Characters:
MC: Nogi Meguru
Heroine 1 (Big Gyaru): Himori Shuri
Heroine 2 (Petite Gyaru): Ebitani Reni
Others:
MC’s cousin (first love): Nogi Tamaki
Watanabe
Note: 7th June 2 years ago, 2nd year March
Nogi Meguru’s turning 18 this June. His mom passed away a long time ago when he was still a kid, while his dad works alone far from home. Because of that, Meguru’s been living at his aunt’s place for over 10 years. His aunt herself always works late into the night, and her only daughter already treats Meguru like her own sibling. Even so, Meguru still wants to move out of that house.
There are a bunch of reasons pushing Meguru to leave his aunt’s house, but the biggest one is that he doesn’t want to keep being a burden on them any longer.
Meguru then talks it over with his dad. At first, he just wanted to rent his own place, but instead got offered the chance to buy a mansion that belonged to his uncle. Since the room’s unused, the price offered’s pretty affordable for Meguru, as long as he works his butt off part-time throughout high school.
Meguru ends up working up to the maximum hours legally allowed for students under labor law. He takes on all kinds of jobs, including construction work, which helps him save up money faster. Thanks to his hard work, Meguru finally manages to buy that place while he’s in his second year of high school.
After buying his uncle’s old house, Meguru quickly moves his stuff out of his aunt’s place. Not long after, his cousin, Nogi Tamaki, comes to visit his new house.
Tamaki’s the most precious person to Meguru and also his first love. Besides not wanting to keep burdening his aunt’s family, one of the reasons Meguru bought this house is so he could confess his feelings to Tamaki, with the hope of living together there in the future.
There’s a 6-year age gap between them, but to Meguru, that gap won’t mean anything once they’re both in their 30s someday.
As usual, Tamaki cooks for Meguru. After they finish eating, Meguru plans to tell her how he feels. But before he gets the chance to speak, Tamaki beats him to it with something that leaves him shocked.
Tamaki says she’s getting married to her coworker this June, and she wants Meguru to come to her wedding.
All Meguru can do is swallow the confession he never got to make.
After getting his heart broken, Meguru spends the entire spring break working part-time nonstop. Working helps him forget the pain a little.
Meanwhile, Tamaki keeps acting totally normal since she has absolutely no idea about Meguru’s feelings. She even keeps offering to help him study every day. But Meguru always makes up some excuse to turn her down, just so he doesn’t have to see her anymore.
Ever since that heartbreak, Meguru can’t taste anything he eats or drinks. He himself has no idea why that’s happening.
One day, after getting paid from his part-time job, Meguru feels like the amount’s pretty big since he’s basically been working nonstop almost every day.
On his way home, while passing through a hotel district, he spots his classmate, who’s been in the same class as him since freshman year, Himori Shuri.
Shuri’s there with a middle-aged man.
At first, Meguru doesn’t want to get involved. But when he sees how uncomfortable Shuri looks, he immediately walks over to her.
Meguru asks Shuri’s price, and she answers 50,000 yen, not including the hotel.
The middle-aged guy next to Shuri looks annoyed that Meguru’s butting in. Without hesitation, Meguru hands his entire paycheck to Shuri, telling her not to sell herself cheap.
He also warns the guy that Shuri’s still a high school student. If the authorities ever found out, the guy’s the one who’d be in trouble for soliciting a minor.
After that incident, Meguru keeps it a secret, and Shuri goes back to acting normal in class.
Time passes, and Meguru moves up to his third year of high school. He’s now in the same class as Shuri, along with a small, blonde gyaru girl named Ebitani Reni.
One day, walking back to class from the teachers’ office, Meguru sees Shuri and Reni getting hassled by some male students.
When Meguru and Reni’s eyes meet, Reni looks like she’s silently asking for help. Meguru immediately steps in and separates them from the guys.
Those guys obviously don’t like what Meguru did. One of them, a big guy, grabs Meguru’s collar. But Meguru doesn’t fight back. Even when he gets punched in the face, he doesn’t show any sign of pain at all.
That student, who knows the rumors about Nogi Meguru, eventually decides to back off, leaving Shuri and Reni alone.
As a thank-you, Shuri and Reni invite Meguru to eat lunch together. Shuri treats him to some bread from the school cafeteria.
As usual, Meguru still can’t taste anything he eats.
They spend lunch break chatting. During the conversation, Shuri and Reni find out Meguru lives alone in the house he bought.
Hearing that, they immediately ask if they can come hang out at his place. In exchange, Shuri offers to cook him dinner.
Since there’s no real reason to say no, Meguru agrees.
Turns out Shuri and Reni bring a lot of stuff with them. They play games together and then have dinner together.
At first, Meguru’s worried he won’t be able to taste Shuri’s cooking. But when he tries it, his sense of taste suddenly comes back.
