Swimsuit Photoshoot - 1
"Y-you might not fit into it, it's been so long since I last wore it…"
"Hmm."
Even I could tell the size looked a little small. Still, that could work in our favor as a reaction shot — and honestly, nobody knows until you actually try it on.
"I'll take a look for you first, so go ahead and try it on."
"…Oh, yes, yes…"
My sister-in-law turned on her heel, swimsuit in hand. From the looks of it, she was planning to change in the bathroom.
"Where are you going?"
"…Pardon? You just told me to change…?"
"You could change right here. Why bother running back and forth?"
"……"
She wasn't wrong, technically. But she kept hesitating, apparently too shy to strip down in front of me.
"At this point there's nothing you haven't shown me already. Getting coy about it now just makes me uncomfortable."
"Ah…"
"And you remember what your husband said, don't you?"
"Y-yes."
That living together had taught him something. That she should try trusting me. That they should move forward together, for the sake of the future.
"But what does changing clothes have to do with any of that…?"
"Everything."
I crossed my arms and stared at her, dead serious.
"If you're going to get flustered over this much, how exactly do you plan to do a photoshoot?"
"Th-that's…"
"Besides, it's pretty half-hearted of you, in front of the person who's going out of his way to help you…"
"……"
She bit down hard on her lip. Then she glanced down at the swimsuit in her hands and let out a sigh.
"F-fine. I'll turn around while I change. That's acceptable… right?"
"Sure. Do whatever you like."
She peeled off her clothes one piece at a time and set them on the shelf. My sister-in-law's porcelain-white skin made my mouth water no matter how many times I saw it.
And when she was down to her underwear — click!
Click—!
"Wh-what? Wh-what did you just take a picture of?"
She jumped at the shutter sound and scrambled to cover herself. A pointless gesture at this stage, but old habits die hard, apparently.
"What else? A shot of your back in your underwear, sister-in-law."
"So…! Wh-why would you take that?!"
"Why? So I can use it for a lookbook later, kill two birds with one stone — a little compilation. Just showing off some luxurious lifestyle isn't enough to cut it, you know."
"…Is… is that how it works?"
"You shoot everything, one piece at a time, starting with daily life. Anything that's ready to post goes up right away; anything else gets grouped with related shots and posted together. Timing matters too, of course."
"……!"
The doubt brimming in her eyes shifted into something else.
"H-how do you know all this in such detail…? Do you use social media a lot or something?"
"Eh, I just browse around. See this and that, think, oh, it'd be better if it were done like this — ideas come to you that way."
"Ah…"
"So stop standing there like a deer in headlights and hurry up and change."
"……"
Apparently I'd earned at least a sliver of trust, because she nodded and lowered the hands shielding her body. Then, with her back to me, she slipped out of her underwear one piece at a time and into the swimsuit.
Click—!
"……!? Wait, why are you taking that one?"
"That one's also for the collection? Full nudes are nice and all, but these borderline shots — just barely revealing — are pretty good in their own right."
"……"
She turned her head just enough to shoot me a venomous glare, gave a little hmph, and went back to changing. I nodded contentedly at the photo I'd just taken.
Side dish secured.
Seeing something uploaded to a site and owning the original are two entirely different things. Keeping it saved for my personal collection did no harm whatsoever.
"Good. Now lean forward a little and sit."
"L-like this?"
Now dressed in the bikini, my sister-in-law perched on the edge of the bathtub as instructed.
"Mmm, something's a bit stiff."
"I did exactly what you told me…. Something's off, isn't it…?"
"You're too tense. The shyness has a certain charm, sure, but separately from that, you just don't look confident at all."
It was a little different from that whole loser vibe. Closer to the kind of awkwardness that makes the person watching uncomfortable too.
"Just act like you normally do. Normally."
"N-normally…?"
"Yes. Remember when you ran into me before? Strutting around all confident like 'I am who I am'? Do that."
"……"
Something seemed to click in her memory. She curled her fingers around the edge of the tub, planted both hands on it, then lifted her chin toward the camera in my hands, the corner of her mouth curling up ever so slightly.
"Ooh, not bad at all. See? You can do it when you actually try."
"R-really?"
