Tsuki Tsuki Vol 11 Chapter 1

Chapter 01: The lonely Goddess

The villagers raised shouts of joy and everyone smiled, except one that wore a distorted expression in disbelief and spilled endless tears from the eyes.

At that time, the little girl didn’t knew the meaning of the woman’s tears. The little girl wanted the woman to smile. Originally, the woman was the type to smile brightly. A bright smile like a sunflower. The smile of the most precious person to the little girl. The little girl loved seeing that smile.

Maybe that hurt the woman even more. The woman’s smile always looked kind of forced. Even while spilling tears, the woman smiled somewhat forcibly.

Unknown to the little girl, the woman was always crying. She kept crying with “Why her”. But one day the woman heartfelt declared to the little girl.

Her precious person that was always crying. The person smiled at her again after various years. There was still a fickle sadness left in her eyes, but even so, she smiled lovely.

“It’s a promise. Let’s definitely play together again.”

A humble pinky promise. A promise that wouldn’t be fulfilled. The little girl innocently believed it. Without knowing that this promise some day would turn into something meaningless. Without knowing that this promise would hurt the most precious person to the little girl. She always believed in it. And,

This promise would forever torment the little girl.

After waking up from her dream, the little girl spilled big tears from her eyes. No matter how much time passed, the little girl kept crying all alone even now without anyone noticing it…

Her neatly arranged room. The quiet room was filled with the faint fragrances of flowers that came from her shining blonde hair, the sweet fragrance of her own body and the somewhat rough and agonizing breathing that leaked through her light lip lips. While the sound of that agitated breathing reached my earlobes— she, Luna glitzy wetted her clear emerald green eyes and flushed her smooth and glossy cheeks.

Also, due to the two breasts, which boasted with their overwhelming volume, the buttons around her chest area were certainly undone. But regardless of that, the ample fruits were constrained within the shirt and seemed to burst out any moment. After wordlessly watching her bewitching appearance, I slowly pulled out that from Luna’s body.

Charmingly twisting her slender body, she fell back onto the bed again.

Moreover, her golden hair spread radiant like silk threads on top of the snow-white sheets, where it was bathed in the sunlight that shone through the gap between the curtains, which produced sparkling bright light waves.

But I frowned and starred at the something that I just pulled out of her body, whereupon Luna timidly directed her wet eyes at me while still breathing roughly.

“…Really pretty. So sexy and wonderful. I can’t take my eyes off you tonight.”

“Ehm, what can I say, days like this do happen.”

“I guess it was not good?”

Without awkwardly concealing it, I declared so, whereupon tears faintly started to dwell up in Luna’s eyes.

“No, no, it certainly isn’t good, but nothing you need to worry about. You can’t do anything about it.” saying so, I looked at the thing that was inside her earlier— the thermometer and continued my words with a soft tone.

“But at least preparing lunch should be…”

“…Too bad.”

While putting away the thermometer in my hands, I showed a wry smile and thought back on it.

…Where was Luna?

Apparently Luna looked feverish when she saw her in the kitchen, and tried to cook dressed in only a white shirt, her sleeping clothes, while staggering around. Seeing that, my mother took her to her room without questions.

“It is the long-awaited holiday, yet it seems that I cannot play with you today.”

“…Will you listened to my wilfulness?”

“Well then— Please kiss me.”

“Luna, sorry, but a kiss is impossible. If I did that, it would defeat the purpose of me coming here to nurse you. Because one kiss from me would surely rob you of all your strength and raise your fever.”

…Not only didn’t she retort, but she also gave me a hard request. Indifferent to my agitation, Luna straightened up her upper body a bit languid due to the cold and reached out both her arms towards me like she was going to hug me. In regards, I kept cladding myself in composure and stopped her movements by softly putting up my palm.

“Ehm, if a kiss does not work, would you lay next to until I fall asleep?”

“You are not even trying to obfuscate it anymore!?”

After all, Luna with a cold was sexier than usual.

If I were to carelessly listen to her request… it probably would really stop to be a nursing. I was worried if my reasoning would last.

Now then, it seemed that Luna hadn’t eaten anything yet, so I should go prepare some porridge while I can. After taking a look at her lovely sleeping face, I quietly left her room and crossed my arms.

While I thought like that, I got down the stairs, whereupon I ran into a girl with maid clothes in the hallway.

Amber almond eyes. Straight, long and beautiful red hair. Outstanding and varying proportions. The maid clothes she wore suited her surprisingly well, making her extremely cute.

