Isn't This the True Meaning of a Successful Life?
“Tania….”
“Hm?”
“Can we stop now…?”
“Already?”
Already? What on earth was she talking about?
“…We’ve been doing nothing but trying on clothes for four hours.”
“Huh? It’s only been four hours?”
“…….”
Tania tilted her head, looking as if she genuinely could not comprehend the problem.
“…We can’t fill the entire house with nothing but clothes. Shouldn’t we go buy some other things too?”
“Ah, right.”
With a look of pure regret, she hung the clothes she had been clutching in both hands back on the rack.
Whew. At last I would not have to change outfits any longer.
Of course, watching her try on all those different clothes had been a feast for the eyes, but my body was simply too exhausted….
Beside me, Tania fidgeted and kept stealing glances at my face before carefully opening her mouth.
“Eli.”
“Yeah?”
“…Could you try just one more on for me?”
“…Fine.”
I could not win against those sparkling eyes of hers, so I ended up agreeing to try on just one more.
“Just this one….”
“Really, the last one…….”
“This outfit would look so good on you!”
“Let’s try this one and then go look at other things!”
“Seriously, just this one last outfit….”
And so another full hour passed inside the clothing store before we were finally able to leave and shop for furniture.
“This is our house!”
Only after arranging for everything we had bought to be delivered to my place the next day did we arrive at Tania’s house.
It was more modest than I had expected.
Of course, “modest” was only relative to Adele’s mansion.
A freestanding house that rose three stories high and even boasted a spacious yard.
Yes—this size felt comfortable, not overwhelming at all.
…Or so I had thought.
“Tania….”
“Hm? What’s wrong, Eli?”
“How many floors… is this place, exactly?”
“Here? Four basement levels, I think?”
“…….”
And the scale was anything but ordinary.
The height alone put the freestanding house above ground to shame.
Perhaps it was even a little larger than the yard that surrounded the house itself.
On top of that, rough-looking men and sharp-eyed women strode along every corridor.
Every single person who crossed paths with Tania bowed their heads in greeting as they passed, and Tania accepted those greetings with the practiced ease of someone who found it completely natural.
Seeing her like that—so different from her usual self, radiating charisma—I murmured without thinking.
“Cool….”
“Hm? What is?”
“The way you handle the others….”
“R-really? You mean it?”
“Yeah.”
When I nodded with a small smile, Tania gave an embarrassed little laugh.
The way she dealt with her subordinates really had looked cool and sexy—that much was true.
One simple compliment, though, and she instantly snapped back to her usual self.
Looking at her, I realized Tania was surprisingly weak to praise.
She could look so dashing one moment, then break into a goofy grin the next the second you complimented her.
They say a pretty girl’s praise can make even a whale dance.
Apparently even Tania could not help but be delighted by mine.
“So where are we going right now?”
“The bath.”
“…The bath?”
“Adele was bragging to me about it today.”
Tania smiled faintly.
…Was it just my imagination that the smile felt a little chilly?
“Eli…….”
“Y-yeah?”
A low, unsettling voice slipped from Tania’s lips.
“You went into the hot spring with Adele, didn’t you?”
“Uh… I did, yeah?”
Tania wound her arms around mine and pressed close; a thick lily scent washed over me.
“Then… you have to do it with me too.”
Her voice sounded stickier and more alluring than usual, and—
“…Okay.”
I had been about to refuse, yet in the end I could not.
“…Tania?”
“Y-yeah?! What is it, Eli?”
Only her head poked out of the water; the rest of her was submerged. She flinched hard and shrank into herself, sending water sloshing over the edge of the tub.
Her face was dyed bright red, her whole body tense and restless.
Looking at her, I finally understood why Adele had acted the way she had yesterday.
When someone was this thoroughly flustered, the urge to tease them became irresistible.
“Hmm….”
She twitched!
The soft little hum made Tania jump all over again.
A little teasing would be fine, right?
Splash. Splash.
I drifted slowly toward her. Tania trembled like a baby bird.
The sight was so unbearably cute that I closed the remaining distance until I was right in front of her.
“Ehk…. E-Eli?”
Even a slight tilt of my head would have brought our foreheads together.
Startled, Tania called my name in a shaky voice, but I deliberately did not answer.
Maybe it was because we were in the bath.
