All Beautiful Girls Want to Stick with Me

Burger King was packed today. Most of the customers were parents with kids, but there were also plenty of otaku men and women who had come just for the Pretty Cure collaboration keychains.

Whoever came up with this campaign—what were they thinking?

Wouldn’t it have been fine to release a separate collaboration meal set? Why did it have to be tied to the kids’ meal? Don’t they know Pretty Cure isn’t just for little kids?!

Starting today, Burger King locations all over Japan would be seeing adults and students walk up to the counter, glancing around nervously before awkwardly saying: ”Hello, um… one kids’ meal, please.”

Thankfully, the planners of this collaboration had at least a little mercy. They didn’t require customers to mimic character poses or shout out transformation chants or battle catchphrases when ordering the kids’ meal.

When Kotomi Izumi had first seen the campaign preview on Twitter, she thought she might actually have to do that to get the collaboration keychain.

Although embarrassed, she had wanted the keychain badly enough that she had already decided which character to mimic: either Rikka Hishikawa! Or Madoka Aguri!

In the end, since there was no need to perform, Kotomi let out a sigh of relief. Still, she felt a faint sense of disappointment. Deep down, part of her really had wanted to try acting out Pretty Cure in front of everyone.

This Burger King × Pretty Cure collab had a total of five keychains. I have to collect them all… Kotomi thought as she reached for the door handle, ready to step inside.

But just as her hand touched the door, she spotted the Yuigahama mother and daughters sitting by the window inside, happily chatting and eating burgers.

If she had been alone, Kotomi would’ve walked right in, greeted them, and maybe even sat down to eat together.

But right now, Megumi Kato was by her side. Forget saying hi—Kotomi didn’t even want to step foot inside Burger King.

She quickly glanced at Megumi. Fortunately, Megumi was still on the phone with her mom and hadn’t noticed the Yuigahama family sitting inside.

Seizing the chance, Kotomi grabbed Megumi’s hand and pulled her away.

Inside, Yuka was happily dipping fries into ketchup, sticking them in her burger, and taking a bite. Her little face showed pure satisfaction—this was a trick Kotomi had taught her long ago, one she had been eager to try.

After her first bite, for some reason, Yuka glanced toward the entrance again. The restaurant had large glass doors and floor-to-ceiling windows, so it was easy to see outside. When she spotted Kotomi approaching Burger King, she froze at first, then her little face lit up with joy. She was about to wave her chubby arm and shout: Penguin-Oneechan!

But then she saw another girl with Kotomi—a short-haired older girl she didn’t recognize?!

Penguin-Oneechan looked really close to her.

Yuka stared carefully, and then she noticed—they were holding hands?!

At preschool age, kids didn’t truly understand much, but they absorbed everything they saw from the outside world and thought they knew it all. In that sense, it wasn’t so different from being a teenager.

Yuka had often seen couples holding hands on TV. So when she saw Kotomi and Megumi’s hands intertwined, she naturally misunderstood, staring in shock at Megumi.

Could it be… she… she was Penguin-Oneechan’s girlfriend?!!!

Plop.

The fry in Yuka’s hand slipped and fell onto the burger wrapper smeared with ketchup. Realizing what she had done, she quickly lowered her head, afraid Penguin-Oneechan might notice her watching. She didn’t want to cause trouble for her.

But her curiosity got the better of her. Sneaking a glance out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kotomi and her ”girlfriend” already walking away from Burger King.

Yuka’s heart was in turmoil. She looked at her sister and mother with complicated feelings and thought: Mom, Onee-chan—you have one more rival now! Can we still marry Penguin-Oneechan into our family?

She felt like throwing herself on the floor like she used to when she was little, rolling around and crying out:

Waaaah! I don’t care, I don’t care! Whether it’s Mom or Onee-chan, either of you is fine—just hurry up and marry Penguin-Oneechan! I don’t mind calling her Mom or Sister-in-law, just bring her home first! If we wait any longer, some other woman will steal her away!

”Yuka, do you want something to drink?” Yui Yuigahama stood up, ready to buy a drink.

