Kawaikereba Hentai demo Suki ni Natte Kuremasu ka? Volume 12 Chapter 4

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The Story of Wanting to Win over a High School Boy during Valentine’s

The fourteenth of February is a very special day. Girls all over the world give chocolate to the boy they are interested in, and boys spend the day excited with expectations and hopes that they’ll receive chocolate from the girl they’re interested in. On one side, love blooms like sweet chocolate, and on the other, love comes to an end with a cruel and bitter aftertaste. The winners of the day, receiving chocolate from a cute girl, gather the resentful gazes of the losers, who shed tears of defeat and howl in the face of despair.

As for our Young Kiryuu, who was in the middle of that—As you could guess, he belonged to the losers. If there was someone who’d be willing to give him chocolate to begin with, then he wouldn’t have spent his entire life without a girlfriend. The only person who would brighten his day and give him chocolate was his little sister Mizuha. For example, when he was still in middle school…

“Uuuu… Urk… I didn’t get any chocolate this year either…”

“Oh my, what a shame.” She cheered up her dejected older brother. “Since I feel bad for you, how about you take some chocolate from your cute little sister?” She would say while giving him a pack of homemade chocolate.

It didn’t happen that year alone. Every single year, she would prepare chocolate for Keiki. For him, Valentine’s meant he wouldn’t receive chocolate at school, but from his little sister at home. It was mostly thanks to Mizuha that Keiki didn’t come to hate this Valentine’s day, cursed by so many loners. And thus—

“Another year, huh…?” Keiki made a wry smile when his phone alarm woke him up.

The date on the screen showed the fourteenth of February. It was the exciting yet heart-wrenching Valentine’s day.

“Shouma-kun, please accept this!”

“Thanks, Koharu-chan.”

When Keiki arrived at school, he spotted Koharu handing wrapped chocolates to Shouma. Must be homemade, he figured as he inspected the heart-shaped box.

“I hope it suits your tastes, but… Knowing Shouma-kun, you’ll probably get a lot of chocolate…”

“Your chocolate will always be the best to me, Koharu-chan.”

“Shouma-kun…”

“Koharu-chan…”

The two of them looked at each other. The atmosphere was practically screaming ‘Just kiss already!’, and the chocolate seemed close to melting from the heat. Keiki looked at the two and sighed.

“I’m happy for you, but you’re in the middle of the street…”

Just to make things clear, the two of them were flirting right in front of the school gate. Naturally, the students passing by all gave them dubious looks.

“Ah!? What was I doing, and in a public place no less…!” Koharu ran away, hiding her face from the embarrassment.

“Yo, Keiki. Morning.”

“Morning.”

Keiki and Shouma were left behind, setting foot inside the school building together.

“Koharu-senpai sure is bold, isn’t she? To think she’d hand over the chocolate in such a public space.”

“I guess that her head was too busy with the actual chocolate to pay attention to her surroundings. Her face was beet red.”

“Your girlfriend’s a bit too cute, isn’t she?” Keiki felt jealous from the bottom of his heart. “Also, can you stop grinning like that…?”

“I can’t help it. This is the first time I’ve gotten chocolate from my girlfriend. I have my own trauma from Valentine’s day, alright?”

“Trauma…? Oh right, when your older sisters cosplayed as chocolate people…”

A long time ago, he had been chased by his older sisters, who were saying ‘Eat me!’, which caused said trauma. That being said, his current girlfriend was a great help in melting that trauma away.

“I hope you get some too, Keiki.”

“Even if I don’t, I have my ‘Promised Winner’s Chocolate’.”

“The heck is that?”

“I have a beautiful girl who gives me chocolate every year.”

“Ah, Mizuha-chan, right.” Shouma nodded with a smile. “That reminds me, Mizuha-chan isn’t with you.”

“She’s got duty today, it seems.”

They talked about this and that, and soon arrived at the front entrance, standing near the shoe lockers.

“Maybe you’ve gotten some secret chocolate from a shy girl inside your shoe box?”

“As if, haha.” Keiki laughed and opened the shoe locker.

When he did so, he spotted an unfamiliar object inside.

“…Eh?”

Sadly, it wasn’t chocolate. Even without picking it up, it obviously was a girl’s underwear—namely, erotic black panties.

Why would panties be in here!?

Such objects normally didn’t belong there. On top of that, there was a small piece of paper hidden inside the black fabric. It read—

‘Whose panties might these be? If you guess correctly, you will receive a reward.’

“What is going on!?”

A sudden quiz greeted Keiki. It was provocation from the criminal who put panties in his shoe locker.

“Keiki? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing at all!” Keiki panicked and stuffed the panties into his blazer’s right pocket.

If someone saw him with these, he’d be labeled an underwear thief.

Whose panties are these!?

Yet again, he was tasked with finding the sender of the panties. Keiki felt slightly nostalgic, and started thinking about how to tackle this situation.

