Lure Her Until She's Grinning from Ear to Ear

Nakano Ichika suddenly reached out and wrapped her arms around Fushimi Makoto's neck.

Her lovely scent wafted over him. Then she tightened her arms and pressed his face firmly into her chest.

"Embrace of Makoto Kill!"

She copied the boys in her class, cheeks flushed as she called out the move.

As for Fushimi Makoto, he delivered the famous line straight away: "I can't breathe."

The girl smiled, her cheeks rosy. "Girls hold grudges sometimes, you know. Last time, you blurted out that I wanted to be an actress in the cafeteria without hesitating—and in front of another girl, too. I was really embarrassed."

Fighting her shyness, she gazed at Fushimi Makoto's flustered, breathless expression and grinned like a little fox that had just gotten away with stealing a treat. "But this time, I win."

As soon as she finished speaking, her embarrassment reached its limit. She turned and hurried off.

Fushimi Makoto caught his breath. He could still vividly feel what had just happened.

I don't know whether you won, but I know I definitely came out ahead.

Fushimi Makoto looked up at the apartment balcony and spotted several indistinct figures.

Then he glanced at Nakano Ichika as she stepped into the elevator and thought, Just wait until you get home. You won't be winning then.

Just as Fushimi Makoto had predicted, the four girls on the balcony, led by Nakano Nino, were completely dumbfounded.

"Ichika just hugged him!" Nakano Yotsuba exclaimed.

Nakano Nino retorted, "You don't need to tell me. The whole cooking squad saw it."

Nakano Miku pressed her lips tightly together. After a long moment, she finally said, "Is Ichika dating him?"

"I don't know either."

Nakano Nino shook her head, then instinctively looked at Itsuki, who had been quiet. "Itsuki, aren't you friends with Fushimi? Did you look into their relationship?"

Nakano Itsuki looked up. "I didn't look into it."

"Ichika's our family. We have to get to the bottom of this... Wait, didn't you say you went out with Fushimi today, too?"

Nakano Nino remembered the key detail.

Now Miku and Yotsuba turned to look at her as well.

Feeling her sisters' eyes on her, Nakano Itsuki awkwardly turned away and said, embarrassed, "Ichika bought me a lot of meat buns. I felt bad about tagging along with them."

"Were you really bought off by a few meat buns? Are you the Meat Bun Monster or what?" Nakano Nino teased.

Nakano Yotsuba grinned. "That's definitely something Ichika would do. She's good at bribing us."

"More accurately, she just likes teasing us," Miku added.

Nakano Nino raised a hand to her forehead. It seemed she'd have to handle this herself after all.

That night, the moment Nakano Ichika got home from the set, her sisters subjected her to a brutal interrogation.

Luckily, she was already halfway into the adult world. She was more experienced and mature than her younger sisters, and after giving it everything she had, she finally defeated them.

"Damn it, Ichika! You're getting more and more cunning!"

After taking a shower, Nakano Nino came looking for Ichika again. Her loose pajamas couldn't conceal her well-developed figure, and with her arms crossed over her chest, her incredible curves were even more apparent.

She was fuming.

Though she was still busty even when she wasn't mad.

"Nino, you're just in time. I wanted to ask you something." Nakano Ichika gave her a flattering smile.

"You look awful when you smile like that. What do you want?"

"Do you have an extra pair of thigh-high stockings? Can I borrow them?"

"Huh?"

After plenty of pleading, Nakano Ichika eventually managed to borrow a pair of thigh-high stockings from Nino.

She put them on and checked herself out in the mirror.

My legs really are beautiful.

The only downside is that I'm not as tall as Kasumigaoka-senpai. My legs would look even better if I were.

Nakano Ichika picked up her phone, took a picture of her lovely legs, and sent it to Fushimi Makoto.

Fushimi Makoto replied almost immediately: [Why are you sending me food pictures this late at night?]

Nakano Ichika giggled.

Then she remembered something.

When she'd used "Embrace of Makoto Kill" on Fushimi Makoto earlier, she'd felt the presence of a hard object.

She wasn't much of a student, but she'd heard the saying: "When you carry a weapon, the urge to use it arises."

Teenage boys had an even stronger urge to use theirs...

Nakano Ichika had no intention of doing that sort of thing too soon, but she knew that boys often had a hard time when they had to hold back.

Would using just her hand work?

But you had to practice first, right?

Blushing, she crept to the fridge in the middle of the night. Sure enough, there were cucumbers Nino had bought for cooking.

She stole one.

Early the next morning,

Nakano Nino was about to make breakfast for her sisters when she noticed that there was one less cucumber than there should have been.

Who'd stolen one?

Then she started suspecting Itsuki.

### Chapter 29: Lure Her Until She's Grinning

Over the next three days, Fushimi Makoto got everything sorted out for the new club in one go.

