As the tension in the room finally seemed to settle, a new, unexpected element entered the chaotic scene—Kaira.

She casually stepped out from Aoto's bedroom, yawning and stretching like she had just woken up from a nap.

"Morning, Aoto," she greeted nonchalantly, waving at him and barely paying any attention to the three other girls in the room who suddenly snapped their heads toward her with such ferocity that Aoto swore he heard their necks crack.

Matie, Kay, and Rika all had expressions that ranged from shock to fury, their eyes glaring daggers at both Kaira and Aoto. The room felt like it had frozen over again, and Aoto gulped, his mouth suddenly dry.

"You've got to be kidding me," Matie muttered under her breath, her fists tightening.

Rika, always quick with the teasing but equally quick to get jealous, hissed, "I leave for five minutes, and he's already got someone else in his bedroom?"

Kay just cracked her knuckles ominously, clearly not amused. "Care to explain yourself, Aoto?"

Aoto, knowing full well how bad this looked, held up his hands in a defensive gesture. "W-Wait! Hold on! I didn't invite her in! I didn't even know she was there!"

Before the situation could escalate further, Kaira raised her hands in a placating gesture, giving everyone in the room a lazy grin. "Relax, relax. I used the window to get in. You know, the same window I always break into." She shrugged, like it was no big deal. "I didn't want to wake him up, so I just... crashed here for a bit."

That revelation seemed to calm the three girls down a bit, their shoulders relaxing slightly, though they still had their eyes locked on Aoto. At least they weren't ready to kill him anymore.

But then, Kaira smirked and pulled something out from behind her back—something that instantly made the temperature in the room drop again. It was a magazine, one that had clearly been hidden under Aoto's bed.

And it wasn't just any magazine.

"Oh, by the way," Kaira said casually, waving the magazine in the air. "I found this under your bed, Aoto. Didn't know you were into these kinds of magazines." She opened it up and flipped through a couple of pages, grinning mischievously.

The room fell dead silent as Matie, Kay, and Rika slowly turned their eyes toward Aoto, who could already feel the heat rising in his cheeks as his face turned bright red. He knew what kind of magazine it was—and so did the girls now.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Aoto stammered, frantically waving his hands. "It's not what it looks like!"

Rika narrowed her eyes, leaning in closer with a devious smirk. "Oh? So you're into human women, huh, Aoto?"

Kay crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, and not just any human women, it seems. Looks like Earth girls are more your type than Comos."

Matie, who had been the most level-headed up until now, finally snapped, her jealousy bubbling up to the surface. "You've got a magazine full of human women, and not a single Warrior Class in sight?"

Aoto could feel the pressure building around him again, his face burning with embarrassment. "It's—it's just a stupid magazine! I didn't even think about it! It was—" He stopped himself, realizing that any excuse he made probably wasn't going to help him in this situation.

Kaira, meanwhile, was having a blast watching all of this unfold, flipping through the magazine and making little comments like, "Oh, she's cute. I can see why you'd be into her," just to make the situation worse.

Finally, Aoto threw his hands up in the air, defeated. "Look, I didn't mean anything by it, alright?! It's just a dumb magazine! I didn't even know it was still there!"

But the damage was already done. The girls weren't angry anymore, but they were definitely feeling a mix of jealousy and annoyance that Aoto hadn't shown the same interest in Comos women as he apparently had in human women.

Rika, leaning in even closer, whispered in his ear, her voice dripping with playful menace, "We'll have to change your preferences, won't we, Aoto?"

Kay cracked her knuckles again, though there was a playful gleam in her eyes now. "Yeah. I think you need to be educated on what a real woman looks like."

And Matie, despite her earlier embarrassment, smirked down at him, crossing her arms under her chest. "We'll just have to show you how Warrior Class and Giant Class girls can measure up, won't we?"

Aoto gulped, realizing that he had dug himself into yet another pit that was going to be hard to climb out of.

"Guys... I really didn't mean—"

Kaira, ever the troublemaker, just chuckled. "Oh, you're definitely in for it now, Aoto."

And as the girls closed in, their playful but menacing energy filling the room, Aoto could only sigh in defeat.

Another day, another disaster.

