Chika's True Feelings

"Toru, what's wrong?"

Chika tilted her head.

Chika is in front of him, soaking in the bath.

She has only one bath towel wrapped around her, and it is completely transparent.

Chika doesn't seem to notice that her bath towel has become transparent due to the water.

Toru was upset when he saw the cherry-red protrusions on Chika's small b*****s.

With an innocent expression, Chika smiles.

"I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be talking to you like this."

"Me too. I mean, are you calling me 'Toru'?"

Since the breakup of their engagement, Chika had stubbornly called Toru "Renjo-kun".

However, since Aino became Toru's fiancée, Chika has returned to calling him "Toru".

The other day, when they met at the Konoe family mansion, Aino pointed this out to her and Chika was flustered.

But now, Chika nodded quietly.

"We've known each other since childhood, right? That's why I feel it's natural."

"So you still call me your childhood friend?"

"Because it's true....... Even if we are no longer fiancées, even if Toru dislikes me, the fact that we were childhood friends will never change."

When she said that, Chika lowered her eyes in embarrassment.　

Chika's towel was as tight as ever, but what surprised him more was the statement that he hated Chika.

It should be the other way around.

It's true that Toru may have abandoned Chika and ran away. But that doesn't mean he hates her.

On the contrary, he thought that Chika hated him.

Chika also said that she didn't want to remember that she was engaged to Toru. And she had a cold attitude, as if she was pushing Toru away.

It was Toru who hated her, she thought. Because Toru abandoned Chika and was the only one who escaped from the kidnappers.

When Toru said that, Chika fidgeted and combined her small hands in front of her b*****s.

"Yes, I do. I hate you. But that's not because ...... you abandoned me and ran away."

"No?"

"I'd be lying if I wasn't shocked that you ran away. But what I really hated was the fact that Toru and I broke off our engagement."

"Huh?"

"When you heard that your engagement to me was broken off and that you were going to be kicked out of the house, you just gave up, didn't you?"

"Well, I guess so."

If you ask him, she's right. He felt guilty about Chika, and since he was originally a member of the Konoe family, he thought it was inevitable that they would treat him poorly.

But that doesn't mean that anyone other than Toru felt that way.

Chika says.

"Why didn't ...... you resist with all your might at that time? If only you had said, "I want to be Chika Konoe's fiancée." I would have forgiven you. I could have ...... done it so that I could be with Toru!"

Chika said in a sorrowful voice.

Toru had no idea that Chika felt that way about him. He had thought that she had given up on him.

Chika gazed upward at Toru with black eyes.

"Was I really that unimportant to Toru? I was his cousin, his childhood friend, his fiancée, and yet he just walked out of the house like he didn't care about me."

"That's what the Konoe family told me to do. It wasn't Chika's decision, but I couldn't resist."

"I know it's wrong, too. But when I see ...... Toru being happy with Luthi, I can't ...... forgive it. I knew I was unwanted."

A single tear spilled from Chika's eye. Then, as if she couldn't take it anymore, she began to cry bitterly.

The girl in front of him was just like the Chika of her childhood, weak and lonely, in need of help.

Toru forgot that Chika's supple and beautiful body was almost naked, and that her bath towel was transparent from the water.

He just wanted to comfort the little girl in front of him.

So, Toru gently put his hand on Chika's back.

"Toru ...?"

Chika stopped crying and looked up at Toru.

Toru then hugged Chika tightly. The reason why he did so was not due to his feelings for her, but due to his love for his family.

However, it is not always the case that the people watching think so.　 It was then that the door to the bathroom opened and Aino appeared.