Propping her cheek with one hand and gazing out the window, Yuka spoke in a deep voice: ”The rainy nights in Japan are coming earlier this year than before. Please get me a cup of Blue Mountain coffee.”

She was trying to mimic a line she had heard in a drama, but since it had been a long time, her memory of it was blurry. That was why what she said sounded so contradictory.

”...What are you even talking about?” Yui twitched her lips speechlessly. ”You’re still too young. No coffee. I’ll get you some milk instead.”

”I want juice!”

”Alright, alright.” Yui nodded, then decided to just take Yuka with her to go buy drinks.

Meanwhile, Kotomi pulled Megumi Kato straight toward the third-floor food court.

”Aren’t we eating Burger King?” Megumi asked in confusion.

”Ahahaha… suddenly I don’t feel like Burger King anymore. I want something else.”

When it came to food, Megumi always went along with Kotomi, so she didn’t say much more.

”Alright then. Do you want to eat at the food court, or check the restaurants first?”

”Let’s just go~”

Hand in hand, they strolled around the third floor.

As they walked, Kotomi thought to herself:

Why do I keep almost running into Yui and her family today? Oh, right—yesterday Yui said she’d be shopping with her mom and sister to buy her mom a new outfit. But she never said where… I didn’t think about it at the time. Turns out they came to the Chiba mall too. What a coincidence.

After a few minutes, Kotomi chose a yakiniku restaurant. She was craving some grilled pork belly.

During the meal, Megumi mostly handled the grilling. Whenever a piece of meat was ready, she placed it on Kotomi’s plate, smiling as she watched her eat. She really enjoyed feeding Kotomi like this.

After finishing their meal, the two of them went to the cinema on the top floor to watch the re-release of Hana and Alice.

On lazy afternoons when she didn’t know what to do, Kotomi loved spending her time watching Shunji Iwai films. She was fond of the indescribable atmosphere his movies carried.

This wasn’t her first time watching Hana and Alice, but it was the first time she had ever seen it in a theater.

After the movie, Kotomi and Megumi left the Chiba shopping mall together and headed home.

...

While Aimi Izumi was doing homework at home, the sound of the doorbell rang downstairs. Thinking her sister had returned, she rushed down barefoot, not even bothering with slippers. Peeking through the peephole, she saw her sister and immediately flung the door open.

”Welcome home, Onee-chan! You—”

Aimi’s bright smile instantly froze the moment she noticed Megumi Kato standing behind her sister. She almost cursed aloud. If not for the need to maintain her obedient image in front of Kotomi, she would have let slip the words ”the hell.”

On such a bright, sunny Saturday, why did opening the door have to reveal Megumi Kato? What rotten luck! Aimi cursed silently. If she had seen Megumi through the peephole first, not only would she have refused to open the door, she would have grabbed planks, nails, and a hammer to barricade it shut. Instead, she forced a fake smile.

”Onee-chan, really… bringing an outsider home without warning me first.”

”Now hold on. That’s not right. Since when am I an outsider? Your sister and I are such close friends that we can’t even stand to be apart for a single day!”

Before Kotomi could say anything, Megumi stepped forward with a smile, greeting her.

Here we go again… Kotomi sighed helplessly, stepping aside to watch what had become their routine whenever these two met—snide, sarcastic exchanges.

Sometimes Kotomi even wondered: if she added just a little fuel to the fire, would Aimi and Megumi actually start fighting right then and there?

For some reason, she really wanted to see it happen.

Aimi, still the weak little noob she always was, had taken the initiative to mock Megumi. But to her surprise, Megumi countered with a single sentence that left her speechless. Aimi could only glare angrily, then run over to Kotomi’s side, making pitiful little noises as if to say: Onee-chan, this evil woman bullied me again! Aren’t you going to do something?!

Kotomi chuckled softly, patting Aimi’s head to comfort her, before smoothing things over. ”Megumi brought cake. Let’s eat together.”

”I don’t want her cake,” Aimi muttered stubbornly.

”Oh? That’s a shame.” Megumi’s eyes dimmed slightly as she shook the cake box. ”I thought you liked strawberry cake. I even picked one with extra strawberries.”

Strawberry cake?

