[Yukino: ...A bath towel isn't decent.]
[Hayashi: I don't mind!]
[Yukino: Is that all your brain is good for!? (｀Δ´)! ]
Facing Yukino's scolding, Hayashi didn't respond with words but silently sent a video.
—Video.mp4
In a street in the suburbs at night, a cat-eared girl wearing a Sobu High School uniform was pinned against a wall... After Hayashi sent this video, Yukino on the other side fell silent for a while, either shocked or watching the video intently.
After a long while, Hayashi's phone vibrated continuously.
[Yukino: You! You actually filmed a video!]
[Yukino: At that time, from that angle, how did you film it!]
[Yukino: Delete it!]
[Yukino: Hurry! `(ﾒ｀ﾛ´)/]
[Hayashi: Photos, I want beautiful photos!]
[Yukino: (→_→)]
[Hayashi: If you give me photos, I'll delete the video!]
[Yukino: Do you think I'm easy to fool?]
[Hayashi: I promise! (＞ω＜)]
[Yukino: ...]
After a thirty-second silence.
Yukino.jpg
In the picture, Yukino, wrapped in a long bath towel, stood in front of the bathroom mirror. The lingering steam had not completely dispersed, like a hazy veil covering her.
She held her phone somewhat awkwardly, her expression still habitually cold, her crimson lips slightly pursed, but the blush quietly spreading up her neck betrayed her current shyness.
Although nothing was revealed, the pure shyness of the girl evoked a feeling far beyond any suggestive content.
[Yukino: Is that enough? Delete the video, and delete the photo too!]
[Hayashi: Thank you for the treat, but deleting it is impossible!]
[Hayashi: Yukino, didn't your mother tell you that the more handsome a boy is, the more he will lie? Please remember this lesson.]
[Hayashi: Finally, good night, sweet dreams. I believe I'll sleep very soundly tonight! (＞ω＜)]
Without giving Yukino a chance to reply, Hayashi sent three consecutive messages, then placed his phone on the bedside table.
Then he saw his phone continuously buzzing.
After a full minute!
The phone's vibration finally stopped. Seeing this, Hayashi, with a smile on his lips, happily turned off his phone and placed it on the bedside table.
As for what Yukino sent! The clever him declared that the chat with Yukino was over, so it was naturally impossible to look!
...In Hayashi's sweet dreams, a night quickly passed.
In front of a Japanese-style detached two-story house, similar to Shin-chan's house.
Knock, knock!
Suddenly, a knock on the door woke Hayashi from his dream.
'Who's knocking on my door so early?'
Opening his eyes, Hayashi looked at the alarm clock beside him; it was only 7:12. It was still a long time until 8:00, the school starting time.
'Could it be that Yukino was sulking all night and came to find me?'
Thinking of his cat-teasing behavior last night, this thought flashed through Hayashi's mind, but soon Hayashi realized he was overthinking.
—The person who came was not Yukino at all.
"Yuki?"
Walking to the entrance and opening the door, Hayashi looked at the girl standing gracefully and elegantly before him—this young lady of the Suou family—and called out in confusion.
"Good morning, Hayashi~"
Gracefully lifting her skirt, Yuki, with a noble smile on her face, bowed deeply to Hayashi and said:
"The things behind me are entrusted to you!"
"?"
Hearing this, Hayashi's gaze fell behind Yuki.
He saw a pile of moving boxes neatly stacked behind her, towering several heads taller than Yuki herself.
In response, Hayashi couldn't help but give Yuki a questioning look.
"Oh dear~ Hayashi is truly forgetful; has he forgotten how he, like a demon, threatened this poor little girl!?"
Feigning the pitiful appearance of a virtuous woman forced into servitude, Yuki wiped away non-existent tears from the corner of her eyes while hinting at something.
"I just asked you to come over and be a maid, not to move in, and..."
Hayashi completely ignored her exaggerated performance, his gaze falling on her moving 'furniture,' and he continued, somewhat uncertainly.
"You didn't move all your doujinshi, manga, games, and such from your rental apartment, did you?"
"Hayashi, you're so smart!"
Yuki, with an elegant smile, admitted it without hesitation.
