Chapter 26: Chapter 026: More Issues

After the end of school, Masashi took Nodoka to his private beach as he wanted to talk to her about her thoughts about Mai.

Masashi just looks at her as she takes off her leggings, 'God, if only she was Mai.'

"Don't look, stupid."

"Don't worry, I've had those legs wrapped around me enough times to know that you're not really Mai, and imagining that is just dumb."

She just grumbles about him being a pervert and goes off to play in the water for a bit.

When she finally returns, Masashi brings her to the beachside bar and acts as the bartender, "Here, cranberry juice, Mai likes it, I assume you do too."

She gives him a skeptical look and says, "There isn't any alcohol in this, is there?"

"I have a girlfriend, with how much you're accusing me of this stuff, people would assume that you are interested in me."

"Drop dead, I can't believe Onee-chan is with you." She says before taking a sip of the drink.

"Why don't you call Mai 'Onee-chan' to her face? You call her Mai-san and try to be all formal around her."

"Why wouldn't I? She's my senior in showbiz."

"Yes, that. And now the actual truth please."

"What are you talking about?"

"Do you have something to say to her? Something along the lines of 'I hate you, Onee-chan.'"

"No," She snaps at Masashi. "You're wrong."

"I'm not analyzing your actions like a psychiatrist, they're painfully obvious."

"What the heck? What's your deal? I haven't even said anything."

"As I said, It's pretty obvious. Even Mai knows."

"No way."

"Well, just talk it out with her once you get home. Later." Masashi says, about to leave.

"Wait!"

"What?"

"Can you put me up for a while? I can't go back to Onee-chan's place for now."

"Yeah, how do you expect me to explain to my girlfriend that her sister wants to live with me?"

"You can sweet-talk her, please. I'm begging you."

"There are a whole lot of things that I can sweet-talk her into. But there are certain things that I cannot. This whole scenario is on top of the 'cannot list'."

"What's the matter?" Mai finally appears as Masashi told her that he's bringing Nodoka to his beach house.

"Great you can just directly talk to her." Masashi says to Nodoka.

Nodoka hesitates for a while as Mai looks at her patiently.

Nodoka finally gathers the courage to talk to Mai directly.

"I've always lived in your shadow ever since I was a little girl. Every time I went to an audition, you would get picked, and every time, my mom would yell at me, 'Mai-chan can do it. Why can't you?'

"While you were on hiatus, I finally got to debut as part of Sweet Bullet. Mom got somewhat nicer and started praising me, too. But…

"Why'd you have to come back all of a sudden? You get a great role in a TV special and a bunch of ads, and you're on the cover of some fashion mag or the other every month!

"Why're you getting my way? You do things effortlessly that I worked years to earn! You're always the one in the spotlight! Stop making all my efforts go to waste.

"I hate you, I hate you, Onee-chan" As she finishes, she's trembling.

"Really? Good to know. I hated you too. Though it was mostly due to our father's thoughtlessness. Leaving was-"

"Mai stop it. Just stop it." Masashi interrupts Mai as she's unloading her frustrations onto the poor immature child.

"You don't mean a single word of that and you yourself know it. I saw that glint in your eyes when you talked to me about your little sister."

"That's-"

Masashi turns to Nodoka and speaks, "She doesn't hate you, she's just mad that you said so many hurtful things to her. She's actually proud of you."

"How about all of us step back for a little bit of time and think about this like rational people? Nodoka, you can go to Mai's apartment and rest up. I and Mai will be at my place. If there's any problem you can call me or Mai, you have our phone numbers." Masashi says as he pulls them to his car and drives back home.

…

Mai and Masashi are sitting together in Masashi's apartment.

"You lashed out at her. You don't have to always hide your feelings, you know?"

"Don't try talking sense to me." She just hugged Masashi and rested her head on his shoulder.

(A/N: She's not in Nodoka's body, it's all an illusion since the universe's will can't do shit to the [Gamer's Body])

"I need you to take care of her for a few days. I'll be taking care of her idol gigs for a while and she'll be taking care of my commitments. She may get a little overwhelmed, so please support her when that happens."

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"Says the girl who lashed out at her for a few hurtful comments. Even you think that she's a kid."

Mai doesn't reply and just hugs him tighter as they go to bed together.

…

The next few days go by with Mai taking care of Nodoka's commitments and Nodoka doing the same with Mai's.

Masashi lived with Mai as usual with Nodoka living in Mai's apartment.

Masashi as the good brother-in-law that he is, took care of Nodoka as best as he could, since he knew that she was under a lot more stress than Mai. He accompanied her to the shoots and school while she avoided Mai.

"How's that smile?" Nodoka asks Masashi, showing him a selfie. They're on the train, on their way to school.

"I'm not the right person to ask that question. All I see in that photo is Mai smiling at me, it looks good. That's all the feedback you can expect from me." Masashi lies to her since he could have just used Mai's acting skills from the [Soul Connection].

"I'm not going to ask her."

"That's up to you."

The rest of the day goes normally as Masashi drops off Nodoka at Mai's apartment.

He goes into his apartment and sees Mai lying on the couch.

"How were the singing lessons," Masashi asked her.

"I'm hungry."

"And you want me to make you some food?"

"Yes."

"I think I'm spoiling you too much. You make better food than me."

"I don't feel like cooking."

Masashi doesn't say anything and goes to the kitchen to make a pre-dinner snack for Mai

As he's walking to the kitchen he hears a few buzzes from Nodoka's phone which is with Mai.

They exchanged their phones for their shoots.

"That's a lot of messages."

"It's Nodoka's mother. She's sent about fifty texts just today. Can you make me Spaghetti today?"

"Sure, anything for my queen."

As Masashi is cooking in the kitchen he says, "Nodoka was preparing for tomorrow's ad shoot by practicing her facial expressions today."

"Why're you telling me?"

"You want to know about how she's doing. I'm telling you. If you have any advice for her, I can pass it on."

"Did she ask for advice?"

"Nah."

"Then I don't."

"God you sisters and your planet-sized egos. You both obviously care about each other, just makeup with each other already."

"You don't understand."

"I will spank the tsundere out of you if you're not open about your feelings. You asked me if Nodoka asked me to ask for advice from you. That itself tells me that you care about her." Masashi says to Mai calmly.

Mai goes silent for a while before saying, "She'll be fine. As long as she remembers what she learned in the troupe, she'll get through it without problems."

"See, you're confident in your sister's abilities. If she knows, she'll be ten times more confident in her ability. All that because of what you represent to her."

"What do mean, what I represent to her?"

"I mean that she has something of an inferiority complex toward you as well as admiring you like her idol. To her, you're a perfect existence.

"She's actually under a lot of pressure. She's currently living in that perfect existence, trying too much and feeling so much pressure.

"I wouldn't be surprised if she gets a panic attack during one of the shoots due to taking too much pressure."

"Sigh… I hate that you make sense right now."

Masashi just smiles while focusing on the cooking.

"Tell her that I trust her and know that she'll be perfectly fine. Even if she fucks up I can take care of it later. I'll help her with the preparations if that's necessary."

"I'm proud of you."

"But she has to ask me for help. She should learn to ask for help if she's stuck."

"I'll let her know."

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