Extra strawberries!

Aimi gulped, then gave a little cough, pretending to be reluctant. ”Well… since you bought it on your own, not because I asked you to… it would be a waste if I didn’t eat it. And wasting food is bad. Right?”

”Cherishing food is a very good habit.” Megumi chuckled.

Upstairs, the three of them divided the cake. Though Aimi loved the strawberries most, she knew her sister loved them too. She was just about to limit herself to two and leave the rest for Kotomi, when she noticed Kotomi’s plate already piled with strawberries—all given to her by Megumi.

Handing over every single strawberry from her own slice, Megumi smiled. ”I don’t really like the strawberries on strawberry cake. If I had to choose, I’d say I prefer cream cakes with pineapple jam filling. Kotomi, could you eat all of these strawberries for me?”

”Sure!”

Kotomi agreed without hesitation. There was no reason not to.

Every time they ate strawberry cake together, Kotomi loved it. That was because Megumi always gave her all the strawberries from her slice.

In the beginning, Kotomi used to say: ”Don’t just give them all to me—you should eat some too. Strawberries with a bit of cream are delicious.”

Megumi would always reply: ”You eat them. I don’t really like strawberries.”

Gradually, Kotomi came to believe Megumi truly disliked strawberries. After all, in all their time together, she had never once seen her eat one voluntarily.

When it came to fruit, Megumi seemed to prefer peaches—sliced into soft yet firm pieces.

And so, every time Kotomi ate strawberry cake, she gladly accepted the strawberries Megumi fed her.

”I’ll go pour some tea!” Aimi, unwilling to give up, insisted on finding a way to show off in front of her sister. No sooner had she spoken than she dashed downstairs to brew tea.

The moment Aimi left the bedroom, Megumi naturally leaned against Kotomi’s shoulder. The two of them snuggled close, until Megumi slowly sat up, slipped off her pure white stockings, and handed them to Kotomi—as promised back in the fitting room.

”Here, these are for you~ Think they can make up for the pair of pantyhose I accidentally tore before?” Megumi asked with a playful smile.

”One pair definitely isn’t enough. Keep dreaming~” Kotomi huffed tsundere-like, but she wasn’t wrong. Each pair of pantyhose Megumi had ripped before had been more expensive than the last.

Kotomi would always just scold her lightly, saying: You’re so wasteful, always tearing my tights, so annoying! But she never once mentioned how much they had cost.

Mainly because Kotomi felt there was no need. She had never planned to make Megumi pay for them.

”After school the day after tomorrow, I’ll give you the hot spring water park tickets.”

”No rush. Just give them to me once we decide when we’re going,” Kotomi shook her head. ”What about the rest of the tickets? Have you decided who to give them to?”

”Not yet.”

Megumi smiled faintly. She hadn’t told Kotomi that in reality, there had only been three tickets—and she had torn one up, leaving just two, so they could have the place all to themselves.

Leaning close together, even though they were in Kotomi’s bedroom with no one else around, they still whispered to each other like they were hiding in the school’s sports equipment room.

”Kotomi, what are you planning to do tomorrow?”

Go with Yui to karaoke… was what Kotomi thought, but what she said aloud to Megumi was:

”Stay home, play some games, catch up on anime. There’s a show I haven’t watched for two weeks. I want to binge the two new episodes tomorrow. In the afternoon, I’ll spend an hour writing. Oh, and by the way—my novel’s getting a special edition release.”

”Congratulations!” Megumi beamed. As long as Kotomi was happy, she felt happy too.

Still, she tilted her head in slight confusion. ”Special edition? I don’t really understand, but that’s okay. Once it’s published, I’ll just buy it and see. Hehe, I can’t wait to read your special edition, Kotomi~”

”Do you want me to sign it when it comes out?”

”Of course!” Megumi answered without hesitation. Then, with a solemn expression, she said reverently: ”Izumi-sensei, please sign it for me.”

”Hehe~”

Kotomi ruffled her hair sheepishly. Every time someone asked for her autograph, she couldn’t help but feel proud—even though, so far, those requests only ever came from friends, family, and her girlfriend Megumi.

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