Why I Fell for Tiny You: Volume 1 Chapter 17

17 Tiny You Likes the Ground

"Ah, the ground really is so relaxing..."

Koto-chan seemed deeply relieved after coming down from the high-rise building.

Since it was lunchtime, we'd stopped at a nearby family restaurant called Galaxylian.

It was crowded because it was Sunday, but we got lucky when a table opened at just the right moment.

"Koto-chan, are you sure a family restaurant is okay when we're out together like this? That observation deck had some places that looked good."

"No way! I can't eat somewhere that high!"

So she said.

There had been plenty of benches, and the whole point of the observation deck was to enjoy photogenic snacks and drinks in that park in the sky.

We could have eaten before escaping back to the ground, but eating up there was exactly what Koto-chan couldn't handle.

"Besides, this family restaurant has a famous dish. I've wanted to try it at least once."

"Really? I don't come to family restaurants very often."

"You know, your diet kind of worries me, Toochika-kun."

Across the table, Koto-chan gave an adorable little tilt of her head.

"For breakfast, food from the convenience store. For lunch, something from the school store. For dinner... Fruit or sweets or something."

"Living means eating! Eat proper food!"

Koto-chan slammed her hand down on the table with a bang.

This girl was serious when it came to food.

"It's important to make sure Rou-kun and the others eat proper meals too. When it comes to food, I won't back down even one step!"

"I can't picture you backing down about anything else either, Koto-chan."

I kept telling her I liked older women, yet she knew she was my exact opposite and still came at me full force.

"Well, take your time eating and let yourself calm down."

"I'm going to stay away from high places for a while."

"That sounds like the best thing for your mental health."

"Humanity should live crawling around on the ground."

"That's a disturbing way to put it."

Not that I particularly liked high places myself.

"Humanity has always aimed for greater heights. We've flown through the sky and even traveled to the moon and space."

"Your name uses the kanji for sky, right, Toochika-kun? Sora. Sky."

"You don't have to repeat it. Well, I always want to become a man as vast as the sky."

"Then couldn't a great man return the feelings of a girl who's the opposite of his type?"

"I still need more training. When I was carrying you earlier, Koto-chan, those older women took pictures. I'm worried sick they'll end up all over social media."

"Ugh... I-I'm sorry. It's because I asked for a back hug."

"I-I'm kidding. If you apologize like that, it makes me the bad guy."

Knowing how shrewd Koto-chan was, I'd expected her to say something like, "If they get around, it'll make us a done deal."

"Just kidding. If they get around on social media, maybe it'll make us a done deal. Take responsibility, Toochika-kun."

"Hey."

She really was shrewd.

Koto-chan laughed.

Even so, I should have been the more considerate one as the guy, and I needed to be more conscious that Koto-chan wasn't a child.

"Anyway, that's not even what I'm worried about right now. Haaah, I'm so grateful for the ground."

"You're really one with the earth. Just please don't sit down on the floor in here."

"I have common sense too. But I seriously thought I was going to die."

"If I let you die, my marriage to Miss would be called off."

"When did anyone bring you a marriage proposal?"

Koto-chan shot me a glare despite supposedly still being mentally drained.

There was still life in this girl's eyes.

"Ah!"

Koto-chan bounced in her seat.

"Thank you for waiting. Your Galaxylia Hamburg Steak Set."

"It's here, it's here!"

Koto-chan clapped her hands.

The waitress watched her with a fond smile too.

It made me want to tell the waitress that this girl was a high school student, not an elementary schooler.

The waitress set down my meal next and walked away.

"Wow, it looks delicious. Two hamburger steaks, two fried eggs, and fried shrimp too!"

"Is this an eating-challenge meal? Do you get it free if you finish everything?"

"Your standard for an eating challenge is way too low, Toochika-kun. Anyone can eat this much."

"That looks like about three days' worth of calories for me."

"It's strange that you're thirty centimeters taller than me when you eat so little."

Koto-chan stared at me as if I were a mystery.

She apparently found it strange but wasn't jealous.

As expected of a girl who used her small size as a weapon.

"Oh, come to think of it..."

"You weren't just thinking, 'Why isn't she having a children's meal?' were you?"

"O-Of course not?"

She saw through me instantly. Scary.

"A children's meal isn't nearly enough. Even two wouldn't fill me up."

"Is that really the issue?"

I'd never once thought about the portion size of a children's meal.

"You're a light eater after all, Toochika-kun."

"This is plenty for me."

The dish in front of me was omurice¹.

It was a smaller serving covered in demi-glace sauce, with no real side dishes.

"I like omurice. Honestly, I'd be perfectly fine eating it for every meal."

"That's too extreme! It's better than eating nothing but fruit or dessert, but still. Eat some meat. Meat!"

Koto-chan cut off a piece of her hamburger steak and placed it on my omurice.

It looked like it would go well with the demi-glace sauce.

"I'll eat it if you're giving it to me. Oh, that's good. I can eat a little meat."

"Maybe you have a small stomach, Toochika-kun. Hey, you know how in manga..."

"Yeah?"

"Small girls like me often date really big boys, right?"

"You see it all the time."

It was probably an easy way to give the characters contrasting traits.

Koto-chan and I had a considerable thirty-centimeter height difference too, but my height was perfectly average.

"You're fine the way you are now, Toochika-kun. If you grow any taller, it'll be hard to make eye contact."

"You'd climb right up me if that's what it took to look me in the eye, Koto-chan."

"I would."

"You're not supposed to say you would."

That answer had me slipping into fake Kansai dialect without even thinking.

I really was letting my guard down.

I seriously needed to be careful about physical contact with Koto-chan.

"If anything, I'd like to climb you──Ah!"

