Birds chirp excitedly outside your room. You’d shoot them if you could.

How dare they make such a racket this early in the morning.

You have a terrible headache and each second of birdsong is like somebody tapping away at your skull with a small hammer.

Wasn’t there something important you should’ve kept an eye on?

Honestly, you can’t even remember how you made it back to your room.

Eyes squinting to keep out the light, you look towards the clock in the left side of your room.

Only to find it isn’t there.

In fact, the window isn’t where it should be either.

Were the covers on your futon always this colour?

Somebody moves under the covers beside you, shifting the blanket.

A soft hand slides over your thigh, gradually making its way to your stomach – where it rests.

A different hand slides underneath your body, gripping your side.

They pull you in towards them, embracing you in a tight hug.

Something soft presses into your upper back.

A strand of red hair slides over your shoulder as this other person places a small kiss in your neck.

Ah. This feels nice. How long has it been seen you cuddled like this? Have you ever?

“Good morning~” says Watase Yoko with a sly grin.

Reality taps you on the shoulder a few times before then slapping you back into the here and now.

Wait, wait, wait. Your body goes cold as dread envelops you.

Where are you? What’s happening?

“W-what are you doing?” you say with a shiver in your voice.

“Oh, sorry, sorry,” replies Watase, “Habits.”

“Habits?” you ask.

“I wake up next to a pretty girl and, well, habits…” she says, still holding on.

Why did you wake up next to each other to begin with?

“W-we… didn’t… right?” you ask carefully.

Watase moves her shoulders backwards in an effort to stretch the muscles, then hugs you tighter.

“Watase-san…?” you ask again.

“Just Yoko will do,” says Watase, as she continues to cuddle with you.

You remember the start of the evening, but things get blurry after that.

Judging from your position you can kind of guess what happened.

Only yesterday you were reprimanding Kaiba for not being careful with her relationships and now look at you.

“Please, don’t tell anyone…” you say, shaking, “If Yui-chan finds out… she’ll be so upset…”

“Oh?” says Watase, “Who’s this Yui-chan? I love it when I take a girl from somebody else…”

“You’ll keep this quiet… right?” you say, panic creeping into your voice.

“Hmm~,” says Watase, “I don’t know… I mean, nothing happened.”

Eh?

With some effort you release yourself from Watase’s grip and roll over to face her.

Then you slide backwards a bit as you find out your faces are only inches apart.

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Watase replies with a wide grin, then puts some more space between the both of you, “Nothing happened, for real!” she says, pulling the covers towards herself, “Do you really think I would do something to a person that can’t even stand and passes out every other second? That’s not manly at all.”

“Watase-san, please,” you say, shaking your head to force away the headache, unsuccessful, “What happened?”

“You were a mess, girl,” says Watase, matter-of-factly, “Like beyond drunk. I tried getting you to your room, but I didn’t know which one it was or where you kept your room key…So I went to mine.”

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”I figured that was better than dragging you towards random rooms and showing off the state you were in to the people inside,” she adds.

Thank the gods for that.

Just imaging Watase Yoko dragging you, bobble-heading drunk, into each of the rooms only to go “Woops, sorry” is enough to make you wince.

“Besides, you also looked like you could throw up at any moment so I figured I couldn’t just dump you in some room and take off,” continues Watase, “I wasn’t doing so hot either, I planned to take out another futon for me, but the moment I laid you down I couldn’t get up and just barely made it out of my yukata before I passed out myself…”

“Well, I suppose sleeping in both a yukata and Juban would be quite hot,” you say.

Watase lifts the blanket a bit as she grins, allowing you a peek underneath.

“You’re naked?!” you shout, then quickly adjust to a loud whisper, “Why?”

Hopefully nobody heard.

Watase shrugs, “I always sleep naked, I just took all my clothes off by habit.”

“That isn’t weird to you at all?” you ask, perplexed, “There was another person…”

“No?” replies Watase, “Why would it be?”

Your eyes widen and you have a quick look at your own situation.

Relief. You’re at least wearing your Juban, the underclothes traditionally worn under a yukata.

They’re in quite a state though, the belt has come untied – leaving your stomach exposed and the hem has ridden up your leg to allow easy access for intruding hands.

