Why I Became a Girl

Chapter 11 - A Sleepover

Minami's family had quite a nice place, comfortably allowing the five of them to live together. They even had a spacious yard with a yuzu tree.

Our group of five entered through the front door, taking our shoes off in the entryway. The familiar ones exchanged greetings with Minami's family.

"We haven't seen you two before," Minami's mother said, looking to me and Amana.

"I'm Kiyumi Takamiya," I said, bowing. "Nice to meet you.

"And I'm Amana Oikawa."

"It's nice to meet you both. You can have your choice of unagi or yakitori with either rice or soba noodles."

"Then, unagi with rice, please," I decided. Grilled eel screamed 'summer' to me.

"Yakitori with rice for me," Amana chimed in. Whether she actually preferred that or just wanted to be different from me, who could say?

"Got it. Make yourselves at home, it'll be ready soon."

"Do you need any help?" I offered.

"No need! Leave it to us."

"Mm, okay."

Amana took my hand and started walking. "Let's see if we can find Minami's baby photos!"

I followed along, confused. "I... I guess?"

They'd be Kaeru's photos, though. Was there any point in looking when the person in question wasn't around? Would Minami feel any embarrassment about it?

I debated internally about how I would feel if the others saw 'my' baby photos as Amana dragged me around.

After about half an hour of pointless time-killing, Minami's parents called us to eat.

Due to Amana's influence, I paid extra attention to Minami's parents while we ate and chatted. They just seemed normal to me. But, the other swapped girls also seemed normal, so that didn't really mean anything.

Amana and I received the brunt of the questions, being the two new faces, but the questions also remained in the realm of normalcy. Then again, something like, "Are you enjoying your new body?" would be way too strange if we were normal friends of Minami's.

And, Minami probably would have mentioned it if her parents had ever shown awareness of the swapping. If they did know, they would probably either say it immediately or wait until after all the swaps had finished. Maybe once we all entered university, Minami's parents would ask about who Kaeru ended up as.

Or Amana could be completely off the mark with her theory.

"Do you guys wanna spend the night?" Minami asked. "We haven't had a big sleepover before."

"I don't have pyjamas or anything," I replied.

"It's still early, you can go get them and come back."

"Well, I suppose so."

"Let's do it," Amana urged. "You gotta experience a high school girls' sleepover!"

I knew that if I declined, they would force me into it somehow, so I resigned myself. "Alright then."

Amana and I quickly made the trip back to the school to grab pyjamas and anything else we thought we'd need. The others did the same and we soon reconvened at Minami's house.

The living room had been repurposed, the furniture pushed against the walls to create space for multiple futons. Amana and I changed into our pyjamas and then sat down in a circle with the others on the bedding.

"Have you painted your nails yet?" Minami asked.

I shook my head. "We aren't allowed to at our school, so it's been too much effort."