Stealing Spree

Thinking back, I found out that I missed a rather important detail from my interaction with Koizumi Juri.

Was I too focused on returning to Satsuki’s room or was it because I ended up too absorbed in how she turned out to be a talkative person?

Either way, I seemed to have been treated not as a few years her junior but someone close to her on age. That’s the most unusual thing I hadn’t noticed right away.

Setsuna was treating me like a boy who captured her dear little sister so the way she acted around me was understandable. But for Juri, it’s extremely unusual.

Do I look like an adult to her? Or did she see me as one?

Ugh… Anyway, there might not be a reason for me to know. That’s unless I encounter her once more in the future. I will be asking her that question by then.

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Unlike the first two days since they arrived from overseas, my parents left even before I arrived home. From what I heard from Miwa-nee, they left pretty early in the afternoon and they seemed to be in a rush.

Considering their job, that’s kinda expected so I didn’t think too much about it. There’s also no reason to pry on their businesses. Instead, I sent my mother a message to bug her once more, asking her when they will answer my questions about the past.

It’s the third day since they arrived but aside from telling me their purpose of returning, there’s not much that changed. Well, apart from Minoru slowly getting fond of them.

After dinner, I checked on the mother and child first before retiring to the bed with Akane.

Ah. Right. We first did our routine of taking a bath and the usual pampering. Akane, as always, exuded the joy and satisfaction of being with me. Even if our bed was wide enough to fit four or five people, we’re always squeezed together in the middle.

It’s now a habit to snuggle with me and judging from her comfortable expression, the girl would never tire of it.

As we talked about the things that happened on our day, she once again sighed in amazement at how a lot of things could happen to me in a day. Hers was always only filled with normal school routines. Most of the highlights she would often tell me were about her best friends or about what she’s learning in the club she joined.

Following that, we talked about our schedule for tomorrow. I only have that appointment with Mina as well as the part-time job at the gym. Other than that, I will be free until the afternoon.

To use that free time, I can surprise one of my girls after the tea-making competition. Since I had previously walked most of them home, showing up near their place was plausible. Chances like that were scant after all.

Choosing who among them will be up to me. I cannot be at any two places at the same time. It’s inevitable that I will have to close one eye for the result of that decision.

This is the fate of having too many lovers that I love all the same. Even if I want to be with all of them, choices have to be made because it’s impossible.

Somehow, I felt like my mindset when I was only focused on my desire wasn’t as taxing as the current situation. Back then, although I planned my tactics to steal a girl, choosing who I would meet was all done on a whim.

Right. Yae, back on the day I reconnected with her, expressed her worry about that in a roundabout way. She told me that I couldn’t divide myself and my body might collapse because of the number of relationships I would have. And I brushed it off by telling her that she didn’t need to worry since I would be the one to demand them.

At that time, I still hadn’t remembered the real emotion I was feeling for them so I could say that in certainty.

Look what happened now? It became a major problem for me because I would always think about the girls that I failed to elect for every free time I got to spend with the one I elected.

When I reached that line of thought, I seriously looked at Akane and brought up the idea of getting a schedule planner for the girls. To fill it up with plans on who I am going to meet at what time and place.

I thought it was a bright idea and I could see her agree to it. However, the girl glared at me and reacted strongly against it.

“No way. I’m against it. Don’t ever use a planner. If you do, don’t put my name in it.”

After saying that, Akane turned around from me and moved away, her whole body screaming to me that I made her upset. No. Not just upset, she’s angry.

Looking at her trembling back that’s not caused by her excitement or joy, I was sent into confusion.

This was the first time I saw her this angry. The first time ever since we met each other when we’re kids.

She hadn’t been this angry with me even when I started acting out my desire and kept stealing girls left and right. She kept on obstructing my conquest back then but she’s never this angry at me.

What’s wrong with the idea? Won’t that solve the problem? Planning my day so that everyone can have a chance…

That kind of thought swirled inside my mind. No matter how much I thought about it, I expected a different reaction from her. I was expecting her to praise me for it but no, she did not.

And the worst of all, I was still clueless why that idea made her this angry.

As the first-ever instance seeing Akane this angry, my heart throbbed in pain. I… hated it. I hated that I made her angry.

“Won’t you tell me the reason why?”

Seeing her that far away from me in bed, I thought of crawling closer. However, something tells me that I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t do it unless I understand what I did wrong.

I see. So, this was it. Even if I prided myself to be someone who understood all of my girls, something like this was bound to happen sooner or later.

This was my trait of being too insensitive to certain things. What might be fine for me wasn’t for them.

Think. Ruki. Think!

And while I was thinking, my question was met with silence. Akane was still trembling but she’s steeling herself not to turn around and look at me.

Most likely, she also feared it. She feared that her resolve would be easily broken once she did turn around or answer me.

Nonetheless, isn’t it a lot better if she just pointed it out to me? That way, I can understand better what I did wrong. Did she want me to understand it myself?

“Akane… If it’s about that idea that I brought up, drop it. I won’t get a planner. I promise. Also, please tell me what’s wrong with it. I’m dumb, Akane.” I said.

I don’t know what tone of my voice I used on that. However, seconds later, Akane replied to me, her voice cracking. “Yes, you’re dumb. You can’t understand why I got this angry? I also don’t want this, you know. Being angry with you… I’ll tell you but… why don’t you try asking everyone the same thing first? I really want you to understand it yourself, about why it is such a detestable idea.”