“Shinobu, how’s my sister?”

“Eh? She’s always natural erotic— cough, she’s always sexy.”

While stopping the jokes for now, I changed the topic to what bothered me.

“I, well, borrowed them from Elni. You know, my sister often wears maid clothes when she does the house chores.”

Luna seemed to really like the maid clothes she got from Kaorun on her birthday, so she habitually used them when she was doing the house chores…. While recalling that, I gave an agreeable response, whereupon Machina flushed her cheeks a bit and continued.

While explaining so, Machina fleetingly stole a glance at me.

Blushing even more, she stole another glance at me again to check my reaction, appealing to her maid clothes. She obviously wanted me to compliment her, so in order to respond to her expectation, I reached out my hand towards her head.

“Yes, I know. I’ll give my best right away— wait, where’re you going, Shinobu!”

“Ehm, Shinobu, don’t you have anything else to say after seeing me in these clothes?”

She had said that she borrowed in from Elni, but she wore these maid clothes before too when we had a cooking contest with Hijiri at our house.

To be honest, I was captivated, so I decided to refrain from my usual jokes and reply honestly.

“…Really? Will I be like your favourite devoted maid?”

For now I gave her my honest impression, whereupon Machina sparkled her amber eyes, said “Thanks, Shinobu. I’m happy you praised me.” and spread both her arms to not only hug me, but also lovely kiss my cheeks by making smooch sounds with “*kiss*…*kiss*…”.

However while I got the feeling that Machina’s kisses weren’t on the level of a greeting, but had a deeper meaning to it, yet I currently had my hands full with holding down my cheeks, which were about to form a grin. Her wet, light pink lips. I was about to become spellbound by that soft sensation, whereupon Machina turned her back to me with a smile.

“Yeah, okay. I’m looking forward to it. While you’re at it, make some porri—”

…I can’t stop her like that.

Adorable big eyes. Fine chiselled features that somewhat reminded you of a kitten. A short and slender figure. The girl with the innocent image was my little sister, Nanjou Nazuna, who was despite her appearance an 8th grader and the captain of the karate club.

Apparently Nazuna was looking at a cooking book together with Machina and the two of them were having a happy chat while smiling. She must have heard the circumstances from Machina even before me. That Nazuna was wearing an apron too must meant that she was going to help with the cooking.

Even if the cooking failed, I would take responsibility and eat it everything, prepared to die. But I still had to do something about the porridge.

A defenceless appearance like having a peace of mind. Long eyelashes and an innocent expression. You might call it the sleeping face of an angel. A really heart-warming sight. Regardless of that, unrest spread in my heart bit by bit as I recalled, while I watched Elni’s sleeping face.

So I wanted to believe that everything of that day had been a dream, but I certainly was pondering if it was right to stop Elni too. Either way, the pain in my chest I had back then didn’t disappear in the last few days.

“Elni, if you sleep under the heating table, you’ll catch a cold too.”

Quite the spiritless reaction. The unrest I felt earlier faded in no time and at the same time, my prankish nature was awakened. Unable to restrain myself, I reached out for the mandarin basket on the table and carefully placed one orange on her head.

On the unchanged pure sleeping face was now one mandarin. It was a bit interesting. But I felt bad for teasing her too much. I took the mandarin off Elni’s head, peeled it and brought one piece of it closer to her mouth, softly calling out to her like that.

I tried to wake her up according to my initial goal, but Elni slowly opened her cherry lips, only to devour the mandarin and smile broadly in happiness. But there were no signs at all that she woke up. I inadvertently showed a smile and after feeding Elni a couple of mandarin pieces, I poked her cheek with my index finger.

“Mm… *chomp*…”

Elni wrapped her mouth around my fingertip, as she mistook it, and started to play-bite it.

Her wet tongue, warm mouth and sweet small lips. Continuously receiving the sensation of these, I felt my cheeks getting hot, whereupon the accordion curtain, the partition between the dining kitchen and living room, opened and Machina showed up, doubtfully tilting her head as soon as she saw us.

“…Guess she’s hungry?”

“She’s sleeping so soundly.”

“She must have a light sleep. Elni actually has trouble falling asleep.”

Machina clouded her expression a bit and when I pulled my finger out of Elni’s mouth a bit surprised, it apparently made her wake up. Elni slowly opened her eyelids, raised her head and looked at us drowsy.

“So, Elni, was it delicious?”

Nodding with drowsy eyes, Elni absent-minded shifted her gaze to Machina.

