Twenty minutes later,
the four of them were seated at the dining room table.
Lin Ye and Ryou Fujibayashi sat together, while across from them sat Isshiki Iroha and Kyou Fujibayashi.
By now Kyou Fujibayashi's emotions had settled quite a bit, but her eyes remained fixed on Lin Ye, blazing with intense feeling.
Last night's experience,
for Kyou Fujibayashi, had been the greatest trauma of her entire life.
The shared sensation of being violated, her precious sister being violated, her own attempt to sleep with him being discovered by her sister—all of it erupting in such a short span, intertwining together, left her mind blank, utterly at a loss for what to do.
If she could,
she truly would have wished to forget it all, to cast away all this worry and sorrow and grief, so that she could go on getting along with Sister Ryou the way she always had.
To continue the peaceful, ordinary, quiet everyday life she'd once shared with her sister.
Isshiki Iroha was now more or less certain that nothing had happened between Senpai and Kyou Fujibayashi, but with Sister Ryou there really was something going on.
She had no idea how Senpai had managed to win over this twin younger sister.
Sweet-faced, gentle in temperament, and a nurse besides.
The moment she imagined Ryou Fujibayashi in a nurse's uniform, Isshiki Iroha's heart stirred—that was a fluttering feeling.
How nice!
If she were a man, she'd like a gentle, pretty girl like Ryou Fujibayashi too—the kind who's such a thrill to tease.
She also wondered how Senpai's combat ability had been last night.
Isshiki Iroha racked her brain, but couldn't recall anything at all,
she had slept far too deeply last night and heard absolutely nothing.
"Isshiki-san, last night's matter wasn't Lin-kun forcing us. Please rest assured, and please don't go reporting it to the police, and definitely don't misunderstand Lin-kun."
Ryou Fujibayashi spoke up,
setting the tone for yesterday's events.
Isshiki Iroha's gaze turned toward Kyou Fujibayashi.
Compared to Ryou Fujibayashi, the one she cared about more was Kyou Fujibayashi. Kyou Fujibayashi's situation was the forced one; Sister Ryou's should have been willing.
Kyou Fujibayashi nodded.
Lin Ye bore responsibility, but he truly hadn't forced himself on them.
If anything, more of the responsibility was hers.
The first thing she'd done upon waking was to go settle scores with Lin Ye and vent, and by now her emotions had stabilized, enough that she could deal with the matter somewhat rationally.
"Mm, I understand. I won't report it to the police. Since it isn't what I thought, I have no reason to report it. The two of you can rest assured."
"Thank you. At the same time, I hope you can keep this matter secret and not tell anyone else."
No way!
If I agree to that, how am I supposed to use this leverage to threaten Senpai?
I'm counting on this to pry loads and loads of secrets out of Senpai's mouth.
"Is that not allowed?"
"I won't talk carelessly,"
Isshiki Iroha made a compromise.
But in essence, it was about not letting Lin Ye, who was present, hear her promise to stay silent.
If she swore to her death not to tell, Senpai could use that to throw it right back at her, and if she still tried to threaten him by force, Senpai might well do something outrageous.
Isshiki Iroha's heartbeat quickened, fearful inside.
Earlier, when Lin Ye had threatened her, she had genuinely felt that faint, elusive chill—if she really dared to run, Senpai would probably resort to forceful means to keep him.
Ryou Fujibayashi read Isshiki Iroha's meaning. She wanted to keep pleading, but she noticed the look in Lin Ye's eyes, and she understood what he meant.
Leave it to Lin Ye.
Fine,
she trusted Lin Ye.
Afterward,
Ryou Fujibayashi gave Isshiki Iroha a simple explanation of last night's events—
her sister had been drunk,
and she and Lin Ye were in an ambiguous relationship, so it had come about naturally.
This explanation, naturally, Isshiki Iroha did not believe—not a single word of it.
But since the parties involved had said as much, what more could she say! She could only accept it.
The topics that could be discussed with Isshiki Iroha present had pretty much run their course; what came next was the conversation that needed to be had away from Isshiki Iroha.
Lin Ye signaled to Ryou Fujibayashi, who understood instantly and led her sister Kyou Fujibayashi upstairs first.
Ryou Fujibayashi had needed to talk privately with her sister all along; the four of them coming down to talk in the dining room first had been mostly to clear up Isshiki Iroha's misunderstanding.
Now that the goal had been achieved, the next thing was to talk with her sister.
Especially about that matter.
She had to question her sister face to face and get it all clear.
