V1C2 Part1

Translated by Damian's TLs Edited by Damian's TLs

“ーHmm? This is…”

It’s morning. I was looking at last month’s expense record on my computer when I saw something that made me frown.

…Well, you might be a bit confused and ask, ‘what are you doing so early in the morning?’. It’s completely necessary, though. Mitsuki and I share finances and take turns budgeting each month. It was my turn this time. I happened to wake up a little earlier, so I decided to get it out of the way. I entered our spending from the month. On a whim, I looked at the budget for the month before.

So. The reason I frowned.

At the beginning of each month, we split up our budget into ‘living expenses’, ‘my portion’, and ‘Mitsuki’s portion’. The parts for Mitsuki and I are like ‘allowance money’, which we can spend at our own discretion. We each pay for everything out of our own pockets, like our smartphone plans and clothes, with the exception of what’s absolutely necessary for daily life. Then there’s the ‘living expenses’ category. It covers everything from utilities and food to medical bills and consumables. Consumables are things like school supplies and underwear. It also covers any appliances and other household goods that are shared between us. The rest of the money goes into savings.

So the problem: last month’s ‘living expenses’ were unusually high. When I looked at the breakdown, I found that Mitsuki paid more than usual for ‘consumables’.

“ーHmm. Mitsuki wouldn’t try to do anything sneaky…”

It’s not a big deal, but it’s still too big to just ignore.

…I really do doubt that she abused it, but I think I should still ask her. Mitsuki’s already up because she’s on breakfast duty today, which is convenient. We can talk with each other in the morning as long as neither of us is sick. And just as I made up my mind, I heard footsteps coming from the balcony I’d unlocked earlier.

“Good morning~ Here to make breakfast?”

Mitsuki-san walked in. She didn’t seem sick.

TN: For whatever reason, the author used Mitsuki-san here instead of Mitsuki for Yuuya’s internal monologue. Usually, Yuuya would call her Mitsuki in his head. No idea if it’s important here. It’s usually used to be more polite in cases like these.

Mitsuki, with her hair in a ponytail and already wearing her uniform, walked in with a skip in her step.

ーYeah, we have time to spare, so I guess I’ll talk with her about it now.

“Morning, Yuuyaー Huh? You’ve got a troubled look on your face, what’s wrong?”

“…Mitsuki, I’m sorry, but take a seat, please. I need to talk to you for a bit.”

“Hm? Sure… ーWhat is it?”

Mitsuki sits across from me, unsure of what I could be talking about. ーIt’s true, though. There’s nothing wrong with it, per se…

“I’m doing this month’s budget, and… I took a peek at last month’s. Can you put your hand on your chest and see if anything comes to mind?”

TN: The american version of this expression is ‘hand to your heart’, but in Japanese, it’s ‘hand on your chest’. It’s also worth noting that the word for both chest and breast is mune (moo-neh).

When I said that, Mitsuki put her hand on her chest and thought about it.

“Hm, last month…? ーAh-”

“ーWas there something? It’s nothing big, I’m just curiousー”

Mitsuki seemed to have remembered something, so I asked her what it was. She replied with pride.

“Yeah. My cup size went up by one.”

“ーEh, really? …Wait, no!-”

I couldn’t help but reactー I said ‘put your hand on your chest’, but I didn’t mean it that way.

“Well, Yuuya is a boy…”

…She also seems to have noticed that I quickly moved my gaze away from where I was staring just before.

“ーUh, anyway, uhh… So? Can you think of anything about last month’s expenses?”

I don’t think Mitsuki would pointlessly tease me in a situation like this. So maybe what she said earlier has something to do with itー

“Yeah… I bought a new set of undergarments because my cup size increased.”

“ーIt really was that. …Well, yeah. That makes sense.”

Each of us pays for our own clothes, but undergarments are covered as ‘living expenses’. In most cases, women spend more than men on stuff like clothing, cosmetics, and other consumables. I didn’t think it was fair for Mitsuki to have to cover that out of her own pocket, so I initially suggested that clothes are also considered ‘living expenses’, but… ‘We’ll feel bad picking out what we actually like’, Mitsuki told me.

