Miss Heir wasn't very kind to me.

Chapter 87, 18. "Dreams, Tea, and Baths"

The city’s light pollution gave the night clouds an ochre-red edge, and the cicadas made short, chirping sounds.

On a hot summer night, the windows were covered with insect-proof screens. It seemed to be drizzling outside, otherwise how could there be any moist air drifting in?

Thinking of this, Masumi's eyelids narrowed a tiny gap, like the fish belly white at the edge of the sky in the early morning light, but it was not enough to brighten the entire night sky.

"So close..."

Suddenly, there were whispers that pulled his consciousness back to reality from his dream state.

"This is my first time seeing Masumi like this up close. As expected, she's so cute..."

A delicate touch like silk came from my cheek.

The figure in front of him stretched out a trembling hand and covered his right cheek.

The heat transmitted through the skin made Masumi slightly more awake, and he saw a pair of gentle and moist eyes.

The remaining vision was still blurry, and the owner of the eyes seemed to be about to merge into the darkness.

Her long hair hung down, and the ends touched her cheeks, bringing a fermented warmth.

"...I've said it countless times, but I still can't help but say it whenever I see that face."

"Masumi...I like you."

Masumi seemed to see her staring at him with empty eyes.

The moist air, it turns out not to be rain, but the warm breath of human beings?

In a daze, he heard the figure in front of him continue to say:

"…I was able to remain calm in Tokyo, but after arriving in Kobe, I lived with Masumi day and night."

"I can't suppress this feeling even if I try my best to hide it."

"I want to touch Masumi's skin, I want to hug Masumi's body, I want to kiss Masumi's lips, and even go one step further - to 'eat' Masumi completely!"

The figure slowly approached, carefully taking Masumi's breath into his mouth, a blush tinting his cheeks.

"Ha~ In order to avoid being disliked by Masumi... I endure it very hard every day, every day, every day."

"Pretend to be a quiet and well-behaved child that Masumi likes."

"So, only tonight is fine. At least let me absorb a little more of your body temperature..."

She lowered her upper body and stared at him intently, the look of a predator like a spider catching its prey.

"You know what? Masumi."

"When I was little, I always hated the night. I've never loved the night as much as I do now."

"Because... this is a world that belongs only to the two of us. Without those thieving cats to disturb us, we can be closely connected and at ease."

"Ah~ Is there anything happier than this? I'm so happy I'm almost crying."

She seemed to be talking to Masumi, or perhaps talking to herself, and her trembling voice was filled with an irresistible joy.

Because the brain is still in a hazy, shallow sleep, unable to function smoothly and thinking, and the vision is blurred, the body's senses become more acute.

Masumi could sense that she was in a riding position with him lying on the bed.

The beautiful face slowly approached and whispered in her ear.

"Hey, Masumi."

A slight chill ran down his spine, making him feel like he was being targeted by some beautiful yet dangerous predator.

"You're still as popular with girls as ever."

"It was just like that in Tokyo, but I stopped all those sneaky cats."

"That's too much! Every time I see you chatting and laughing with other girls, my heart aches."

"Jealousy, obsession, possessiveness, I never thought such feelings would be directed towards me."

"Of the cats in the coffee shop, which one do you like best? Or that bobcat with green eyes outside?"

"Let me think about it, you and Asami have spoken the most times. Just today when I was present, that was a full 60 times."

"That shameless woman always puffs out her chest provocatively when she's with you. Tsk—and lately, she's been showing off her feet."

"But the most outrageous thing is the number of times you and Rin'in subconsciously locked eyes. That's a full 13 times! Why?! I'm the only one who clearly has a connection with you, and that's enough."

"And Haiyue, that self-willed child, you touched her body six times: the back of her hand, forearm, upper arm, shoulder, forehead, and more!"

The moonlight refracted through the window lattice into the room, illuminating that delicate face. Although distorted, the smile contained a strange beauty, delicately outlined by the rosy lips.

"Ah~ I have to wash this messy smell off Masumi."

"Use my body to cleanse thoroughly!"

In the night, the slender figure was reflected on the wall, stretched into a long shape, like a poisonous spider.

As you pay attention to her beautiful appearance, the fragrance blurs the scenery and also plays wildly on your brain, weaving an invisible web around you.

The prey bound in the spider web cannot break free and can only watch as she uses the tentacles connected to the venom glands to reach into the body to release poison, and the venom with her mark flows throughout the prey's body, turning it into her puppet.

