“Isn’t that obvious? The mission is to make me an animal. The dog ears and tail already make me an animal, but wearing this is necessary for it to be perfectly complete.”
“What is that? Why is the plug so shoddily small? You should’ve bought a bigger one!”
“Shut up, Elgran. Don’t nitpick what our baby does. Unless you want me to pluck out all your hair before I’m done!”
“…I’ll apologize instead, Eli.”
Lus, his glasses glinting, sharply rebuked Eli, then offered a brief apology.
But the fierce expression was fleeting; like switching a mask, Ellyn smiled brightly and held out the raw, unpackaged items to Xenon.
Xenon, the person in question, fidgeted uneasily under her silent urging, his face turning red.
He glanced at Ben and twisted his fingers together.
“I… I guess I should have… worn it….”
“No. Absolutely not.”
‘Being around such strange people is going to make me strange too. What kind of situation is this where common sense doesn’t apply? Or maybe the nature of the birthday party I know is just different from the one they know.’
Feeling his common sense under threat, Ben thought it would be better for his mental health to remove himself from the situation.
He quickly grabbed a plate for food.
“What are you talking about? Of course you should put it on right now! Go do it in that room over there!”
“Uh… Uhh… Yes…!”
But Ben’s attempted escape towards the food failed, thwarted by Xenon, who, after hesitating, succumbed to Ellyn’s pressure.
He hesitated for a moment, then grabbed Ben’s hand and dashed towards the room on the other side.
“Wait, why do I have to go?!”
Ben tried to pull his hand away urgently, but afraid of breaking the expensive glass plate, he couldn’t put up proper resistance.
In the end, he was dragged helplessly into a bedroom separate from the dining room.
‘No, I just don’t get it.’
Even if it was the solemn order of Ellyn, today’s birthday star, Xenon was the one who had to keep the promise.
Ben had no clue why he was here.
His part to help was already over.
“I-I’m nervous… What should I do, Ben…?”
He had a lot he wanted to say, but seeing Xenon trembling like a wet retriever, Ben couldn’t bring himself to say anything more.
‘What crime did this guy commit? He just wants to do what his lover, celebrating his birthday, wants.’
“Her reaction didn’t seem bad, but are you really going to do this now?”
“The promise… was… like that…. I want to… to make Eli happy.”
The mission was indeed like that.
He understood wanting to make her happy too.
That was true, but taking it so literally was a bit…
“…I’ll wait outside.”
“Ah… N-no!”
What do you mean no?!
“You… You promised to help… with the mission….”
“That was for living expenses! You’re not seriously asking me to watch you put on adult toys, are you?!”
Ben, who had been trying to pull the door handle, was dragged back by Xenon before the door was even half-open.
Compared to an Esper’s physical strength, Ben’s power as a regular adult male was less than the dirt under a pinky toenail, but he stubbornly held onto the doorknob and resisted.
“B-but I… I can’t find the courage…!”
“I can’t provide that courage for you!”
Even if he made a hundred concessions, the maximum compromise was the dog ear headband.
He absolutely could not watch the plug being inserted, even if dirt filled his eyes in the afterlife.
He hadn’t yet developed the fortitude to directly observe a live R-rated show.
Honestly, he didn’t even know if he ever could develop it.
Frankly, he didn’t want to.
Since the courage he could offer ended at the headband, Ben slowly relaxed his grip on the doorknob, aiming to resolve this through calm conversation.
He believed Xenon, unlike Elgran or the others, was someone with whom common sense somewhat prevailed, so persuasion should work.
Just as Ben, taking a deep breath, was gauging where to start, Xenon suddenly thrust out a familiar hot pink paper bag.
“I… I got a gift for you too, Ben…!”
“A gift… for me?”
According to Ben’s memory, the familiar hot pink gift bag was the same as the one used to wrap Ellyn’s gift earlier.
The ominous feeling he got probably wasn’t just his imagination.
His palm, holding the glass plate, grew slightly sweaty, but since it was a gift, it felt awkward not to open it.
Finally, he put the plate down and slowly opened the hot pink bag to check the contents.
Ben was utterly shocked.
Honestly, he nearly threw the entire bag right back at Xenon.
“What is this?!”
“It’s… the one I recommended…!”
“I know what it is, but why?!”
Ben wasn’t asking because he didn’t recognize the item.
It was because he couldn’t believe his eyes even after seeing it.
Inside the wrapping was the rabbit ear headband and tail plug that Xenon had previously recommended to Ben.
