The sauna… It was quite nice, Kouji thought. A lot nicer than he was expecting. Not any disrespect for the hard work that was put in to making this place a reality. More so that given what he’d been taking all week. This was a nice change of pace.

He was sitting all alone, another thing that he welcomed. It wasn’t like Yuma was bothering him, but getting some time to himself, especially in a place like this, was great.

It didn’t take long for that to change however. While laying back, wearing nothing but the towel she gave him. Kouji heard the door creak a bit. Hard to hear due to the steam hissing from the hot rocks, but he heard it. Not that he paid much mind to it at first. It was probably Yuma’s dad or something. This was his house, so he’s free to go wherever in it.

“…” Whoever it was. They didn’t say anything. Kouji, on the other hand, also maintained silence. As he leaned his head back, eyes closed. It was only once they spoke up, that his eyes shot wide open. “...Do you mind if... I sit besides you?”

“Eh?!” He immediately straightened himself up. The person standing right in front of him, wearing nothing more than a towel, was Yuma. “What are you doing here?” He asked, his arms instinctively covered himself.

“Is there a problem?” She looked at him, like this was a normal thing to occur. Maybe it was, after all he’s not family nor employee. Was there really only one of these things in this house? “I only wished to spend time with you in here.” Kouji tried to stay calm, looking her right in the eye to not make this awkward.

But it’s not easy when such a beautiful girl is standing before him. Essentially naked, with only her important parts blocked off.

Among the girls, she was probably smack dab in the middle when it came to size. But that didn’t mean she presented it poorly. This girl didn’t seem like she was trying, which was more shocking to him than anything. She didn’t sound even the least bit flustered being here. So he knew he had to be strong, to not get shown up.

“There’s no problem.” He tried laying back a bit, to show that it wasn’t bothering him. “You’re free to sit wherever you like.”

“That’s nice.” She smiled, and sat right besides him. As close as she possibly could, but not to close to let him in on her intentions.

From her point-of-view. Everything was going exactly as planned. There was no way he couldn’t enjoy something like this. Her hands were very capable of doing work. Probably the only thing she felt she was truly good at. Also, this state-of-the-art room was doing its job of clearing out their pores and relaxing their muscles.

Plus, there was the bonus of what she was getting here as well. Yuma was a little jealous to hear about the girl’s escapades when she was gone doing her work. The biggest being when he challenged Teru to that game of chicken. She heard that he stripped down to his underwear at that time in front of all of them.

What was happening here was close enough.

“It’s nice in here… Isn’t it?” She attempted to make normal conversation. But with her tone, it was coming off a bit creepy to him. Kouji struggled to understand what was going on in her mind. What she was saying, made it sound like she was enjoying it.

However, the way she said it. It was almost like she was feigning it. He felt a little bad, like he was making her do things she didn’t want to do.

“Yeah…” He replied, not even confident if he was telling the truth. “I gotta say, this place is pretty nice.” What was up with this girl? That was all he could think in his mind, despite trying to keep up a causal conversation. Her lack of emotive behavior, she didn’t seem the least bit flustered in here with him. If there was a hint of nervousness, he couldn’t sense it.

That was something he was trying to figure out as to the reason. Sure, she was always the slow type, and rather aloof at that as well. But, was she just treating this like service? Was he just someone to be served? He hoped not.

“I was hoping you’d like this.” She had to prepared herself for the kill shot. But, those words were caught at the tongue. She couldn’t say anything to him. Her mind just couldn’t get it self to push her body to do the same thing. Instead, she just turned to him, looking right at him.

Kouji looked back at her. She was just staring at him, with those dead eyes of hers. It felt like they were glaring right inside his very soul. Fear was struck into him.

All she wanted to say, was to ask if he’d ever want to come back. That was the final part of her plan. He didn’t have to say yes, but they wouldn’t come out. That feeling of thoughts flooding her mind. It caused her doubt, hesitation. She had fear within herself, and it was hitting him with it as well.

“I think I’ve been in here long enough.” He stood up, his muscles tense despite where he was. All because of her staring at him for so long, without saying a word. This girl might be the best behaved across all of the ones he knew, but she also was the scariest to him as well.

“…Are you sure?” She knew she messed up here. It didn’t feel so long, when she stopped talking. But for him, it felt like an eternity. “I…” It happened again, she locked up. All she could do, was look at him, as he exited.

Kouji left, and the instant he closed the door behind him. The boy breathed a sigh of relief. He took in that cool air, allowing himself to calm a bit. This girl truly was an enigma to him, even with his attempts to try and understand her. Oh well, at least he could put her behind him, and not have to worry in the future.

“Whew, I should get my clothes back on now.” He was still basically naked, but getting decent was going to be delayed for a bit.

“Oh, did you just exit from this room?” It was Shinkai who met him first. The man was about to ask his mistress if she needed anything, but he didn’t expect to see Kouji here. Yuma didn’t tell him, but there were two saunas here. One for each gender.

“Um, yeah?” Since he was none-the-wiser. He admitted to coming out of the one made for the ladies.

“I could’ve sworn that the mistress entered here not to long ago.” The servant raised an eyebrow at that statement. Surely he couldn’t have been doing any lecherous things. Right?

“Yeah, she’s in there right now. Did you need something from her?” The lackadaisical response was making him feel a bit… Cross with the boy.

“Really now.” He got closer, which caused Kouji to wonder what the problem was here. As they were talking, the other two servants arrived. They had also planned on checking on Yuma as well. With Todoro planning on checking on Kouji in the other sauna room.

“Did I do something wrong?” Kouji attempted to defuse the situation, but nothing was coming through.

“What’s wrong?” Mikune asked, as she glared at the guest.

“Seems our guest was spending some time where he shouldn’t.” When he heard that, he knew there had to be a misunderstanding here.

“What did you do?!” Without giving him a chance to plead his case, Todoro immediately leaped into action. He slammed a hand next to Kouji’s head, cornering him. An interesting position for him to be in, seeing as all he had a was a towel to keep him decent.

“Nothing.” He defended himself. While he was certain he could win in a fight, it wasn’t favorable for him to want to try, given the circumstances. “All we did was just sit there, and take in the steam.” That really was the extent of it. “If you asked her, she’d say the same thing.”

“Hmpf, we’ll see about that.” Mikune knocked on the door, then peeked in. What greeted her was Yuma sitting all by herself. The problem was she had tears in her eyes, from her failure to tell him the truth. But with the context they all had in their minds, it could be taken a completely different way. “What? She’s crying.”

“Crying!?” Shinkai was taken aback to hear that. To think that someone could make her cry. “Young man…” He was about to give him a mouthful, even Todoro was ready to give Kouji a knuckle sandwich. However, when they looked at where he should be. The boy had pulled of a disappearing act, slipping away the second he heard that she was crying.

Now he was making his escape, remembering to grab his clothes. Though he didn’t get the opportunity to put any on, so now he was running outside with nothing but a bath towel on.

Later that night, Yuma cleared up the misunderstanding to her servants. However, it was safe to say that operation… Whatever Yuma named it… Failed. A shame, since it had a chance of succeeding, if it wasn’t for some meddlesome servants.