Weekend, Little Sister, and a Shower
“Right… it is the weekend—”
Lua had been about to bolt upright at the sight of the clock. Instead she sank straight back under the covers, a blissful smile on her face.
Even Felix Academy took the weekends off. There were teachers on duty, of course, but it wasn’t Lua’s turn yet.
Which means today is an all-day stay-in-bed day!
Bodies could change. Hopeless shut-in minds did not.
This was the first real day off since the entrance ceremony, and Lua intended to savor every last scrap of it. She had no plans whatsoever to set so much as a toe outside her faculty dorm room.
One bed, one desk, a kitchenette, a bathroom—that spare little space was the full radius of her planned flopping for the day.
The kids get the weekend off too…
A faint thought flickered past—shouldn’t she be preparing for the final battle still to come?—but she shook her head at once.
Time moved slower here than it had in the game.
When she’d played Hunter Hunting Academy on her computer, day and night cycled every few in-game minutes. A convenience for the player, nothing more.
There was no such convenience now. A day was still twenty-four hours, and day turned to night only once. That meant she had far more time to work with.
So resting on the weekend is totally fine.
“Haaawn.”
Lua stretched out a long yawn and burrowed deeper into the blankets. Sleep until afternoon, get up when she got hungry, boil some ramen, then sleep again if she felt like it. A perfect plan.
Unfortunately, the world had other ideas.
—Ding-dong.
Just as she was drifting off, an irritating chime cut through her nerves. The front doorbell.
“……?”
—Ding-dong.
Lua’s brow furrowed. No one had any reason to visit.
If I just stay quiet, they’ll leave on their own.
With that thought, she clamped the blanket over her ears and shut her eyes. Whoever dared interrupt her weekend bliss, they would not get their way…
—Beep, beep, beep, beep.
“Zzz…”
Ears covered, Lua started to snore.
—Door unlocked.
—Clack!
Some unknown presence opened the door and stepped inside, but Lua had already slipped into dreamland. The intruder surveyed the disaster of a room, heaved a sigh, and strode straight toward her.
“Nngh… not the stomach…”
“Ugh.”
Looking down at Lua mumbling nonsense in her sleep, the intruder seized the blanket in both hands—
—Fwoosh!
—and yanked it clean away.
“Urgh?!”
Her eyes flew open. Suddenly exposed to the chill air, Lua curled into a tight ball. Still lying there in her pitiful pajamas, she looked up at the person who had ruined her sleep.
“Sleeping in again!”
“Sua…?”
A girl with a bob cut stood over her, hands planted on her hips. Han Sua—Lua’s little sister. Even on the weekend she looked as neat and put-together as she did at school, though she was wearing comfortable casual clothes.
“Sua, you’re cute…”
“W-what, out of nowhere?”
Of everyone at the academy, Sua was the one Lua had seen most often and for the longest stretches—and they were family. Somewhere along the way, Lua had stopped feeling quite so awkward around her.
“Opening!”
While Sua was off guard, Lua snatched the blanket back and wrapped herself up again, rolling into a caterpillar so it couldn’t be stolen a second time.
Sua took one look and let out a deep sigh.
“Unnie, you promised me.”
“Promised what?”
“That we’d clean your room this weekend!”
“Urgh…”
Lua shoved her head deep into the blanket. Cleaning ranked in her personal top three most hated words. Even if she had made that promise, it would have been before the transmigration—so of course she didn’t remember it.
“C-canceled. I’ll do it next time.”
“Come on!”
—Whoosh!
Sua grabbed the edge of the blanket and heaved. Lua spun a few times and landed face-down on the mattress.
“You can’t keep putting it off forever. If you eat and sleep in a mess like this, you’re going to get sick.”
“If I just use Healing…”
“No!”
Sua’s hands slid under Lua’s arms and hoisted her upright in one smooth motion. No Scotch candy bait this time—just pure, uncompromising force.
“Look with your own eyes, Unnie. This isn’t a room. It’s a pigsty.”
Sua turned her so she could take in the full panorama of chaos. Last night’s half-eaten convenience-store lunch box, empty beer cans, a scatter of miscellaneous papers from school—all of it strewn about without a shred of order. Lua only tilted her head.
“Looks clean to me…?”
“…….”
Sua stared at her in pure disbelief. To Lua, though, this was actually an improvement. Back in her old studio apartment, she’d only taken the trash out when it was about to overflow, and she’d done the dishes only when the mood struck. Honestly, even when things got bad, she’d often just endured it because she didn’t want to go outside.
“Fine. No mercy today.”
“Huh?”
Sua dragged over a chair, lifted Lua again, and sat her down on it. A moment later a large teddy bear from the corner of the room was plopped onto Lua’s lap.
“What’s this for?”
“I’m cleaning, so Unnie just holds that.”
“Um… want me to help?”
A twinge of conscience made her offer. Sua answered with a bright, sunny smile.
“Unnie helping means Unnie sitting still!”
