My Stepsister is My Ex-Girlfriend - Volume 7 - Chapter 3.20

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“It’s impossible to stop stuffing my bra... I can’t go back to how I used to be. I kept believing that one day I’d grow and wouldn’t need them anymore. I kept believing, but...all that grew were the number of pads I used,” Aso-senpai wailed.

Aso-senpai had finally calmed down from her rampage and was now clutching Asuhain-san like a plushie as she aired complaint after complaint. Maybe I’d been partially at fault for reacting as severely as I had. But in my defense, I’d never seen anyone who’d stuffed so many pads in their bra. I had no clue anyone like that existed. Even after I’d discovered her secret, she’d just gone back to stuffing her bra as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“Feel free not to respond, but...” I started.

“What is it, Yumechi? Oh, you’re pretty big... How is that fair when you’re just a first-year?”

“W-Well, that aside... Does Hoshibe-senpai know?”

Aso-senpai looked away, tightly pursing her lips.

Asuhain-san furrowed her brow in exasperation as she sat on Aso-senpai’s lap. “He hasn’t noticed something so obvious himself? Boys really are stupid.”

“A-Asuhain-san, doesn’t that make me stupid for not noticing until now?”

“Sorry. But it is surprising that someone as smart and mired in excellence as the previous president couldn’t tell. I guess boys and girls really see the world differently.”

“That might be true...”

I had thought Mizuto and I had been on the same page about loads of things, but we hadn’t been. But also, maybe it wasn’t exactly a matter of same-sex individuals seeing the same thing. After all, despite being a girl, I hadn’t seen through Aso-senpai’s padding. I wonder if Mizuto understood what I was trying to convey to him today...

“Yumechi... No matter what you do, don’t tell him...okay?” Aso-senpai requested in an intimidating voice while patting Asuhain-san on the head for some reason. “This is a secret, okay? Under no circumstances can you tell him. If you do...I will seriously and utterly despise you.”

“Shouldn’t you just come clean and tell him yours— Wah!” Asuhain-san started.

“Don’t get cheeky with me, twerp! I’m gonna rub your boobs.”

“Y-You’re already rubbing them!”

With that, our first sports festival as a student council ended.

“Bye...” I said, leaving the student council room alone.

I couldn’t believe how dark it was already. I could’ve sworn summer just ended. Why are the days so short? Everything had been a whirlwind recently with how fast time had flown ever since the cultural festival. It had taken everything I had to keep up.

Half a year ago, days felt excruciatingly long. But things completely changed when I started living with Mizuto. A combination of a daily routine that I’d gotten used to and stimulations from first-time experiences accelerated time for me.

But even so, I couldn’t let myself relax just yet. In a few days, we’d enter test prep week and then midterms. A few days after that, we’d...

I changed out of my school shoes and into my street shoes before heading towards the school gate. The majority of the students had already left, meaning I was the only one walking out right now. Maybe that’s why I immediately noticed that there was a familiar guy waiting by the gates.

“Huh? Mizuto?”

As I got closer, Mizuto stopped leaning against the gate’s pillar and started approaching me without a word. He’d changed back into his school uniform. It really suits him so much more than his gym clothes.

“What are you doing here?” I asked as he stopped in front of me. “Waiting for Higashira-san?”

“Isana already went home.”

“Huh?” So...why? I tilted my head in confusion.

Mizuto awkwardly looked away, hesitating, before he began speaking. “The sports festival...isn’t over until we get home.”

“Hm?” That was the kind of thing people said about field trips, not sports festivals.

Then, as if to cut through my obliviousness, Mizuto bluntly declared what he’d meant. “You want to cross the finish line...together, right?”

Oh. Ohh. Ohhhh! Who is this little stepbrother? He’s too cute! I couldn’t tell if he was simply respecting what I’d wanted to do, trying to mess with me, or trying to reward me for how hard I’d worked on the student council. Regardless, I wasn’t conceited enough to think that I’d stolen his heart with my paltry actions.

But at the very least, I was certain that I’d gotten through to him, even just a little bit. We had to be on the same page—I was sure of it.

“What’re you grinning about? You’re creeping me out.”

“Well, it’s...you know.” I bent my back a little to look up at his face. I was sure that it’d be okay for me to act like a femme fatale right now. “I was just thinking how much more of a sister lover you are than I thought.”

“Huh?”

“How about I be the little sister just for today, Onii-chan?”

“Stop. I’m gonna barf.”

“Onii-chaaan!” I said in a singsong voice.

“Seriously! Knock it off!”

He sounded annoyed, but he didn’t run away. We walked shoulder to shoulder out of the school. There wasn’t a physical finish line anywhere. Even when we got home and the day ended, there wouldn’t be a physical finish line. But I knew it was out there somewhere, and I wanted to cross it with him and no one else.