What kind of bitch is she? (5)
What kind of bitch is she? (5)
"U-Anyway. Why did you come?"
I wanted to move past the uncomfortable topic quickly.
Lily-noona answered my question.
"Th... I got curious about what kind of person your girlfriend is."
"...My girlfriend?"
I knew they would ask, but I didn't think they'd ask this early.
No matter how much I review it in my head, my imagination is still lacking... I wonder if this will be okay.
"... Yeah. You ran away right after telling us you got a girlfriend..."
Vien was visibly sulking.
Honestly, I didn't want to talk about it right now.
I had already made a slip of the tongue once, but maybe because I was drunk, I felt like I'd make more.
Tomorrow, I was planning to officially flesh out the lies a bit more.
Other than the name 'Elzain', her outer appearance, and her inner personality, I hadn't thought of anything else.
If I had to answer right now, I'd be forced to make everything up on the spot.
I'm not good at this kind of thing...
"... Can't you tell me next time? It's too late right now."
"That's why we came to talk about it early, but you're the one who came late."
Vien said,
"... I've been waiting all this time, can't you tell us?"
Rus said.
Because I still carried a burden in my heart regarding Rus, it was hard to brush off even that request.
"... Tell us quickly. We should know since Chis... got a... girlfriend."
Rus urged.
"... We'll judge whether she's a weird person or not, Stachys."
Lily-noona too.
I resolved to think in my head before speaking.
Whether the lie was weird or not. Whether it would cause any problems.
Hoo. Hoo.
After taking a deep breath so I wouldn't get caught,
"T-Tell us quickly-"
"-Elzain."
I finally opened my mouth.
All eyes focused on me.
"Her name is Elzain."
Vien looked at me for a moment, then snapped her head back around,
and Lily-noona slowly nodded.
Rus kept muttering something.
"... Zain... Zain... Elzain..."
Lily-noona asked.
"... Is she pretty?"
"Pardon?"
What kind of first question is that? It's the kind of question you'd get from guys.
Don't people usually ask about her personality first or something?
Is it just me?
Well, I don't care that much about appearance when looking at a partner anyway.
"I'm asking if she's pretty, your girlfriend."
"Uh... Yes. She's pretty."
"Prettier than me?"
At Lily-noona's question, I retraced the settings in my head.
And I looked at noona.
Red hair and red eyes, Lily-noona. Decadent beauty.
When she doesn't speak, she gives off a vibe that makes her slightly hard to approach.
"No. Objectively speaking, I think noona is prettier."
"Then why-"
"What about me?"
Rus cut off Lily-noona, who was about to ask something.
"Girlfriend, is she prettier than me?"
It felt like an appearance war had suddenly broken out.
Black hair and black eyes. Tall height and long legs.
Honestly, Rus is also very pretty.
"No, honestly, objectively speaking, the three of you are prettier than Elzain."
I didn't want to talk much about appearance, so I said it all at once.
A layer of pressure weighing down on my shoulders peeled away.
"But, what does that matter? As long as she's pretty in my eyes, that's enough."
And it came back doubled.
Suddenly, my stomach felt nauseous. It felt like the side effects of sobering up were hitting.
In that state, I rolled my brain to come up with the lies I would tell from now on.
"Th... That's true, isn't it...?"
Lily-noona stammering, uncharacteristically.
"... What does she look like?"
It was Rus again. Well, it's only natural to be curious when a close friend gets a partner.
Because if Rus got a partner, I'd probably be curious too.
Pink eyes and pink hair.
As I repeated what I was going to say in my head, the words got stuck in my throat just as I was about to say them.
Can I really say this?
The more settings I blurt out like this, the harder things might get in the future.
If I explain too specifically, it could pinpoint an actual person.
What if an Elzain with pink hair and pink eyes actually exists in reality?
It's an impossible probability, but I'm slightly worried.
Can I... say it?
"Hey! Tell me already!"
Vien said, power returning to her voice.
I had no choice but to gloss over it roughly.
"Just... cute, and pretty, stuff like that."
"No, Chis. Things like hair color or breast size and stuff."
"W-Why are you asking about breast size, geez."
"Why can't you tell us that?"
Rus asked as if she were genuinely curious.
Tsk. Even if I worry about whether it's a lie I'm allowed to tell, these three women aren't going to give me any choices anyway.
People would find it weird if I couldn't even describe her appearance.
I had no choice but to describe my imaginary portrait of Elzain.