“…….”
Windows open, trash gathered, furniture straightened. While Lua sat in the chair clutching the teddy bear, Sua cleaned with practiced efficiency—crisp, capable hands that Lua could never hope to match.
“Hey… how many times have you cleaned for me like this?”
The question slipped out of curiosity. Sua clearly knew exactly where every object belonged; this was not the work of a first-timer.
“I came every week when I was a first-year.”
“R-right. You did.”
“Back then I was shocked a room could get this filthy in just one week…”
In the game, Han Lua only ever appeared in the nurse’s office. Lua had never imagined this side of her.
Then again—game or reality—Sua really was an angel. What kind of little sister showed up to clean her hopeless older sister’s room?
“Sua.”
“Hm?”
“Thank you.”
“…….”
Sua paused mid-tie on a trash bag and turned to look at her. Her eyes had gone round. Lua wondered if she’d said something wrong and tried to laugh it off.
“Ah—ahaha…?”
“H-hmph. If you know that, then try cleaning up once in a while.”
Sua looked away, flustered and a little shy.
After taking out the trash and washing her hands, she came back, plucked the teddy bear from Lua’s arms, and set it on the floor.
“Hmm.”
“?”
Sua studied her from every angle. Suddenly finding herself under observation, Lua shrank in on herself.
“W-what are you doing?”
“The room’s done, but…”
Sua’s eyes narrowed. Lua tried to look away, but Sua’s face kept drifting closer.
“W-why are you—”
“…Sniff sniff.”
Sua lifted a lock of Lua’s hair, took a whiff, and frowned slightly.
“Sua…?”
She didn’t stop there. She pressed in even closer, caught the back of her sister’s head, and buried her face against Lua’s nape to smell her properly.
“Hiek!”
The warm brush of Sua’s breath on her neck made Lua jolt. Goosebumps prickling her arms, she shoved Sua away.
“W-what are you doing?!”
“Unnie. When was the last time you showered?”
Lua dug through her memory.
“Um… night before last, I think?”
“What? So you went to work yesterday without washing?”
“W-well, I just sit in the nurse’s office all day anyway…”
“What kind of school nurse has hygiene like this? You’re actually going to get sick!”
“That’s why I said I’d use Healing!”
“I already told you no!”
Sua’s hands closed around her again and lifted her clean off the ground.
“Put me dooown! Cleaning’s over, I’m going back to sleep!”
It didn’t work in the slightest. When Sua finally set the thrashing Lua down, they were standing in front of the bathroom. Lua tried to bolt for the bed, but she couldn’t break through Sua’s blocking—national-team goalkeeper caliber.
“All right. Clothes off. No fuss.”
“Hieek…”
Sua’s hands reached for the pajamas Lua was wearing. Lua jumped and clutched the collar tight.
“I-I’ll wash by myself! I don’t need help!”
Even if it was Sua, being seen naked was still embarrassing. She was her little sister now—but she had also once been a heroine Lua had thought of as a game character.
“Nope. I said no mercy today.”
“Th-that’s…”
“I bet you skip shampoo and conditioner most days because it’s too much trouble. I’ll wash you.”
“Uuuugh.”
In the end, Lua found herself undressing in front of Sua.
The one mercy was that the bathroom was already thick with steam, so nothing was visible in sharp detail.
“Okay—water coming.”
From behind Lua, who sat on the bath stool, Sua rolled up her sleeves, lifted the showerhead, and turned on the water. Warmth cascaded from the crown of her head downward, and Lua let out an involuntary, blissful sigh.
“See? Doesn’t washing feel good?”
“Y-yeah…”
She’d been curled up tight, but the warm water slowly dismantled her defenses. Before long, the older sister had surrendered her entire body to her little sister’s hands.
Sua squeezed out shampoo and began working it gently through Lua’s hair. The soft, careful motions felt wonderful.
“Sorry, Unnie.”
“H-huh? For what?”
The sudden apology made Lua open her eyes in surprise—only for soap to sting them. She hurriedly rinsed it out.
“You worked all week, and here I am bothering you on your day off.”
“N-no. If anything, I should be the one apologizing.”
She meant it. What kind of older sister dumped cleaning and shower duty on her little sister? If Lua had been even a little more responsible, Sua wouldn’t have had to go through all this.
“Starting next week, I’ll try to live cleaner.”
“Hm?”
“I can’t keep acting spoiled with my little sister forever. I’m the unnie, after all.”
“Unnie…”
—Squish.
All at once, something impossibly soft and squishy pressed against Lua’s back.
“?!”
An overwhelmed Sua had hugged her from behind—clothes and all, even though she was going to get soaked.
Lua couldn’t open her eyes for the shampoo, and the slick softness kept pressing in. She could feel her face burning red.
“Unnie really has grown up.”
“I-I’m older than you!”
Sua held on for a long while before she finally let go. Even after the shower was over and she stepped out, Lua couldn’t quite shake the floating, lightheaded feeling.