“Leave the snacks for the afternoon, Elni. I’m preparing lunch right now. Nazuna’s helping me, so wait in anticipation, okay.”

Her sleepiness must have been blown away at once. Unlike Nazuna, she knew of Machina’s cooking skills, so Elni placed her cheek onto the table again and turned a bit blue in the face.

“By the way, Shinobu, is there anything you want to eat at lunch?”

“Eh? You want to eat me? Then go ahea— wait, don’t have your mind in the gutter at noon already! T- To begin with, I’m, well, not that easy to eat!”

She probably came here to ask for any wishes regarding lunch. But I had nothing particular in mind, so I replied frivolous, whereupon Machina flushed her cheeks with “I’ll try asking Nazuna…” and headed for the dining kitchen. In regards, Elni watched her off, then opened her mouth a bit worried.

“I can only have faith right now.”

“…That a miracle will occur.”

Along with an unusual cool remark, Elni took one step forward to the dining kitchen.

“You’re so cool that I’m going to fall for you, but… can you actually cook?”

“Good housewife and mother? What the? If you wanted to make me laugh, that didn’t really work, you know?”

…Let alone my cheeks, I hope my whole body wouldn’t start to spasm.

Amidst that, I killed some time by eating the earlier peeled mandarin, but I couldn’t shake off my unrest after all, so I swiftly moved to the dining kitchen, checking up on their doing.

“Listen you two, when you cut with the knife, make a paw with the other hand.”

“Yeah, that’s good, Nazucat. Meow, meow~”

“Meow, meow~ Three cats are cooking together… cough. Forget that. Pretend you didn’t hear that…”

While watching Machina and Nazuna like that, Elni smiled gentle and instructed them on the cooking. Sometimes she cracked a joke or softly gave them advices, just as if she was their older sister…

…What a surprise. Various minutes passed since then. An appetizingly flavour hung in the air of the dining kitchen and on the table were Elni’s cooking, fried rice with soup and salad, beautiful lined up.

It was surprisingly good. While I ate lunch together with Machina, Elni and Nazuna, I mentally licked my tongue and casually shifted my gaze around, whereupon there was a crock on the stove. It seemed that while making lunch, Elni even prepared porridge for the sick Luna. She was really versatile. Unable to hide my surprise any longer, I lowered my head a bit towards Elni.

“Fufu, I told you I actually got the features of a good housewife and mother. Chores are my speciality. It was me too, who cleaned the windows in the living room, you know?”

“Various places…”

“Hey Elni, if you don‘t mind, could you teach me again?”

“I want you” declared Machina without hesitation, whereupon Elni widened her eyes a bit, then flushed her cheeks happily.

“As much as my sister— wait, no! J- Just averagely. Anyway, it’s a promise, okay? Teach me until I can properly cook. You have to, Elni.”

“…Somehow I get know why Luna’s cooking meals so happily every day.”

She showed a smile different from usual. It was a smile with a kind of mature composure. Until the cheerful lunch was over, she kept that expression…

After lunch, I left the cleaning up to Machina and Nazuna, and went to Luna’s room together with Elni. On the tablet in my hands were the crock with the porridge, a bowl, a Chinese spoon, a cold medicine and also a cup with natural water.

In regards, Elni knitted her eyebrows worried when she saw that, and eagerly approached her, getting into the bed for some reason.

“As you can see, laying next to her. I’m sharing my energy with Luna.”

“Eh? Huh? Elni-chan?”

“Sorry for waking you up, Luna. I made some porridge… You think you can eat it?”

“Yeah! I worked hard for you! There’s no better spice than love!”

Upon that, Luna opened her well-formed lips and eat the porridge without hesitation, as she knew about Elni’s cooking skills, smiling with “So good”. On the other hand, I alternatively looked at their smiling faces, then spoke out the words I was reminded of.

“Fufu, you got all jealous, didn’t you, Shinobu. Luna and I are so close that we often take a nap together. Luna’s breast pillow is really comfortable. There’s no better pillow than Luna’s breasts.”

While I replied jokingly to Elni, Luna proudly puffed up her voluminous chest.

Even while showing a smile and saying so, Luna suddenly changed her expression into a wry smile.

“Luna, stop being so reserved, okay?”

“You don’t have to worry about passing on your cold. Both Shinobu and I love you so much that we wouldn’t mind catching your cold. Of course the same applies to Machina, Nazucat and Tomoe-san too. So you don’t need to show any reservation.”