She pressed down her upper body again, and the weight of her body pressed down on Masumi, who was still drowsy, became more active at this moment.

Although he was not fully awake yet, he was awake enough to purse his lips and murmur:

"——Kuro...Kawa?"

A weak voice rang out in the room. He saw the figure in front of him suddenly freeze, and suddenly changed to an extremely terrified tone, and asked cautiously:
"Masumi...you, when did you wake up? No, it's not like that..."

The more he tried to cover up, the more hesitant and fragmented his words became.

"Is that you? Kurokawa."

Masumi lay on the bed and repeated it again in a daze.

"Or... am I dreaming?"

"Dream?"

Hearing this, a gentle smile once again bloomed on the pretty face that had revealed a look of fear: "Yes, yes...it was a dream, after all."

"That's right, it's just that Masumi missed me too much, so he had a dream about me. Yeah, that's it!"

Without saying anything, she gently left Masumi's body, and then carefully and properly covered Masumi with a blanket.

"Goodnight then, Masumi."

"Please have a wonderful dream where my mind and I are closely connected, our souls are deeply connected, and our bodies are warmly embraced."

After saying this, her voice and figure disappeared in the room.

There was only a faint fragrance lingering at the tip of the nose, blurring the consciousness.

Masumi felt sleepy and fell into the dream world again.

Gently closing the door, Kurokawa Mio leaned against the wall of the corridor and let out a silent breath.

“…That was a close call.”

Moonlight leaked in through the gaps in the window, sliding across her smooth back. Her honey-gold hair perfectly covered most of her body. Her skin was snow-white, delicate, and flawless like porcelain.

After adjusting her disordered breathing, Kurokawa Mio's voice sounded softly in the darkness.

“…I won’t give up!”

However, although the words should have been full of determination, the tone at this moment was so soft that it seemed as if it was about to drip.

After she struggled to walk back to the room, she seemed to have lost all her strength and fell limply to the ground.

After the heavy emotions reached the critical point, they seemed to be unable to be suppressed anymore and overflowed.

The toes tense, then curl and close together as hard as possible.

She immediately let out a low, shallow murmur from between her teeth, as if she had suppressed herself to the extreme, a low murmur of sorrow, an irresistible cry.

The next morning, Masumi woke up from bed and stretched refreshed.

I set up a coffee stall in the amusement park during the day, and go back to my room to write novels at night. After being exhausted physically and mentally, I fall into a deep sleep. The effect of rest seems to be particularly good.

The clear and dazzling morning light refracted through the gaps in the curtains, rippling slightly.

He opened the curtains to let the sunlight fill the room, then went downstairs to the bathroom to wash up, and happened to meet Rinone who was blow-drying her hair.

No, it's not a coincidence anymore.

Recently, Masumi discovered that the pace of their lives was slowly becoming the same. The time it took for Kamishiro to wash and dry her hair was also the time for her to get up and go downstairs to wash.

"Good morning," he greeted.

"Good morning."

Rin answered him while drying the ends of her hair with a hair dryer.

The girl's voice was cold and indifferent, but her pronunciation was clear. Although the volume was not loud, every word was clearly heard by Masumi.

"Hair, it's grown longer."

"Ok?"

"I mean you."

Masumi looked in the mirror, smoothed his sleep-messy hair, and nodded, "It's grown quite a bit." Remembering the conversation he had with Kamishiro about getting a haircut, he said, "Then I'll ask you to trim it for me later."

This is what we agreed on before.

"Yeah." The girl nodded.

After washing up, he went back to his room, changed his clothes, and started his morning run as usual.

The cicadas that had been chirping all night were still chirping in the morning air. Their noisy chirping melted into the summer heat. Half of June had already passed.

There wasn't a single cloud in the sky, and the grass tips were powerless to stand upright, swaying and bending in the breeze created by Masumi's running.

For ordinary enthusiasts, insisting on morning jogging in such weather is really a difficult test of willpower.

He found the bottle of green tea he bought for Kurokawa at the amusement park last time in the vending machine at the beach. Masumi unscrewed the bottle cap and gulped down a big gulp.

Sure enough, it tasted bitter, but it was much better than the vegetable juice that was Masumi's lifelong enemy.

When I walked back to Fanxing, the plastic bottle in my hand had become warm due to the combined effects of body temperature and heat.

"I am back."

