"Is it... really that scary?"
Yuigahama Yui watched Shirai Mio huddled against her, trembling faintly, and felt a strange mix of fond concern and genuine puzzlement. She'd specifically picked films on the milder end of the horror spectrum—because Mio had once mentioned she liked horror movies but scared easily—but Mio seemed worse than she'd been at their last horror session.
"I'm fine." Mio produced a smile that convinced no one.
She'd thought that if she just kept her eyes off the screen, it would be manageable.
She had been wrong. The sound design alone was doing her in.
Mio quietly regretted having chosen the [Coward] punishment card at all. She'd nearly reached for the Purification Card to wipe it, but had stopped herself. The Purification Card removed a random punishment card—and [Coward] only affected her in specific circumstances. Better to hold the Purification for something genuinely unmanageable.
A low, creeping sound effect rose from the TV. Mio hadn't even been looking at the screen, but her body reacted on instinct—she buried her face against Yui's chest.
Normally she might have paused to appreciate the softness. Right now, Her only thought was: how much longer does this film have left.
Yui wrapped an arm around her and kept offering quiet reassurance. Originally, this had been part of a deliberate plan—comfort Mio while she was scared, use the closeness to build affection, just like last time. The plan was working fine structurally. The problem was that it wasn't actually helping.
She glanced at the screen herself. Still looked fairly standard to her.
Does Mio's fear threshold actually drop this sharply when she's already scared?
Yui reached for the remote. Whatever her original plan had been, she couldn't watch Mio suffer through this.
"Let's switch to something lighter."
Mio desperately wanted to say that's not necessary. Her pride lost the argument to her nervous system. She nodded.
She did feel a little guilty about all the effort Yui had put into curating those films.
Yui got up and crouched in front of the TV cabinet, flipping through the disc collection. Since she'd only thought to prepare horror films for Mio, she was now raiding her mother's supply.
Her mother's taste, however, was something of an unknown quantity. Yui had barely touched this section of the cabinet. After some deliberation, she pulled out one that looked promisingly light—clean packaging, cheerful summary blurb on the back, looked like a pleasant romance.
She slipped it in and settled back into the kotatsu.
Mio had recovered somewhat, though she still looked a little fragile. Yui reached over and ruffled her hair once, softly. "It's okay. That was all fake. And I'm right here."
Mio knew it was fake. That hadn't made it less terrifying. But she had to admit: having Yui beside her during the film had been the only thing keeping her from a full meltdown. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't let Yui pat her head like this—that kind of casual contact wasn't something she generally invited. Right now, she didn't just tolerate it. She wanted to lean into Yui's hand.
"Yuigahama Yui's conquest rating has increased by 1 point."
"Called it," Mio muttered.
The System sounded mildly surprised. "Hm? No reaction from the host this time?"
"What's there to say. Saw it coming." The rating was still a long way from the next threshold—one point wasn't going to change anything.
"The host does seem to have some self-awareness, at least~"
Yui leaned in and rested her chin on Mio's shoulder, voice quiet. "Fair warning—I haven't seen this one either. Don't blame me if it's bad."
Mio tilted her head toward her. "Don't worry, it won't be."
For now, anything that wasn't a horror film was acceptable.
The movie began.
The packaging had been deceptive. Within twenty minutes, it became clear that pleasant romance was a generous interpretation—the film's content was pushing hard toward 18X territory, and the packaging had been outright lying.
Alone, it would have been mildly awkward. Watching it while pressed together under the same kotatsu blanket gave the atmosphere a very specific quality.
At a particularly suggestive moment, Yui instinctively glanced at Mio. Mio, with equally poor timing, glanced back. Their eyes met for exactly one second before both of them looked away with the synchronized precision of people pretending they hadn't just done that.
Why does mom even own this, Yui thought, a little flustered. Out of all the films in that cabinet, I had to pick this one.
She was still processing the internal complaint when she noticed Mio's ears—pink, distinctly, against her silver-white hair. And her cheeks carried a faint flush that hadn't been there before.
Yui's instincts spoke up.
She leaned toward Mio's ear, voice low. "Mio... your ears are really red."
"What?!"
Mio's hands flew to cover her ears. This was a known vulnerability—she ran warm easily, and certain visual stimuli had a disproportionate effect on her. Even drawing a doujinshi once had sent her scrambling to change her panties. The current film was already exceeding that threshold.
And that was when it clicked—she still had an unfinished task. This was her opening.
Playing the role of someone caught out but refusing to admit it, Mio put on an expression of brazen stubbornness and said, "I'm just—curious, okay? I've never done anything like that, so naturally I'm a little—Yui, aren't you curious?"