After that, Keiki made his way to the classroom, thinking about the panties.

“Someone put panties in my shoe locker…?”

Unlike Cinderella’s panties, the panties this time were jet black, and quite sexy. Who was the owner of the panties this time?

“Is this Mizuha’s doing again? But… back then she only left the panties there accidentally, not because she wanted to…”

There was no proof that she was the criminal this time, so it was too early to jump to that conclusion.

“For now, I’ll need to look into it some more.”

That being said, there wasn’t much thinking needed, as he could narrow the criminal down to the perverted girls he knew. There shouldn’t be any other girl who would do such a thing.

“For starters, I don’t think it could be Nagase-san.”

Nagase Airi hated men, so she would never put her own panties in a boy’s shoe locker.

“I don’t think it’d be Nanjou.”

Nanjou Mao is a rotten fujoshi who loves BL. She surely wouldn’t feel any sense of joy or excitement from leaving random panties around.

“That leaves only Yuika-chan, Sayuki-senpai, Mizuha, and Takasaki-senpai.”

Yuika had set similar precedents to this. Sayuki is a pervert who would feel excited by doing this. Mizuha is an exhibitonist, so her doing some weird roleplay like this was not unthinkable. As for Shiho, she might try to break apart Keiki’s relationships, since she gets excited by being NTR’d.

“Also, Fujimoto-san might be a possibility, but…”

She might be turning her weird desire to trade underwear into this weird game. That would mean he couldn’t exclude her, either.

“Also, why do I have to worry about something like this on Valentine’s Day?”

All the other boys were already busy discussing the chocolate they got or didn’t get, and the girls were cheering for each other, or teasing those who would be handing out chocolate today. The entire classroom was talking about Valentine’s, and yet Keiki had to worry about panties.

“Well, carrying them around all day is too dangerous, and just throwing them away might create another problem, so the best thing I can do is give them back to the owner.”

Panties might just be the most dangerous object to possess in the world.

“…Kiryuu.”

“Hm?”

Keiki raised his head and spotted Mao, who was standing next to him. She was still wearing her coat, bag in hand, so she probably came over before going to her own seat.

“Ah, Nanjou. Morning.”

“…Morning.”

“…?” Keiki was slightly confused by Mao’s delayed response.

Something was off with Mao. She seemed anxious about something, like she was unable to calm down. It was rare for her to come greet him in the classroom like that. Keiki figured she might have some business with him, but…

“Nanjou?”

“………”

She didn’t even respond. On top of that…

Why’s she fidgeting like that? …Ah!? Could she actually…?

In that moment, a single explanation popped up in Keiki’s mind.

—Not be wearing any panties right now because she put them in my shoe locker!?

Keiki had just excluded Nanjou Mao from the list of possible candidates. However, the way she is fidgeting and acting right now could be explained by her not wearing any panties.

That being said, I can’t exactly go ask her ‘Nanjou, are you not wearing panties right now?’, can I…?

There was no way for him to confirm it. If he turned out to be wrong, that would be categorized as sexual harassment. Thus, he could only try to figure it out through normal conversation.

“Oh, that reminds me, they took off the bandage on your finger, Nanjou.”

“Eh? …Ah, yeah. They said it’d be better in two or three days or so.”

“Did they take off your panties too while they were at it?”

“What are you talking about!?”

She apparently felt danger for her body, and she quickly pulled her skirt down. Her expression was distorted in disgust, and she fixed Keiki with a cold gaze. It appears that Keiki’s choice of words was flat-out awful.

“Of course I’m wearing them. Can you drop the sexual harassment this early in the morning?”

“Right, I’m sorry.”

I guess she really isn’t the criminal after all…

That reaction didn’t seem to be acting. Then again, Keiki never really doubted Mao that much, so he just gave up on assuming it was her.

“So, did you want something from me?”

“…Nevermind. Stupid Kiryuu.” Mao left behind a silent insult and walked over to her own seat.

She kept her cold and indifferent expression as well.

What was that about…?

Understanding Mao was as impossible as ever.

*

Lunch break arrived, and Keiki had still not made any progress. Mao still seemed angry because of what happened earlier, and was still glaring at him. Keiki enjoyed the boxed lunch Mizuha made for him, and immediately ran away from his seat. Before searching for the criminal, he decided to get some juice.

He stepped out of the classroom and was walking down the hallway when two female students appeared in front of him.

“Found Keiki-senpai!”

“Don’t think you can escape from us now, Kiryuu-senpai!”

“Yuika-chan? Nagase-san?”

To his right, a blonde-haired Koga Yuika appeared, and to his left was the twin-tailed girl Nagase Airi. Keiki was surprised to see two girls appear in front of him, so he took a step back.

“This might be a bit sudden, but please come with us for a second, Keiki-senpai!”

