First Day Of Ski Trip, At The Lodge: Today I Am With The Trouble-Making Sister

“Nishishi! Today I get you all to myself, Yuu-san!”

The moment we stepped out of the pension, Sakura-jima Honoka—a gyaru high school girl with bleached hair—clung tightly to my arm as she uttered those words.

“I get it, I get it! Just don’t cling to me so tightly! It’s hard to walk.”

I shook my arm free from Honoka’s grip. She immediately pouted.

“What’s that supposed to mean?! Are you saying you hate it when I get close to you?”

“Of course I do! Think about what you did to me in the past!”

When Honoka and I first met, she had set a honey-trap style snare for me, threatening me with: “Break up with Touko-san and date Meika instead!” After that, through whatever bizarre twist of fate, she and Meika-chan both ended up declaring themselves “candidates to become my girlfriend.”

But I honestly cannot decipher the inner workings of this girl’s mind. It was entirely possible she was harboring some entirely different scheme.

“For all I know, you might be plotting to pull another stunt on me.”

Honoka’s dissatisfied expression intensified even further.

“I apologized properly for that whole mess! Stop bringing up the past forever!”

“It’s true that you apologized. But didn’t you only do it because Touko-san was standing right there and you had no choice?”

“You don’t have to be that suspicious…”

For a fraction of a second, a flicker of loneliness crossed Honoka’s face.

“I mean, seriously, normally guys are absolutely thrilled just to have me come near them. You’re the only one who’s this cold to me, Isshiki-san…”

I remained silent. It wasn’t as if I was intentionally treating her coldly. It was simply that if I coddled her, she would undoubtedly take advantage of it, so I was merely making sure not to leave myself wide open. And, true to form, Honoka bounced back on her own.

“But then again, that’s exactly what I like about you! There’s no thrill quite like breaking the defenses of a guy who refuses to fall!” she declared boisterously.

…I have to admit, this side of her makes her rather easy to be around…

“Hey, hey, how was the party last night?” Honoka asked.

Because it was decided that “it isn’t proper for high school girls to be around a place where alcohol is flowing,” she and Meika-chan had been sent back to their rooms at 8:00 PM.

“It was nothing special, really. Everyone seemed exhausted from sleeping on the bus the night before. I actually left the party and went to bed pretty early myself.”

That was the absolute truth. Unable to withstand the sheer drowsiness, I must have returned to my room a little after nine. Apparently, only the upperclassmen and alumni who strictly preferred booze over skiing stayed up until the bitter end to make a racket. By the way, Touko-san had retired to her own room around the exact same time as Honoka and the others.

“I see…” Honoka murmured, looking rather thoughtful.

“What is it? Is something bothering you?”

When I queried her, she simply shook her head quietly from side to side. “No, it’s nothing.”

Chatting like this, we eventually arrived at the ski slopes. Today, we had decided to try snowboarding. That being said, I am utterly terrible at snowboarding. I had only tried it once in the past, and I had never progressed to a point where I could actually glide properly. Just getting on and off the ski lift was a massive struggle. In stark contrast, Honoka was exceptionally proficient at both skiing and snowboarding.

“Wow, Isshiki-san, you are so bad at this~” Honoka laughed.

She poked fun at me as she watched me slide down the incline. Rather than “gliding,” my movement parallel to the slope was much better described as “clumsily scraping my way down.”

“S-Shut up! Don’t worry about me, just go on ahead!”

I waved my right hand, gesturing for Honoka to head to the lift before me. In truth, I desperately wanted her to go ahead. I wanted her to stay away from me. Honoka is an exceptionally striking, beautiful girl. She has long hair dyed platinum blonde that reaches near her waist, and her height and model-like figure could easily rival Touko-san’s. Watching her carve through the snow on her snowboard, kicking up a dramatic white powder, was undeniably cool. Naturally, she drew a massive amount of attention from everyone around us. If a clumsy, unsightly mess like me was stuck right beside her, it was easy to imagine people whispering, “What is up with that guy?”

“Right, right, stop throwing a tantrum. I’ll give you a hand.”

With that, Honoka grabbed my arm to support me—since I was currently struggling immensely just to navigate the gentle uphill slope leading toward the lift queue. Thanks to her timely assistance, I managed to reach the boarding area without causing a nuisance to the people waiting behind us.