Aoto, trying to ease the mounting pressure and the teasing from the girls, thought he could pull off a classic tsundere line, just to lighten the mood.

He crossed his arms, puffed out his chest, and with the most casual voice he could muster, said, "Fine. It's not like I like you or anything... idiots."

There was a beat of silence.

Then the sound of hearts shattering.

Aoto immediately sensed something was wrong as he slowly turned his head to look at the girls. And what he saw made his blood run cold. All four of them—Matie, Kay, Kaira, and Rika—looked like they had just been emotionally gutted. Their eyes were wide and shimmering with unshed tears, their lips trembling as though they couldn't quite believe what they had just heard.

Before Aoto could even think to apologize, the floodgates opened.

Matie and Kay, both usually so strong and fierce, started crying almost in unison, their tears streaming down their faces as they tried to suppress their sobs—but it wasn't working. Matie, usually the toughest of the bunch, let out a gut-wrenching wail, while Kay, despite her tomboyish demeanor, was openly weeping like a heartbroken child.

"Wh-why would you say that?" Matie sobbed, covering her face as she tried to hide her tears.

Kay, who had always been full of confidence, now looked absolutely crushed, her voice breaking as she whimpered, "You don't... like us?"

Aoto's heart sank. He tried to step forward, but the sound of Kaira and Rika crying stopped him in his tracks.

Kaira, usually the laid-back and sarcastic one, had ugly tears streaming down her face, her body shaking with sobs as she clutched her chest like she'd been stabbed. "I thought we were cool!" she wailed, looking completely devastated.

And then there was Rika, who had always been the most playful and teasing of them all, now an absolute mess of tears and snot as she cried harder than anyone else. "I—I'm an idiot?? I thought we were... something special!!" she wailed between sobs, her voice cracking painfully.

Aoto, feeling like the biggest asshole in the universe, tried to backtrack, waving his arms wildly. "N-no, wait! I didn't mean it like that! It was just a joke, I swear!"

But it was too late. The damage had been done. The girls were all in various states of heartbreak, and no matter what Aoto said now, he knew he had fucked up.

Badly.

Matie, who had been clutching her chest, let out another loud, hiccupping sob. "Why would you say that, Aoto? We're not... idiots..."

Kay, through her tears, managed to choke out, "I thought we meant something to you..."

Rika, meanwhile, was an absolute wreck, clinging to Aoto's arm while bawling like a child. "Why would you call us that?! You—you jerk!"

Kaira, still sobbing, managed to sniffle out, "That wasn't tsundere... that was just mean!"

Aoto was completely overwhelmed. He hadn't meant to hurt them—he thought it was just a joke! He had no idea that his words would cut so deeply. And now, standing in front of four sobbing girls, he felt like he had just committed the ultimate betrayal.

"Guys... seriously, I didn't mean it! You're not idiots, I swear!" Aoto pleaded, his voice desperate as he tried to explain himself.

But the crying didn't stop. In fact, it seemed to get worse.

Matie buried her face in her hands, her tears soaking through her fingers. "I thought we were... special..."

Kay wiped at her eyes, her usual tough demeanor nowhere to be found as she looked down at the floor, sniffling. "I don't get it... what did we do wrong?"

Rika sobbed loudly, still clinging to Aoto as though she couldn't bear to let go, her face buried in his chest. "I don't want to be an idiot! I just want to be with you!"

And Kaira, always the sarcastic one, was now a mess of emotions, sniffling as she wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "You really know how to ruin a moment, you know that?"

Aoto, at a complete loss for words, could only stand there, his heart aching as he realized just how deeply he had hurt them. He had no idea how to fix this—no idea how to make them stop crying.

"Guys, please," he said, his voice cracking with guilt. "I didn't mean it... I do like you. All of you. You're not idiots. You're amazing."

But the tears kept falling.

In a last-ditch effort to make things right, Aoto did the only thing he could think of—he reached out and pulled all four of them into a tight hug, holding them close as they cried against him.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice filled with regret. "I'm so sorry. I was an idiot for saying that. You guys mean everything to me."

Slowly, the sobbing began to ease, though the girls were still sniffling and wiping at their eyes.

Matie, her voice still shaky, looked up at Aoto with watery eyes. "Do you really mean that?"