“Huh?”

“Your cute junior is telling you to, so just do it, Kiryuu-senpai!”

“Eh, wha… Where are we going?”

Not knowing what was going on, Keiki was dragged along by the two girls. He followed them, and they entered an empty room in the classroom building. Yuika finally let go of Keiki’s hand and took out a wrapped box with a pink ribbon on it.

“Here. This is Valentine’s chocolate from Yuika.”

“T-Thanks…”

“You’d better be thankful. This is chocolate that beats all the other chocolate you’ve gotten so far.”

“To be fair, this is the first chocolate I’ve gotten from any girl besides Mizuha.”

“Eh? Yuika is your first? Hmm… is that so…? So Yuika is your first… Ehehe…” Yuika grinned happily.

Seriously, this girl is as cute as ever.

After that, someone tugged on his uniform from the opposite side.

“Um, Kiryuu-senpai…”

“Nagase-san?”

“This is from me.”

“Eh? Are you sure?”

The package Airi handed him was a different color, with a blue ribbon on it.

“D-Don’t get the wrong idea, okay? I’ve been in your care, and I made these as thanks for the notebook.”

“Thank you, Nagase-san.”

Now Keiki had received chocolate twice in a single year. This was a new high score.

“…And I’m sorry about before.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it.”

Airi was talking about the time she had dragged Keiki off to the student council office. Since she was angry for Yuika’s sake, Keiki couldn’t hold it against her.

“What are you talking about?”

“There’s no need for you to worry about it, Yuika.”

“Hmm… Sounds suspicious…”

“More importantly, Kiryuu-senpai, Yuika and I made this chocolate together, okay? Keep that in mind when you eat it.”

“Ah, that’s right! This chocolate is filled with Yuika and Airi’s love, so you can’t leave anything behind!”

“I-I didn’t put any love in there, okay!?” Airi denied Yuika’s declaration with a beet-red face, like a true tsundere.

That in itself was a sight to behold, but…

“This chocolate… is homemade?”

Keiki was really shocked after that realization.

Just imagining two cute juniors making chocolate for me… Yeah, this is pretty great. I feel satisfied just from that.

…No, that’s not important.

I’ve got two prime suspects in front of me right now, so I need to investigate them.

He couldn’t afford to waste this chance. Maybe he could figure out if Yuika was actually the person who left the panties behind.

“Say, Yuika-chan.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“What is your favorite color of panties?”

“Excuse me!?”

“Black or white. That’s all I need to know.”

“Keiki-senpai!?” Yuika looked at Keiki in shock.

“Kiryuu-senpai, what kind of question is that!?” Airi joined in, flustered.

Maybe Keiki’s phrasing wasn’t the best.

“Don’t get the wrong idea. I just want to use this as reference for my White Day gift.”

“Do you plan on giving Yuika panties as a White Day present, Keiki-senpai!?”

“I thought you were a pervert, but I didn’t think it would be this bad…”

His underclassmen both took some distance from Keiki. He was being treated like a pervert, undoubtedly. They were looking at him like trash on the side of the road.

Well, since these two don’t seem to be the criminals, I guess I can tell them.

Keiki explained the reason, as he would have not preferred being treated like a pervert.

“Sorry for asking that weird question. The thing is, a girl’s panties appeared in my shoe locker, and I’m searching for the owner.”

“There were panties in your shoe locker?”

“Kiryuu-senpai, please come up with a more believable lie.”

“I know it sounds super bad, but it’s the truth.”

Even now, the panties were inside his pocket as proof. Though he’d be labeled a pervert if he took them out now, so he kept them stored in there.

“So that’s why you doubted Yuika, huh, Keiki-senpai?”

“Well, you’ve already put your bra in there before.”

“…Yuika?”

“Ehe~”

Airi’s eyes shot open. She gave Yuika a ‘You’re kidding, right?’ look, but Yuika smiled it off.

“So then, do you two have any idea who it could have been?”

“Nope, Yuika doesn’t know anything.”

“Same here.”

“Well, I figured as much.”

The criminal had probably been careful with their actions, so it was rather unrealistic to think that someone could have seen anything.

“Ah, but…” Yuika spoke up, like she had remembered something. “I saw Fujimoto-san loitering around there this morning.”

“Fujimoto-san was?”

“Yes. When Yuika called out to her, she ran away. It was in front of the second-year shoe lockers…”

“I see…”

That was valuable information. Loitering around like that sure sounded suspicious. Right around the time he received this critical information, his phone vibrated in his pocket.

“…Fujimoto-san?”

The one who had sent the email was the person they had just been talking about. The contents of the email read ‘Emergency, come to the student council office right now’, asking Keiki to come over.

“Excuse me.”

“Kiryuu-kun, come on in.”

When Keiki arrived at the student council, Ayano greeted him.

“Sit here.”

