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After parting with Misaki in front of my home, I headed straight to my bedroom on the second floor.
I closed the door, placed my bag on the study table, and walked to my bed.

By my headboard is a teddy bear big enough to embrace with both arms. And over it is a shirt I stole-… No, borrowed from Misaki’s room.

Its name is Misatan.
I dive into my bed and face-first into Misatan’s embrace. With my head buried in the fluffy chest, I expel everything I’ve been holding back up until now.

「*Uwooaaaaaa!*」

*Misaki and I are mutually in loveeeeeeee!*
*Yahoooooooo!!*
*This is the beeeeeeest!!!*
*Oh yeahhhhhhhhh!!!!*

Screaming into Misatan’s belly, I squeeze its body, with my feet kicking the air.
After my long scream, I raise my head to catch my breath.

「*Haa, haa*…」

I thought I was going to suffocate. My heart’s pounding so hard.
Still, I did well on enduring until now. Good job on getting back home, me.
If I stayed a bit longer, I would have screamed not into this plush but into Misaki herself. For hours on end.

Had I *exposed* this part of me immediately after her confession, it might cause Misaki to recoil in disgust. She might even take the confession back.
Which is why I ran away.

Still, I really am not honest with myself.
Even though I could’ve just reciprocated Misaki’s confession of love, somehow things got complicated.

She was so smug when she said, ‘*You like me, don’t you?*’ so I lost my cool.
Her knowing that I touched her in her sleep was super embarrassing, too. I didn’t want it in focus.
Regret it. I’m reflecting.

Still, the decision was also due to my intuition.
A good part of it was because I was embarrassed, true; but for some reason, I just had a bad premonition.
In most cases, my intuition generally doesn’t miss.

I can’t really describe properly what my intuition was telling me, but when Misaki confessed to me…

*I don’t know why… But she has some cheater energy.*
That thought suddenly appeared in my mind.

Like, just hearing that she loves me isn’t enough to feel secure. After all, it’s easy to say whatever you want.
I can’t deny the possibility that she says the same thing to a whole lot of people when I’m not around. I know that she’s skilled at winning people over.

In hindsight, I feel like my judgement wasn’t a mistake.
After all, even today, she immediately started flirting with some girl after being left alone just for a bit.

Still, it’s not like I seriously want her to change her whole character.
Misaki is fine the way she is. After all, it was this unapologetic Misaki that I’m in love with.
Rather, those parts of Misaki are what makes her cute.

… Or so I say.
The truth is, there are a few things I want her to fix.
Like her vulgarity, her bad manners, and her being quick to get cocky, for example.

Also, please stop being friendly to everyone.
Please stop being kind to people other than me.
Please stop talking to everyone other than me.
Please stop looking at everyone other than me.
Please stop thinking about anything other than me.

… Wait? That sounds like a fair bit more than a few.

Anyway, if I went, ‘*I love, love, love you, too,*’ with Misaki, she’ll most likely get cocky about it.
She’s going to lead me on, and I’d get jealous and unstable.
I’m going to be wrung until I’m dry and then chucked to the trash. I can see it already.
After all, don’t childhood friends tend to get treated that way?

That’s why, for now, I’m deferring my response.
Observe from a reasonable distance and ascertain how serious Misaki is.
And while I’m at it, condition her so she can never take her eyes off of me☆

「*Mnn!*」

I pushed my lips against Misatan’s nose? mouth.

Misakitan’s lips were so soft and bouncy!
Her first kiss! Her first smooch! Was delicious! Thank you for the meal!

「… We can just kiss anytime we want.」

I caressed the underside of Misatan’s chin.
Her (his?) adorable round eyes stare at me with desire.

「What do you want? Come on, say it.」

I whisper with a sultry tone.
It seems like old man Miyu has come out of the woodworks. I’m not stopping.

On the bright side, the fact that I was able to keep the initiative back then might have been because of my regular practices. Thank you, old man Miyu.

「*Hm?* You want a sloppy kiss? From me?」

It was my first time, but did I do well?
Misaki was impressed by my kiss, though, and the way she was looking up to me that time was so damn sexy and adorable!

Holding nothing back, I straddle Misatan, pushing her down by the shoulders and lording over her from above.

「Come now, stick out your tongue.」
「… Neechan?」

Suddenly hearing a voice, I collapsed into my bed, but I slipped and fell to the floor along with my blanket.

I rolled to cushion the impact and stood up on my one knee with the resulting inertia.
Ready to square off, I glared at the invader standing in silence.

