I Was Hired As A Tutor By A Cute Little Devilish Junior - Chapter 41 Misunderstanding

“What do you have to say for yourself, Senpai?”
“I’m sorry.”

Shiina was standing in front of me, looking down at me with a red face.
I was sitting on the ground at her feet, pathetically.

As you could imagine, I deeply regretted that I went too far, and I intended to apologize in good faith.
If I offended her any more, she’d probably hate me for real.
There was a saying that it takes time to build trust, but it only takes a moment to break it.

Shiina has been teasing me a lot, but thanks to her, my life has turned into a noisy but definitely enjoyable one.
It was not something that should be broken so easily. I hoped so at least.

“I-I told you a while ago! If you want to touch me, just ask me.”
“Yeah…And you also just said it was s*xual harassment to touch you, how unreasonable.”
“What did you say?”
“Nothing, nothing at all.”

I’m the Senpai, but Shiina was completely above me in this situation.
Because of this, I couldn’t argue with Shiina about anything, so I kept my mouth shut.

I don’t know how long ago, but when I was tutoring Shiina, she said something like that to me.
She said that it was s*xual harassment when I touched her when she was so attached to me.
I have never felt such severe and unreasonable discrimination in my life.

At the time, I had completely forgotten about the existence of this mysterious system because I thought that there was almost no chance that I would actually try to touch Shiina.
It was also a mystery why Shiina insisted on such a system.

But when I thought about it for a while, I realized that it was not strange.
Indeed, it would be nothing but uncomfortable to be touched suddenly by a man if I was a girl.
If I thought about it that way, I might have done something pretty disgusting and unforgivable to Shiina.

I bent at the waist in a seiza position and put my hands on the ground in what is commonly referred to as “dogeza.”

“I’m really sorry. I know you didn’t like me touching you out of the blue, and I apologize.”
“It’s okay if you know. Next time, don’t touch me without permission.”
“Yeah, I’ll be careful. By the way, can I ask you one question?”
“What is it?”

It was true that I was wrong to touch her cheek and ear, and I regret it.
However, there was one thing that was contradictory.

“Earlier, when I hugged Shiina, didn’t you say you ‘Didn’t mind being touched by me?’”
“Ah…”

Shiina’s voice leaked out, she froze and fell silent.
I broke my dogeza a little and looked up to see her face, and she had a subtle look on her face as if to say she had said it.

At the time, Shiina had said it with some vigor, but then she added that she wasn’t lying.
In other words, if it were me, she wouldn’t mind being touched. It’s a stunning contradiction.

“Shiina?”
“I don’t like senpais with good intuition.”
“No, it’s not a matter of intuition.”
“U-Uhh. It’s a special case! What’s wrong is wrong!”

I gave Shiina a cold look as she rambled on, groggy.
When she couldn’t stand the stare, she got annoyed and argued more.

“B-But why did Senpai suddenly do something like that to me?”
“T-That’s…”
“I-Is there a reason you can’t tell me?”
“No, it’s not like that…”

Shiina had hit me where it hurt.
W-Why did I do what I did? It was payback for what I’ve done and the childish jealousy I had.
I don’t have the guts to tell her that directly, and while I was struggling to figure out how to answer that question, Shiina was slowly starting to question me.

“You have been acting strange ever since you came to my house. Are you hiding something from me, Senpai?”
“I-It’s…”
“If you tell me honestly, I won’t say anything. I don’t believe that Senpai would do something like that just on a spur. So please tell me the truth.”
“…”

Even after all that, Shiina seemed to believe in me.
I felt a little bit of guilt, but also a little bit of warmth in my heart.

If she was telling me this much, I couldn’t keep being sneaky about it.
I knew I should be ashamed, but I decided to tell Shiina what was on my mind.

“I’ve been wondering about that boy.”
“By that boy, do you mean Kohei-kun?”
“Yeah. I’m sorry to say this, but I was wondering what kind of relationship Shiina has with this Kohei-kun.”
“T-That’s what this is about…?”
“I’m sorry about that.”

I could feel my cheeks burning.”
If I were to put it into words again, it would be really pathetic. If I had a hole, I would go in it.

“I-I mean, it’s like that. I call him Kouhei-kun…”
“That’s it, that name-calling. I’ve never seen Shiina call a member of the opposite s*x by their first name like that before.”
“That’s because Kohei-kun is special…”

Shiina’s word “special” made my heart ache again.

“What do you mean by special? What kind of a partner is Kohei to Shiina?”
“What kind of partner? I can only say…cousin.”
“…Eh?”

What did Shiina just say?

“N-No. Wait, Shiina. Kohei-kun is your cousin…?”
“Yes, he is. Didn’t I tell you?”
“No, you didn’t…”

I held my head in my hands.
I’d been jealous of Shiina’s cousin until now?
Since he was her cousin, it made a lot of sense that he was close enough to Shiina to call her by her first name…I-I’m a disappointment…

After a while of agonizing over the misunderstanding caused by my hasty misinterpretation, Shiina said, “Oh, no way,” as if her mind finally clicked.
I have a bad feeling about this.

“Could it be that Senpai was curious about Kouhei-kun…You were jealous of him?”
“Ku…”
“Ah, did I get it right?”

This is why I don’t like kouhais who are too perceptive…
Shiina, who was in a good mood, pinched my cheek as if to say that she was returning the favor.

“Fufufu, you wanted to monopolize me that badly, didn’t you, Senpai~? Well, I can’t help it, you’re my Senpai~!”
“Gggggguuu…”

It was exactly what she wanted to say and what I didn’t want to be said.
Shiina was in a good mood, which was definitely better than earlier, but I was already dying of embarrassment.
Having reached my limit, I throw words at Shiina as if giving up.

“Sorry. That’s just the way men are.”
“That’s how men are?”
“A girl I’ve been with for a little while is talking to another boy. That’s enough to make me feel bewildered. I’m that kind of creature.”
“…R-Really?”

When I said that boldly, Shiina’s tone was weak, as if she was bewildered.
She looked down for a while, pondered, and then stared at me.
I resisted the urge to look away in embarrassment and stared back, she then slowly opened her mouth.

“I’m also…the same, you know?”
“…Eh?”
“It’s not just how Senpai is. I also get bothered when Senpai is talking to other girls.”
“T-That’s…”
“I-I don’t mean that in a weird way! You’re my tutor, that’s all!”

Her strong tone of voice emphasized the fact that I was only a tutor.
Of course, Shiina was not mistaken about me. Shiina was probably just like me.
She was just a little less possessive. Maybe that was enough of a reason.

“Shiina.”
“W-What is it?”
“Well. Can I pet your head?”
“W-What’s this all of a sudden?”
“No, it’s nothing serious. No…?”
“Mm…I don’t mind, but…”

Shiina reacted in the same way she did when I hugged her in a flash earlier.
I put my hand on her head, quickening my heartbeat at her cute and irresistible reaction as ever.

Slowly and carefully, I stroke her hair as if I were combing it.
I’ve touched Shiina’s hair a few times before, but this might be the first time I’ve stroked her head while she was awake.

“Senpai, aren’t you somewhat used to this?”
“What do you mean, head stroking?”
“Yes. It’s like you’ve got it down very precisely…”
“I don’t pat Kanade’s head nearly every day for nothing.”

When I answered with a laugh, Shiina looked a little complicated and spilled out, “I’m a little jealous of Kanade.”
I thought about what she meant by that and extended the patting, a little confused.

Shiina’s eyes and lips were tightly sealed at the beginning, but eventually her expression became more relaxed.
She looked like a cat, and I couldn’t help but stroke her under the chin as well. Needless to say, she ended up getting angry again.