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[TSSIM] Chapter 354: Rin's Change?
🕑 Added 2024-03-05 20:23:07 +0000 UTC"Rin, this is for you."
Homura handed Rin the original drawing of her in a wedding dress, framed in a large photo frame.
Rin took it, staring at the drawing up close for the first time.
"Is this… really me?" Rin murmured, looking dazed.
"Who else would it be?" Homura chuckled.
Elf also looked at the drawing, and after a moment, she scratched her head.
She couldn't shake the feeling that something about the way Homura handled the drawing felt a little off, but she couldn't put her finger on it.
"It looks like a wedding photo."
Mashiro commented as Elf pondered what was off.
"Yeah, makes sense. A wedding dress is when a girl looks her prettiest, so I used a lot of elements from one..." Kotori explained. "Honestly, calling it a wedding dress wouldn't be wrong, right?"
"Now it looks even more like one." Mashiro remarked.
Elf stared at the drawing closely and thought that maybe the off feeling really came from that.
"Not gonna lie, with that picture frame, anyone would think this is a wedding photo at first glance." Nico couldn't help but remark. "If Rin takes this home and her parents see it..."
"Umu, umu!" Honoka nodded repeatedly before speaking with a rough voice, imitating a father. "Honey, when did our daughter get married?"
"Dear, I was about to ask you the same thing!" Kotori immediately played along.
Following this, Honoka and Kotori leaned in toward Rin, who was already blushing hard, and asked at the same time,
""Who's the lucky one?!""
Homura: "..."
"Hahaha—!!!"
Elf was already clutching her stomach, rolling on the floor, laughing.
She thought things would be quiet for a few days since Eriri and the others were going home, but turned out, it was still as fun as ever.
Rin, blushing, shoved the framed drawing back into Homura's hands.
"Not taking it home, nyaa! Homura-kun, you keep it!"
"Okay." Homura couldn't help but chuckle.
He just gave Rin a gift, and it got returned right away.
"Well, I'll hang it in my room then." Homura said with a smile. "Don't worry, no one's gonna ask me when I got married."
Hearing this, Rin couldn't help but pinch him.
Feeling the pinch, Homura, curious, asked the girls.
"Hey, do all girls do this?"
"Who knows? It's probably just a girl's instinct." Nozomi giggled. "Anyway, you better be careful, Homura-kun. In the future, there'll be tons of girls who'll wanna pinch you like that."
Homura's lips twitched.
Honestly, the happier the troubles, the better.
Meanwhile, Nanami, who had been silent all this time, glanced at Homura, then at Rin before speaking.
"Homura-kun, you confessed to Rin-chan, right? But it doesn't seem like much has changed between you two...."
"Really?" Homura raised an eyebrow and smiled. "I feel like there's been a big change, though."
Shortly after saying this, Homura winked at Rin, then went back to his room with the framed drawing.
Girls: "..."
"I knew it. There's something we don't know about, isn't there?" Maki raised an eyebrow.
"Could it be that we've become third wheels?" Umi said with a skeptical expression.
"Hahaha!" Elf suddenly laughed out of nowhere. "Hey, did you see Homura's wink just now? Was that him signaling Rin to go to his room? Don't tell me he finally lost control?"
""Hah?!""
All the girls yelled in surprise.
"Hell no!" Homura shouted as he stuck his head out. "Quit making stuff up! Am I that shameless in your eyes?"
"Cheh, you're not fun..." Elf pouted.
Rin, who had been holding her breath, finally relaxed—afraid she would pass out again.
"Maybe there really is some kind of change we haven't noticed…" Nozomi murmured thoughtfully.
With a playful smile, Homura walked over.
"Can't figure it out? Rin's change is actually pretty obvious."
"Meow~! (Homura, this one broke again!)" Haru called out.
Homura walked over to the scratching post and gave Haru a headpat.
"Okay, okay, don't worry. I'll get you a new one."
As the girls watched, they realized Haru's scratching post had worn out, so she asked Homura to replace it.
"I see..." Eli, gradually comprehending what Homura meant, nodded with a smile. "I think I've figured out Rin's change."
"What is it?" Honoka asked eagerly.
"Homura-kun's hint was pretty obvious..." Eli glanced over at Homura, who was busy setting up a new scratching post for Haru.
Everyone quickly followed her gaze—until all their eyes landed on Haru.
"Wait! Rin isn't hanging around Haru-chan anymore!" Nico exclaimed in surprise.
"Yeah, that's kinda weird..." Maki nodded. "Is it because Rin's all over the place mentally? So much that she isn't even sticking to her favorite Haru-chan? Or maybe it's because Homura-kun's ranking went up in Rin-chan's heart, so a lot of her attention's on him now."
"It's just because Haru-chan was training! So I didn't wanna bother her, nyaa!" Rin's face turned red as she tried to argue back.
"Yeah, yeah, we totally get it!" Hanayo nodded with an understanding smile.
Seeing everyone's knowing smiles, Rin knew no one believed her, so she immediately ducked behind Hanayo to hide!
Seeing Rin like this, everyone decided to stop teasing her, afraid she would pass out like before.
"Yosh! Let's get started!" Kotori took out the materials and, after saying this, began assigning tasks.
Meanwhile, Elf and the others left the room entirely to Muse.
"I'm gonna go hang out in Eromanga-sensei's room!" Elf exclaimed before vanishing.
Seeing Elf vanished, Homura smiled and shook his head
"Guess that means she won't be helping with dinner."
===
After dinner, Honoka and the others continued busily making the wedding dress, with Rin joining in as well.
However, the moment Rin started working, she felt super uncomfortable—like she was making a wedding dress for herself or something.
To make things worse, Homura was sitting not far away, watching them with a smile.
While the others were fine, Rin unfortunately couldn't handle Homura's gaze—no matter how hard she tried, she kept getting flustered.
Time passed like that until it was time for them to head home.
Thanks to Homura's ridiculously detailed measurement data and the group's combined effort, they had managed to finish about half of the dress.
Homura casually glanced at the System, and upon seeing 'Tailoring' at Level 5, his lips couldn't help but twitch.
Why did it feel like his 'girly power' was skyrocketing? If he picked up a makeup skill too, he would really be unstoppable.
"Homura-kun? What's wrong?"
Kotori happened to see Homura's expression, so she couldn't help but ask.
Homura fell silent for a moment, then answered.
"Ah, I was just thinking... if I learn makeup, I'll be unstoppable..."
After saying this, Homura suddenly felt a bit melancholic.
Kotori tilted her head, confused.
Only Nozomi quickly understood what Homura meant, so she sighed before explaining to Kotori.
"Homura-kun means... tailoring is no longer a challenge for him."
Kotori was still a bit confused, but she wasn't too surprised that Homura had learned tailoring.
"Y'know, the classic 'girly' skills like cooking, tailoring, makeup, taking care of people, organizing stuff..." Nozomi added, making things clearer.
'Oh, now it makes sense.' Kotori nodded in understanding.
Homura had already made plenty of girls feel embarrassed with his versatile skills, so if he mastered makeup too, then he would really be unstoppable.
However, instead of feeling embarrassed, the girls just found it hilarious.
"Alright, let's get y'all home."
Stretching lazily, Homura spoke to the girls.
And so, after calling over Haru and making sure Muse had packed up, they said their goodbyes to Sagiri, Nanami, and Elf before heading out of the Minamiya residence.
