Chapter 10: Aya

Nanami opened the door with her blouse buttoned wrong and her hair standing up on one side.

Aya Nomura stood in the hallway with a white cake box in both hands.

She wore her yellow cardigan and big gold earrings.

She took in Nanami's face, the buttons and the rumpled futon behind her in one long bright look.

"I knew it," she said.

"Aya, it's late..."

"It's nine thirty on a Saturday. You are glowing. You look like you've been hit by a pleasant bus."

She pushed past Nanami, took off her shoes and stopped.

Ria stood by the kotatsu in her long grey skirt and her cream cardigan.

Her red hair was tied up in a hurried knot, and she held a teacup in both hands.

She bowed, very correctly.

"Good evening. I am Mikage Ria, the landlady."

Aya looked at her, then at Nanami, then at her again.

"You're the landlady?"

"I am."

"You are twenty-three?"

"According to the lease."

"Nanami," Aya said, with enormous gravity. "You told me your landlady was an old lady who collected rent on Fridays."

"I told you she collected it on Fridays."

"Do you know how long I have been trying to get you to notice a woman?"

"Three years of dating apps and set-ups and my cousin from Osaka."

"And you went and found the most beautiful girl in Koenji by renting a flat."

Aya set the cake on the table, grabbed Ria's free hand and shook it hard.

"I'm Aya. I'm her best friend. I support this completely. Please don't hurt her, or I will find out where you live."

"I live on the fourth floor."

"Oh, perfect. Easy."

Ria blinked. Her eyes slid to Nanami, helpless and a little gold.

Nanami put a hand over her face.

They ate the cake.

It was a good cake, with strawberries.

Ria had two slices and told Aya at length what she thought of the structure of the sponge.

Aya laughed until she wheezed.

At eleven she put her shoes on in the genkan and turned, with her cardigan sleeves pushed up.

"Okay. Nanami, walk me to the stairs."

They stood in the dark hall.

"You're smiling at your monitor," Aya said, softly. "You haven't done that in three years. I don't care who she is."

"Thank you."

"Be careful of Iwase. He's been looking at you." She squeezed her arm. "Text me when you're up in the morning. Don't be dead."

Nanami went back inside.

Ria was standing in the middle of the room, hugging her own elbows.

"She is very loud," she said. "I like her enormously."

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Succubus Landlady Has a Contract With My Grandmother from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.