"P-Pink hair... I won't talk about her breasts."
It's not that I don't want to talk about it, I just haven't thought about it.
And supposing I really had a girlfriend, isn't it against etiquette to talk about her breast size when someone asks about her?
"I'm a woman. You can tell me, Chis."
But Rus kept asking.
Ha. I sighed.
Looks like she's going to keep asking anyway.
"She's just fine. Happy?"
"Eyes?"
My heart is clenched tight from the pressure.
Even if I try not to say it, I really have no choice.
"Pink eyes."
"Height?"
"Haha, Rus, what are you drawing a montage?"
I turned my plea to stop into a joke, but Rus looked at me with deep black eyes.
And ignoring my words, she asked.
"Height?"
"... Height-wise, there's just about a head's difference."
Rus nodded and muttered something again.
"... Pink hair, pink eyes, moderate breasts, moderate height.... Elzain."
Though I couldn't hear it properly.
Vien snapped from beside me.
"P-Pink-haired girls are said to be lewd!"
"Hey, what kind of thing is that to say?"
"It's true, you know! How do you know she hasn't been throwing her body around carelessly?"
"Vien."
No. My Elzain isn't a girl like that.
She's pure and only looks at me.
Setting addition.
"Elzain isn't that kind of person."
When I said it a bit firmly, she went "Humph!" and turned the back of her head to me.
"... Even though you've only known each other for two weeks."
Muttering a single word.
That's true. By setting, she's someone I met two weeks ago, so I wouldn't be able to figure out something like that yet.
With nothing to say, I simply chose silence.
When I took my eyes off Vien, Lily-noona came into view in front of me.
She was tapping her fingers, tak, tak, on the table, looking like she was pondering something.
Seeing her act like that made me feel a bit guilty and a bit scared.
"Stachys, you told us too briefly back then, so could you explain everything from when you met up to the point you started dating?"
Then she narrowed her eyes.
"Like Vien said, it's 'only' been two weeks since you met, after all."
Gulp.
I swallowed my saliva.
Up until now, the lies were about the basic details of the girlfriend,
but now it's a lie embedding that imaginary person into reality.
If there's even a slight part that doesn't mesh with reality, the lie could be exposed.
I have to tread very carefully.
"So.... I first met her back then after dropping Vien off at the church. You know that big tree on the way from the church to my house? Right around there."
Glances focused on Vien. Vien wiggled her fingers as if she had done something wrong.
"Who spoke first?"
Rus asked.
Just as I was about to answer "I did," I saw Rus's eyes and thought about it once more.
Knowing my personality—that I don't easily talk to strangers—Rus might find it weird if I said I initiated the conversation.
....That was a bit dangerous just now.
Because if little incongruities like this pile up, the lie gets exposed.
"E-Elzain spoke to me first."
"I've been thinking about this since earlier, but you guys must have gotten close already. Considering you call her Elzain instead of Miss Elzain. Even if you're lovers, the fact that you've only met for two weeks doesn't change. Didn't it take you quite a long time to start calling me Lily-noona?"
"Yeah, Chis. I've been thinking about it since earlier too. It took almost half a year before you dropped honorifics with me."
"T-That's right! I only dropped them with you after we drank together too!"
The three of them banded together to tackle the way I addressed her.
I thought about it in my head. Whether it was weird or not.
If anything, adding "Miss" to a lover felt stranger from my perspective.
"We're lovers, so we should speak comfortably."
"Humph!"
"... Tch."
Vien and Rus grew noisy.
Lily-noona spoke as if spitting out a curse.
"And?"
"Pardon?"
"You should keep talking. Because that bi-—no. Because she spoke to first?"
"Because she spoke to me first... we got close like that. But then the next day, after dropping Rus off, I ran into her again, so I was glad to see her and we talked a lot."
This time, gazes shifted to Rus. Every time they appeared in my story, gazes shifted.
Since everyone else was doing it, I also looked at Rus accordingly.
Then, as the silence prolonged, gazes returned to me.
Ah. I continued speaking.
"And after that, and after that, we kept running into each other by coincidence, so we just kept getting closer."
"Chis, doesn't that sound a bit weird?"
"Huh?"
My heart pounded.
"How do you drop us off and run into her every single day? It's too much to be a coincidence."
Right. It's time to pay the price for casually blurted-out lies back then.
Because even to me, this made no sense as a coincidence.