"..."
Hayashi silently watched her elegant smile, unashamed.
"Since I've already been threatened by you, why not put everything here with you? Isn't that good?"
Facing Hayashi's gaze, Yuki's smile remained unchanged, wearing an expression of 'it's only natural, aren't I clever?'. At the end, she suddenly called out playfully.
"Master Onii-chan~~!"
Her voice was sweet and cloying, making one's bones ache. It must be said that Yuki's personality, as a younger sister, was truly exceptional!
"You really have no shame at all!"
Hayashi couldn't help but retort.
'Hehe~ Men!'
At this, Yuki's expression instantly changed to one of disdain, glancing at Hayashi at a 45-degree angle.
Although she didn't speak, her eyes said it all.
'Ha~ I've already been threatened by you to be a maid. Do you think you'd be kind enough to let me off and not make me call you Master!'
'Girls who are too smart aren't as cute, you know.'
Hayashi returned Yuki's gaze with a handsome smile.
'Am I not cute~?
Master Onii-chan~
Switching seamlessly from disdainful to sweet, Yuki called Hayashi sweetly again. Her 'sincerity' convinced Hayashi.
Smart girls aren't cute, but she's different!
Come on in!
Hayashi stepped aside from the entrance and said.
"Master Onii-chan~ Are you going to watch weak little me carry so much luggage~? Yuki will be exhausted to death~."
Fluttering her pitiful eyes, Yuki looked at Hayashi with an expectant expression.
"So, you deliberately had the movers place the items at the door, didn't you?"
Glancing at this cute little devil, Hayashi directly exposed her little scheme.
This young lady deliberately wanted him to move things!
"Eh—!"
Yuki's nimble eyes widened dramatically, looking at Hayashi as if deeply wounded by his words and unable to believe it, saying tearfully.
"Master Onii-chan, how could you think of Yuki that way? Yuki feels so wronged!! Do you really intend to use Yuki like livestock?!
I can't move it; Yuki really can't move it!!"
Yuki put on an earnest performance, and after she finished speaking, seeing Hayashi unmoved, she continued to gaze at him with pitiful eyes... Time passed minute by minute.
Ultimately, the one committing the mischief had patience—mainly, the stares from the early-rising elderly folks made Hayashi a bit uncomfortable.
"Fine, you win!"
Sighing, Hayashi said. Hearing this, a victorious smile appeared on Yuki's pitifully pretty face.
However, Yuki's smile quickly froze.
Hayashi was right; being threatened into becoming a maid, Yuki naturally had some minor grievances, and making Hayashi move her things was the small trouble she chose for him.
To make him move things properly and tire him out!
'He couldn't possibly use a cursed tool to strengthen his body just to move her things, could he?'
Yuki thought.
However, while she wasn't wrong, Hayashi indeed didn't use the power of the cursed tool.
But he didn't move them himself either.
Yuki saw Hayashi extend his hand, and as Yuki's pupils widened in surprise, a slit naturally opened in his palm, and blood flowed from it.
Like a small mountain spring, the blood flowed onto the ground, eventually transforming into ten blood-red stick figures... Then Yuki watched as these blood-red stick figures gruntingly carried all her luggage into the house.
"...
When did you get this ability?"
Yuki exclaimed, this time genuinely surprised.
"Guess?"
A mysterious smile appeared at the corner of his lips, and Hayashi indicated he wouldn't tell her.
"Forget it! I'm not really that curious anyway!"
Sighing, her mischievous plan having failed, Yuki felt somewhat disheartened but still asked a question.
"By the way, where's my room for being a maid?"
Tsk!
She's not calling me Master Onii-chan anymore! Hayashi marveled at Yuki's quick change of face while pointing to a room on the first floor.
The blood-red stick figures had also placed Yuki's luggage inside.
"Understood!"
Nodding, Yuki prepared to arrange her room, with an air of intending to transform it into a secret base.
"By the way, Maid Yuki, remember to change into your work attire when on duty, and please address me by my title!"
"Understood, Hayashi! I brought my maid outfit!"
Yuki gave Hayashi a coquettish glare and stepped into her room.