Chapter 0024: Hot Springs (2/4)

“You should start counting.” He pulls his hand back and was going to bring it down her butt.

Suddenly, she breaks out of the role-play and pulls herself off of his lap. She’s about to fall on the ground since she’s not stable so he holds her to help her balance and lets her go.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Role-play. I thought you wanted to practice your acting.” His face is completely innocent as if he wasn’t just about to take advantage of her.

“I want to be a movie actress. Not a pornstar.”

“A lot of movie actresses start their career that way.”

She looks around and picks up a pillow from the side. Then she throws it at him.

“Hey, why is it always violence with you?” He catches the pillow.

“I’m leaving.” She starts to walk away.

“Fix your yukata, way too much skin is visible right now.” He gets up and says to her, making her stop in her tracks.

“And whose fault is that, huh?” She looks at him accusatorily while fixing her clothes. She doesn’t even realize that she didn’t have any issue with him seeing her in that state.

“Why are you in my room anyway? And you even had the key.”

“Ah, you see, about that… This is my room.”

“What? But… No…” She dramatically trails off.

“I’m afraid so.” Kazuya nodded solemnly

“What the hell? Do they have some sort of misconception that we’re together or something?” She doesn’t wait for his answer and storms out of the room.

“I hope that they got another room beforehand because I’m pretty sure that the inn was booked out already…” He leisurely follows after her.

He sees her standing in the lift, stopping it as she beaconed him, “Why are you so chill? Walk quicker.”

“What’s the point? It’s not like our grandmas are going anywhere. Either they’re just fucking with us and booked another room or not. That won’t change in a few minutes.”

“You’re awfully cool about all this…”

“Why wouldn’t I be? Either I get to stay with my two-day fling or I stay with my family.” He finally enters the elevator with her.

“H-Hey, we agreed not to talk about it.” She suddenly looks down and gets a guilty expression on her face.

“I don’t remember having that conversation.”

“Well, I’m telling you now. I don’t want to talk about it.” She hides her feelings behind an aggressive mask.

“I think I know why your teacher wanted to punish a disobedient student like you.”

“Not… another… word… Do you understand?” She gives him a death glare.

“It’s so much fun to rile you up.”

“Well, it’s not fun for me.” She looks away, pouting.

“It’s cute that you think that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We’re here.” Kazuya changes the topic and mentions that the lift is on the correct floor.

Chizuru looks ahead and the doors don’t open.

She turns back to glare at him and is about to scold him but by then there was a *Ting* sound and the lift’s doors opened.

Kazuya had delayed her enough that the lift reached the correct floor.

“Let’s go.”

…

“Hehe. Sorry about the surprise honey,” Her grandma told Chizuru with a light laugh.

”Come on you guys can go enjoy yourselves. You’re both young and energetic. I’m sure neither of you wants to stay with your families.”

“But Grandma… Wasn’t this supposed to be our weekend getaway? I thought I’d have fun with you.”

“I agree with her. Ichinose-san can switch rooms with me and everything goes back to normal without any awkward stuff.” He supports Chizuru since he was fine with either of the options.

“Come on Kazuya. You should understand that your parents will be busy with each other, which leaves me to hang out with you. As much as I love you, I’d rather spend my time with my friend.”

“And you guys didn’t think to get two single-person rooms for the two of us?” Chizuru asks.

“You should understand Chizuru-chan, this kind of hotel is usually completely booked. We only barely got the rooms because of connections. There weren’t any rooms available.”

Seeing Chizuru’s desperate expression, Sayuri’s heart aches for her granddaughter so she tries one last attempt to convince her.

“Fine Chizuru. You don’t have to worry. I’ll switch rooms with little Kazuya. Although we’ve already ordered personalized dinners and everything, it’ll be a hassle to change it with the hotel… It’s all right. I’ll spend time with you instead of enjoying the vacation with someone-“

Looking at her grandma’s cheap attempt to convince her Chizuru is annoyed but goes soft looking at her grandma’s pleading expression.

’I hate that I’m about to accept their arrangement.’