Since she refused it being covered completely, we compromised on having consumables and undergarments count as ‘living expenses’. But stuff like clothes, accessories and personal care products would be considered part of our personal expenses. We were both satisfied with this arrangement. …We were satisfied with itー I’m a bit curious about it though.

“ーI’m not complaining about it and it’s not that I don’t trust you, but I’m just curious… How much do women’s undergarments cost?”

I was really just a little curious because it’s not knowledge a man is supposed to haveー

“Hm? Yuuya, are you interested in women’s underwear?”

“Why do you have to say it that way?!”

“Ahaha, sorry, sorry~ ーUh, as for the price, it really varies, you could say? It can be as low as a few hundred yen, or it can go to… ‘one-hit KO’ levels, with a single pair costing 30,000 yen.”

TN: For most ‘dollar’ currencies (USD, CAD, AUD), you can divide the JPY value by ~100 to get a rough estimate. 300 JPY is about $3 CAD and 30,000 JPY is about $350 CAD.

“…’One hit KO’. Do you have some of thoー Ah.”

I… realized my mistake after I already said it. Mitsuki didn’t seem to mind, though.

“No? But I still wouldn’t show you because I’m planning to show it later to a certain someone~”

I didn’t expect her to respond in such a happy voice. …We can’t do it yet anyway, so it would be weird to have clothes meant for that.

“ーWell, yeah. Right.”

It’s hard not to be embarrassed when the topic of our conversation steers this way. While I was shaken and nervous, Mitsuki giggled with excitement… She kept attacking.

“ーAnd Yuuya, you don’t like revealing underwear anyway, right?”

“…Mitsuki Fushimi-sama. What on Earth are you saying?”

“And you too, Yuuya Toba-sama, what are you saying? You think you can hide it from me?”

TN: Both of them are talking in a certain type of Japanese that is very polite. “[…] is a humble way of speaking in which you humble yourself or lower your rank below the person you’re speaking to.” – Google

I even started talking more politely with you, so please figure out that I’m not interested in revealing underwear.

“…I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned or even suggested that I’m into that, did I?”

“I can tell because I spend so much time with you. I can see it when you play games and watch TV. Yuuya, you like when a girl wears clothes that show off her curves, even if there’s not much skin, don’t you?”

She was spot on. I’d rather see a girl in jeans than some random miniskirt. And I don’t really like swimsuits either, but that’s because I don’t like looking at them in a sexual way.

“…Why would you go out of your way to find out though…?”

“Yeah… When I figured it out, at first I was like ‘Ehh, you don’t like revealing clothes?’, but then I was like ‘Then, what does he like?’. And then I thought, ‘Maybe he has some weird fetishes?’. It was partly just for fun, though~”

“Yeah, yeah, ‘partly just for fun’. What’s the other part then?”

So, I asked her that casually. For some reason, she looked away from me and hesitated a bit.

“…Well, it’s not irrelevant, …I guess?”

She was blushing a bit and sounded a bit awkward. ーYeah, there’s no way it’s unrelated.

…No way am I going to ask ‘Oh? Why’s it not irrelevant?’, though.

“By the way… What would you do if I had some next-level fetish?”

At the moment, I don’t have any weird tastes. But what if I did, or some weird fetish was to awaken in me in the futureー

“ーEh? Of course, I’d pretend I never found out and avoid anything related to it at all costs?”

“…Yeah…”

I was a little relieved, but at the same time… I guess it can’t be helped that I feel a bit disappointed.

“Alright, well. It’s almost time to go, so I’m going to go make breakfast.”

I couldn’t tell if she knew how I felt about all this. She quickly changed the subject and headed off to my kitchen. Normally, I would be grateful that she was cooking for me, but today was a bit different.

“ーMitsuki, I’ve already made something for breakfast, so let’s make some bento together instead?”

“Ehh, bento? Sure, but… why?”

For lunch on a school day, we usually buy lunch at the cafeteria or from a store. Sometimes though, the person on breakfast duty would pack bentos, and can pocket the money that would have gone for lunch. But this time, there was a different reason.

“You’re presenting at the assembly today, right? ーAre you going to be fine?”

“Ah.”

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