As for Lin Ye's side,
he too knew he needed to have a proper talk with Isshiki.
This junior of his was not the type to let a matter like this simply end here.
Quirky and crafty Isshiki Iroha—how could she possibly not stir up trouble!
Upstairs,
the two sisters arrived at Ryou Fujibayashi's room; one sat on the edge of the bed, the other on a chair.
Bright light streamed in from outside the window, bringing brightness to the room, and a faint breeze drifted in, carrying fresh air.
The two sisters looked at each other in silence, saying nothing for a while.
"Ryou, what do you plan to do about him in the future?"
"Just keep getting along like this, Sister."
Ryou Fujibayashi gave her answer.
"Just like this?"
Shouldn't—shouldn't you be confirming a relationship as lovers? You've already slept together!
"Besides like this, what else could there be!"
Ryou Fujibayashi's tone was calm. "Rather, Sister, you could tell me why you did what you did last night."
It was an expected question, but for Kyou Fujibayashi it was somewhat hard to put into words.
"Sister, you don't think that if you don't say it, I won't find out, do you!"
Kyou Fujibayashi instantly realized her sister had already gotten the relevant answers from Lin Ye's side.
"To repay the debt of gratitude he was owed, to fulfill the promise made to her."
This was simply the truth.
There was no element of concealment in it, nor any element of misdirection.
"Did you not… consider my feelings? Sister, you don't think that I… would never find out about this kind of thing for the rest of my life, do you!"
Kyou Fujibayashi had indeed thought exactly that.
If her sister could go her whole life without knowing, then her relationship with her sister would forever remain the same.
"I'm sorry, Ryou. No matter what my reasons were, the harm I did to you is real. I… I'm sorry to you,"
the long-purple-haired girl gave up on explaining and clarifying, and instead spoke an apology,
she hoped her sister could forgive her.
Kyou Fujibayashi's purple eyes watched the sister before her cautiously, but all she saw was her sister's calm expression, and her heart sank.
Sure enough,
she could not obtain her sister's forgiveness.
"I want to know what you were thinking, Sister."
Whether it matched Lin Ye's guess—that was what Ryou Fujibayashi wanted to know now.
Kyou Fujibayashi was about to speak, but swallowed it back again. "Ryou, let's just not talk about it!"
"Talk."
In that moment,
Sister Ryou's aura was on who-knows-how-many levels higher than Kyou Fujibayashi's.
Under the pressure of her sister's aura, Kyou Fujibayashi finally spoke, telling the reason why she had done this.
"I wanted to fulfill the promise, yet I didn't want to hurt my sister too badly, so I wanted to rush to complete my promise to him, to repay the kindness, before you and Lin Ye were officially together,"
So that really was it!
Sister's intentions were truly pure.
But you don't realize that the moment you did this thing, you had already hurt me.
"I confessed to him."
Kyou Fujibayashi: ???
You confessed, and Lin Ye didn't accept?
Otherwise, why would things still be in their current state?
"Lin-kun didn't accept it,"
"I'll go find him."
Having said that,
Kyou Fujibayashi stood up, fuming, ready to go settle the score with Lin Ye.
Her own sister had been toyed with for a whole night, her sister had even confessed, and that bastard wouldn't even accept it—did he mean to play for free?
Kyou Fujibayashi was utterly, completely dissatisfied.
Unlike her, her sister had no promise to give herself to him.
"Sister, wait,"
Ryou Fujibayashi reacted quickly, immediately rising to her feet and stepping forward to take hold of her sister Kyou Fujibayashi's hand, but a stabbing pain shot through her body at once, drawing a whimper from her.
Although Kyou Fujibayashi had also gone through a whole night of it, in the end it was only stimulation of the senses; her actual body had not really been harmed.
Now, in this calm state, Kyou Fujibayashi had already returned to normal.
Ryou Fujibayashi was different—the marks left by last night's activities still remained, and still needed to heal.
"Wait for what? That guy finishes playing and doesn't even want to take responsibility—what is this?"
"It's not Lin-kun's problem,"
"You're still making excuses for him?"
Kyou Fujibayashi watched her sister's protective manner, and fury surged within her; her gaze toward her sister was filled with that look of resenting one's failure to rise to the occasion.
Love drives people mad, makes them foolish, and her own sister had probably become foolish—still defending Lin Ye even after he'd rejected her.
"This isn't an excuse, it's the truth,"
Ryou Fujibayashi stared at her sister. "Because there's a promise between Lin-kun and you, Sister."
