His Childhood Friend is a Beautiful, Reclusive Girl, So He Spends His After-School Hours in Her Room (But He’s Not Her Boyfriend!) - Ch. 75: My Childhood Friend Can't Hold A Dumbbell...Not Surprising

“Yuika! That’s enough, that’s enough! You’ve worked hard enough…”
“I can’t just give up like this! I can still do it…!

Currently, Yuika was training with the dumbbells I borrowed.
She was wearing a red jersey with a ponytail and a hachimaki, holding a dumbbell and raising and lowering her hands in a yell.

But her face was already pale and his breathing was ragged.
She was visibly at her limit. Still, Yuika refused to stop.
I covered my face to hold back the tears.

“You, how can you push yourself so far…”
“Isn’t that obvious? It’s for cute Iori. As his big sister, you’ve decided to do your best!”
“But your arms can’t take any more…!”
“For the sake of my precious brother, my arm…is nothing!”
“Yuika, you’re so crazy!”

In the midst of all this tension, Yuika finally completed her goal.
She placed the dumbbells on the floor and fluffed up her ponytail, still looking tired yet graceful.

“Souta, did you watch? The way I live my life.”
“Yes, I’ve been watching you. You are the strongest muscle queen in the history of this room…”
“Hmm, the strongest. Once you’ve achieved it, it’s a very empty title…”

As soon as she mumbled something atmospheric with distant eyes, she staggered.

“Y-Yuika!”
I quickly reached out and held the falling body.
In order to cooperate with her properly, I got down on my knees and put on a shocked look.

“How light…You’ve been training hard with a body like this…”
“…Don’t be sad, Souta. The title of ‘Muscle Queen’ could not be obtained without overcoming a limit or two. I’m…happy with how this ended.””

A slender arm was raised trembling, and I clasped the hand.

“Queen, tell me one thing.”
“I’ll tell you anything you like…”

Keeping a serious face, I asked.

“Don’t tell me…we have to go through this charade every time you do a set?”

As soon as I asked, Yuika pouted.

“Don’t call it a charade. This kind of theatricality is necessary to keep up the hard training.”
“I don’t know about that, but…”

I slumped my shoulders and winced.
It was right after Yuika started lifting the dumbbells. She was raising and lowering her arms in a very theatrical manner, so I decided to try to keep up with her.

The result was the mysterious charade that we are now witnessing. Well, if she wanted to do it, I’d go along with her, but it was going to be a pain if we do this every time.

Also, her current training shouldn’t be that hard in general, right?
The dumbbells are only one kilogram, and the number of repetitions was 20 for both hands. The load was probably enough to make a junior high school girl’s hands feel a little sore.

…I want to say something, but I’ll keep my mouth shut for now.
In fact, Yuika was a hardcore recluse, so she really doesn’t have much stamina.
Even now, she was still not breathing properly, and it looks like she was having a hard time.

By the way, the shriveled hair sticking to the sweaty skin was a little bit erotic…but if I tell her, it might spoil Muscle Queen’s good mood, so I’ll keep quiet about this too.

“Well, Souta. After a little more rest, we’ll do the second set.”
“Hmm? Are we going to do it again? Don’t you mean tomorrow or something?”
“Of course not, 20 reps isn’t enough to work out, right?”

“Crazy, Yuika’s talking sense…”
“Who does Souta think the Muscle Queen is?”
“The Muscle Queen is a mystery to me, but I was convinced that Yuika was a self-destructive princess.”

“Know that your confidence will be shattered today.”
“I wonder if it will rain spears today. It’s a terrible thing…”

Apparently, we’re still training. So I won’t say it was too much trouble, I’ll go along with her.

To be honest, I thought that she would end up being a monk for a set a day rather than a monk for three days. However, it seemed that Yuika was serious this time. She’s grown up…I can’t help but smile.

Well, she was still a pampered child, since she was going to take a rest in a princess-like state.
So, the princess has been staring at my chest for some reason since a while ago.

“Muu…”
“What’s wrong? You looked troubled.”
“Well, I hadn’t really thought about it before, but I guess Souta has muscles.”

Then she said, flattening herself and touching my chest.

Tap tap tap tap.

No, yeah, this…was ticklish.
By the way, I’m in my school uniform. My blazer was hung on a hanger on the wall, and I’m wearing a shirt on top and pants on the bottom.

Yuika touched my body over my shirt, sometimes putting her hands in my chest pockets and playing with the buttons with her fingers.

“…No, what do you want?”
“Hmmm, like muscle image training?”
“Image training has nothing to do with chest pockets and buttons.”
“That’s another thing. I’m just having fun with Souta.”
“Well, okay…”

While we were talking, the touching continued, and my hand gradually moved downward.
And then, “Oyo?” Yuika raised her voice.

“Souta-san.”
“What is it?”
“Are you…training your abs by any chance?”
“Uh…”

I was at a loss for an answer and slurred my words. Unlike the manager at my part-time job, I’m not very good at showing that I work out. I felt embarrassed about it.
But my curious childhood friend wouldn’t let me go.
She pulled my face closer and rubbed my abs while looking into my eyes.

“Hey, hey, are they trained? This sensation, it’s definitely trained? Hey, hey, hey, hey?”
“Stop it, stop it. Don’t rub my abs while saying ‘hey’! You’re making me nervous!”
“It’ll be easier if you tell me honestly. If you don’t tell me, I’ll keep rubbing you. Here, rub, rub, rub!”

“Are you a pervert!? Don’t do that again! The heat from the friction will make me burn! …It’s just a little, just a little. It’s a little training, but a little stiff if you look closely.”
“Wow, it’s really there.”

She sounded impressed with something.
Then Yuika slowly pulled away from my arms.

She stood in front of me and peered at my abs with even more curious eyes.
And then she started to say something outrageous.

“I want to see!”
“What!?”
“I want to see Souta’s abs! Let me see! So take it off!”
“What!? W-Wait!”

In the same way that a girl would lift her skirt, Yuika pulled my shirt out of my pants in one go.
I couldn’t help but scream like a girl.

What the heck is she doing? Seriously, what is she doing?　

I could only be shocked at the unwarranted behavior of the queen.