Leave a comment

“Huh? Why are my clothes here?”

While Ibuki was eating, I thought I’d tidy up the living room a bit and stood up. There, on the massive sofa—big enough for someone to comfortably sleep on—was my pajama, just sitting there for some reason. Did I leave it there without realizing it?

“Oh, that? I was sniffing it earlier. Guess I just left it there.”
“E-Excuse me!? What are you even saying!?”
“Hm? You weren’t around, and I missed you, so I thought I’d calm myself down with your scent.”

As I picked up the pajama and confronted Ibuki, she casually dropped this bombshell with a completely straight face.

“What’s with you all of a sudden…! That’s so not like you, Ibuki…”

To be fair, it was rude of me to assume, but Ibuki always struck me as the lone wolf type. The kind who wouldn’t feel lonely just because I didn’t visit for a couple of days. Heck, I’d even convinced myself of that and felt a bit sad about it before. Yet here we are—after not seeing each other for less than a week—and she’s completely throwing me off with this behavior.

“Wait a second… don’t tell me… you actually like me or something?”

First, it came to light that Ibuki had secretly groped my chest while I was asleep. Now, she’s sniffing my clothes to cope with missing me? She was starting to sound like a middle schooler with a hopeless crush. Without thinking, I threw out a jokingly tsundere-style accusation.

“Huh? I’ve always liked you, though.”
“!!!”

Ibuki, looking completely nonchalant, tilted her head slightly and answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Wait… was she serious? Could this really be what I thought it was? A little time apart made us both realize our feelings for each other? Or—more likely—I’ve just been playing the dense protagonist all along and completely missed her signals.

“I mean, if it weren’t for you, I’d probably still be sick all the time. Even now, I don’t think I could get by without you. Not loving such an amazing best friend would’ve been the weird part.”

…Turned out she was the dense protagonist here. If I’d thought about it even a little, I would’ve realized. We’ve been together for almost twenty years. If a few days of not seeing each other were enough to spark romantic feelings, then this unrequited love would’ve been mutual ages ago.

Talking about marriage and all that—geez, she really got my hopes up for no reason.

“Sigh…”
“What’s up?”
“Nothing. Just marveling at how dumb I am.”
“You’re not dumb, Yukino.”
“Yeah, yeah, thanks.”

The whole marriage thing Ibuki brought up? Clearly just her way of keeping me around so her personal maid wouldn’t leave. Ever since same-sex marriage became legal in Japan a few years ago, she’d probably seen it as the perfect excuse to tie me down. Back then, I was over the moon about the law changing, but now it’s not even about the law—it’s about how I got my wires crossed.

“I’m going home. I’m just… exhausted.”
“Huh? No way! You’ve gotta stay over tonight.”

More than physically, I was mentally drained. As I tried to leave, Ibuki stopped me.

“I have work tomorrow, so I’m not staying. I only crash here when I have the next day off, remember?”
“Yeah, but… I didn’t get to see you all week. I’ll call a cab for you in the morning, so stay, okay?”
“Ugh…”

Ibuki lightly tugged at the hem of my shirt, looking up at me with big, pleading eyes. The kind of move you’d think was calculated to be as adorable as possible. Not that she was doing it on purpose—probably.

“Urgh… fine, I’ll stay.”
“Yay!”

In the end, I couldn’t resist Ibuki. Especially when she pulled something that cute—it was game over for me.

“Okay, I’m hopping in the bath! Make yourself comfortable, Yukino!”
“Yeah, yeah.”

She looked so happy just because I agreed to stay over. It’s not like this was anything new—I had stayed at her place a million times. What got her so excited?

But… being asked to stay by someone you had a crush on, and then seeing them light up with joy when you said yes—it was a hell of a reward for the one nursing unrequited feelings. For someone like me, who’d been stuck in a first crush for years, this didn’t feel half bad.

Feeling a little giddy myself, I decided to channel that energy into cleaning. Might as well make myself useful. This house may be big enough for a whole family, but with just one person living here, the cleaning was a nightmare. The living room, untouched for about a week, already had a faint layer of dust in the corners.

“Honestly, maybe I should make her do some of this herself.”

Our dynamic hadn’t changed much, but for Ibuki’s sake, I should probably push her to be more independent. Sure, back when she was sickly, it made sense for me to handle everything. But now that she was a healthy shut-in, there was no reason she couldn’t pitch in with housework. If she learned to handle things herself, I wouldn’t need to stick around. And maybe—just maybe—that’d be the push I need to finally let go of this ten-year-long crush.

As I firmed up my resolve, a wave of loneliness washed over me.

But I couldn’t keep her as a hopeless case just to make myself feel better. If Ibuki stayed with no self-sustaining skills, I’d always have an excuse to stay by her side. That kind of selfishness would only hold her back, and I couldn’t do that.

“Okay. When she’s out of the bath, I’ll teach her how to clean.”

Slapping my cheeks to steel myself, I renewed my commitment to finally graduate from being Ibuki’s stand-in wife.

Support Us

Unlock Early Access ------- Select Project ------- Project Gender Bender Project Necro ∴ Support your favorite series and unlock chapters before the public release.