“Ah, yeah.”

He did as he was told, sitting on the sofa inside the room. Slightly nervous, Keiki spoke up.

“So why did you call me here?”

“A question for you, Kiryuu-kun. What day is it today?”

“Eh? …Um, Valentine’s Day?”

“Correct. Since it’s Valentine’s, I made some chocolate cake for you. Please try it.”

“Oh my.”

“Are you not hungry, by chance?”

“I had just been craving something sweet.”

“Perfect. I’ll prepare it right away.” Ayano said with a delighted tone.

It didn’t take long for the comfortable scent of tea to reach Keiki’s nostrils.

“Fujimoto-san’s homemade chocolate…?”

Ayano’s hobby was to make sweets. She was quite confident in her talent, and the apple pie she made before was magnificent. There was no doubt about it. The cake this time must be delicious.

“Thanks for waiting.”

“T-This is…!?” Keiki’s eyes opened wide.

He couldn’t believe the sight in front of him. What Ayano brought was a beautiful chocolate cake that looked like something a professional patissier would have made.

“That sure looks amazing, alright!”

Coated with chocolate, it emitted an awe-inspiring radiance. The layers alternated between dough and cream, creating a beautiful pattern. As always, Ayano’s work looked good enough to put in a store.

“I worked really hard this time.”

“Didn’t you work a bit too… Hold on, why so close!?” Keiki nearly in shock.

After Ayano finished preparing the cake, she sat right next to Keiki, close enough to touch him.

Was she always sitting this close!? Wait, is she trying to sniff me!?

If anything, Ayano’s scent was too stimulating, and it made Keiki tense up. However, the girl didn’t even seem to notice Keiki’s troubles. She just picked up the plate, stabbed the fork into the cake, and held out a piece towards Keiki.

“Kiryuu-kun… Open wide.”

“Eh?”

“I want to feed you. I read that this is the perfect way to make Valentine’s Day chocolate even better.”

“What kind of article did you read, Fujimoto-san?”

“Eat up.”

“…Thanks for the food.”

Ayano was going this far for him, so Keiki made up his mind and just put the piece of cake in his mouth.

“T-This is…!?”

“How is it?”

“Way too delicious!”

As expected, Ayano-san’s cake was top-notch. The taste of chocolate matched perfectly with the sweet texture of the dough. This cake was more delicious than anything Keiki had tried before.

“But I’d like to try this at my own pace.”

“Alright.”

Ayano seemed satisfied with feeding Keiki once, and she handed him the plate and fork. Keiki took a sip of the tea and enjoyed the rest of the cake.

“Thanks for the food. That was hella good.”

“I’m glad you liked it.”

“Now I definitely need to repay you for it.”

“Maybe your underwear after you’ve worn it for the whole day?”

“Anything but that.”

Well, Keiki still had some time to consider his present for White Day. More than his own underwear, Keiki was curious to find out about the underwear in his shoe locker.

“That reminds me, Fujimoto-san.”

“What?”

“I heard you were loitering around the second-year shoe lockers this morning…”

“Fueh!?” Her shoulders jumped when Keiki said that. “I-I-I-I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about!”

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen you this flustered, Fujimoto-san…”

Her reaction was very suspicious.

Is she… actually the criminal who put the panties in there?

If he pressured her some more, she might just confess to it.

“You know, a cute Junior of mine saw you around there. Were you doing anything bad, by any chance?”

“Ugh…”

“If you tell me now, I won’t get angry.”

“Uuuuu…” Thus, Fujimoto-san confessed. “The thing is, I wanted to put chocolate in the shoe locker of the boy I like…”

“Chocolate? Not panties?”

“Hmm? Why would I put panties in there?”

“No, it’s nothing… Please continue.”

“I really only wanted to put chocolate in there… But when I was standing in front of the shoe locker, I felt really embarrassed, so I ended up just walking back and forth…”

“I see…”

Keiki knew that Ayano had someone she held one-sided feelings for. While she tried to muster up the courage to put chocolate in that boy’s shoe locker, Yuika must have spotted her.

“So did you manage to give it to him?”

“…Yep, he said it was delicious.” She blushed ever-so-slightly and smiled happily.

It appears that she had safely managed to give that boy the chocolate. However, Keiki was still no closer to finding out who put the black panties inside his shoe locker, now that Fujimoto Ayano had turned out to be innocent.

Shortly after, Keiki left the student council office behind him and made his way to the library office. Since barely anyone was present, he easily found a place to sit, and there he started thinking.

“Hmm… Why can’t I find that criminal…?”

In this situation with no more hints, Keiki had run into a wall. All he had were the black panties and the short memo left behind for him. Apparently, he would receive a prize for finding the criminal, but he didn’t have much trust in that for now.

Since I get a reward, they want me to find them, right…

If so, then what reason is there for this game? What would they gain from this? If Keiki knew, he might be able to get closer to the criminal, but…

“—What are you making that complicated face for?”