Receiving Elni’s heartfelt words, Luna damped her eyes a bit and nodded. After she finished eating the porridge by getting fed, Luna gave Elni a hug as a present. Elni accepted that with a smile, but after a while she clapped her hands as she remembered something.

On the other hand, Luna watched after Elni a bit sadly, then stared at me with passionate eyes, spreading both her arms spoiled with “Shinobu-san, Shinobu-san”.

“Mm… That, feels good. Please do more.”

Luna with a cold was indeed extremely erotic. I was just normally petting her head, yet she leaked a charming moaning for some reason, so I got rather fraught.

“Shinobu, Luna’s sweating a bit due to the fever. Wipe her body with this.”

“Because I do not mind it.”

Upon that, her voluminous fruits, freed from their containment, innocently bounced around like they had increased in size, and the light pink buds at the peek of her breasts showed themselves.

“Please be gentle, Shinobu-san…”

Was what I thought, but I had not even once responded to Luna’s requests today. I should at least listen to one request of hers.

There Luna raised one arm and started to tie up her golden hair, to make it easier for me to wipe it. As a result, her smooth white back entered my vision and I was about to become agitated by the skin’s delicacy, so I averted my eyes, only to look into the stand mirror in the room.

…To be honest, I was captivated. Even while wiping her back, my gaze was drawn to the mirror, captivating not only my soul, but also my eyes.

Luna’s voluminous breasts showed all kind of shapes every time she moved her body along with longing moans. When she once shivered embarrassed, her breasts jumped up like showing off their flexibility, then bewitchingly shook to the sides.

“Hey Shinobu, there’s a bit of sweat between Luna’s breasts, you know? Why don’t you wipe there too?”

“In- Instead of my cheeks, make do with Luna’s breasts. If it gets out of hand, I’ll stop you, so rest assured. Besides, Luna herself wants you to wipe it. Right, Luna?”

Her consciousness must have been still hazy from the fever. Luna affirmed with a somewhat drowsy voice, urging me sweetly with “Shinobu-san”.

Instantly the sensation of her round breasts spread of my fingertips even through the towel, and on top of that, Luna shivered her body while making a “…Ahn” moan, which shot up my heart beat in no time. But I somewhat composed kept moving my fingers like careful caressing.

Leaking an unforeseen bewitching voice, Luna repeatedly twisted her body, so sometimes my palms softly brushed over her fluffy breasts and while that happened over and over again, my fingertip unmeant touched the peek of her breasts, the pink buds gently like a peck.

“Yaahhn… Hah… Ahn…”

…Now I have done it. Due to my great agitation, I dropped the towel and hastily pulled my hand back in a straight line towards me rapidly beating chest.

I could do nothing but turn pale. Of course such an accident happens when I pulled my hand back in a straight line. With my head full of guilt and panic, I froze up completely, whereupon Elni, who had watched over me, placed her hand against her chin and gave the third ridiculous demand.

“Ehm… Like this?”

Her voluminous snow-white breasts. Every time Luna slowly shook them, their sweet softness and enormous elasticity were directly transferred into my hand. Also, as the sweat between her breasts acted like a lubrication oil, the movements of her white breasts was smooth and extremely seductive.

“*kiss*… Mm… *kiss*, *kiss*…”

“Hah, Hah… Shinobu-san… Mm… Please move as well…”

Replying so with a somewhat shrill voice, I tried to pull my arm away from Luna’s breasts right away, but

Leaking a rather seductive voice, Luna started to bend her slender waist wriggling back and forth and when I suddenly dropped my gaze, there were the peeks of her ripe breasts. The pink buds became stiff very fast, like they were waiting to be pecked.

Elni picked up that cell phone and held it out to Luna, whereupon I could finally escape from her sweet breasts thanks to that. Luna separated from me a bit regretful and took the cell phone from Elni, answering the call.

Boss? A call from her job? Luna was working a part-time job at a family restaurant for a little while now to save up money, so that she could go to university and learn more about society, but

Something might have happened. While Elni softly hang the white shirt over Luna’s shoulders, Luna clouded her expression as the conversation progressed. And after listening for a while, Luna said “I will ask” and removed the cell phone from her ear, looking at me.

“Guess the restaurant is in a pinch.”

I had once met Luna’s Boss. But in contrast to her cool appearance that made you fall for her, she was a deplorable beauty, who was called “Perverted Boss” at the restaurant Luna worked at.

