The Order of Bath is Important for Girls.

"The bathtub's ready."

I told Airi as I finished cleaning up the dishes from dinner and filling the bathtub with hot water.

Most of the time when I was alone, I would just take a shower because it was too much trouble, but it would be wrong to force a girl to do that.

I didn't want to tell her that if she wanted to soak in the bathtub, she had to fill it herself. That thought didn't even come to my mind in the first place.

"I understand."

"..."

"..."

For some reason, we both stopped moving.

Airi said she understood, so maybe she thought I would go in first.

I didn't really care which one of us went in first, but I didn't know how she felt about it.

"You can go in first."

"No, I think Kujo-senpai should get in first."

It seemed that I could go in first, but I should ask her once again just to make sure.

"You sure you don't want to take a bath first?"

"No, I'm fine. What are you worried about?"

"Wouldn't you say, 'I can't use hot water that's been soaked by a man because it's too dirty'?"

When I told her what I thought she was going to say, she stared at me with a frown and sighed. I didn't think she could look like that.

The beautiful girl had a good expression when she stared. I was afraid she might get angry if I told her, so I would keep it to myself.

With that expression, Airi then said,

"That's very prejudiced. I mean, do you really think I'd say something like that?"

"No, I just thought I'd ask."

There was no harm in asking. It was better to ask now than to be told later and get into trouble.

"By the way, what would you do if I told you that?"

"I'd throw out the water I was in and start refilling the tub. Or I'll just take a shower."

If that happened, I would probably just take a shower because it was too much trouble to refill every time, but in the end it would just be business as usual, so there was no problem.

So I told her, but for some reason she looked at me as if she was stunned.

"It's a waste of money on the water bill. If you just shower, you won't get warm."

"I usually just shower, so I'm fine."

"Then… Why did you fill the tub today?"

"I thought Ninomiya would come in and take a bath."

When I told Airi, she froze with a straight face. Did I say something so strange?

I thought that girls wanted to soak in the bathtub, but maybe not.

"What's wrong?"

"... No, it's nothing. I don't care if it's before or after. Today, Kujo-senpai has prepared the hot water, so please go in first. Be sure to soak in the bathtub to warm up."

Airi, who recovered from her rigidity, sighed once more and said so with a wry smile.

I wondered if that meant I should warm up properly and change the water.

"So, I'm supposed to change the water, right?"

"You don't have to, I won't say anything weird. Just go ahead and get in first."

In the end, I was kicked out of the living room by Airi, who looked at me like she was looking at something pitiful.

Although I was worried about the way she looked at me, I went in first without hesitation since she said so.

"I'm done. You can go in next."

"Thank you very much."

I changed into my sleepwear and returned to the living room.

We swapped places and she went into the bathroom but then she returned and she had a troubled expression that I had seen a few times today.

(Did I do something wrong? I'm sure I cleaned up properly.)

I didn't remember doing anything in the bathroom that would bother Airi.

It was possible that my unconscious behavior might have made her uncomfortable, but I didn't think it was possible to be that considerate.

"Um… Kujo-senpai. The bathroom is wet, where should I change?"

"Front door."

There was no such thing as a changing room in this house since this was a 1K apartment.

The bathroom was just to the right of the entrance, so it was the only place to take off your clothes. I always changed my clothes there. Today was no different.

"Please don't look when I change."

"Who's going to peek? I'm not going to do that."

I said back to her, as she looked slightly red. I didn't want her to be angry with me for doing that.

"Then, please don't look over here because my clothes are over there."

"The bathroom is in that aisle. What do I do if I need to go?

"Please be patient."

The piercing tone of her voice came back to me but then I thought about it more and realized that there was not only clothes, but underwear as well.

Soon I could hear the sound of clothes rustling.

(This is a ridiculous situation if you think about it normally.)

It was very unlikely that a beautiful girl would be changing her clothes in a doorway with nothing to hide.

Of course, as I told her, I had absolutely no intention of peeking, but I was conscious of it.

As I tried not to think about it, the sound of rustling clothes disappeared, and now I heard the sound of the shower.

I became even more restless than before and decided to distract myself by listening to music through my earphones.

It was going to take me a while to get used to this.

I didn't want to be aware of the sound of Airi taking a bath, so I listened to the music from a position where I couldn't see her from the doorway. Then I saw her thin, white legs out of the corner of my eye.

Relieved that it was finally over, I took off my earphones and looked up to see her staring at me with a subtle look of dismay in her eyes.

"Why are you wearing earphones when you're in your own room, why don't you just let it play normally?"

When she got out of the bath, Airi was wearing pink, fluffy pajamas.

The pajamas I was expecting to see were more mature, but she looked great in these cute ones. She looked like a cute doll.

After taking a bath, her face was glowing, making her look strangely sexy.

