Episode 2: First Kiss – The Bitter
“I’ll go buy drinks, what would you like?”
“…Milk.”
Kamijou Yuuto gathered the scattered pads and led the sobbing Ichinose Ayano to a bench on the rooftop, comforting her like a child.
After a while, she calmed down, and as he put coins into the vending machine next to the faculty smoking booth, he snapped back to reality.
“How did this happen…?”
He frowned as he purchased Ayano’s requested milk carton and a can of black coffee for himself.
–To summarize.
Kamijou Yuuto was in love with Ichinose Ayano.
They had grown distant after being teased about their relationship before entering middle school. But upon learning that Ayano had been confessed to by a handsome guy from another class, Yuuto couldn’t stand it and selfishly confessed his feelings as well.
He expected to be rejected, thinking it was too late.
His rival was a universally recognized honor student and popular guy. If asked who was worthy of being Ichinose Ayano’s boyfriend, everyone would undoubtedly answer Mikado Kouki.
But,
“I’ve always liked Yuto too! I mean, I still love you, you dork!”
When the truth came out, Ichinose Ayano also liked Yuuto. The usually demure woman was revealing her emotions like she used to.
“…I need to talk to her properly.”
Holding the drinks in both hands, he returned to the bench where Ayano was waiting.
She was sticking her hand into the collar of her widely opened shirt, fiddling with something.
Numerous pads were piled on her lap.
“Huh!? Oh, sorry! You were Setting Up, weren’t you?”
“Don’t say ‘Setting Up.’ Well… I guess I was Setting Up.”
Ayano said to Yuuto, who immediately turned his back and fidgeted,
“You don’t have to be so flustered. Sadly, my boobs haven’t changed size since sixth grade, you know.”
“T-That’s not it! It’s completely different from when we were kids. Ayano is really beautiful now, so I can’t just look at you in such a defenseless state…”
“O-Oh… really?”
…And so, it seemed the Setting Up was completed in a few minutes.
“Okay, you can look now.”
“O-Okay…”
When he turned around, Ayano, looking somewhat awkward, was touching her hair. Her chest was asserting itself, pushing against the blazer uniform.
Seeing that, he really–
“You’re probably thinking, ‘Wow, she really stuffed those fake boobs,’ aren’t you? You’re probably thinking, ‘Drinking milk now won’t make them any bigger,’ aren’t you?”
“N-No way, I-I wasn’t th-thinking that…?”
“If you’re going to hesitate that much, would you rather just admit it?”
Ayano glared at him, and Yuuto averted his gaze.
“Whatever,” Ayano said, patting the spot next to her on the bench, urging him to sit.
After a moment of silence,
“…Things are confusing, aren’t they? Yeah, my head is a mess right now too. It’s been a while since I’ve met you like this, so I’m nervous, like I’m happy but also scared.”
“Like this? Does that mean…”
“Yep. I was putting on an act, like a shapeshifting cat. And I was also padding my boobs to an E-cup.”
She glanced sideways at Yuuto.
“If you give me a ‘Why?’ face, I’ll really feel like the three years of middle school I spent doing this for you were a complete waste…”
“F-For me!? Why would you–“
“That day, a little before the elementary school graduation ceremony.”
He gasped at the words she muttered.
“‘I like girls who are more girly.'”
“–“
Ayano sighed at Yuuto’s pained expression.
“Sorry, I’m not blaming you. Besides, it’s just that I got ahead of myself and made things complicated.”
Ayano gave a wry smile.
“When we were in elementary school, we were a little too clingy compared to the other kids, so we were often teased. But that time was especially bad. I knew from then on that you said that because you were embarrassed. I also knew you didn’t really mean it.”
“But still,” she continued.
“I still worried about it. What if I wasn’t your type? What if the boy I liked hated me?”
“…”
Yuuto felt his chest tighten.
It was hard to breathe. But she had been suffering for even longer.
“So, I took it to heart and changed my way of speaking to become like ‘some student council president’… And then, I realized the girls around me were getting bigger boobs, and when I asked Yuna-san, ‘Do boys like bigger boobs?’ she said, ‘My brother relieves his stress with big boobs.’ So, without thinking about the consequences, I piled on the pads…”
“Don’t say ‘relieves his stress’ in that context…”
Yuuto chuckled wryly at Ayano’s wry smile.