“Woah!?”

Along with this joyful voice, Keiki was embraced from behind. Arms wrapped around his neck, and when he turned his face sideways, he met the gaze of a grinning female student.

“Takasaki-senpai?”

“Yahooo, Keiki-kun~”

The one who assaulted Keiki was the former student council president Takasaki Shiho. Her long, wavy hair hung down her shoulders, swaying gently as she talked with Keiki.

“What are you doing here? I don’t mind giving you a big hug if you’re feeling lonely, you know?”

“You’re already hugging me.”

Keiki felt her soft chest pressing against his back, and she was close enough for an average boy to assume that she might have feelings for him.

“Come on. Couldn’t you be a bit happier to see me?”

“You just scared me to death, that’s all.”

“Fufu, was Shiho-senpai’s hug a bit too stimulating?” She flashed a grin and pulled away from Keiki. “By the way, did you get chocolate from someone, Keiki-kun?”

“That’s a secret.”

“Ah, judging from that reaction, you’ve gotten a few. Ten? Twenty?”

“Why do you think I would get that many?”

“I mean, you got some from Airi-chan and Ayano-chan, right?”

“Huh? How do you know about that?”

“These two really love you, after all.”

“I-I wonder about that.” Keiki felt a bit embarrassed upon hearing that.

Keiki thought that they had gotten along well when he was helping out as a temporary student council member, and he was happy that the feeling was mutual.

“Of course, I really like you as well, Keiki-kun.”

“Thanks …”

“That being said, let me give you some chocolate churros as proof.”

“Thank you very much.”

Keiki received chocolate yet again. Ahh, how happy.

“So Keiki-kun, what was that complicated expression for just now? Are you worried about something?”

“Ahh, I was thinking about a test.”

“What kind of test?”

“A test to see who could have put black panties in my shoe locker.”

“Could you maybe elaborate on it some more? That sounds like one hell of a question.”

As a matter of fact, Shiho was a suspect as well. However, considering how curious she sounded, it seemed almost impossible that she was the criminal.

So it isn’t Takasaki-senpai either?

“Ah, speaking of panties…”

“What is it?”

“A little while ago, Tokihara-san asked me what kind of underwear you liked.”

“What kind of question is that?”

That clearly isn’t a topic you should discuss at school. However, Keiki couldn’t help but be curious as to what Shiho’s response was.

“So what did you tell her?”

“Um… I think I said ‘Lewd erotic types always win boys over’, probably.”

“So you did.”

“Oh, do you actually dislike that type of underwear?”

“I’ll refrain from answering that.”

Of course he didn’t hate them, but he preferred not revealing his interests like that. Naturally, prim and proper ones were great as well.

“So what did she say after that?”

“She was like ‘I’ll get some erotic underwear that’ll make Keiki-kun super ineterested’ with a brimming smile.”

“Is that so…?”

Did she prepare them, then? Keiki couldn’t help but feel curious. Of course, not because of the underwear itself, but because of the type of underwear she bought.

So lewd and erotic underwear… Maybe it was these panties?

The chances were not slim, for sure. Indeed, this information might be his greatest hint yet for finding the criminal.

*

Classes ended, and Keiki quickly grabbed his bag to leave the classroom. He walked down the halls and soon arrived at the all-too-familiar clubroom.

“Good work today.”

“Ah, Keiki-kun.”

She must have been studying, as she was seated on a chair instead of the tatami floor, facing the table.

“You’re quite early today, huh?”

“I came here in a rush.”

“You really must have wanted to see me.”

“Indeed. There’s something I’d like to confirm.”

“Oh, what might that be?” The upperclassmen tilted her head, slightly puzzled.

Keiki was certain of his victory, and he flashed a confident grin as he continued.

“Why did you put panties in my shoe locker this morning?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Huh!?”

Sayuki made a confused face, causing Keiki to let out a baffled sound himself. Normally, this should have been the part where things would get cleared up, at least in some mystery novel. This was the exact opposite reaction than he expected. The detective had lost his lead, and he started trying to confirm the issue.

“So you didn’t put them there, Sayuki-senpai?”

“I wouldn’t do something like that.”

“How could this happen…?”

It appears that Keiki had jumped to an inaccurate conclusion. Since he had no way of talking his way out of this, he was forced to spill the beans.

“…Hmmm? So when you came to school, you found a girl’s panties in your shoe locker? This sounds quite intriguing.”

“It is most definitely not.”

“So that’s why you thought I was the criminal.”

“I have no excuses.”

“It’s fine. It’s true that I’ve prepared lewd erotic underwear at least.”

“…What did you just say?”

“I’m even wearing it right now.”

“Excusez-moi!?”

“If you really want to see it, I don’t mind showing you. However, that will come with a heavy responsibility.”