You toss your part of the covers aside and quickly fix your clothing, pulling the belt of your Juban tight to make sure it doesn’t loosen again.

Watase Yoko is lounging on an elbow, watching you, “…I mean, since we’re both here we could still…?” she says.

“No,” you reply flatly, “I think you’ve had your hands on me quite enough…”

In response, Watase Yoko tosses the covers aside completely, “I don’t mind returning the favour,” she says, “Have at it…”

How can she be so shameless like that…

What she did to you earlier was straight-up sexual harassment, wasn’t it?

Not like you can tell anyone without mentioning everything that preceded it.

You sigh. Forget it.

She’s an absolute lecher, but she cared enough to get you into a bed – even if that bed ended up being her own.

It thankfully wasn’t necessary, but you would’ve grateful that she was there if your body ended up handling the liquor poorly.

If anything, the situation is a good reminder about self-control.

You pick up Watase’s clothing and toss them at her, “Get dressed,” you say.

After glancing around the room, you’ve finally located the clock, it won’t be long until they serve breakfast and it’ll be suspicious if the both of you are absent after the other managers saw you at the bar yesterday.

You put your yukata back on as it is the only clothing you have on hand.

Ah, your head hurts. Your mouth and throat feel like they haven’t seen a sip of water in days.

You would rather just stay in bed for the rest of the day, but instead you have to deal with all this.

Watase is happy to just stay in bed and watch you get dressed.

Once you’re fully dressed, she reaches for her own clothes.

“I don’t get how you can be so calm about all this,” you say.

“Morning after can always be a bit awkward if drinking is involved, no?” she says, sniffing some of yesterday’s clothes.

They pass whatever low standard she has for them and begins to get dressed.

Are you overreacting?

No, normal people don’t behave like this. Right?

This girl is just thinking too little of this.

“Get your phone out,” you say to Watase, rubbing your temples, “We need to share numbers.”

“And here I was thinking you felt nothing for me,” she says in a playful tone while getting dressed.

Can this girl take this seriously, please?

This might be just another day to her, but you’re not about to make the first impression your two new idols have of you being one of some kind of drunk.

Or worse and more likely – one where you sleep around with idols.

“You have to leave first, this is your room after all, and head to breakfast,” you say, “Send me a message when everybody else is there and I’ll pop into my room to change and join you later.”

Watase shrugs, “Sure,” she says, then smiles at her phone as she saves your number, “Feels like I’m back at college. Sneaking around like this.”

“We clearly went to different colleges,“ you say, pinching the bridge of your nose, “Just go to breakfast already, I’ll wait here…”

“Yes, yes, ma’am,” replies Watase, “As you say.”

She glances at a nearby mirror, picks something out of her teeth, and heads out.

Might sound harsh, but you’re somewhat surprised Watase went to college while being an idol.

It’s not out of the ordinary, but being able to combine all the responsibilities of being an idol with school is quite a feat.

Hold on. You should’ve probably told her that the both of you reek of booze. Oops.

Well, you’ll freshen up and brush your teeth before meeting up with the others even if she doesn’t.

You sit in Watase’s room and wait for the signal, thinking. This could’ve ended a lot worse.

Excessive drinking to a point that you can’t even control your own body isn’t worth repeating.

At least Watase had some morals and didn’t take complete advantage of you…

And cuddling was sort of nice. Maybe you should try dating again? Men, of course.

If nothing else, you can’t help but be a bit more understanding of Kaiba’s situation.

Affection can be incredibly addictive. Maybe even Emiko’s twisted kind that was withheld on a whim…

Jeesh, what are you thinking?

You really need to find a boyfriend before you end up with five cats instead.

Maybe Kitabayashi would be interested in going clubbing or something?

Is that cruel? Asking the girl that was interested in you to help you look for somebody else?

You’re still twenty-six, that’s not too old for clubbing, right?

Where do you even find somebody in your late twenties?

A little jingle sounds, you check your phone.

A message from Watase Yoko. The signal.

You also have an email from Matsui Tomo, but you’ll check that later.

You sneak towards your room, get out of the yukata and into pyjamas, only to walk towards the shared bathroom, brush your teeth, clean up a bit, get into fresh clothes, and head out.