When the lady left the room in the morning, Kyon quickly checked out his environment and reached a grim conclusion: he could not leave the room on his own. The windows wouldn't open, the door had a special lock. He had nothing more left to do but wait there. You could hide only under the bed and in the closet; both options were just so-so but there was no other option at all.

He just wished he had one of those remotes that could reset time 15 hours ahead so that the lousy skunk would peacefully snuffle in the pillows and not even think about waking up over nothing!

Six hours pa.s.sed, Kyon had already re-certified from the ghost of the mansion to the under-bed monster when suddenly, Anna, armed with a feather duster, walked into the room and flashed her slender legs and other no less appetizing body parts in her s.e.xy maid uniform.

«Stupid sister, it's no good timing to fall ill... She is always running somewhere... Why should I do everything instead of her? Oh, how stupid she is… What if Lady Juno finds out? I always have to cover for her.» - She muttered softly to herself.

Kyon's heart went into unplanned shock. Of course, the room of Juno was also cleaned! And by the highest maids only, the rest wouldn't be allowed there! As soon as Anne noticed the slave who was considered dead, he'd become dead indeed! Maybe not on the spot but that's not the point.

The girl fluttered around the room, whistling softly, brus.h.i.+ng off occasional dust. She noticed a tiny spider, who settled in the darkest corner between the ceiling and the closet, swallowed but bravely picked up the web and, wincing in disgust, sent the eight-legged into the bin. She opened the closet, collected the dirty things for the laundry, looked under the bed... With one more discontented sigh, she swept away the cobwebs and feathers, noticed a black hair among other sweepings - where did it come from? - and continued with her work.

The guy, who'd sneaked in the pile of soft pillows against the wall on the bed while the maid was messing with the linen in the closet, let out a sigh of relief — that was close. No one shouldn't notice him here, the literally merged with the pillows, he thinks like a pillow, he himself is a pillow.

However, Kyon obviously did not take into account that the pillows were not just "lying"; they also needed an occasional pillowcase change! Anna took out a pile of bed linen, as if by magic, and headed to the bed. Kyon shut his eyes tight: like in childhood, when you think that if you don't see them, they don't see you either; the girl took the first pillow in her hands and... The door opened, letting into the room giggling Juno and Marina together with Yegorka, sad and vexed.

Kyon froze like a stone idol: Anna had just grabbed the pillow that was covering his head, and now he was staring with horrified eyes at the merry trinity, mostly hidden by the maid's back; what perfect timing - the girl had turned to the door!

«Oh, Anna, clean the room another time, please.» - Juno waved her hand carelessly.

«Yes, Lady.» - The girl bowed and, without looking, put the pillow back into its place, knocking Kyon on the nose quite tangibly, and left, quietly closing the door behind her.

Because of all that intensity, the guy almost took his last breath. Staying in that mansion was like walking through a minefield. That time the mine did not explode. Was he going to keep getting lucky?

The three friends plopped on the bed. For some reason, Kyon had the feeling that Juno had been missing on simple fun with friends for a long time that's why she'd invited them all at once (just two, to be more precise, not an epic party, of course, but given her terrible character, it wasn't in fact that bad). Actually, if Marina could be considered a "friend" of the little demon, Egorka was playing a part of their little fool. People like that come around in any company, however, the fact that it was Yegorka who occupied the honorable post in that particular trio was quite unexpected; from what Kyon could understand, he was a respected and promising genius, only not in the presence of Juno. When she was around, he was ready to look a mere simpleton.

Juno threw a pack of playing cards into the center of the bed, smiling cheerfully and teasing the boy:

«Yegorka, you are so stupid... Didn't you see that the guard was just following my order detaining you and exposing as a complete idiot? I couldn't believe when you took off your trousers on his orders!»

«That's bad enough but why did you start dancing at his request?» - kept up with her friend Marina.

The guy turned bright red, his head down, he said with annoyance and irritably slammed his hand on the bed:

«So that's who I heard giggling behind the door…»

Both girls shrieked with laughter as if ringing silver bells, and the guy, hiding his embarra.s.sment, began to shuffle the deck. The poor fellow's heart sank with Juno's laughter, he was ready to be a fool for the rest of his life just to see her smile.

With a sinking heart, Kyon felt Juno's back lean on the pile of pillows. The pleasant smell of shampoo and the young girl's body enveloped him in a soft cloud: close, too close. It was one pillow between him and the demoness and even less between him and death.

