Episode 12: An Invitation from Her
“U-Um, excuse me…”
Kamijou Yuuto was invited to Ichinose Ayano’s room for the first time in a while, and he couldn’t calm down.
The room was simple, with white as the theme, but it had a clean feeling.
A glass table sat on a soft carpet. A neatly made bed and a small bookshelf.
The compact dressing table was the definitive difference from a boy’s room, making the boy’s heart pound strangely.
“…Are you that nervous? You used to come here all the time before, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, but that was when we were in elementary school, right? The room looks stylish now. It has this nice ‘girl’s room’ scent…”
“That’s probably from the cosmetics. You shouldn’t say that in front of the room’s owner, you know.”
“Ah!” Yuuto made a face as if he had unintentionally revealed his true feelings, and Ayano sighed deeply.
“Can I have my heart-throb moment from a few minutes ago back?”
“…Did I do that?”
He tilted his head in genuine confusion, wondering if there had been such a situation.
“Ahem, ahem.”
“You’re the first person I’ve seen use that on its own.”
“S-So, let’s do our homework quickly, okay?”
“Huh? O-Okay…”
Still unconvinced, he sat at the short-legged glass table in the center of the room with Ayano.
–The amount and difficulty of the homework printouts varied depending on the teacher’s mood.
The teacher in charge of the subject for the printout in question was particularly prone to this.
Whether it was because something good had happened the day before and they were in high spirits, or because something bad had happened and they were taking it out on the students, it was definitely a nuisance to those involved.
However, the content was exactly the same as the lessons, so if you diligently copied the notes from the blackboard, you wouldn’t have any trouble.
“–You actually take pretty good notes, don’t you? Your handwriting is terrible, though.”
“I tend to scribble. Well, I figured it’s fine as long as I can understand it.”
“Even so, it’s messy. I can’t tell if this is ‘i’ or ‘ri’.”
“Okay, okay, give me back my notebook. I’m done with my homework.”
It was true that he couldn’t say his handwriting was beautiful, and he was aware of it. If he wrote carefully, it would look a little better, but in order to keep up with the rapidly progressing lessons, his writing ended up looking like wriggling worms.
It was one of his many flaws.
“It’s fine, let me see a little more. –Ahaha, the teacher even wrote, ‘Write more carefully.’ You haven’t changed since elementary school.”
While rejecting Yuuto’s attempt to take back his notebook, Ayano flipped through the pages with a mocking look.
“Why do you fill things in instead of using an eraser? You even doodle… But you’re serious about the important parts, aren’t you?”
“Hey, Ayano–? Ayano-san?”
“~♪”
Yuuto sighed in embarrassment and awkwardness as his notebook was being looked at with delight.
“Well, it’s not like it matters to me, but –eh?”
As she put away her textbook and printouts, Yuuto’s eyes were drawn to Ayano’s legs through the glass tabletop.
White skin. Every time she moved her slender legs, her red miniskirt rubbed and changed shape.
–For a moment, just a fleeting instant, he saw a pale blue color.
“…!”
He averted his gaze instinctively.
He was reminded once again that the girl in front of him, whom he had known since childhood, was a member of the opposite sex.
They were already lovers. They had even kissed.
He thought it was natural for him to look at her in that way, but the words his Mother had said, “a student-like relationship,” made him feel guilty.
Her father also trusted him.
–He couldn’t betray that trust.
Even so, Kamijou Yuuto was an adolescent boy.
The same feelings that welled up when he held such books in his hands surged within him.
Because she was his girlfriend, he wanted to see, to touch.
But –he didn’t want to hurt her.
And yet…
“–Ugh, ah… this is tough…”
Yuuto frowned.
“…What’s tough? Are you okay?”
“Huh!? Ah, no, well, you know, I ate too much and my stomach is full,” he said.
Yuuto forced a strained laugh, trying to deceive Ayano, who was looking at him suspiciously.
He took his notebook back from her, stuffed it into his bag along with his textbook and printouts, and said,
“…Well, I should get going now.”
“Eh, already? If your stomach hurts, you should rest for a bit.”
“It’s not that bad. Besides, even though I said Uncle has acknowledged us, I haven’t told him directly. Even if we’re childhood friends, if a guy stays in his daughter’s room for too long, he’ll naturally worry, right?”
“–It’s okay. My father will be home late today.”
Yuuto gasped as she muttered, “That’s why I called you.”
“I want to do something else with you, so stay a little longer…? It’s okay if we’re a little noisy.”
Ayano said shyly,
“That’s fine, but… W-What are we going to do?”
“Something I’ve always wanted to do with you.”
Yuuto stiffened with a jolt.
“Everyone says boys like this, right? A lot of the girls in my class say they do it with the person they like, too.”
“So, Ayano too…?”
She nodded.
“I like it and do it quite a bit. But I’m getting tired of doing it alone, so I thought I’d like to do it with you. So…”
Before Yuuto could say anything,
“–Shall we?”
She looked up at him, pleadingly.
There was no way he could refuse…