Aunt Xiangzi, how did you manage to live?

"...Oh? I'm also curious about Chu Hua's secret. How about...we exchange our secrets, what do you think?"

Su Shi, feeling playful, not only didn't find Chu Hua's persistence annoying, but also smiled and suggested exchanging secrets.

If Chu Hua knew that she had been keeping this a secret all this time, she would have known all along... what kind of expression would she make?

Thinking of this, Su Shi couldn't help but smile slightly, feeling an uncontrollable sense of pleasure.

To everyone's surprise, Chu Hua simply shook her head slightly upon hearing this.

"I'm sorry... I don't intend to share this secret with anyone else."

"...?"

"Because I promised someone that this is a secret that I should keep to myself. So I'm sorry, I can't even tell Su Shi."

"You're unwilling to make a secret exchange, yet you want to know my secret... Chu Hua, aren't you being a little too greedy?"

Su Shi gave a helpless sneer; she hadn't expected Chu Hua to make such an unreasonable request.

"Yes. If I weren't so greedy, I probably wouldn't have been so presumptuous as to knock on Su Shi's door myself. But..."

Chu Hua, however, paid no attention to Su Shi's sarcasm, her gaze sweeping over her surroundings.

She had her own purpose in saying those words.

crunch.

Just now, the bathroom door seemed to move slightly when she suggested the secret exchange.

Could it be that……

Chapter 99 What are you going to do with Auntie's underwear?

To be honest, Kazama doesn't feel the ease of watching the fight from afar at all; instead, he feels a constant sense of unease, as if he could be caught at any moment.

Moreover, inside the living room with the door closed, the two women were discussing sensitive topics such as "exchanging secrets."

...No way.

Ever since Chu Hua followed Su Shi into the Nagasaki family home, he had been eavesdropping intently at the doorway, listening to their conversation in the living room. Just now, he had heard the words "exchanging secrets" from Su Shi's lips.

What is Su Shi doing?

Although the two of them probably know about the same secrets, Kazama remembers repeatedly telling them not to reveal them to anyone.

Thinking of this, Kazama gave a helpless smile.

If these two really do communicate here, Chu Hua will probably turn around and grab him with a seemingly smiling face, demanding an explanation.

However, his worries didn't last long, as this seemingly fair trade was...

"How about we exchange our secrets?"

Su Shi seemed to have made the suggestion as a show of force and provocation, but after a long silence, Chu Hua spoke up and rejected her proposal.

"I'm sorry... I don't intend to share this secret with anyone else."

"……Well."

Kazama, who was eavesdropping on the two's conversation from the bathroom, was slightly taken aback.

He had already mentally prepared for the worst, and Chu Hua agreed to Su Shi's suggestion, and the two of them went over the ledger and revealed their secrets to each other—

"...It seems I've lost the leverage to negotiate with Su Shi."

Unexpectedly, Chu Hua seemed to still be thinking about their promise at this moment and directly rejected Su Shi.

Well, that was a bit unexpected for him.

"You're unwilling to make an exchange, yet you want to know my secret... Chu Hua, aren't you being a little too greedy?"

"Yes. If I weren't so greedy, I probably wouldn't have been so presumptuous as to knock on Su Shi's door myself. But..."

Outside the door, the conversation between the two girls seemed to come to an abrupt end.

Just as Kazama held his breath, preparing to listen more closely—

"I'm sorry, it seems I've been too much of a bother since I came here so suddenly."

Chu Hua suddenly took a step back, softening her attitude.

"?"

Not to mention Kazama, even Su Shi, who was on high alert, was stunned for a moment.

"Looking back now, I realize that the timing of my appearance was indeed a bit off. I'm truly sorry for causing Su Shi so much trouble."

Chu Hua bowed deeply to Su Shi, who was completely unaware of what was going on, which only earned her the confusion and bewilderment of the long-haired brown girl.

No, she was all set to give this guy a good slap in the face, so why did Chu Hua just dodge and let her miss her ultimate move?

"Wait, wait a minute, what do you mean by this? Are you just going to turn around and go home like this?"

"That's right. After all, Su Shi didn't seem to be very welcoming of my visit at first. You can't force a relationship to work."

"Ha, ha... If you want to leave, then it's up to you."

Su Shi waved her hand seemingly magnanimously, but in reality, her mind was filled with deep doubts.

What is Chu Hua up to now?

"Yes, I feel bad about staying at Su Shi's house any longer. Thank you for your hospitality. But before that—"

After bowing politely, Chu Hua smiled and tilted her head at Su Shi, the head of the family.

"Could I use Su Shi's bathroom?"

"—!"

Now, not only Su Shi, who was facing Chu Hua directly, but even Kazama, who was hiding in the bathroom, felt that something was very wrong and his hair stood on end.

"Going to the restroom...?"

Su Shi maintained a calm facade, but inside she was panicking terribly.

This is completely different from her plan.

Su Shi's plan was to make Chu Hua realize that she was indeed keeping a mistress, but she intended to reveal this trump card like a big boss after verbally defeating Chu Hua.

"Ta-da! The guy you've been dreaming about is actually secretly living in my house, being my gigolo"—that's the kind of bad woman she wanted, the kind who had all the advantages.

