I slowly open my eyes, to assess the situation.

I successfully brought her Tsundere level down to 1 with a long button press.

“...”

Lily wears a blank expression and sits in a daze.

D-did I break her!? I quickly run toward her to examine her condition.

“Ah.”

She suddenly snaps out of it. Then she hangs her head again, resuming her brooding.

“Are you okay?”

“...”

She shakes her head and twists her lips in discomfort.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“N-no! Papa didn’t do anything wrong...”

She crosses her arms, not as a sign of strength but rather as if she’s cowering.

“It just...”

“Just what?”

“I made this... together with papa...”

Her eyes begin to well up with tears and small sobs can be heard.

She was so worked up... just because I took apart that Lego prototype? Because we spent some time building it together?

“But you see, with Lego there’s no harm in taking apart what you built. You can use the parts to build something new and better.”

“But... it was the first thing I made together with papa...”

“Lily...”

Tears begin to flow from her pretty eyes.

I ... I am... I’m powerless in front of this sight.

“I-it’s okay, we can build as many as you want-”

thump

She leaps into my chest and buries her crying face in it.

“Papa!”

Her shoulders shake while she tries to hug me with her small arms.

T-This...

I...

It’s...

“Lily...”

I hate kids.

No matter what they do, it’s hard to resist them when they start crying and acting helpless.

Lily was already irresistibly cute in the first place. The sobbing and vulnerable Lily in my arms is just... just...!!!

“I get it, I won’t tear it apart!”

I hug her tightly and pat her blonde hair.

I’ll do anything.

As long as this girl stays happy, I’ll satisfy any whim of hers. If she loves me so much and treasures our time together so dearly, I can’t possibly ruin any of that.

“Easy there, guy.”

“W-wah?!”

W-who’s there!?

Eric is standing by the door, watching me and Lily snuggling.

D-damn, this is awkward...! I immediately leap away from Lily and stand up to greet him.

“W-what’s up?”

I try to smile. Nothing to see here. N-o-t-h-i-n-g to see.

“I warned you, you shouldn’t do these things.”

Eric shrugs with a head shake.

“W-w-what sort of things?”

H-how much has he seen? Did he also see the Lego!? I’m doooooooomed!

“I know she is annoying, but try to not crush her. ”

He sends me a thin smile.

What...?

“C-crush her...?”

“Weren’t you trying to choke her?”

“Ah...”

Is that how it looked from the side? Was my hug so oppressive...? I was merely hugging my lovable daughter, how dare he suggest that I tried to murder her!?

“Dunno how it looked like, but I think you have the wrong idea...”

“Anyway, be careful. These models worth a ton.”

I don’t like his negative attitude toward my precious daughter, but his misunderstanding is very welcome for this occasion.

“Anyway, how did the documents go?.”

“I read the manual and skimmed through parts of the PRD. It’s... not exactly easy to digest.”

“Good enough. No need to push yourself too hard with it, take your time.”

He shrugs and smiles in satisfaction.

“I’ll soon be resuming the meeting with the other branch, we can’t trace the bug yet.”

He sighs with a shrug.

“It’s probably the last time we see each other today, so you free to leave at 17:00. Treat that as your usual time even when I’m not around. They’ll clear some final authorization soon, so you’ll be able to submit bugs starting tomorrow.”

“Sounds good.”

“See you tomorrow.”

“Seeya.”

He walks away and vanishes from my sight.

My phone displays 16:32, less than half an hour till the end of the day. Obviously, I want to spend that remaining time with Lily.

When I look below me, I spot Lily sitting on the floor and looking at me.

“I’m sorry for what I did, let’s fix this Lego tower together, okay?”

“Yes!”

She smiles brightly and draws closer to help the reconstruction. It’s important to teach her that Lego can be easily taken apart to build other structures, but for now I’ll let it slide.

“Oh, right.”

As I’m about to grab the Lego bricks, I’m reminded that I’m still holding Lily’s remote; her Tsundere meter is still set to 1 for my convenience.

She is undoubtedly deredere in this mode, very affable and snuggly. She makes even cuter and softer expressions than ever before.

Nevertheless, this isn’t how she should be.

She is a tsundere, being dere is only one part of her. This feature was useful for setting things straight, but now I should return her back to the REAL Lily.

I press the button with a plus sign and level up the Tsundere meter to 3, to the usual half-tsun and half-dere girl. Lily freezes for a couple of seconds like last time, then quickly snaps out of it.

“Let’s build it back now.”

“Hmph, if you insist so much then I might land you a hand.”

Despite her words, she immediately picks up lego bricks and brings them toward the destroyed tower. With all things considered, this is the fitting attitude for Lily.

“See? All fixed now.”

“Yes! I did a great job!”

Lily nods happily while examining the rebuilt tower.

“N-not that I really cared about this tower or anything, hmph!”

She is quick to turn tsuntsun, despite earlier crying her eyes out.

“With Lego, even if you break something apart - you can easily build it up again.”

“I know that much, hmph.”

“Okay then, I’ll break it again and we’ll rebuild it from scratch-”

“NO!”

She yells with puffed cheeks and pierces me with her eyes.

“Ugh, n-not that I care or anything, hmph!”

She’s hopeless.

“I’ll bring more Lego parts tomorrow, so you can finish your third creation then.”

“No problem!”

She puffs out her chest in confidence.

“I have to go for today, so you should go sleep.”

“Sleep...?”

She tilts her head in innocence.

Thinking of it, the user manual never referred to the “turning off” procedure as “sleeping”. Is she incapable of drawing analogy between these two terms?

“Um, I mean... er... I need to turn you off.”

It’s very hard to say it to her face. Wouldn’t it feel awkward for the customers as well? It’d be much easier to call it “sleeping”.

“I understand...”

She hangs her head and makes a sad expression.

“Don’t worry, I’ll play with you tomorrow.”

“H-hmph, it’s not like I want you or anything.”

She obediently stands up and walks toward her bed. She throws one final glance toward me, then climbs on top of the bed and lays down.

“Y-you better come tomorrow too. N-not that I care or anything.”

She pouts while eying me with her pretty blue eyes. I crack a small laugh at her silliness and point the remote at her.

“...”

My thumb is on top of the on/off button.

“..........”

I just need to press it.

“................”

Press it, let her sleep and go home.

“.................... ugh.”

Why is it so hard!?

I take a deep breath and...

QUICKLY PRESS IT!!!

Lily’s eyes slowly close and she falls into slumber.

“Phew.”

I put down the remote, feeling more exhausted than I should from such a simple action.

I collect my backpack and walk outside, after looking at Lily’s cute sleeping face one more time.