Masumi lifted the curtain and planned to take out the ready-made barley tea in a carton from the refrigerator.

As soon as he entered the kitchen, the steam rising from the pot rushed towards him, sticking to his skin and quickly condensing into sweat. He subconsciously said, "It's so hot."

Hearing the voice, Kamiyo Rinone tilted her head and glanced at Masumi. The cotton short-sleeved shirt, soaked with sweat and clinging to his body, showed off his slender figure in a smooth and graceful manner. His body looked much more solid than when they first met in April.

"The bath water is ready, you can go and take a bath directly." She said lightly.

"Oh, please."

Masumi seemed to calm down a little when he heard her voice that was as cold as ice. He took out the iced barley tea from the refrigerator, poured it into a glass, and drank it all in one gulp.

"Hooah..."

This refreshing feeling that seems to soak into the throat is really great. This is what summer is like.

Perhaps because his family runs a coffee shop, Masumi's tolerance for the bitterness of green tea and the bitterness of coffee are completely different.

The only teas he usually drinks are black tea and oolong tea. He brews the black tea himself, and as for oolong tea, his father likes Ito En, while Masumi himself prefers Suntory.

As for barley tea, can it still be called a tea drink if it does not contain tea polyphenols, theophylline, and caffeine?
While boredly thinking about the topic of tea drinks in her mind, Masumi went upstairs to her room, changed her clothes, and walked into the bathroom with a bath towel.

"Eh? Masumi-kun, good morning."

In front of me, Asami, holding a bath towel, greeted lazily.

"Good morning, you got up early today."

"Because it's so hot, even if I wanted to stay in bed, I'd be drenched in sweat and couldn't lie down any further."

The cicadas outside the window were singing vigorously, forming a sharp contrast with Mami's lazy voice.

"Hey, Masumi-kun, why is there only air conditioning in the dining area on the first floor?"

“Without air conditioning, guests will be dissatisfied in the summer.”

"That's not the problem!" Mami frowned. "It would be nice if the room had air conditioning."

"It's not a small amount of money to install it in all the rooms."

"That's true." Asami sighed.

"Oh yeah! I remember now!" She suddenly clapped her fists. "There's an electric fan in the warehouse, right? Now's the time for it to come in handy."

"That electric fan?" Masumi thought for a moment and recalled, "I remember I had it when I was in elementary school. How could I have still not thrown it away after all these years?"

"You are not allowed to slander Mr. Electric Fan!"

Mami poked his cheek with her finger and said in an unhappy tone, "Masumi-kun, this electric fan is my lifesaver. In the past two years, every hot summer night has been with me through the most difficult moments."

"Whenever I couldn't stand the heat, I would strip myself naked and then face the fan and say 'Ah~~~~~~~'."

"No need to go into such detail." Masumi shook his head and sighed, "I'm not interested in this."

He changed the subject: "Don't you want to take a shower?"

"Isn't Masumi-kun here to take a bath too?"

"You mean we should take a shower together?"

Mami blinked and raised the corners of her lips mischievously: "As long as no one gets jealous, I don't mind."

"I lose to you." Masumi held his forehead with his hand.

"What about the prize?" she insisted.

"Reward for washing before me."

"Humph."

Asami revealed a cute smug expression: "That's strange, Masumi-kun, why should you be so humble about taking a bath?"

"I'm just used to being the last one to wash." Masumi explained calmly, "If there's someone waiting behind me, I always feel anxious and feel like I have to finish washing quickly."

"Eh—I see."

Asami tilted her head and smiled brightly: "Thank you, Masumi-kun."

"I'll save the bath water for you."

"No need." Masumi showed a helpless expression: "We are not family."

(Note: In island countries, showering and bathing are separate. Wash your body first before entering the bathtub. To save water, families share a tub of water.)
"Eh? What does this mean?"

Asami blinked frantically at an abnormally exaggerated rate.

"Could it be that... Masumi-kun wants to become a family with me?"

She immediately bowed while holding the towel. Her snow-white ravines flashed before her eyes. Without even taking a breath, she spoke coherently:
"I'm sorry, Masumi-kun. Although I have a crush on you, it's too fast to skip the dating stage and get married and become a family. At least give me some time to prepare. Also, the current situation is too casual. So I'm really sorry—"

Compared with the last time, this time there has been significant improvement in both the amount of lines and the coherence.

"forget it."

Masumi pressed his temples and sighed in frustration.

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(End of this chapter)