Vol. 2 Chapter 9 – Master

♥

“We’re running a cosplay café!”

“W-we’re… running it…”

“Please check us out!”

“P-please… check us out…”

After Momoka dragged Kyousuke off and made him wait for nearly an hour—

when he returned, he had completely transformed into a different person.

A long, black, curled wig. A black and navy gothic lolita outfit with cute frills. His skin was painted a matte white like a doll’s, with blood-red lipstick adding an eerie charm. On top of that, he was made to hold a patched-up stuffed rabbit, completing the look of a『dark-cute』girl.

“Alright, go hand out flyers with Ayano-chan! Don’t stop in the hallway, or we’ll get scolded again!”

Pushed forward by Momoka, the two of them made their way into the courtyard.

Ayano in a butler outfit, Kyousuke in gothic lolita. Thanks to Momoka’s perfect makeup, no one recognized Kyousuke as a boy, and upperclassmen girls gathered around him, squealing kyaa kyaa in delight.

“If we go to your café, will you be the one serving us tea?”

“U-um…”

“Which class are you from? Did you do that makeup yourself?”

“Ah, um…”

Unable to handle handing out flyers and answering questions at the same time, Kyousuke became flustered and panicked.

He looked incredibly cute like that, but for some reason, it wasn’t something she could enjoy wholeheartedly. Even though she understood that it couldn’t be helped for him to be teased by others, she still couldn’t accept it.

“Um, sorry. She’s getting scared.”

Before she knew it, she had stepped in front of Kyousuke.

She felt a little bad for interrupting when they were having fun. But this time, there was nothing she could do. Her body had moved on its own.

“…Thanks, Ayano.”

He said quietly, gripping the hem of her outfit tightly.

It was unbearably cute. Even though she was trying to maintain a dignified expression to match her outfit, her lips kept loosening into a smile.

“S-sorry! Um… excuse me, but you’re a girl, right?”

One of the upperclassmen gave a polite peko bow, then frowned slightly as she spoke.

When Ayano nodded with a『Yes』the upperclassmen burst into excited chatter with high-pitched kyaa kyaa voices. She was used to this kind of reaction, but no matter how many times it happened, it still felt good.

“We’re definitely going to your café later, so can we take a photo!?”

“Sure.”

“Then please do it like you’re pulling that girl close!”

“「 「 Huh?」 」 ”

Kyousuke and Ayano spoke at the same time, then glanced at each other.

The upperclassmen had already taken out their phones, eyes sparkling as they waited for the perfect moment.

Ayano personally didn’t mind, but she wondered what he thought.

Without really understanding what was going on, he had been turned into『Kyouko-chan』thrown out in public, and now asked to take a photo while being held close… It only took two seconds to realize there was absolutely nothing in this for Kyousuke.

“…A-Ayano, um…”

He muttered in a faint voice, hesitantly stretching out his hands.

“Huh? I-is that okay? Are you sure?”

“It’s fine. I’m the one who said I’d help Iori-san.”

“Then… I’m really doing it, okay?”

Grabbing his arm and pulling him closer, he let out a small yelp. Without stopping, she wrapped her arm around his waist, and the upperclassman who had requested the pose said,『That’s it!』with satisfaction as she snapped the photo.

‘Th-this is way too close…!’

Pachiri, Kyousuke’s dark eyes blinked.

The scene reflected in his eyes triggered a flashback of a past memory. What happened in the car—he could feel that heat returning to his lips.

“Thank you so much! We’ll head to your café later!”

Finally freed from the close contact, the upperclassmen filed back toward the school building.

Ayano let out a small breath. If it were just her alone, it wouldn’t have been anything, but when Kyousuke was involved, she couldn’t keep up her composure.

“Um!”

When she turned at the voice behind her, a group of girls who looked like middle schoolers were staring at them with sparkling eyes.

“Next, can you do a kabedon!? We’ll definitely go to your café too!”

“Huh? Ah, um…”

When she glanced at Kyousuke, he hesitated but nodded.

She had no idea why he was this motivated. Could it be he had awakened to the joys of crossdressing?

