"I—I..."
What was I supposed to do?
If I picked one of them, the other two would undoubtedly glare at me. Especially Kuroki, the perfectionist. But to keep the game moving, I had to choose. There was no escaping this ultimate choice.
The natural big breasts, the gyaru's thick thighs, or the perfectionist who loved taking sexy navel selfies?
(Since it's come to this... I just have to decide.)
"Then... I'll—"
Just as their three gazes converged on me, it happened.
"E-excuse m—ah."
The door clicked and creaked open slightly. A petite girl with red-rimmed glasses peeked into the room from the hallway.
"...T-Tanaka!?"
The intruder who had suddenly stumbled into my harem—surrounded as I was by three beautiful extroverts—wasn't a family member. It was my otaku friend, Kanade Tanaka.
She was in her summer uniform, so her sleeves weren't oversized for once, but the loli-like loner was still a tiny thing in a baggy uniform. The moment she took in the scene, her eyes went wide and she froze.
"A-aba, abababa..."
"H-hey, Tanaka?"
"R-Ryouta-kun really is having a 4P!!!!"
"We are not doing that!"
I had no idea what was going through her head, but Tanaka let out a terrified, outrageous scream. She clearly had the wrong idea, but still...
"Wait, what do you mean by 'really'?"
"I ran into your sister in front of the station just now. She handed me this key and told me, 'Just go inside without asking any questions.'"
"That idiot sister of mine..."
Even for Tanaka, my only friend, there was no reason for her to have a spare key. I'd been wondering how she got in, but that explained it. My sister had been convinced I was having a 4P with the other three this whole time, so she'd probably figured she might as well throw Tanaka into the mix while she was at it.
"Huh? You're Tanaka-san, right? You were in the same class as us last year!" Airi chirped.
"Ah, the girl who was always reading books," Yuria added.
"Hmph... and why is it that Tanaka-san feels so comfortable entering Ryouta-kun's house?"
The three beauties shifted their focus from me to Tanaka. One of them in particular was radiating an incredible amount of pressure.
"U-um, er, a water flea loner girl like me, who's had basically zero friends since birth, really shouldn't be allowed to breathe the same air in the same room as sunshine-bright extroverted beauties like you. Um—"
Radiating a thick loner aura, Tanaka rattled off a string of nonsense at high speed. She was panicking way too much. Even as a fellow bottom-tier loner, I wouldn't have been that pathetic.
But wait. Tanaka did have a connection to these three, however slight.
(In that case... I have to rely on her.)
Tanaka's appearance offered a fourth option just as I was agonizing over the choice. It certainly wasn't the option of making Kanade Tanaka my wife. No, the fourth option that had formed in my mind was...
"A-alright, Tanaka! You take over for me for a bit!"
"Huh? W-wait, Ryouta-kun!?"
"You can do whatever you want! I'm going to the bathroom!"
"Geez, Ryouta!"
"Hey, Ryouta! Don't you dare run away!"
By dumping the ultimate choice onto Tanaka, I successfully managed to evade it.
I'd told them I was going to the bathroom and left everything to Tanaka, but on second thought, there was a chance she'd just wait for me to come back before deciding. If that happened, there really would be no escape, and I'd have to face the choice head-on...
Steeling my resolve, I stepped out of the bathroom and back into the room, only to be met with a literal scene from hell.
"Wha... what is this?"
Tanaka was lying down in the middle of the room with her head on Miyama’s lap pillow, lazily holding the controller.
"Oho~. Airi-tan, now I want you to feed me snacks and go 'ahhh'."
"Geez, Tanaka-chan, you're so spoiled. Here, ahhh."
The two of them were acting like a pair of nauseatingly sweet newlyweds. Looking at the TV, it seemed Tanaka had made the choice in my place and picked Miyama. I didn't know what kind of logic led to this just because they got married in a game, but Tanaka was shamelessly acting like a pampered pet.
(I-I'm so jealous of this girl...! Switch with me right now, Tanaka!)
I was starting to regret abandoning the choice.
"H-hey, Ryouta... this girl is seriously grossing me out," Yuria muttered.
"It can't be helped. Tanaka is the kind of loner who loses all sense of personal space once she gets even slightly comfortable with someone."
"Ryouta-kun, kick Tanaka-san out this instant," Kuroki commanded.
"You're being even harsher than usual."
I had escaped the ultimate choice, but the price was that Tanaka had managed to completely repulse the girls within minutes of arriving.