Aoto nodded, his heart breaking all over again. "Yeah. I mean it. I'm really sorry, Matie."

Kay, still sniffling, gave him a small smile through her tears. "You better be."

Rika, who had finally stopped sobbing, still clung to Aoto's shirt, her face red and puffy. "You can make it up to us."

Kaira, though still a bit of a mess, chuckled softly. "Yeah, you've got a lot of making up to do, Aoto."

And just like that, the tension in the room began to dissolve, the tears slowly drying as the girls huddled around Aoto, leaning on him for comfort.

But as they all held onto him, Aoto couldn't help but think to himself:

"I am never making that tsundere joke again."

As Aoto tried to find a way to make up for his tsundere blunder, he started speaking with a serious tone. "How can I make this up to you guys? I'll do anything to—"

Then, mid-sentence, he abruptly stopped and his eyes widened as he took in the sight in front of him.

"GAWD DAMN!!!"

The words slipped out of his mouth without thinking, and his face immediately flushed red. The shirts of Matie, Kay, Rika, and Kaira were soaked from all the crying, clinging tightly to their bodies in a way that left nothing to the imagination. To make things worse (or better, depending on how you looked at it), they clearly weren't wearing bras.

Aoto's eyes nearly popped out of his head as he stared in disbelief. "Wait a second..." He furrowed his brow, raising an eyebrow in suspicion as he looked at the four girls. "Did you all... not wear bras today on purpose?"

Immediately, the four girls turned bright red, their eyes darting away from his gaze in unison. Matie was the first to look away, her face completely flushed as she fiddled with her shirt. Kay, normally so confident, suddenly seemed unsure of where to put her hands, while Kaira and Rika both awkwardly crossed their arms over their chests, trying to hide the obvious.

None of them denied it, though.

There was a long, awkward silence as Aoto stared at them, waiting for an answer.

Matie, finally breaking the tension, mumbled under her breath, "I... I didn't think you'd notice..."

Kay snorted, trying to regain some of her usual attitude but clearly embarrassed. "Yeah, well... maybe we didn't plan on crying this much either."

Rika, who was normally the boldest of the group, actually seemed embarrassed for once. She avoided eye contact, twiddling her fingers as she muttered, "It's not like we thought you'd be looking..."

Kaira sighed, still trying to recover from the emotional rollercoaster of earlier. "We didn't think we'd be in a wet shirt contest today, alright?"

Aoto, utterly flustered by the whole situation, rubbed the back of his neck, unsure of how to respond. "I mean... it's kinda hard not to notice when... you know... it's right there..." His voice trailed off awkwardly as he gestured to the very obvious situation.

The girls were still blushing furiously, but Matie, ever the Warrior Class girl, cleared her throat and said, "Look, we were just... trying to be comfortable, okay? It's not like we were trying to... tempt you or anything."

Kay, who was always up for some banter, grinned despite her embarrassment. "Yeah, we don't need bras to kick your ass."

Rika finally found her voice again and smirked, although she still looked a little flustered. "Well, maybe I was trying to tempt you. Who knows?" She gave a teasing wink, though her earlier sobbing had taken the edge off her usual boldness.

Kaira, shaking her head, gave Aoto a sidelong glance. "Seriously, though, you're not getting out of making it up to us that easily. We're still waiting for an apology, you know."

Aoto, realizing that despite the unexpected turn of events, he still owed them for his earlier screw-up, nodded quickly. "Right, right! I'm really sorry for what I said earlier. I didn't mean it like that. You're not idiots at all. You're all amazing, and I'm lucky to have you in my life."

The girls, although still embarrassed, seemed to soften at his words. Matie smiled shyly, while Kay punched him lightly on the arm in her usual playful way. Rika and Kaira exchanged a glance, before both giving Aoto a nod of approval.

"Just... next time," Kaira said, still blushing slightly, "maybe think before you try to act like a tsundere."

Aoto, now fully aware of how badly that plan had backfired, laughed awkwardly. "Yeah... definitely won't be doing that again."

And as the group finally started to relax, the earlier tension and tears behind them, Aoto couldn't help but feel a mixture of relief and embarrassment. He had dodged a bullet—sort of—but he knew one thing for sure: he was definitely in over his head with these girls.