Book 4: Chapter 2: Patch 1.0: Settling In
Book 4: Chapter 2: Patch 1.0: Settling In
Ryouta has returned to the autovan outside to use the card lent to him and Alice by her father to pay for its service and send it back to its dispatch center.
He gets to take a breather now that the autovan is gone and all of his girlfriends are still inside their new home.
The cityscape of New Charleston is still visible in the distance, but it looks small now whereas before Ryouta felt like an insignificant speck of dust when inside of it.
While he wouldn’t say that he’s experiencing culture shock, given that this is an improved situation over his own, he would say that it’s going to take some getting used to living in an upper-class suburban neighborhood. Rather than tall towers lining the streets, there are rows of houses with curious, middle-aged mothers peeking out through the windows at the new arrivals.
Actually, when he thinks about it, there is definitely some culture shock. He’s used to living in cities where he just blends in with the crowd and nobody really cares about who anybody else is. Here? He already has more presence here than he’s ever had throughout his life in the city.
“I’m starting to have regrets,” he tells himself when he looks across the street and sees one woman blatantly watching him through her window. “I guess we should have moved to some rural place in the middle of nowhere after all. Maybe I was being too generic with this place,” he says and sighs.
While the suburb may look like they represent the last century’s traditional American dream, to Ryouta, it was just the most basic and safe option.
At least the house is new.
It may not have a white picket fence, but it does have a yard planted full of modified grass to keep its fresh and green look no matter how much the sun and hot temperatures try to scorch it, two stories with a cellar, a shaded porch, and a fenced-in backyard with a couple of trees in it and a mostly-overgrown, abandoned garden.
“Gonna have to invite Spencer over sometime to help with the garden. He loves his plants,” Ryouta tells himself while walking back to the house.
The best part about the house?
Three and a half bathrooms.
Three. And. A. Half.
All Ryouta needs is one half, and as long as no more girls move into the house, they’ll all have their own bathrooms to do their own things in. He’ll just need to use one of theirs whenever he needs to shower.
They also made sure to get plenty of closet space. His short time with them in his apartment was enough to learn just how important closet space is for women.
Serra requires the least closet space as her wardrobe is fairly similar to Ryouta’s own. They both like to wear graphic t-shirts and jeans. Sometimes she wears shorts and even sweaters for him, but she isn’t nearly as into fashion as the others are. Cassandra requires a pretty sizable amount of closet space. Between shirts, sweaters, skirts, shorts, pants, and a bunch of different shoes for different occasions, Cassandra requires nearly three times the space that Ryouta and Serra need.
Then there is Alice.
Alice, by far, requires a truly horrifying amount of closet space. Ryouta thought the amount of luggage she brought with her from overseas was intimidating at first, but after deciding to buy a house together, she had the rest of her belongings brought over.
So. Many. Clothes.
She has everything that Cassandra has multiplied by three, and she has different costumes for dressing up, dozens of wigs that all require their own head-shaped stands, dozens of different perfumes and other beauty products, and so many purses. Alice alone has more purses and bags that Cassandra and Serra have ever had combined, multiplied a few times, and then add one or two on top of that.
Serra and Ryouta are able to share a closet. Cassandra has one closet to herself.
Alice has all of her belongings spread out through five closets in different rooms, two closets of which are walk-in closets.
Ryouta had no idea just how terrifying a woman could be when it comes to the amount of clothes she owns. Alice could probably wear different clothes every single day for two years before having to rewear anything, and he’s sure that she’d probably double her collection by then so that she never needs to wear the same thing twice.
Between buying a house like it’s nothing and then having such a truly absurd amount of clothes… Ryouta realizes that rich people are really something else.
He now understands the concept of having too much money.
Then there’s the fact that her father has several golf courses andvarious yachts.
Apparently, after royalty was no longer officially a thing across the ocean, their whole family decided to get into investing and business. They discovered that wise investments are much more profitable than being entitled to taxpayer money.
Now, all of their money is being funneled into Alice.
She was actually surprised that nobody else had as many clothes as her.
“You’re something else, Alice,” Ryouta says, sitting on the front porch’s glider. “I feel like an old man doing this. All I need are some kids playing catch in the yard and a pipe.”
That woman across the street is still watching him from her window, but now she has a phone held up to her ear that she’s talking to. Probably relaying information on him to other concerned, middle-aged women living in the neighborhood.
“I hope we’re not the youngest people here. I mean, it’d make sense, but… wait, if I talk to myself too much then she’s going to tell everybody I talk to myself,” Ryouta says.
Part of him wishes he could just raise his middle finger to her to give her something to really gossip about, but he’d rather not make enemies right after buying a house. He has no idea how long he’ll have to be putting up with them.
He could have Spencer help him put up some hanging vines over the porch so that any nosy neighbors can’t see into it, but he doesn’t know if the homeowner’s association would be alright with that.
Ryouta has heard of horror stories online about homeowner’s associations, but now he may have to actually deal with one himself.
Being an adult and doing responsible things is annoying.
Feeling uncomfortable from being watched so intently, Ryouta heads inside and goes around the house to close all the blinds before finally being able to properly relax.
The girls are resting on the couch leaving no room for Ryouta to join them.
“Two days later and we’re finally done bringing everything over,” Ryouta says with a sigh.
Serra sees him standing there, gets up, and points down at her previous spot.
“Thanks, Serra Berra,” he says, sitting down where she was.
Serra then plops herself down on all of their laps with her feet on Alice’s, back on Cassandra’s, and head on Ryouta’s.
“We should have just done it all yesterday,” Cassandra says. “I told you it’d be better to get it all over with in one day instead of spreading it out.”
“I know, but I couldn’t stand spending almost an entire day in the autovan.”
“You wanted to save Alice’s dad some money, but you know it probably would have been cheaper to just do it in one day and hire a crew than renting the autovan for two days.”
Ryouta tilts his head as he thinks about it.
“I believe she is correct, my hero! Now that I think about it myself, I feel rather silly for not bringing it up sooner,” Alice says.
“Why – why didn’t you say something sooner?” Ryouta asks Cassandra.
“Because I only just thought of it,” Cassandra answers.
“I’ll have to apologize to your dad, Alice.”
“You are such a silly man, my hero. You do not need to apologize to my father every single time you spend his money, nor do you need to apologize for accidentally doing something more costly,” Alice explains.
“I know, I know, but I feel bad. He’s already done so much for us. I don’t want to use up even more of his money.”
Serra rubs the back of her head down against Ryouta’s crotch which gets the exact reaction out of him that she was hoping for. Upon feeling something hard and excited poke the back of her head, she looks up at her boyfriend’s face with a smug grin.
However, Ryouta has recently discovered one of her weaknesses.
Yes, even Serra has a weakness capable of defeating her.
Grabbing onto Serra’s sides, Ryouta pulls her farther onto his lap so that he has easy access to her stomach, and then he starts to furiously rub it!
Serra’s eyes go wide as she bursts out in near-maniacal laughter. She has to try her best not to instinctively kick her legs around since she doesn’t want to hurt the others, but that doesn’t stop her arms from going for the one assaulting her.
This has a downside. It ends up just making Ryouta even hornier than she made him, but he’s able to inflict more laughter on her than he suffers from arousal.
By the time that Ryouta is done with her, Serra is a hot, panting mess angrily signing at him telling him not to do that without warning her first.