However, the restaurant was always taking care of Luna. I ought to help them when they’re troubled. After a short hesitation, I told her that I would help out, whereupon Luna showed a smile with “Thank you” and now shifted her gaze towards Elni.

“This calls for my services! Serving customers is my speciality! I’ll show you my level 100 charm!”

With that I interjected a little joke, but Elni replied with a V-sign unbothered.

“That’s not enough to get ready, get it?”

I had only ever served customers in a café at the culture festival, but I should be able to help out with washing the dishes and carrying stuff. Leaving the nursing of Luna to Machina and Nazuna, Elni and I quickly left for Luna’s workplace…

…I didn’t sign up for this, seriously.

By the way, one of the waitress was Elni wearing the restaurant’s uniform.

She was not in the least inferior to the other waitresses with their high-class figures. On the contrary, Elni served the customers with her outstanding charm on level 100 and while I might play favouritism, she was more radiant than anyone else in the restaurant.

After leaving the house back then, I came to the restaurant together with Elni to live up to the Boss’ request, but… to repeat myself, I didn’t sign up for this.

The problem came after that. They apparently were really short on hands, so the Boss asked me to go out in the hall now and I refused to, since it would be impossible to serve customers with my scary face, but

“Disappear in two seconds flat, you pervert… Hey, wait! Why’re you setting your hands on my clothes?”

“Unfortunately, I’m at an age where I insist on my rights, but don’t care about obligations. Farewell, Perverted Boss. I’ll go work in the hall.”

But I should learn from Elni and do everything I can right now. I took a deep breath. Renewing my spirit, I focused on my duties, whereupon the waitresses gave me tasks one after another, as they weren’t scared of my frightening looks.

“…I only got one body. I’ll do it one after another, so wait. And you last two, don’t tease your juniors.”

“Thanks for working in the hall, boy. I’ll help out here now too, so leave all the troublesome stuff to me. For now, just stay away from table 3, okay?”

I replied jokingly while forgetting my respectful speech and directed my eyes at the table 3 in question, whereupon there sat ill-bred looking guys. They were making a ruckus by laughing neighing with loud voices and the nearby customers knitted their eyebrows annoyed.

As she had been near the table, Elni, unimpressed by their ill-bred nature, started to attend to them without time for the Boss to stop her.

“Eh? Snatched a bite? That’s a funny joke. You’re quite cute. Why don’t you sit down? We would like to talk about a lot of things with you.”

Look who’s talking. Mature girl? Where? Or rather, what happened to the respective speech, Elni? Also, when did you snatch a bite?

No matter how bad the guys’ attitude got, no matter how often they persistently repeated their pick-up lines, she never showed an annoyed expression. On the contrary, she cracked another joke and genial eased the atmosphere… Bit by bit, the malice vanished from the expression of the guys. In time they stopped messing around too and started to stare at Elni with somewhat flushed cheeks and a smile.

“Okay, I’ll pass on your order. Please wait a while. Also, don’t make too much ruckus in the restaurant, okay? It bothers the other customers. Listen, if you want to make a ruckus— then only during your coming-of-age or graduation ceremony!”

No such retorts left the guys’ mouths and all together with still red cheeks, they absent-minded watched after Elni leaving, looking somewhat happy.

“…Wow. This feels like a neglect play. Not bad.”

Sharp and finely chiselled features and a straight back. A cool beauty with a dignified aura. She was quite popular at school and— my precious friend, Gogyou Hijiri.

But I never expected to run into these two here…

“It’s Shinobu-kun…”

“…Uhm, Kaoru-san? What’re you talking about so suddenly? It’s embarrassing, so please stop it.”

“K- Kaoru-san! Seriously, stop it! Please don’t read my mind!”

“Hey, do you often come here?”

“H- Hijiri-chan, you make it sound like I am a fan of Luna-san. Please refrain from stating any misleading things. To begin with, I am not frequenting this place that often. Only around four times a week.”

Smiling, I pointed that out, whereupon now Kaorun turned red and quickly changed the topic with “B- By the way,” to brush it off.

“…Huh? You want me to say ‘I’m sorry, Kaoru-oneechan’ or what? Actually, why didn’t occur to you that I work here?”

That Luna was bedridden with a cold since the morning. That Elni and I helped out in the restaurant in her stead. That I first washed the dishes, but now was kind of forcefully dragged out into the hall. When I summarized all the events, both Hijiri and Kaorun knitted their eyebrows, as they were worried about Luna, and I made a wry smile to change the atmosphere.

