” meant.
It was the feeling of wanting to kick the other person away without the slightest hesitation.
But why had her reaction been so strong?
Satou thought about it, searching through her memories for whether she had ever had a similar reaction before.
Finally, she found it.
She remembered that when she was little, a strange man had smashed the candy jar her aunt had given her, and she had felt a little sad.
When they tore apart the teddy bear she hugged every night while sleeping, she had also felt unbearably sad.
Satou understood that those were emotions of sorrow.
But what she wanted to talk about was what came before that.
The moment those people’s hands touched the candy jar and the teddy bear, she had actually already started gritting her teeth and wanting to drive them away.
So Satou suddenly understood.
Only something one truly cared about could make a person feel such intense rejection.
After all, the more important something was, the less one could tolerate even the slightest accident happening to it.
Satou’s body tensed slightly, then softened again.
Her cheek pressed against Ren’s chest.
Through the thin sleepwear, she could clearly feel his body temperature and powerful heartbeat.
That rhythm was calm and steady, forming a sharp contrast with her own messy heartbeat at that moment.
“I see…”
Satou murmured.
If the person holding her just now had been the butler or the driver, she would have kicked them away without hesitation.
The reason she had not done that was because the person holding her was someone she already had a good impression of.
It was Ayanokouji Ren, the person who would choose skirts for her and say, “Let’s become family.”
That was why her reaction had been so strong.
After figuring that out, Satou lifted her face again.
Her gaze unconsciously lingered over Ren’s nearby neck and collarbone.
“Good impression.”
“Like.”
“Love.”
Although Satou did not understand the theory of quantitative change leading to qualitative change, she could still tell the difference between those words.
She could also understand that they progressed step by step.
So next, she needed to try understanding what it meant to like someone.
For Satou, if she absolutely had to like or love someone, then someone who was family, someone who liked her, and someone she already had a good impression of…
Clearly, Ayanokouji Ren was a decent choice.
But how could she make herself like him?
“Liking someone means leaving a mark on the person you like.”
Remembering Ren’s previous behavior, Satou also wanted to leave something on him.
For example…
Her scent?
But scents disappeared too easily.
Then perhaps a deep bite mark?
That way, as long as he saw the mark, he would think of her.
That thought made Satou’s heartbeat speed up even more, carrying a kind of excitement she had never felt before.
So she raised her head, and her gaze finally landed on his sleeping lips.
Ren’s lips were thin. Find the original chapter at novelping.com.
Because he was asleep, they looked soft at that moment, unlike during the day when they were always pressed into a cold straight line.
She wanted to bite them.
Satou slowly leaned closer.
“Don’t move around.
It tickles.”
Ren suddenly spoke.
Satou froze.
So he had already woken up.
Of course Ren had woken up.
He had been excited awake as soon as the system notified him of [Matsuzaka Satou, Disgust +1].
He had already prepared himself to be kicked off the bed.
But in just one instant, Satou had actually taken the initiative to hug him again.
It left Ren completely at a loss.
All he could say was that a woman’s heart was as deep as the ocean.
“Did you secretly sneak into my bed last night?”
Satou smiled and asked, knowingly.
“Mm.”
“You actually didn’t wake me up.”
“I tried to wake you, but you were sleeping very deeply.”
Ren said honestly, “So you can’t blame me.”
“Ren, boys and girls aren’t supposed to sleep in the same bed.”
Satou said that with her mouth, but she did not get up.
“Didn’t you learn that in health class?”
Oh, oh.
She was starting to use her status as an elder.
Even though they had no blood relation at all.
Ren remained calm.
“Then just pretend I didn’t.”
Satou froze for a moment, then smiled again.
“Is sleeping with me more comfortable?”
“Of course.
Satou, you’re cute, and you’re soft.”
Ren said.
There was no one who disliked sleeping while holding a cute girl, right?
“But if big sister finds out about our relationship, she’ll definitely scold us, won’t she?”
Satou whispered.
“Actually, when we came home yesterday afternoon, big sister called me.
She talked to me about changing my name and going to school.”
“Then she asked a little about what you said before, about liking me.”
“Although she didn’t say anything specific, I could feel that she was a little worried.”
Ren looked into Satou’s eyes.
“Isn’t that simple?
We just don’t let her find out.”
“?”
“A normal relationship on the surface, but a forbidden one in private?”
Satou thought of some manga she had read before.
A title she was somewhat familiar with seemed to be called Yosuga no Sora.
There was a plot in it where siblings secretly dated under their friends’ noses.
Although she was an elder, she was younger in age.
It felt a little like the plot in that manga.
Somehow, it seemed rather thrilling.
However, in the manga, when the protagonists were discovered at the entrance, the male lead’s expression had looked rather terrible.
“Right.
Isn’t that pretty good?”
Ren said.
He wanted Satou to take the initiative to hide things.
Satou wrapped her arms around Ren’s neck.
“If we’re found out, will I be kicked out?
To a foreign country?”
Satou remembered that the male and female leads had boarded a train to a foreign country at the end.
“You won’t be kicked out.
Even if you are, I’ll go with you.”
“We’ll go to Germany together.
German orthopedics is very advanced, and the Ayanokouji family also has businesses there.
We can still make a living over there.”
Ren said that terrible cold joke without changing his expression, twirling a strand of Satou’s pink hair around his finger.
Satou stared straight at him.
There seemed to be something chaotic growing inside her pink pupils.
She said seriously, “Then we’ll hide it first.
And when we can’t hide it anymore, we’ll go to Germany together.”
“Okay.”
Ren nodded.
Suddenly, Satou leaned closer and kissed him on the lips.
I see.
A boy’s lips were different from his body.
They were soft.
And very warm…
Satou buried her head in Ren’s chest, tracing small circles against him with her finger as she smiled.
“Like you said, when I’m a little older, then it’ll be okay?”
“Okay.”
Ren nodded.
That was exactly what he had been worried about.
Sometimes, a girl’s desires were even stronger than a boy’s.
Fortunately, Satou was mature enough.
In various senses.
“But for now, kissing is okay.”
Satou said again, blinking.
Then she suddenly bit Ren near the chest, making him jolt from the pain.
“What are you doing?”
“Leaving a mark.
You taught me that, Ren.”
Satou said innocently and pitifully.
Ren felt awkward.
He had not expected the nonsense he casually made up to actually make Satou act according to that method.
This girl’s pursuit of love was definitely even more blind and directionless than he had imagined.
But the fact that she dared to bite him was also rather cute.
“You left one on me, so should I leave one on you too?”
Ren asked.
“Okay.”
Satou shifted closer and looked at him with a small smile.
She tilted her head slightly.
“But be gentle, okay?”
…
On Sunday morning, Kashiwagi Nagisa received a text.
[Sorry, Master.
Today, I’m going with Satou to school to prepare her uniform.]
Sender note: Maki’s Husband.
“Who calls an elder directly by name like that?”
Nagisa looked at the message on her phone and muttered to herself in confusion.
She still did not understand.