"Really, not flattery. I'm not the type to pump people up with empty praise."
I could see it — the tremble in her pupils as they faced the lens, the shake in the hands braced against the tub. Even accounting for all that, the shots were coming out better than expected.
Turns out when you're a bombshell in the flesh, everything works.
Truthfully, I kept coaching her because I wanted even better pictures — but her stiffness and awkwardness were more than coverable as-is.
Of course, everyone has their own limits; it's not easy for just anyone to pull that off. Which is why my sister-in-law was about as close to all-purpose as it gets.
The woman herself was a walking bundle of content. What the hell had she been doing with her life all this time? Genuinely curious.
"You're this good at it, sister-in-law. What have you been doing all along?"
"Um… th-that's…"
"What is it? You'll have to tell me sooner or later anyway. Out with it."
"……"
The breezy confidence evaporated from her face, replaced by a bashful flush.
Ooh, that's good too.
I hadn't planned for it, but this was a different kind of gap from her earlier stiffness — a whole different flavor. Straight into the camera it went.
Click—! Click—!
"H-hold on. You ask me a question and then suddenly start s-snapping pictures?"
"Keep talking. I figured it wouldn't hurt to capture each new expression change a few times over. Besides, every time your emotions shift, it shows all over your face, sister-in-law."
"……!?"
She stared at me in wide-eyed surprise, as if she'd never heard such a thing in her life.
"Can you… do fortunes? Tarot? Something like that…?"
"……"
And there she went, saying nonsense again.
I looked down at her with a flat, unamused stare.
"Quit talking nonsense and let's shoot while we chat naturally. Now — hurry up and answer what I asked you."
She faltered for a moment, then slowly nodded.
"I-I mostly did cosmetics… posted pictures of products and stuff…"
"Cosmetics…? You photographed things you actually used, posted reviews, that sort of thing?"
"……No. Not things I used. Just the products themselves…"
"?"
Even random online shopping mall reviews come with face-blurred shots of people actually trying the product, using it, whatever. And here she was — someone calling herself an influencer, running an SNS — posting nothing but lonely product shots.
"Did the comments at least roll in?"
"……"
Silence meant: no.
Yeah, I knew something was off.
People are wired to want to imitate whatever famous people use, or at least be curious about it. My sister-in-law was no exception.
A gorgeous, refined beauty like her — people would burn with curiosity about what products she touched, hunt them down because they wanted to use the same things. That's how it's supposed to work.
No photos of her using anything, just the bare product…
Frankly, that was worse than a simple fan-meet comment section.
Uploading those old shots now is pointless. If anything, to really amplify her reach…
There was no way to revive the dead account. But there was a way to raise her impact.
"Sister-in-law, make a second SNS account."
"Yes…? R-right now?"
"Not 'right now' — it has to be done. Uploading to the account you already tanked won't get you any real reach. Make a second one under a similar handle and post there."
"Th-then what about the existing one…"
"Leave it alone for now. Start fresh with the new account and build it up slowly."
One account geared toward cosmetics and beauty. One new account with a daily-life feel.
Honestly, that was the better play. People browsing the new account would drift over to the old one naturally, and once she started filling in the beauty content bit by bit afterward — everything would be peachy.
This is fucking genius, honestly?
Even my own idea impressed me.
"So let's go with that. Now, back to the shoot."
"Ah, yes…"
Her expression, her whole aura, was better than before. As if the fact that I'd violated her had been flung to the far edge of her memory, life suddenly flooded back into her, and her confidence seemed to be returning little by little.
It almost felt like she was starting to trust me…?
Hmm. She really shouldn't trust me that much.
Making a second account — that part was true. But I wasn't planning to create it only on the SNS site she'd been using. I intended to set up one more, somewhere else as well.
A site that would strike deep into the hearts and dreams of men everywhere. Didn't hurt to have one of those lying around.
Not that I intended to build it for any vague, aimless purpose — it was simply a contingency. A backup plan, nothing more.
But then again, I wouldn't just leave it sitting idle as insurance either. I could keep an eye on how things developed and put it to work on the side, two birds with one stone…?
After all, they say nobody knows what life has in store for them, don't they~?