"What promise? Isn't the promise between him and me just to sleep with him once?"
"..."
Ryou Fujibayashi slowly spoke. "It's seven times."
Kyou Fujibayashi: ???
Seven times—are you kidding?! Seven times, how could it possibly be seven times.
Lin Ye hadn't saved her seven times—at most twice—and that surely wasn't reason enough for her to sleep with him seven times!
Kyou Fujibayashi's head ached; lacking the memories of that world, she had absolutely no idea why she would have set down this number.
Still, from beginning to end she never thought the origin of this number her sister gave was fake.
If Lin Ye had told her sister so, it must have come from her own promise; toward Lin Ye's trustworthiness and character alone she held an extremely high degree of trust.
"But the seven times has nothing to do with this matter, does it!"
"Before the agreement is fully fulfilled, Lin-kun isn't allowed to date me—wasn't this… your demand, Sister?"
It seemed… it appeared… yes, it was.
Even without the memories of that time, when she reestablished contact with Lin Ye this time, this was exactly her thinking too.
Only, she'd figured that if it was just once, she could find a time and get it done, but that fellow Lin Ye kept dragging his feet, looking utterly unwilling, to the point where she had no choice but to resort to this last desperate measure—to take Lin Ye at home.
But the result was an unexpected accident,
her sister saw through it, took over, and successfully slept with Lin Ye.
"You remember now, don't you! Sister, is this still Lin-kun's responsibility?"
"He… could also just not honor it,"
"Sister, do you think Lin-kun is someone who breaks his word like you?"
"I… I didn't break my word either. I've always wanted to keep my promise."
"Oh…"
Ryou Fujibayashi drew out the syllable, then tossed out another matter. "In that case, what's the deal with violating the promise to Lin-kun by accepting an invitation?"
What was this again?
Insufficient information,
she couldn't make a judgment.
But going by her sister's meaning now, she should have refused, yet in the end she accepted.
And she didn't remember this matter.
Connecting the two together, Kyou Fujibayashi formed a guess—namely, that refusing an invitation leads to memory loss.
That way, everything made sense.
"Sister, do you not know the danger that accepting an invitation brings?"
"If you fail to pass it, you'll die—you really will die, and I… would lose you, my dearest sister. What… am I supposed to do?"
In that moment, a grief-stricken tone echoed.
Kyou Fujibayashi stared blankly at the sister before her.
So it turned out her sister truly, truly cherished and loved her, this older sister of hers.
She hadn't doted on her sister in vain all this time.
"It's all right, it's all right,"
Kyou Fujibayashi rose and came before her sister, reaching out to gather her sister's little head and pressing it against herself, gently stroking it.
"How could this possibly be… all right! Sister, boo-hoo-hoo…"
Ryou Fujibayashi sobbed. "Lin—Lin-kun will help you, Sister. You must study hard, master it well, and… and you can't… target Lin-kun anymore."
Kyou Fujibayashi recalled that trace of gentleness in Lin Ye,
he truly had been concerned for her life and safety—whether out of his relationship with Ryou or some other relationship, at the very least he genuinely cared about her.
"Ryou…"
"Sister,"
"I'm really fine. I… refused the invitation."
"..."
Ryou Fujibayashi froze, her expression blank and stunned.
What was going on—how had her sister refused the invitation?
"I actually don't have the memory of that experience. Really, I'm not lying to you,"
"Then—then why did Lin-kun…"
How could Lin Ye fail to figure it out?
This made no sense.
Kyou Fujibayashi quickly came up with a guess. "He probably decided I hadn't lost my memory the moment he heard me say I was going to fulfill the promise to give myself to him and sleep with him!"
She described the situation of the phone call at the time, placing special emphasis on Lin Ye's violent, raging emotions back then.
Speaking the cruelest words, yet in the end doing the gentlest things.
"Sister, that's too much—why would you deliberately hide it,"
Ryou Fujibayashi suddenly came to her senses, immediately reaching out to pinch her sister's waist hard. "Lin-kun cares about you so much, worries about your situation, and you—you actually…"
"Sorry, I'm sorry."
Kyou Fujibayashi apologized.
On this matter, she had indeed acted dishonorably; she was in the wrong.
"The one you should apologize to isn't me—it's Lin-kun. You'll apologize to Lin-kun later, you absolutely must apologize, otherwise I, I…"
Ryou Fujibayashi thought of many threats, but in the end didn't voice any of them.
Threatening to sever their relationship as sisters—that, in her view, was clearly inappropriate.