“Can I confirm something?”
“Go ahead.”
After a beat,
“I don’t want to make you feel bad, but… is it true that Mikado Kouki from Class A confessed to you?”
“Yeah. On Monday, two days ago.”
“And… your answer was–“
Looking at Yuuto’s worried face,
“I turned him down without hesitation. When he said, ‘Ichinose-san! Will you go out with–‘ I immediately said, ‘I’m sorry!’… I clearly told him, ‘There’s someone I like.'”
“Ayano, the person you like is…”
“Who else would it be besides you?”
She chuckled wryly again.
“Huh? Now that I think about it, you confessed to me earlier, didn’t you? Should I have just accepted it then…? Ugh, that’s so anticlimactic.”
She put a straw in her mouth and took a sip or two of the milk, then sighed.
“Well, in the first place, it would have been settled if I had just honestly said, ‘Let’s be together in middle school too.’ But I’m so twisted. I just waited for Yuto to talk to me, and I wasted my middle school years. I wanted to talk to you a lot, play with you, be by your side…”
Yuuto poured down the bitter coffee and faced her, seeing Ayano smile weakly.
“Ayano–!”
He met her wide eyes and took her hand.
He looked away once. He let go of her hand.
He had made her wait for three years, but if she still said she liked him,
“Let me say it again. I like Ayano. I made you waste your precious three years of middle school, but I will never let the next three years be a waste! I won’t let you feel pain or loneliness. And, if you’ll allow it, I want to be by your side even after we graduate–please let me.”
He wouldn’t run away from her trembling eyes again.
“If you’ll hold my hand again, I’ll never let go.”
–Ayano put down the milk carton and placed her small, soft hand on top of Yuuto’s large, rough hand.
“Doesn’t this feel more like a Marriage Proposal than a confession?”
“I-It does… it does–it does. Yeah, it does, but that’s how serious I am about liking you–I’m not taking it back.”
Yuuto didn’t give in to Ayano’s teasing, mischievous smile.
All he wanted was “a relationship that was more than just a lover.”
They had confirmed that they had feelings for each other. He was happy, he was relieved.
However, if there was a “difference in feelings” between Kamijou Yuuto and Ichinose Ayano, they couldn’t just become lovers.
A half-hearted love as students who were just dating for fun was completely different from a serious love that looked further into the future.
“You don’t have to answer right away. But if you’ll go out with me, that’s how serious I am–“
Before he could convey how serious he was, he was silenced.
Ayano’s face was right in front of him.
There was a soft sensation on his lips.
They parted in a few seconds, but he met her eyes at a distance closer than ever before.
He wouldn’t break eye contact–he couldn’t, he didn’t want to.
They felt each other’s breath, the scent of each other’s hair, the flush of each other’s cheeks.
“…It was a little bitter.”
“Sorry.”
“But I don’t hate it.”
“Th-That’s good.”
A short, awkward exchange.
“So, um… your answer is–“
“You’re not satisfied with just my First Kiss? I can’t help it, you’re so greedy.”
Ayano pouted deliberately–and then smiled shyly.
“From now on, please stay by my side forever…!”
She answered. –She responded.
“I promise.”
“Yeah.”
Naturally, the distance between them closed again.
The first Kiss was a ritual to become lovers.
The second Kiss was a mutual desire as lovers.
–Kamijou Yuuto and Ichinose Ayano thought from the bottom of their hearts.
“I invited Yuto too, but he said he had something to do. Let’s just play games by ourselves today.”
Akimoto Fuyuki, a classmate and mood maker since elementary school, seemed to be planning to play a locally connected game on the rooftop after school with several other boys, using a portable mode of a stationary game console released by a famous game company.
That was fine.
Bringing game consoles to school was against the rules, but for Yuuto and Ayano, who weren’t student council members, it was a minor problem.
But, alas.
“–How dare they interrupt,” the newly-minted couple muttered, fleeing the rooftop as if escaping, using the other set of stairs.
Their hands clasped tightly together–.