"Th... That's why I said back then. Could it be fate...? Haha."
"You might think that way, but I find it a bit weird."
"... Really?"
I know. I find it weird too.
"Rather than fate, did you perhaps... get stalked?"
My head froze for a moment.
Why would anyone stalk me? What do I even have?
It's all my fault. My fault for telling weird lies.
"Chis, she's probably trying to scam you or something. It's weird."
"That's right, Stachys. I'm a bit uneasy about it too."
"Break up with her, Stachys."
The three of them are worried about me.
The mood must have been bad until now because they thought I met a weird person.
Since it was a bit tricky to speak out directly, they were also walking on eggshells.
But even though everyone was worrying like this, I just felt sorry.
Because the three of them were getting angry at my imagination.
This is why you shouldn't lie.
Because things that prick your conscience keep happening one after another.
Still, I can't stop.
To grow the party, I need to manage my body through rest.
"Ahaha, you were worrying about that? No, it's fine. I'm the one who met her, so I know."
"Chis, you... might think that way because you've got rose-colored glasses on, but from where I'm standing, it's not like that."
"Thanks for worrying, Rus."
She bit her lip.
To steer away from the topic, I kept lying.
"Anyway, after that, uh, you know. When I met Vien or Rus, I stayed up all night, so I couldn't see Elzain, right? Then the day before going to the dungeon, when I went to the request office, I ran into her again and got confessed to."
"... So suddenly? This is really weird, isn't it? As expected, isn't there some sort of scheme behind it?"
But there was no other moment I could receive a confession if not then.
I rolled my brain to attach a reason.
"... She said she realized it after not seeing me for a few days. She said she felt my preciousness because I wasn't around."
The three of them flinched heavily.
Along with all three of them, my heart flinched in tandem.
Why, why. What.
"S-Stachys. What on earth does she like about you? What could she possibly know after just two weeks?"
Vien asked.
It was a question that felt a bit self-deprecating to answer.
What would my imaginary girlfriend like about me? In the end, I have to state my own strengths with my own mouth.
Face? My face is just at a level where I have no complaints myself, but it's not a face to seduce anyone.
Personality? Can I put that forward when I'm lying like this and deceiving my party members?
Then body?... Yeah, let's go with body, safely.
"She... said my body was cool... or something?"
Vien jumped up from her seat.
"Hey!! She's a totally lewd slut, isn't she!!"
"Vien!"
Surprised by her harsh profanity, I called her name.
But uttering a single "Ah," she sat back down, went "Humph!", sulked, and turned her head away.
"....She's a shady kid with an ulterior motive..."
For some reason, Vien's emotions were heightened.
She called Elzain a slut, but my conscience kept pricking me to get angry.
Elzain is an imaginary person after all...
It was still hard to get angry at real-life Vien because of an imaginary person.
Perhaps Vien felt like my comrade, but maybe it was because Elzain hadn't settled deep into my heart yet.
I just decided to calm her down.
What should I say... Ah.
"That's right, Vien. Maybe because it was right after you cut my hair before the confession, she praised me, saying it suited me well. Thanks."
Sharp gazes focused on Vien this time.
".... Ah."
But at my praise, Vien suddenly staggered and almost fell off her chair.
"Whoa, be careful, Vien."
I grabbed both shoulders of the falling Vien.
Her body was shaking deol, deol.
Before I could even wonder about it, words came from ahead.
"Chis, Vien looks fine now. Let go of her."
"Ah, right."
I let go of her shoulders and continued what I was saying.
"Anyway, this and that happened, so that's how I got confessed to."
"... You accepted that? What do you even know about the other person! I know you way better than some Elzain or whatever!"
Vien, who had been staggering, raised her voice once again.
"Well, there was no reason not to accept."
"There was no reason to accept either, Stachys. Shouldn't you be a little more careful?"
"Noona, as noona knows too, I've been single all my life. I should date someone at least once too."
tu-tu-tu-tuk
The table started to shake deol, deol, deol.
In an instant, pressure was felt again.
The hairs on my body stood up on their own accord.
Lily-noona looked at me with flame-like red eyes and asked.
Her voice was slightly subdued.
".... Then.. would you have accepted it even if just anyone had confessed to you?"
That's not it.
Given my views on pure love, I couldn't just accept anyone's confession.
But to avoid getting caught in the lie, I had to hide my true feelings for once.
Because I had to justify getting into a relationship after just two weeks.
"Maybe?"