Chapter 9

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…Huh?

… ♪

Gyeh?! N–N–Na–Narukami-kun?!

Don’t scare me like that! Where did you even come from? You keep doing this!

It’s funny to surprise you, Akiomi.

And the face you make when you’re worried is sexy… ♪

Sexy is not the word you’d use to describe a kid. But when you work as a model, it’s inevitable that you’ll pick up vocabulary like that.

I really don’t think this is a good environment to raise kids in.

Did something happen? I got worried ‘cause you left all the sudden and didn’t come back for a long time.

I’m the one who should be worried here. I know I keep saying this, but kids really shouldn’t be playing around at this time of the night.

I wasn’t really playing though. …Are they really good for you?

They?

…Akiomi, I feel like you changed when you met those guys.

But before you were always, no matter what, my Akiomi. And just mine.

—Yuuki-kun! Sena-kun!

…?

Huh? What’s wrong, Akiomi-onii-chan?

“What’s wrong” my foot! Why are you still here? The shoot is long over!

Everyone’s been so worried about you.

Uh? Sorry…?

Well as long as nothing happened, I guess it’s fine.

But you really scared me. I was only hired for a minor role in this movie, so I made my brief appearance, then spent the rest of the day rushing around to do all my other jobs.

This “unnecessary job” wasn’t in the plan, so now my schedule’s bursting at the seams… It’s awful.

Um? Uhh, good work…?

Thanks. Well, I’m still young, so physically speaking I’m fine.

But afterwards, Narukami-kun said something weird to me, so I got curious and went to check out the office—

And there I heard that no one knew where you or Sena-kun were.

I’m the one who’s been taking Sena-kun along with me, when up until recently he’d just been sitting around in the office. So if anything happened to him, it’d be on my head.

So when I heard that, I got all worked up and went around looking for him—

If anything at all happened to him, I’m pretty sure his parents would kill me.

…? …? Are you okay?

I’m not okay. It’s all my fault for prioritizing my own work above you two and taking my eyes off you.

If I was going to act like your guardian and do something so unnecessary, I should have stuck with it until the end. So I’m sorry for putting myself first—

But I did leave Sena-kun in the hands of some people from your agency who were around.

He was originally part of your agency, after all, and it looked like he knew them.

So I felt like I could go to work without worry—

Onii-chan doesn’t be friends with people other than me.

He got in a fight with those people and went away somewhere.

He went away…? Where? You didn’t go with him?

Onii-chan said he was going exploring.

Exploring? I don’t get what you’re saying… Where is Sena-kun right now? Do you know, Yuuki-kun?

Should be over there. I was sleepy, so I took a nap here.

Ngh… Okay. Don’t move from that spot. I’m going to go get Sena-kun, and then we’ll all go home together.

Okay. Ehehe~ See you later ♪

And… please don’t be mad at Onii-chan.

Nnnnope, I’m so mad I could die. This time, even I’m at the limits of my patience.

Please go easy on him. …Mm?

Hm? What is it, Yuuki-kun?

Umm, over there. I think there’s someone—

Wait, don’t say something so scary. This isn’t even the season for ghost stories!