All Beautiful Girls Want to Stick with Me

”Ah... Yukino, you’re back. Thanks for buying the drinks. How much is it for the Pepsi and the peach soda in total?”

When Yukino Yukinoshita returned, Kotomi Izumi released Yui Yuigahama’s hand, stood up, and walked toward her with an expression as if nothing had happened. She even extended the same hand that had just been holding Yui’s, intending to take the Pepsi and peach soda.

Asking how much the drinks cost—are you planning to help Yui pay? Your movements and your words really are natural, as if you and Yui have already become a family... Yukino watched Kotomi’s actions and listened to her words. It was only an unintentional gesture, an offhand remark, yet it made her heart ache with bitterness.

”It’s fine. Three bottles aren’t expensive. Besides, you treated us to lunch...” Yukino said with a faint smile.

”There’s no need to split things so clearly between us~ Oh, and Yukino, can we discuss something? Next time you’re about to smile, could you give me a heads-up? That way I can take out my phone in advance and capture it.”

You say my smile is beautiful—but can you sense the bitterness hidden inside it? Ever since I learned that you and Yui are dating, every smile I show in front of you two carries a trace of that bitterness... Yukino gazed at Kotomi’s face and thought silently to herself. Then, without drawing attention, she exhaled softly and continued,

”I don’t like smiling. Every time I smile, it’s random. Even I don’t know when it will happen. How could I possibly inform you in advance? If Miss Izumi’s phone is some custom-made luxury edition, then the battery life must be excellent. Since you want to capture my smile so badly, why not keep your camera pointed at my face twenty-four hours a day? When I finally smile, you can take the picture.”

Faced with Yukino’s slightly jealous, barbed tone, Kotomi merely smiled and replied,

”If only my phone really were some luxury custom edition~ Forget the battery capacity—what I want most is more storage space. When I bought this new phone, I even chose the largest memory option available, and now it’s already full again.”

Still, Kotomi couldn’t quite understand why Yukino’s tone carried that subtle hint of jealousy.

Jealous of Yui?

That shouldn’t be possible. Ever since I accepted Yui’s confession and started dating her, aside from the two of us, the only people who know we’re in a relationship are Yuka and Yui’s mother. I even specifically told Yui that she couldn’t tell anyone about us without my permission. She’s very obedient—there’s no way she would have told Yukino, even if Yukino is her best friend...

Kotomi pondered silently, yet she couldn’t figure out why Yukino’s words sounded so tinged with jealousy. After thinking about it for a while without reaching any conclusion, she began to suspect she might have misheard.

”No problem. I have an even better idea. On top of what you just suggested, let’s add one more condition—your eyes can only look at me, twenty-four hours a day. That might increase the probability of catching my smile a little.”

After saying that, Yukino smiled faintly. The smile appeared in an instant and vanished just as quickly, leaving Kotomi no time to take out her phone.

That left Kotomi feeling slightly indignant. Her physique was blessed with the full enhancement of the Queen of All Females constitution, yet when it came to reaction speed, the boost didn’t seem particularly noticeable. Getting back to the point, Yukino’s tone still carried that jealous edge, almost as if she were challenging Yui.

However, the airheaded Yui Yuigahama didn’t sense the provocation at all. Instead, she stared at a nearby taiyaki stall and thought,

Kotomi has never said what kind of filling she likes in taiyaki. When I buy some later, should I get red bean paste? Or taro? Or roasted sweet potato? She seems to like all three... Maybe I should just buy them all. With Kotomi’s appetite, three won’t affect her dinner at all—even ten would be fine.

Yukino had impulsively decided to provoke Yui just to see how she would react. Yet not only did Yui fail to respond, she looked completely unaware that anything had happened.

It made Yukino feel as though she had punched a ball of cotton. The corners of her lips twitched. The provocative words she had prepared in advance were rendered useless, and she suddenly forgot what she had planned to say next.

In this exchange, Yukino quietly suffered defeat. Meanwhile, the ”victor,” Yui, had won entirely by accident and hadn’t even realized it was a battle.

An airhead can be quite terrifying at times...

