After our visit with Charlotte's mom, we went back to Lisa's. I did end up training with her mother again, which did push me of the point of nearly fainting again, but I managed to get through it in one piece.
Eventually, dinner for Lisa came around and it was decided that Charlotte would take a bath first. Despite putting on a smile throughout the whole thing, I still was on edge about this new change. I didn't want to take a bath yesterday, but I know I have to just get through this and just do it. Charlotte can take a bath all by herself, so I should be able to do the same if I'm to stand by her side. That's my current state of mind at the moment, trying to push myself to be better.
After a while, Charlotte enters our room, a towel draped over her hair.
"I filled up the bath with fresh water for you. You can go in now." She says while drying some parts of her hair as a refreshing scent fills my lungs. I reminds me of when I bathed with Charlotte as I'm immediately filled with a sense of defeat, knowing that I might not be able to experience that again.
"Okay." That said, I take my sleep wear and a towel before making my way outside the room and into the bathroom.
"Hahh~"
I let out a sigh after breathing in the air around me. Despite smelling the lingering smell of Charlotte inside here, I still feel lonely. Ahh! Snap out of it, Shiro! I can't rely on Charlotte forever! I'm not sure why, but I end up slapping my cheeks, trying to distract my feelings with a bit of pain as I begin undressing myself.
"Ah-"
But right as I was undressing myself, I found myself stuck when it came to the bra. I know that Charlotte always straps it and takes it off from the back, but I still have no idea how it's done.
Using the mirror, I try and look behind me, trying to see where to undo it, moving my hair to the side. From the corner of my eye, I do see where it might be undone, but as I go to reach it, thinking that all I need to do is pull, it doesn't come off. I try and pull harder but it doesn't seem to budge. Charlotte was never pulling this hard before so I know I must be doing something wrong, but I can't figure it out.
"Haaahh! I give up..."
Not knowing how to do it, I simply just try and remove it like my crop top, however-
"Hnng!" It's proving to be quite a lot harder than I thought. When I try to pull the bra up, it just catches my breasts as an electric type of pain shoot up my body, halting my movements instantly.
"You alright there, Shiro?" Suddenly, as the sliding door of the bathroom opens up, I'm met with Lisa, standing there as she watches me dressed only in my bra.
"U-uhm." I feel my body heating up out of embarrassment in not knowing how to undo this.
"Here, I got it."
"Huh?"
Suddenly, Lisa gently turns me around by my shoulder, and within just a second, my bra instantly became loose.
"You got to pull it in a bit first." Now that she said it, I do feel like the bra went slightly a bit tighter before it became loose...
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it." I was thinking about going back to the room with Charlotte to get help with this, so I'm grateful for Lisa's help. "Now, you don't mind if I join ya, right?" Suddenly, Lisa begins stripping before me putting her clothes in the basket. But I'm too focused on the words she just said.
"Y-you're taking a bath with me?"
"Sure, why not? The bath is big enough for two people so it makes sense to save water."
"But... Friends don't take baths together..." At least that's what Charlotte said...
"Ah~ Don't worry about that. Hehe, I'm glad that you see me as a friend though, Shiro. Cute." She pats me on the head as a bright smile appears on her face. I don't need to worry about it? I don't understand...
But even through my confusion, we ended up hoping into the bath after washing our bodies. The warmth and the steam from the bath immediately relieving my body. But I still can't seem to properly relax.
"What's on your mind?"
"Huh?" Not too long after getting in, Lisa questions me.
"A bath is a place to relax, so try and loosen up." At her words, she submerges herself more in the bath, with the water now reaching her neck. "Haaah~"
"I don't get it."
"Hmm?"
"Charlotte said this wasn't okay."
"And Charlotte is stupid, okay? Not everything she says is right, you know."
"Huh?" The way Lisa is talking about Charlotte sounds quite harsh. Even my chest felt as though it was getting tight upon her talking about Charlotte like that.
"Look, Charlotte thinks she knows what she's doing, so it might confuse you with some of the things she says, but when it comes to stuff like this, she's just as clueless as you."
"Things like this? You mean taking a bath together?"
"That's one of the things, yeah." So Charlotte's wrong about wanting me to bathe alone? "Look, she probably said something like how she wants you to understand what it means to be friends, right?"
"Y-yeah?" To put it simply, that is what she said.
"But how I see it, Charlotte's just finding an excuse to keep away from you."
"What?" Wait... "S-so, then she hates me?"
"Ah- no no, not at all. If anything she likes you enough that she's distancing herself from you."
"...I don't get it." If you like something, you'd want more of it. It doesn't make sense.
"Don't worry, it's nothing bad. It's just that Charlotte's seeing you differently is all."
"Differently?"
"Mhmm. As a potential partner."