“I-I’ll politely decline for now…”

Seeing that rumoured underwear was indeed tempting, but the ‘responsibility’ she spoke of scared Keiki too much.

“But this is great timing. I had some business with you as well, Keiki-kun.”

“With me?”

“That’s right. It’s something very important.” She started grinning as she stood up from her seat.

With a childish ‘There~’, she embraced Keiki. It was a hug filled with love, and she pressed her large chest against Keiki’s, rubbing their cheeks together.

“S-Sayuki-senpai. What are you doing?”

“This much should be fine, right?” She raised her head and smiled. “After all, I was your first love, Keiki-kun.”

“Ugh…”

That was true. Tokihara Sayuki had been Keiki’s first love. However, he only noticed those feelings after their trip to the mountains. When he talked to Mao on the balcony that night, Keiki felt like he was close to figuring something out, and he went back to his room and confirmed his feelings. As a result, he came to the conclusion that he had special feelings for Sayuki. More than that, he might have already been in love with her when he saw her sitting on that bench.

“Hey, Keiki-kun, what did you like about me?”

“Well… A lot of things.”

“Like what?”

Keiki tried to be vague about it, but Sayuki wouldn’t let him get away with it.

“How kind you were to a junior, how hard you worked in every area, how perfect you looked on the outside, but also how weak you were on the inside. I thought that all of that was cute.”

“O-Oh…”

“Sayuki-senpai?”

“For some reason, hearing it out loud sure is embarrassing…”

“You’re the one who made me say it…”

Sayuki let go of Keiki, possibly because she felt satisfied. The sweet and heart-throbbing atmosphere from before was gone, and the upperclassman was pouting.

“And yet you rejected me and went off cheating on me with another girl.”

“That was cheating?”

“You really are a sadistic bastard.”

“I am not.”

“That being said, it’s an honor to have been your first, Keiki-kun.”

“Can you not phrase it like that? If someone heard you say it that way, they’d definitely get the wrong idea.”

“At least let me complain a bit. You walked away from the true heroine route to change your mind and go down a sub-route right at the very end.”

“………”

That was the reason Keiki had rejected Sayuki’s confession. When Keiki sorted through his feelings, at the end where Sayuki should have stood was now another girl.

“So you ran off to another girl after getting tired of me. If you had chosen me, these breasts would be yours alone.”

“Again, phrasing.”

“I know it’s too late to think about it, but I wonder if there could have been a future where we were together if I had made a different choice somewhere.”

“…Maybe.”

A future like that could have happened. Going out with her, falling in love even deeper despite her fetish, and building a happy family sometime down the line. The fact that they could dream of a future like that was proof of how close they were. However, just as she had said, it was just a what-if scenario.

“Sorry, Sayuki-senpai. I…”

“It’s fine.” The girl gave a calm smile and put her hand on his cheek. “You can’t do anything about your true feelings.”

“Senpai…”

“Even though that’s the case, I don’t plan on giving up on you.”

“I thought as much. That’s about what I expected from a masochist.”

“Exactly. So make sure you don’t get rejected. The instant you show an opening, I’ll be there to exploit it.”

“I’ll try my best.”

That was his plan to begin with.

“That reminds me, what business did you have with me?”

“Ah, I almost forgot.”

Sayuki walked over to a nearby chair and took out a wrapped object with a red ribbon on it.

“Since it’s Valentine’s today, I made this for you… Though maybe you don’t want mine now that you have another girl?”

“I’ll gladly accept it!”

Keiki would always be happy about receiving chocolate. This is one thing, and that is another.

Keiki left the clubroom and headed down towards the shoe lockers.

“In the end, I still didn’t find out who these black panties belong to…”

Even the prime suspect Sayuki turned out to be innocent. It felt like Keiki was being toyed around with. The sun had already started to set, so he decided to search for the criminal the next day. But he abruptly came to a stop right in front of the shoe lockers.

“…Huh?”

He spotted a girl with reddish-brown hair and a sidetail in front of him. She was wearing the same coat she had been wearing this morning.

“Yo.” She gave him a short greeting.

“Nanjou? What are you doing here?”

“Waiting for you.”

“For me? Why?”

“Well… you know, there’s this thing…”

“What are you talking about, Nanjou?”

Keiki couldn’t figure out what Nanjou was talking about. Why would she be waiting for him here this late?

“Hold on a second.” Mao said, and opened the zipper to her bag.

After that, she took out a rectangular shaped object.

“…Mm.” She averted her eyes and held the box towards Keiki. “Chocolate… Today is Valentine’s after all…”

“O-Ohh… Thanks…” He accepted the chocolate.

Rather than being wrapped cutely, it seemed to be charming instead. It had a blue ribbon on top of it.

“…Is this homemade?”

“G-Got a problem with that?”

“No, I was just wondering because you just got your bandage off.”