However, if Chu Hua discovers this now, not only will all her efforts in laying the groundwork for this move be in vain, but Chu Hua will also gain the advantage in this game.

"1. Is it absolutely necessary to use my toilet?"

Su Shi forced a smile; she still wanted to try her best to salvage the situation.

"Well, everyone has to go to the bathroom sometimes, so please understand, Su Shi."

Chu Hua smiled apologetically, then turned and walked towards the restroom.

Oh no, should we hide now?

As the girl's footsteps drew closer, Kazama quickly turned around and began to look for a suitable hiding place in the bathroom.

His gaze moved from the sink to the custom cabinet holding toiletries and the showerhead, finally settling on the spacious bathtub with the shower curtain in the background.

Kazama suddenly remembered when he was a child, Aunt Suze would take him to her house to play, but Aunt Lixi would come to his house and take him to training. He had managed to get some playtime by hiding in this place right under Lixi's nose.

This moment is just like that moment.

Without a second thought, Kazama nimbly flipped over the bathtub, intending to lie down and play dead, but he clearly overestimated his ability to handle unexpected situations—

The moment he lifted the shower curtain, a woman's underwear hanging dangling from the window above the bathtub appeared in his field of vision without warning.

Clearly, the owner did not fulfill their responsibility to properly dry the food and simply left it here temporarily.

...Could it be that Su Shi took a special bath before seeing me?

No, this is clearly not the time to focus on this kind of thing! Besides, it has absolutely nothing to do with him whenever his aunt wants to take a bath!

Kazama hurriedly dipped his feet into the bathtub, but his suspicions were tragically confirmed by reality at that moment—

Yes, Nagasaki Motoyo did take a special shower early in the morning because of his arrival.

Slip.

　Erlin Er*II Yi Sanlin Ba`[Erqun "?!"

The guest slippers on his feet made a pleasant rubbing sound against the bathtub. His whole body was briefly lifted into the air because his foot slipped, and his right hand subconsciously grabbed the nearest piece of fabric in that split second—Kazama realized something.

In that instant, he knew he had messed up.jpg

"Wait, Chu Hua...!"

Realizing something was terribly wrong, Su Shi reached out to try and stop Chu Hua, but it was too late.

"Excuse me...?"

What Chu Hua saw when she pushed open the bathroom door was a curly-haired boy who had fallen solidly into the bathtub with the shower curtain half open, his eyes filled with stars—

The women's underwear he was clutching in his hand elicited a variety of interesting expressions from Chu Hua, who had just opened the door, and Su Shi, who had rushed over immediately.

Final Chapter: A Battleground of Male and Female Relationships

In real life, a girl's underwear is definitely not the kind of item that would make Xiao Chunan's heart flutter in a youth romance novel.

This is just a piece of underwear made of ordinary fabric, nothing special, and no different from men's underwear.

But what gives these intimate garments such a unique sentiment and space for interpretation?

The answer is obvious: it's the lucky pervert trope commonly found in youth romance novels.

As a young man in his prime, Xiao could confidently say that his sexual orientation would make him blush and feel a little nervous when he held a girl's underwear.

— But if these clothes belong to your own housekeeper, then all that's left is fear and no heartbeat.

And the fact that this scene was witnessed by two aunties made it even more frightening.

A bizarre scene is unfolding in the spacious bathroom of the Sue family home in Nagasaki.

The boy, who had fallen hard on his backside, lay half-reclined in the bathtub, feeling dizzy—but he was still clutching the women's underwear he had just pulled from the clothes rack.

The blonde girl who opened the door and witnessed this scene froze on the spot. The brown-haired girl who arrived right behind her also turned pale instantly. The two of them were motionless, as if a real movie had been frozen in time.

"Uh... well... I think I can explain what happened."

Xiao was jolted awake by a faint pain in his tailbone. He chuckled twice and waved his hand.

"?!"

Only then did he realize that he was holding something that should absolutely not be in his hand.

The soft, delicate fabric felt wonderful to the touch, and it even had a faint scent of laundry detergent, which had been used to clean the lingerie. Wait, this doesn't seem like the time to smell this kind of thing!

"Xiao-Xiao-jun, why...why..."

Chu Hua's eyes had sunk into terrifying black holes, as if the entire world's gravitational field was a product tailor-made for her extremely unsightly face—

"That's...my underwear...!"

Of course, Su Shi's expression wasn't much better. Her face turned pale and then flushed, eventually transforming into the typical frustration and helplessness of a girl her age.

"Xiaojun! Come out here—!"

For a fleeting moment, Xiao felt as if she had dreamt of herself as a child, secretly playing with her aunt's underwear.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

How to raise a boy in a family without a male member is actually a problem that the mother, Mutsumi Wakaba, and a group of enthusiastic aunts who volunteered to be godmothers need to worry about.

When I was little, I was so naive that I would sometimes rummage through the aunties' underwear and ask them in confusion, "What is this?" Back then, the aunties' expressions were much more polite and gentle than they are now.

"This is a girl's thing, Xiao."

Aunt Su Shi, whose bra Xiao had accidentally found, once smiled patiently at him.

"This is a girl's thing, Xiaojun!!"