"Come on now, Kafka...Let's have a good talk before my aunts come back." Nina enthusiastically pulled me towards the rather wide sofa that seated the trio earlier. "Knowing them well, they'll surely hog you and pester you by asking you useless things if they were to see you alone...So before them, I'll act as the nosey elder myself and ask a bunch of questions about you."
Nina dragged me to the sofa and sat herself down on one side. She looked like she wanted me to sit right next to her so that she could have a much more intimate conversation with me and ask the things she was curious to know, which was quite easy to tell looking at how her eyes looked so bright and avid at the moment as she looked up at me.
But against what she wanted me to do, I walked towards the other end of the sofa and tried to seat myself there to keep a certain distance between us.
"Now, where do you think you're going, Kafka?" Nina asked, and before I could take my second step, she pulled my hand by force and made me sit right next to her. "Why are you going to sit all the way over there when there's so much space right next to me?"
"...Or is it that you feel a bit shy to sit next to this older sister when you were acting so confident before?"
Nina gave a teasing smile as she nudged me by the shoulders, thinking that I was embarrassed to be sitting so close to an older woman, and she found it to be quite funny when she compared it to how boldly I acted earlier.
"You can easily deal with a group of rowdy grown men like it's simple as tossing a coin in the air.
But when it comes to sitting next to someone like me, you're getting all timid and flustered...You're a rather interesting boy, you know that, Kafka." Nina pulled on my cheek like she found how I was behaving to be quite cute while I looked rather reluctant towards the coddling, like I was a child at a family function that got his cheeks pulled on by everyone around.
"No, it's not anything like that, Nina...I was simply using the unoccupied space so that you don't feel cramped sitting next to me." I answered with a rather mature statement while pulling my face away from her claws, which made Nina look at me with adoration in her eyes, like she was thinking that I was a kid pretending to be a grownup.
I then continued saying as I slowly tried to distance myself from Nina, since I could currently feel her thighs squished against mine from the side,
"...We've also just met today, and you're also the respected owner of this place, as well as my elder, so it wouldn't be appropriate for us to sit so close together when we just learned of one another's names less than an hour ago."
"Tsk! Who cares if we met an hour ago or a minute ago?" Nina clicked her tongue, like she never considered such useless things when it came to forming relationships. "What I know and care about is the fact that you saved me and my place from going through quite the hassle because of those three assholes, when you really had no need to do so since you were simply a guest at this place."
"...And that one favour of yours is more than enough for me to treat you as familiar as any other regular in this place.
And honestly, I think I should treat you even better than the average guest, since you basically saved this place from being shut down because of my hastiness, and I genuinely think that you deserve to be pampered even more by the owner of this little joint to show her gratitude towards her little hero."
Nina slid right next to me when she saw me escaping and started caressing my thighs with the tips of her fingers in a rather playful manner, like it was her way of serving her guest, who had been promoted to the VIP position after the favour he had done to the place.
Even though Nina was stroking my thigh, which felt rather ticklish, and pushing her body against mine to the extent that I could feel her soft chest against my arm, I knew that she had no questionable thoughts while doing so, judging by the pure smile she had on her face which made it seem like she was simply playing around with a child for her amusement.
She then looked at me and said, "When I said that I don't think of you as a man, I didn't really mean to talk about your identity as a man or your everyday actions that make you out to be one...But it's actually your age that makes you look like a little boy in my eyes instead of an actual adult man who I need to keep an eye on at all times."
"You see, even though you look quite mature and grown up to the extent that I even thought that you were an actual adult in his twenties when I first saw you, I simply can't see you the same after finding out your true age, and now look at you like a little child, which you actually are since you're still in school." Nina slowly explained, seeing how confused I was at the moment.
She then sighed and said, "...I also know that you don't like to be treated like a child when you're all grown up and want to be respectful as an adult. But unfortunately, because of the age gap between us that puts us an entire generation apart, I really can't help but treat you like a kid when you're actually quite a scary one, seeing as to how you can send a man flying with one kick."
Nina gave a curious look at my legs and poked them like she was trying to see what they were made of.
"I see...I guess there's no helping it when you say it like that."
I accepted what Nina said without arguing back, which surprised Nina, as she was sure that a hot-blooded young man like me would argue back at her statement and didn't expect me to be so understanding of the situation.
This made her impression of me increase even further in her mind since she was used to seeing men with fragile egos all the time, and it was a novelty for her to see someone as young as me deal with criticism without taking it to heart.
Nina also had something else she didn't want me to misunderstand, as she quickly explained, saying,
"I also wouldn't normally get close to any boy around your age just because he helped me out, since that would make me out to be quite the weirdo who goes after little kids...I'd probably just give them a sincere thank you and give them a special pass to use the hot spring for free for a year for the favour I owe them."
"...But you, on the other hand, Kafka...Well, let's just say that you're quite special and different from the rest of the boys out there." Nina said with a knowing smile on her face.
"Special? Special in what way?" I asked, not knowing what made me stand out in her eyes.
"Special because you resemble my little brother..." Nina said with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
"You have a little brother?" I asked, wondering if I had another person that looked the same as me in this world.
I simply asked Nina if she had a brother since that was the first thing that popped into my mind, and I was expecting her to nod her head and naturally agree. But to my surprise it didn't go like so.
"Do I have a little brother?...No, I don't." Nina shook her head and gave an unexpected answer, which made me raise an eyebrow in confusion. She then continued saying, while giggling at how bamboozled I looked at the moment, "...But if I were to have a brother, then he'd definitely look and behave like you."
"And before you ask me anything, Kafka, let me say my piece first..." Nina said after seeing how I looked like I had heard wrong. She then crossed her leg over another and laid back on the sofa to explain the riddles she was speaking.