Koto-chan dropped her knife while cutting her hamburger steak and smiling over at me.

"Don't worry, I'll pick it up."

We could have asked an employee to do it, but we could at least handle that much ourselves.

"Sorry, Toochika-kun."

"Don't worry abou──Ah."

When I bent down and ducked beneath the table──

Directly in front of me were Koto-chan's slender thighs──and beyond them, her pink panties in plain view.

That was why I'd told her such a short skirt was dangerous!

Even if she was the size of an elementary schooler, Koto-chan was a genuine high school girl and the same age as me.

Was it really okay for her to show me her panties this easily, practically every time we met?

As if she'd dressed with being seen in mind, she'd even worn cute pink panties today.

Even someone who wasn't a lolicon, faced with a sight this defenseless──

"Did it fall somewhere strange? Are you okay, Toochika-kun?"

"...Okay, I got it."

I picked up the knife, called over a server, and had it replaced with a clean one.

"Thanks. But I don't need to give you anything in return, right?"

"I don't need anything in return, but why?"

"You saw my panties, didn't you?"

"Urk."

As expected of a high school girl, even one who looked like a child, she was sensitive to where a boy was looking.

"It's embarrassing, but... It's kind of exciting when the person I like sees them."

"Koto-chan?"

"Ah, yeah. That was a new feeling for me."

"You aren't even going to try to play that off..."

Had I opened the door to a new fetish for Koto-chan?

"More importantly, Koto-chan, if you're going to wear a miniskirt that short, you should at least wear shorts underneath. You're a girl too, so you need to have some modesty."

"Wait, my panties were the ones seen, and I'm the one getting scolded?"

Koto-chan's face reddened as she gave me a sullen stare.

"Listen, I'm not actually shameless."

"After you enjoyed showing off your panties?"

"I-I didn't enjoy it... Toochika-kun, I don't have enough appeal as a girl. I can't afford to hold back over something like panties!"

"You're too loud!"

The passing waitress was giving us a suspicious look.

"We're on a walk... No, a date, after all."

"So the walk excuse is already gone?"

"I make the most of my chances. So maybe I'll try a little harder."

"Hm?"

Koto-chan stood up and moved into the seat beside me.

She pulled the so-called Galaxylia Hamburg Steak Set over as well.

"Here, Toochika-kun."

"What, you want me to eat this?"

Koto-chan cut off a piece of Hamburg steak and held it to my lips.

"Eat lots and build up more virility."

"Virility?"

"If I weren't small, showing you my panties would have made you get horny and pounce on me."

"Could you stop talking about me like I'm an animal?"

Did she think I would pounce on the nearest girl the instant I got aroused?

"If this doesn't make you even a little excited by me, Toochika-kun, then I showed you my panties for nothing. After going through something that embarrassing, I can't let this date end without anything happening!"

"O-Okay, I'll eat it, so please calm down a litt──Huh?"

"What?"

I'd been so distracted by her far-too-short skirt that I hadn't noticed.

Koto-chan was wearing a frilly blouse.

The neckline of that blouse was fairly open too, and with her sitting beside me, I could see her chest through the gap.

Her pink bra and the fairly large breasts inside it...

"N-Now you're looking at my chest! I wasn't planning to show you this!"

"So you were planning to show me your panties!?"

"...Well, depending on how things went. Jeez, you shouldn't do that. You're a boy too, Toochika-kun."

"And you need to act more like a girl, Koto-chan."

Could I count this slyness as feminine in its own way?

"You're going a little too far, Koto-chan. Taking it this far really is shameless."

"...You only think that because I'm small. If Nono did this much, for example, it wouldn't seem unnatural."

"Hmm. So when you do the same thing, it seems shameless, Koto-chan, but if Nonoa-san did it, it would feel sexy. Is that what you mean?"

Nonoa-san was surprisingly serious, and there was something quietly intelligent about her.

But she looked like a flashy gyaru, and there was no denying she radiated mature sex appeal.

"Listen, Toochika-kun."

"Yes?"

"Even though I'm small, I'm still a first-year high school girl. I'm interested in boys... and s-sexual things too."

"............"

Koto-chan blushed, lowered her head, and fidgeted.

For her, it had probably taken a great deal of courage to say that.

I already understood perfectly well that Koto-chan was the same age as me.

But it was also true that hearing her talk about sex felt incredibly strange.

"I know what boys and girls do together. Once you fall for someone, there are nights when you want them to... do those things to you, you know?"

"You shouldn't say things that explicit──No, you're right. In your case, Koto-chan, you have to say it plainly or people won't get it."

When I said that, Koto-chan gave a small nod.

No matter what she did, she looked like an elementary schooler──and she wanted me to understand that she wasn't one.

That even though she was small, she still had age-appropriate "sexual desire."

"I understand that you aren't shameless, Koto-chan."

"Then will you do s-sexual things to me?"

"N-No."

Even if Koto-chan showed me her panties or her cleavage, I didn't get aroused.

Part of me did feel a little shaken──though I couldn't tell whether that was because I was picking up on her sexual advances.

"Amamori-san was right. We have to keep learning about each other. Maybe I was rushing things a little."

"That straightforward personality of yours is one of your strengths, Koto-chan. Though I'd prefer you to keep the sexual stuff under control."

"You still won't show me your side as a boy, Toochika-kun."

You look dissatisfied, Koto-chan.

Part of me didn't want to show that side of myself as a boy to someone as tiny as Koto-chan either.

I hadn't known Koto-chan's desires.

And I'm sure you still don't know mine.

Translator's Notes

¹ Omurice (オムライス): A Japanese dish consisting of an omelet wrapped around seasoned rice.