…Then again, what does it say about a male university student who needs to be rescued by a high school girl?…

It was incredibly embarrassing, but at the very least, I owed her a proper thank you.

“Thanks,” I muttered under my breath, making sure only Honoka could hear.

“You’re very welcome!” she beamed, flashing a brilliant smile.

After managing about four runs on the snowboard during the morning session, we decided to opt for an early lunch. With my entire body screaming in pain from falling far too many times on the snowboard, I was the one who brought up switching to skis for the afternoon. Honoka accepted the idea smoothly without raising any objections. Thus, even though it was a bit early for lunch, we stepped into a restaurant attached to a hotel right in front of the slopes.

I ordered a cheese doria, while Honoka opted for a cream pasta with mushrooms and salmon. The food arrived in no time. I was roughly a third of the way through my meal when I suddenly noticed Honoka staring intently at me.

“What is it?”

“You had lunch with Meika yesterday too, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“I hear Meika got to feed you a bite while saying ‘ahhh’?” she asked, her eyes narrowing with a look of irritation.

“It wasn’t exactly like she fed me out of some romantic gesture…”

“Meika said so herself! She told me, ‘I fed Yuu-san a bite while making him say ahhh.’”

“There wasn’t any special underlying meaning to it.”

“In that case, do it for me too!”

“Eh?”

“You just said there wasn’t any special meaning, right? Then do the exact same thing for me!”

“…”

“Though, doing the exact same thing would be boring. I want you to be the one to feed me a bite while saying ‘ahhh.’”

“But I’m eating a doria, you know? There’s only one spoon here.”

“I don’t mind using that spoon at all.”

“We can’t exactly do that. That would be an absolute indirect kiss.”

Honoka pulled a dissatisfied face, but she immediately flagged down a waitress passing by and requested, “Could we have another spoon, please?” The waitress brought one over in a flash. Honoka promptly handed it to me.

“There! Now we have absolutely no problems. Do the honors, please. Don’t forget the ‘ahhh.’”

Right then, a mischievous idea popped into my head. I ladled up a bite of doria with the spoon.

“Alright, say ahhh~”

I brought the spoon directly in front of Honoka’s face. Looking thoroughly delighted, she opened her mouth wide into an ‘ah’ shape. But right before she could take the bite, I flipped the spoon back toward myself and popped it into my own mouth.

“Ahhh, delicious!” I proclaimed teasingly, staring at Honoka whose eyes had gone wide with shock.

The next instant, Honoka collapsed face-forward onto the table.

“That’s so cruel! You did it for Meika, yet you play such an incredibly mean prank on me!” she wailed.

Her voice was rather loud. Several patrons at the surrounding tables turned around to look, wondering, “What on earth is going to happen over there?”

“Even though you did it for another girl! Even though you already stole my lips! To think you would toy with my feelings like this!”

Every single gaze from the surrounding tables instantly pierced straight into me like sharp arrows.

“H-Hey, Honoka. Cut it out. Everyone is staring at us.”

“You fully intend to toy with me and abandon me, don’t you?! To think you would drag me all the way out to a place like this just to do that!”

I lacked the courage to look around the room anymore, but it was painfully obvious that the entire restaurant was staring blankly at me. On top of that, Honoka is an exceptionally conspicuous girl to begin with.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! It was my fault. I’ll do it properly this time, so please give me a break. Everyone is watching.”

Honoka peeked her face up slightly from the cradle of her arms.

“You’ll do it properly?”

“Yeah, I will.”

“Don’t say it with such a detached attitude! You have to do it with genuine affection!”

“Affection?!”

“Otherwise, my deeply wounded heart will never heal!”

It seemed this battle was my absolute defeat.

“Understood. I shall do it with genuine affection.”

“Excellent!”

Honoka raised her head, her face instantly melting into a radiant smile.

“Now then, feed me. Ahhh~”

“Ahhh~”

I ladled up a fresh bite of doria using the new spoon and gently guided it into Honoka’s mouth. For reference, the spoon I had used a moment ago for myself was my own, which I had swiftly swapped out.

“Mmh! Delicious!” Honoka beamed, placing a hand against her cheek with a thoroughly satisfied expression.

…I have to admit, when she acts like this, she really is incredibly cute…

Meanwhile, the patrons around us were staring at us with eyes that clearly screamed, “Look at this absolute trainwreck of a lovey-dovey couple.”