They said a girl's blush surpassed any words of love.
Looking at Shinobu Kocho in his arms, Kanzaki Kumo declared with perfect confidence, "Never mind how she got red. Just tell me whether she's red or not."
Accompanied by Kanzaki Kumo's chuckles, Shinobu Kocho's cheeks, already apple-red when she turned into a "steam princess," rapidly deepened to the crimson of fully ripened red dates.
Together with the last rays of the setting sun, they perfectly illustrated what it meant to be "red enough to drip blood."
Seeing that Kanzaki Kumo had no intention of reining himself in and was even laughing louder and louder, Shinobu Kocho glared at him indignantly, puffing up her little cheeks like an angry pufferfish.
However, while pufferfish raised sharp, prickly spines when they inflated their bellies, there was nothing on Shinobu Kocho's soft, smooth cheeks that could stand up, apart from a layer of fine fuzz.
Those puffed-up cheeks made her look even cuter.
They made one want to poke them or give them a pinch.
And then.
Kanzaki Kumo did exactly that.
"Pfft."
Kanzaki Kumo raised a hand and poked Shinobu Kocho's puffed-up cheek, immediately producing a faint hiss of escaping air that both of them heard quite clearly.
Shinobu Kocho's eyes widened even further.
But before she could angrily speak, Kanzaki Kumo's mischievous hand gently pinched her cheek again, cutting her off before she could scold him.
Kanzaki Kumo: Feels amazing!
Shinobu Kocho: Thank. You. For. The. Compliment- (gritting teeth.jpg)
"Come on, Shinobu, I was only joking. Don't be mad~"
"Hiss-"
Kanzaki Kumo's sudden wheedling, delivered in a deliberately high-pitched voice at that, instantly wiped away every trace of Shinobu Kocho's anger. Instead, goosebumps began rising all over her body.
Shinobu Kocho: *Listen up. Whoever you are, get out of my Kumo's body