“Then, just for a bit, okay?”

“Thank you so much!”

After that, dozens more people gathered, and in exchange for promises to visit the café, they were showered with flashes over and over again.

♠

“Is it really okay for me to take this much…?”

Staring at the ten thousand yen Momoka had handed him as part-time pay, Kyousuke muttered quietly.

Handing out flyers…well, it had turned into more of a photo session midway through, but he had only worked for about four hours. It definitely felt like too much, but that probably just meant they had earned that much more.

‘…It wasn’t actually that bad.’

Sitting on a bench in the empty courtyard, he looked up at the twilight-colored sky.

He had been resistant to crossdressing. And handing out flyers like that in such an outfit had been completely out of the question.

However, when he actually walked through the hallways, there were plenty of other students dressed in unusual outfits, so he didn’t feel out of place. And thanks to Momoka’s makeup and clothes, not a single person realized he was a boy. Maybe because he had already once walked around town with Ayano, it was far less embarrassing than he had imagined.

‘So this is what a cultural festival is like…’

He had never been very proactive about school events.

Even when everyone else got excited, he never knew how to join in.

But at the same time, it felt lame to look like he wanted to join, so he would put on a bored attitude and act like an observer.

Of course, he had thought of cultural festivals as childish, and even after entering high school, he believed that position wouldn’t change.

【Ehh! Kyousuke, come help me! It’s actually pretty fun, you know?】

If Ayano hadn’t said that, if she hadn’t made a place for him, he probably would have done the same thing as always.

It was true that crossdressing had been embarrassing.

Being photographed dozens—no, hundreds—of times like that was something he never wanted to experience again.

Even so, he couldn’t ignore the fact that he had enjoyed it.

Being called out to by so many people, having them accept his flyers, taking photos together with Ayano… he could never honestly say that time had been made up of nothing but discomfort.

“…Ayano’s late.”

It was now 7 p.m.

She had told him to wait because she needed to change and clean up, and quite a bit of time had already passed.

Since many students would be staying overnight at school in preparation for the final day tomorrow, the school building was still quite lively. Ayano was probably busy as well.

【Ayano: Sorry for being late! Come to the classroom where we were running the cosplay café!】

A message popped up on his phone, followed by the usual dog sticker. Seeing it say “Hurry!” Kyousuke immediately stood up.

They were just going to go home together, so why did he have to go back into the school building?

He had his doubts, but she told him to hurry. He could ask the reason when he saw her.

“I heard there was a super cute girl in the courtyard today.”

“You mean that model, right? I’ve seen her up close before—she’s way too mature, no way she’d be interested in high school guys like us.”

“No, there was a small girl in gothic lolita! I saw a picture—she’s seriously something!”

“Oh yeah? Maybe we should find out what class she’s from.”

A pair of boys coming from the opposite direction passed by Kyousuke as they chatted excitedly and headed toward the entrance. Watching their backs, his eyes widened.

‘Why are the photos already spreading around…!?’

He hadn’t told anyone not to share them, so he had expected them to spread through the school sooner or later.

Even so, this was fast. Too fast—so much so that surprise outweighed fear.

‘This is bad… I’m starting to regret it a little…’

Just a few minutes ago, he had been in such a good mood.

But imagining what would happen if people found out he had been crossdressing gave him a headache.

“…Well, whatever for now.”

There was no way to retrieve the photos once they had spread, and if he made a fuss, he would only end up revealing himself.

Deciding to act like it had nothing to do with him, he hurried toward the classroom where Ayano was waiting.

From the classroom that had been so noisy before, not a single voice could be heard. Even so, the lights were still on, proving that she was there.

“You said hurry, but what did you need me for—”

He said as he opened the door, then froze.

Black hair tied into twin tails at the sides of her head. A white headband and a white apron. The chest area was open, emphasizing curves far too mature for her age, and his eyes were drawn to the healthy skin extending from beneath the short skirt.

“E-ehhehe. Welcome home, Master… j-just kidding.”

The dignified, handsome butler from before was completely gone.

