Even though Yūto Shō laid out the details with embarrassing precision — clearly worked up enough not to filter himself — Tachibana Hina felt her cheeks heat. Underneath the shyness, though, a kernel of curiosity bloomed. What could possibly come next that had left Yūto Shō this rattled?
Yūto Shō seemed to dredge up something painful, his face crumpling. "Then... the girl I liked got really into it, and she reached for me — for my... lower half. But nothing happened. Not a flicker. At first we both thought it was nerves, and she kept trying to calm me down... but even after a while, still nothing. She left looking absolutely crushed. Told me not to contact her again."
Yūto Shō clutched his head like a heartbroken protagonist mid-arc, every beat rehearsed to perfection. Thanks to thorough mental prep, his performance landed — a guy gutted by a breakup, sold completely.
Tachibana Hina sat there stunned. No reaction at all? Was that what he meant? Like... full Game Over screen?
But kissing a girl you like, hands roaming — how could a teenage boy be that unresponsive? Shō-Kun was right in the middle of puberty. At his age boys ran hot all day on the slightest spark. Could there actually be something physically wrong with him?
What she'd assumed was a minor lovers' tiff was suddenly a thorny medical mystery. Seeing the agony on his face, she didn't pause to overthink it — she just leaned in to comfort him.
"Shō-Kun, don't spiral yet. Maybe it was just first-time nerves. You'd just gotten together, you were excited, your head was everywhere — that's a lot of pressure for a body."
She grasped for any reasonable explanation. Otherwise, the alternative was a problem she didn't want to imagine.
Yūto Shō's face stayed pitiful. "That's what I thought too. She saw I was upset and tried to help, even rubbed me through my pants for a while, but I couldn't feel a thing. Hina-Nee... am I broken?"
Hearing him describe the girl's hand working him over his jeans, Tachibana Hina's cheeks flared red as the image flickered through her mind unbidden.
By now even Yūto Shō seemed convinced something might genuinely be wrong with him. Tachibana Hina couldn't help leaning toward the same fear, but with zero experience to draw from, she didn't dare call it. She hesitated. "I don't think we should jump to conclusions. What if it really was just emotional? Shō-Kun... has anything like this ever happened before?"
Yūto Shō flushed and mumbled awkwardly, "I never really paid attention. Sometimes friends send me videos — you know, those kinds — and I don't even open them."
Tachibana Hina was too embarrassed to ask which videos. She tried for a gentler angle. "In the morning... boys usually have a reaction when they wake up, right?"
Awkward as it was, she kept her composure and floated the classic morning-check question.
Yūto Shō blinked drowsily for a beat, then asked, "What kind of reaction this morning?"
Tachibana Hina froze. Was Shō-Kun really dealing with something serious? Even the morning system check had glitched out? That wasn't normal at all.
Wait — hold on. That day he'd tripped and landed on her, she'd felt very clearly that things downstairs were not only functional but practically powered up to maximum charge. Full Pikachu thundershock.
He'd only confessed to that girl yesterday. They'd seen each other the day before. Even if his hardware had completely conked out, it wouldn't have happened in a single day.
Then a thought struck her. Her beautiful eyes widened, and she gave Yūto Shō a strange, searching look.
"Hina-Nee, what is it?" Yūto Shō asked, suddenly nervous under her stare.
"Nothing." Tachibana Hina shook her head. "Shō-Kun, can Noona ask you something?"
Yūto Shō nodded.
Pushing past her own embarrassment, she said, "Shō-Kun — do you ever have... nighttime accidents? And in the morning, when you wake up, is there... a response down there? If both of those still happen, it means there's nothing physically wrong."
Yūto Shō stammered, "I think... Yeah, both. So that means I'm fine? But then what was yesterday? I used to think about her constantly, sometimes I'd even dream about her and wake up..."
He couldn't finish.
Tachibana Hina looked at him with even more puzzlement, still not certain. She bit her lip and made her voice as casual as she could. "Shō-Kun... that day when we fell, when you were pressed up against Noona... what did you feel in that moment?"
Yūto Shō startled, then dropped his head, nervous.
Tachibana Hina's own face burned, but for reasons she couldn't quite name, some part of her was hoping for a specific answer.
She forced her tone serious. "Shō-Kun, don't get the wrong idea. This is about your lifelong happiness — Noona has to know exactly what's going on before I can help you."
Yūto Shō blushed. "At that moment, I felt... my heart pounding, hard to breathe, this kind of... intense rush. Really comfortable."
Tachibana Hina froze, her pretty face going scarlet. Her gaze skittered everywhere except his face.
…
After a long stretch of silence, she finally got herself back under control. Seeing Yūto Shō squirming with embarrassment, she drew a deep breath and pretended the whole exchange hadn't just shorted out her brain.
"Don't be shy, that's just a normal physiological response. And honestly, if you hadn't felt anything at all in that moment, Noona would have to seriously question herself."
That had come out a little ambiguous.
She rushed on, "What I mean is — your girlfriend got upset because she thought you didn't care about her. But based on how you reacted that day, we can rule out anything physical."
Yūto Shō thought to himself, the fish is hooked. He played it confused. "Then what happened yesterday?"
"Shō-Kun, you were really looking forward to being with the girl you'd been crushing on, weren't you? Usually even just thinking about her would set you off, right?" Tachibana Hina asked.
Yūto Shō nodded, awkward.
"And when did you realize you had no feelings for her at all?"
"Yesterday."
"But the day before, you reacted to Noona, didn't you?" Tachibana Hina's eyes darted away, too shy to hold his gaze while saying it.
Yūto Shō was too mortified to speak.
Tachibana Hina's heart was pounding, mouth gone dry. She kept her voice calm. "Actually, if you want to prove whether you're sick or not, Shō-Kun, we can just run an experiment right now. Come closer to me — the way you did that day."
Yūto Shō hesitated.
Tachibana Hina set her jaw and looked at him with grave purpose. "Think of it as treatment. You've helped Noona so much. I want to help you too. Don't be shy. Don't you want to know whether your body's okay?"
Yūto Shō seemed convinced, a flash of resolve crossing his face as he stepped closer.
Tachibana Hina caught his hand and lightly brushed her fingers across the back of it, her cheeks pink. "Well? Feel anything?"
Yūto Shō shook his head.
Suddenly Tachibana Hina guided his hand and pressed it against the swell of her chest. She turned her face away and asked, voice trembling, "Then... what about this?"
Yūto Shō seemed dazed, frozen for a long moment, before whispering nervously, "A little, maybe."
Tachibana Hina's heart leapt in secret. She simply closed her eyes, looking like a heroine bracing for her final boss fight. "Shō-Kun, you do it yourself. If you react to Noona's body, that proves you're fine."
Privately she was building her own logic, brick by brick — maybe because of that day, when he'd seen her body and even touched her chest, Shō-Kun had become over-stimulated by her, hooked on her instead, until the girl he'd been crushing on couldn't hold his attention anymore. If that was the case, she had to take responsibility.
First, though, they had to confirm whether Yūto Shō's hardware was still up to spec.