An Uneasy, Awkward Question: How Should She Face the Person Who Stole Her First Kiss...

The next day.

Natsume Chikage groggily opened his eyes. Just as he was about to turn over, he felt something tightly hugging his arm.

He lowered his head and looked.

At some point, Kaga Reisa had rolled over beside him again, curled up like a lazy little cat.

Both her hands were tightly wrapped around his right arm, and one fair, slender leg was casually draped over his. Her breathing was steady, and she was sleeping deeply.

He could clearly feel the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed, and his face flushed slightly.

He really wanted to complain, Why did you crawl over here again?

No, rather, whenever she stayed the night at his house, didn't she always seem to end up sleeping beside him?

Was this really just because she had bad sleeping habits?

He could not help growing suspicious again.

But when he thought of Kaga Reisa's usual shy, timid demeanor—how she spoke in a soft voice, blushed at the drop of a hat, and even bashfully looked away whenever she made eye contact with someone—he found it hard to imagine that she would do something like this on purpose.

Still, he had no intention of waking her.

He still vividly remembered the awkward scene from last time when he had woken her up after getting out of bed.

So, he could only carefully pull his arm out of her embrace bit by bit.

Then, gently supporting her back and the crooks of her knees, he lifted her whole body and placed her back beside his sister.

But when he picked her up, he vaguely caught a strange smell coming from her.

Only after finishing all that did he belatedly notice that his pants seemed to have picked up a bit of that smell too.