Her damp hair and lips that looked far more moist than usual kept pulling my gaze.
“…Ehk.”
Apparently my stare was too much; she lowered her head a fraction.
Without thinking I gently cupped her chin and tilted her face back up.
She made no attempt to resist—did not even tense—so her head rose obediently.
And there they were: slightly flushed, glistening, temptingly parted lips, clear and vivid before my eyes.
The urge to touch those soft lips was overwhelming. I curled the thumb of the hand supporting her chin and—
Pressed. Softly against her lower lip.
“…Hic?!”
Tania let out a tiny startled sound.
The reaction was so adorable that I kept going, gently stroking her lower lip with the pad of my thumb.
From the corner to the center, then a light downward tug in the middle that made it bounce back.
All the while Tania’s eyes darted wildly, with nowhere to settle.
I kept playing with the center of her lower lip, pressing and releasing, then sweeping from the middle out to the corner again.
By then Tania’s eyes were softly closed.
“…Ah?”
Only then did I notice that the atmosphere had shifted into something strange.
If this were a movie or a comic, this would be the moment for a kiss.
……And this world is basically a comic, isn’t it? Wait.
My face suddenly burned hot.
Was I actually supposed to do it?
Tania, eyes closed as if bracing herself, seemed ready.
Something felt off… didn’t it?
Not that I disliked the idea of kissing a beautiful girl like Tania.
Quite the opposite—I liked it, welcomed it even!
But I preferred taking things step by step rather than leaping ahead at full speed.
Start with holding hands, link arms, nurse her when she was sick!
Go on nice dates together! And then—!
“…….”
Come to think of it, we had already done all of that.
So… did I really have to?
Really, truly?
Her restless, faintly working lips only looked more tempting.
I drew the hand supporting her chin a little closer and lowered my head.
Tania’s hot breath and mine collided in the air between us, tangling together.
Just a tiny bit farther and I would feel the texture of her lips.
A little more.
Just a tiny bit more….
My face burned so fiercely it felt feverish.
I knew without looking that it must be scarlet.
I was grateful Tania still had her eyes closed.
Softly.
I pulled her chin a little farther into my arms—
And pressed a light kiss to her forehead.
If I had actually kissed her lips, I was certain I would not have been able to stop.
“…Eh?”
A dazed sound escaped Tania.
Half-cradled against me, she looked up with hazy, unfocused eyes.
My bright-red face was reflected in those melting pupils.
Whether the redness came from embarrassment or simply from the fact that her eyes themselves were crimson, I could not tell.
Either way, I did not want her to see the completely unmanaged expression on my face, so—
“E-ehk?”
I simply pulled her into a tight embrace.
Suddenly pressed bare against me, Tania startled and thrashed for a moment before quickly going still.
“Just… just let me stay like this a little longer…….”
I asked for her understanding and held her in the middle of the bath until I could get my expression under control again.
“…Eli, you asleep?”
“…Not yet.”
Fortunately, once we left the bath there was no lingering awkwardness.
We simply talked the way we always did, and when the hour grew late we went together to Tania’s room to sleep.
After a moment of fidgeting, Tania carefully spoke.
“Can I… scoot a little closer…?”
The adorable question made a soft laugh slip out of me before I could stop it.
“Wh-why are you laughing!”
“No reason. Sure, come here.”
The moment permission was granted, Tania smiled faintly and wriggled closer with determined little movements.
“You can come a bit more if you want.”
“A bit more?”
“Yeah.”
She gave a tiny shiver, seemed to think about something for a second, then shifted again until she was even nearer.
“A little more.”
“…Closer than this?”
“Yeah. Just a little more.”
“…Okay.”
And when Tania wriggled forward one last time—
Squeeze.
“Ehk….”
—she was already nestled snugly in my arms.
A life in which a cute beautiful girl willingly crawled into your embrace all on her own.
Wasn’t this the true meaning of a successful life?
Tania grumbled that it was a little stuffy, yet she made no real effort to pull away.
Even though she was several times stronger than me and could have thrown me off whenever she wanted.
That small consideration for me felt so warm that I kept her close and gently stroked her hair.
Tania trembled once, then quivered a little longer, before finally giving up and going limp in my arms.
Before long the quiet sound of her sleeping breath filled the room.