“It doesn’t hurt anymore. Totally fine.”

“I see.” Keiki was relieved that she wasn’t forcing herself. “…Ah? Is that why you were acting weird this morning?”

“Yup. You helped me out earlier, so I wanted to pay you back.”

“Sorry about that.”

Keiki had completely ruined the mood with his question about the panties then. Just as Mao had said, he decided to be more delicate about his questions in the future.

“Thanks, I’ll enjoy it later.”

“Yup…”

“Now that I’ve received chocolate from you, I need to repay you later.”

“Just to let you know, this isn’t obligatory chocolate.”

“Huh?”

“I like you, after all.”

“Huuuh!?” Keiki’s eyes shot up and glued themselves to Mao’s.

Her expression looked as displeased as always, but her cheeks were slightly red, and her eyes were unsure as she waited for Keiki’s response.

“R-Really…?” Keiki still couldn’t believe it, so he had to ask again.

“You never noticed? How dense can you be?”

“Now that you mention it…”

Even though she forbade Keiki from having a lover of the opposite sex, she quickly agreed to Shouma and Koharu being a couple, and there were few times when Keiki had gotten his hopes up before. Thinking back to them now, and considering Mao’s confession, he could tell that she was saying the truth.

Still, I didn’t think that Nanjou would like me…

Since she always seemed to be in such a bad mood, not ever being honest about it, Keiki thought there was never anything else but friendship. In the end, she was just a tsundere, and not being able to voice your feelings is the trademark of a tsundere.

“Kiryuu…”

“Y-Yesh!?”

“When I made that chocolate, I was thinking about you.”

“Eh…”

“About what kind of face you would make, what kind of reaction you would have. I grinned to myself, and I felt anxious, like a manga heroine…”

“Nanjou…”

“I’ve liked you for a long time, okay? Ever since our first year… When you saved me from becoming a library committee member.” She spoke with a distant gaze voicing her passionate feelings. “I know that all the girls around you are cute and honest, but I definitely won’t lose to them when it comes to my feelings for you, so—” She put one hand on her chest and spoke as clearly as she could. “Don’t choose anybody else! Please go out with me!”

“………”

It was an impactful and touching confession. It was clear that she was serious about this, if only for the fact that she could rarely be honest with herself. Of course, Keiki thought that she was cute, and she was charming enough that he wanted to embrace her right away. However—

“…Sorry.”

Even so, he couldn’t respond to her feelings.

“I have someone I like, so…”

“…I see.” Mao looked down. “Well, I figured as much.”

“Huh? You knew?”

“I always thought it was suspicious. When I watch you whenever you talk with that girl, it becomes super obvious.”

“I see…”

“Honestly, I didn’t expect that. I thought you liked the club president. But you rejected her too, right?”

“So you heard about that too…”

It appears that Sayuki and Mao had already talked things out. There was no doubt that Keiki once had feelings for Sayuki.

“But why did you let her do all of that then? You never resisted being hugged or getting scribbles all over your face.”

“Well, she was venting stress.”

“She was just letting out stress?”

“The thing is, because of her family circumstances, Sayuki-senpai had to seal away her masochistic tendencies for a while…”

“Oh…”

“And because she had to hold back that entire time, she warned me that she might just push me down on the spot if I didn’t let her do all of that.”

“Ahhh…”

Ever since she had confessed to Keiki, Sayuki had suppressed her own fetish, acting like a perfect girl. That apparently had exploded in her face, and she needed some way to vent out all the stress.

“Of course, I wasn’t the biggest fan of it, but since it was partially my fault, I didn’t want her to fail her exams and all of that. That’s why I made the condition that we could keep it up until after the exams. Without that, she’d probably never stop.”

In the end, Tokihara Sayuki was a helpless pervert. But Keiki also couldn’t ignore the problem since he was partially responsible for it.

“I see. So that’s why you were flirting around with the club president.”

“What did you think it was?”

“I thought you had awakened to sadism, and that you two were a happy-go-lucky S&M couple now.”

“What a terrible misunderstanding.”

“I mean, I think you have some sadistic tendencies, Kiryuu.”

“Huh, really?”

“You make girls get their hopes up, only to disappoint them?”

“You’re making it sound like you’ve experienced that…”

“Because I have.” Mao pouted, and took a glance at Keiki’s face.

“There’s a girl who likes you so much, yet you’re not even aware of her…”

“N-Nanjou…?”

“………”

Keiki swallowed his breath. Once she threw away her tsundere attribute, Mao’s was dangerously cute.

“…Of course I was conscious of you.”

“Wha?”

“There were many times when my heart started racing because of you, Nanjou.”

“R-Really?”

“When we went on that date to collect data for you, I was super nervous when I saw you all dressed up.”

“I… see…”

“When we went to the pool and the sea, whenever you got too close to me, my heart started beating crazy fast.”