Unable to remember her next line, Yukino could only abandon her attempted provocation. She sighed softly and glanced at the hand Kotomi had extended earlier to take the Pepsi. When she recalled that Kotomi had used that same hand—her right hand—to hold Yui’s just moments ago, something stirred inside her.

Instead of placing the Pepsi into Kotomi’s outstretched right hand, Yukino deliberately moved it toward Kotomi’s left.

When Kotomi tried to grab it with her right hand, Yukino quietly lifted the bottle just high enough to keep it out of reach. Kotomi wasn’t particularly tall to begin with, and she wasn’t wearing heels. There was no way she could reach it.

”Mm...”

Kotomi stood on tiptoe, her small face flushed as she stretched her arm straight upward, waving her hand in an attempt to seize the Pepsi with her right hand. At the same time, she felt utterly puzzled. Normally, Yukino would have handed her the drink the moment she returned. Why was she teasing her like this today?

Standing on tiptoe quickly drained her strength. After a short while, Kotomi let out a long breath and gave up trying to reach it.

Never before had she wished so much that she were a little taller.

Only then did Yukino lower the Pepsi again and extend it toward Kotomi’s left hand.

Kotomi didn’t understand what Yukino was up to. But as soon as she sensed the bottle near her hand, she instinctively grabbed it with her left. To her surprise, this time it was effortless.

She secretly felt pleased, thinking perhaps the Queen of All Females constitution had suddenly decided to boost her reaction speed after all.

Little did she know that Yukino’s stubborn refusal to hand over the Pepsi earlier was simply because Kotomi had used her right hand—the same hand that had just been intertwined with Yui’s.

Such a simple reason. Yet it was reason enough for Yukino to refuse to let Kotomi use that hand to take the drink she had bought for her.

After giving Kotomi the Pepsi, Yukino didn’t linger. She wasn’t someone who liked to waste time. Without hesitation, she handed the peach soda to Yui Yuigahama.

...

After finishing their drinks, the three of them continued shopping.

As their shopping trip was drawing to an end, Kotomi Izumi went to pick out gifts to bring to her third uncle and third aunt the next day.

Choosing presents for them was actually very simple. You only needed to remember one key word—fish.

Her third uncle loved fishing. Although he often returned empty-handed, he still happily went fishing for a whole day every two weeks. Her third aunt, on the other hand, liked to carry tableware and a small stool to sit beside him, watching him fish. Once he caught something, she would take the fish, press it onto the cutting board with one hand, and raise the kitchen knife with the other.

As for Yuyu Izumi? She liked fishing too. But if she sat there for more than ten minutes without a bite, she would grow impatient and start muttering to herself:

”Why hasn’t anything bitten yet?”

”Tch, I can’t spoil it. I’ll just go pump the water out.”

”Why does it always feel kind of strange whenever I go fishing?”

”Something’s on the line! It’s pretty heavy too. Hmph, don’t underestimate the power of someone ranked second to last in P.E.!”

”Hah, finally got the hang of it. Watch me reel it in in one go and see what kind of fish is this heavy. If it’s really a big one, then on the way home I’ll ’get lost’ for a bit and walk around the neighborhood a few dozen laps with it on my back. Ah... so it’s a corpse.”

Yes, that really happened. Yuyu Izumi once fished up a drowned body.

Perhaps because she had often secretly watched her father slaughter chickens, fish, and even pigs when she was little, she faced the corpse with the calmness of someone who had spent ten years gutting fish at a supermarket—utterly unruffled.

That was why, whenever Yuyu felt lost about what career to pursue in the future, Kotomi would bluntly tell her,

”That ’ten years of killing fish at a supermarket’ mentality of yours is a natural advantage. You should just go study medicine and become a surgeon. If you want something even more thrilling, you can become a forensic pathologist.”

Yuyu had no idea what kind of place that supermarket was. But based on years of fighting with Kotomi, her first instinct was always that her sister was bullying her again.

As for why Kotomi loved teasing Yuyu about her mentality, the reason was simple. When Yuyu fished up that corpse, she hadn’t been alone.

