Side Story 1 – Girl's Sleepover
"Konaru-chan?" Tsumugi calls her friend which was sitting in the edge of her bed with a vacant expression.
"H-Huh?" The brunette girl is taken out of her trance and shakes her head. "What?"
Sighing, the otaku gets out of spinning chair she was sitting in and walks up to the bed. "You look distracted." Tsumugi sits down by her friend's side and offers a small smile. "Is it because of Onii-sama?"
At her friend's question, the younger Naegi blushes. "No!" She shakes her head. "…" Tsumugi looks towards her with a knowing look. "Yes." She whispers, looking away from her best friend.
The glasses wearing girl chuckles. "This is the first real sleepover that we have together isn't it?" She smiles and looks towards the ceiling. "All of our other 'girl's sleepovers' had Onii-sama with us, so I guess it wasn't that much of a 'girl's' sleepover!" Komaru nods, still looking fairly vacant.
Tsumugi understood the other girl, she had lived her whole life with her brother always present, always there to support her, and now he was gone.
Kinda like her own mother.
Even though it has only been a day, Tsumugi couldn't help but sympathize with the other girl.
Which is why she had a idea to cheer her up! Although, in hindsight, it was quite the strange idea, fitting for a weirdo like Tsumugi.
"Say, Komaru-chan?" The blue-haired otaku calls, making the other girl look at her. "Now that it's only us girls here, I wanted to show you something!"
Komaru blinks slowly, noticing her friend's cheeks turning slightly pinkish. "What is it?"
Jumping out of the bed, Tsumugi walks up to the bag she always brings with her whenever she stays at the Naegi Household for the night.
The otaku moves her extra clothes and pajamas to the side, revealing what she had brought into the house in secret.
Tsumugi blushes, reaching out and grabbing the items, her breath getting heavier as she turned around faced her confused brunette friend. "Sooooo, since Onii-sama is away, I can show you this stuff without worrying."
Komaru still didn't understand what she meant, so the blushing bluenette giggles awkwardly and approaches her friend, hands behind her back.
"H-Here!" Tsumugi pulls her hands from behind her back, revealing what she was holding.
A bunch of adult manga magazines, with covers that the girls are definitely too young to be seeing.
It took Komaru some seconds to process what she was seeing, but when it clicked in her mind, the girl blushed deeply. "This is-" She starts to yell, but is interrupted when Tsumugi throws herself at her and covers the other girl's mouth with her hand.
"Shhhhhhhhh!" Whispers the bluenette.
Komaru gulps down, feeling her cheeks burning she nods slowly, making Tsumugi free her mouth. "Tsumugi-chan! What the heck?" The brunette girl looks once again towards the magazine's covers and blushes. "Why do you have that?" She whispers. "H-How did you even buy that?"
The otaku laughs awkwardly. "I-I asked Kubo-san to buy them for me." Scratching the back of her head, the bluenette trades some awkward glances with her best friend. "L-Look! I was curious okay?" She looks down at the cover of the magazine in her hand, blushing at the provocative pose that character on the cover was.
Komaru sent a judgemental stare at her friend, but soon she let out a sigh and looked away. "I-I mean-" Turning to face the magazine in Tsumugi's hands, Komaru blushes too and gulps. "-I-I'm kinda curious about it myself."
The otaku's eyes light up and smiles widely. "Really?"
Komaru sighs, not sure if she really should indulge in her friend's wish.
"S-Sure." But she couldn't deny that it felt exhilarating to read some raunchy manga behind her parents back.
I mean, it was just some manga, it couldn't be that bad… right?
Side Story 1 – Girl's Sleepover
And this, is our first side story.
So consider this chapter 32.5 if you want.
Side stories are just going to be short chapters that show small mini-arcs for other characters that aren't directly involved in the plot, for now at least. Plus, they'll be a nice way for the girls to interact between themselves without Makoto as a bridge and I pretend to use that for some strange pairings of characters in the future.
Anyways, hope y'all liked the chapter and see you around.