Besides him, Ichika, Itsuki, and Yukino had all filled out applications on their own.

According to Nakano Ichika, Yotsuba might join this week, but she wasn't sure about the other two yet.

For those three days, Nakano Ichika was busy with her new role. She and Fushimi Makoto saw each other at school, but the rest of the time, they could only chat online, and...

She sent him photos of herself that she thought had turned out great.

Fushimi Makoto's response was, "Your photography skills are still as mediocre as ever."

Whenever that happened, Nakano Ichika would take a picture of her lovely legs and add a line of text: "If you're such a good photographer, why don't you come take pictures of me?"

That was more than a simple provocation. He had to hit back hard and take her down in person!

Fushimi Makoto already had a plan.

Matsukaze Mayu had also returned to normal over the past few days. When she saw him, she no longer looked away shyly like she had that day.

After all, the fact that she'd personally made him soy milk was still pretty embarrassing for her.

There was also a small incident during this time: Fushimi Makoto got a call from his parents in this world.

His father explained over the phone that the Yukinoshita Family in Chiba had visited several times. They'd been very polite the whole time and had frequently brought up Fushimi Makoto, expressing how much they admired him.

"That Mrs. Yukinoshita wants to bring us into a business venture. I'm a little uneasy about it. Makoto, are you close with their family?"

His father, an ordinary company employee, sounded worried.

"You can both relax. They're genuinely trying to help our family because I have a good relationship with the Yukinoshita Family."

Only after he reassured them again and again did his parents finally feel at ease.

Mrs. Yukinoshita's move had definitely caught him off guard.

He'd assumed that the beautiful woman might occasionally invite him to dinner and use those meals to bring him and Yukino closer.

Who knew Mrs. Yukinoshita would respond so quickly, going straight for his family's home base.

Unless something unexpected happened, the parents from both families would be seeing each other more often from now on. With their interests tied together, their relationship would grow closer, too.

Because he had the Time Loop, Fushimi Makoto cared less about money than he had before crossing over.

Still, since Mrs. Yukinoshita was willing to help his family make money, he wasn't going to turn her down.

"Aunt Yukinoshita's using a pincer movement, huh?"

At lunchtime that day, Fushimi Makoto remarked from his seat in the cafeteria.

Yukino, whom he'd dragged along to eat with him, looked up with an expressionless face. "Have you been secretly talking to my mother again?"

"Secretly? Yukinoshita, you may be second in your year, but sometimes you really aren't very precise with your choice of words," Fushimi Makoto corrected her.

Yukino had long since figured out what he was like. She ignored him and continued, "What did you and my mother talk about?"

"Nothing much. From what she said, I got the impression she wants me to join the Yukinoshita Family."

"..."

Yukino didn't respond this time.

It was certainly something her mother would do.

So she couldn't tell whether Fushimi Makoto was joking.

But she had a way to respond. "So, you really want to marry into our family?"

Fushimi Makoto smiled. "I'll say it again: why don't you marry into mine?"

This time, Yukino didn't turn red. Instead, she smiled teasingly. "If you're planning to win me over right now, I'm looking forward to seeing your plan."

"Are you that eager?"

"You may be first in your year, but your choice of words is still imprecise," Yukino shot back.

Then, unhurriedly, she said, "You should know that once I'm prepared for it, winning me over will be much harder."

Fushimi Makoto said, "It's fine. I can always try to win over Haruno."

Yukino's expression froze.

She couldn't help sighing. "If you were a little more serious, I'd probably be very happy to have you as a friend."

Fushimi Makoto replied calmly, "If I really were that serious and rigid, I probably wouldn't have survived the Time Loop."

Yukino fell silent.

A moment later, she said softly, "I hadn't thought of that."

She could sense how Fushimi Makoto felt.

Those days must have been agonizing.

He wasn't wrong, either. If someone rigid had gone through the Time Loop, they might have been driven insane by time repeating endlessly.

Yukino was about to change the subject when she noticed Fushimi Makoto seemed to be studying her.

She couldn't help asking, "What is it?"

Fushimi Makoto smiled. "I've realized that the gentle version of Yukinoshita is even cuter than the shy version."

Yukino covered her forehead and looked at him with exasperation. "Can't you think about something serious for once, instead of these things every day?"

"Speaking of which, I've already worked out the club's short film production plan."

"Hmm?"

Yukino hadn't expected him to change the subject so quickly.

But she was a sharp girl and immediately followed his lead. "I looked into it these past few days. Even making a short film involves a lot of work."

"I can do it all," Fushimi Makoto said.

"?"

"I've studied everything from lighting and sound recording to directing."

"Have you been studying everything again?" Yukino replied flatly, though she couldn't help admiring him a little.