"Hey... Maeda seems to have gotten prettier lately."
"It's just a new hairstyle and a better-fitting uniform, you're overthinking it. It just looks better than before."
"I don't believe it's just because of her appearance... Looking at it this way, she can rightfully accept the title of the most beautiful woman in the General Affairs Department."
"Looking at Maeda makes me feel inexplicably depressed. While we're painstakingly counting calories to maintain a slim figure, she can still look beautiful even if she's a little chubby."
Normally, Naga, as a man, wouldn't be interested in joining in this kind of purely female chatter, but Miku, who was beside him, clearly didn't think so. She was the kind of woman who had the ability to turn any gossip she heard into a topic of conversation.
"The reason why a woman can become beautiful from the inside out is almost always because she's in love," Miku said to Naga in a voice that couldn't be heard from behind the table.
"Really? Actually, I think Maeda-senpai has a really good foundation. You women who always make a fuss over a few hundred grams of weight should reflect on yourselves. In the end, it's your own bodies that suffer."
Naga glanced at the colleagues eating at the opposite table. Among them were typical examples of people who had lost so much weight that they had no breasts or butts. She really didn't know what was so attractive about that.
Miku casually put a piece of char siu into her mouth and mumbled, "I'm not that stupid, but I'm lucky. I can eat as much as I want and I won't gain weight. I'll stay at 48 kilograms forever."
"Shimokawa-senpai, be careful not to provoke others." Naga rolled his eyes, picked up his beer, and took a sip.
For the past three days, Miku has become his regular lunchtime companion, while Kobayashi An has seemed to be avoiding him since Monday when she started work. Miku even half-jokingly speculated about it, "She had a bruise on her lip when she went to work, could it be that some woman who's a fan of yours beat her up?"
"If what you're saying is true, then it would definitely be you, Shimokawa-senpai, who made the move," Naga retorted without any politeness.
To say I don't care would be a lie. A woman who was clearly trying to get closer to me before the weekend wouldn't suddenly become cold in a day. Besides, explaining the bruises on her cheeks and the corners of her mouth as a fall is rather childish.
Without Anzu's interference, Miku has naturally become the person he's been in contact with the most these past three days, which makes him very conflicted. He wishes Miku were in the same situation as Reiko.
After that enjoyable sexual encounter, the two went on another date on Tuesday night. Before Naga could figure out how to bring it up, Riko suggested that their relationship remain purely physical.
Reiko's expression was unusually serious when she explained the reason, a subtle gleam flickering across her round face. Given Reiko's current situation, if other men knew that she still harbored this strange, almost inferiority complex, they would probably soon be swarming with men who lacked bed partners.
Naga smiled contentedly, feeling very fortunate to have succeeded first, and rolled over to press Reiko's sweaty naked body down beneath him once more.
Unfortunately, no matter how much Naga fantasizes, Miku wouldn't act that way. At the very least, she would never be the kind of woman content with just a physical relationship with a man. Until the later stages of a relationship, this seemingly open-minded girl probably wouldn't even give anyone the chance to get into her bed.
The more familiar you are with her, the deeper this thought becomes. Thinking back to that dream, Miku was a virgin wearing a wedding dress... Most girls from ordinary families would start to worry about whether they are no longer attractive by her age, but she doesn't care at all. When joking with her female colleagues, she even dares to say with her eyes wide open: "I've never had a boyfriend. I didn't like the guys who pursued me, and I could never get the guys I liked."
"Hey, it's not like we have to sleep with our boyfriends anymore. You're not that old-fashioned, are you? Even if you don't want to experience the taste of a man, you should at least learn some techniques. What if your future husband dislikes you?"
"Tch, I'm smart and quick-witted, I can learn that kind of thing just by watching."
When Miku recounted their conversation, Naga couldn't help but ask, "What did you mean by 'look', senpai?"
"It's AV. Don't tell me you haven't seen it." Miku looked at him without blushing at all, as if watching AV to learn the techniques that men and women would use in the future was perfectly normal for her. "But those things don't seem to be practical at all." As she spoke, she made a motion of raising her knee and complained softly, "Like that Edo Forty-Eight Hands, it's just acrobatics. Asking me to raise my leg that high to do it would be exhausting."
With such a woman clinging to him, Naga didn't know whether it was a blessing or a curse...
Miku and Yui's first encounter was at lunch the following day. Perhaps her interest had shifted to cooking, because Miku unusually brought her own lunchbox. However, judging from her expression, you could tell that the taste was so bad that even the cook would have to use great willpower to keep it from going to the trash.
Whether it was because Miku was popular or had enough intimidation, the other female colleagues who wanted to get close to Naga all chose to do so outside of lunchtime, and the area around their seats remained empty.
So when Yua sat down next to Naga with a tray and said sweetly, "Strange Mr., what a coincidence," Miku showed a rare look of confusion.
"Naga, is this your sister?"
A younger sister? Would a younger sister call her brother "Strange Mr."?
"Hmm… a friend of mine." Naga thought for a moment, deciding to suppress his barely contained excitement. You see, he eats lunch here every day, practically waiting for this moment. He turned to greet Yui, smiling, and said, "It's not exactly a coincidence, I actually eat here every day."
"I see..." Yui smiled and put the book aside. "Can I look for you when I come over for dinner?"
Naga glanced at the book on the table; it was Maeve's *Dreams* by Ennis. "Of course, eating together won't be so boring. Ah... this is my senior from the company, Shimokawa Miku. This is Tabe Yua."
"Oh, what a young senior! I thought you were Mr. Strange's girlfriend." Yui's words came at just the right time. Miku, who had been frowning, clearly showed a change in mood when she heard the word "girlfriend."
"What is Mr. Strange... Naga, is that your nickname?"
"I'm not a gigolo, why would I need a nickname?" Naga thought to herself, then smiled awkwardly. "Uh... she's always called me that, maybe I was a little strange before."
Regardless of what women talk about when they first meet, what they care about most is each other's appearance.
Miku was even more beautiful than Yua, but high school students are at the beginning of their most beautiful years. The youthful aura emanating from their supple skin is something that cosmetics can never replace. That innocent feeling of a flower bud about to bloom but not yet fully open is something that women who have been immersed in society can never imitate.
Even though they themselves have had those moments, they still can't help but feel jealous when they see the years that have passed.
If we add the element of men to the equation, then that's enough to ignite a war among women.
However, Miku knew she didn't have a position yet. When Ai and Naga started enthusiastically discussing various topics about dreams, she could only eat her unpalatable bento while trying to find an opportunity to chime in.
"So you like the female student type?" Miku asked somewhat dejectedly after the two entered the elevator.
Naga knew that no matter how hard he tried, it was hard to fool a woman with genuine feelings, especially one as perceptive as this who also had feelings for him. He shook his head. "It's not a matter of age or type. I just happen to share the same hobby as him. I'm also a dreamer, so I'm naturally happy to meet someone who likes to study dreams. Senior, you're overthinking it."
Miku touched her ears, then irritably tied her hair back into a ponytail. "Alright, alright, there's no one else here. Stop calling me 'senpai' all the time, it's so annoying."
Miku's ears turned slightly red, probably because she was remembering that dream from that night. "I... I don't dislike dreaming. But what's so interesting about a dream? I really don't understand you guys..."
Suddenly, the image of Miku's fair, tender red petals between her thighs appeared before Naga's eyes. Naga felt a sudden tightness in her crotch and quickly shifted her attention to the elevator's indicator lights.
"Just call me Miku when we're not working," Miku whispered as she walked past Naga as the elevator doors opened.