Sitting right beside her had been a little cutie.

That little cutie was Kotomi herself.

When Yuyu had said she might have hooked a big fish, little Kotomi had been thrilled. Sitting on her tiny stool, she had already begun imagining how to cook a big fish.

Just as she got to braised fish in her thoughts, Yuyu suddenly lifted the rod with all her strength and hauled the ”fish” out of the water in one powerful motion.

When they saw it was a corpse, Yuyu froze for a moment, but quickly regained her composure.

She might have been calm—but little Kotomi certainly wasn’t.

She burst into tears on the spot, hiding behind Yuyu and not daring to move.

One of the few childhood traumas Kotomi Izumi had was courtesy of Yuyu.

Ever since then, whenever Yuyu tried to invite Kotomi to go fishing together, she would end up pinned to the ground and beaten up instead.

It took Kotomi less than a few minutes to finish choosing the gifts for her third uncle and aunt.

As for Yuyu’s gift?

She didn’t buy one.

For her third uncle, Kotomi picked out a brand-new fishing rod. A true fishing fanatic never complains about having too many rods. In fact, after using the same one for too long, they might start thinking that buying a new rod will finally end their streak of returning empty-handed.

For her third aunt, Kotomi selected a pair of running shoes that matched her taste perfectly. Kotomi remembered clearly that her aunt once had a dream of becoming a sprinter.

As for why she gave up on that dream, it wasn’t because of household chores and daily life. Back in her student days, she had actually signed up to try out as a sprinter. The problem was simply that she ran far too slowly and didn’t even pass the preliminary round.

Only later did she realize that what she truly loved wasn’t sprinting itself, but running shoes.

Just like some women love collecting high heels, her third aunt loved buying shoes—but specifically running shoes, especially the sleek, high-tech-looking ones.

After purchasing the gifts, they left the shopping center and headed toward the nearby commercial street to find a restaurant.

While they had been browsing inside the mall, Kotomi had paid attention to the restaurants there. There were a few, but not many, and none of them were to her liking. Besides, they had already agreed before setting out that they would eat grilled skewers. Since there were no barbecue restaurants in the mall, they hadn’t considered eating there.

Kyoto’s commercial street was bustling and lively. There were not only proper storefront businesses, but also roadside stalls. Although setting up a stall required paying rent, it was still much cheaper than leasing a full shop.

As they passed a small stall selling wooden sticks, Kotomi suddenly stopped.

Stalls like this weren’t common, yet they usually did good business. The wood they sold might not be rare or expensive, but what attracted people wasn’t the type of wood—it was the shape.

Just like when you were a child and found a perfectly straight branch, you would treasure it and swing it around as if it were a holy sword.

Even as adults, when people saw a piece of wood they liked, many still felt the urge to own it—and were willing to pay for it.

Kotomi pointed at one stick. It was of moderate length, about the size of a rolling pin but slightly longer, perfectly straight.

”Boss, how much for this stick?”

”Little miss, you want this one? If you’re sincere, let’s say 1,000 yen.”

”Deal.”

Kotomi paid without hesitation.

Watching her buy a wooden stick, Yukino asked curiously,

”Kotomi, what are you going to do with that?”

”My cousin is a tiny bit naughty. Even someone as mild-tempered as my third aunt can’t help wanting to beat her sometimes.

”After every time she does, my aunt sighs and says, ’Without a proper weapon, it just doesn’t feel satisfying.’

”See how thoughtful I am~ I’ve specially picked out a handy weapon for her. Next time she beats up Yuyu, she won’t feel like it was lacking in impact.”

Kotomi said with a cheerful grin.

”Your cousin... really has a wonderful older sister,” Yukino remarked dryly after learning the reason.

On the way here, she had heard Kotomi mention that she and her cousin had been fighting since childhood.

Yukino had wondered whether their relationship wasn’t very good.

Now she understood.

It had nothing to do with whether their relationship was good or bad. They simply enjoyed bullying each other when they had nothing better to do.

”You’re too kind, you’re too kind. Yuyu and I are indeed the model of sisterly harmony,” Kotomi said happily.

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