The headband, with its soft white feathers and pink accents, and the plug shaped like a fluffy tail.
Faced with a gift he couldn’t feel grateful for, Ben clutched the bag with a dismayed heart.
“I… I wanted to give it to you….”
“I’ve… never even hinted at wanting it, why on earth…?”
He’d even said twice that he didn’t need it and told him not to waste his money.
Thud.
A conundrum had landed on his head.
This was like one of those essay questions: ‘In under 300 characters, describe what to say when you receive as a gift an item you previously asked the giver not to buy.’
Faced with an essay question he never asked for, Ben couldn’t hide his sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Y-you’re not… going to accept it?”
“It’s not that…”
Regardless of Ben’s feelings, the person who posed the question seemed to have a specific desired answer in mind.
Ben was endlessly weak against the weak.
Especially small, delicate things.
Physically, Xenon was far from being ‘weak,’ but his nature itself was indeed delicate.
Seeing him sulk, looking as if the dog ears he hadn’t even worn yet were drooping, was enough to prick Ben’s conscience sharply.
“…Thank you… I’ll accept it.”
Swallowing the sigh that nearly escaped again, Ben reluctantly expressed his thanks.
He absolutely did not promise to use it.
Once you receive a gift, whether you use it or not is up to the recipient, right?
Consoling himself with that thought, he carefully refolded the wrapping paper.
“You… You can take it out and look…”
Just as Ben began folding up the packaging, Xenon quietly dropped another challenge.
Ben’s hands froze.
He couldn’t simply pack things away—not with Xenon staring up at him with such bright, expectant eyes.
In the end, Ben couldn’t bring himself to brush it off coldly.
Resigned, he reached for the adult product he’d never once held before in his life.
The tail plug was about two finger joints in length, with a rounded end and a gradually narrowing design.
The headband, stiff with an internal wire, held its animal-ear shape firmly.
It probably wouldn’t be used, but at least that’s what it looked like.
“Seeing it in person… doesn’t it look even nicer?!”
In what way…?
“…Ah… yes… I suppose…”
Swallowing back the words that tried to escape against his will, Ben forced himself to reply with as much soul as he could muster.
Ignoring the soft fur brushing against his hands, he pretended to inspect the items, flipping them over a few times, then sealed them back in their packaging once Xenon looked satisfied.
He needed to clean this up before Xenon so much as mentioned bunny ears.
Fortunately, there was still the issue of whether Xenon would wear the ears and tail.
Just as Ben, in desperation, was about to propose a compromise—perhaps just the headband—a rapid patter of footsteps echoed from the inner room, lit only by the ceiling lamp.
“Huuuaaahm! Something fun’s happening—let Penka play too!”
“Hi Ben! Hi from Penka and Pinka too!”
“Twins?!”
The unexpected voices belonged to the Reablem twins, who appeared from the back of the room with tousled pink-blond hair, clearly just woken from sleep.
The rooms were so large that Ben hadn’t noticed them, but apparently Penka and Pinka had been napping on a bed inside.
It was Ellyn’s birthday, so it made sense they’d be invited—but their sudden appearance still caught Ben off guard.
“R-right… I forgot… the twins were sleeping here…”
Xenon, who had been too focused on the item in Ben’s hands, added the explanation a bit too late.
Penka and Pinka giggled like little birds whispering secrets.
“We asked to be woken up when Ben and Haimar came!”
“Me too! I told them to wake me! And Ben’s here now!”
“Haimar hasn’t arrived yet.”
“Oh? That’s fine! Penka likes Ben too!”
“Pinka too! That’s what we recommended before! It’s so cute!”
The twins threw themselves at Ben, clinging to his waist and rubbing their faces against him before abruptly shifting their attention—like lightning—to the dog ears and tail still clutched in Xenon’s hands.
The way they examined every little detail with experienced eyes made it obvious: these were no ordinary teens, no matter what they looked like.
“It could’ve been thicker… but Penka likes it. It’s cute.”
“A vibration function would’ve been nice. But didn’t Ben have one like that?”
They know.
That look—they absolutely know.
Their tone might’ve sounded like questions, but their expressions clearly demanded honesty, like they already had all the answers and were just waiting for Ben to confess.
With the hot pink packaging already in his hand, they couldn’t not know.
And yet they asked, so casually. Infuriating.
Ben avoided their eyes and slipped the gift behind the wardrobe.
At the same time, a troubling thought hit him: had they been the ones to recommend the bunny ears and tail in the first place?
“Whyyyyy~ Penka and Pinka want to see it toooo!”
