Fake Boyfriend

"Thanks for the meal." Akira said, placing the chopsticks in the bowl.

Nino had finished eating too and said, "You do the dishes; I'm tired."

"Sure."

Akira started moving the dirty dishes to the sink, turned on the tap, and began washing.

Meanwhile, Nino sat on the sofa, took out her phone from her bag, and started checking social media.

It didn't take long for Akira to finish washing the dishes. Afterward, he went to the living room while drying his hands with a tissue.

"Change your clothes; we're going out."

"Where?"

"Be my fake boyfriend."

"Huh?"

Upon hearing that, Akira looked at her in surprise, while Nino acted like it was a normal thing and continued playing on her phone.

"Can Nino-Nee repeat that? I think I misheard."

Shifting her attention from the phone, Nino smiled and said, "You didn't mishear, Akira. You're going to be my fake boyfriend."

"Can I refuse?"

"What do you think?"

"Sigh. Fine."

Seeing her intimidated smile, Akira sighed and resignedly accepted his fate.

After that, he asked her the reason she wanted him to play the role of a fake boyfriend.

Nino was honest about it.

Her friends invited her out to meet college student from other majors.

For college student, socializing activities like this were quite common.

The problem was that Nino didn't know her friends' invitation involved male college student. Moreover, they didn't look like nice people, with colored hair and piercings.

Nino was reluctant to interact with them due to their overly pushy approach. Eventually, she claimed to have a boyfriend to make them stop bothering her. However, they didn't believe her at all.

"So, Nino-Nee is using me as a shield?" Akira said after summarizing that information.

"Of course. Those guys looked suspicious. They kept forcing me to drink beer, even after I repeatedly refused. I'm sure they wanted to get me drunk and do inappropriate things. I was angry." Nino explained.

She had heard rumors about incidents like this. An innocent girl would be forced to drink until drunk, and then a group of guys would sexually assault her while recording a video as proof to prevent her from reporting to the police.

Nino always warned her sister to be cautious around guys. She didn't expect to become a target of such blackmail routines.

Fortunately, she faked a toilet visit and quickly left the restaurant. She also sent a message to her friend that she had an urgent matter.

Of course, her actions displeased everyone. When she told her friends about the scenario, they considered her overly paranoid. After all, the women who attended the social gathering with a group of guys didn't experience any incidents.

Nino suspected the reason nothing happened was that she escaped, making them afraid she might report it to the police. Seeing her friends' annoyed reactions, she decided not to inform them about it.

Today, the group of guys invited her and her friends to have a meal again.

Under her friends' persuasion, Nino reluctantly agreed. However, she also made a condition: she would bring her fake boyfriend.

Without much thought, she chose her younger brother to play that role. After all, she knew Akira wasn't an ordinary person. Even if things went south, they would be fine.

Nino trusted him a lot.

"All right, I'll get ready."

Standing up, Akira headed to the bedroom and began changing into nicer clothes.

"Sigh. With Akira by my side, there shouldn't be any problems." Nino said confidently.

"It's too ordinary to call him Akira. To make others believe we're a couple, I need a more affectionate term. Aki-kun? Kira-kun? Wait a minute, before that, the surname is a big problem."

She suddenly realized her lie would soon be exposed when introducing him with the Nakano surname.

"Let's ask him about this later."

After contemplating for a moment, she didn't dwell on it too much. After all, others wouldn't know they were using fake surnames.

They couldn't ask Akira to show his ID, right?

Nino didn't believe something like that would happen.

Ten minutes later, Akira who had changed clothes, appeared before her.

"How does it look, Nino-Nee? It should be fine, right?" Akira asked uncertainly.

He rarely went on dates with Takebayashi, so he didn't have many formal clothes. Rather than dating, the two of them more often wrestled in bed until midnight.

His outfit consisted of a shirt with a plain white T-shirt underneath and long black pants. His hair was neatly styled using pomade, and a shoulder bag was positioned in front.

"Not bad. It seems you've inherited more from Mom's genes than Dad's." Nino complimented his neat and handsome appearance.

"Thanks for the compliment. Shall we go?"

"Before that, let's decide on a few things to avoid misunderstandings."

Then, she explained about terms of endearment and the fake surname.

"Sounds reasonable. So, just use Kamikawa as the surname, and you can call me Kira." Akira said without thinking too much.

Nino raised an eyebrow and asked curiously, "Any particular reason for choosing that?"

Shrugging, Akira casually said, "No reason. Kamikawa is the surname of the protagonist from a novel I read before. Coincidentally, the protagonist's name was Kamikawa Akira. As for the name Kira, it's from the protagonist of Gundam Destiny."

"Otaku." Nino teased. In her perception, an otaku was a fatty, bespectacled guy who only lusted after little girls or 2D images.

"..."

Akira just smiled without responding, indifferent to negative stereotypes.

"Let's go."

Taking her bag, Nino stood up and walked toward the door with Akira.

Before leaving, Akira explained that he might come home late and sent that message to his girlfriend.

Both he and Takebayashi held the keys to the apartment, so they didn't need to leave a spare key hidden.

Outside the door, Nino observed him and asked bitterly, "Did you inform your girlfriend?"

"I did."

Pretending not to notice Nino's jealous tone, Akira put his phone back in the shoulder bag, and the two left the apartment.

The meeting location was in Shinjuku. So, they both headed to the station and took the train.

Their father, Nakano Maruo, limited the allowance of the quintuplets. It prevented them from being extravagant and forgetting about their studies. Moreover, the social environment could change someone, especially in places like university, where good and bad people mingled.

Only Akira wasn't affected by the allowance restriction because he earned money through stock investments.

Inside the train, Akira and Nino sat side by side.

"Hey, Kira-kun, doesn't that guy look suspicious?" Nino started calling Akira Kira to get used to it.

"Hm?"

Following her pointing direction, Akira saw an office worker standing behind a high school girl.

The high school girl looked uncomfortable, but didn't dare to speak up. At a glance, it looked like sexual harassment.

Akira decided to use [Universal Sense] to check the situation. As a result, his eyes twitched after knowing the truth. Then, he whispered in Nino's ear, "It is indeed sexual harassment, but the perpetrator is the opposite. In fact, the man is being harassed by the girl."

"Huh?!"

Nino looked at him incredulously. Seeing his smile, she knew her younger brother was not lying.

"As expected from Tokyo. There are all kinds of people." She muttered softly.

She no longer paid attention to the two of them.

As long as the high school girl was not the victim, she didn't care.

"Double standards..." Akira muttered softly.

If the office worker was the perpetrator of sexual harassment, Nino would definitely ask him to catch him. However, because the perpetrator of sexual harassment was a high school girl, she pretended not to see.

"What did you say? Can you repeat it?" Nino smiled, but didn't look like she was smiling.

"The weather outside looks bright." Akira looked out the window and discussed the most boring topic.

"Hmph!" Nino snorted satisfactorily.