He ends up eating Shuri’s food like crazy.
That’s when Shuri and Reni beg Meguru to let them live at his house.
This whole time, they’d been renting their own place and living together, but since they couldn’t afford the rent, they got evicted. For the past month, they’ve had to keep moving around, from internet cafés to cheap love hotels.
Meguru eventually agrees to let them live with him.
Of course, when two girls end up living with one guy, all kinds of unexpected stuff happens. Like Shuri not wearing underwear, or Reni forgetting whose house it is when she walks out of the bathroom.
There’s also only one bed at Meguru’s place, so the three of them always end up sleeping together in one bed. Meguru’s actually offered several times to buy an extra mattress, but they always turn him down.
While out shopping with Reni, Meguru runs into Tamaki again at a mall after work.
Tamaki still acts the same as always, even clinging tightly onto Meguru’s arm. Meguru knows Tamaki doesn’t see him as a romantic interest, just as family. Still, it hurts his heart anyway.
Tamaki even hands Meguru her wedding invitation.
Deep down, Meguru doesn’t want to go. But he can’t bring himself to say that in front of Tamaki.
Reni, seeing Meguru with another woman, immediately walks over and hugs his other arm, like she’s putting up a fight.
When asked who she is, Reni answers that she’s Meguru’s girlfriend.
Tamaki feels awkward, apologizes, and leaves.
On the way home, Reni keeps clinging to Meguru’s arm, using the excuse that Tamaki might still be around nearby.
Turns out, Reni’s actually had feelings for Meguru for a while now.
Back in freshman year, Reni was once saved by Meguru when some college guys harassed and tried to force themselves on her at the station. At the time, Reni’s look already made her come across as an easy target.
Reni couldn’t fight back or even scream. But Meguru, who happened to be passing by, immediately pulled her close and told the guys she was his girlfriend.
When the college guys tried to push back, Meguru punched one of them and challenged them, asking if they just wanted to mess around or actually wanted to fight.
In the end, the guys left.
After that, Meguru apologized to Reni for acting without asking first, then left without asking for anything in return.
Reni then tried to find out who Meguru was, and eventually found him at school. From that point on, she started keeping an eye on his class, which eventually led her to meet Shuri.
Meguru himself, though, doesn’t remember that incident at all.
At his construction job, Meguru runs into Watanabe again, the guy who used to harass Shuri and Reni and punch Meguru.
Watanabe apologizes, and since they end up working at the same place, they become friendly.
Watanabe also mentions he saw Meguru walking hand in hand with Reni at the mall, and asks if they’re dating.
Meguru doesn’t give an answer, so Watanabe just assumes they really are together.
One night, after finishing work at 10 PM, Meguru runs into Shuri, who’s waiting for him.
Shuri immediately links arms with him, and they walk home together.
On the way, Meguru finally learns the real reason Shuri was selling herself, it was to get money for a place to live with Reni. But that was the first time, and she hadn’t actually done anything yet.
Shuri also asks about Meguru’s first love.
Meguru admits this is the first time he’s ever felt heartbroken, and he has no idea when he’ll be able to find a new love.
Shuri reassures him, saying that someday he’ll definitely find it, and that she’ll wait for him.
At first, Shuri only wanted to help push Reni and Meguru together. But without even realizing it, she ends up falling for Meguru herself.
Up until now, Shuri’s always turned down confessions from a lot of guys because of family reasons. Her mom got pregnant back in her freshman year of high school and had to drop out. Shuri doesn’t want to repeat that same mistake.
But now, she’s actually fallen for Meguru.
Ever since realizing her feelings, she’s started feeling embarrassed about doing skinship like she usually does.
Reni and Shuri themselves have a really close relationship. Even after Reni found out about Shuri’s feelings, she doesn’t hate her for it.
They both agree that whoever Meguru ends up choosing, they’ll accept it. But they also hope that, if possible, Meguru could end up accepting both of them.
One day, Shuri and Reni ask Meguru why he’s never dug deeper into their problems.
Meguru answers that he’s someone who’s been saved by other people before. He lost his mom early on and barely sees his dad, but thanks to his aunt and Tamaki, he got to feel what family warmth is like.
That’s why he wants to help other people too.
To him, it doesn’t matter who needs help, he’ll still help them.
He also says that even if all he can offer is a place to stay, that’s still enough for him.
When he was heartbroken, it was Shuri and Reni who filled the emptiness in his heart.
He also says that even if he ends up getting a girlfriend someday, he won’t kick them out.
Hearing that, Shuri and Reni ask again if they can keep living with him.
Of course, Meguru says yes.
Oh right, there’s one interesting conversation worth mentioning.
Shuri once asked Meguru: if there were two heroines who liked the same main character, and that main character chose both of them, what would he think about that?
Meguru’s answer was that he wouldn’t have a problem with it, as long as all three of them accepted each other and could live happily together.