I Confessed to the Three Beautiful Sisters at School and Got Rejected, but After I Became their Stepsister, They Started Doting On Me (GL) - Chapter 33

The results for the midterm exams were in.

It was the moment when all our hard work was turned into actual numbers—our test scores.

“—Alright, let’s each share our results.”

Following Chiya-san’s lead, the four of us gathered in the living room after returning home for our “results announcement.”

That said…

“I barely avoided failing!”

It really was a close call.

But even so, this was the first time I had passed a test outright without needing a retake. That alone felt like an achievement.

“I managed to pull through too, somehow…” said Karin with a sigh.

“I did… about average, I think~” Hiyori-san added with her usual calm tone.

“I see. Still, having no one fail is definitely a good thing,” Chiya said.

In the end, the final rankings were:

Me → Karin → Hiyori → Chiya

—Exactly as expected.

No twists. No surprises. Just a perfectly predictable ending.

But the real problem came afterward…

“Fufu. Akari, you know what this means, right?”

Karin grinned and leaned in close.

“Ugh… I know…”

Right—because of that ridiculous condition we set:
The loser has to call the winners by their first names without honorifics.

I still don’t know why we made that rule in the first place, but here I was, forced to start calling everyone more casually.

“Go ahead and call me anytime, alright~?” Hiyori smiled sweetly, clearly waiting to hear me say her name.

“If you need something, that’s fine—but from now on, follow the rule and call me by name,” Chiya added before calmly standing up from her seat.

If she really didn’t care much about it, then why agree to this weird name rule in the first place?

Also—why am I the one calling all the winners by name? What kind of upside-down game is this!?

“Well, I’m looking forward to it, Akari. Don’t keep me waiting~” Karin said, humming happily.

I honestly had no idea what she was so cheerful about.

Still, a rule’s a rule.

And that awkward moment finally arrived—during dinner.

“Akari, your water’s empty,” Karin pointed out.

“Oh, you’re right.”

She noticed my glass was empty, and the water pitcher just happened to be right by her hand.

“Here you go.”

Karin picked up the pitcher and began pouring water into my glass.

This was it. The moment.

“A-Anyway… thanks, Karin.”

“…!?”

Clatter!—Splashhh…

“W-Wait!? You spilled it all over the table!”

“Ah! I-I messed up!”

Karin’s hand started shaking out of nowhere, and she ended up spilling water all over the place.

“W-What happened!? It’s just water—why panic like that!?”

“B-Because you suddenly called me by name!”

“That doesn’t explain anything!”

“If you were going to call me that, you should’ve warned me first! That was too sudden!”

“You’re the one who told me to do it, and now I need to submit a request in advance!?”

None of this makes any sense!

“My, my…” Hiyori chuckled softly.

“How careless,” Chiya murmured, sipping her tea.

The two older sisters just watched the chaos unfold with elegance and amusement…

After dinner, it was time to clean up.

Since I was the last one to finish eating, I brought my dishes into the kitchen.

There, I found Hiyori-san washing plates.

“Huh? That’s unusual.”

Dishwashing was usually Karin’s job, so seeing Hiyori here instead felt off.

“Yes. Karin-chan seemed a little out of sorts today, so I decided to take over for her.”

“True… She was so distracted after that, she kept dropping rice during dinner…”

I’d never seen Karin that flustered before.

“Ufufu. It’s scary how unaware people can be of themselves, isn’t it?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Oh, nothing. Don’t mind me~”

With her usual gentle smile, Hiyori continued scrubbing dishes with graceful ease.

“Here, I’ll wash yours too. Go ahead and hand them over.”

“S-Sorry about that…”

She made dinner, and now she was doing cleanup too.

I really couldn’t help but feel bad.

“It’s no trouble at all,” she replied, still smiling.

She washed my dishes without a single complaint.

At this point… I knew I had to do it.

“Thank you, Hiyori.”

“…Oh?”

Clink—Crash!

“Was that glass I just heard breaking!?”

“Looks like it shattered, didn’t it?”

Hiyori reported the situation in her usual calm tone—one that didn’t quite match the mess in front of her.

“Wah—are you hurt?! Are you okay!?”

It would be a disaster if she’d cut herself on the broken pieces!

“Yes, thankfully none of the shards flew off. I’m completely fine.”

“…I’m so glad. Really.”

“I’m sorry I worried you. That’s on me.”

“No, please—don’t worry about me. I’m more worried about you. I’d be devastated if you got hurt, Hiyori.”

CRASH!

“Y-You just dropped another one!?”

“Um… would you mind leaving me alone for a little while? At this rate, I really don’t think I can keep washing dishes…”

“What kind of situation is this?!”

Karin and now Hiyori too—everyone was suddenly acting strange…

It must’ve been post-exam exhaustion or something.

Yes, that had to be it.

With that in mind, I went to knock on another door.

Knock knock.

“Come in.”

I opened the door after hearing Chiya’s calm voice.

“Excuse me.”

“…Oh, it’s you. Did you need something?”

There she was, sitting at her desk, reviewing a stack of documents.

“Oh—sorry, were you in the middle of something?”

“Yes. Just going through some student council reports I need to review.”

“…Do you really have to do that at home?”

“There haven’t been any student council meetings during exam week. So the work piled up.”

…That’s not something a normal high school student would say.

Still, that kind of responsibility really suits her. It’s impressive.

“If nothing’s wrong, it’s just stamping and signing documents. Simple work.”

As she spoke, I noticed she had a stamp in her other hand.

“Well, um… I actually just came to say thank you.”

“…Thank me?”

She placed the documents down and dabbed her stamp in the ink as she tilted her head slightly.

“Like I said earlier… this was the first time I passed a test on my first try.”

“That’s great. It’s proof of your own effort.”

“No… it wasn’t just because of me.”

Honestly, I don’t think I could’ve done it on my own.

“It’s because you always took the time to patiently help me… So thank you, Chiya.”

“…I see.”

STAM-STAM-STAM-STAM-STAM-STAM—THUNK!!

“Did I just hear a crazy amount of stamping!?”

“Yeah… even I’ve never heard that sound before.”

The papers that were just black and white a moment ago… were now completely covered in red ink.

“These were official student council documents, right!?”

“Yes.”

“And… you stamped them that many times!?”

“Of course that’s not okay.”

Whaaaaaaat!?

Even calm, collected Chiya had somehow ended up doing something irreversible.

Seriously… what’s going on with everyone today?

—The Next Day

“U-Um… would you mind going back to calling us… the way you used to? Please? Maybe? If it’s not too much trouble?”

And just like that, the three sisters politely asked me to return to the old way of addressing them.