The guy got into the part of being a pillow, he almost stopped breathing, slowed his heartbeat, literally turned into an inanimate object.

The three friends spent about an hour playing cards, laughing, fooling around and poking fun, mostly at Yegorka.

Juno pressed harder and harder on the pillows, making Kyon feel more and more uncomfortable, both morally and physically. He saw like it was real his hands suddenly crawl out of the pillows, close on the thin neck and clench until the girl started wheezing then fell down altogether, never moved anymore...

As he was distracted by those sweet dreams, it took him a while to notice that under the pressure of Juno's weight he slowly began sliding to the side and down...

{Oh s.h.i.+t!}

The pile of pillows and the guy was slipping majestically into the gap between the bed and the wall.

Kyon landed on the floor like a cat, trying not to make a single sound: no matter how he well he'd copied the pillow, he weighed pretty much. He rolled under the bed at once, trying to appease his heart that was coming apart: it was about to hang him out to dry, so loud was the hammering against the rib cage.

With a snort of complaint, Juno lifted all the pillows and laid them out as close as possible to the previous design but for some reason, the feeling changed as if something was missing... {Maybe a couple of pillows rolled under the bed?}

At some point, Yegorka lost the game in a complete defeat, overreacted and scattered the whole fan of cards on the floor.

«d.a.m.n it! I lost again! Today is definitely not my day!»

Juno laughed:

«Yeah, surely the fault is in the stars and these… magnetic storms or whatever. Now go and pick them up quickly.»

The guy climbed down the bed with a groan to eliminate his own chaos. The best genius of the family himself had to crawl on the floor like some kind of reptile... But, since his sweet little Juno asked him to...

And at the same moment, in extremely dangerous proximity, the under-bed monster was looking at his nape in fear. If only Yegorka had turned his head, their eyes would certainly have met.

Marina, a kind soul, decided to help her newfound friend and dived under the bed to collect cards that had flown in there. A glance - a spark - a storm! And here, Kyon's hand was already over her mouth, so that the girl would not turn to the ultrasound. He pulled a scary face: "shut up, be quiet!" but the girl had understood everything on her own. At least, she didn't make a fuss, she just nodded: she was sincerely sorry for the guy and didn't enjoy the prospect of the instant ma.s.sacre of her friend, either. She turned around and, covering the guy, said:

«Yegorka, I will collect everything myself, you'd better pour me some juice.»

«Ah… Sure.»

Kyon gave Marina his heart in grat.i.tude. There was no other person kinder than her in the whole world, that's for sure. As for Yegorka, his att.i.tude seemed ideal... The ideal att.i.tude to take the honorable place of a "friend" for any girl. He could be easily called a "fence installer", he built a perfect "friend zone" around himself and Juno, which he would never leave. He needed to become at least a king, so that Juno looked at him as a man, and that by a stretch of the imagination. That's just the way it is. It would be easier to find a new girl, taking into consideration his mistakes.

Yegorka, displeased, dusted himself off, rose from the floor and stomped after the juice on the nightstand. Juno sincerely enjoyed the boy's sulky face: those moments when she hurt someone gave some incredible thrill. Only in this case, her face didn't have a vicious grin but a pretty smile, and the pain she'd caused was not physical but moral.

Yegorka peered at the subject of his desire and immediately melted like ice cream in the sun. His heart fluttered, his hands trembled: he had to make an effort to pour juice into gla.s.ses, not on the nightstand. Solemnly, he gave Juno a drink but she only brushed it off rudely. His plan to prove himself a "gentleman" failed miserably. However, the girl was quite pleased with the downhearted look of the sorry-a.s.s knight

Soon the trio left the room.

The day was followed by the late evening.

The door creaked softly and Kyun saw from his perspective all the same notorious slippers with ears a la "bunny", slender bare legs and, of course, the owner of both the legs with slippers and the room itself.

For a while, the young girl read a book, purring something under her breath.

Kyon could barely keep his eyes open: several sleepless days and nights had taken a toll on him when the piercing sound of the sound transmitter broke the silence. Judging by the wheezing in the "receiver", the guy was going to be an unintentional (or maybe intentional?) witness to the conversation of the patriarch and his granddaughter.

After a couple of welcome remarks, Kyon had already drawn some conclusions regarding their relations.h.i.+p. The intonation of grandfather Bai represented him as a man with a strong character and yet was imbibed with love, affection, care for Juno; it seemed that he was ready to give her half the world, she just had to ask. He couldn't stop wondering why he was not near her, but in Boston, the capital, if he was so dearly attached to her.