Hitori Gotoh's eyelashes stirred. Slowly, languidly, her eyelids lifted — sweeping away the last traces of sleep like a windshield wiper clearing rain — and this was the first time in her life she had woken up so thoroughly and so instantly. Because the moment her eyes opened, every memory of the night before came rushing back in like a tide.
Jhin...
She murmured her lover's name quietly inside her heart. But none of the usual sweetness came with it, none of the warmth. If anything, Hitori found herself wishing she had eaten more of those fermented sweet rice balls last night — so that at least she could have remained blissfully ignorant a little longer, right up until the moment Jhin came clean.
Her body still held the lingering ache of last night. Hitori sat up. The thin blanket slid from her bare, pale shoulders and caught, draping itself across the proud curves of her chest.
Jhin stirred beside her. He must have sensed her movement in his sleep, because his eyes opened and he turned to look at her. "Bocchi-chan, why are you up so early today?"
"I just... I'm having a little trouble sleeping, that's all." Hitori was never a good liar, and she was even worse at pretending. Around Jhin, she had long since stopped putting up any kind of guard — and right now, those four words, I have something on my mind, were written plainly across her face for anyone to read.
Jhin was no fool. He could figure out what was going on with his girlfriend from the way she was acting even if he thought about it with his toes. Everything that had happened last night while she was drunk — she remembered it all perfectly clearly.
He didn't stop to think about what state Nijika and the others would be in when they woke up. Instead, he reached out and took hold of Hitori's small hand — still resting close beside him, not yet drawn away — and said, "Bocchi-chan. Let's spend today, just the two of us."
"...Okay." Hitori answered softly. Her hair fell forward over her cheeks, hiding her expression from him.
"I'm going to get things ready. You rest a little longer." Jhin got dressed, then pulled up his personal terminal and reached out to Kazami Kazuki and Nymph.
Jhin: The plan we talked about before — I'm moving it up. I'm planning to come clean to Bocchi-chan today. Nymph, bring me another capsule house and one of the compact perpetual energy units. Bring the other things we discussed too, all at once.
Nymph: Understood.
Kazami Kazuki: I'll handle things with Captain Toudou and Maekawa-san.
Jhin quietly pushed open the door to the room where Nijika and the others were sleeping. All three were still sound asleep. He decided not to wake them, eased the door shut with careful hands, and left.
Nymph's efficiency was, as always, remarkable. In under a minute she had delivered everything he needed, then slipped away without a sound.
Jhin: Thank you, Nymph.
Nymph: Do your best, Master (')
He tucked the capsule house and the rest of the items into his storage space, then headed back to the bedroom. Hitori had already changed into her tracksuit — the one that concealed her remarkable figure — and was sitting blankly on the edge of the bed, staring at nothing in particular.
"Bocchi-chan, have you washed up yet?"
"Ah — not yet."
"Want me to brush your teeth for you?"
"...No, I — I'm fine, thank you." Hitori scrambled to her feet and fled into the bathroom. She had experienced Jhin brushing her teeth for her once before, and that particular brand of deeply flustering, shamefully intimate teasing was not something she ever intended to repeat.
Once they had both washed up, Jhin dug out his Liyue tracksuit, changed into it, and took Hitori's hand. "Let's go. I have something really important to tell you today. Kazuki will handle our absence with Captain Toudou."
"O-Okay!" Hitori responded with the rigid, braced posture of a new recruit about to step onto a battlefield.
Jhin seemed entirely oblivious to her tension. He tucked one of the portable thermal regulators into her jacket pocket and kept one for himself, then led her out of the villa and away from the research base.
"Jhin, where... where are we going?"
"Hmm. I want some time alone with you, so I figured we'd walk a little further out. Might as well take in some of the scenery while we're at it. You haven't seen much of what it looks like this far from the base, have you?"
"...No."
The expedition team's primary work area was still confined to the base itself and a handful of designated points in the immediate vicinity — partly for safety, and partly because they simply didn't have enough personnel to branch out any further. As a result, most of the girls had never really seen the landscape that stretched beyond the base perimeter.
Mindful of his girlfriend's stamina, Jhin stopped after they had walked for about fifteen minutes. He set the capsule house down on the snow. A faint white mist bloomed around it — and then a fully-formed villa stood before them.
"Is that really how it works?" Hitori stared.
"Pretty incredible, isn't it?"
"It is."
"Let's stay here for the day."
Jhin slotted the compact perpetual energy unit into the villa's power core, then guided Hitori inside. The interior layout was identical to the Antarctic Villa. He paused in the entryway, visibly torn, and asked with a kind of careful uncertainty, "Bocchi-chan — truth or surprise? Which do you want first?"
Hitori had never seen that expression on Jhin's face before — that particular mixture of worry, conflict, and fear all at once. She had always believed he could handle anything the world threw at him with complete composure.
Jhin... is he afraid that after he tells me the truth, I'll be angry? That I'll leave him?
"The surprise," Hitori said without hesitation. She didn't want to see that look on his face for a second longer.
"Alright. We'll do it your way." Something in Jhin seemed to loosen, the weight lifting from his shoulders. His smile came back. He tightened his hold on her hand and walked with her into the master bedroom.
"I've been thinking about this surprise for a long time, actually. I even asked your parents for some input — please don't laugh at me." Jhin smiled self-consciously. In that moment, he looked exactly like what he was: a sixteen-year-old boy.