「… Why did you enter my room without permission?」
「N-no, I knocked several times, you know?」

Hearing me ask in a low voice, my little brother Yuuma faltered.
I was engrossed in my 「*domain*¹」 so there was no damn way I could hear him knocking.

「… How long have you been here?」
「W-well, just now?」

He looked away.
While the bed is positioned at around the door’s blind spot, there’s still a chance that he heard me.

I stood up, staring at my taller brother as if to intimidate him.

「So? What brought you here?」
「Well, *um*, food… Call you down…」
「That so. I’ll follow after.」

I waved my hand, shooing him.
Against my expectations, Yuuma didn’t go but instead awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.

「*Umm*, hey, were you at Misaki-san’s house?」
「I was, so?」
「She’s living alone right now, right?」
「Yeah.」

I responded with the bare minimum.
Since he went silent, I urged him to continue.

「So?」
「*Ahh, um,* I was thinking of, like, maybe coming over to play sometime…」
「Why?」
「W-why? No particular reason…」

Yuuma is two years younger than me and in second-year middle school.
This little brother of mine dares to have feelings for Misaki, apparently. Like an open book, he is.

Naturally, Misaki only sees him as a friend’s little brother.
However, she plays games with him and is weirdly friendly. That’s why he’s getting the wrong idea.

Misaki does call herself a former boy, so I guess they’re just on the same wavelength?
I just had an epiphany, but does Misaki perhaps actually wish to be a boy? Does she have the desire to have a harem of cute girls or something like that?
Then I really do have to keep a tight leash on her.

「I just haven’t seen Misaki-san’s face in a while…」

The friend’s little brother is speaking nonsense.
While he might seem like a pitiful man at first glance, that’s not the case at all.
He has excellent grades and is the ace of the tennis club.
He has good manners, is tall, and has a good fashion sense.

We don’t look very similar, but his looks are great as well.
With all those pleasing traits, he’s considerately popular.
In just this year’s Valentine’s, he brought home 3 or 4 Honmei Chocolates².
Even last year, the girls in my class were pestering me to introduce them to him; it was annoying.

But he has no girlfriend. He rejected everyone, apparently.
You got no chance with Misaki, so just choose yourself a girl already.

「I still have a score to settle in our last gaming session, so I want a bit of payback, I guess…」

He’s so roundabout; it seems like he’s not good at taking the initiative.
We never really talk on the topic of love, but as his kind older sister, I’ll finish him off while it’s still early.

「Just so you know, Misaki has someone she likes.」
「*Eh*…」
「And it’s not you.」

I immediately kill his hopes.

「So she does have one, too…」

Misaki doesn’t really talk about romance and love either, so it must have been unexpected.
Well, I don’t do it either, though.
Still, what is this feeling of superiority? Damn, this feels great.

「Who is it…」

It seems like he’s curious.
*Ah*, but that’s right.
If actually pressed for answers, it’s impossible for us to hide our relationship forever. He’s going to find out anyway, and I frankly don’t intend to back down.
So I pointed to my own face.

「Me.」
「*Huh?*」
「And I like Misaki, too.」

Yuuma had his mouth agape, but he quickly nodded as if convinced.

「*A~h*, well, you two are pretty close.」

Thank goodness. He accepted it.
I just told the truth. I’d feel bad if he had a misunderstanding.

「What about you? Do you have a boyfriend?」
「Why?」
「My friends just keep pestering me to ask, you see.」

Apparently I’m popular, too.
What’s so good about someone like me anyway?

Well, my looks are normally great, I guess. I’m aware of that. I can even act proper if need be. Might even have multiple personalities, to be honest.

Thanks to Yuuma, I have an understanding of how boys think to some extent. I don’t have any weird delusions about them. I guess they mistake that for me acting mature?
Again, don’t I have such a twisted personality?

「I’m not interested in younger people.」

Saying so, Yuuma fell silent. You’re the one who asked the question; don’t go quiet.
But I suppose this conversation feels weird because we don’t usually touch on these topics.

「Are you afraid someone’s taking your sister away?」

Just for fun, I tried teasing him.

「N-no, not at all…」

What are you blushing for?
That’s the part where you should go, 「That’s stupid, cringe!」
This kid surprisingly has a lot of love in him, huh.　

After mumbling like some girl in love, Yuuma looks at me and then at the teddy bear on the bed splayed out like it was just laid.

「Hey, neechan… do you *like* animals?」

I grab the floor cushion by my feet and throw it at him. As well as a pillow on my bed for good measure.
Yuuma ran out of my room while covering my face.

Maybe I should add more locks to the door.