“Oh…? So you felt that way? You’re a real lecher, Kiryuu.” Mao lobbed an insult Keiki’s way, but she seemed happy nonetheless.

“And when we went on that trip earlier.”

“…Hm?”

“When you grabbed my son in the bath—”

“I don’t need to be reminded of that!”

It was the most exciting and dangerous situation Keiki had been in with her, but the person herself immediately brushed it aside.

“Anyway, I always saw you as a girl, Nanjou.”

“I see. That’s good to know.”

“Why?”

“Because if things don’t work out with the girl you like, then I can go on the offensive, right?”

“Pffft!? N-Nanjou!?” Keiki was thrown off-course, and Mao let out a snicker in response.

“You know how bad I am at giving up, right? I won’t stop just because you tell me to. I’ll become an even better woman, and I’ll make you only have eyes for me.”

“P-Please don’t overdo it…”

This wasn’t good. It wasn’t just Yuika and Sayuki, but now Mao had also announced that she wouldn’t give up even now. Keiki envisioned a future even more troublesome than their previous perverted actions, and he started sweating profusely. He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped his face. Mao watched this with wide-open eyes.

“Kiryuu…”

“Hm? What are you looking at me like that for? Is there something on my face?”

“Why are you wiping your face with panties?”

“Huh? …Ah?!”

Kiryuu Keiki finally realized his fatal mistake. He didn’t have a handkerchief in his right pocket. That was where the jet-black panties were. Thus, he was currently wiping his cheek with a girl’s underwear.

“D-Don’t tell me… You stole this…!?”

“Wha!?”

“P-Pervert! Kiryuu, you pervert!”

“It isn’t what it looks like, okay!? I did not receive these panties through illegal means!”

“Why are you opening them and holding them towards me!?”

“In order to prove my innocence!”

Keiki wanted to prove his innocence, so he closed in on Mao with the panties in hand. Of course, from an outsider’s perspective, it totally looked like a highschool boy closing in on an innocent girl with panties in his hand.

“…Huh?”

Keiki felt a vague sense of discomfort, and looked down at the panties in his hand. Now that he opened them up and got a good look at them…

“Are these panties actually…?”

He faintly remembered seeing the design on these panties before. Which made sense, since one of his current subjects had shown them to him not too long ago.

Keiki sent the criminal a short ‘Where are you right now?’ email, and he received a brief ‘Classroom’ back. Keiki quickly made his way to the 2E classroom. Said classroom was colored orange by the setting sun, and a single girl stood inside.

“You’re late, Nii-san. I almost got tired of waiting.”

“Well, I had to take a lot of detours.”

“So you ran into all the other girls, huh?”

“Pretty much.” Keiki decided to just confess to it.

He stood in front of Mizuha and took the panties out of his pocket.

“I’m here to return these.”

“Did they make you excited?”

“Of course. Mainly because I was terrified of being found out while walking around with them.”

If he had been found, he’d die a horrible death—Socially, that is.

“So why did you put your panties in my shoe locker?”

“Since you’ve been so popular as of late, I figured that you’d get a lot of chocolate today.”

“Mhmmm… And?”

“If you had my panties with you, even if you got chocolate from someone else, you’d only be able to think about me.”

“So that’s why you put these familiar panties in there…”

The mystery had been solved. Basically, the criminal never had any intention of hiding herself. The only reason it took Keiki so long to figure it out was because he never took a good look at the panties in the first place.

I didn’t think her flashing her panties at me would be the biggest clue.

The reason this entire test came into being was because Mizuha felt anxious.

“I just wanted to confirm: You weren’t walking around school all day without any panties on, right?”

“No worries, I’m wearing them.”

“I’m glad to hear that. I would have had a heart attack otherwise.”

Wearing underwear is the bare minimum of what it takes to make you a rational human being.

“Then I guess we should go home, huh?”

“Wait a second, Nii-san. I still haven’t given you your prize.”

“Oh yeah, you wrote something like that… right. So why were you waiting here anyway?”

They could have done this just as easily at home.

“Because I wanted to give it to you at school.”

“Huh?”

“That’ll make me seem more like a classmate, right?”

“What do you…?”

“So with that said… Here, Nii-san.”

Inside this classroom illuminated by the setting sun, Mizuha offered Keiki a small wrapping with chocolate in it.

“They’re love chocolates this year as well.” She said with a smile.

How long has she been giving me love chocolate?

Was the chocolate she had given him every year filled with such profound love? From how she made it sound, these feelings for Keiki had been a long time coming.

Maybe even… from the very beginning?

Keiki’s face burnt up just from imagining it. It made him worried that the chocolate would melt from the heat. But that didn’t change anything. After all, on this very moment, on this special Valentine’s Day, for the first time in Keiki’s life, he had received chocolate from the girl he had feelings for.