Ayano, her cheeks burning bright red, pinched the hem of her skirt and showed off the adorable maid outfit.

“…Huh?”

Faced with the scene before him, Kyousuke stood frozen, eyes wide.

The only time Ayano wore a skirt was with her uniform. He had seen her in casual clothes many times, but she always wore pants. Outfits that emphasized her long, slender legs—cool from any angle, no matter when he looked.

It wasn’t that he had never thought she was cute. But that had been more praise for her as a person than for what she wore.

Never before, until this very moment—

“Actually, Momoka-chan made this for me…”

—had he thought about what she was wearing—

“But I thought it might be a little embarrassing to wear it in front of customers…”

—or about the way she showed it off—

“So? D-does it suit me?”

—as cute.

“…Kyousuke? Hey, s-say something…!”

Before he knew it, Ayano had moved right in front of him.

Kyousuke, whose mind had completely gone blank, was pulled back by her voice and gulped in a deep breath.

“Does it suit me? Is it c-cute?”

She grabbed his right wrist and pressed him against the wall.

Unable to move, their faces came so close their noses nearly touched.

Her breathing, the movement of her lips, the faint tremble in her eyes—every detail that made up her face struck Kyousuke’s mind violently.

“Twin tails… i-it’s my first time, so I’m not really confident…”

A thin film of tears formed over her indigo eyes, her gaze wavering uncertainly.

Her usual confident expression was gone. Like a child serving their first homemade meal to their parents, she let out a breath filled with a mix of hope and anxiety.

“…Sorry. Maybe I got a little carried away… by myself…”

As her embarrassment looped around, a hint of regret seeped into her expression.

Her fingers slipped shururi from Kyousuke’s wrist and fell with gravity.

“Y-you’re cute!!”

Instinctively grabbing it back, he finally released the words that had been building in his throat.

His voice came out much louder than expected, echoing throughout the classroom.

For a moment, embarrassment hit him, but seeing the color return to Ayano’s face, he let out a breath of relief.

“I feel like this kind of outfit suits someone slender like Sayo-chan more… but are you really, really sure it’s cute?”

“…I don’t know what everyone else would think, but I think it’s cute.”

“How much?”

“How much… um… v-very cute…?”

“What do you mean『very cute』?”

“I-it’s like… I can’t take my eyes off you…”

“Mm.”

“…Cute enough that I want to keep looking at you forever…!”

Squeezing out everything he had, he took a deep breath.

At his own overly cheesy words, an itchy, tingling sensation crept around his waist.

The only saving grace was that Ayano’s lips curled into a teasing grin.『I-I see』she murmured in a warm voice, shifting restlessly.

“Did you call me here just to show me that?”

“Yeah. Since she went through the trouble of making it for me… …I wanted you to say it was cute, Kyousuke.”

The way she fidgeted her lips shyly, completely opposite to her usual demeanor, combined with that appearance, carried an overwhelming, almost destructive level of charm.

‘Oh no, my face is going to look weird…’

Cute. She was just too cute, and he covered his mouth, looking away.

If she saw the strange expression he had right now, she would definitely be put off.

“…Hm?”

Hearing footsteps from the hallway, Kyousuke suddenly snapped back to his senses.

Someone was coming.

Maybe they would just pass by the classroom. But what if they didn’t? If they came in, they would see Ayano as she was now.

“But I thought it might be a little embarrassing to wear it in front of customers…”

That maid outfit she had mustered the courage to show him.

Someone other than him would see it.

And he realized—

he really, really didn’t like that.

“Ayano, come here for a second.”

“Huh? Ah—hya!”

He pulled her forcefully and hid under the long desk set up in front of the blackboard.

At that very moment, the door slid open with a garagara sound.

The footsteps of two people traveled through the floor, reaching Kyousuke’s palm.

“H-hey, what are you suddenly—”

With one hand, he gripped her shoulder to keep her from moving, and with the other, covered her mouth.

“Stay quiet.”

He whispered, and Ayano stared at him for a moment before softly averting her gaze and giving a small nod.