There were no special decorations in the room. No elaborate staging. Just sixteen neatly wrapped packages laid out on the large bed. Jhin released Hitori's hand and began passing them to her one by one, in order.
"These are for you. Birthday gifts — one for each year of your life, from age one to sixteen."
"Age one: the gift is a red envelope with a thousand yen inside. To celebrate the day you came into this world."
"Age two: the gift is a pair of socks. I hope you'll always keep walking in the direction that feels right to you."
"Age three: the gift is a marriage certificate. Old folks say that who you are at three is who you'll be for life — so I went and got a marriage registration form from my hometown."
"Age four: the gift is toothpaste. You love cola, so you need to look after your teeth and ward off cavities."
"Age thirteen: the gift is a matching hair band — the same style as the one you always wear. Because that's when you started growing your hair out."
"Age fourteen: the gift is a guitar pick. guitarhero trains so hard, she needs to keep her pick supply stocked."
"Age fifteen: the gift is a new tracksuit. I love you at every moment of every day, so you never have to worry about what you're wearing around me."
"Age sixteen: the gift is a photo album. Inside are all the pictures I've taken of you up until now. There are still a lot of blank pages left at the back — I hope we can fill them up together someday, with photos of the two of us."
With each gift she received, the wave of emotion inside Hitori Gotoh swelled higher and higher beyond her ability to contain it. Her vision had long since blurred with tears. She bit down hard on her lower lip and held on — held on until she had accepted the very last gift — and then she let it go, voice cracking as she turned and cried out at him:
"That's not fair — that is not fair!"
"You're so unfair, Jhin!"
"You could clearly see exactly what I was thinking, and you just pretended not to notice anything at all!"
"Doing something like this — a surprise like this — it just makes me like you even more! So much more that I can't even think about anything else anymore!"
"I'm sor—"
Before he could finish, Hitori Gotoh set down the gifts and dissolved into beautiful, heaving sobs — and then she threw herself at him without a second thought, knocking him flat, her warm tears falling in drops against his face.
"Jhin... am I — am I your first girlfriend?"
"Yes."
"Have you ever filled out a marriage registration form with anyone else?"
"No."
"Besides Nijika and the others — do the girls from Mihama Academy also have that kind of relationship with you?"
"Yes."
"You're not going to lie about that?" Hitori's grief flared into a flash of anger, and she bit down on Jhin's lip — hard. It was only when a faint, metallic sweetness reached her tongue that she realized she had drawn blood. Her expression crumpled immediately into distress. She leaned in, carefully, and soothed the small wound with the gentlest touch of her tongue.
"I don't want to lie to you. I only kept these things from you because I was afraid you couldn't handle it."
"If last night hadn't happened by accident, how much longer were you planning to hide it?"
"My original plan was to tell you tomorrow."
Hitori let out a long breath and went still against his chest, her voice taking on a distant, forlorn quality. "I wonder if it's because I'm not forward enough. Is that why the other girls found their opening while I wasn't looking."
"That's not your fault at all." Jhin hesitated for a moment, then laid his hand on Hitori's head and began stroking her long, soft hair the way he always did. "That's on me."
"If you had the chance to do it all over again — would you do the same thing?"
"I would. I'd pull you out of that fight with those delinquents again, say exactly what I said to make you misunderstand, get you to fall for me, and then wake up one day having turned eighteen and go register our marriage with you."
"You're not even going to mention the other girls in that version..."
"If you want to know, I'll tell you everything."
Hitori shook her head. "Let's leave that for another time."
The unexpected answer struck Jhin like a bolt from a clear sky. "Bocchi-chan — does that mean you're..."
"I'm your first girlfriend, and the only person who's registered a marriage with you. That is divinely ordained fact," Hitori declared. With the natural instinct of someone who had never been taught the technique, she deployed the classic two-finger pinch — catching the soft flesh at Jhin's side and giving it a firm, deliberate twist. He winced and bared his teeth. She looked entirely pleased with herself. "So even if you're going to have a harem, I'm the undisputed queen of it and don't you forget it."
"I finally understand what Kazuki-nee was hinting at all along. She found out early on that you'd turned into a shameless two-timing heartbreaker, so she's been doing everything she possibly could to clean up after her little brother ever since."
Hitori wiped the last of her tears away. She didn't want to damage the friendships she shared with her Kessoku Band bandmates — and so she was giving Jhin her blessing for the harem. But until today was over, his time belonged to her and her alone.
"Jhin, today you are absolutely not allowed to contact any girl except me."
"Understood. Here's my phone — and my personal terminal."
"Personal terminal? What's that?"
"I'll explain later."
She accepted everything he handed her and tucked it all away in her pockets. Then she climbed off of him. The fierce authority she had carried a moment ago evaporated instantly, and she reverted back to her usual self — radiating that unmistakable aura of please, anyone, walk all over me.
"Oh — your lip. The cut. I should go get some iodine—"
"It's a tiny scratch. It doesn't need that." Jhin caught her wrist before she could go. He picked up one of the gifts — the hair accessory — and held it out to her with a question in his eyes. "Bocchi-chan, can I do your hair?"
"If it's just... just the two of us here, then... sure."
Jhin guided Hitori to sit in front of the vanity mirror. With light, careful hands, he began braiding her hair into two plaits, tying off the ends with the hair accessories from the gift. Then he wrapped his arms around her from behind.
____
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