“No, that is not true. Your kindness allows you to interact with anyone without prejudice, Shinobu-sama. You are a wonderful gentleman, who is considerate and capable of attending to others. I believe you can serve customers without any problems, Shinobu-sama.”

“—Then allow me to be frank: You serving customers is an absolute scream. I imagine that you would say ‘Here’s a treat from the great me, enjoy!’, then take the fresh water into your mouth to spit it at the customers with attitude. Both the customers and staff would become ashen-faced.”

“Wh- Why such a reaction? I am not allowed to flatter you! I am not allowed to be rude either! Then just what do you want me to say!”

When I rustled Kaorun’s head half for fun, Hijiri softly interjected after seeing our silly jokes.

“The wild me has turned mild?”

“From my point on as well, I think that you have changed a bit, Shinobu-sama. You are more wonderful than before, really charming. And on this occasion, please let me take a picture of your waiter outfit.”

I unconsciously made a Joj*-Stance from the current mood, whereupon I suddenly saw Elni in the corner of my vision. Who knows since when she was watching?

“Fufu, Shinobu-sama in a waiter outfit. I can boast with this to the others. I am sure it will sell for a good pric— eh, meeow!”

“Kaorun, no photo-shooting in the restaurant. The staff will throw you out, you know?”

“My way of showing affection. And I’ll keep quiet about the photos to the staff… but you sure are always carrying your camera with you, huh. You love it that much?”

After preciously caressing her camera, Kaorun grinned for some reason.

“I see… You really love everyone, Kaorun. You treasure the memories with everyone, so you take picture like that to not forget them.”

“Sorry, Kaorun.”

“Shinobu, I’m taking my break now, but don’t dwell on talking.”

Hiding my faint wonderment, I nodded, whereupon Elni recommended “The Salisbury steak set is good!” to Hijir and Kaorun, and turned on her heels, leaving while mumbling something like “…Pictures… Memories…” with a small voice. On the other hand, Hijiri and I watched after Elni’s back, then each shifted our gaze towards the blushing Kaorun.

“And you screamed a ‘meow’, since you didn’t notice Elni, right?”

Averting her eyes from us, Kaorun explained with still red cheeks.

Kaorun had turned bright red up to her ears. It was quite cute. I kept petting her head like that, but I had to return to my job now. I regretfully said my good-bye to Hijiri and Kaorun and resumed servicing the customers…

Watching off Hijiri and Kaorun, who left the restaurant after finishing their meal, I still kept making an effort at my job, whereas Elni came back from her break. After the ill-bred gang, she now got along with a family with child and was smiled at with “Elni-oneechan” by the little child.

I still couldn’t tell myself, but I didn’t scare anyone during my job and when I devoted myself to the serving of costumers even after my break, the evening sun shone into the restaurant at some point.

The evening sun heralding the end of the shift. Warm words of Good Job. While I got the changing over with in the changing room after my shift, I was still in a bit of high spirits. Servicing customers wasn’t all too bad.

“Hey Elni-chan, I’m repeating myself, but I’m really interested in you. I want to work together with you so bad. Won’t you work part-time here?”

Elni cracked a joke like a failure of a human. In regards, the Boss stuck to her guns and filled her tone with passion.

“May I snatch bites?”

“Yay! Nice! Then from tomorrow onwards… wait, no.”

“I’m really appreciate the offer. I was just thinking about saving up some money. But I can’t keep working for a long period.”

“…Really?”

Apparently clearly giving up on employing Elni, the Boss continued softly.

“I see. A part-time job at a nursery school.”

“Of course! I love kids! I want to play with them!”

“But Elni-chan, when you want to save up money at this time of the year… it means you want to buy a Christmas present for a certain someone?”

Mixed in Elni’s bright voice was a faint loneliness.

Even now I couldn’t find words to stop her…

The salary envelope in both our hands. It was the payment from the Boss. Both Elni and I stuffed it into our pockets and left the family restaurant behind us, then slowly advanced towards the shopping district under the dawning sky…

“Oh, Elni-chan. Why don’t you have some tea with your friend here? We have some delicious cake, you know? But you, Elni-chan, have to pay in advance.”

Even while puffing up her cheeks a bit, Elni playfully clung to her, whereupon the woman giggled, flushed her cheeks a bit and changed the topic.

“Mh? Do you mean Bram? Well he’s technically single, but he’s devoted to his wife, so dating him will prove to be a bit difficult.”

“…I ha