Still sitting on Suzuka's bed, I selected my contact on her phone and called her. She answered right away.
"Koji?"
"Suzuka, are you okay?"
"As okay as I can be in this situation," she giggled. "And you?"
"To be honest, I'm a little shocked."
"What? What happened?"
I sighed. "There was a woman here when I arrived, aside from your sisters."
"A woman? Oh. Short black hair, black eyes, and quite tall?"
"Yes."
"That's Miku, my sister's coworker. She's so pretty. I felt she resembled someone when I first met her, but couldn't figure out who. Now that I think about it, it was probably you."
"That's because she is my sister: Otsune."
The call remained silent for a few seconds.
"Eh?" Suzuka uttered. "What do you mean she's your sister?"
"I mean that she's my sister."
"I know! But her name… oh."
"Suzuka?"
"It makes sense."
"What does?"
She took a moment to reply. "The reason I wanted to call you as soon as possible was so I didn't forget what your dad told me."
"Right. He wanted to talk with me. How did it go?"
Suzuka then proceeded to tell me everything that had happened since she arrived at my house. From Father punishing Sakakibara-san, Yoshimura-san, Moriyama-san, and Fujisaki-san, to getting kicked out of the house. She also told me what Father told her about Otsune.
I was at a loss for words. My mind simply couldn't process everything.
"Are you okay?" Suzuka asked, worried.
"Yes, sorry. So, Otsune is now called Miku because Father forced her to change her name. Do you know her last name?"
"I don't."
"By law, it still should be the same last name as one of my parents. I doubt she kept my Father's, so her name must be Mitsue Miku. Anyway, there's no point in thinking about it now. I want to meet with her properly and not while I'm in your body. The problem is how to make that happen."
"I can help. I can convince my sister to have dinner or something. I need to think about it. At least you know she's doing great; there's no reason to rush it."
"Right," I replied. "And thank you for defending me against my father. I would've said the same but with some swearing in the middle."
"I know. You need to stop doing that."
"But he gets on my nerves—"
"I know, I understand now that I've talked to him. But I made good progress for your relationship today; don't waste it. And swearing is fine as long as you don't insult people; I won't tolerate you being rude. Especially with your father."
"Sure, I won't do it anymore."
"Promise?"
I smirked. "I promise."
We stayed silent for a while before remembering the major problem we had.
"What are we going to do about our bodies?" Suzuka wondered.
"I don't know. Going out now is out of the question. The only thing I can think of is to wait until the morning."
"But we should at least have a plan. There's no reason for my parents to stop me from going out. On the other hand, your father won't let you do anything."
"That means that I need to go to you," I replied. "What excuse can I give your parents?"
Silent for a moment, she answered, "Anything could work, really. I know. We can ask Hisa or Rem to come to pick you up, saying we're going shopping or something. Even if my parents won't say no, this will ensure that they give me permission."
"Hashimoto-san and Rem-san messaged you to tell me they will help us however they can, so they are going to agree. I like the plan. We'll take a taxi to my house and meet with you there."
"But what excuse can I give your father to go out?"
"He's always in his office; it's unlikely you'll run into him. Whoever asks where you are going, simply answer that you need to take a walk to get some fresh air. Once outside, head to the front gate and we'll touch each other through a gap."
"Sounds good," Suzuka replied. "Wait. Aren't we going to swap back when we sleep? It always happens."
"That's a good point. But we've always touched each other before falling asleep."
"Maybe we'll swap back anyway."
"We'll find out tonight," I said. "Suzuka, are we going to sleep without changing clothes?"
"I don't know…. You—I'm wearing a skirt, so it won't be too uncomfortable for you. You, on the other hand, are wearing jeans. They are somewhat tight, by the way."
"Yeah. Although I can't complain about the skirt, the shirt is another story. It has buttons and it's baggy."
"It's a blouse."
The call stayed silent for a moment.
"So, should we get changed?" I wondered.
She grunted out of frustration. "Fine! Let's get this over with. I'll guide you to my clothes and you'll guide me to yours so we don't see anything we shouldn't. Okay?"
"Understood. Guide me first."
"Okay. First, let's go over what I'm wearing. U-Underneath my skirt, I'm wearing shorts. They are very short and tight, but you can keep them on and t-take off the skirt."
I can hear her embarrassment.
"Sure," I replied. "What about the blouse? You're not wearing a tank top, are you?"
"Nope. If you really, really find it uncomfortable, you'll have to take it off and put on something else."
"I'd prefer that."
She sighed. "Fine. Where are you right now?"
"Sitting on your bed."
"Okay. On your right, there's a dresser with a mirror on top. Walk to it."
Following her instructions, I stood up and approached it. There was a lot of stuff next to the mirror: books, makeup, ointments, accessories, and many other things. I took a peek and looked down to avoid seeing too much.
"I'm here," I said. "Now what?"
She took a moment to answer, "Open the left drawer in the middle."
"I'm not going to find something weird, right?"
"I'm the one worried about finding lewd magazines."
"There are better means than those."
"So you admit having something somewhere else."
"N-No. I meant that I don't—"
"I-It's fine. Just open the drawer."
It's probably better if I stop talking. If not, I'll keep digging my own grave.
