After I took Estelia to my house, I introduced her to my mother. I told her to start getting undressed while I went to my room to get something for us to change into. When I went to the bathroom, she had just finished removing her clothes.

“I got our change of clothes. Put your wet uniform in this basket and my mother will put them in the washer for us.”

When she saw me enter the bathroom, she experienced a flurry of emotions. She made a shocked expression at first, and then blushed as she took the nearest towel to cover her naked body. It was funny seeing her facial expression change in a matter of seconds, but I don’t know why she was embarrassed because first of all, there’s nothing to look at. Second of all, I don’t swing that way.

“O-our?” she asked.

“Yes, “our”. I’ll be bathing with you. Is that a problem?” I asked. Not that her response mattered. Even if she did have a problem with it, I was still going to join her.

“No…”

“Okay, then lets go inside,” I said as I quickly undressed myself. She was shocked at my forcefulness when I took the towel away from her and pushed her into the bathroom.

“I’ll shampoo your hair first, so sit down.”

“Y-yes!” She quickly sat down on the bucket. Looks like someone’s good at following orders.

“Close your eyes.”

I took a bucket of warm water and poured it over her. Then, I grabbed the Pantene shampoo bottle next to me and put the the bottle contents in her hair. When I began massaging her head, her body instinctively relaxed.

I asked her a question I was curious about for awhile now.

“...Are you getting bullied everyday?”

She was tempted to shake her head no, but since I was shampooing her hair she resisted the urge.

“N-no, it happens once or twice a week, mainly by the three you saw today. Everybody else just calls me names.” This might be the first time I’ve heard her talk this much. Maybe she’s gotten more comfortable with me.

“I see. I think it’d be good if you spoke up more, Este.”

I finished shampooing her hair, so I took another bucket of warm water and poured it over her to remove the shampoo.

“Este?” She dodged the topic with a question, and I started to scrub her back. Before there’s a misunderstanding, no I did not get her name wrong for the second time.

“Yeah. Estelia was too long, so I shortened it to Este.” She didn’t say anything after that but I saw that her ears were red. Could it be that she’s happy because I gave her a nickname?

I took a second to stop scrubbing her back so that I could see Este’s blushing face. For the first time, her bangs were out of her face and I could see her eyes clearly. Her left eye was a crimson red color, and her right eye was deep blue.

Although I saw many strange eye colors when compared to my previous life, it was my first time seeing someone with different colored eyes. I was enraptured. I felt that if I didn’t speak up soon, I would be hypnotized by their beauty.

“Your eyes are really pretty,” I blurted out.

She didn’t notice me looking at her until I said something. When she snapped out of her dream-like state she covered her eyes.

“My eyes aren’t pretty.... They’re scary…” Scary? Why is she saying that?

“They aren’t scary! If your left eye is like a ruby, then your right eye is a sapphire! It’s such a waste to hide such pretty eyes under your bangs!”

She hesitantly uncovered her eyes and said, “T-thank you…”

I smiled and finished washing her body. I told her to enter the tub first and that I would join her after I washed myself. Grabbing a bucket next to me, I filled it up with warm water and poured it over myself.

Fshhh~

Ahhh, that feels good~ Past life or current life, baths are the best. I want to go to a bath house soon.

“Sia?” She called out to me, her body submerged in water.

“Yeah?” I replied. Ah, I got a little shampoo in my eye. It burns.

“Are we friends?” she asked as she was holding a yellow rubber duck in her hands. She’s taken a liking to Fernando. Good luck, Fernando.

I gave myself a second to think about her question, but I couldn’t come up with a proper answer.

“I don’t know.” My eye was twitching a little, but it’s okay. I’ll apply eye drops later since it’s troublesome to leave the bathroom naked.

“You don’t know...? What do you mean by that?”

“Well, this is the first time we’ve talked since I apologized to you. Also, you cry a lot, you’re quiet, you always look at the ground, you don’t fight for yourself, you have no self-esteem, you…”

Before I knew it, the reasons I had for disliking her had multiplied. I stopped before I went on for several hours.

“Basically, you’re all of the qualities I hate packed into one body,” I told her.

Even if she had half of her face submerged into the water, I could see that she was sad. This girl is really troublesome, isn’t she? She gets sad so easily.

“But… I don’t hate you,” I added.

She lightened up after that, as shown by the smile on her face. She didn’t say anything in response and continued to fiddle with Fernando. Ah, that sounded like a sexual innuendo.

When I finished washing my body I joined her in the tub and we continued to talk about useless things.

Since it was already so late, we called Este's father to see if she could sleep over for the night. Judging from the sound of his voice over the phone, he was worried about Este since she wasn't home at this time of the night. Good thing we called him in time before he called the police. Though he sounded surprised that Este was in her classmate’s home, he also sounded relieved. He let Este stay over on the condition that next time she would go to her friend’s house, she would tell him beforehand.

Currently, my mother, Este, and I were sitting at the dining table. We each had a plate of spaghetti in front of us, and forks in our hands.

"I-it's yummy..." said Este as she had a taste of mother’s spaghetti. It seemed that she wasn't used to eating spaghetti, because she would try to eat the spaghetti like how you would eat ramen noodles, only to find that the spaghetti would slip from her grasp.

"That's not how you eat spaghetti. Watch and learn," I said as I stabbed my fork into my spaghetti victims and twirled my fork around, leaving them no room to make their escape.

Inside my head I heard a voice, No! Don’t do this to us!

Spaghetti, you are a very lucky one. Why? Because tonight is the night that you will be eaten by the beautiful and powerful Sia-sama!

Now fall prey to me! Hahahahahahaha!

Noo! What exactly did we do to de—

Nomnomnom.

"I see... So that's how you eat it..." She nodded approvingly and copied my actions. Umu. You make a good disciple.

"Oh, I almost forgot. Sia-chan, could you go get the laundry for me? It should be finished drying by now," said mother.

"Yes, mother!" I said as I ran off to get the laundry.

By the time I came back my mother was talking about something with Este. When Este saw me, she blushed. Mother, what did you say to her while I was gone?

Anyways, we continued to eat and talk more about useless things, and by the time we finished it was time to go to sleep. I slept on the floor while Este slept on my bed.

Hmm…. I feel like I’m forgetting something. Well, whatever. I’m tired so I'll just sleep.

“...ia...Sia…”

A voice was calling me, perhaps telling me to wake up. On the other hand, a different voice was telling me to ignore it. Yeah, I think I’ll ignore it. I like it better that way.

“Sia, wake up.” The wake-up voice was calling me again. So persistent. Fine, I guess I’ll give up on trying to go back to sleep. Although I could’ve used an extra five more minutes.

“Hmmm…? Fernando?” I tried to open up my eyes, but they were heavy. I heard Este’s voice but my vision was a blur.

“Wake up, we have to get ready for school.” Ah, that’s right… school. The place where students suffer a slow death from the incoming flurries of homework bombarding them.

Although I was still a bit sleepy, I forced myself to get up. I’m sure I heard Este’s voice, but she wasn’t in front of me. She was probably changing. I can’t tell.

Weird… I’m sure I’m awake this time, but one of my eyes still feels heavy. I can only see half of my vision.

“Este, is there something wrong with me?” I asked.

Este looked at me and widened her eyes in surprise.

“...It’s swollen.” It’s swollen? What is that supposed to mean?

I touched my left eye and felt an unnatural bump on it.

“Ah… that’s what I forgot….”