“It’s fine grandma. I and Kazuya are kind of friends with each other, so I don’t mind staying in the same room as him. You can… enjoy your vacation with grandma Ichinose.”

Sayuri envelops Chizuru in a hug, “Ohh. Thank you, Chizuru. I love you. And you don’t have to hold back. I know that you are young. You should have some fun in your youth.”

“Grandma…” She whines like a little girl in her grandmother’s protective embrace.

…

“So… What now?” Kazuya is with Chizuru in their room, admiring her yukata-covered body accentuating her curves in all the right places.

Chizuru is leaning with her elbows on the table while sitting on the mat, “Whatever. I’ll just have fun.”

“It’ll be fine. All you have to worry about is me having a wet dream. I don’t know what I’d do to you in my sleep if that happened.”

“Your words aren’t reassuring me… Forget it. I’ll go take a bath.”

As Chizuru leaves the room to go take a shower, Kazuya walks to the window of the room that had a beautiful view of the valley behind the resort.

‘It’s a beautiful evening. I guess I should go and enjoy the hot springs at least once. I’ve never tried one before. Let’s see if it’s as fun as the various media portray it to be.’

He leaves the room after locking the door and goes to the men’s bath area.

‘Now what’s the fun of the hot springs if we aren’t even going to have mixed baths with girls.’ Kazuya, immeasurably disappointed, walks into the place wearing a towel.

‘It’s a peaceful place. Even though the place is completely booked there’s what… 4…5…6 people here, and dad?’ Kazuya notices his dad sitting alone seeming like he was brooding over something.

‘I know he seems brooding but that’s just his natural face when he’s completely idle.’

After taking a shower, Kazuya walks up to his dad.

“Hey, dad. You alive?”

“…” There was no reply.

“Yo. old man. Wake up. Stop relaxing.” Kazuya wasn’t relaxed right now and he damn well wasn’t gonna let anyone else relax either.

His dad opens his eyes with a scowl on his face, “What is it brat? Let me rest.”

“I don’t know, I saw you relaxing and had this urge to bother you.” Kazuya took a seat on a comfortable rock with good back support and made an expression that made his father want to punch him in the face.

“You little-“

“So… What’s up with grandma? She seems strangely adamant about setting me up with her friend’s granddaughter.”

“Ugh. Don’t ask. They didn’t even let me in on their little plan to have you and Chizuru-chan stay together. I usually take care of her willfulness but sometimes even I slip.”

“It’s not that I mind staying with someone so beautiful but still. It’s creepy to force two people who are practically strangers to stay in one room.”

“Kazuya.” His father’s tone is pretty serious.

“What’s up?”

“You’ve changed, a lot.”

Kazuya’s heart skips a beat but his relaxed expression doesn’t change, “Yeah, I have.”

“You got your heart broken, didn’t you?”

“Something like that…” Technically heartbreak is what led to the new presence in Kazuya’s body.

“I’m not gonna ask you about the details since you don’t seem to want to talk about that stuff. I just want to ask you if you are forcing yourself.”

“I’m not dad.” Kazuya gives his dad a genuine smile since he can tell that the guy genuinely cares about his change.

“Are you sure? People don’t drastically change so much so quickly. Your entire attitude has become different. I’m not saying that it’s bad. It’s much better than being a bumbling idiot like you were but if you’re still that bumbling idiot that’s just forcing himself to make himself seem different… don’t. We’ll still love you no matter what.”

“What brought this on dad?”

“I just don’t want you to tire yourself out pretending to be someone else entirely. If that’s what’s happening, you should stop because those actions will eat away at you till one day you completely explode and aren’t able to recover.”

“You don’t need to worry about that dad. I’m perfectly fine.”

“Good! Just wanted to confirm that with you. Now buzz off. Let me enjoy my time in the spring. Go hit on some girls or something. Or better yet, spend time with Chizuru-chan. Your grandma will be thrilled if you end up dating her.”

“Right…” Kazuya trailed off and shut up, hoping he wouldn’t have to talk about this stuff anymore.