Making sure it was the left drawer in the middle of the dresser, I pulled it open. As soon as I realized what was inside, I pushed it close.
"Suzuka."
"It was full of underwear, wasn't it?"
"Yep."
A muffled scream burst through the phone.
"I'm used to having my clothes organized like that, so I don't need to think when I'm grabbing or keeping clothes and I don't pay attention," she ranted. "Open the right drawer."
Slowly, I pulled it open.
"There are a lot of shirts," I said.
"Great. There should be a white shirt on the top of one of the piles."
Only a few seconds later, I found it and grabbed it. It had a logo on the front and the name of a brand on the back. It looked quite big, so Suzuka probably wore it as pajamas.
"Done," I said. I closed the drawer.
"That's it," she replied. "Just remember that the drawer beneath has all my pants. Now, what about me? I can keep this shirt, but not the jeans."
"I'm wearing boxers, so you can just take the jeans off."
"O-Okay, I'll do that."
We stayed silent for a moment.
"We should sleep, then," I said.
"Yeah," she giggled. "Don't forget to tell Hisa and Rem about the plan. Message me or call me when you wake up."
"Sure."
"And, Koji."
"Yes?"
"Don't. Look. More. Than. You. Need. To."
"I promise I won't."
"Good. Talk to you in the morning."
"Goodnight."
She hung up first.
I put the phone on the dresser and stared down at the white shirt on my hands.
Just do it.
I put the shirt on top of the dresser too and took the skirt off. Hesitantly, I unbuttoned my blouse and took it off. I kept my eyes shut as long as I could, but I needed to see so I didn't knock something over while grabbing the shirt. I also needed to make sure it wasn't backward.
Without any other option, I opened my eyes enough to barely see. I couldn't avoid seeing something in the mirror, but I tried my best to ignore it. I grabbed the shirt and put it on.
I let out a deep breath. "Done."
I grabbed the phone from the dresser and walked towards the bed. However, since Suzuka's phone was bigger than mine, my fingers kept getting stuck on the edges. With no enough grip, it fell from my hand and bounced on the carpeted floor and under the bed. Concerned that I had broken it, I kneeled down to look for it.
It wasn't that far away, so I merely reached for it. As I stretched my arm, I noticed something hanging from the planks that support the mattress: a magazine.
Nope.
I stood up with the phone in my hand and sat on the bed. I messaged Hashimoto-san and Rem-san in the group to tell them about our plan; they quickly agreed to help.
There was nothing else to do, so I lay down and tried to sleep. I kept thinking about Otsune and being kicked out of the house.
They are doing the same thing to me, although they didn't end on good terms. Meanwhile, it seems like Father's and I's relationship might finally begin to heal after all these years. I don't know what would've happened if Suzuka hadn't done that for me.
Hours flew by and I hadn't been able to sleep properly even though I was tired. My eyes closed on their own multiple times for a few minutes, but I kept waking up before falling asleep.
In the end, I only got around one hour of sleep. And, probably because I didn't fall asleep properly, we didn't swap back to our bodies. I sent a message to our swapping-experimentation group for Kawahara-san to tell her about it. Even though it was eight o'clock, she was already awake and replied.
On the other hand, Suzuka took almost an hour to even see my messages. I told her I had already chosen an outfit to go out in. I sent her a picture and she replied with an emoji of a surprised face; she didn't expect me to be good at it. I was sure it was luck.
Hesitantly, I changed into the outfit. It wasn't the most hygienic thing to do, since I didn't change underwear. Attempting to do so was going to be too much.
Hashimoto-san and Rem-san arrived a few minutes past nine. I told Suzuka's parents I was going out and they merely told me to be careful.
We walked a little before taking a taxi to my house. They kept asking about Suzuka and me. Most of them were awkward, but I counterattacked with similar awkward questions about them. Still, it was fun.
We got out of the taxi a block before we reached my house so as not to draw attention. As we approached, I messaged Suzuka to tell her we were about to arrive, but she didn't reply nor did she see the messages.
We stood in front of the gate on the other side of the street, somewhat hidden behind a tree. Finally, we saw her walk to the gate a few minutes later. I crossed the street and approached.
"Where were you?" I asked.
"Sorry, one of your butlers stopped me when I was heading out. He talked to me for a couple of minutes."
"Was he old or young? And what did he tell you?"
"Old, but I'll tell you later. Let's just touch and get back to normal."
She stretched her arm out through one of the gaps in the gate and I touched it.
"Done," I said.
She sighed out of relief. "Let's sleep as soon as possible. I think I'll use this opportunity to relax in your garden."
"Go ahead."
Smiling, we said goodbye. She walked back towards the mansion and I headed back to Hashimoto-san and Rem-san. They called another taxi and I soon fell asleep in it.
I woke up lying down on my bed. I checked the time on my phone; almost an hour had passed since I had fallen asleep.
There was a message from Suzuka, so I read it.
"Your butler told me that your father had changed his mind about their punishment because he was happy with the outcome. He didn't tell me what the original punishment was, but he said that the new one was a reduction of their salary by a small percentage. He said he was happy, not because of the salary reduction, but because you had taken the first steps to fix your relationship."
I bet he was.