It was now that time of year again where student morale reached an all-time high.

The sole reason for that being the sports festival that was always held around this time of the year.

Currently, Takei was half-listening to the conversation that was happening during his homeroom.

The class representative was assigning all the students in the class to the games/activities that they wanted.

A minimum of two games were required for each student, so Takei decided to choose the easiest ones that required the littlest effort.

The scavenger hunt and distance jumping is what he ended up choosing.

Those were the easiest events to do, without them overlapping with one of the events that the sports clubs did.

Takei definitely didn't want to participate in any of the events that had any of the sports clubs participating. That was a surefire way to embarrass himself.

Looking around the classroom, he saw the sheer excitement that was evident on everyone's faces.

Why is everyone so excited? It's just a school event...

He was exasperated and tired from the increased hustle and bustle from his class.

Even the atmosphere was extremely cheery and high energy as a result of the reveal that the sports festival would be held next week.

Once everyone's schedules and events were decided and finalized, the classroom emptied out in a frantic manner.

The boys were pumped up to do their best, while the girls were excited to have a fun time during the event.

Takei observed the situation with an air of annoyance as he began to make his way to his next class.

Throughout most of his life, Takei abhorred sports festivals since they were always just a big waste of his time.

He would rather use that time to study or personally work out by himself.

As his next class was getting closer and closer, Takei dreaded the thought of having to experience the uplifting atmosphere of the school for the rest of the day.

***

"Haaah..."

As soon as Takei got home, he threw his book bag into his chair and immediately collapsed onto his bed.

Takei's usual quiet and peaceful school days were being trampled on by the incoming sports festival.

It wasn't a joke to say that the whole school was talking about it.

After hearing people excitedly talking about it for the millionth time today, Takei was on the verge of an internal collapse.

That's why he rushed home in a hurry in order to unwind and reset his mindset.

Wrapping the weighted blanket around him, Takei thanked the people of the past for developing such an effective way to stay warm and comfortable.

In fact, it was so comfortable that he almost fell asleep as a result.

However, the sound of his door slowly opening roused him from his sleepiness.

It seemed that an intruder had found their way into his room.

Even though it was supposed to be an unknown "intruder," Takei obviously knew who this person was.

Akari then began to tiptoe her way over to his bed to make sure that Takei wouldn't wake up.

At this point, she still didn't know that he was already awake since Takei was facing the opposite direction.

Slowly but surely, her muffled footsteps could be heard more distinctly as she carefully made her way across his bedroom.

Once the footsteps had reached the side of his bed, Takei could feel a disruption of the weight balance on the bed.

In other words, she had climbed onto the bed and laid down next to him.

He could also feel an increased weight next to his head, which was most likely Akari using her arm as a prop to keep her head up.

Squeezing his eyes tightly closed, Takei prayed that she wouldn't find out that he was awake.

It certainly wouldn't really be a problem if she did find out, but Takei felt that it was too late in the situation to change the status quo.

Suddenly, he could feel the top of his hair being played around with.

If Takei had to guess, Akari was probably having fun observing him sleep and playing with his hair while he had no choice but to accept, due to the fact that he was supposed to be asleep.

"Fufufu, so soft, so cute~"

Akari's happy mumbling began to tickle his ears as she unconsciously let out her opinions about his hair.

Takei felt conflicted about Akari calling him cute, but he decided to ignore it for the meantime.

After having her fill of fluffiness, Akari pushed up the hair covering Takei's forehead and continued her observations about him.

"Hmm, your looks aren't mediocre per say... Rather, you're really handsome. So handsome that I don't want other girls to see the real you... Mou, this is really troublesome."

Takei couldn't believe what his ears were picking up, since Akari was basically rapid-firing praise about his looks.

She was definitely conflicted about whether to reveal Takei's true value to everyone else, or to monopolize him to herself.

After what Takei assumed to be a few minutes of Akari staring at his face, she finally laid down completely next to him.

Thank goodness, it's over. I don't think I could've survived any longer.

The pure shame was taking Takei's consciousness away.

At the very least, Takei was happy that he wouldn't have to endure it anymore since Akari finished up with her playing around.

Rather, Takei assumed too early that Akari was done for the day.

"!"

As two delicate hands wrapped around his stomach from behind, Takei could feel two heavy yet soft mounds pressed against his back.

They were conforming to the pressure placed on them, which helped put Takei's mind into a state of disarray.

Akari was gently hugging him without even minding the womanly features that were pressed up against him.

If this was a normal situation, Takei would've had his mental state disintegrated by this point. However, Takei's mind was on overdrive from that's start so he was ready for something like this.

As the embrace got even tighter, Akari mumbled something before she inevitably started to drift off and fall asleep due to the comfortableness of the situation.

"Good night, dear..."

Gulp.

In the end, only one of them managed to be able to go to sleep.

---

Akari's Final Affection Meter: 65 -> 70%

Sports festival arc, start! (This will be the second to last major arc of this volume)

Serious-san: Why do I feel some ominous foreboding...

Sugar-san: I am inevitable.