After Aoto finished speaking, Toshisuke turned slowly, arms tightly crossed over her chest, raising her eyes to meet Aoto’s gaze.
Their eyes were entangled in a whirlpool of emotions in the air.
Time seemed frozen, yet to fully resume.
Toshisuke appeared paralyzed, as if pierced through by thick, iron wires, frighteningly stiff.
Her expression was vacant, mouth half-open, eyes dazed and confused, staring blankly at Aoto.
Aoto was initially staring directly into Toshisuke’s eyes.
But as Toshisuke turned her upper body, his gaze uncontrollably drifted downward...
Toshisuke’s fair skin, tinted light pink by the steam rising from the pool, looked adorable.
Dewy droplets slid down, following her silky black hair and the arms pressed against her chest.
Although Toshisuke desperately attempted to cover herself with her arms, the size difference was too great, and her slender arms could only barely cover the most crucial areas, with parts spilling from the squeeze.
Perhaps it was Aoto’s gaze, shifting downward, that triggered a instinctive response in Toshisuke, awakening a spark of awareness in her eyes.
From another perspective... it might have been better if Toshisuke had remained oblivious.
Because awakening meant facing the reality before her.
The reality that Aoto had discovered her true gender.
"Ah, ah... ah wow wow wow..."
Toshisuke babbled incoherently, merely vibrating her voice box... her throat seemingly blocked, producing only meaningless "ah wow wow" sounds.
In that instant, Toshisuke’s porcelain-like face blushed astonishingly fast.
The blush started pale red, then swiftly turned crimson, as if blood might drip out at any moment.
Aoto had never seen Toshisuke’s face so red before.
This wasn’t the steam from the pool... it couldn’t produce such a color.
Her face was burning red, combined with arms tightly holding her chest, as if trying to shrink her entire body, giving an impression of shyness and timidness.
The misty steam added a soft filter over Toshisuke’s delicate figure.
The faint steam, the gently shimmering water, and the girl’s blushing face... these scenes formed a beautiful picture, displayed in the pool at this moment, clearly reflected in Aoto’s eyes, deeply etched into his mind.
This splendid scene... Aoto was confident he would never forget it.
As Toshisuke made "ah wow wow" sounds without clear meaning, Aoto’s body, stirred by her voice, gradually regained control over his muscles.
From gripping that unspeakable thing to now, Aoto’s mind was in utter chaos.
Various fragmented thoughts stormed in Aoto’s mind.
Toshisuke is a girl?!
She has been cross-dressing all this time?
Why?
How did she hide something so substantial daily?
...
These thoughts and questions danced too quickly for Aoto to untangle the threads of this mental "yarn ball."
Overburdened, his mind even briefly generated a "rejecting this reality" negative notion.
Regardless, now wasn’t the time for Aoto to ponder these overwhelming questions.
It was an undeniable fact that Toshisuke was a girl in disguise.
A big man like him staring directly at a girl’s bare chest... felt terribly wrong!
With regained control of his body, Aoto instinctively raised his gaze rapidly, fixing it on the ceiling, too afraid to look anywhere else.
"I-I’m sorry..."
His dream-like apology slipped out.
Aoto’s apology carried numerous meanings.
Apologizing for inadvertently discovering Toshisuke’s true gender...
Apologizing for accidentally touching something that should never be casually touched...
Apologizing for his wandering gaze earlier...
Aoto’s apology prompted the clarity in Toshisuke’s eyes to further restore.
Simultaneously, the blush on her face grew even more vivid
Splash—!
A quick turn caused the pool water to ripple with a "splash" sound.
With clarity restored, Toshisuke stopped making "ah wow wow" sounds and suddenly turned away, reverting to her previous stance of half-facing Aoto.
Her body, already tightly curled, shrunk more.
She almost screamed due to the strong shame filling her heart, but recalling Kondo and others were just outside the Pomegranate Gate bath, she swallowed the scream down with sheer will and determination at the last moment.
Time, once frozen, finally resumed normal flow with Aoto’s and Toshisuke’s gradual "awakening."
In this situation, neither Aoto nor Toshisuke knew what to say or do.

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