"That's the mood I'm in."

"What's up with that?"

I was somewhat embarrassed, so I bluntly replied, and she laughed bitterly at me as if she didn't understand.

Without mentioning her expression, I handed her a hair dryer that I took out of the closet.

"Here's the hair dryer."

"Thank you very much."

Airi had been spending a lot of time drying her long hair and taking good care of it since a while ago.

It seemed that it took a lot of effort to maintain that beautiful silver hair.

As I was admiring the time and effort she put into it, she gave me an awkward look.

"Please don't stare at me."

"Sorry, I'll be careful next time, but it looks like it takes a lot of time and effort to maintain your hair."

It was so interesting that I couldn't help but look at it, but I regretted my lack of delicacy.

"Yeah, well, it's pretty long."

"Are you particular about it?"

The fact that she took the time and effort to take care of her silver hair, which was very long and beautiful, meant that she must be very proud of it.

That was what I thought, so I asked her that question, but Airi's face turned into a smile I had never seen before.

"... I guess so."

I thought this was a complete setback.

The smile she gave me was a pasted-on smile, and I would rather have a blank expression or a glare than this expression.

I asked the question insensitively and bowed my head honestly.

"I'm really sorry. I'm sorry I asked you such a weird question."

"... No, it's fine."

Although I was forgiven softly, the atmosphere became worse.

As I was trying to change the atmosphere somehow, she seemed to have the same idea and brought up a completely different topic.

Her expression was a bit dissatisfied, but I thought it was much better than the smile she had just given me.

"The hair dryer smells like burning dust. Do you use it regularly?"

"No, I don't."

"How do you usually, or rather, how did you dry your hair today?"

"I let it dry naturally."

She gave me the stare for the umpteenth time today.

I guess that's what men's hair was like.

My hair wasn't that long, and it dried quickly if I left it alone. Unlike her, I was not particular about my hair, though I did take care of it at least.

So it was not a problem, but for some reason, she let out a big sigh.

"I'm done… Then I'll let you use it as you like."

"You're welcome to use it."

I had bought the hairdryer and hadn't used it, so it was a treasure trove.

The hair dryer would be happy to be used by her.

"I'd like to use the un-wetted bathroom as a changing room. Can I go in first from now on?"

After Airi finished drying her hair, she asked me about the bath order.

"Yeah, sure."

I was not particular about this, so there was no problem at all if she entered first.

I thought Airi wanted to reduce the risk of someone peeking at her changing clothes, just in case.

"I'll prepare the bath for you next time, then."

"I can at least prepare the bath. Even if it's only for the night, you're already making dinner."

"I'll be going in first and I think anyone who enters the bath first should be the one to prepare it."

If that was what Airi apparently thought, then I couldn't deny it.

"All right, but if you're busy, I'll take over."

"Thank you very much."

"And you'll leave your clothes outside, right?"

"Of course. I don't want them to get wet, so you'll have to be patient while I'm there."

"All right."

She told me with the same piercing attitude as ever. Well, I realised this was what men were supposed to do.

"Is the game too loud?"

"It's fine."

I asked Airi's permission to start the game.

I didn't have any assignments today, so I could play without worrying.

I was playing a recently released RPG, but I was being watched closely by someone behind me.

I couldn't help but be distracted when someone did that.

"What's the matter with you looking at me like that?"

"So that's what a game screen looks like. I've never played it and I've almost never seen it. It looks interesting."

She said this to me with the most sparkling expression I had seen today. Though the actual expression changed only slightly.

In this day and age, it was pretty rare to find someone who hadn't played a game before.

If you watched TV, you would probably see advertisements for it, and you could even play it on your smartphone.

"That's unusual. You didn't have anything like this at home?"

"No, I didn't have anything like that at home."

"Do you know smartphones have these?"

"I'm not allowed to have those kinds of things on my phone."

I was answered with downcast eyes.

"... I'm sorry, I don't know what to say."

It seemed that Airi's family was quite strict, and I felt bad for asking again so bluntly.

I felt that a smartphone without applications such as games was just a terminal for receiving communications, but it was not something that I could speak about.

I wondered if she had gotten used to being asked this question, or if she just didn't care about it, but her expression turned wry.

"It's nothing for you to apologize for. Can I continue watching this?"

"Yeah, sure. Watch as long as you like."

"Thank you very much."

I thought a lot of people would say that watching RPGs was pretty painful, but apparently she wanted to watch them.

I went back to the game to let Airi do what she wanted.

Perhaps she was very interested in it because she was looking at the screen the entire time from behind me.

1K with K stands for 'Kitchen'. Basically this is a one room studio apartment with a kitchen that is separated from other rooms by a wall. 1K apartments typically have between 13-sqm and 25-sqm of floor space.