The Bunny Girl's Secret
"...Aren't you going to let me in already? I'm starting to get nervous."
She had only gone upstairs for a short while. It was barely enough time to drop off her bag and come back down. "What the hell..."
At this point, I was more curious about the "how" than the "why," but I couldn't help wondering why she was standing here in a fully assembled bunny girl outfit—complete with a rabbit-ear headband that looked oddly natural on her—at a time like this.
"You don't like it? I guess seeing it twice in one day takes away the novelty."
Technically, this was the third time I'd seen her in a bunny suit thanks to Rav's events, but now didn't seem like the right moment to correct her.
"Novelty...? No, it's not that."
My eyes were magnetically drawn to the glossy leotard clinging to her body. The smooth yet slightly firm texture was genuinely impressive. Because the material was somewhat hard and skin-tight, bending or twisting at the waist risked exposing the empty space around her chest when the fabric lifted. On the other hand, the way it naturally teased glimpses underneath while she moved made it undeniably effective at capturing attention.
"...From your expression, I can tell you like it, but you're staring pretty intensely, ngh..."
Blushing under my gaze, she crossed her arms over her chest. Yet the smile on her lips looked oddly pleased, completely at odds with the situation.
'This is making my heart race way, way more than I expected...'
"...Why is your heart racing here, of all places?"
"Because... well, look at me?"
"..."
"Just walking around in a bunny suit with no special reason or excuse... it feels like something inside me is crumbling."
Crumbling... That didn't sound like a good thing at all. People rarely used that word in a positive sense.
'Ah... this sense of immorality, it's thrilling... I might already be wet...'
...Right. That was the kind of fetish she had.
"I can understand that part somehow, but what I really want to know is why you came to my house."
"Oh, that? Well..."
Still hugging her chest in a reserved posture, she spun halfway around and approached me with her back turned. Her bare shoulders, fully visible from behind, trembled slightly as if she were nervous. Since she couldn't see me properly from that angle, there was a strange pull in knowing I could wrap my arms around her from behind without resistance.
"..."
This petite frame was an incredibly effective provocation. My fingers were already tensing with the effort of restraint—there was no denying it. Still, she hadn't explained why she'd come to my house yet.
"Aren't you curious? How I managed to change so quickly?"
"Well... I mean."
"Won't you ask me? With your own mouth."
'Finally... finally...'
Of course I was curious. Her excited voice was brimming with anticipation, and even in this defenseless state, her petite body somehow dominated the atmosphere. Feeling a mix of unease and curiosity, I decided to ask.
As I'd already found strange earlier, she hadn't been gone long at all. How she'd managed to change into this difficult-to-wear bunny outfit so quickly by herself was definitely something I wanted to know.
"...How did you change so fast?"
I finally voiced the question filled with both anxiety and expectation. But before she could answer, a laugh she could no longer hold back escaped first.
"Eheheh..."
'I've been waiting hours for this moment... Ah, the hardest part was when we were alone in that quiet elevator...'
Unable to restrain her inner voice any longer, she stepped back and closed the remaining distance in one go, pressing her back deeply into my embrace.
"...The truth is...? From the moment I picked you up in front of the main building... I was already wearing it under my clothes."
"What... did you say?"
"Even when you apologized and thanked me... even when I was worrying about you and giving you advice... even when we were in the elevator together..."
"..."
"Even during our secret conversation alone in the quiet house, I was hiding this shameless outfit underneath."
Without her help, neither Nero nor I would have known what to do. I'd thanked her with complete sincerity. Just seeing her profile focused on driving had made me feel secure, and I'd thought she was more than qualified to be a senior colleague—more so than even the team leader.
Honestly, even though she possessed that unsettling ability to see right through people's minds, she'd still offered me rides to and from work without complaint. Even when I lacked consideration, she'd tried to ease the atmosphere rather than worry about appearances. Despite being the same age, she felt more mature than me.
...On top of that, aside from all the help and kindness she'd shown, her diligent lifestyle had already earned something close to reverence from me. Just the other morning on the way to work, I'd even told her that directly.
And yet... in reality, she had been wearing a bunny suit under her clothes the entire time. She'd kept up a composed front, steering the conversation away to avoid being discovered until the very last moment... and now she'd come here of her own accord, revealing her own embarrassing state and finding pleasure in it.
"...So? Are you disappointed? Huh? You must be disappointed, right?"
"..."
"I was so nervous about being found out... If I let my guard down even a little, my true thoughts would've slipped out. I had to keep filling my head with the next topic and the next thing to say."
In a way, it was impressive. I'd already noticed several times during outings with Harpy that she was skilled at controlling her inner voice, but I never expected her to go this far just to deceive me. I wasn't even sure it was possible to hide something so thoroughly just by being conscious of it.
And yet... the reason she'd put in so much effort was to feel pleasure from the shame of seeing my disappointed reaction once I learned the truth.
This person...
...was a real pervert.
"...I'm not disappointed."
"Really? That's a little disappointing... Next time, then..."
That was right—I hadn't felt any disappointment toward her. She had probably wanted to see me greatly disappointed so she could savor a twisted, self-deprecating sense of immorality. Unfortunately for her, I hadn't experienced that kind of emotional shift. I'd only felt a slight irritation at her incomprehensible behavior.
She'd waited for hours in front of the main building until I came out—supposedly out of worry, to offer even a single word of comfort...
But it hadn't been that at all. She'd been waiting with eager anticipation for this exact moment. Realizing that made me feel like a fool for having thanked her so sincerely.
"...Well, of course."
"...!"
"I already knew you were this kind of hopeless pervert."
Her small, round shoulders jerked as if a chill had run through her, and she continued trembling slightly afterward. Then, very slowly, she lifted her head to look up at me.
"...Ah."
I didn't avoid her gaze. Just as she had hoped, I looked down at her without saying a word.
"Ah... hngh..."
'Those eyes... that voice is driving me crazy...'
"Ngh... heheh..."
'Usually he can't even get properly angry and just smiles awkwardly... but now those eyes are so cold... looking at me like he's despising me...'
...I finally understood why she'd seemed almost pleased when I rejected her offer to drink. That had probably been the only moment today when she hadn't been able to hide her true feelings. She'd been unable to contain her excitement for the highlight that was about to come.
People losing control while drunk was common enough, but deliberately trying to fall apart in front of someone while completely sober required a different kind of courage... or rather, the mental preparation to endure shame. Of course, in her case, it wasn't about enduring it—she was savoring it as it was.
"...So, you came here in the middle of the night dressed like this just to say that?"
"...!"
"Of course not."
I glared at her. Her expression had completely switched into that of a female in heat, to the point where hearts appearing in her eyes wouldn't have looked out of place. What she wanted was disappointment, contempt, or reproach—but for some reason, a sigh escaped me first.
"...Haa."
Seeing her face flush and her breath quicken as if even that was enough to please her made me think, "What's the point of being surprised now?" But more than that, a sudden realization struck me.
Aside from Harpy, there really weren't any normal people around me.