"I will, rest assured!"
Kyou Fujibayashi agreed.
Things having developed to this point, there was no longer any need for her to keep concealing anything,
"Ryou, I'll tell you the truth! The reason I didn't tell him in time back then was that I was worried he'd play the scoundrel and refuse to accept my fulfillment of the promise, so I didn't say it, thinking I'd tell him after the promise was fulfilled."
Ryou Fujibayashi didn't even know how to evaluate this.
From her sister's perspective, doing this was indeed correct, but from her own perspective, her sister had truly racked her brains in every way to successfully fulfill the promise.
But if her sister had really spoken plainly and told the truth back then, she probably wouldn't have had any chance to break through to a new relationship with Lin-kun.
Ryou Fujibayashi had a fairly high self-awareness—soft and weak in temperament, lacking in courage.
Earlier, just because her good friend Ren Nanase had feelings for and an ambiguous closeness with Lin Ye, she had grown hesitant and irresolute about her own feelings, not daring to step forward.
After realizing that Lin Ye was dating Mai Sakurajima, she could even be said to have retreated—she had already planned to give up, prepared to silently watch over Lin Ye until the moment everything ended.
But now it was different,
her relationship with Lin Ye had already undergone substantial development and change.
"Sister, from now on you mustn't do this kind of thing again,"
Ryou Fujibayashi stared at her sister Kyou and warned her.
"Mm,"
"And don't even think about giving yourself to him to repay the kindness. This debt of gratitude of yours, Sister, I, as your younger sister, will repay in your place."
Uh,
in the past, she would surely have refused—how could she let her sister repay it in her place? She would rather sacrifice herself. But now the situation was entirely different.
Her sister had already been thoroughly devoured clean.
What was meant to happen, and what was not meant to happen, had all already happened, and there was truly no need for her to keep worrying.
"I understand,"
Kyou Fujibayashi agreed.
"Lastly, tell Lin-kun to cancel the promise between the two of you, so that Lin-kun can date me—rather than being unable to accept my confession and date me because of his promise with you, Sister."
Kyou Fujibayashi: "..."
She felt this was very likely an excuse of Lin Ye's, a reason to make her the scapegoat.
"I'll talk to him, but Ryou, you also know there are many ambiguous girls around him. Setting aside your friend Ren Nanase, there's the girl he held hands with in Akihabara, Tokyo, and other girls at school…"
Kyou Fujibayashi thought of quite a few girls,
"You don't need to worry about these, Sister. I'll handle them well."
Can she really just leave it alone?
"Sister, I've grown up. I'm an adult now, I have a job, I can live and stand on my own."
The sister who once trailed behind her, the adorable little sister who timidly feared the outside world, had now grown into an excellent adult woman.
She no longer needed her, this older sister, to keep looking after and caring for her the way she used to.
And even if she truly did need someone, she was no longer the most suitable choice—rather, it was a man who could accompany her sister toward a longer, more distant future.
Inexplicably, Kyou Fujibayashi felt an added trace of loneliness.
"Ryou really has grown up. The old you would never have said this kind of thing."
Ryou Fujibayashi's face reddened slightly. "That's because you were always like this, Sister—I, I just felt too embarrassed to say it,"
She'd always felt that saying this would make her sister sad, but now the time had come to say it, and she shouldn't keep hesitating.
"Haah!"
Kyou Fujibayashi sighed softly. "Do your best, Ryou! But if he bullies you, makes you unhappy, contact me—I, your sister, will take revenge for you."
"Mm,"
This concern, Ryou Fujibayashi accepted.
And now, Ryou Fujibayashi asked again that question she'd asked her sister earlier but which her sister hadn't answered.
"Sister, what on earth happened to you last night?"
"Ryou, don't ask this question. I'm fine."
You were fine, looking like that this morning?
Ryou Fujibayashi couldn't set her worry aside, and Kyou Fujibayashi couldn't possibly tell her sister that last night she had gone through the same experience as her.
And downstairs,
facing Senpai now that they were alone, Isshiki Iroha suppressed the joy in her heart.
"Senpai,"
she looked toward Lin Ye,
"You wouldn't want Yukinoshita-senpai to find out about you being all lovey-dovey with other girls either, would you?"
The threat from Isshiki had arrived.
...
...
____
________________________________________
If you want more chapters, please consider supporting my page on (P). with 50 advanced chapters available on (P)
👻 Join the crew by searching Leanzin on (P). You know the spot! 😉